Jonathan Kozol’s 2005 book, The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America
, looks at the issue of racial integration in the nation’s schools. Over 50 years after the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal” and forcing the integration of America’s schools, we have not yet achieved that goal. Kozol uses the passionate voices of teachers and students, mostly from urban New York City schools and the suburban areas of Long Island, to tell how the nation has been failing a large portion of its children and, in fact, creating a system of apartheid by withholding a proper education from so many children.
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Technorati Tags: NCLB, NYC, public schools, segregation, urban education
Photo: Ben Garvin for The New York Times
On January 9, the New York Times ran an article by Sara Rimer about immigrant students and their parents who are happier with their children in charter schools that cater to an international community. The article takes a good look at why these schools are more comfortable places for recent immigrant students as they learn English and become accustomed to American culture. Perhaps if we were to take a look at what other schools are not doing to make immigrant students feel more comfortable and to create the least-restrictive environment for them to learn we might be able to create a more effective classroom for all students.
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Technorati Tags: bilingual education, charter schools, discrimination, english-language learners, immigrants, NYC, public schools, school choice, segregation, sociology
Jennifer Hochschild and Nathan B. Scovronick teamed up to show the ways in which the public education system advances, but also hinders, the ability to pursue the “American Dream”, in their 2003 book The American Dream and the Public Schools
. After first coming up with a definition of what the American dream is, they explore what Americans want and expect from public schools, in the areas of desegregation; finance reform; school choice; curriculum reform; inclusion; and multiculturalism, among others. Their explanations center around three purposes of education: (1) advancement of the individual; (2) improvement of societal goals; (3) furthering the agenda of a particular group or special interest.
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Technorati Tags: curriculum, discrimination, public schools, school choice, school funding, school reform, segregation, special education
Charter Schools for Immigrants
Photo: Ben Garvin for The New York Times
On January 9, the New York Times ran an article by Sara Rimer about immigrant students and their parents who are happier with their children in charter schools that cater to an international community. The article takes a good look at why these schools are more comfortable places for recent immigrant students as they learn English and become accustomed to American culture. Perhaps if we were to take a look at what other schools are not doing to make immigrant students feel more comfortable and to create the least-restrictive environment for them to learn we might be able to create a more effective classroom for all students.
Continue reading Charter Schools for Immigrants
Technorati Tags: bilingual education, charter schools, discrimination, english-language learners, immigrants, NYC, public schools, school choice, segregation, sociology