I just love a heartwarming holiday story – especially when teachers and students are the beneficiaries.
Kindergarten teacher Heidi Solivan got an early Christmas present when the classroom technology she was fundraising to buy was donated instead. Solivan had four Redcat audio systems from Lightspeed Technologies at the top of her classroom wishlist and was surprised with the fully-donated systems on an episode of The Rachael Ray Show that aired on November 24.
Producers from the show contacted Lightspeed Technologies, a leading provider of classroom audio solutions, after they found Solivan’s GoFundMe page that had about $775 raised so far in donations. Solivan teaches a full-day, full-inclusion class with special education students, English language learners, and students who struggle with attention or hearing difficulties. The speech pathologist at Solivan’s school purchased one Redcat system last year and Solivan had access to it for one week. That was enough to sell the Kindergarten teacher on the system, which includes a microphone on a lanyard so students throughout the classroom can hear the instructor without vocal or hearing strain.
The producers told Solivan that she would be doing a Skype session with them about the need for the Redcat systems but then surprised her twice: Rachael Ray was waiting on the other end of the Skype chat, and the postal worker delivered the systems right to Solivan’s door during the session.
Solivan has already put the systems to use, and says that they are “going to allow the students to hear every sound that we’re making, and it will allow us to slow down and be clear. We won’t have to raise our voices to get their attention, because we’ll already have it.”
Solivan added her thankfulness to Lightspeed Technologies and encouraged other classrooms to work towards incorporating the Redcat systems.
“Every classroom teacher should have this,” Solivan said.
You can check out the entire segment on The Rachael Ray show here:
A little more about Lightspeed Technologies
Lightspeed classroom audio systems allow teachers to speak in normal conversational tones while being assured that every child has an equal opportunity to hear all of the instruction. The no-installation Redcat provides clear, low-volume, highly intelligible sound that is evenly distributed throughout the classroom so every child hears every word. The company’s audio system for small group instruction, Redcat, gives teachers the ability to gain insights into small group interactions and learning. The Topcat has become the premier solution for new construction and renovations due to its ease of installation, wireless connectivity, and remarkable audio quality. For more information about Lightspeed classroom audio products, visit www.lightspeed-tek.com.
**The Edvocate is pleased to publish guest posts as way to fuel important conversations surrounding P-20 education in America. The opinions contained within guest posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of The Edvocate or Dr. Matthew Lynch.**
A guest post by Julian Vasquez Heilig
Is tenure still an important tradition in the 21st century? This is a debate that comes up often in my discussions with policymakers and others. It’s also an issue that is currently flaring up in Scott Walker’s Wisconsin (See What’s Gone Wrong in Wisconsin?) There is an increasing cacophony that our ancestors’ of conception of educator tenure is obsoIete. I have two examples today (one personal and recent) relating to how tenure has an important role to play to protect academic freedom in our nation. I will begin with my story then segue to the explanation for the post A Mystery: What do you think is happening in this classroom? #ISupportMarilyn
I was recently “called into the principals office.” A source told me that Chris Evans, the Superintendent of Natomas Unified School District didn’t appreciate that I shared research about Teach For America with him. I have included a screenshot of the email I sent to him and the other board members below.
He contacted the Dean of the College of Education here at California State University Sacramento. I received a call from someone representing the College of Education (I won’t say who because I don’t want to put them on blast). I asked them to put their concerns in writing so I can forward them to the California Faculty Association (CFA). I also forwarded the email above to CFA and made them aware of Chris Evans’ attempt to temper my academic freedom. Fortunately, I am a tenured full professor and my academic pursuits are protected by a long and important tradition in this nation.
You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life. Winston Churchill
I think our ancestors understood the career danger presented to faculty who are tasked by our nation to create and disseminate knowledge. It’s important that faculty are protected via tenure from individuals with power and influence who want to silence dissent and creativity.
So maybe you might agree that tenure should stay in higher education, but should be done away in K-12 because of “‘all those lazy” teachers— a common refrain. Here is a case submitted by a California Cloaking Inequity reader that underscores the important of tenure (due process) and academic freedom for K-12 educators.
