Can Homeschoolers Be Team Players for Public Schools?

Students in schools across the country may find their campuses and classrooms shuttered beginning next fall. In a scramble to improve student performance and address funding shortages, districts are proposing school closures on large scales. Although parents and teachers are voicing their concerns about such sweeping moves, school and government officials maintain that closing under-performing schools is the right thing to do.

School Closures Across the Nation

New York City Public Schools have been at the forefront of the trend of shutting down under-performing public schools. Most recently, New York City’s Panel for Educational Policy voted to shut down 19 of the city’s public schools. The 19 schools had all been nominated for closure by Mayor Bloomberg on the basis of poor academic performance. The New York Times reports that New York City has closed or is in the process of closing 91 schools since 2002.

Meanwhile, in Chicago, the Board of Education announced in January that it would “close, consolidate, or overhaul” 14 public schools this year, according to the Chicago Tribune.

School districts in Cleveland, Ohio and Providence, Rhode Island have also recently proposed closing schools in an attempt to boost student performance and address budget shortfalls.

Reasons for School Closure

Poor performance is the most common reason given for choosing to close a school. New York City School officials say that high schools are chosen for closure on the basis of low graduation rates, low student

More than Academics: How Well Public Schools Provide Emotional Support

Children and adolescents arrive at today’s public schools with a wide range of special needs. Some students struggle with depression and anxiety, while others face the difficult task of living with parents who are not financially or emotionally stable. Schoolyard bullies may plague children or may be upset by their parent’s divorce or remarriage.

A recently released national poll aims to examine how well public schools provide support to students with emotional, behavioral, or family problems. Recognizing that in an era of large-scale budget cuts, programs that provide emotional support to students are in danger of being cut, the University of Michigan’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health set out to examine how many of our nation’s public schools currently make the grade when it comes to emotionally supporting their students.

In this video, Aukeem Ballard, a teacher at Summit Preparatory Charter High School in Redwood City, CA, discusses the power of mentors in his life and career, comparing having a mentor to standing on the shoulders of giants.

The Study’s Findings

The study asked parents of students from both primary and secondary public schools to give their students’ schools a grade of A through F on three different criteria:

• Providing a Good Education – 83% of parents of primary school students and 75% of parents of

In the past decade, public awareness of our planet’s natural resources has grown, and with that understanding has come to a movement in living in environmentally sustainable “green” ways. While just a few decades ago recycling was a fringe activity, today it is a widespread practice. Hybrid vehicles have gone from fantasy to reality.

As national interest in living sustainable and eco-friendly lifestyles continues to grow, a number of public schools are joining the green movement, designing green curricula for students at all levels. In fact, some charter schools are now based around the ideals of green living.

This TED Talk discusses teaching sustainability in schools.

Green Charter Schools

The New York Times reports that across the country, public charter schools that are based around a “green” theme have been springing up. The Green Charter Schools Network, which is based in Madison, Wisconsin, says it has counted about 200 green charter schools nationwide, according to the Times. These green charter schools serve several purposes that both benefit the earth and their students’ futures.

Preparing Students for Work in the Sustainable Energy Industry

Some charter schools focus on technical skills that will prepare students to find work in the “green collar” jobs that are frequently touted as a part of a growth industry.

The Times article mentions Manhattan’s Urban Assembly School for Green Careers, which opened in

Public school gardens have been sprouting across the country, especially in California, which is the home state of culinary pioneer and “slow food” spokeswoman Alice Waters. As a champion of local agriculture, Waters inspired one of the first school gardens in Berkeley, California, and many public school campuses have followed in these green footsteps.

However, a fierce debate over the merits of public school gardens has erupted following the Atlantic’s piece by Caitlin Flanagan that criticizes the practice of devoting class time in public schools to the cultivation of school gardens. Flanagan argues that by allowing students to spend school hours working in a garden, we do them a grave disservice. She reminds her readers that California's public school system fails to keep one out of five high school students from dropping out prior to graduating and that the achievement gap between African-American and Latino students and their white and Asian peers persists year after year. When a state's public school system is failing to meet the academic needs of its students, it should not be spending time and resources on a luxury like a school garden, argues Flanagan.

However, Flanagan's anti-garden polemic has not been taken lightly by those who count themselves as advocates of school gardens. Flanagan's piece sparked responses from those on both sides of the debate, forcing parents and teachers to clarify their positions on this now controversial topic.

This video looks at the benefits of school gardens.