Education Issues - Actions / Reactions

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Separate and Unequal​

Several schools in London, England, are offering summer literacy lessons that are open only to black students to "accelerate progress in reading and writing whilst also developing the children's knowledge of black history and culture." They are not offering a similar program for white students even though educational achievement is lower for whites from a disadvantaged background than for students from other ethnic groups from a disadvantaged background.

 

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LeBron James Founded A School Based On Equity. It Is An Unmitigated Disaster.​

There was a time, way back in another era, when the goal of the education system was to educate students. Back in those days, this goal was pursued through a merit-based approach. Kids were graded and ranked based on their performance. High performing students were advanced, low performing students were held back. Well behaved students were rewarded, poorly behaved students were punished. This was the general idea.

But this strategy has fallen out of favor in recent years. It was too mean, we were told and racist, too, somehow. Piece by piece, the system of merit-based education in public schools was dismantled, until finally there was nothing left. And into that gap came “equity” to replace it.

What does “equity” mean, exactly? That’s a question you’ll never get a real answer to. But in this case, we know what “equity” means from a practical perspective. It means spending more money for worse schools. It also means creating new schools, from the ground-up — because the only way to guarantee that you’re not perpetuating White Supremacy is to start from scratch.

 

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LeBron James’ Foundation Partially Blames Pandemic for Low Test Scores at I Promise School, Says Kids Are ‘More Than a Test Score’​

The school explained its deficits by telling WKYC that the pandemic caused severe disruptions in its plans and pointed out that the 2018 school year found its students with a 17.4 percent level in math just before the pandemic hit. However, that was still below the rest of the city’s already low levels.

The alarmingly low numbers have caused the Akron School Board to take a more serious look at LeBron James’ I Promise school and to direct more city resources toward helping students bring their scores up.

The state of Ohio is also paying attention to the school’s failures. “Two of I Promise’s biggest subgroups of students, Black students and those with disabilities, are now testing in the bottom 5% in the state, landing the school on the Ohio Department of Education’s list of those requiring targeted intervention,” Yahoo News reported.

Akron school board President Derrick Hall told the media he was “disappointed” by the abject failure rate at LeBron James’ much-celebrated school.

“For me as a board member, I just think about all the resources that we’re providing,” Hall told the media. “And I just, I’m just disappointed that I don’t think, it doesn’t appear like we’re seeing the kind of change that we would expect to see.”

 

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One state is cleaning up schools Democrats used as labs for social experiments​

In 2021, Gov. Ralph Northam’s Department of Education released its Model Policies for the Treatment of Transgender Students in Virginia’s Public Schools, which, according to state law, required local school districts to adopt policies consistent with the state models.

The 2021 model policies required students and teachers to refer to other students by their chosen pronouns. It also required schools to allow "gender-expansive, non-binary, and gender nonconforming" students to use restrooms and locker rooms that did not match their biological sex.

And while the model policies did not explicitly allow schools to keep information about a student’s "gender identity" secret from his or her parents, school districts in Virginia slipped this disturbing practice into regulations or staff training programs.

Last week, Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s Department of Education released revisions to the model policies. Where Northam’s policies ignored common sense and the Constitution to create super rights in students who were "gender-expansive, non-binary, and gender nonconforming," the new ones mark a return to Virginia’s schools being a place of academics and respect rather than a laboratory for social experiments that endanger the mental and physical well-being of children.

 

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Florida university fires professor over dubious racial bias studies, damage to school may be ‘catastrophic’​

In a scathing five-page termination letter penned by Florida State University's (FUS) Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, James Clark informed criminologist Eric Stewart that decades of his research "once thought to be at the forefront" of the profession were shown to contain "numerous erroneous and "false narratives."

"My specific concerns are related to the details of your behavior and the extreme negligence and incompetence that you demonstrated in the performance of your duties," Clark wrote.

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In one paper, Stewart, who made $190,000 per year at FSU, falsely claimed there was a correlation between a criminal's race and the public's desire to see harsher prison sentences for said criminal. However, an investigation revealed no correlation and that the sample size had been increased to yield Stewart's desired outcome.

Justin Pickett, one of the study's co-authors, previously claimed that the "identified discrepancies" in Stewart's work could not be attributed to "researcher error."

"Scientific fraud occurs all too frequently….and I believe it is the most likely explanation for the data irregularities in the five retracted articles," Pickett said.

 

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Iowa School District Will Review Nearly 400 Books Flagged For Sex Acts, Gender Identity​

The Urbandale Community School District northwest of Des Moines will review 374 books to figure out whether they violate a new state law.

The new law prohibits schools from purchasing books that depict sex acts and also prohibits teaching gender identity or sexual orientation to students younger than seventh grade.

Governor Kim Reynolds (R) signed the law in May, and it took effect on July 1.

A spokeswoman for UCSD said the list does not necessarily represent any books currently in the school system, but if a book is currently in the system, it must be removed.

