New Study: Black Students Learn More With Black Teachers – Black Life Coaches

According to a new report, A Community College Instructor Like Me: Race and Ethnicity Interactions in the Classroom, 2.9 percent of students who identify as U.S. minorities—African-American, Native American, Hispanic and Pacific Islander—are more likely to excel if their teachers share their ethnic or racial background. (More)

Black Folks We Are In A State Of Emergency When It Comes To Education, Murder And Racism To Name A Few. I Am Tired Of The Call To Action After The Tragedy Has Occurred

Yep! Black folks we are in a state of emergency when it comes to education, murder and racism. When are we going to have an ongoing national call to action day across the nation? I have said it before and now I am saying it again.

Our black children are being targeted when it comes to the education system. But the data you have heard over the years is it really the truth? Check out who are presenting the data and then challenge the data presented.

Our young and old black brothers and sisters are being killed in numbers and most of it is black on black crime. It is sad but what are we doing in our communities when we see things going on that is not right? Do we say anything to the brothers and sisters who are walking around with their pants sagging showing their butts? Do you allow your children to roam the streets and to hang out with older children?

Racism has become the norm and seems like even more since we have a black President. It is a damn shame that racist white folks are saying and doing whatever they want to say and do and nothing is being done. I have never seen a President being disrespected as President Obama. We all know that this was not acceptable during the time of the 43 presidents before our current president.

Folks I am sick and tired of the call to action after a tragedy has occurred. Do we tell our family and friends how much we love them and that they can not get caught up in worldly things because this is a dangerous world.

Folks we must change the way we do things or things are going to continue to get worse.

So are you sick and tired? If yes, what are you going to do? Black folks when we come together and hold each other accountable oh what a time. And then we can hold others accountable also.

 

As Obama Touts Common Core, The State Standards Spread Slowly Across U.S.: Study–HuffPost

Amy Bednarz, an English as a second language teacher in a Massachusetts elementary school, is confused. She doesn’t know exactly what to teach.

For years, she’d been told that the state standardized tests were a make-or-break aspect of her teaching and should drive her instruction. Then came the professional development meetings this summer where she was told to teach the Common Core State Standards, a new set of academic benchmarks now being adopted by the majority of U.S. states. She got a worksheet, a binder and little guidance. (More)

[Office of Governor Bev Perdue] Invest in Our Children’s Future

	Problems reading this message? Click here.
Gov. Perdue: Invest in Our Children’s Future
"We owe it to our kids and to our state to stop these cuts and make education a priority again." Friends, Education has always been part of the fabric of who we are as a people in North Carolina, and it’s the key to our future. We must stop the deep and unnecessary cuts that are going on in North Carolina’s schools. That’s why I’m for temporarily restoring three-quarters of the one-cent sales tax that the Republican-controlled General Assembly eliminated and for dedicating those funds to North Carolina schools. I have cut spending to eliminate waste and make government more efficient. But we cannot allow the legislature’s extreme education cuts to continue. The N.C. Association of School Administrators reported recently that North Carolina has fallen to 49th in the nation in per-pupil funding. The legislature’s budget has hurt education at all levels — from pre-k all the way through higher education — and has led to higher class sizes and the loss of thousands of teacher and teaching assistant positions. And their budget forces even more teacher layoffs next year — we must act to prevent these additional cuts. Our children’s future is so important that I want to let you know that when I present my budget this spring, I will once again call on the Republican-controlled General Assembly to temporarily restore three-quarters of the one-cent sales tax as a vital step to funding our schools. Also, in the days ahead I will be speaking with you about other budgetary matters that affect North Carolina families. Education is the key to our children’s future and to North Carolina’s economic future. Investing in education is central to our ability to attract new jobs and businesses to our state. We owe it to our children and our state to stop these cuts and make education a priority again — a fraction of a penny for progress.
Office of the Governor – 20301 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699 – (919)733-4240

Parents Upset After Georgia Elementary School Uses Slavery Examples In Math Worksheet – ThinkProgress Justice

"Ignorance will never end. Even those with money can’t buy SENSE!!" Author: Curmilus Dancy II The Political Agitator

Parents in Norcross, Georgia blasted school officials at Beaver Ridge Elementary School after teachers gave third graders a math worksheet that used examples of slavery in word problems. Following the uproar, district officials said the school’s principal will work with teachers to come up with more appropriate lessons, but that didn’t go far enough for parents who called for an apology and diversity training for teachers at Beaver Ridge, where a majority of the students are minorities. (More)

Dr. MLK Celebrations But Our Education System Is In A State Of Emergency. I Can Not Celebrate.

