VERBATIM: A bunch of news and a cute baby

Some odd and ends from education world.

Friends,

I’m sorry. Things got so busy last week that I didn’t send you my odds and ends from the education world.

But here it is.

SOME TIDBITS:

🔊 What Podcasts Did for Student Engagement in These Schools [Ed Week]

💰 California’s recent investment of over four billion dollars into community schools signals significant support for the community school model. 21% goes to community charter schools. [The Opportunity Institute]

💈 At Indianapolis’ George Washington High School, educators have partnered with activists and barbers to create new spaces for open talk and guidance. [The 74]

🏕️ School could go outside for every kid in Minnesota if legislators approve a bill introduced just before this year’s session ends. [FOX 9]

👨🏽‍👩🏽‍👧🏽‍👦🏽 Magnet schools turn kids away, even when there are seats available. [CT Examiner]

🎒 A bill advanced by a Republican-controlled House subcommittee on Friday seeks to cut Title I grants by 80% or nearly $15 billion. [Chalkbeat]

🚌 After school shutdown, rural Kansas community tries to divorce district [Kansas Reflector]

🚸 Four Key Learnings from Recent Research on Charter Schools [The Mind Trust]

HIDDEN FIGURE HOMEGOING: A pioneering mathematics legend (and 1941 valedictorian of the famed Paul Laurence Dunbar High School) has transitioned. VERBATIM: “Evelyn Boyd Granville, one of the first Black women to receive a doctorate in mathematics from an American university and whose groundbreaking work in computers included helping calculate orbit trajectories and lunar-landing scenarios for the space program, died June 27 at her home in Silver Spring, Md. She was 99.” [The Washington Post]

EXHAUSTED BY EXISTING: A moving piece in Newsweek by Vimbo Watson voices the tiring nature of being a Black school principal in today’s America.

VERBATIM:

Multiply the stress of teaching by however many classrooms are in a school, and that is the load of the principal. The wild behavior problems of a small group of students ended up consuming a large part of my daily work. Worse yet, the parents of those same students blamed me and our teachers for their child's behavior.

The parent who wants to fill up your entire afternoon complaining about the grading scale, or asks why their child, who never comes to school and doesn't complete assignments, is failing. Yes, that parent is your concern as well.

[…]

The stress of the pandemic, coupled with the fact I had ruffled some feathers by hanging a "Little Black Lives Matter" sign in my office, during the summer of 2020, which a school board member had complained about, was about to make the stress boil over.

In the fall of 2020, I had a parent call and ask if we "taught CRT" at our school. I was incredibly puzzled. CRT, Critical Race Theory, is an academic concept taught at the college and graduate level, not something you teach in elementary school. "No, sir, we don't teach CRT."

All the online, social media, and political arguments I had been avoiding had met me right there in my office. As a Zimbabwean-American, Black principal, I feared that moving forward with activities such as our Black History Month celebrations would get me in hot water. Still, I pressed on, determined to serve our incredibly ethnically and culturally diverse student body. Personally, I was wrestling, yet again, with the reality of being Black in America. I was exhausted by existing.

Read more at [Newsweek]

SCHOOLS TOO WOKE: With so many accusations of public schools being too woke, we hardly stopped to ask if that is true. Bettina L. Love pushes back on all the right-wing handwringing. VERBATIM: “Our schools are labeled “woke” when students encounter books that discuss issues of race and racism, among other topics now deemed inappropriate. But where are all these books? From 2020 to 2021, only a little more than 12 percent of the books that made the children’s bestsellers list were about Black or African characters. And fewer than 8 percent of bestselling children’s books were written by Black or African authors. These numbers mean the average public school library is overwhelmingly filled with books by and about white people. But the way many Republicans tell it, our school libraries are liberal havens for books centered on race that feed the woke movement supposedly taking over our schools.” [Ed Week]

COMMUNITY CHARTER SCHOOLS: If you go to Madison, Wisconsin, you should check out One City Schools run by Kaleem Caire. He’s building a school rooted in the community that focuses on educating the whole child, from preschool to high school. One problem, though. School funding has not kept up with the needs of young people living at the margins - until now. Governor Tony Evers has passed a budget to invest heavily in district schools, charters, and the state’s choice program.

This is a lifeline for schools like One City.

VERBATIM:

One City Schools Founder and CEO Kaleem Caire said prior to the agreement — which increased funding for charter and voucher programs, public schools and local governments along with provisions limiting some local control in Milwaukee — he told One City's board of directors that “we may have to give up our elementary and secondary schools.”

“We probably would have been looking at the closure of one or two of our schools by the end of next year,” he said.

Now, the system that began as a preschool and will soon serve students in grades K-7 will continue its expansion, albeit at a slower pace than previously planned. The state increased the payment per pupil from $9,264 in 2022-23 to $11,000 for 2023-24.

ACADEMIC REFUGEES: The conservative campaign to increase Asian and white admissions to elite universities - and, in the process, reduce the number of Black and Latino students - may create a boon for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Born in another era of virulent anti-Black discrimination, these schools have been a backstop for times when America’s allergy to reparative Civil Rights policies flared up. This time, though, HBCUs will need more financial support to meet the demand. VERBATIM: “…HBCUs could also face a strain on already limited resources. These institutions have played an outsize role in educating Black Americans — representing 3 percent of colleges yet producing roughly 20 percent of African American graduates — but, due to historical underfunding, have struggled with issues such as crumbling infrastructure and housing shortages, exacerbated by enrollment bumps and a lack of affordable off-campus options. There is also a digital divide between some HBCUs and more well-financed predominantly White institutions, with disparities ranging from their cybersecurity infrastructure to the stability of WiFi.” [The Washington Post]

NO RAINBOWS HERE: Wisconsin elementary school teacher Melissa Tempel, was vocal about a decision not to allow the Miley Cyrus-Dolly Parton song to be included in a school concert. There were consequences.

VERBATIM:

A Wisconsin teacher who expressed frustration after her school district barred her first graders from singing "Rainbowland" was fired Wednesday.

Melissa Tempel tweeted in March that the administration had vetoed the choice for "Rainbowland," a duet by Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton, which the officials deemed controversial under school policy, and added: "When will it end?"

The Waukesha School District Board of Education voted Wednesday to terminate Tempel, NBC affiliate WTMJ of Milwaukee reported.

She was placed on administrative leave after the superintendent determined the way she disagreed with the decision violated school board policies.

After the vote Wednesday, Tempel’s attorney said that they were disappointed with the decision but that they have what is necessary for a First Amendment lawsuit.

Read it at [NBC News]

THE CITIZEN STEWART SHOW: We’re in a dark time for education. Stories about failure dominate the news, and there’s little hope for what we can do to get kids to learn in large numbers. Given all that, it was great to talk to Marc Porter Magee, CEO and founder of 50CAN, about a positive, practical agenda for education. His organization started a “Believe In Better” campaign last year that suggests five strategies for advancing education.

FREEDOM FRIDAY: On this week’s show, I had a wide-reaching conversation with Dr. Charles Cole, III, regarding parent power. We discussed his eBook, “The Agentic Black Parent,” which offers practical guidance and tools for parents to champion their children’s interests. That discussion led us to consider how Black parents build collective power to challenge national efforts by privileged parents to remove our history from schools.

HOW CUTE IS THIS? / VERBATIM: Gerber has officially announced the winner of the 13^th annual Photo Search and the 2023 Gerber Baby. Madison “Maddie” Mendoza, along with her remarkable parents, captured the attention of the judges with a standout throwback submission and story full of love and resilience.

That’s it for now!