Upcoming conference: "Education not incarceration"
The Black Radical Congress will hold its third annual "Education Not Incarceration" conference on May 17.
The conference will bring together youth, parents, educators, advocates, and organizers to learn and strategize about the state of the public schools and the prison system. This year's conference will have a special focus on how schools and jails are affected by the "war on terrorism" and a possible war in Iraq.
Conference topics will include: zero tolerance policies and alternative approaches to school discipline; military recruitment in the schools during times of war; health care access in the jails; voting rights for ex-convicts; and how war spending will affect the quality of children's lives.
"This conference aims to offer participants models of success for quality education and humane justice," says Amadee Braxton, an organizer of the event.
The conference will take place at the American Friends Service Committee at 1501 Cherry Street. There is no cost to attend. Registration deadline is May 12. For more information, contact Amadee Braxton at 215-546-0996 or abraxton@critpath.org.
ACORN leads effort to support new teachers
Concerned about the number of new teachers constantly cycling through their schools, ACORN members have initiated a unique collaboration with the School District and Philadelphia Federation of Teachers to provide the training and support that new teachers need to get up to speed quickly.
This February, twelve new teachers started the 20-week pilot professional development program, called "ACORNS to OAKS," developed by the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers Health and Welfare Fund. The program combines in-class coaching with bi-weekly classes in effective teaching methods, including training in classroom management, instructional strategies, and how to use learning time effectively.
The program is funded by the District, and includes teachers from Blaine, Blankenburg, Reynolds, and Martha Washington Elementary Schools. For ACORN, it is part of a broader teacher quality campaign.
Teacher participants have been enthusiastic about the program and the concrete teaching strategies they have learned. Eileen Driscoll, a fourth grade teacher in her second year at Blaine Elementary called the program "eye-opening."
Driscoll is one of four new teachers at Blaine participating in the program. After the first class, she said, "All of us went back and changed something in the classroom for the better."
"What I am learning will last my whole career, and every child I teach will benefit from it," she added.
ACORN Education Coordinator Debbie Russell Brown says that ACORN is working with the School District to incorporate elements of the pilot program into the District's new teacher induction program.
For more information, contact ACORN at 215-765-0042.
Citizens go to Harrisburg for state funding reform
Good Schools PA, a statewide organization working for public education reform, is bringing groups of citizens to Harrisburg every day the state legislature is in session until the end of June to encourage legislators to fund schools in a way that will provide an equal and adequate education for children.
The campaign, called "Stand for Children," will bring high school and college students, clergy members, parents, educators, and other citizens together in a sustained presence at the capital to call for change.
Good Schools PA says citizens will be there to remind Governor Rendell and state legislators that Pennsylvania will only be able to improve its school outcomes when funding is adequate and distributed on an equitable basis to all of the state's schoolchildren.
Campaign Director Nellie Sepulveda says that both equity and adequacy are at the heart of the Stand for Children. "It takes more money to educate students who live in high poverty areas, or have special needs such as learning disabilities or English as a second language. This is why we campaign for both equity and adequacy," she says.
On February 12, the Philadelphia Student Union led over 100 students to Harrisburg as part of the Stand for Children.
Busloads of Philadelphians will head to Harrisburg again on May 5 for the Stand for Children's "Philadelphia Day."
Good Schools PA Field Director Beth Olanoff encourages students to attend, saying that, as the people most directly impacted by inadequate school funding, students have an especially significant voice in the debate.
Olanoff advises individuals who want to support the Stand for Children but are unable to participate in any of the trips to Harrisburg to call or write their legislators and express support for adequate and equal funding for all children in Pennsylvania.
For more information or to participate in the Stand for Children's Philadelphia Day on May 5, contact Good Schools PA at 215-332-2700 or see www.goodschoolspa.org.
--Brandon Carver
School stakeholders shape budgets together
Since this fall, over 80 parents from more than a dozen Philadelphia schools have participated in trainings about how they can impact their schools' budgets. This spring, parents will join the principal and teachers from their schools for workshops designed to help them work on their schools' budgets together.
The workshops, on March 19 and April 1, are organized by the Philadelphia chapter of the Cross City Campaign, a local coalition of public school advocacy and activist organizations. In order to participate, schools must assemble a team including the principal and at least two teachers and two parents.
"This is an exciting chance for parents, teachers, and principals to collaborate on priorities for their school and to learn how to work those priorities into a school budget," says Fran Sugarman of Cross City.
For more information about the workshops, contact Fran Sugarman at 215-665-1400, x3351 or fsugarman@philaedfund.org.