Not good – in urban schools, that is. Unfortunate news for the country, as the city schools are tested regarding the progress of the student attending them. According to the Huffington Post, overall, the math grades have gone up slightly, however grades have been stagnant in every other subject.

The data was taken from 21 different urban school districts, and revealed that math scores have risen, but urban school districts are behind suburban and rural districts in test scores in all other areas, including reading.

Bad news for Detroit as well, as they revealed that 71 percent of 8th grade students are performing below basic math levels.

The good news is that math scores continue to rise:

“If you look at the trends since 2003, it paints a clear picture about the progress that has emerged in the large cities since that time; we’ve been able to close the gap between us and the nation by between 25 percent and 36 percent in those eight years” said Mike Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, which helps administer the test.

Progress has been made, therefore we are moving in the right direction. It will take more than the government and national education system, however.

It is certain that society outside of the schools can also affect a student’s education, such as living arrangements, emotional stability and family support and guidance. Given the current results of the nation’s urban school district report cards, it appears that minimizing this education gap needs to be a national effort and we have to step up. These children are the future of our nation, lets raise OUR hand and contribute.

This week’s episode features Kwesi, our Ohio State Director. Check the vibrant conversation on inspiring young people, building power in our communities and protecting voting rights. Much love to the hosts for putting together a thought-provoking show week after week!

Join the conversation on twitter by following @OhioLeague @ellecee404 and @BrianKeith2039

Maurice Johnson, 55, lives in Boston in a homeless shelter. He has a master’s degree in Plasma Physics from Dartmouth College, and a master’s in electrical engineering from Purdue University. He even once worked as a Senior Research Engineer for eight years at Lockheed Aerospace Corp. Check out Maurice’s LinkedIn profile. If you want to contact Maurice, his email is Mjnomad@yahoo.com

In high school, I attended Bradley Tech in Milwaukee, WI. Compared to other schools, they tried to be ahead of the curve with the latest technology but it’s nothing compared to what is available now. If I could substitute a textbook for a tablet assignment, college might have been on my radar. With the burst of social media platforms and options for young tech lovers to explore, how can a student not be excited to learn?

Check out how students and technology are co-existing:

Infographic provided by: Online Education

At the recent convening of the National Urban League’s Annual gathering in Boston, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates discussed education and the need for advancements to be made in the African-American and Latino communities.

One key moment in the discussion was the observation that Bill Gates offered about poverty and education. Gates suggested that poverty does not have to be eliminated in order to have an adequate education system. Rather, he insinuates that we must do more to have stronger education system and that will begin to address and eradicate poverty.

Gates further shares his thoughts on high school diplomas not being enough for young Americans to be successful. He suggested that more emphasis be placed on educating black and Latino students with concerted efforts to lift those communities.

What would you do if your child’s school district went on strike? Well that’s exactly what the Memphis City School Board of Commissioners is doing. Apparently, the city owes the school board millions of dollars. According to CNN:

“The board says it is owed a total of $151 million, according to the Commercial Appeal newspaper of Memphis. That includes what the city still owes for the 2008-09 school year, shortfalls on two subsequent school years and $78 million for the upcoming year.”

School is supposed to start on August 8, but the board voted that it won’t happen until at least $55 million is placed in the school’s bank account. As a parent, this would worry the crap out of me, but I understand where they’re coming from. Children of all ages are out future and if you short-change them, what kind of future will we have?

Memphis Mayor A.C. Wharton, Jr. says that they are working on a resolution before the academic year starts so that the students won’t get caught in the middle of the financial dispute. The Shelby County Chancery Court and the State Appellate Court have already said that the city’s decision to cut educational funding violated the state’s law but they just kept on breaking the law instead of doing the right thing. Martavius Jones, the school board president, and the other board members have been fighting for four years for the city to stop illegally withholding the education funding, but even with a court order they have had no relief.

I agree with Wharton that this is not just a Memphis issue, but a national issue. School districts across the nation are dealing with elected officials who always seem to find something else to do with our children’s money. In a small negotiating move, both sides met recently and city administrators agreed to pay $3 million of the $9 million it owes for the 2010-11 school year. Funding was supposed to be delivered three days later, but crickets were still chirping in the school board’s bank account when that one-week mark came up. You would think that after the school sued the city in 2008 they would wake up.

I was talking with some friends the other day about private school because the public school system in so screwed up. It’s sad to truly say that they only way my children will receive a quality education is if top dollar is spent. Even the top public schools are still screwed up so what does that tell you?

