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Showing posts with label gender. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gender. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 16, 2020

Heard about the case of Anjanette Young

 She was a social worker who's home was hit wrongfully by a police search warrant. Capitol Fax shared a press release from an organization of social workers & Black legislators on this subject. Also in that post are a number of links to stories with regards to Ms. Young.

From the Black legislators' press release:

What we see play out in the video of Anjanette Young is an act of racism, gendered violence and yet another violation of a Black woman’s dignity and safety. She told police 43 times that they had the wrong house, yet they stood there while she remained handcuffed and unclothed. Ms. Young had the courage to pursue the release of CPD bodycam footage in the face of legal threats from the City’s top leaders. Now it’s our turn to pursue justice and accountability for the wrongful trauma Ms. Young experienced, all rooted in the same systemic racism that plagues Black people throughout our state and country. We will not let Ms. Young stand alone without answers from the City.

Also this story was shared to a more nationwide audience at Instapundit noting:

As Ed Driscoll first raised here, Democratic Mayor of Chicago’s Lori Lightfoot actually directed her personally-appointed city lawyers to block CBS’ Chicago TV station from airing police body cam footage of them arresting and cuffing the wrong woman.

FFS, how can this woman say she believes “Black Lives Matter” when she tries to suppress footage showing potential police misconduct or incompetence? How can any Democrat say they support her and the idea of BLM? She was rightly laughed out of court. Worth noting:

This isn’t the first time CPD attempted to shield body camera video from public view. Last year, police denied CBS 2’s FOIA request for video that would show how officers handcuffed 8-year-old Royal Wilson during a bad raid. The department said it would be “unduly burdensome” for police to collect, review and redact 16 hours of video.

I think it's in our best interest to insure police has the correct information so that they won't execute a search warrant on the wrong house

Wednesday, September 4, 2019

CPS CEO aims to do better for Black and brown boys

cps.edu
Another thing in this new school year to watch out for. How to improve academic performance for boys in CPS schools:
“I’m not satisfied,” Jackson said of the district’s performance. “I like the incremental growth, but we need to see exponential growth, particularly among our African-American male and Latino male students, if we’re going to meet the goals we’ve outlined in our vision.”

Her comments followed a stirring 20-minute speech Thursday afternoon to a gathering of business and civic leaders organized by the City Club of Chicago. In the speech, Jackson highlighted district investments in new programs and curriculum at neighborhood schools, a renewed focus on early career and college credentials, commitments to hiring more school support staff, and universal Pre-K expansion as ways to “level the playing field.”

Asked after the speech about the specific approaches the district is taking to close racial and gender disparities in graduation rates, Jackson said new attention to what students are being taught would be key. 

“I think in order to get to the 90 percent graduation rate that we’ve outlined in our vision, we have to have strong curriculum and academic programs in our schools, which is why we’re making a commitment around more IB and STEM programs, and a quality curriculum in every school,” she said. “I think by coupling the social emotional support with academic support, we’re going to get there.”
RELATED: Does public education ruin Black boys?

Friday, August 23, 2019

CPS dropout rate at an all-time low....

According to this recent Sun-Times article:
A smaller percentage of Chicago high school students dropped out last year than ever before, the city announced Thursday.

The all-time low 6% dropout rate touted by Mayor Lori Lightfoot and CPS CEO Janice Jackson happened during the 2018-19 school year, under former Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration. Students last year dropped out of school at almost half the rate they did in 2011.

“Through expanding access to rigorous academic programs, increasing staffing to support student needs and magnifying our focus on equity, social and emotional learning and restorative justice, CPS is keeping more students in the classroom year after year and creating strong, student-centered schools in every neighborhood across the city,” Jackson said in a press release.

Lightfoot attributed the lower rates — down .4% from last year’s 6.4% — to teachers and staff members “transforming the lives of our young people.”
I think the public would like to hear the examples of the exemplary work of CPS teachers and staff with regards to the young people at CPS.

On the other hand this was from back in March of this year:
But a WBEZ analysis found some troubling trends behind those improved numbers. Significantly fewer black boys — 2,600 fewer — are starting as freshmen now than five years ago. And an increasing number of graduates are getting their degrees from alternative second-chance schools, which are less demanding than traditional schools, but count toward the graduation rate.

Finally, there is an increase in the number of black boys who transfer out or die after starting as freshman in CPS. Black male high school students die at a higher rate than any other student racial and gender demographic group, according to CPS data.

After accounting for all these factors, just 48 percent boys at CPS ultimately earned a diploma from a traditional or charter Chicago high school in 2018. That’s only a six percentage point improvement from five years ago.

Experts say school district officials should be paying attention to trends behind the numbers.

Keisha Davis-Johnson is executive director of the Greater West Town Community Development Project, which runs an alternative school and a jobs training program that mostly serves men. She sees no reason to celebrate.

“We have a lot of work to do with our young people,” Davis-Johnson said.

She said she still sees many young men who have gone to under-resourced elementary schools, who struggle with the basics and feel disconnected from school.
So as far as the lower dropout rate, how many of them are Black males? 

Thursday, July 26, 2018

Where are the Black male teachers?

Black men - I suppose this could be directed at myself - where are you? We need you in our classrooms for the boys. We need you to help them with their academic success.

UIC wants to help train and recruit Black male teachers. Perhaps it's a program who's time has come.
h/t Newsalert

BTW, I started this blog as something of an education blog named blatantly for one my old elementary schools. While the emphasis seems to have changed over the years it's still a subject of interest as I do believe a good education will lift people in more ways than one. I'm not just talking about getting a college degree, I'm simply talking about going thru K-12 and graduating with a high school diploma.

If I may share this video, it may show why I would support such a program. It makes me wonder if these are issues faced by many boys in the current education system. [VIDEO]

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

What our schools need? A few good men...

I couldn't agree more! As I saw in another 60 Minutes story years ago, "where are the men?". Some statistics:
Despite some inroads by men, teaching remains a female-dominated profession. This is especially true for younger children. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 2% of pre-K and kindergarten teachers and 18% of elementary and middle-school teachers are men.

The situation is more balanced, but not evenly balanced, in secondary school, where 42% of teachers are men.
There are three points to be made here, but I think the third one is key:
Third, we especially need black male teachers in the classroom. As Education Secretary Arne Duncan has argued, "All of our students benefit from having a black male in the classroom. But particularly our young black males." Yet black males represent a mere 2% of the K-12 teaching workforce. If this were to change, we might begin to see better educational outcomes and life outcomes for young black males.
That point is very important. Young Black males are struggling and they get into the most trouble. If only they saw someone who looked like them in the classroom and helping to build them up!

Read the rest!

Via Instapundit.

ALSO, go back and read this post. One place among many to start recruiting Black male teachers.