Harvard’s Black Law Student Association Receives The National Johnny Cochran Award for Social Consciousness

September 14, 2007

Members of the Harvard BLSA
accept the national award

Last spring Harvard Law School’s Black Law Students Association (BLSA) was selected by a committee of individuals from around the country to receive the national Johnny Cochran Chapter Award for Social Consciousness.

“Given all that we did last year it was a wonderful acknowledgement,” said Stacey Moore ’08, historian of Harvard’s BLSA chapter last year. “This award was very exciting and we were humbled and proud.”

The Johnny Cochran award is given annually at the district and national level. Harvard received the award at both levels last spring for the chapter’s participation in community service programs and for increasing awareness about issues affecting the black community.

With nearly 150 members, the Harvard BLSA is the largest Black Law Students chapter in the country. Each year, the Harvard group organizes events on campus with the goal of assisting members in the development of their legal careers. The National Black Law Students Association is comprised of over 200 student chapters around the country.

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Race Cannot Be Ignored In Closing The Achievement Gap In Public Education

Narrowing the achievement gap in schools requires acknowledging race, not ignoring it.

September 16, 2007

The achievement gap between African American and Latino students and their white peers is stark and persistent. It has existed for decades, and it’s growing more pronounced. The data refute what would be reassuring explanations. The gaps in reading and math test scores are not due to income disparities, nor are they attributable to parents’ educational levels. The simple fact is that most black and brown children do not do as well in school as most whites.

The data also show, however, that African American and Latino children are excelling in schools scattered throughout California and the nation, suggesting that the achievement gap is not intractable. Rather, there is a profound disconnect between what we say are high expectations for children of color and the quality of education delivered to them in the classroom.

All of which leads to an uncomfortable but important conclusion: If a less-stratified society is desirable, we must be prepared to design educational programs that explicitly take race into account, that address African American and Latino students specifically and that openly recognize that we are not a single society when it comes to the needs of our children.

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TAVIS Smiley – Republican Presidential Candidates Ignore Minorities

By Jill Lawrence, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Three of the four leading Republican presidential candidates turned down invitations to a PBS debate this month at a historically black college in Baltimore, leading moderator Tavis Smiley on Thursday to accuse them of ignoring minority voters.

Smiley told USA TODAY the rejections are part of a pattern, noting most GOP candidates declined invitations to address several black and Hispanic groups, including a Univision debate for a Latino audience.

“No one should be elected president of this country in 2008 if they think that along the way they can ignore people of color,” said Smiley, host of radio and TV talk shows. “If you want to be president of all America, you need to speak to all Americans.”

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Prosecutors Say Former Texas Southern University President Priscilla Slade Charged TSU for $100,000 Bar Tab

By BRIAN ROGERS
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

Ousted TSU President Priscilla Slade racked up a $100,000 bar tab at Scott Gertner’s Skybar and Grille during her tenure and stuck Texas Southern University with the bill, prosecutors said Wednesday.TSU routinely paid for $100 bottles of wine for Slade and drinks for her friends and staff, despite a prohibition at that time on state monies being spent on alcohol, Assistant District Attorney Donna Goode said.

Slade’s former executive assistant, Erica Vallier, said that the rules for purchasing have since changed, but at the time, Slade told her not to worry about the prohibition. She said her boss drank bottles of Far Niente with her friends and staff at expensive bars, such as the Four Seasons bar and the Skybar.

Slade led the historically black university from 1999 to 2005, after being pressed into service from her post as the dean of the business school.

Slade is on trial on charges of misapplication of fiduciary property of more than $200,000, accused of spending school money on personal expenses. If convicted, she faces a punishment ranging from probation to life in prison.

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No Child Left Behind Designed For Failure

Federal standards doomed, association president says

Doug Carroll
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 13, 2007 11:53 AM

Teachers from three Gilbert Unified School District high schools that failed to make “adequate yearly progress” in 2006-07 say federal standards are more about accounting than accountability.

 

“The way the rules are set up, it’s designed for failure,” said Mike Weaver, president of the Gilbert Education Association and a vocational education teacher at Gilbert High.

“This is bean counting. It’s not accountability. We take our responsibility seriously as teachers, and we want the support to fulfill that.”

