The Dropout Nation Podcast: Embrace the Power of Families
On this week’s Dropout Nation Podcast, RiShawn Biddle discusses the need for Beltway school reformers and education traditionalists to embrace a more-expansive view of school choice and Parent Power. Families need the power to transform schools in their own communities — as well as the ability to escape failure mills — in order to shape education for the children they love.
You can listen to the Podcast at RiShawn Biddle’s radio page or download directly to your iPod, Zune, MP3 player, smartphone, Nook Color or Kindle. Also, subscribe to the podcast series. It is also available on iTunes, Blubrry, Zune Marketplace and PodBean. Also download to your phone with BlackBerry podcast software and Google Reader.
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[...] Certainly Jackson could offer some legitimate criticism of Chicago’s school reform efforts. Although the district has improved over time, with the percentage of fourth-graders reading Below Basic declining from 60 percent to 52 percent between 2003 and 2011, it still struggles in providing high-quality education to the city’s young black men. Jackson could easily challenge Emanuel and his schools chief, Jean-Claude Brizard, to improve literacy instruction and even provide early reading remediation to young black male students, or even ask them to embrace efforts such as the Open Society Foundation’s black male education initiative. Jackson could even argue that Chicago should enact a Parent Trigger provision that allows families to take control of their schools and attempt their own turnarounds. [...]
[...] and unacceptable to deny families, especially those from the poor and minority households, the ability to reshape education for their kids and keep them out of the worst education in this nation has to [...]
[...] of these boards once again shows that Detroit doesn’t get it. As I noted in this week’s Dropout Nation Podcast, the only way families can truly be engaged in schools (and help their kids get the high-quality [...]