The Opportunity Agenda, a non-profit organization focused on building the national will to expand opportunity in America, has just released a report examining national perceptions of African American men and boys, and the relationship of these perceptions to mass media. This extensive research project was designed to determine how to better and more effectively communicate the need to improve [...]
In an earlier post, GCP covered New Jersey Police Detective Sergeant Thomas Rich's presentation on sexting (Texting, Sexting: What You and Your Children Should Know, November 22, 2011). Today's focus is cyberbullying, featuring perspectives from Sgt. Rich and others*. Cyberbullying, says Sgt. Rich, is "the next generation of hate". He recommends that we teach our children that their words [...]
Today's first education issue in the news comes from The New York Times, courtesy of Avram Barlowe. Avram is a co-founder of The Urban Academy, a New York City public high school nationally recognized for its commitment to pedagogical innovation, academic rigor and its diverse, engaged student body. He has taught history and social studies courses for more than thirty [...]
Today’s New York Times features an article, found here, which details how little today’s schools teach about the history of the Civil Rights movement and how little today’s students know about basic civil rights history. Julian Bond, the former civil rights activist who began teaching the history of the civil rights movement twenty years ago, speaks of having students [...]
Today's New York Times Magazine includes a very interesting article, found here, about how the heads of a Manhattan private school and a national charter school program are working to help their students develop good character traits as well as good study habits. The private school head feared that his school's focus on testing at every juncture and encouraging [...]
The concern about boys not doing as well as girls in school is growing in Europe, and officials there worry whether the lack of male teachers in school could be a contributing factor. An article originally published in the Paris newspaper Le Figaro, found here, discusses the concern about there being "too many women teachers" in the French school [...]
Cyberbullying is a huge issue for children and parents in this digital age. Common Sense Media, a non profit organization devoted to helping families navigate the world of media and technology, offers a series of Family Engagement Resources to help parents deal with this problem. These resources, which can be found here, include grade specific tips, articles and videos [...]
GCP is keenly interested in promoting educational models and practices which have demonstrated success with our boys, particularly those that can be scaled up to impact the greatest number of children. As you know, much of the current education reform discussion revolves around how to effectively measure and improve teacher quality, whether standardized tests are the best way to [...]
The New York Times online has a series called "Room for Debate", in which it invites experts in the field to discuss news events and topical issues. Periodically the topic is education. The comments are often interesting and informative, and the format allows you to hear a variety of voices in the nation's educational debate. Check out today's topic, [...]
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Director of Harvard's W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African and African American Research, and Gaston Caperton, President of the College Board, have written an essay in today's Huffington Post and theRoot.com calling for national focus on educating young Black men. You can read it here. Gates and Caperton co-hosted a webcast discussion of this topic today [...]