Every parent wants their child to learn everything they possible can so that they can be everything they can possibly be, but the education system makes that easier said than done. It seems like they’d rather incarcerate our young men and women instead of doing their best to educate them.

America is considered to be the “melting pot” of the world. Though times have changed and people are able to move around, America still has the widest variety of people, cultures and lifestyles. We come from all walks of life, sharing a common purpose, to achieve the so-called American Dream of success and happiness.

On Thursday, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill requiring all public schools in the state to teach students about the contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans, as well as providing instruction on the role of people with disabilities. Even though there is a lot of controversy surrounding the issue and this bill is a first for the nation, I do agree with Gov. Brown when he said, “History should be honest.”

Beginning in January, the California school system’s curriculum will take a big turn. Although textbooks will not change until 2015, teachers will start the teaching process. Unlike the Traditional Values Coalition and other religious groups who oppose this change, I’m all for it. I have nothing against LGBT Americans and like I mentioned earlier, Gov. Brown is absolutely correct that history should be honest.

Students are already learning about the contributions of African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Native Americans, and Mexican-Americans so why not teach them about the contributions of LGBT and disabled Americans? America was founded on the principle that anyone can make it here because everyone is welcome and supposed to be treated equally. Though we often forget this principle, it’s still the foundation of our country and it should not be forgotten. Who you love or choose to have relations with should not affect how you’re treated anywhere. America is a place where differences are supposed to be accepted instead of frowned-upon.

In a sense, I understand where the religious and conservative groups are coming from, but I feel that as times change, our minds should open up more. Whether you’re black, white, gay, or straight we all bleed red. We shouldn’t discriminate against one another because of what we are. Instead, we should come together to save our country because of who we are.

In the wake of the recent test score cheating scandal in Atlanta, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. wrote an opinion piece for CNN. I, along with Rev. Jackson and many others, believe that test scores have little bearing on students’ and schools’ educational achievement. A straight “A” student can fail a standardized test all because the tests and scoring are crazy and because many people just aren’t good test-takers.

Test tampering isn’t just an Atlanta issues, it’s a national issue. Many cities like Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, and Washington have all been guilty of changing student’s test scores so that they can meet requirements for Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act.

It’s no surprise that there are two tracks that the nation’s youth are on or are going to be on. That’s either the road to college or the road to reduced life options and/or jail. Anyone with common sense and eyes can see that schools in better areas receive a higher quality education while students in low-income areas are forced to get the short end of a burning stick.

In the article, Rev. Jackson quoted Dr. Pedro Noguera of New York University:

“NCLB was adopted into law in 2001. The fact that nearly every major city in the U.S. has dropout rates of 50 percent or more is the clearest evidence that the policy has failed and a new approach is needed.”

He went on to say that Obama’s Race to the Top basically has the same foundation as NCLB, when NCLB should be done away with completely. When schools don’t meet the requirements for NCLB or Race to the Top, they don’t receive federal funding for many of their programs or they will have sanctions imposed. Because of these idiotic tests, teachers are forced to “teach to the test,” which basically means if it isn’t test-related, then they aren’t allowed to teach it. This means that students aren’t presented with the broad education they deserve.

It’s not right to cheat students out of a quality education. These teachers and administrators who change these scores aren’t necessarily crooked; they’re just trying to find a way to give these kids a good education while stuck in a sorry system. I’m not saying what they did was right, but I do understand their struggle.

The United States is 14th in reading, math and science literacy. Countries like South Korea and Iceland understand that the youth are the future, so they strive to give them the best education while Americans are giving our youth crap, yet they’re encouraged to stay in school. Our education system is so screwed up and it makes absolutely no sense at all. In order to give your child a quality education, you must come out of pocket and with today’s economy, the average family is debating food on the table or gas in the car.

I feel that lawmakers don’tunderstand the struggle of the taxpayers because all of their children are in the best schools in the country and there’s a good chance that they never went to public school themselves. Until I’m able to afford to send my daughter to an amazing private school, I’ll continue to pray that she receives the best education possible from the public school system and work with her at home to make sure that she’s properly absorbing all that she needs and more. Unfortunately, not all parents are like me and the only teaching their kids receive is at school.

It’s time to fight for better schools for our kids. It’s true that the world needs doctors and lawyers just like it needs mechanics and garbagemen but if we don’t educate our youth properly, we’re going to have more drive-thru attendants taking orders than scientists trying to find cures for diseases.