A student that wasn’t even in one of my classes came to my room when I wasn’t there and took a series of pictures. He photographed the Palestinian flag on my wall as well as other resources that express solidarity with Palestinian people. The pictures were turned over to a Zionist organization from outside of the local community. The Zionists promptly lodged a complaint with the site administrators as well as with the school district. The student in question argued that he did not feel “safe” on campus because of the materials on display in my room. A few days later, I stayed after school to work late. Upon returning to my room in the evening, I startled the assistant superintendent in charge of personnel who had let himself into my room and was examining the materials on my walls. He not only challenged the appropriateness of my Palestinian flag but also a poster of Malcolm X. He claimed that these items were too “controversial.” He suggested that I put up an Israeli flag to “balance” out my room. Later, I was informed by one of my school administrators that school board members had also been given access to my room in order to critique the items on my walls.
Eventually I received a letter signed by the lead as well as both assistant principals informing me that I was in violation of a district policy regarding controversial topics. I was given until the end of the week to remove the Palestinian flag along with other materials. The letter went on to explain that the materials in my room were too “controversial” and “unbalanced.” I was also informed that what I put up on the walls would continue to be monitored. I responded by removing every single poster, student work, instructional resource, and decoration from the room regardless if it was related to social justice for Palestinians. All that was left were four bare walls. Previously, my room was beautiful. It was full of art, student work, culturally relevant images that affirmed the rights of immigrants, women, gays and lesbians, African Americans, and the list goes on. I took it all down in protest. I decided to not play along with the school’s attempt to represent social justice for some groups but not for Palestinians.
Of course my students wanted to know what in the world was going on. This whole thing became an immense teachable moment that allowed me to teach even more about the conflict in Palestine. I also was very open with my students about the various ways I was resisting school authority as well as the consequences I was facing. Of course they were all excited, intrigued and hungry to learn more about not only Palestine but also various forms of civil disobedience.
After several months, I then was informed by one of the administrators that the school board requested that I redecorate my room “appropriately.” The administrator made sure to emphasize that it was the school board’s request. I told her that the school board could come to my room and decorate it themselves. I left the walls bare for months on end but eventually resisting in this way began to grind on me. I slowly began to reintegrate some of the images back on the walls. I felt like a sellout the first time I complied with their racist directives even though the bare walls proved to be an effective protest judging by the high level of student engagement and awareness around Palestine and permissible discourse in public spaces defined by White people.
Two years later, when I was assigned a new classroom, I decided to once again challenge my school district’s insistence on Eurocentric monoculturalism. However this time I committed to non-compliance short of dismissal. Furthermore, unlike my previous confrontation with the school district, I kept other teachers of color as well as like-minded White teachers abreast of my effort to confront the apartheid of knowledge we were all subjected to.
I decorated my new classroom with some of the images that had been displayed in my previous room. One poster called for the removal of the apartheid wall in the West Bank. A second supported the international call for boycott, divestment and sanctions on Israel. A third simply proclaimed solidarity with the people of Palestine in English, Spanish, and Arabic. In addition, a photograph of an Israeli soldier pointing his weapon down rage at a crowd of Palestinians was also displayed. The final display was a piece of art I co-created with two of my students. It included a characterization of a man holding a Palestinian flag. Next to the charcoal and water color image of the man, I expressed the following sentiment: “[My principals] lack the courage to lead on issues of equity and social justice. I propose that they support teachers that teach about human rights rather than silence their voices. I will create materials to educate others about the Palestinian struggle for self-determination and nurture my own critical consciousness about human rights.” The powder keg was put in place and the match was lit.
Since I was intentionally defying my principals, I knew I would find myself in hot water sooner rather than later. Knowing this, I invited teachers and friends to do gallery walks through my room. I discussed the images with my current classes and began integrating the images in my lessons. In short order the principals wrote me a letter informing me that I had three days to remove the posters described above as well as others that in the administration’s opinion were, “…not conducive to positive community-building.” I promptly removed the posters but outlined their former locations with blue painter’s tape in order to bring attention to the scene of the crime. At this point is where a camera caught one of my principals trying to catch me ridin dirty. Actually, it wasn’t that hard. I was acting in open defiance to the racist policies of my school district.
Watch the video of the knowledge surveillance below.
In response to the blue painter’s tape, the associate superintendent, the same one I caught lurking in my room after hours (again tryin to catch me “ridin dirty”), was sent to track down the runaway slave and bring me back to the plantation. Of course the sixteen page document that reprimands me for so called “unprofessional conduct” and “unsatisfactory performance” used none of this language but that is the essence of the matter. I was directed to not use the walls of my classroom as a forum to discuss controversial topics nonetheless I was required to maintain educational materials on the walls (See Jane run, Jack and Jill went up the hill, and the like). Furthermore, during the next two years, I was to seek written consent from site administrators before displaying posters, images, flags, or other materials in my classroom. In short I was to be a good little nigger and not dare to speak unless given permission to do so. I consider this letter in my employment file to be a badge of honor.
