It is generally accepted that the Orleans Parish Schools taken over by the Recovery District in New Orleans (RSD-NO), as a group, performed at or near the bottom for achievement levels on The Louisiana Educational Assessment Program (LEAP). Nevertheless, ardent supporters of this "reform" movement [...]
Don’t Send Your Kid to the Ivy League
empathy2016-11-29T17:39:24-05:00In the spring of 2008, I did a daylong stint on the Yale admissions committee. We—that is, three admissions staff, a member of the college dean’s office, and me, the faculty representative—were going through submissions from eastern Pennsylvania. The applicants had been assigned [...]
Closing Schools, Opening Schools and Changing School Codes: Instability In the New Orleans Recovery School District
empathy2016-11-29T17:39:25-05:00During its first few years, the Recovery School District (RSD) simply opened schools in New Orleans, without closing any and without changing any school codes. But, five years ago the RSD began to close schools and change school codes as [...]
The Disadvantages of an Elite Education
empathy2016-11-29T17:39:25-05:00It didn’t dawn on me that there might be a few holes in my education until I was about 35. I’d just bought a house, the pipes needed fixing, and the plumber was standing in my kitchen. There he was, a short, beefy [...]
Florida City’s ‘Stop and Frisk’ Nabs Thousands of Kids
empathy2016-11-29T17:39:25-05:00An Excellent Education is Not Enough to Counter What Occurs Outside the Classroom.America, Our Brothers, Sisters, and Children Are Hurting In the summer of 2010, a young black man was stopped and questioned by police on the streets [...]
The Case for Reparations Lives On Today
empathy2016-11-29T17:39:25-05:00The Case for ReparationsTwo hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow.Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy.Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.Ta-Nehisi CoatesOriginally Published at The Atlantic. [...]
Black Hands in the Biscuits Not in the Classrooms
empathy2016-11-29T17:39:25-05:00The 2007 Critics’ Choice Award winning book, Black Hands in the Biscuits Not in the Classrooms by Dr. Sherick A. Hughes, portrays one southern community’s experience of desegregation through keen observations, rare archival documents and in-depth firsthand narratives analyzed as part of an extensive native [...]
Brown at 60: Great Progress, a Long Retreat and an Uncertain Future
empathy2016-11-29T17:39:25-05:00Executive Summary Six decades of “separate but equal” as the law of the land have now been followed by six decades of “separate is inherently unequal” as our basic law. The Brown decision set large changes and political conflicts in motion and those struggles continue [...]
Charter School Vulnerabilities to Waste, Fraud and Abuse
empathy2016-11-29T17:39:26-05:00The Center for Popular Democracy is a nonprofit organization that promotes equity, opportunity, and a dynamic democracy in partnership with innovative base-building organizations, organizing networks and alliances, and progressive unions across the country. Integrity in Education is a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring integrity in [...]