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St. Luke Community UMC Mobilizes To Take Buses To Protest Rally In Jena, Louisiana

 

St. Luke Community United

Methodist Church

 

 

 

 

Media Advisory

 

 

 

 

for immediate release – September 7, 2007

 

 

 

Media Contact: Vickie Washington

Email: vw4854@yahoo.com

Phone: 214.669.2708 Fax: 214-821-3791

 

 

 

 

WHAT: Journey [ 2 [ Jena St. Luke mobilizes to take Buses to Protest Rally in Jena, Louisiana

WHO: St. Luke “Community” United Methodist Church

WHEN: Thursday, Sep 20, 2007, 12:01 a.m.

WHERE: St. Luke “Community” United Methodist Church

5710 East RL Thornton Frwy.–(I-30 East)

Dallas, TX 75223

 

 

 

 

Call this # to book passage on the bus 214-821-2970

COST: Bus is $35.00 per person, round trip

 

 

 

 

EVENT: St. Luke “Community” United Methodist Church has mobilized to Journey 2 Jena. Two buses have been chartered to take over 100 people to the Protest Rally in Jena, Louisiana, where thousands are anticipated to convene to demand Justice and Freedom for the Jena 6. Persons interested in securing a seat on the bus, should call the church office at 214.821.2970. Please go to Journey 2 Jena Yahoo Group for updates regarding seat availability.

 

 

 

 

Prior to the trip, on Wednesday evening, September 19^th at 6pm,

there will be a Citywide Prayer Meeting and Rally. The offering

collected will be donated to the Jena 6 Defense Fund.

.

PHOTO

OPPS: All events open to media photographers.

 

 

A church reaching up to GOD and out into the Community.

Jesus saves and liberates us for discipleship in the community.

Houston Millions More Movement >

NAACP Coordinates Activities Around Mychal Bell’s Jena Six Sentencing on Sept. 20

America rallies as Bell, other defendants face lengthy prison sentences

September 10 , 2007

The NAACP is working with numerous groups, individuals, local, state and federal officials to coordinate demonstration activities related to Mychal Bell’s sentencing in two weeks. A march, rally and town hall meeting are being planned for that day.

Thousands are expected to converge on Jena, La. and the LaSalle Parish Courthouse Sept. 20 as defendant Mychal Bell is sentenced for his role in an altercation with a classmate following a series of racial incidents in the town of 3,000 after three nooses were hung in a tree at the local high school.

In the last year, Bell, 17, who remains incarcerated, and five others– Robert Bailey Jr., 17; Theo Shaw, 17; Carwin Jones, 18; Bryant Purvis, 17; and a minor–faced overly aggressive prosecution, extended incarceration and are being charged with serious criminal conduct offenses that could lead to many years of imprisonment.

On Sept. 20, “March on Jena” participants are asked to convene at Ward 10 Recreation Park in Jena starting at 7 a.m. where instructions for the day will be given. Prayers will follow the 8:15 a.m. march to the courthouse before the judicial proceedings begin. Following the sentencing a support rally will be held at the park around 11 a.m. That evening a town hall meeting focusing on education and criminal justice disparities in the U.S. will be held at 7 p.m. in Alexandria, La.

NAACP officials will present petitions to Louisiana Gov. Kathleen B. Blanco at Noon on Sept. 19 at the State Capitol. The thousands of signatures are a symbol of those across the nation that are concerned with the unequal treatment of the defendants and the disturbing climate that led to an escalation of events in the southern town. Individuals are urged to sign the petition found online at http://www.naacp.org up until that time.

The NAACP has gathered a team of pro bono attorneys to assist in Bell’s appeal and the defense of the remaining young men. Activity updates and information on contributing to the Jena 6 Legal Defense Fund can be found online at www.naacp.org or by calling toll free (888) 362-8683.

Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization. Its members throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities, conducting voter mobilization and monitoring equal opportunity in the public and private sectors.

TAKE ACTION

Dallas ISD Supt. Michael Hinojosa To Hold Briefing on Dallas Achieves Program

The Dallas Independent School District Superintendent of Schools Michael Hinojosa and key staff members will provide an update on the Dallas Achieves! Transformation Plan during a round table briefing on Wednesday, September 12, at 1 P.M., in room 105 of the Dallas ISD Administration Building, 3700 Ross Avenue.

Jack Lowe, president of the Dallas ISD Board of Trustees; Marcia Page, President and CEO of the Foundation for Community Empowerment; and representatives from Boston Consulting Group will also attend.