I am still resisting the racist directives I’ve been given. I am careful and strategic about what I display in my room but I’ll be damned if I will ever ask permission to speak. I continue to post without asking consent.
The essential question that my students have examined this entire year asks them to compare and contrast the experiences of indigenous populations in North America to the experiences of indigenous populations in Palestine after the arrival of European settlers. My walls enshrine my students’ answers to questions such as:
What are Israel and Palestine?
Why are Israelis and Palestinians fighting?
How did this conflict start in the first place?
Why is Israel occupying the Palestinian territories?
Why is there fighting today between Israel and Palestine?
Why does the violence keep happening?
How is the conflict going to end?
Why is it so hard to make peace?
Sue (2004) maintains that in order for ethnocentric monoculturalism to operate, the group in question must have the power to define the reality of other groups. My experiences give evidence of the power to define the reality of other groups. The apartheid of knowledge that exists in my school bestows Whites with the power to define the reality of other groups, it also “marginalizes, discredits, and devalues the scholarship, epistemologies, and other cultural resources of Faculty of Color” (Delgado Bernal & Villalpando, 2002, p. 169). Discussions on race at my school are not legitimized, my perspectives a teacher of color are not validated, and White school personnel are unwilling or unable to engage in dialogue that might lead to squarely confronting a different racial reality. The restriction of images and symbols described in this testimonials illustrate Sue’s (2004) conclusion that, “The extreme bias in knowledge construction from a Euro-American perspective means that the history taught to children is at best incomplete, and at worst, inaccurate and distorted.” The epistemological racism evident in the response of the schools, districts, and administrators illustrates characteristics present in all forms of apartheid; namely the separation, subordination and marginalization of the cultural norms, values, and knowledge of People of Color. As in Salazar’s (2005) study, “Participants received messages, communicated on institutional and individual levels, that served as daily reminders that they were outsiders” (p. 245).
Apartheid requires power. This narratives illustrate how power was exercised by establishing the omnipresence of authority in the form of school and district administrators, as well as elected school officials making clandestine visits to my classroom. The school system also exerted its power by dispensing disciplinary action. The school system used this power to define and impose its ethnocentric reality and beliefs upon the learning environment. Rather than facilitating dialogues about race, my school administrators were guarded and vigilant instead of truthful, open, and honest. School board policies that call for ”fairness,” and “balance” requiring teachers to maintained a so-called “objective perspective” were used to white-out courageous conversations about race, human rights, and justice. Evidence of subaltern counter-narratives was physically and forcefully eliminated.
Trepidation about allowing the perspectives of racially and culturally subjugated groups to be manifested within a preeminent site of cultural production, such as the school classroom, motivates the enforcement of the apartheid of knowledge. Apartheid requires an acknowledgement and fear of difference. However, this acknowledgement serves as justification for the school system to double down on its investment in the myth of colorblindness. The district and site administrators required me to be complicit in their efforts to be colorblind. Motivated by the need to be perceived as unbiased, and by fears of appearing to be anti-Semitic, I was required to deny my own experiential reality as an Afro-Latino by removing images and symbols that testified to the effects of racism and discrimination towards Palestinians. Thus, the school system reproduced and sustained ethnocentric monoculturalism through an apartheid of knowledge that enforces the use of modernist and Eurocentric definitions of fairness, balance, objectivity, truth and falsity, and ultimately the nature of reality.
Malcolm S.
With tenure this social studies teacher is protected from powerful political forces and guaranteed due process. However, that didn’t stop the district from marring this teacher’s record with a complaint. Tenure is not obsolete if we believe in a vibrant democracy that values debate and dissent. Enlightenment vs. hegemony.
Democracy must be built through open societies that share information. When there is information, there is enlightenment. When there is debate, there are solutions. When there is no sharing of power, no rule of law, no accountability, there is abuse, corruption, subjugation and indignation. — Atifete Jahjaga
Apartheid of Knowledge— It’s not just Soweto, it’s in California too.
Works Cited
Delgado Bernal, D. & Villalpando, O. (2002). An Apartheid of Knowledge in Academia: The struggle over the “legitimate” knowledge of faulty of color. Equity & Excellence in Education, 35:2, 169-180.
Sue, D. W. (2004). Whiteness and ethnocentric monoculturalism: Making the “invisible” visible. American Psychologist, 59 (8), 759-769.
