School Culture

A New Diverse Majority: Students of Color in the South’s Public Schools
The Southern Education Foundation (SEF) finds that the South’s public schools have a majority of students of color for the first time in history. SEF, Jan. 7, 2010

The 2009 KIDS COUNT Data Book

Taking Results Seriously for Vulnerable Children and Families: The 20th annual KIDS COUNT Data Book profiles the well-being of America’s children on a state-by-state basis and ranks states on 10 key measures of child well-being. July 29, 2009

The Disaster Decade: Lessons Unlearned for the United States
This report released by Save the Children U.S. says the government is unprepared to protect children in case of natural disaster in preschool, elementary and high schools. June 15, 2009

The Condition of Education 2009 is an integrated collection of the indicators and analyses and is produced by the National Center for Education Statistics. 6/2/2009

Severing a Lifeline: The Neglect of Citizen Children in America’s Immigration Enforcement Policy
The Urban Institute finds about 1.3 million citizen children have one or both parents who are counted as undocumented in the U.S.and says Congress could do more by passing the DREAM Act which would give illegal alien children who graduate from an American high school, and have no criminal background an opportunity to attend college or serve in the military to earn legal status. 3/26/2009

Public School Practices for Violence Prevention and Reduction: 2003-04 pdf
This report analyzes data reported by school principals during 2003-2004 about the practices in place to prevent violence and crime.
National Center for Education Statistics/U.S. Department of Education - Susan Jekielek,Brett Brown,Pilar Marin,Laura Lippman,, 9/19/2007

Open to the Public: How Communities, Parents and Students Assess the Impact of the No Child Left Behind Act 2004 - 2007 The Realities Left Behind pdf
This report summarizes the opinions that the Public Education Network culled from students, parents and community leaders who participated in 25 public hearings, forums, focus groups and online surveys on NCLB held over three years across the country. Their view was that NCLB must have a more compelling vision, strong policies to support it, and greater public engagement.
Public Education Network - Anne Lewis, 7/30/2007

Pathways to Prevention:The Latino Male Droput Crisis
Institutional barriers within schools, such as tracking, along with cultural factors, create significant obstacles in the pathways to success for Latino males, according to this report. Its conclusion is that by dropping out, these young men are greatly affecting their futures, their future families, and their community in ways that someone so young cannot readily understand.
Arizona State University Center for Community Development and Civil Rights, 7/13/2007

The Condition of Education 2007
High school students in the United States are taking more courses in mathematics and science, as well as social studies, the arts, and foreign languages, according to an analysis of high school student coursework that is highlighted in this government report. Statistics on student achievement, school environment and a wide range of other topics related to early childhood education through postsecondary education are also included.
by National Center for Education Statistics, 5/1/2007

The Autonomy Gap
Public school principals encounter a sizable gap between the autonomy they believe they need to be effective and the autonomy that they actually have in practice, especially when it comes to hiring, firing, and transferring teachers. That's a key finding of this report from the Fordham Institute and the American Institutes for Research, which is based on a series of interviews with a small sample of district and charter-school principals.
by Steven Adamowski, 4/11/2007

Tough Choices or Tough Times
A bi-partisan commission, comprised of former Cabinet secretaries, governors, college presidents and business, civic and labor leaders, is calling for a total shakeup in how America educates its people. Its findings include ending high school at 10th grade, revamping and reducing pension systems, collective bargaining at the state -- instead of local -- level.
by The New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce , 12/15/2006

How Well Are American Students Learning?
The report looks at the "happiness factor" in education, analyzing international data to see whether students' self-confidence and enjoyment of math and the relevance of lessons that students experience in classrooms are correlated with higher math achievement. Do nations with happier students score higher on math tests than nations in which students are not quite as happy?
Brookings Institution - Tom Loveless, 10/18/2006

The Condition of Education 2006
The 2006 Condition on Education summarizes important trends and developments in education. The report includes 50 indicators in five main areas: (1) participation in education; (2) learner outcomes; (3) student effort and educational progress; (4) the contexts of elementary and secondary education; and (5) the contexts of postsecondary education.
National Center for Education Statistics - Patrick Rooney, William Hussar and Michael Planty, 6/1/2006

School Culture Assessment pdf
A manual for assessing and transforming classroom culture. It encourages educators to focus on a holistic view of their school and the relationships among the people who work, learn and relate there.
by Christopher Wagner and Penelope Masden-Copas, 11/30/2005

The Respectful School: How Educators and Students Can Conquer Hate and Harassment
A book about bias, prejudice, harassment and violence in schools. It also recommends solutions for what educators and students can do to create and to maintain a climate of respect and civility in the classroom.
by Stephen L. Wessler and William Preble

