“It’s personal.”
LaTonya Goffney’s passion for literacy started with her grandfather. “Tonya, if you can read, you can go anywhere.”
As superintendent of Aldine Independent School District (TX), Dr. Goffney is a stellar example of #LeadingWithLight. She led a process to overhaul her school system’s reading curricula. The path forward is now much brighter!
https://lnkd.in/ghtGJDMa
“It’s personal.”
LaTonya Goffney’s passion for literacy started with her grandfather. “Tonya, if you can read, you can go anywhere.”
As superintendent of Aldine Independent School District (TX), Dr. Goffney is a stellar example of #LeadingWithLight. She led a process to overhaul her school system’s reading curricula. The path forward is now much brighter!
https://lnkd.in/ghtGJDMa
I was in the first integrated middle school class in Howard County, MD. -- literally 10 years after Brown v. Board of Education. Contrary to popular belief, integration was a gradual and often halting process. You may remember the words in the SCOTUS decision "with all deliberate speed". Public school integration gave rise to private so-called Christian schools to stem the tide of racial reconciliation. After middle school, my parents enrolled me in a predominantly Jewish school, where racism was not as keenly evident.
Despite the initial progress made in desegregating schools following Brown, we have seen a steady reversal in recent decades, with schools becoming increasingly segregated once again along racial and socioeconomic lines.
The data is stark.
This resegregation is not a natural or inevitable phenomenon, but rather the result of specific policies and practices, including the dismantling of court-ordered desegregation plans, discriminatory housing policies that reinforce racial divides, disinvestment in federal programs supporting integration, and legal decisions limiting strategies for fostering diversity. As the UCLA Civil Rights Project warns, we are "betting our educational and social future on inaction" when decades of research shows the immense benefits of integrated schools for all students.
The undoing of Brown's promise and the resegregation of American schools is an ominous development that perpetuates racial and socioeconomic inequalities. It demands urgent attention and concerted efforts from policymakers and society to reverse this damaging trend and uphold the ideal of public education as a great equalizer.
Husband & Father | Combat Veteran | Governor of the State of Maryland
70 years ago today, Thurgood Marshall's leadership in Brown v. Board set a precedent for justice, paved the way for desegregation in public spaces, and laid the groundwork for equal educational opportunities for all.
Education has a transformative power, and I'm proud that our Administration has made historic investments in public education that will resonate for generations. Every child in Maryland, regardless of zip code or background, deserves a pathway to a brighter future.
Photo Credit: Bettman/Corbis photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Developmental education is a critical issue at community colleges, according to a new UPDATE on Research and Leadership piece by Nina Owolabi and Stacy Bennett, Ph.D. When first introduced, developmental education was considered a means to support students in their pursuit of college-level courses. More recently, however, much of the research and discussion about developmental education has had a decidedly negative tone. Read "Reforming Developmental Education in Illinois" at https://lnkd.in/g7Yzmp9M.
This week's Thoughtful Thursday question explores the connection between a collective mission and vision for student experience, and the impact on educational justice. For more guiding questions about creating equitable school communities, check out CEL's 4 Dimensions of School Leadership: https://hubs.ly/Q02hKNxh0
In the 70 years since Brown v. Board of Education, the pursuit of educational equity has seen major strides forward and significant pushbacks. What progress has been made, what can be learned from setbacks, and what can be done to ensure all students to have the opportunity to learn? Some of the country’s leading education and civil rights researchers ask these questions in a collection of reports released in conjunction with the anniversary and produced for the Spencer Foundation, Learning Policy Institute, and the California Association of African American Superintendents and Administrators (CAASA). https://lnkd.in/gtvw437W
Head of Habs Diploma at Haberdashers' Girls' School (Bsc, PhD, CTeach). Co-Chair of Practitioners Council FED. Council Member of Chartered College of Teaching.
"It is by recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers and leaders that we will improve opportunities and outcomes for children and young people" Dame Alison Peacock, CEO, Chartered College of Teaching.
Read about our priorities for the new government here: https://lnkd.in/e6myp63z
Having just joined the The Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton and the Chesterton Academies of Minnesota as a Senior Fellow, I've been musing on the place of G.K. Chesterton among modern thinkers, or "public intellectuals" (if you prefer). Chesterton observes a delightful distinction between two types of reformers in society: "The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to [a fence or gate] and says, 'I don't see the use of this, let us clear it away.' To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer, 'If you don't see the use of it, I certainly won't let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.'"
Just go away and think. Perhaps that's what we've largely lost: the ability to pause long enough to recognize the just and prudent purposes of inherited ways of life--from institutions to mores to rituals. Fortunately, the folks in the Chesterton School Network (Dale Ahlquist, Emily Selene de Rotstein, Joseph Grabowski, Mark Steeves, Brenie Bowles, Nes Rotstein, Grettelyn Darkey, Ruth Laxen et al.) are equipping schools that train high schoolers to pause and think, under the influence of the insightful Prince of Paradox. #chesterton#reform#classicaleducationhttps://lnkd.in/gXqtkV95
How are we preparing children with special needs for their future? A great discussion about next practices for our babies with special needs…..Future Focused Schools.