Salazar, C. F. (2005). Outsiders in a White, middle-class system: Counselor educators of Color in Academe. Journal of Humanistic Counseling, Education and Development, 44, 240-252.
Julian Vasquez Heilig is an award-winning researcher and teacher. He is currently a Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies and the Director of the Doctorate in Educational Leadership at California State Sacramento.
Globally, there is an uneven balance between proficient workers and the amount of available jobs matching their skill level and expectations, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO).
The ILO released the 9th edition of the Key Indicators of the Labor Marketon November 16 and parts of it aren’t pretty when it comes to the state of higher education around the world. Though the education level of the worldwide workforce is improving, this increase in higher education doesn’t necessarily translate to lower unemployment on a global scale.
Of the 64 participating countries, the report indicates that all but 2 demonstrate a measurable increase in share of the workforce with a tertiary education over the last 15 years. The largest rise in education was observed in Canada, Luxembourg and Russia. However, individuals with secondary level education don’t necessarily posses an improved chance of locating and securing a job. Tertiary graduates may be less likely to be unemployed in high income systems, yet more likely to be unemployed in low or middle income economies.
The report also indicates that workers in high income countries produce 62 times the yearly output of a worker in a low income system and 10 times that of an employee in a middle income economy. Nonetheless, middle income economies have documented the most productiveness during the last 15 years.
Unfortunately, the average unemployment figures from 112 countries with comparable information increased in 2007-2014, from 6.4 percent to 7.2 percent.
Unless the mismatch between competent workers and the number of accessible jobs is addressed, a decline in economic growth and development may be felt internationally.
It’s no secret that throughout the United States, music education programs are being eliminated due to funding. However the benefits these programs can bring are critical to young children’s development, and I believe music may even hold the key to closing the achievement gap between white children and minority students.
Based on research, early music education illustrates clear emotional and cognitive benefits for children. Increased processing of visual and spatial information, improved literacy, greater ability to learn a second language, academic accomplishment and perseverance are some of the traits associated with incorporating music education throughout youth. When learning to play an instrument, different parts of the brain are required to coordinate at once, which leads to stronger neural pathways. Additionally, children’s auditory systems are enhanced from this, and memory improves. This type of growth serves to heighten brain development throughout childhood, the benefits of which last through adulthood.
A recent study has demonstrated that it only takes 20 days of music education for there to be cognitive advancement in 90 percent of subjects. The evidence is overwhelmingly in support of music education and the positive outcomes it has on children.
Unfortunately, even in the cultural mecca of the world, most New York City public school students don’t enjoy access to music education throughout their schooling. It is important to fill the gaps in some way and non-profit organizations such as, Education Through Music, are volunteering to fill this void. Although their involvement is of positive benefit to the students involved, it is the hope that these non-profits will become part of an enhancement plan, rather than a substitution for school-based music education.
I think that music is more than just a supplementary learning tool; it is a necessary academic skill. Incorporating the right music programs in traditionally at-risk student populations has the potential to enhance learning and an interest in it – and to transcend some of the barriers that may make it difficult for minority, socio-economically challenged and other at-risk students to succeed.
**The Edvocate is pleased to publish guest posts as way to fuel important conversations surrounding P-20 education in America. The opinions contained within guest posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of The Edvocate or Dr. Matthew Lynch.**
A guest column by Edgar Wilson
Why are we learning this?
The anthem of disengaged students takes on new meaning when applied to America’s universities. It isn’t merely a question of individual lessons or trivial facts; when hyper-expensive degrees and all but unavoidable student loans are as much a rite of passage as walking the line at graduation, the meaning behind the mission deserves to be scrutinized.
Students today should be forgiven for feeling confused about just what they are supposed to be getting from school. In the classroom, lessons will often function to stimulate problem-solving, discussion, analysis—in short, getting students to think.
On the policy-making side, the goal is less abstract: school exists to prepare students to be productive workers. The message has become even more critical and urgent as the global economy proves that students around the world must all be competitive with one another. If our schools don’t create more productive workers, they will quickly find the jobs filled by immigrant labor, or face the prospect of the U.S. losing its status as an economic leader.
At the post-secondary level, the language still manages to distinguish between “trade schools” and universities; at every other level, the intersection of economic pragmatism and a more liberal arts-influence is less pronounced.
American healthcare makes for a powerful case study, as it is suffering from a similar polarity.