I would love to see those who are celebrating to join me at the local school board meetings. Education is the key and we are in a state of emergency. I believe education would take care of 99% of our problems especially if it does not begin and end only in the classroom.

I can not celebrate when Edgecombe County do not have a Boys & Girls Club building. I remember when I just happened to be at South Edgecombe Middle School one day several years ago when they were planning on shutting it down. I got on it and along with others they are still there today.

We need a Boys & Girls Club building in Edgecombe County so the children can have somewhere to go to learn and to play.

I can not celebrate when George Washington Carver High School Pinetops NC now elementary made the gymnasium a multipurpose room when this would have been a great location for the children of Pinetops having somewhere to go play basketball. I remember when that was about to happen but I didn’t get enough interest to help fight that cause. Hell for many years there was not a picture of the black principal Mr. Samuel A. Gilliam in the school. I kept asking about that and finally one has been placed there.

I can not celebrate when the children in Pinetops have no where to go and nothing to do but the adults talk about them getting into trouble.

I can not celebrate when I look at how other schools athletes are more advanced because they have an outlet to play sports year round versus the children of Pinetops be able to play only during the school year.

I can not celebrate when the churches and other groups do not participate in hosting and/or doing things to help our children advance in our communities.

I can not celebrate when I know there is enough monies that the churches and certain folks in the county can come together and build a Boys & Girls Club and/or to provide something positive for the children in Edgecombe County.

Someone would say that I continue to talk about sports. Well there are other things that can be done as well, afterschool programs and etc. When I think of organized sports, I think of discipline because a real coach will be more than just a coach to the children but should be a father/mother figure to them.

Okay so after today Dr. King’s Holiday, what’s next? What can I look forward to? Attending the school board meetings and not seeing other parents and the community there. Attending sporting events and very little parents and the community there supporting their children. The list goes on. Well I am going to continue to be where ever I can for them when I can.

See related:

Dr. MLK

Education: Attorney William Solomon Seeking Books And/Or Magazines To Be Donated To Juvenile Detention Center/Youth Development Center In Pitt And Edgecombe Counties

William Solomon

Yes this is long, but take a minutes and read it please. Thanks in advance for all of your help!

It seems like only yesterday my son was being born. Now he is four years old and it’s time for us to prepare for him to start kindergarten next year. Recently my wife and I toured Rocky Mount Academy to get a feeling of how we liked the program that they offer. We were impressed. I love to read and so I was impressed with the library that was available to the students and their access to technology. I started thinking back to how much I enjoyed the vast libraries of books that were available to me when I was young. There were wonderful libraries available to me at home and at my alma maters of Bullock Elementary School, West Edgecombe Middle School and South West Edgecombe High School. Having access to a wide array of reading material can open a child’s mind to all of the possibilities that the world has to offer to them.

A few days after our tour of Rocky Mount Academy, I went to the Juvenile Detention Center in Pitt County to visit with a client that I represent in my law practice. I asked him, as I do most of the young people that I represent and come in contact with, what kinds of things has he been reading when you have the time. I was pleased to hear that he does read, but he said that he has tried to read the same book more than once because they do not have a lot to choose from in the detention center. Most of the children being held in the 9 detention center across North Carolina are there because they have been charged with committing a serious crime and while they are waiting to go to trial a judge has decided that it may be too dangerous for the community to let them come home.

These are children who are sometimes at the tipping point of either becoming involved in criminal behavior in their adult life or being productive members of society. I believe that these children need and deserve to have access to as wide an array of reading material as any child in a public or private school in North Carolina. Who knows, a child in a detention center may flip through a book or a magazine and learn about a part of the world they never knew existed or discover a career path they would have never dreamed. The dreams that reading material can inspire can make the difference in weather that child wastes their life in and out of jails at tax payer expense or is sworn in as the future Governor of North Carolina.

I have spoken to the director and staff of the Detention Center in Pitt County and the director and staff physiologist at the Youth Development Center in Edgecombe County They are receptive to and excited about the idea of expanding the libraries that are available to the children there. I am asking all who read this message to consider donating books or an age appropriate magazine subscription to be added to these libraries. Be mindful that our target audience consists of children under the age of 18 and should not include objectionable content that would not be allowed in a school setting.

Donations of reading material can be made at my office – The Solomon Law Firm – 161 S. Grace Street, Rocky Mount, NC 27804. For more information please review the article in the Community Section of my web site at www.wsolomonlaw.com or call 252- 442-0348. Thank you for helping to create a better North Carolina one child at a time.

