Rethinking Schools co-editor Jody Sokolower was at the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit June 22-26 (www.ussf2010.org), and presented a Rethinking Schools workshop "Sharing Your Wisdom: Writing for Organizers and Teachers" on Friday, June 25 for folks who were interested in writing for the magazine.
Jody's workshop is designed to get authors started with ways to jumpstart writing and to write collaboratively. By the end of the workshop everyone has at least a beginning paragraph. Later, two additional long-distance sessions support participants through the writing and revision process, and facilitate a virtual community of writers.
Read the rest at http://www.rethinkingschools.org/opt-in/100603.shtml
A version of Kelly McMahon's Rethinking Schools article, "Testing Kindergarten: Young Children Produce Data -- Lots of Data," (Winter 2009-2010) was published September 2 by the Progressive Media Project. The Progressive magazine editor Matt Rothschild tells us it is currently their most popular article with over 3,000 hits in a 24 hour period.
http://www.progressive.org/mpmcmahon090210.html
Rethinking Schools founder and editor Bob Peterson is featured in the new book Fire in the Heart: How White Activists Embrace Racial Justice by Mark R. Warren, published by Oxford University Press. See Chapter 6.
http://mark-warren.com/fireintheheart/?page_id=51
Rethinking Schools founder and editor Bob Peterson is quoted in an In These Times article by Roger Bybee, who urges advocates of egalitarian public education to "frame the issue in a way that puts educational achievement — or the lack thereof — in its proper context."
http://inthesetimes.com/article/6326/its_the_poverty_stupid
With school systems under pressure to cut costs, library services are endangered all across the country. Some communities have mustered an array of grassroots and web-based tools to save their schools' libraries. In the August 1, 2010, article "Everyday Advocacy: Making a Case for Libraries Is Easy with Web Tools. Here’s How to Get Started," School Library Journal uses the experience of RS editor Bob Peterson's students in organizing to save their school's library as an example.
The progressive news website CommonDreams recently posted the editorial from the summer issue of Rethinking Schools, "What's Up with All the Teacher Bashing?" CommonDreams has over 200,000 subscribers, and by July 7 the article had already generated almost 100 written comments at the site.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/07/06-7
CommonDreams.org has just selected Bob Peterson's Summer 2010 Rethinking Schools article, "A Librarian in Every School, Books in Every Home: A Modest Proposal" as a featured viewpoint at its website.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/06/26-3
The Nation magazine reports that, contrary to previous news stories, the three U.S. hikers seized by Iran in July 2009 were not in Iranian territory, but in Iraq when captured. One of the hikers, Sarah Shourd, had been working on an article for Rethinking Schools on her work teaching Iraqi refugees in Damascus, Syria.
http://www.thenation.com/article/36562/us-hikers-were-seized-iraq
For ways to support Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer, and Josh Fattal:
http://freethehikers.org/
Rethinking Schools writer Renee Watson ["Five Years After the Levee Broke -- Bearing Witness Through Poetry," Summer 2010] was a student of Linda Christensen's at Portland's Jefferson High School. Watson has two books coming out this year, and thanks Christensen: "I owe a lot to Linda Christensen. She's a jewel."
http://www.oregonlive.com/books/index.ssf/2010/06/former_portlander_renee_watson.html
A story on Free Speech Radio about high school dropout rates in Philadelphia includes commentary by Rethinking Schools editor Wayne Au on the impact of high stakes testing.
http://mattpetrillo.com/2010/06/19/drop-out-rates-stay-high-in-americas-urban-high-schools/
The Zinn Education Project, a collaboration of Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change, just gave away 500 copies of Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States to 20 teachers around the country who had sent in stories of how they teach a more honest, multicultural, and critical history to their students. (Eighty teachers had submitted stories.) For example, see this news story that ran in a Camarillo, Calif. newspaper about one of the recipients, Angelica Chavez:
http://www.thecamarilloacorn.com/news/2010-06-18/Schools/Giving_context_to_history_textbooks.html
Other reports on the activities and impact of the Zinn Education Project are posted at: http://www.zinnedproject.org/news. See "Teaching Outside the Textbook Across the Country."
www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2010/06/rewriting_social_studies_bash.html
Listen to Stan Karp’s interview on federal education policy as part of a The National Radio Project’s coverage of education issues:
http://www.radioproject.org/2010/05/how-we-survive-the-crisis-in-k-12-education/
Listen to Barbara Miner talk about her article on Teacher for America that appeared in the Spring 2010 issue of Rethinking Schools. She appeared on FAIR’s weekly radio program, CounterSpin.
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4064
Rethinking Schools editor and board member Larry Miller was elected to the School Board of Milwaukee Public Schools in April of 2009. He taught in Milwaukee Public Schools for over 18 years at Custer High School, Metropolitan High School and W.E.B. Du Bois High School. His two sons are graduates of Milwaukee Public Schools.
http://MillerMPS.Wordpress.com/
http://www.teachersforjustice.org/2010/06/core-wins-leadership-of-chicago.html
http://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/hc-ubinas-blog-schoolreform0616-20100616,0,2853648.column
Rethinking Schools editor Bob Peterson gives us a quick round-up of recent events in the media.
http://rethinkingschools.org/opt-in/100803.shtml
The lead segment on "Democracy Now" for July 30, 2010 was about the Race to the Top; it took off from Obama's major RttT defense at the National Urban League's 100th anniversary convention, and included interviews with Diane Ravitch and Leonie Haimson, from Class Size Matters.
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/7/30/obama_defends_sweeping_education_reforms_in
A good July 4 essay on current education policy
http://www.openleft.com/diary/19339/left-ed-burning-down-the-house
http://dferwatch.wordpress.com/
http://www.schoolsmatter.info/search/label/KIPP%20research
http://www.fairtest.org/better-way-assess-students-and-evaluate-schools