Primary care provider shortages mean that there is a demand for both bedside caregivers and administrators with overlapping occupational skills. Nursing is a trade, certainly: from administering medication to coordinating care, nurses are hands-on and highly skilled; yet administrators must also have the less tangible skill set of the entrepreneur, able to dissect complex organization systems and manage people effectively. They need the liberal arts training to think critically and creatively, as well as expertise in their trade.
Current continuing education requirements emphasize the tradecraft aspects of nursing, and it is up to individuals to find, finance, and complete the sort of advanced degrees that serve as a prerequisite for administrative careers. The needs are parallel, but the avenues for fulfillment have been segregated.
The answer to the compartmentalization of education—of learning hard or soft skills, of preparing for lifelong learning and lifelong doing—isn’t just a post-secondary consideration. Schools at all levels need to engage students on all levels—a model known in some sectors as kinaesthetic learning. This is more than a learning style; it is a pedagogical discipline that promotes learning by doing, activating curiosity as well as providing practical applications.
In a world (and an economy) where change is constant and disruptive, students and workers alike need the capacity to adapt quickly, apply knowledge constructively, and never treat the learning process as having a clear beginning and end.
The “why?” of academics cannot afford to be withheld; neither can soft skills be relegated to liberal arts instruction, while hard skills masquerade as cutting-edge STEM initiatives or high-demand trade fields. The artificial degree-to-career pipeline, and the accompanying price tag barring the way to higher earning through higher learning, obscures the reality that lifelong learning has become mandatory, not elective. All occupations—not just healthcare—need dynamic workers who both learn and do.
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Edgar Wilson is an Oregon native with a passion for cooking, trivia, and politics. He studied conflict resolution and international relations and has worked in industries ranging from international marketing to broadcast journalism. He is currently working as an independent analytical consultant. He can be reached via email hereor on Twitter @EdgarTwilson.
**The Edvocate is pleased to publish guest posts as way to fuel important conversations surrounding P-20 education in America. The opinions contained within guest posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of The Edvocate or Dr. Matthew Lynch.**
A guest column by Lucy Brown
There has been a dramatic change in the use of technologies in the last few decades and particularly in classrooms. Schools have had to invest heavily in the purchase of hardwares and softwares; set up internet access and train teachers to use technology. This has made the young people in education to be enthusiastic about technology and made them grow to use it more often. Some of them lack the extensive knowledge use of the technology they are embracing. Use of technology in the classroom is very important, though at times, opportunities to harness children’s skills and enthusiasm to improve learning in school are sometimes missed out.
Technology continues to be increasingly adopted and used by all educational institutions across the world, but examples of cutting edge technology being harnessed to transform teaching and learning remains the exception rather than the rule (Becta, 2009)
Effective use of technology is central to achieving the goals set out in schools. This is because, with technology, the learners are assured of enhanced teaching and learning activities; technology improves efficiency of systems and processes within the school and it also reduces the administrative burden on teachers. With it comes the advancement and exploration of future ways of working.
Students get an opportunity to learn beyond the confines of the school timetables and school gates when they incorporate technology in their learning system. It is very fundamental to students because it makes them to search for innovative ways of incorporating new technologies and the teachers get an opportunity to use them to advance the curriculum to suit its relevancy in the 21st century. With it, an already successful school will improve further. It is a tool for students to take control of their learning.
Technology is important in education in the classroom as it forces us to reconsider how people learn, how they are empowered and what type of learning and useful information is. Technology is forcing educators to re-evaluate the very nature of what and how we teach and it is impossible to without them in schools.
With use of technology in classes, computer can serve as a tutor. This lessens the burden of teachers in the class, as they are just left with the role of guiding the students as they learn from the computer. It can also help with students who are slow learners; this is through the computer tutorials being repeated until the students who are falling out grasps what is being taught. This is the main advantage of technology in classrooms; teachers don’t have that time to repeat lessons over and over again.
Technology is really helping in fighting illiteracy in the world. A story is told of an American, Annaben Thomas (Bennett, 1999). She was unable to read even after several years in high school at a New York City school. She eventually enrolled herself in a computer program that taught her how to read and write. This was her last resort after she had tried everything humanly possible to learn to read and write to no avail. Her success story was published in an article “Computers as Tutors’ by Bennett.
But some critics view technology in the negative. They think that, with computers in the classrooms, students will be transformed into less fools. Boyle (1998. P.618) argues that information technology may actually be making us stupid. Some people who grew up in the pre-technology era also argue that the use of technology will take the emotion and heart out of the classroom (Wehrle, 1998).
