National PDK poll: Public wants schools to focus on career prep, personal skills

While Americans still view traditional academic coursework as valuable, not everyone agrees that academic preparation should be the only priority of public schools, according to the 2017 Phi Delta Kappan (PDK) Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools. Eighty-two percent of the adults […]

From Small Learning Communities to Yoga: A Different Approach to Urban Education

by Betsy Schulz In the 1970s, I began my teaching career at the Emiliano Zapata Street Academy, a small public high school in Oakland founded to help academically at-risk students of color graduate. Inspired by school’s values and the Civil Rights movement, I signed on […]

Charter Schools: Good governance practices and lack of transparency a subject of dispute

by Keith Bray There are elements of good governance that for decades have been sewn into the statutory fabric of how elected officials do their work on behalf of the people they represent. For example, meetings, with limited exceptions, are open to the public. Documents […]