Monday, November 13, 2023

In Case You Missed It – November 13, 2023

Here are links to last week's articles receiving the most attention on NEIFPE's social media accounts. Keep up with what's going on, what's being discussed, and what's happening with public education.

Be sure to enter your email address in the Follow Us By Email box in the right-hand column of our blog page to be informed when our blog posts are published.


QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"...depending on the state, homeschooled families might not have to report what they are doing at all.

"...in most states, there is no oversight and no evaluation by anyone of the academic program and of students' progress.

"...the truth is, in many states, the rules and oversight can be so lax parents don't ultimately have to teach their kids anything at all." -- John Oliver (see HOMESCHOOLING, below).

HOMESCHOOLING

John Oliver: What You Need to Know About Homeschooling

"...in a perfect world, we'd make sure that homeschooled kids were both safe and actually receiving a functional education..." -- John Oliver

Note that the videos linked below contain language and imagery that might be objectionable to some.

From Diane Ravitch
John Oliver is a brilliant, intelligent comedian who is known for his sharp commentaries on current events. From 2006 to 2013, he was a writer for Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show.

His analysis of the charter school industry was viewed by millions of people.

This new take on homeschooling is worth your time.

HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT

The Plight of the Poorest Students in America’s Public Schools Is Hidden in Plain Sight

We have forgotten to attend to the needs of our children...or perhaps we, as a nation, just don't have the well-being of our children as a high enough priority.

From Jan Resseger
For decades research has documented the correlation of family poverty and children’s school achievement. And at the same time, data also show that America’s neighborhoods (and therefore its school districts) have become more segregated by income. Demonstrating these trends a decade ago, Stanford University educational sociologist Sean Reardon showed that while in 1970, only 15 percent of families lived in neighborhoods classified as affluent or poor, by 2007, 31 percent of families lived in such neighborhoods. By 2007, fewer families lived in mixed income communities. Reardon also demonstrated that along with growing residential inequality is a simultaneous jump in an income-inequality school achievement gap. The achievement gap between the children with income in the top ten percent and the children with income in the bottom ten percent, was 30-40 percent wider among children born in 2001 than those born in 1975, and twice as large as the black-white achievement gap.

THE NETWORK FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION NATIONAL CONFERENCE 2023

The 2023 Phyllis Bush Award for Grassroots Organizing Goes to PEP

Public Education Partners in Ohio received this year's Phyllis Bush Award for Grassroots Organizing at the NPE National Conference. Here is their statement.

From Public Education Partners
Over the years, PEP has organized many community events, such as a statewide conference for public education advocates. Its members have lobbied at the Ohio Statehouse and have testified before the Ohio House and Senate. Board members host PEP rallies at the statehouse. PEP leaders have written countless letters to the editor on subjects like vouchers, charter schools, standardized testing. The organization educates and engages individuals on education issues, as it has grown its social media presence to over 30,000 followers.

The existence of Public Education Partners and the success PEP has experienced over the past eight years would not have been possible without Phyllis Bush.

Phyllis Bush Grassroots Group Award

NPE has posted the video of the Phyllis Bush Grassroots Award. As promised, click here to see the video.

From the Network for Public Education
NPE Action Board member presents this annual award in memory of NPE founding board member, Phyllis Bush, to the Ohio Public Education Partners.

Grassroots Education Network- October 2023 Newsletter

The Network for Public Education sends out a Grassroots newsletter every month. This month's newsletter is all about the 2023 NPE National Conference.

From the Network for Public Education
The NPE/NPE Action Conference, was held October 28 to the 29th, and was attended by over 400 passionate defenders of public education. The conference, held in our nation’s capital, was the 10th Anniversary of the NPE/NPE Action Conference. There were over 195 presenters and over 40 panels. The theme of the conference this year was Public Schools: Where Democracy Grows.

This newsletter is replacing our monthly Grassroots Network Education Newsletter. It features members of the grassroots network who attended and presented at the conference. A full write-up of the conference that will include all of the panels will be coming out soon on the NPE newsletter. Again, this newsletter highlights only the grassroots groups that presented. Our regular grassroots newsletter will resume in November.

FORT WAYNE LOCAL NEWS

FWCS talks Ford NGL at Mirro Center dinner

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**
The Fort Wayne Community Schools superintendent shared a message Wednesday night for the few hundred stakeholders celebrating the district’s recent designation as a Ford Next Generation Learning community.

The nearly 30,000-student district is preparing to implement its 158-page master plan, which calls for public-private partnerships, Mark Daniel said.

“Prior to this, schools have been pretty much on their own, sort of silos, and we’re breaking those silos,” he said. “We’re moving to this new process and way of thinking, which means, how do we bring real world into our classrooms?”

FWCS was named a Ford NGL community in August after a 16-month process that resulted in a master plan outlining the steps to transform education from pre-K through 12th grade.

As a member of the Ford NGL community, the district joins a network of schools supported by the Ford Motor Company Fund, which encourages schools to prepare students for success after high school.

**Note: The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette is behind a paywall. Digital access, home delivery, or both are available with a subscription. Staying informed is essential; one way to do that is to support your local newspaper. For subscription information, go to fortwayne.com/subscriptions/ [NOTE: NEIFPE has no financial ties to the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette]

Note: NEIFPE's In Case You Missed It is posted by the end of the day every Monday except after holiday weekends or as otherwise noted.

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