Poor Teachers Or Poor Funding To Blame For Education Crisis?

Newsweek recently posted an article titled “Why We Must Fire Bad Teachers”. The article cites that “what matters more than the class size or the textbook, the teaching method, or the technology or even the curriculum, is the quality of the teacher.”

The article also points out that “as the population of disadvantaged students grows, overall scores continue to sag.” Thus, as long as communities continue to be stripped of funding which provides assistance for things such as social services, housing and the creation of new jobs, there will continue to be a widening achievement gap between privileged and poor and minority students.

What I found interesting is that there is a connection between the two. According to Newsweek, “the weakest teachers are relegated to teaching the neediest students, poor minority kids in inner-city schools.” Statistics often demonstrate that this does not always happen due to mere coincidence.

In the state of Nevada the relationship between these factors is no different. An annual survey by Education Week magazine ranked Nevada 50th in the nation for the quality of its public K-12 education, with Las Vegas receiving a letter D grade. Also, according to city data Nevada ranks third in unemployment. If Las Vegas was a state it would rank second behind Michigan. The unemployment in Las Vegas ultimately led to foreclosure where Nevada ranks worst in the nation, causing many displaced families. To top it all off, Nevada teachers are some of the lowest-paid employees in the state and are currently facing an additional 1.75% salary cut on top of the 10% across the board that has already been proposed by Republican governor Jim Gibbons, which would result in thousands of teacher layoffs and 50-student class sizes in high schools.

How do we improve education for all when faced with so many obstacles?

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Krysten Hughes

Rapper The Game: “Bullets Burn Hot and They Don’t Taste Like Apple Pie from McDonalds”

On this 99problems.org exclusive, Game tells students to think twice about the street life. There are other options out there.

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Biko Baker

Rapper The Game is Frustrated with the School System

Last week, Game went on an extented Twitter rant about the American educational system. At one point he even said that he thought school was a “waste of time.” The rapper, who does a lot of behind the scenes community activism, expressed that he felt that public schools are often times little more than glorified “baby sitters.”

While the public school system definitely needs improvement, I think it’s important that Game understand that he has more power to change his local school district than 100 school board meetings. Maybe I need to holla at this brotha to get him involved with his local school board. Because if he stood up lots of things would change.

Check the Twitter rant after the jump.

spotted at rapradar.com
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DJWillieShakes

Census Rap Video from 1990 Sucks Really Bad!!

You prolly don’t know this because your high-school civics class most likely wasn’t worth sh#t, but every ten years the US government counts every human being within its borders. Over the next several months, we are going to be talking a lot about the 2010 Census because it’s pretty effin important. Billions of your tax dollars are spent on schools and other important community projects. And were not talking fake rich rapper money either; the census adds up to big paper for local communities.

Of course, most times young people and people of color don’t fill out the form.  Were too busy doing other cool sh#t like filling out unemployment forms or waiting in lines at the emergency room. That’s why the good folks at the Census Bureau spend so much money producing commercials that attempt to speak directly to our demographic.

We’re not sure if these commercials have always been successful because the one above sucks really bad.  Maybe were too young to remember, but its hard to imagine that dancing that hard in ugly clothes was ever cool. After the jump is an example of a census commercial from 2000 that is much less likely to make you want to punch someone in the face.

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The Editor

Krumpin’ Clown to the Rescue!

Clowning is no laughing matter for Tommy the Clown (born Thomas Johnson). Instead, it’s a way to combat deeper issues like gang involvement, boredom, hopelessness, violence, and inactivity.

Born in Detroit, T.J. moved to LA as a teenager, where he soon found himself in trouble with the law. He had plenty of time to reconsider his life’s direction while spending 5 years in jail, where he decided to turn his life around. He’s done that and more–he’s changed the lives of youth around the world.

How? By clowning. It started out as a favor for a friend’s kid’s birthday party, but soon evolved into a way to help at-risk youth, youth who were in danger of falling through the cracks the same way that T.J. had been. Young people were allowed to join his clown/krump/hip hop crew on the condition that they did well in school, stayed out of gangs, didn’t do drugs, and acted as positive role models. In 15 years, this has grown to become a world-wide phenomenon, with 60+ dance crews in LA, performances across Europe, Asia, and the Americas, and motivational lectures in schools across the country. It has also spawned a new form of street dancing (y’all know it as “krumping”) and even a 2005 movie by Dave Chapelle, called “Rize”.

