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Bilingual Education: The Debate Continues

10:52 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Bilingualism|Controversia|Education|society · 1 Comment

18 Jun 2009

MSNBC has an interesting piece on how increased immigration to formerly non-Latino areas of the country is affecting the educational landscape of public schools, and the contrast with areas of the country where English Only has succeeded in being instated and has subsequently failed students.

Have a look at the video and let us know what you think about this continuing debate. What’s best? Bilingual education? Immersion?

Via / MSNBC

Texas Teachers Pack Heat

5:38 pm By Maegan La Mala · children|Education|society|Texas · 2 Comments

19 Aug 2008

At least one school district in the great state of Texas is letting its faculty carry concealed firearms into their classrooms:

Harrold ISD Superintendent David Thweatt said his school board unanimously passed the concealed weapon policy in October to protect employees and students in the case of an armed intruder or hostage situation.

The school sits near a major highway and is a 30-minute drive from the Sheriff’s Office.

While Harrold is currently the only district we know about allowing teachers to carry guns, Texas governor Rick Perry says that he supports anyone with a permit being able to carry a concealed weapon wherever they like:

Gov. Rick Perry said Monday that local school districts should be able to decide whether to allow concealed weapons on their campuses.

“I’m pretty much a fan that if you’ve been trained, if you are registered, then you ought to be able to carry a weapon,” Perry said.

Buenos Aires kids get early sex ed

1:39 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Argentina|children|Education|sex · Comments Off

18 Oct 2006

Students in Buenos Aires, Argentina are going to start learning about the birds and the bees earlier than their counterparts in other countries — at age 5.

The Argentine congress has approved, with the backing of all of thecountry’s political groups, a law that makes sex education mandatory in all public and private schools in Buenos Aires.

The classes will begin in March, and their content — still to be defined — will be adapted to the age of the students, according to Argentine daily Clarín.

The legal text says that the classes will be “pedagogical activities aimed at promoting sexual health, with the integration of the physical, emotional and intellectual and social aspects related to sexuality to promote personal well-being through communication and love”.

According to Spain’s 20 Minutos, the law also states what cannot happen in these classes:

…invading the privacy with the pretext of education, imposing conducts or ideologies in violation of human rights, or promoting prejudices or sexual stereotypes.

Via / 20 Minutos

High school students fined for raising Mexican flag

4:55 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Activism|children|Controversia|Politics|Texas · 1 Comment

9 Oct 2006

thumb_Mexican%20Flag.jpg In my hometown of Houston, a group of high school students have been slapped with a fine for attempting to fly the Mexican flag on the school’s flagpole in honor of Fiestas Patrias, Mexico’s independence day:

On September 15, a group of students say they just wanted to display their cultural pride. But school administrators say they broke the rules.

Who knew the flagpole at Austin High could produce legal questions and cultural concerns all at once? Last month, five students tried to hoist a Mexican flag during school hours on the eve of a Mexican holiday. Campus police promptly ticketed the boys for disrupting an outdoor class, which they say was assembled nearby.

HISD spokesperson Terry Abbott said, “It could have been for any kind of classroom disruption. We issue those types of tickets all the time. They’re very common.”

The students’ attorney disagrees, and says this is more about the fact that Austin High School, which is located in a heavily Latino neighborhood, was the site of protests of the immigration bill months back:

Castenada says HISD is going overboard. Instead of respecting free speech, using the kids as examples. He said the same type of justice would not have been likely if they had been trying to raise the Canadian flag.

Via / KTRK TV Houston

School district to Latinos: get out of the picture

6:45 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · children|Controversia|Education|Texas · 2 Comments

11 Aug 2006

Latino parents are outraged at a Dallas public school’s attempt to limit how many Latino children were pictured in a brochure as part of their plan to attract whites to the institution. As if that weren’t enough, the parents are also accusing the school of employing racial segregation tactics, like keeping fluent English-speaking Latino children in ESL classes:

Latino parents at mostly Hispanic Preston Hollow Elementary School filed a federal lawsuit against principal Teresa Parker and the Dallas Independent School District in April. The suit alleges that Hispanic and black students were kept in English as a Second Language classes even when they tested out and that multiage courses with almost all white students were created.

Latino segregation in Denver?

12:47 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · children|Education|race · Comments Off

20 Jan 2006

It appears that in 2006, school segregation is back in style in Denver. Or that desegregation of schools effectively ended when the government stopped forcing the busing issue:

The study says white students re-segregated rapidly after the desegregation order was lifted, reports the Denver Post.

The study done for Denver’s Piton Foundation says individual schools no longer represent the city’s demographics. Denver’s student population is 57 percent Latino, 20 percent white and 19 percent black, reports the Denver Post.

“You have white students who are concentrated in schools with other white students,” said the study’s researcher Chungmei Lee. “Latino students are especially isolated.”

I guess we have to be forced to live among each other, robbing our children the gift of being surrounded by people of different backgrounds, enriching their learning process. Incredible that we still can’t do it on our own.

Via / UPI

Pew: Latinos attend crowded schools

7:04 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Education · 6 Comments

1 Nov 2005

Interesting findings from a study by the Pew Hispanic Center, released today:

The report finds more than half of Latinos (56-percent) attend the nation’s largest public high schools — those schools whose enrollment size ranks them in the 90th percentile or higher. That’s compared with 32-percent of blacks and 26-percent of whites.

The report also finds about 37-percent of Latinos attend the 10-percent of schools with the highest student-teacher ratios. Just 14-percent of black students and 13-percent of whites attend those schools, which have a student-teacher ratio greater than 22-to-1 compared with the national average of 16-to-1.

Pretty compelling numbers. I think this is even more interesting in light of some recent chatter about “underachieving” Latino students on blogs and in other media.

The article goes on:

“The characteristics of high schools matter for student performance. Hispanic teens are more likely than any other racial or ethnic group to attend public high schools that have the dual characteristics of extreme size and poverty.”

“Extreme size and poverty” — if those aren’t two huge distractions from learning (“my teacher has no time for me, nor do my parents because they are working their asses off to make ends meet”) then I don’t know what is.

Via / All Headline News

Pew Hispanic Center

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