Yesterday, the Shreveport Times reported on a recent school board meeting that dozens of upset parents and school board staff attended. In the meeting, many vented about the 313 jobs that are to be eliminated in accordance with the $50 million parish budget. After a public hearing, the final vote will be taken on June 21. The students of Caddo Parish as well as the staff have been handed the short end of the stick while the administration is still sleeping ever so lovely night after night.

These job cuts aren’t planning to come from Central Office but from the schools themselves. Instead of laying off Central Office workers who rarely interact with the public, secretaries, aides that are hands-on with students, parents, and teachers are being thrown on the chopping block. I, along with several other parents, staff, and even one board member, believe that the schools shouldn’t be touched and the cuts should instead start with the school board administration.

This is Ursula Brantley’s debut blog post on 99Problems.org. She’s a 25-year-old single mom from Louisiana with a passion for writing. Show her some love in the comments!!

Collins Academy gets a surprise visit from Nicki Minaj as she takes on the role of Principal. School has never been this cool.

When schools are bad enough that a kid has a higher chance of ending up in jail than college, something’s got to be done. California is trying a new approach to place the power in the hands of parents.

In 2010, California passed the “parent trigger” law, which allowed for parents whose kids attend failing schools to organize to shut down the school and replace it with a charter school. If 51 percent of the parents sign a petition, a charter school can be established.

Charter schools are playing an important role in education reform today. Some of them have become wildly successful, while many have also failed to perform better than the public schools. They are naturally controversial because they are still an experiment, and when it comes to their future, no one wants to use kids as guinea pigs.

Parent Revolution is the non-profit managing the effort to get parents organized and pushing back in their communities. They’ve faced a lot of opposition since supporting the parent-trigger law.

Mother Jones reports:

“The bill, backed by Parent Revolution and other charter school believers, squeaked through the state legislature last year and was opposed fiercely by teacher unions. (California Teachers Association’s Frank Wells argues that it was an ill-considered, last-minute attempt to qualify California for federal Race to the Top funding, which the Golden State didn’t win.) Similar legislation is now popping up in at least five other states, and it’s no exaggeration to say that what happens here could someday be mirrored across the country.”

Check out the rest of the controversial article at Mother Jones.

When state governments start calling out teachers for bankrupting budgets, think for a minute about what they really make…

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

When times get hard and budgets are tight, some groups (both conservative and liberal) are advocating for cutting prison funding in exchange for increasing education funding. These groups claim that it is a better economic investment to focus on education and sentencing reform to decrease crime across the country. This could mean placing non-violent offenders in more rehabilitative programs rather than incarcerating them.

The Washington Post reports that “state spending on prisons has grown at six times the rate of spending on higher education in the past 20 years.”

However, not everybody is on board.  The executive director of the National District Attorneys Association was quick to respond with: “It is very hard to earn your way into prison in the United States…These aren’t people who just had a baggie of marijuana or shoplifted.”

It’s fascinating to see that one of the main spokesmen for district attorneys is not interested in correcting a corrections system that is currently dysfunctional. When it boils down to it, violent crimes may be good reasoning for being locked up. But, when we’re talking about young people committing non-violent crimes, does locking them up serve a greater purpose than educating them?

President Obama and his Secretary of Education are big basketball fans and often play together. However, Secretary Arne Duncan isn’t a fan of universities that have poor academic performance and good athletic performance.

On St. Patrick’s Day, he came forward and called out the 15 percent of NCAA schools that have less than 50 percent graduation rates among their basketball players. He accused the schools of allowing student athletes to fall behind in schoolwork, leading many of them to drop out later on.

According to Afro:

“His remarks came hours after writing on the Washington Post’s opinion page that schools ‘need to stop trotting out tired excuses for basketball teams with poor academic records and indefensible disparities in the graduation rates of white and black players.’”

Several studies have shown glaring inequities between black and white players’ graduation rates. The most telling example is the University of Akron, which graduates a full 100 percent of its white players and zero percent of its black players. Secretary Duncan believes that schools with poor performances should not be eligible to compete until academic standards go up.

The truth is, athletic scholarships provide kids with an opportunity to get an education regardless of whether the dreams of going pro become a reality. Maybe finishing a degree wouldn’t be the first priority if you ended up getting drafted. But only 1.2 percent of NCAA players actually go on to be in the NBA, so most of the athletes get left behind- especially since there are high expectations to focus primarily on the game. However, if kids are already stressing about getting good grades, does getting kicked out of the championships just make a bad situation even worse?

Justin Burkhardt wrote about this for 99Problems a few weeks ago, highlighting the racial disparity on D1 teams in a recent study released.

What do y’all think: is the NCAA failing at its mission to provide quality education for its players?