School Context: Bridge or Barrier to Change
A paper that examines the literature regarding factors that may help or hinder efforts to improve schools and their effectiveness for all students. It also focuses on a variety of factors that may affect school culture and how that determines a school's liklihood to succeed.
Southwest Educational Development Laboratory

Why Urban, Educated Parents Are Turning to DIY Education

\We think of homeschoolers as evangelicals or off-the-gridders who spend a lot of time at kitchen tables in the countryside. And it’s true that most homeschooling parents do so for moral or religious reasons. But education observers believe that is changing. Linda Perlstein, Newsweek, Jan. 30, 2012

Troubling Questions About Online Education

Colorado taxpayers will spend $100 million this year on online schools that are largely failing their elementary and high school students, state education records and interviews with school officials show. Burt Hubbard and Nancy Mitchell, Education News Colorado, Oct 4th, 2011.

What if the Secret to Success Is Failure?

Dominic Randolph, headmaster of New York City's Riverdale Country School, has been pondering throughout his 23-year career as an educator the question of whether and how schools should impart good character. It has often felt like a lonely quest, but it has led him in some interesting directions. Paul Tough, The New York Times, Sept. 14, 2011

In Kent, Kindergarten IsTime to Consider College

School starts up again in a couple of weeks and a lot of kids have just begun to think about the coming year.  Kindergarteners in Kent, though, are already mulling over higher education. Charla Bear, KPLU, Aug. 26, 2011

In Tornado-Ravaged Town, School Year Starts on Time

Students in Joplin, Mo. reunited for the first day of school on Wednesday, marking the end of a difficult summer as they streamed excitedly into makeshift facilities that replaced the 10 schools damaged or destroyed by the tornado on May 22. A. G. Sulzberger, The New York Times, Aug. 17, 2011

Most Schools Flagged For Possible Cheating Likely To Be Cleared

Most of the 90 Pennsylvania schools whose results raised red flags for possible cheating on the 2009 state assessment test probably did nothing wrong, and the Department of Education likely will clear them, a department spokesman said. Jodi Weigand, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Aug. 16, 2011

How Bumping Adds to School Layoff Chaos

It's a phenomenon that echoes last-in-first-out layoffs for teachers. Yet bumping, a process that allows seasoned school workers to grab the jobs of the less experienced when their jobs are cut, happens to workers who don’t teach, and tends to attract less attention. Emily Alpert, VoiceOfSanDiego.org, May 23, 2011

Two Families Choose Different Paths to Academic Excellence

Jade Larriva-Latt and Derek Lee are both successful students. Her summers are filled with non-scholastic pursuits. For him, summer is the time to sprint ahead in the race to the academic top. The two approaches — one parent-driven, the other more relaxed — have become part of a national debate. Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times, May 1, 2011

Florida Charters Less Diverse Than Other Public Schools

Segregation is making a comeback in Florida's public schools with the new wave of charter schools springing up across the state. Dave Weber, Orlando Sentinel, April 30, 2011

Public schools: Is California's middle class heading for the exits?

It's the hot topic outside the kindergarten room, at fundraising tables and after morning drop-off. Parents are asking: How much more can California lop off public education before they bolt for private schools? For public schools, 2011-12 could be a turning point. Sharon Noguchi, San Jose Mercury News, April 26, 2011

In New York’s Schools Chief, a Knack for Quiet Conciliation

All along, his trademark has been forbearance, and in his new role as New York City’s schools chancellor, Dennis Walcott will test whether the nation’s full-tilt approach to urban education reform is ready for a different kind of leader. David M. Halbfinger, Javier C. Hernandez and Fernanda Santos, New York Times, April 25, 2011.

Teenager Suspended from Fairfax County School Over Acne Drug

When an administrator confronted her about them last May, acting on a tip from other girls, Hayley Russell, 13, quickly acknowledged her mistake. But it triggered a disciplinary process that kept her out of class for more than seven weeks and banned her from even visiting Carson without official permission. Donna St. George, Washington Post, March 10, 2011

Suicide Turns Attention to Fairfax Discipline Procedures

Nick Stuban was all about football, a quick-footed linebacker at W.T. Woodson High School in Fairfax County, Va. who did well in the classroom. His history teacher described the 15-year-old as a "model student," and his German teacher was impressed by his enthusiasm for language. His attendance record was nearly perfect. That changed Nov. 3, when Nick was suspended from school for buying a capsule of a substance known as JWH-018, a synthetic compound with a marijuana-like effect. Donna St. George, Washington Post, Feb. 20, 2011

Pa. Teacher Strikes Nerve With 'Lazy Whiners' Blog

A high school English teacher in suburban Philadelphia who was suspended for a profanity-laced blog in which she called her young charges "disengaged, lazy whiners" is driving a sensation by daring to ask: Why are today's students unmotivated — and what's wrong with calling them out? Patrick Walters, Associated Press, Feb. 16, 2011

