Getting to the Why: Service Learning for Social Justice
An equity coach argues for the importance of service learning for social justice and describes how elementary teachers she worked with developed a project around hunger.
Equity
Saving Banks and Failing Schools
The editors of Rethinking Schools expose an economy that prioritizes the needs of the wealthy over those of children.
School Debt: The Great Unequalizer
As Schirmer writes: “School districts with the fewest resources pay the most to borrow.” Given the underfunding of schools, debt amplifies existing inequalities.
Tulsa and the Fight for Reparations
On May 31, 1921, white mobs terrorized the Black community of Greenwood in North Tulsa, Oklahoma. Known as Black Wall Street, the area teemed with prosperous businesses and cultural sites. […]
Reviews 21.3
Books
Parents Fight School Closings
During the night and on into the morning of Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2004, a determined band of Chicago Public School (CPS) parents and community activists camped at the front door […]
Made in Seattle
Made in Seattle
Plotting Inequalities, Building Resistance
Media depictions of San Francisco show idyllic images of fog pouring under the Golden Gate Bridge or happy tourists riding cable cars, but rarely the mostly nonwhite neighborhoods of the […]
A Message from a Black Mom to Her Son
An African American mother and teacher educator uses examples from her own childhood to describe how she hopes her child will be treated by teachers, and what she fears.
Occupy Education
The South African poet and activist Breyten Breytenbach once said, “You Americans have mastered the art of living with the unacceptable.” We hope this is coming to an end—in schools, […]
Outlawing Solidarity in Arizona
“Banned in Tucson.” As many Rethinking Schools readers know, in January Tucson school officials ordered our book Rethinking Columbus removed from Mexican American Studies classes, as part of their move to shut down the […]
Schools and the New Jim Crow
The author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness applies her thought-provoking analysis to children, schools, and priorities for education activism.
Science for the People
Ninth graders develop science literacy as they become neighborhood environmental experts and activists.
Who’s Bashing Teachers and Public Schools and What Can We Do About It?
To build an effective movement against the top-down strategies that are ripping public education apart, we need to take a closer look at who wants reform and why.
Fuzzy Math
A middle school writing teacher reflects on a day spent scoring districtwide math tests.
Support That Can’t Support
Are peer mentoring programs bowing to the pressure to teach to the test?
Rethinking MySpace
As an educator constantly searching for ways to use popular culture in my classroom
Childhood Is Dying
Iraq’s children have been more gravely affected by the U.S. occupation than any other segment of the population.”
An Open Letter to the Hispanic Scholarship Fund from the Association of Raza Educators
The Association of Raza Educators implores you: open your scholarships to all students of Hispanic descent regardless of citizenship.
Pump Up the Blowouts
This year is the 40th anniversary of the Chicana/o School Blowouts
Beyond NCLB
A new era requires new thinking
Teaching in Dystopia
The problem is this: Testing is killing education. Not only is it narrowing the curriculum generally
Reading First, Libraries Last
In these bleak NCLB days of regimented
Prophet Motives
Any discussion of charter schools must ask not only whether charters promote a worthwhile vision of public education
Fault Lines in Merit Pay
Far from addressing the systemic