Education serves as a window through which our imagination and curiosity can take flight into the unknown and enhance our creativity, and the use of technology in education plays a vital role in helping students to achieve their full development potential. Given the role of education in shaping students for the outside world, there should be a connection between the world and education, and that can only be achieved by incorporating technology in the classroom.
The advantages of having computers in classrooms outweigh the disadvantages. Technology is a positive supplement to bridge the gap between education and the technological world in which we live. Technology is setting a pace in students to jump start with marketable job skills.
This post is brought to you by Lucy Brown from Auvisa.org. Auvisa.org is an Australian visa agency, founded in 2011 by migration lawyers. Lucy has 11 years of teaching experience in chemistry before joined Auvisa.org.
When it comes to getting more minorities into college, and then graduating them, there are a lot of different ideas out there. Stronger high school recruiting, better guidance programs for first-generation students, and more minority faculty members are just a few of the ways to make college campuses more diverse to the benefit and success of everyone.
Having strong minority role models as mentors is another, and perhaps the most powerful idea of them all. Successful people who look like the students a particular college or university is trying to graduate, and who come from a similar background, can leave a lasting impression and inspire students to similar heights.
One particular group of minority mentors that I feel should be getting even more involved in the minority recruiting and mentorship process is student athletes. Whether still athletes at the school, or alumni, this particular subset of minority mentors should play an important role in graduating other traditionally disadvantaged students. Here are a few reasons why I think so:
Many of them have powerful, relatable life stories.
Athletes often seem like larger-than-life superstars while they are on campus. But many of them have had personal lives that are relatable and inspirational to everyone else.
One great example of a college-athlete-turned-minority-mentor is The Ohio State University alum Maurice Clarett. The former college running back has taken on a new role as both a cautionary tale, and inspiration, to other young people. If his name sounds familiar, it is because his claim to fame was not just on the football field or as a national champion in the sport. Clarett served four years in prison for aggravated robbery and carrying a concealed weapon. It was behind bars that he started reading up on personal development and ways to grow beyond a delinquent and even ways to rise above his association with being a football star.
Today he talks with other college athletes about things like personal responsibility and being accountable for actions, no matter their upbringing. Clarett has visited athletes at Alabama, Notre dame, Tennessee and Mississippi State. He recently spoke with the national champion Florida State football team and acknowledged that many minority college athletes come from home environments that leave them “undeveloped” and without the skills needed to function successfully in life. Taking advantage of the resources available on college campuses and determining to be better than life’s circumstances are two lessons that Clarett tries to pass along to the people he mentors.
A story like Clarett’s is so much more powerful than the seemingly-empty warnings from adults on college campuses, many of whom look nothing like the students they are trying to influence and have no shared life experiences. By finding ways to tap into the stories of athletes, colleges can give their students a more impactful way of committing to success.
Athletes themselves can acquire necessary life skills from like-minded mentors.
Traditionally getting into college on an athletic scholarship has been a way that minorities have been able to break onto college campuses, particularly if they came from educational environments that simply did not offer the same resources as advantaged peers. I’d argue that getting these athletes to graduation day is simply not enough; a whole other realm of life skills is needed to ensure that they are successful long after their athletic playing days have passed. When the cheers die down and the attention turns to the more practical things in life, these student athletes need ground to stand on. Pairing them up with mentors, or at the very least bringing in former athletes to share their after-college success stories, is a great way to inspire greatness that lasts a lifetime.
Leadership. Teamwork. Hard work. Earning a “win.” Losing gracefully. All of these are lessons that college athletes know in the context of their respective sports. Translating that to life beyond college can be challenging but can be made much easier with the help of mentors that have a common understanding with the students they address. Schools should make this as much a priority as recruiting minority students to sports and academic programs. Colleges and universities have a responsibility to their students to prepare them for all aspects of life and proper mentorship can be a necessary building block in that process.
Focusing on recruiting more athlete mentors for minority students is a somewhat unconventional option, but it just might work.
How do you think colleges can best mentor minority students?
*The Edvocate is pleased to publish guest posts as way to fuel important conversations surrounding P-20 education in America. The opinions contained within guest posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of The Edvocate or Dr. Matthew Lynch.**
A guest column by David P. Dauwalder, Ph.D.
Welcome to the San Diego-Baja California Binational Mega-Region.
