Education and Class

• Half in Ten

  Stunning data on childhood poverty rates, by state and congressional district.

  tags: 522 social class

• Two schools and the vast imbalance of privilege

  We leave it to teachers to convince the children in these schools that they all have an equal and fair chance of making it, if only they do well in school.

  “Sometimes pictures are worth a thousand words. My bike ride to work takes me past two schools within a quarter of a mile of each other. On one stretch of Stony Island Parkway sits the new Earl Shapiro Hall, a slick, multi-million dollar campus for the early childhood program of the University of Chicago Lab Schools. Two University of Chicago police officers manage the large increase in traffic caused by the school’s opening, ensuring the safe arrival of children in their classrooms. The view from my bike seat suggests an overwhelming preponderance of white and Asian-American children.

  Meanwhile, just up the street an inexperienced school crossing attendant struggles to deal with the sudden increase in traffic on a dangerous corner as her children, almost all African American, make their way to the Bret Harte Elementary School. Bret Harte is a math and science magnet school in the Chicago Public School district”

  tags: social class

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.