Check out this eyebrow raising story from Ohio. Apparently, Kelley Williams-Bolar tried to give her kids a better life by sending her children to the nearby majority-White school district where her father lives — and she went to jail for it. Now her career as a teacher is in jeopardy.

I for one believe that rules that restrict people from being able to opt into any school district they like are important. And not because I think kids shouldn’t be able to go to good schools, but because I understand that public dollars are scarce and should be reserved for tax payers’ services. After all, far too many people from outside the community get publicly funded jobs and don’t live in the communities that they serve, and those monies never get back into the public coffers. Many municipalities across the country have rules that force their cops, teachers and other civil servants to live within the district. So, in short, it goes both way.

Programs like the Milwaukee Public Schools’ Chapter 220, which aims to ameliorate the impacts of segregation by reserving spots for children of color in suburban schools, are decent policy fixes for the inherent problems and inequalities attached to education. And I might get smacked by my progressive friends, but I also think school choice is a way to fix some of this as well. (Of course, the best way to stop stuff like this is to just fix public schools.)

But at the end of the day, real justice requires that the punishment fit the crime; what Williams-Bolar is facing is clearly over the top. Call on Ohio Governor John Kasich to publicly denounce her punishment and also do all he can to right this wrong.

Go here to help Williams-Bolar help…this is just silly.

Last week, I was in New York where I spent a few days in the mix with some of the non-profit sectors and Hip Hop’s elite such as American Values Institute, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Open Society Foundations, as well as Geoffrey Canada of The Harlem Children’s Zone who kicked off the conference by being the host facility of the panel that featured Russell Simmons, Nick Cannon, & Lupe Fiasco. The conference focused on trying to create a better portrayal of blacks, males in particular, on the big screen and in the music. I wanted to be a fly on the wall. On one hand, I have every right to be in that room but I represent a demographic that don’t even know that room exists.

“Success is what you make it, take it how it comes, A half a billion in 20s is like a billion where I’m from”, says Pusha T of The Clipse on Kanye’s ‘So Appalled’. He’s saying a lot in this one line. Some of us are content with mediocre success because everything else is either unrealistic or too hard to obtain given our circumstances. How can a young black man re-imagine something they never saw? We mimic our surroundings. To most of us common folk, there isn’t anything to imagine but the present. The present is unemployment, so get it by any means. This is why its so easy to tear our people/community down through our music/media instead of uplifting them/it. The Black Male is trying to survive ……..but we have been brainwashed to think that money is the only survival method.

The black male hasn’t been portrayed as a positive man in the media or on the big screen because he isn’t positive in real life. But some would say he isn’t positive in real life because of whats on the big screen or in the media.

Well, imagine The Huxtables in The Hood: Claire is the only parental role being played because Cliff didn’t like his role enough so he never came on set. At least that’s how the Cosby show played on my TV. Ok on the actual show, Cliff is supposed to represent a successful black man, and that’s the only representation of a successful black man that we knew of but it wasn’t real enough to believe that it could be us because of our fathers and lack thereof. Having a degree and a perfect family is society’s definition of success. So we created success through other avenues because the traditional school and work atmosphere wasn’t designed for us to strive in. Although, some did, the majority of us didn’t.

We can be successful but we might as well as be unsuccessful if we aren’t designing a blueprint like our predecessors tried to do for us. How hard is it or how easy is it for 100 black millionaires to come together and create POWER. You thought Obama winning the Presidency was inspiring. There is power in money and people. We have the money but the people won’t invest into anything if we don’t give them something solid and intentional. We’re more than basketball players now. We can own the league. We’re more than rappers, we made the industry what it is and can do it again. The Black Male has to believe in the Black male but for so long the Black male/female was made to believe that they were wrong and that the white was the only exception.

I’m here to tell you we’ve come along way, but we haven’t ARRIVED yet.

This weekend I was on a blog diet but couldn’t fight the feeling anymore. I go straight to WorldStarHiopHop which in my opinion needs to be called WorldGoneTooFarHipHop.com. I am instantly drawn to the Waka Flocka video post that shows him on 106 and Park making a fool of himself when asked about Education and Voting (2 of the things that publicists should prep artist on before getting on a public platform that consists of the young demographic that both topics relate to). I’m going to start calling dude What The Flocka!!!!

What is even more eyebrow-raising is the fact that Terrance and Rocsi were so embarrassed for WTFlocka’s lack of intelligence that they had to bring down Dj Pro-Style by calling him an illegal immigrant to be able to kinda make WTFlocka feel comfortable. That shit should’ve gotten everybody fired, EVEN FLOCKA!!!!

