This article explores the diversity policies and politics of two countywide school districts in the South experiencing enclave growth at a time of legal and political ambiguity: Jefferson County Public Schools and the Wake County Public Schools System. Both districts’ voluntary desegregation efforts have been highly publicized as they are increasingly being affected by changing demographics and local politics. In this article we seek to describe how demographic change influences public support for and implementation of the districts’ diversity policies. We also examine how political debates around diversity have shifted in response to the changing legal context and enclave formation in both districts.
via TCRecord
Although educational efforts have a purported attention to serve the whole child, for many individuals, the separation between “church” and state requires a separation between self and school. Understanding how to balance the constitutional clauses regarding religious separation and free exercise in classrooms and schools within a religiously pluralistic society is an educational, civic, and legal challenge. While there is common ground that non-devotional studies of religion are required components of anti-bias educational approaches and integral to the study of humanities and world history, controversy remains about how to incorporate the personal religious views of students and educators. Given that religion encompasses particular cultural funds of knowledge, how do religious experiences facilitate and challenge learning? How should the personal religious views of students be addressed, if at all, in the teaching and learning process given foci to support the whole child in a culturally sensitive manner? This essay explores a critical and often silenced conversation about the humility and support educators need to help navigate the space between self and school.
via TCRecord
This commentary discusses a common conception of professionalism and the means of conveying it to preservice teachers in teacher education programs. Suggestions for change based on the literature are provided.
via TCRecord
Using a narrative research methodology, this study investigated the formal and informal ways that racism influences the practice of educational leadership in an urban high school. The study revealed that many decisions that should be based on professional educational information and judgment are instead influenced by racist and discriminatory assumptions. The article focuses on the inequitable leadership processes related to various human and instructional resources in the school.
via TCRecord
The articles in this special issue examine the increasingly complex relationship between segregation, desegregation, and integration in a sociopolitical environment vastly different from that of the initial days of desegregation. These issues are examined from historical and political perspectives, contextualizing the complexities of segregation, desegregation, and integration in the twenty-first century. The articles challenge school leaders to critically engage in pioneering processes within their communities that work to create, maintain, and sustain diverse schooling environments.
via TCRecord
Previous high school dropout research has focused on factors that place students “at-risk” of leaving school without a diploma. However, limited research has examined federal policies that shape the re-enrollment of youth who dropout only to return. This commentary examines the role of federal policies, in particular No Child Left Behind (2001) in increasing graduation rates through dropout recovery initiatives. Two aspects are discussed including 1) how students who dropout of school and return for a diploma will be counted in graduation rates, and 2) what current variability in how graduation rates are calculated mean for returning youth. There are critical implications for students, educators, and policymakers who are implementing dropout recovery efforts to re-engage youth that have been disengaged from the public school system.
via TCRecord
"CHOICE" is a commentary in comic book form about how a professor of education grapples with the issue of school choice, against the frictions between her intellectual convictions, the evaluation system of academic life, and the hegemony of consumerist culture that dominates her daily existence.
via TCRecord