News About Quality Education
Youth United for Change and Advancement Project Release Report on Shocking Effects of Zero Tolerance School Discipline in Philadelphia Schools
Thursday, January 13, 2011Press Release
Youth United for Change, a Philadelphia-based youth organization, and Advancement Project, a national civil rights organization, released a report at City Hall today criticizing zero tolerance in Philadelphia schools as a failed policy that makes city schools less safe, criminalizes or pushes out of school tens of thousands of students every year, and creates a School-to-Prison Pipeline.
Read moreGraduating ASAP, if Not on State Timeline; Some Latino Students Fit School in as Life Allows
Tuesday, November 11, 2008Commentary
An hour and a half after his night shift ended at the grocery store, Jefferson Lara is sitting in art class, sketching warriors -- strong and armored. Lara's education has never been neatly laid out in class schedules that flow into extracurricular activities. A former gang member, he was expelled from ninth grade, spent time in Peru with his father and entered Arlington Mill High School Continuation program his junior year. He took the night job so his mother could quit one of hers.
Read moreTest Scores Show a Racial Divide: White students are the only subgroup that met federal standards this year
Thursday, September 4, 2008Commentary
As students head back to the classroom for a new school year this week, administrators are grappling with an age-old question: how to solve the achievement gap in Alexandria. School Board members campaigned on closing it, and a generation of city leadership has advocated its importance. Yet statistics released by the Virginia Department of Education last week show that the divide between those making the cut and those falling behind is increasingly drawn along racial lines.
Read moreGRADUATION TESTS WILL HARM STUDENTS
Tuesday, March 25, 2008Commentary
Beginning next year, Maryland students will face an additional hurdle to graduate from high school - passing four state tests. Students will be unable to receive diplomas if they fail the Maryland High School Assessments (HSA), even if they pass all of their classes during the year. Fortunately, the General Assembly is considering legislation that would eliminate this one-size-fits-all graduation requirement. If we want to fix our schools, punishing students is not the answer. Instead, we must provide students with the resources they need, and rely upon other measures to assess them.
Read moreNAACP opposes ban on 'droopy drawers'
Saturday, March 22, 2008Commentary
A proposed ban on droopy drawers that expose teen's backsides could be another discriminatory pipeline to prison for young black males, the head of the NAACP in Florida said Friday. "In essence, it will criminalize the wearing of saggy pants and thereby provide a new avenue of interaction between young people and the criminal justice system," said Adora Obi Nweze, president of the NAACP of Florida.
Read moreControversial Study Points out Racial Disparity in the City’s Schools; Administrators Object
Wednesday, November 14, 2007Commentary
When Leslie Auceda was in the sixth grade, her mother arrived at George Washington Middle School for a parent-teacher conference ready to learn about the progress her daughter was making in school. But she did not speak English, so she waited; after an hour and a half of waiting, Leslie’s mother surmised that the teachers were giving preference to the English-speaking parents. So she gave up and walked out — never to return to another parent-teacher conference.
Read moreObstacles To Opportunity: Alexandria, Virginia Students Speak Out
Wednesday, October 17, 2007Press Release
Today, the student group Alexandria United Teens (a project of Tenants and Workers United), Advancement Project, and Professor Tony Roshan Samara of George Mason University released Obstacles to Opportunity: Alexandria, Virginia Students Speak Out.
Read moreSuperintendent Of Alexandria County Public Schools Undermines Community Involvement Efforts In Schools
Thursday, October 26, 2006Press Release
Despite months of planning, and the school district’s stated commitment to promote community involvement in schools, Alexandria County Public School (ACPS) Superintendent, Rebecca Perry and her staff have repeatedly and consistently undermined and frustrated the implementation of a student-led initiative, by Alexandria United Teens (AUT), which works towards improving graduation rates and college attendance rates in ACPS.
Read moreACPS - IT'S TIME FOR A CHANGE!
Monday, May 15, 2006Commentary
It’s been about ten years since I graduated from T.C. Williams High School. Yes, I am a proud product of the Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS), but I barely graduated from high school. There were many contributing factors. I suppose being new to the community and school, still finding myself as a young male, or perhaps just pure rebellion. One decisive factor that almost prevented my graduation, however, was the fact that I failed, by one point, the math class I needed to graduate.
Read moreHigh-Stakes Testing
Saturday, May 15, 2004News Clip - Print
America's public schools administer more than 100 million standardized exams each year, including IQ, achievement, screening, and readiness tests.
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