Arne Duncan: We need more black men in classrooms

Less than 2 percent of the nation’s teachers are black males. U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, film director Spike Lee and Congressman John Lewis will try to change that Monday when they appeal to the men of Morehouse College to consider teaching as a career. Maureen Downey, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Jan. 29, 2011

A School Where Grades Are Tops, But Test Scores Are Not

Students at the San Diego Metropolitan Career and Technical High School, known as the Met, were more likely to get As and Bs than kids at any San Diego high school last year. Nearly three out of four students had at least a B average in grades 10 to 12, almost twice the average at local schools. But Met students didn't have the highest scores on the range of tests eyed by colleges and the state. Emily Alpert, Voice of San Diego, Jan. 17, 2011

The big squeeze is on in California classes

Caught in a budget meltdown, the state is forcing schools to abandon one of the most popular education reforms -- smaller class sizes. The frustrations are already showing in San Jose Unified, which boosted class sizes by 50 percent for its youngest students last school year. With the state facing a yawning $28 billion budget gap, more districts are almost certain to follow. Sharon Noguchi, The San Jose Mercury News, Jan. 9, 2011

As schools confront bullying, no easy fix on horizon

Research suggests that despite good intentions and feverish competition to pinpoint a solution, antibullying programs have shown, at best, mixed results, and what has worked in one school has not always worked in another. Sarah Schweitzer, Boston Globe, Dec. 30, 2010

Frustration sprouts over resistance to school gardens

Montgomery County, Md. parents were rebuffed when they proposed starting a vegetable garden at a local school. School officials cited allergies, pests and possible summertime neglect as reasons for concern. Michael Birnbaum, Washington Post, Jan. 1, 2011

Giving Immigrant Kids the Tools to Excel

The number of LEP students is rising in New Jersey and nationwide. About 65,000 public school students were deemed to have limited English proficiency in New Jersey in 2008-09, up from 60,800 three years earlier. Most grew up speaking Spanish, but New Jersey students come from families speaking 187 languages. The numbers were analyzed through the EWA Education Research and Statistics Boot Camp. Leslie Brody, The Record, Dec. 20, 2010

After Rioting, Students Reflect on Changes at Murry Bergtraum

Teachers said hundreds of students began running through the hallways of the Manhattan high school, screaming and pushing each other, after new executive principal Andrea Lewis told students that the schools’ bathrooms would be closed for the day. But students said the incident was fueled by frustration over changes Lewis has made since she became principal at the beginning of this year. Kate Schimel, GothamSchools, Dec. 10, 2010

California's Parent Trigger

On a recent afternoon in Compton, Mary Najera of Boyle Heights is making a sale in the peach-colored dining room of a tidy home. But she isn't selling cosmetics or Tupperware. She's pitching to a young mother a radical new tool of school reform in California — the Parent Trigger. Patrick Range McDonald, LA Weekly, Dec. 9, 2010

New Latino Majority Creates New Challenges for California Schools

With the news that Latinos, for the first time ever, have become the majority in California’s public schools, researchers and educators called on the state to do more to help these students get an education that prepares them for the 21st century. Rupe Dev, New America Media, Nov. 21, 2010

Rethinking the School Desk

Where, and how, are you sitting as you read this article? Are you in a chair that is not so hard as to dig into your butt? Are you at a desk or table that you can reach without slouching down or scooting to the edge of your seat? Are you comfortable? If so, chances are you are not an American schoolchild. Linda Perlstein, Slate Magazine, Oct. 26, 2010

Early Grades a New Front in Absenteeism Wars

While many think of chronic absenteeism as a secondary school problem, research is beginning to suggest that the start of elementary school is the critical time to prevent truancy—particularly as those programs become more academic. Sarah D. Sparks, Education Week (via EducationNewsColorado), Oct. 21, 2010

Florida Schools Wage Never-Ending Battle against Mold

A Sun Sentinel/Orlando Sentinel investigation reviewed thousands of cases involving moldy classrooms, health-related complaints from teachers and students, and responses and actions by school officials in Palm Beach County. While the school district has received national recognition for a pro-active measures in addressing mold issues, some problems persist. Marc Freeman and Denise-Marie Balona, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Oct. 17, 2010

The 21st Century Classroom

Very little about the American classroom has changed since Laura Ingalls sat in one more than a century ago. In her school, children sat in a rectangular room at rows of desks, a teacher up front. At most American schools, they still do. Linda Perlstein, Slate, Oct. 8, 2010

5 student suicides put focus on bullying issue in Mentor

Do the suicides of five teens suggest bullying inside Mentor High School, one of Ohio's largest, and its feeder schools was out of control? And if a problem existed, has it been fixed? Or does simply accusing the schools of being soft on bullies obscure other factors that lead to teenage suicide? Peter Krouse, The Plain Dealer, Oct. 7, 2010

