18-year-old Maya Cueva is a senior at Berkeley High School, which recently divided their 3,000+ population into small learning academies. Does this impact her learning experience? Definitely. She said she sees students benefitting from tighter relationships with their teachers and more academic attention. The question is whether schools across America should adopt the small learning community model based on Cueva's story of success.

Dr. Tony (Anthony) Frontier is an Assistant Professor of Doctoral Leadership Studies and the Director of Teacher Education at Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee, WI, and he is skeptical about macro-level education reform, and whether the big initiatives eventually translate into changes in the classroom. For example, small schools might be all the rage, and adopted as a "silver bullet" for solving educational inequity, but are small schools actually changing the way students learn?

Frontier explained that structural changes are visible initiatives aimed at reorganizing the way schools operate.  Frontier calls the popular ones “silver-bullets” because school districts adopt them under the misconception that they will fix everything.

Some of these initiatives include:
- smaller class size
- block scheduling
- gender-separate classes
- breaking large high schools into small academies

Meanwhile, the White House released a fact sheet about  President Obama’s goal to “out-educate” our global competitors by spending money on programs like Race to the Top, a competitive program which dedicates $4 billion to embrace policy and practical changes in school districts around the country.

Then there’s Investing in Innovation - a program that dedicates $650 million to programs that support high-needs students and work towards closing the achievement gap.  Since the point of this dedicated money is to support new, innovative ideas, we don’t know all of the programs this budget will fund, since some of them have yet to be created. However, it’s a good opportunity to examine whether we’re even focusing on the right KINDS of change.

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The decision by the Board of Regents in Georgia last week regarding the admittance of undocumented students to Georgia institutions, has already sparked discussions throughout the country about what is coming next. On October 13, the Board of Regents decided that beginning in 2011, students who are not lawfully living in the United States, will not be allowed into the University System of Georgia institutions.  

A Board of Regents news release explained that USG institutions will verify the lawful presence in the United States of every admitted applicant out of concerns that academically qualified, legally documented Georgians were being denied admittance to institutions. Five institutions had to turn away qualified applicants this past year: Georgia College & State University, Medical College of Georgia, Georgia State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and the University of Georgia.

Regent James Jolly, who chaired the Residency Verification Committee, told the Board of Regents, “These new policies do strengthen our ability to ensure proper tuition classification for all students – a process and a commitment the System has undertaken and met since being formed in 1931.” According to Daniel Costa, Immigration Policy Analyst at the Economic Policy Institute, policies like these are likely to show up in states that have seen a drastic demographic change. “It’s hard to tell whether the policies are due to cost issues or xenophobia. It’s an educated guess to say that we will probably see these policies in states with large influxes of immigrants.” He said that in 1990, the immigrant population in Georgia was 7.9% and by 2008, had grown to 12.5%. Costa explained that the fiscal impact of the immigrant population is different on individual states than it is on the federal government.  “The net fiscal impact of immigrants on the federal level is positive. However, at the local and state levels, immigrants are a financial burden largely because of the cost of education.  This could be why states are more upset than the federal government.” In the long run, Costa sees policies like this one being a cost to the economy.  “If you think about it, if many college-age students are kicked out of college, they will earn less and be less educated. The will contribute less to the economy and end up costing us more in the long run.” Read more...

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Last  week, Youth Radio interviewed Henry Robinson, the At Risk Specialist for the Milpitas School District in California about the recent study that showed more students of color were being suspended from school than white students. The study attributed the high amount of suspensions to the increasing number of zero tolerance discipline policies being instituted around the country. Robinson said that unfortunately, teachers and administrators sometimes feel that they have to make an example of one student to establish their discipline policy.

Zero tolerance discipline policies are being challenged all over the U.S. One recent example comes from North Carolina. Two high school girls got into a brief fistfight and were suspended. There were no injuries or weapons involved. The girls were then denied access to alternative schooling as well as help with their independent academic studies. According to the New York Times, this harsh punishment was not designed for minor infractions like this. It was designed to, “weed out dangerous children.”

The case was brought to the North Carolina Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the girls, and decided, “Schools must provide strong reasons for denying alternative schooling or tutoring to students after they are suspended for misbehavior.”