WTFLOCKA IS CLEARLY THE FAIL OF A GENERATION….SMH

A few weeks ago, at my job at a summer camp at a Philadelphia rec center, I overheard a conversation that, word to Krs-One, still has me thinking very deeply. The conversation was with a bunch of my male African American coworkers who are mostly high school students. None of them are older than the age of sixteen.

The discussion was about how one of the workers was unfamiliar with the writings of the renowned writer, Maya Angelou. In fact, he claimed to have never even heard of her. The other workers were stunned by the young man’s ignorance. After all, Ms Angelou is one of the most highly regarded figures of not only African American culture, but also of American culture as a whole.

In defense of his ignorance, the young worker quickly responded by questioning the significance of Angelou’s work. However, his next question was what really caught my attention.

After he questioned the importance of learning of figures like Angelou, he questioned the importance of learning history in general.

He stated that he couldn’t see how learning history was helping and that it felt unnecessary for him to learn about things that happened “back in 200 B.C.”, as he put it.

Me being a history lover and one of the elders of the group, automatically felt compelled to answer his question. I told him, “Learning your history helps you to get a better understanding of the world around you and it helps you to get a knowledge of self.”

Despite my comments and ones from the other young workers promoting the importance of history, the young man still remained adamant in his stance on history.

That interesting exchange did not make me question why this particular young man had a disinterest in history, but it made me ask what causes young people in general to dislike learning history.

I thought back on my days as a student in Philadelphia’s public schools learning “Social Studies” which, as most people know, was the name for anything encompassing civics, history and cultural studies.

Then I had to ask myself, “Was I really interested in learning history in my elementary and middle school years?” As it turns out, I was probably about as interested as most students are today.

I realized that I really hadn’t really gained a passion for learning history until I began to put down the school textbooks and began read on my own, which was partially due to the influence of my father, an avid reader and a history buff.

This revelation opened my eyes to what’s the underlying problem in student’s disinterest in history. The problem lies in not solely the students who are dispassionate, but more so, the problem lies in the way that this history is taught, the people who teach it, and the curriculum which is caught.

Too many young students are taught to memorize dates and recite names without learning to think critically and analyze the context of historical events and people.

Also, it’s no secret that the history curriculum of most of America’s schools is extremely Eurocentric. In America, a country where over 30% of the population is of non-European descent, it shouldn’t be surprising when many non-White students develop a dislike for history when the contributions of people who look like them are underrepresented in the history textbooks.

Also, too many schools teach a distorted, sugarcoated version of history which I call the “Disney version” of history, where the traditional heroes such as George Washington, Christopher Columbus, and even Dr. Martin Luther King are presented as unrealistically infallible. This causes history to be looked upon in an almost mythical sense and makes people out of touch with the realities of the world in which we live.

If America wants our future generations to learn from the past, we need to do a better job of teaching them about the past. Otherwise, as the old saying goes, “History repeats itself because no one was listening the first time.”

If you don’t believe that your high school diploma is attainable, ask 75 year old Marjorie Elliot in California who attended her completion ceremony on June 30th, 2010. Hopefully, this is inspiring for a troubled youth or confused adult that can’t see the reality in ever receiving that piece of paper. If not, then take a look at Mary J Blige who has experienced the highs and lows of the music industry and at the height of her success, still felt obligated to finish up high school which, obviously, wasn’t a priority in her life years ago. Education is a right but is also a choice and that’s clearly displayed in these two scenarios.

The video below is from a fan cam and doesn’t have the best sound quality because of the crowds reaction but you should still be able to hear Mary speaking in the beginning about her recent accomplishments. Howard U? Thats whats up!!!

According to a recent study done by Louisiana State University, there has been a rise in college and university enrollment.  The study assumes that young people are choosing to pursue college as an alternative to lingering joblessness in our tough economy. Getting a High school diploma may not be making the grade and it looks as if America’s youth are choosing higher education.

Research from The Pew Research Center showed that there is an increase in diversity which could lead to new conversations about diversity and university admissions and selection. The Government released number s showing a 6% increase in enrollment for minority students equating to an estimated 2.6 million minority students in colleges and universities around the nation. The largest jump has been with Hispanic students. The findings show Freshman enrollment of Hispanics in higher education jumped by 15 percent in 2008, compared to 8 percent for blacks, 6 percent for Asians and 3 percent for whites.

The research further describes the increase as the highest since the Vietnam war where students could avoid the military draft. 99 problems and college could solve them all?