While that’s a mouthful, the term is now in wide use by U.S. and Mexican leaders and organizations to define the transnational area consisting of San Diego and Imperial counties and the State of Baja California. The region has an estimated population of 6.78 million, with 3.44 million in the U.S. and 3.34 million in Mexico, unified by a dense and complex set of transactions and relationships across the international boundary. It represents the largest concentration of population along the U.S.-Mexican border.
By any measure, it’s a remarkable place. The San Diego-Tijuana urban region is the largest binational metropolitan area in the U.S. and the largest in the world. At its center is the globe’s busiest land-border crossing, with more than 100,000 people coming northward every day to shop, work, and study and for tourism and recreation. Each month, more than one million U.S. citizens cross the border into Tijuana and back. Despite the security enhancements on the U.S. side of the border, the two halves of the region are intimately connected demographically, culturally, politically, economically, and in so many other ways.
The vitality of the binational region is incontrovertible. San Diego County is the state’s second-most populous, with a balanced, forward-looking economy based on universities and research, clean tech, the military, tourism, life sciences, aerospace, healthcare, maritime, and information and communications technologies. Tijuana is now the second-largest city on the West Coast of North America, with steep population growth in recent decades. It is a major center for manufacturing, especially in electronics, medical devices, aerospace, and automotive, integrated with the global economy. Much of the manufacturing includes shipping goods at various stages of production
back and forth locally across the border.
Leaders in the U.S. and Mexico, from the head-of-state level down to grassroots communities, have put in motion historic, multi-faceted efforts to enhance international integration with a strong emphasis on education, especially teacher and student mobility. These efforts are particularly vigorous in the binational region.
As it happens, the Mega-Region offers a set of special opportunities to enrich and transform colleges and universities. These opportunities are enhanced by exceptional developments in relations between Mexico, on the one hand, and a variety of key individuals and organizations in the U.S., the State of California, and San Diego County.
Preliminary at-border survey data suggest there are currently as many as 1,250 Mexico- originating university students in San Diego County, and that number could swell to 3,600 by 2025. Additionally, Mexico’s demand for higher education is growing: nearly 55 percent of the population is under 30 years of age. In addition, Mexico is the third-largest recipient of H1-B visas to the U.S. – visas aimed at well-trained non-immigrants, working for a short period. In broad strokes, Mexican students are drawn to academic programs with practicums (co-op experiences and internships), short-term and research programs, and language acquisition.
San Diego hosts the largest naval fleet in the world and has the only major submarine and shipbuilding yards on the West Coast. So, not surprisingly, San Diego County is also home to the largest population of active-duty military and retired military in the U.S. These individuals and their families enjoy substantial educational benefits.
Leaders in all sectors on both sides of the border have demonstrated a remarkable unity of purpose to foster closer relations and to profit from the advantages of the binational character of the Mega-Region. Significant disciplined and coordinated bi-national initiatives to build shared infrastructure, to lobby jointly both Washington and Mexico City on regional issues, to promote educational exchange, and to raise awareness of the Mega-Region appear to be gaining support in both countries. Regional leaders regard San Diego and Baja California as complementary assets.
These regional attitudes and initiatives coincide with an exceptional push at this time toward further integration of the three NAFTA countries, the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. This push toward further integration responds to intensifying global competition from other multinational regions, particularly the European Union and eastern Asia and India. This theme of North American integration was stressed repeatedly during the recent California-Mexico Trade Initiative X, the 10th annual delegation to Mexico City by the San Diego Regional Chamber.
For colleges and universities in Southern California and throughout the Southwest, the prospect of transnational education seems both natural and inevitable. There simply is no better time for educational institutions to focus on transnational issues and on the aim of producing innovative thinkers and problem-solvers with the expertise to confront the challenges of transnational development from both a regional and a global perspective. Drilling down, the question is how can universities – acting individually or collectively — amplify these institutional U.S. and Mexican regional relationships, using them to develop alliances and partnerships contributing to program development, student recruitment, facilities expansion, and financial support?
Thanks to today’s climate of interdependence, we’re all about to find out.
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David P. Dauwalder, Ph.D., is Executive Vice President and Provost of Woodbury University in Los Angeles and San Diego.
Educating American children has always been a responsibility that has fallen heavily on the states. As the public k-12 education matured in the 20th century, however, it became increasingly apparent that states left to their own educational devices meant dangerous consequences for many children—especially students with disabilities and those living in poverty, for example. Historically, the federal government has always been the one to pick up the slack in k-12 education when states have fallen short.
