Researchers contend that crushing poverty is more significant than failing public schools or bad teachers. Two years ago, a Stanford University study documented the new “income achievement gap.” The report showed family income is the “biggest determining factor in a student’s academic achievement.” The same year, writer Joanna Barkan published a report in Dissent Magazine […]
schools
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Dotted line
Fallin hasn’t directly opposed the initiative petition drive, but she doesn’t plan to endorse it either, according to her spokesman, Alex Weintz. Instead, the governor has commented that money used for storm shelters will reduce funding for other educational needs. “She’s just trying to inject some form of realism here,” Weintz said. However, storm shelter […]
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Congrats, wanda (belated)
We’re giddy for Jackson and OKCPS for immortalizing such a prodigious musical figure. But really, you’re just now inducting Wanda freaking Jackson, the Queen of Rockabilly? What took so long? Jackson graduated from Capitol Hill High School in 1955 (sorry, Wanda; we have to give the date) and signed to Capitol Records a year later. […]
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LETTERS
I have always been “pro-teacher” and have been firmly on the side of funding education above special interests. However, this week, I did not understand the rage you must feel at the lack of control you have over educating your own students. I am sorry that we gauge a child’s value and your worth based […]
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Hunger pains
Yet, even with all those credentials and a productive work history, she has a hard time making ends meet. At 75, Graham works part-time at Gold’s Gym Express, but that income plus her Social Security check still isn’t enough to pay rent and put food on the table. It’s her reality, but she doesn’t complain. […]
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‘No tolerance’ doesn’t teach
In 1999, the committee was shocked to learn that the OKCPS only had 485 alternative school slots for students with behavioral or attendance problems, health conditions, pregnancy or parenting challenges or who were institutionalized. According to the state’s Needs Assessment, the OKCPS needed another 1,205 slots. We also knew that punitive policies, such as “zero […]
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Nowhere to hide
State Rep. Joe Dorman (D-Rush Springs) said the statewide figure demonstrates a greater problem because more than half a million students and teachers are without adequate protection from tornadoes. “It’s shocking how many school districts are without shelters,” he said at a meeting last week, highlighting a report released the week of Sept. 23. “I […]
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Kickin’ it
It was an eye-opening experience. “After you saw all these athletic facilities and the shape that a lot of these fields were in, it was just very bothersome, knowing that it was happening in our city.” McLaughlin spoke with Keith Sinor, the athletic director for the Oklahoma City Public Schools, who was on that trip. […]
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BREAKING: Petition drive seeks storm shelter funding
Take Shelter Oklahoma is a movement that comes four months after a series of tornadoes ripped through southwest Oklahoma City and Moore, killing 47 people, including seven children at Plaza Towers Elementary. Twisters also struck Canadian Valley Vocational Technology Center on May 31 and leveled parts of Pottawatomie County on May 19, killing two people […]
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Resilient repetition
From our elected officials and our local celebrities to those survivors affected directly by the most current crisis, some version of these words gushes out each time: “You can replace things, not lives. We’re going to rebuild. Oklahomans are a resilient people.” The adjective “resilient,” in particular, has become the word du jour following a […]