 

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Minnesota Teachers Now Required To Pass Native American Cultural Competency Training​

Per Minnesota law, cultural competency results in acknowledging personal bias concerning “racial, cultural, and socioeconomic groups; American Indian and Alaskan native students; religion; systemic racism; gender identity, including transgender students; sexual orientation; language diversity; and individuals with disabilities and mental health concerns,” and how that bias impacts relationships with students, students’ families, and the school communities.

The Minnesota Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board (PELSB) first enacted a more general version of cultural competency training in 2020; in April, Native Americans and Alaskan natives were separated into their own category.

In order to pass the training, teachers must meet the Standards of Effective Practice. This requires teachers to not only understand the various identities and beliefs of their students, but to affirm them and help them develop “positive social identities based on their membership in multiple groups in society.”

 

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Race Hoax: Florida State U. Fires Prof for Faking Data on ‘Systemic Racism’ as Multiple Papers Are Retracted​

Florida State criminology professor Eric Stewart, who claimed that “systemic racism” infests America’s police and American society, is now out of a job after nearly 20 years of his data was called into question, according to a report by the New York Post.

So far, six of the professor’s articles published in major academic journals — such as Criminology and Law and Society Review — between 2003 and 2019 have been fully retracted following allegations that Stewart’s data was fake or extremely flawed.

One of Stewart’s retracted studies from 2019 had suggested that the history of lynching’s in the United States has made it so that white Americans perceive black people as criminals, and that the problem is worse among conservatives.

Another retracted 2018 study had claimed that white Americans view black and Latino people as “criminal threats,” and even suggested that perceived threat could lead to “state-sponsored social control.”

A third retracted study had claimed that white Americans want tougher sentences for Latinos due to their community getting larger in America and them finding economic success.

“Latino population growth and perceived Latino criminal and economic threat significantly predict punitive Latino sentiment,” Stewart concluded in his 2015 study, which has now been retracted.

Florida State reportedly said that Stewart was fired for “incompetence,” and “false results.” The professor’s exit from the university came four years after his former graduate student, Justin Pickett, became a whistleblowers on his research.
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Roberts and Barrett join liberals as Supreme Court revives federal ghost gun restrictions​

Ghost guns are kits that a user can buy online to assemble a fully functional firearm. They have no serial numbers, do not require background checks and provide no transfer records for easy traceability. Critics say they are attractive to people who are legally prohibited from buying firearms.

The vote was 5-4. Chief Justice John Roberts and fellow conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined with the court’s three liberals to allow the rule to take effect.

Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh would have denied the application.

In 2022, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives updated its regulations to define the kits as firearms under the law so that the government could more carefully track them.

The rule does not prohibit the sale or possession of any ghost gun kit, nor does it block an individual from purchasing such a kit. Instead, it requires compliance with federal laws that impose conditions on the commercial sale of firearms. Those conditions include requirements that commercial manufacturers and sellers mark products with serial numbers and keep records to allow law enforcement to trace firearms used in crimes.

 

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Kentucky Board of Nursing retracts ‘implicit bias’ training requirement after media coverage​

The training included “highly racialized content” that sources told the Examiner had “very little to do with nursing.”

In another report, authorities at the Kentucky Nurses Association told the Examiner that “best intentions will not solve implicit bias in healthcare.”

Technically, it didn’t threaten anyone, the KBN said. However, Kentucky can revoke medical licenses since, as the Examiner gathered, “Kentucky law refers to the training ‘as a prerequisite for license renewal.’”

The threat of revocation creates a perverse incentive, especially as the KBN failed to specify what it described as “disciplinary settlement” or “written reprimand,” when pressed by the Examiner.

Two days after the Examiner published its report, the KBN edited its homepage (compare July 27 to July 28) to reflect that the implicit bias training was no longer mandatory.

The Kentucky requirements continue down a long-established trend of leftist “training” sessions in post-secondary education. Previous reporting by Campus Reform has covered how various schools implement mandatory training prorgams before enrolling.

 

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Survey: Teachers at 1,000 Districts Hide Kids’ Sexual Display from Parents​

 

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Satan worshipping Illinois teacher who suffers from "mania and psychosis" fired after special board meeting​

It all started when I came across some screenshots from a Facebook and Instagram account belonging to an individual who was apparently an elementary school teacher. I dug into it some more and became more and more horrified by what I saw.

The teacher, who goes by the name of Kris Martin, had a series of disturbing posts worhsipping Satan, poking fun at prayer, and calling all police white supremacists. Here are some of the screenshots which I shared to Twitter.





But it gets a lot worse. She/he/they (What this person’s gender is, is anybody’s guess) also posted about suffering from bi polar, mania, and psychosis, which he says have led him to be “violent and hurtful.” An old Facebook cover photo showed what appeared to be a young girl covered in blood with hands on top of her also covered in blood. Very concerning!





Apparently Homer Community Consolidated School District 33C has zero screening process when hiring teachers. You like rainbows and Satan and suffer from mental illness? HIRED!

