Category Archives: In the News

Feds and Native American Students

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As reported in an Education Week blog by Evie Blad, representatives from the White House Initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native Education and the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights have announced a “listening tour” to seven states as part of their efforts to improve schools’ ability to address the needs of Native American students. The closest stop for us is Seattle.

A federally appointed American Indian Education Study Group presented their findings and recommendations for reform this summer.  On the report’s first page, it states, “Although federal assimilation policy ended several decades ago, [Bureau of Indian Education] BIE schools – still funded and many still operated by the U.S. Government – have produced generations of American Indians who are poorly educated and unable to compete for jobs, and who have been separated for years from their tribal communities. All of this has contributed to the extreme poverty on many reservations throughout the country.”

 

Free Speech Movement at 50

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This weekend is a weekend of celebrations, including Fall Festival and Festival Latino in Corvallis.

In Berkeley, they are celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Free Speech Movement.  Our own associate professor emerita Jean Moule will be in Berkeley for that anniversary.  She and her now husband were arrested in Berkeley’s Sproul Hall back in 1964 with a cover photo in the San Francisco Chronicle.  Read her essay reflecting on that event here: Fifty Years of Love and Resilience.

What’s Possible

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Filmmakers Lyn Davis Lear and Louie Schwartzberg created a four-minute film, What’s Possible, for today’s United Nation’s Summit on Climate Change.

I highly recommend watching via Moyers & Company, where you can see not only the film but an accompanying interview with Davis Lear and Schwartzberg: http://billmoyers.com/segment/whats-possible/.  It is inspiring, on a subject that demands our inspiration.

Environmental Justice for Everyone

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In honor of the upcoming massive public demonstration, the People’s Climate March on September 22, here is a Ken Winograd recommended Tedx talk by Van Jones: Environmental Justice.  Wondering how social and environmental justice are related?  Jones gives an example in his compelling talk about the use of plastics and poverty−whether that plastic is recycled or not.

Need to get even more motivated?  Watch Disruption, a new film by Kelly Nyks and Jared P. Scott, online.

Retaining Teachers of Color

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Jacob Murray and Jackie Jenkins-Scott wrote a commentary this week about the need for not only recruiting but retaining teachers of color: We Need Teachers of Color.  They included ideas from some current efforts to improve the approximately 30% gap nationwide between the number of students of color and teachers of color.  [In Oregon that gap is 27% according to our latest Statewide Report Card.]  Murray and Scott are part of a Wheelock College Aspire Institute initiative to support new teachers, “…by fostering supportive, culturally responsive work environments in collaboration with school principals; connecting them with retired educators of color who will serve as mentors; developing cross-school support networks to decrease isolation; and offering professional, leadership, and self-advocacy skills training.”

In citing advantages of closing the demographics gap, the authors stated, “These teachers can also serve in the role of cultural mediators and advocates, helping to counter negative stereotypes and strengthening a district’s human capital.”  While I don’t disagree with this, it is a heavy load to place on anyone, let alone new teachers.  Need a reminder about this?  Back in March, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights released data about racial inequality in American Public Schools.  Allyson Dean shared the following article with me last week: 14 Disturbing Stats About Racial Inequality in American Public Schools.  It is a very short and, yes, disturbing synopsis of that data.

In related news, American Promise—the film we brought to OSU last spring—is now available on DVD, Amazon Streaming, and in the Apple iTunes.  As a documentary spanning 13 years, it puts a human face on racial inequality that exists even for boys in financially stable, supportive, two-parent families who attend prestigious private schools.