The College of Education and the Difference, Power, and Discrimination (DPD) Program invite you to attend a free talk by Nolan L. Cabrera of the University of Arizona—”Race is not a Four-Letter Word:” Exploring Whiteness, Racism, and Privilege in Education—on Thursday, February 20, 2014. It will talk place in Furman Hall 303 at 2-3:30 PM. In this presentation, Dr. Cabrera will explore the changing meaning of Whiteness historically, its relation to educational practice, and how we can critically as well as constructively engage race. A flyer is attached here.
Too Many Oregon Students Unready for Kindergarten
Betsy Hammond’s Oregonian recent article, Too Many Oregon Students Unready For Kindergarten, State Officials Lament, discusses the results of Oregon’s kindergarten readiness assessment, which was administered statewide for the first time ever this fall. It highlights patterns found among racial groups, gender, and socio-economic status. Megan McClelland of OSU is referenced in regards to her research about self-control and interpersonal skills as indicators of school success. Surprisingly, the article doesn’t reference English learners, and although it laments the small number of children in Head Start Programs, it doesn’t show evidence that children in Head Start fared better on the assessment.
Super Bowl Fury: “Speak English!”
In a blog post for Education Week, teacher Justin Minkel wrote:
The most contentious blunder to come out of the Super Bowl was not that first comic snap that arced past a bewildered Peyton Manning. It wasn’t the two tipped interceptions that followed that slip-up, or Joe Namath’s fur-coated Macklemore impression during the coin toss that proceeded it.
It was the audacity of Coke’s claim that there are people in the world who speak languages that aren’t English, and that some of those people might love America.
The article, Super Bowl Fury: “Speak English!“, continues with a discussion of the “damaging consequences to kids” of language loss and English-only laws, including what teachers can do to help prevent language loss.
American Promise
We are making progress in bringing American Promise‘s filmmakers to campus for a screening. The tentative date is April 15. Pencil in the date, and check back here for more information.
The film follows two middle-class African-American boys for 13 years, as they make their way through a prestigious private school. Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson are the filmmakers and parents of one of the boys. It has won several awards and will be showing on PBS’s POV program on February 3 (11 PM PST on OPB). Here is the trailer:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knFReWtLkgc]Second Language Acquisition by the Numbers
The Huffington Post, with Middlebury Interactive, recently presented an infographic: Second Language Acquisition by the Numbers. It makes a compelling case for increasing language instruction in the United States with facts about the languages most studied, language learning advantages, U.S. world language learning in comparison with the European Union, and the percentage of U.S. schools offering world language instruction.
Considering the number of English language learners (ELLs) in our schools, it is always surprising how few people in the U.S. are bilingual or multilingual. We continue to have huge numbers of ELLs losing their home language rather than becoming truly bilingual, and we have far too few English-dominant students who ever study another language beyond two years in high school.