The Changing Face of Kindergarten

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last week signed Senate Bill 1381, also known as the Kindergarten Readiness Act of 2010. Officials expect the law to reduce the current 460,000 kindergarten students each year by 120,000 children once it is fully phased in. Current law allows 4-year-olds to enter kindergarten as long as they turn 5 years old by Dec. 2. Hailey Persinger, San Diego Union-Tribune, Oct. 5, 2010

Enrollment Slide Continues at Michigan County's Private Schools

Kalamazoo County’s private schools continued to be battered by the economy and demographics, with most schools reporting enrollment drops this year. Julie Mack, Kalamazoo Gazette, Sept. 20, 2010

Back to School Making Time
Read the Post Gazette's Back to School: Making Time series which examines how schools and students use the school day. Eleanor Chute, Post Gazette, Sept. 9, 2010

Despite states' efforts, measures to protect students from predators sometimes fail
For nearly three decades, Kevin Ricks exploited gaps in a system that is supposed to keep sexual predators out of the classroom.He landed teaching jobs at one school after another -- public and private, urban and rural, domestic and foreign -- despite mounting evidence of his troubling personal relationships with male students. Michael Alison Chandler, Washington Post, July 26, 2010

Nashville Schools See Racial Disparities In Suspensions
According to a Department of Education report, some 40 percent of students who received out of school suspensions are black. In Tennessee, the racial disparity in suspensions is even more profound. There, black students are four times more likely to be suspended than other students.Michel Martin, host of Tell Me More from NPR News, July 14, 2010

The Examined Life, Age 8
A few times each month, second graders at a charter school in Springfield, Mass., take time from math and reading to engage in philosophical debate. There is no mention of Hegel or Descartes, no study of syllogism or solipsism. Instead, Prof. Thomas E. Wartenberg and his undergraduate students from nearby Mount Holyoke College use classic children’s books to raise philosophical questions, which the young students then dissect with the vigor of the ancient Greeks.Abby Goodnough, The New York Times, April 18, 2010

How VIPs lobbied schools
While many Chicago parents took formal routes to land their children in the best schools, the well-connected also sought help through a shadowy appeals system created in recent years under former schools chief Arne Duncan. Whispers have long swirled that some children get spots in the city's premier schools based on whom their parents know. But a list maintained over several years in Duncan's office and obtained by the Chicago Tribune lends further evidence to those charges. Azam Ahmed, Chicago Tribune, March 23, 2010

Texting, Facebook can give teachers struggles with virtual boundaries
Educators are crossing a new social-media minefield that can explode with one wrong text message or Facebook entry. Denise-Marie Balona, Orlando Sentinel, March 2, 2010

For school districts on the edge, busing halt considered
Parents in Royal Oak soon will be adding chauffeur to the growing list of roles they have in their children's schools. They soon will be responsible for driving students now that the district has taken the desperate measure of ending busing for about 1,800 general-education students. Lori Higgins, The Detroit Free Press

Homeless in high school
The number of high school students who become homeless after turning 18 has increased dramatically in recent years, far outpacing the few housing assistance programs available to them, say advocates for the homeless. Some youths leave home voluntarily to escape abusive situations, and others are forced out by parents or relatives. Brian R. Ballou, The Boston Globe, Feb. 16, 2010

Study: Students more stressed now than during Depression?
A new study has found that five times as many high school and college students are dealing with anxiety and other mental health issues as youth of the same age who were studied in the Great Depression era. The Associated Press via USA Today, Jan. 13, 2010

'At hope' children better than 'at risk'?
Decades ago, poor children became known as "disadvantaged" to soften the stigma of poverty. Then they were "at-risk." Now, a Washington lawmaker wants to replace those euphemisms with a new one, "at hope." Democratic State Sen. Rosa Franklin says negative labels are hurting kids' chances for success and she's not a bit concerned that people will be confused by her proposed rewrite of the 54 places in where words like "at risk" and "disadvantaged" are used. The bill has gotten a warm welcome among fellow lawmakers, state officials and advocacy groups. Associated Press via MSNBC, Jan. 13, 2010

Number of homeless students soars
The numbers alone are heartbreaking: 248 students in Greenville County Schools living in emergency shelters for the homeless. Another 318 living with relatives or friends because their families couldn’t afford a place of their own.Forty-eight staying in hotels or motels; five in homes with no utilities or with other substandard conditions; and four surviving in a caror a campground.Six hundred and twenty three students with no place to call home. And that was last year.As of September this year, the total is up to 703. Ron Barnett, The Greenville News, December 15, 2009

School cancels Taliban debate
A principal in Arlington County announced that she will call off an assignment that asked students to represent the views of the Taliban during a mock United Nations after some parents called it inappropriate.Michael Alison Chandler, The Washington Post, December 15, 2009