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Who’s getting suspended from school?  According to a study published recently by the Southern Poverty Law Center, black students are being suspended at a rate of 15 percent, while white students are getting suspended at approximately five percent. The study reports that poor and minority children are consistently suspended more often, and therefore experience the effects of the loss of instructional time more profoundly. 

The report examined middle school suspension data from the Department of Education for the years 2002 - 2006. The study authors suspect that the general increase in suspensions is due to more schools adopting zero tolerance discipline policies, which usually mean that consequences for poor behavior are issued quicker.  But are these policies affecting some students in harsher ways than others?  

Youth Radio spoke with Henry Robinson, the At Risk Specialist for the Milpitas Unified School District in California to get his opinion on the study’s findings.  He is based at the Milpitas Police Department and works in conjunction with the school district.

Why do you think more and more students are getting suspended in general?

I already know about this phenomenon, and I think part of the reason that these numbers are so high is that it’s easier to suspend than to expel. When you suspend a child from school, you are using the local rules of the school district.  The local administration will say, “Okay, your child talked back, you violated our rules, and you’re suspended.”

To expel you have to go through a hearing. A suspension can happen without a hearing.  
Some school districts in urban areas, rather than deal with the kid’s problem, just get rid of the student.  Expulsion happens when there’s an issue of school safety, for instance if someone brought a gun to school.  

What’s your reaction to the racial disparity in the suspension numbers?
I think that suspension is being used as a crutch, rather than addressing the larger issues as systematic problems.  It’s easier for schools to just get rid of the kids for a period of time. Suspension becomes a method of problem-solving rather than dealing with the root of the behavior.  

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When I was an English teacher, I fought a daily battle against cell phones.  Our school had a no-phone policy: if a teacher saw it during class, they could confiscate it. But with 35 cell phones in a room, there is bound to be some texting, game-playing, and music sharing going on under the desks.

One day, I followed a group of students down to the algebra room.  They had forgotten to copy down the homework assignment.  They pulled out their phones, and snapped a picture of the white board.  Pretty smart, I thought. No chance of copying down the wrong page number.
Teachers and principals are now posing this question: Is there a better way to incorporate cell phones into classrooms? 

North Scott High School in Iowa is taking an innovative approach.  Two science teachers, Jason Guerin and Mark Anderson, have started using a site called PollEverywhere to give practice tests. Guerin told the Associated Press, “It’s really neat because it engages the kids.”  These two teachers project practice multiple choice questions onto an LCD screen, and students text their answers to the site.  The teachers can then access the student response data. If the students do not have cell phones, they use school laptops to send in their responses.

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By Raquel Walker, Youth Radio Atlanta

(Aired on WABE FM on December 20, 2008)

Before I was born, my father was murdered by a person with a gun. After my father died, my mother never wanted to replace him. Fifteen years later, my mother was the victim of an accidental gun shooting. Both these incidents left me and my mother forever scarred. Having two loved ones become victims of gun violence leaves me with nothing but bad feelings about guns.
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by Dover Tuft
(aired on WABE FM on November 29, 2008)

My best friend who was like a big brother to me was shot and killed by an AK-47. Growing up as a black man in a rough neighborhood in New York City I was forced to live the gang life. Five of my closest friends died – mostly shootings.
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Recent data from the federal government shows that cigarette consumption in the U.S has gone down by 28 percent. And according to the American Legacy Foundation, a Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) ten years ago with tobacco companies helped reduce young people’s exposure to pro-tobacco marketing, which has in turn helped decrease their consumption. I have to admit that after reading this news I couldn’t help but to be excited, but the only lasted for a minute.
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By Olivia Cueva- Youth Radio

I have always been concerned about environmental issues and the unemployment of youth of color. But recently I've had a reason to be hopeful about a solution to both of these problems.

I'm Olivia Cueva with a commentary from Youth Radio
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Richmond is known as "Oakland’s little brother." However, because of its gang violence and drive-by shootings, Richmond is also known as one of the most dangerous cities in the United States. For Youth Radio’s Ayesha Walker, these shootings have become all too familiar.

I live in Richmond, California. Some people call it "Oakland’s little brother."
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