After X users demanded to know the details surrounding this teacher’s hire, Homer School District hid comments and deleted their recent social media posts so nobody would see information about their new hire. Unlucky for them, I was not going to let them cover it up.

 

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Muslim Group, Principals Union Say School System Lied To Stop Parents From Opting Their Children Out Of Transgender Lessons​

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) also obtained documents showing that a labor union representing principals harbored similar concerns, with the principals saying that Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) was publicly telling parents it wouldn’t indoctrinate kids, then forcing principals to take the heat for doing the opposite.

The dual broadsides by the Muslim group and labor union highlight new fault lines on sexual indoctrination in minority-heavy, Democrat-dominated school systems like MCPS, a large district outside of Washington, D.C. Hundreds of immigrants gathered for protests this summer to advocate for parental rights, while white female Democrat activists shouted them down.

MCPS claimed it prohibited opt-outs because so many parents wanted to opt out that it was causing a disruption, but it also said in response to a public records request that it had no data on the number of people who wanted to opt out, and a CAIR official said in a deposition that a school official said repeatedly that it was actually because of advocacy from a few LGBT activists.

 

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Nation’s Biggest Teachers Union ‘Coached’ Teachers To Inject Gender Identity Into Curricula, Report Says​

“Both session descriptions offered attendees ideas and action items to take back to their schools,” reads the report. “The unions’ mission is clear: train teachers to affirm every gender identity that conflicts with a student’s sex, ignore basic biological facts, hide the training from parents, and shape school policies to force others to do the same.”

The AFT along with the nation’s second largest union, the National Education Association (NEA), are both wholly committed to pushing radical gender ideology in schools, the report says.

Together, the two largest teachers unions represent nearly five million public school teachers across the country.

Just before the union’s July conference, the ATF also adopted an LGBT resolution that promotes “age-appropriate and inclusive policies” on trans-identifying students sharing bathrooms and locker rooms with the opposite sex.

The ATF’s resolution also commits the union to working with LGBT activist groups, one of which has a model policy advising school districts to use a student’s new pronouns without notifying parents.

Both unions have “vehemently” opposed legislation meant to protect students from sexually graphic content and gender ideology.
Meanwhile, the NEA called Florida’s parental rights law “extremist” at its “Freedom to Learn” rally during the union’s Representative Assembly.

 

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School district misled court on why it banned opt-out for LGBTQ lessons, religious groups say​

Newly revealed teacher-training materials and sworn affidavits show Maryland's Montgomery County Public Schools misled the federal court hearing a lawsuit by religious families against the district's no-exemptions policy for gender and sexuality instruction in the English Language Arts curriculum, a national Muslim group claims.

School officials in the affluent suburb bordering Washington, D.C. told a judge last month it rescinded opt-outs and parental notification this spring because of the logistical challenges created by too many families choosing to remove their children from the "Pride storybooks," which teach children as young as 3 about sex workers, kink, drag, gender transitions and prepubescent same-sex romance.

The school system didn't say how many opt-outs it received, in total or relative to previous years, that purportedly justified an exemption from state law requiring opt-out availability for instruction on "family life and human sexuality objectives." It has yet to give even a vague estimate to Just the News, and it later told MoCo360 it can't quantify the number.

A week after the Aug. 9 preliminary injunction hearing in the lawsuit by Muslim, Catholic and Orthodox parents, the district belatedly turned over the "Sample Student Call-Ins" and "Responding to Caregivers/Community Questions" documents cited in a Nov. 22 email from the Montgomery County Association of Administrators and Principals to county public school officials.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations noticed the documents weren't included in the district's July 17 production – in response to CAIR's June 8 request for "any and all" records related to the curriculum sent or received by Superintendent Monifa McKnight or Chief Academic Officer Peggy Pugh. It asked for the documents by name "immediately" July 27.









The parents' lawyers at the Becket religious liberty law firm filed the documents in court the same day MCPS produced them, 20 days after CAIR's second request.

The first document gives teachers several stock responses to use against students who, for example, object to homosexuality, ask "what body parts" transgender people have, question gender fluidity or make gender stereotypes. Two responses start with "disrupt the either/or thinking." Others say "people make a guess about our gender" at birth and it's "hurtful" to say sex can't change.

The second document gives teachers "possible" answers to "possible" questions from parents and the community about the curriculum. Children are not receiving "explicit instruction" but rather exposure to "diversified gender and sexuality identity representation" to complement the "straight" and "cisgender" representations they see in daily life, and schools aren't teaching students to "think a certain way" but rather show "there is no one 'right' or 'normal' way to be."

The documents "clearly contradict" MCPS claims that the curriculum does not deliver "formal instruction about concepts that normally arise in sex education courses," for which the state expressly provides opt-outs, and that "students will not be criticized or penalized if they express traditional or religious views in the classroom," CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said Monday.




I despise CAIR for covering for Islamists .... but this is fun to watch

 

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