Merit Pay For Teachers Goes To Affluent Schools

SENTINEL SPECIAL REPORT

Erika Hobbs | Sentinel Staff Writer

September 9, 2007

At Palm Lake Elementary, two out of three teachers earned a bonus through Orange County Public Schools’ merit-pay plan.

At Richmond Heights Elementary, the number was zero.

Palm Lake is a predominantly white school in the affluent Dr. Phillips area.

Richmond Heights is a predominantly black school in a poverty-stricken pocket of Orlando.

The two schools illustrate a marked disparity in the distribution of merit bonuses to 3,911 Orange County teachers and administrators uncovered in an Orlando Sentinel analysis of the program.

The Sentinel’s review showed that teachers at predominantly white and affluent schools were twice as likely to get a bonus as teachers from schools that are predominantly black and poor.

It wasn’t supposed to work that way.

Florida education officials promised that imbalances along racial or income lines would not happen under the state’s beleaguered and now-defunct merit-pay program known as Special Teachers Are Rewarded, or STAR. Officials said the best teachers could win a bonus no matter where they worked or what they taught.

“It certainly doesn’t inspire much confidence in the system,” said Mark Pudlow, a spokesman with the Florida Education Association, a teachers union.

Among the Sentinel’s findings:

At Orange County’s 39 predominantly white schools, an average of 27 teachers per school won bonuses. Only two of those schools had a majority of students getting free or reduced-price lunches, an indicator of low-income.

At the 38 predominately black schools, an average of 13 teachers per school won. All of those schools had a majority of students receiving subsidized lunches.

At the 31 schools with a mostly Hispanic population, an average of 20 teachers per school got bonuses. Only three were low-income schools.

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Diane Ravitch on Reconsidering Education Views

Deborah Meier and Diane Ravitch have found themselves at odds on policy over the years, but they share a passion for improving schools. Bridging Differences will offer their insights on what matters most in education.

 

Reconsidering My Views

 

Dear Deb,

I hope we are not disappointing our readers by agreeing more than we disagree. I think I am letting down my part of the bargain by agreeing with you so often, but our areas of convergence became clear from the first time that we sat together almost a year ago to talk about our views about No Child Left Behind. The fact is that you are writing and saying the same things you have believed for a long time, and I am in the process of reconsidering and revising my views on many counts.

I have been doing quite a lot of soul-searching these past couple of years. I don’t think it is because of age, although one can never be too sure about that. I think I am reconsidering first principles because of the very topics that you hit so hard in your latest letter. Living in NYC, I see what happens when businessmen and lawyers take over a school system, attempt to demolish everything that existed before they got there, and mount a dazzling PR blitz to prove that they are successful.

Lest anyone think that what you described is purely a NYC story, consider this: I hear from various people who participated in the judging for the Broad Prize that NYC will win it this year. This is not much of a surprise. When Joel Klein was first named chancellor, Eli Broad held his annual prize event in NYC and handed Klein a huge dummy check and predicted that one day soon this would be his. The $1 million hardly matters to NYC, which has an annual budget that approaches $20 billion, but the prestige is what the city is after. It desperately wants the confirmation from Broad that its new regime has succeeded.

About 18 months ago, I was invited to meet Eli Broad in his gorgeous penthouse in NYC, overlooking Central Park. I hear that he made his billions in the insurance and real estate businesses. I am not sure when he became an education expert. We talked about school reform for an hour or more, and he told me that what was needed to fix the schools was not all that complicated: A tough manager surrounded by smart graduates of business schools and law schools. Accountability. Tight controls. Results. In fact, NYC is the perfect model of school reform from his point of view. Indeed, this version of school reform deserves the Broad Prize, a prize conferred by one billionaire on another.

Thanks for your recommendation about the James Scott book, “Seeing Like a State.” I happen to own it, as it had been highly recommended to me by Morton Keller, a historian at Brandeis University. It is a wonderful critique of reforms that seek to overturn the world, of the arrogance of reformers who do not understand the practical wisdom of those who must make decisions every day that respond to unique situations.

As I read “Seeing Like a State,” especially its concluding chapters, I kept thinking about the wholesale gutting of the NYC school system by Messrs. Bloomberg and Klein, who are now hailed in the media as our nation’s leading education reformers. Professor Scott, an anthropologist at Yale, would find in NYC a perfect exemplar of men who think they can “see like a state.”

Worse, Deb, they seem to have sought out even the cracks in the sidewalk and tried to pave them over. They seem to have succeeded.

Diane

 

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