In his piece for The Daily Beast, Jonah Edelman of Stand for Children warns that members of the newly-seated Congress have already voiced intentions to reduce accountability and transparency over states’ educational systems, while providing additional flexibility with federal funding.
I have my reservations about this. Contrary to what some states-rights activists claim, states do not always act in the best interests of their residents, especially when it comes to education. Left to their own devices, states tend to enact discriminatory practices. Allow me to share a few reasons I think education still needs the support of the federal government:
Some states will run wild once given control.
My home state of Mississippi is an example of state control gone awry. If its schools were wholly reliant on the state to outline learning benchmarks and divvy up funding (based on a state population with 24 percentin povertyand over 70 percent of its students eligible for free-and-reduced-price lunch), the inequalities would compound exponentially.
And those inequalities are already startling. For example, while 83 percent of high schools in New Hampshire offer calculus, only 41 percent of those in Mississippi do.
Mississippi has never quite been able to recover from its rampant poverty that began after the Civil War. Even when freedom was granted to slaves in the state and nearby, the African-American population was not able to elevate its quality of life due to the barriers erected by segregation and Jim Crow laws. Less-overt inequalities still exist that keep each new generation of African-American students in the state from breaking the cycle of poverty at home and underachievement in the classroom.
Federal intervention can give students rights when states refuse to.
Edelman mentions issues like desegregation as wins for the federal government when states refused to do the right thing for all students. Without federal intervention, for instance, we wouldn’t have programs like the DREAM Act, which encourages continued education for students who might otherwise have been eligible for deportation. Instead, because of this federal program, they can contribute positively to their communities and to our country.
The federal government can help raise the standard of education so that all states have something to aspire to.
Federal guidance is needed to measure how much students are learning from one state to the next. Establishing a common high bar for academic performance that includes rigorous college-prep expectations can only be brought forth through federal involvement in schools.
It will be interesting to see what twists and turns the NCLB rewrites take and certainly no group will ever be completely satisfied. But the basic principle that guaranteeing every student in every state equal access to education is one worth fighting for.
**The Edvocate is pleased to publish guest posts as way to fuel important conversations surrounding P-20 education in America. The opinions contained within guest posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of The Edvocate or Dr. Matthew Lynch.**
A guest column by Anita Ginsburg
As a teacher, you do your best to plan every lesson and prepare every lecture several days in advance. You follow the curriculum to the letter, and you only use the best textbooks when planning your assignments. But as a teacher, you want to do more than just hand out grades and percentages. You want to inspire, encourage and motivate students. You recognize that a complete education doesn’t always come from a textbook or essay. If you truly want to make a difference in the classroom, you’ll need to implement the following steps:
Set High Expectations
At the beginning of each school year, you probably establish a few ground rules for expected behavior. You let students know that you want their homework in on time, and you tell them to turn off their phones when they enter the room. But your expectations should go beyond basic classroom guidelines. You need to communicate that you expect them to not just listen but to absorb, and that you want them to not just pass a test but to remember what they’ve learned. At every opportunity, let your students know when you see an improvement in their progress. Give your students examples of what a successful assignment, paper, or test looks like, so they can work toward that goal.
Show Your Enthusiasm
You likely spent several years studying specific courses to earn your degree, so clearly you have a passion for certain areas of education. When you share your enthusiasm for your favorite subjects, you can spread that energetic spark to the rest of your students. Even if students don’t seem initially engaged in science, math, or social studies, your own excitement can often pique their curiosity. They’ll feel intrigued about your enthusiasm, and they just might want to do a little research of their own to find out more. To develop better teaching techniques and leadership skills to keep students engaged and excited, consider getting a master’s degree in education. The experience and knowledge you can pass on to your students can be very beneficial.
Let Your Students Take Control
While you shouldn’t let your students push you around, you can give them a degree of choice about what they do in your classroom. Rather than reigning supreme and assigning what you think best, let your students choose their own topics for papers and projects, so long as they relate to the course content.
For example, if you teach history, you could let a student write about his or her family’s historical immigration experience, rather than restricting an essay to the immigration act of 1924. Or if you teach physics, you could let an athletic student compare the spin and rotation of a soccer ball versus a football. When you let your students connect their assignments to their own personal interests, you give them the opportunity to engage in and explore their work more deeply.
Of course, these are just a few ways you can make a difference in the classroom. It’s important to keep learning yourself to continue inspiring your students. From small seminars to higher education, every step counts to making a difference in the lives of your students.
