“This is an incredibly progressive contract,” said Joan Devlin, a senior associate director in the American Federation of Teachers’ educational-issues department. “It addresses teacher voice, and it gives the district the flexibility to make the changes they need to make [these reforms] work.”
Why are this these two 8th-grade girls treated so differently by Portland Public Schools?According to this story in Willamette Week, it's all part of former Supt. Vicki Phillips' botched reform initiative, left behind in the wake of her rapid departure to the Gates Foundation.
Suspension, expulsions on the rise nationally. But why?
Not as Safe as You Think, a report from "free-market" think-tank PRI, finds that in spite of declining statewide enrollment, combined student suspensions and expulsions relating to school safety violations increased 7 percent, from 788,000 during the 2004-05 school to 845,000 during the 2007-08 school year.
But what isn't clear is whether it's the incidents of violence that have risen, or is it just the rates of suspensions and expulsions? We also don't know what so many kids are being expelled for, or if rule violations committed by white students and students of color are handled in the same manner and at comparable suspension/expulsion rates?
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