Will Solomon
The Solomon Law Firm Rocky Mount North Carolina

The Solomon Law Firm Rocky Mount North Carolina

www.wsolomonlaw.com

The Solomon Law Firm – Open Letter from Will Solomon

Education

EDUCATION

“Education is your passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.” Malcolm X

Education is not limited to the classroom. It takes place in the kitchen, on the corner, as you ride or walk to any destination, when you listen or speak to others and in the silence of your bedroom. Education springs forth from books, songs, children, elders, women, and men. It rises from victory, tragedy, joy and suffering. Education does not take place when you learn something that you did not know before. Education is the ability to use what you have learned to be better than you were yesterday. No matter how much you know or how you learn it, the ultimate goal of education is to give “you” greater insight to “yourself.”

I am educating the world about me.

–Iyanla Vanzant

Al Sharpton, Common, Other Black Leaders Head to Classrooms Across US – Source: The Skanner

CHICAGO (Special to the NNPA) – Five hundred African American trailblazers will descend upon classrooms in 107 cities and 34 states (including Puerto Rico) on Friday, Sept. 23 as part of the 2nd Annual Back to School with the HistoryMakers program. (Read more)

Reinventing Our Community: How can we bridge the disparities in metro Birmingham schools? The Birmingham News

The uneven quality of our schools is a key challenge standing between metro Birmingham and a brighter future. The 21 school districts across our region range from struggling to exceptional, meaning a child’s chance of success depends as much on where that child lives as on his or her abilities. (Read more)

Teacher-student racial imbalance widest in Va. Beach

Children do better in school when their instructor is the same race, studies say. Yet, teacher demographics in South Hampton Roads don’t come close to mirroring student populations.

The racial imbalance is most pronounced in Virginia Beach, where 85 percent of public school teachers are white and close to half of students are not, statistics show. (Read more)

Education History – PA Courts Deny African American Students Class Action Certification

In a Memorandum dated August 19, 2009, Chief Justice Harvey Bartle, of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, denied class certification to plaintiffs, including six African American students and their parents, the NAACP—Main Line Branch, and Concerned Black Parents. The case was filed on July 30, 2007 by the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia (PILCOP) as a class action against the Lower Merion School District and the Pennsylvania Department of Education. The lawsuit alleges persistent, routine, and system-wide racial segregation of African American students into below grade level or modified classes where they receive a substandard education. (Read more)

See related:

Concerned Black Parents Inc.

Education, Expectations and Incarceration:

Education, Expectations and Incarceration: A look at how resegregation, high-stakes testing and the school-to-prison pipeline marginalize our children The NC NAACP is holding the 5th Annual Romallus O. Murphy CLE on October 12, 2011 in High Point from 11:30am to 5:00pm. This pre-convention activity is geared towards attorneys and other legal professionals, however legal redress and education chairs from local NAACP branches may find the program interesting and informative as well. The program will focus on issues in education that are forces in derailing the public education system. The CLE will be made up of four panels discussing resegregation, high-stakes testing, the school-to-prison pipeline and strategies for being a part of the solution. Experts from around the state, including attorneys, professors, and school board members, will be gathering to discuss these important issues. Attached is a flyer, registration form, attorney referral list sign-up form, and NAACP membership form. We ask you distribute this information to local attorneys, especially those who work in civil rights or education. If the attorney is unable to join us but would still like to assist the NAACP with our important civil rights and social justice work, please ask them to consider signing up to be on our attorney referral list or join the NAACP, if they are not already a member. Click here to download materials This event kicks off our 2011 NC NAACP State Convention being held in High Point from October 13th to 15th. Convention details and registration information can be found at www.naacpnc.org Please feel free to contact me with any questions. I hope to see you in High Point! Jennifer Watson Marsh Legal Redress Coordinator & Public Policy Analyst NC NAACP PO Box 335 Durham, NC 27702 919-682-4700 V 919-682-4711 F 1-866-NC-NAACP jwmarsh1@gmail.com

Rural Student Success Critical to National Goals – Source: Education Week

Rural schools are increasingly important to the success of the nation’s educational goals. Rural school enrollment is growing both absolutely and as a percentage of national totals. Between 2004 and 2009, rural schools grew 11 percent, from 10.5 million students to 11.7 million, and the rural share of the nation’s students increased from 22 percent to 24 percent, according to data from the Department of Education. (Read more)

The One Voice Rally to Fund NC Schools – Source: NCAE

Join NCAE members from all over North Carolina to speak out with one voice about the long-term devastation to our public schools and our communities. Sign up to attend our rally on May 3rd and tell the General Assembly that we can’t afford cuts to public education: (Read more)