Tommy is more than just a red-nosed, smiling face–he’s entertained millions, inspired thousands to get off the couch and off the streets, trained, guided, and helped countless urban youth, and spread a message of peace to us all: “You got problems? Don’t fight no more. Bring it to the dance floor.”

Posted by:

Yolanda Clatworthy

Homeless Families Hit the Streets

Aren’t you glad summer’s finally here? The recent reemergence of the sun makes me crave days at the beach and nights spent camping. But the recession means that for many (hell, most of us) a vacation simply isn’t that feasible this year.

We should consider ourselves lucky if that’s the worst recession can do. It’s hit a lot of people a lot harder. Every year, the number of families who are homeless skyrocket at the beginning of summer. This year has been particularly bad. People from 10 000 families will become homeless in New York alone this summer, an increase of more than 28% from last year. At last count, that number had already hit 9420—9420 moms, dads, brothers, sisters, and children on the street in one city. That’s A LOT of people—so many, that if you wanted to meet them all, one a day, it would take you more than 27 years.

But numbers are just statistics. They don’t tell the whole story. People do. Like 11 year old Arielle Figueras, who completed fifth grade one day and was in a shelter with her family the next. Or the Dixon family, who were evicted in April, have been separated in various homes since then, and are now reunited on the streets. Families who had found short-term solutions—like staying with relatives or asking the landlord to temporarily take pity on them—are booted out now that the weather is warmer and the kids are out of school and underfoot.
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Yolanda Clatworthy

Less Condoms=More Teenage Pregnancy

Being a teen is hard enough. Being a teenage mother is infinitely harder—and according to a study by John Santelli of the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, there are more and more teens who are becoming moms. Nearly 4 in 10 American teens will be preggers by age 20, and a whopping 445 000 of them will give birth. At those rates, America is the teenage pregnancy capital of the Western World.

Having a baby is a wonderful, beautiful act—but there is a time and a place for it. When a teenager gives birth, the odds of her or her baby having a fulfilling life are significantly lower than if she had waited until she was in her twenties. Teen moms are more likely to drop out of school, receive welfare, and have more children within a couple of years. In turn, the children of teen moms will statistically have poorer health and inferior results in school than their peers who had parents who gave birth later on. Children from teen pregnancies are also more likely to end up in prison (if they’re sons) or giving birth while still teenagers (if they’re daughters).

Which is why Santelli’s study is so disturbing. It shows that teenagers are having kids at a higher rate, not necessarily because they desire children at that stage in life but because they are not taking simple precautions to prevent it. The use of contraceptives is going down, leaving health educators wondering where the f*%# they went wrong. Because, instead of using a condom, youth are trying the “withdrawal method,” and even the “let’s not use anything” approach—otherwise known as the “I’m playing Russian Roulette with my girlfriend’s future” approach. Hell, the guys should be worried too, because STIs tend to spread a lot faster when there’s no condom to stop them (and by “tend to” I mean DO).
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Yolanda Clatworthy

Hip Hop: Coming Soon to a School Near You

Education as we know it is changing. Remember sitting in class and having your teacher yell at you for listening to music? No longer! If Run-DMC has their way, teachers will not only be encouraging music in the classroom but will be bringing in rap and hip hop of their own.

Darryl McDaniels, a member of the pioneering rap group Run-DMC, was invited by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to attend a conference at the Summer Teacher Institute last week. While there, he spoke to teachers that had gathered from across the country about the importance of using rap as a way in which teachers could better connect with their students, saying that rap made school more interesting, relevant, and personal for students. All I can say is, why wasn’t Run-DMC saying this to my teachers when I was in school?

But seriously, he’s got a point. While he admitted that rap can be “raw,” he also pointed out that it is a form of social commentary and as such has the potential to become an educational tool and a medium of expression for kids who might not have another outlet. In his own words, “real hip-hop is information, education, communication and motivation, whether you’re rich, poor, black, white, Puerto Rican. Hip-hop is the total expression of the existence of what it’s like to be alive on the face of the earth.”

So look out students. This September, it could be your teacher that busts into the classroom with a few Run-DMC lyrics of their own:

One thing I know is that life is short

So listen up homeboy, give this a thought

The next time someone’s teaching why don’t you get taught?

( From Run-DMC:  “It’s Like That”)

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Posted by:

Yolanda Clatworthy