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After Fisher: affirmative action and Asian-American students

Michele S. Moses, University of Colorado; Christina Paguyo, Colorado State University, and Daryl Maeda, University of Colorado After eight years, the Abigail Fisher case finally has been put to rest. In a landmark judgment on June 23, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of race-conscious affirmative action in university admissions. Abigail Fisher, a white woman, had sued the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) for its race-conscious admissions policy after she was denied admission. She had argued that the university violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Supporters of race-conscious admissions programs are understandably gratified. But …

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Shaping America’s Future: Thoughts on Educating the Hispanic Community in the United States

Hispanics are the fastest-growing minority in the United States. Because they are rapidly making up a significant proportion of our population, it’s important to consider how we as a nation can invest in their success. To do this, we’ll have to look at the specific challenges many Hispanics are experiencing in America, especially when it comes to education. This is just a glimpse of what we can do to achieve education equality for all Americans. Why it’s important to serve the Hispanic community in the United States In the 2014-2015 year, minorities were the majority, according to the U.S. Education …

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Why has Japan’s massacre of disabled gone unnoticed? For answers, look to the past

Rachel Adams, Columbia University On July 26, 2016 a man wielding a knife broke into Tsukui Yamayuriena, a home for the disabled outside of Tokyo and brutally murdered 19 people as they slept, while injuring another 26. Afterwards, he turned himself in to a local police station, with the explanation: “It is better that the disabled disappear.” Disability advocates have expressed dismay that the massacre – Japan’s deadliest mass killing since World War II – has received so little attention relative to mass killings in Paris, Nice, Orlando, Kabul and Baghdad. Australian disability activist Carly Findlay wrote, “There was no …

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How to Prevent the Winter Slide

By Frank Milner As students get set to embark on their coveted winter break plans, parents should be prepping on how to combat the dreaded “winter slide” that can impact their very own kids. Days and even weeks out, students can begin to “coast” and quickly lose momentum in school. Despite the fact that it’s not as long as the three-month break that kids typically refer to as the “summer slide,” the two to four weeks that students go without any educational activity can truly be detrimental to their long-term academic success, including core subjects such as math and science. …

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Racial inequality starts early – in preschool

Esther Canty-Barnes, Rutgers University Newark On Wednesday, July 6, the four-year-old daughter of Diamond Reynolds witnessed the killing of Philando Castile by a Minnesota police officer. She and her mother sat in close proximity to Castile when he was shot. A 2009 Department of Justice study showed that more than 60 percent of American children had directly or indirectly been exposed to violence within the past year. Exposure to such violence has long-term physical, psychological and emotional implications. When these children enter school, they have unique needs. Many are ill-prepared for the social, emotional and academic rigor that is anticipated …

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The HBCU Advantage, Part II: Or How to Win When the Competition is Tough

HBCUs came into existence in vastly different times, when they were necessary for black students to attend college. Today, they have to be savvy if they want to stick around. Let’s take a look at the shift HBCUs are making to become prominent in today’s integrated culture. There are many different business models out there, but in general, some serve the mass market and some appeal to niches. When it comes to today’s colleges, it’s easy to see PWIs (or predominantly white institutions) as “mass market” and HBCUs as “niche” schools. HBCUs have also had long histories, were created to …

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Are all black students falling behind?

Kevin O’Neal Cokley, University of Texas at Austin A recent report by The Education Trust, a nonprofit working on educational justice, reveals that while there has been an improvement in graduation rates at four-year public institutions for all students, the improvement is smaller for black students. According to the report, the gaps in graduation rates between black and white students have either stayed the same or did not show the same increase as they did for white students. The report shows that even among institutions that improved overall graduation rates from 2003 to 2013, more than half of them (53 …

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Why the charter school debate has moved beyond ‘better’ or ‘worse’

Joshua Cowen, Michigan State University The charter school debate is getting even more heated. Recently, charter opponents launched a campaign from the steps of the Massachusetts State House to warn that charter schools were “sapping resources from the traditional schools that serve most minority students, and creating a two-track system.” Similar opposition has been voiced by critics across the country as well. So when it comes to educating kids, are charter schools good or bad? Differing views Minnesota authorized the first charter schools in 1991. Charter schools are public schools that are independent and more autonomous than traditional schools and …

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Why the baby brain can learn two languages at the same time

Naja Ferjan Ramirez, University of Washington Any adult who has attempted to learn a foreign language can attest to how difficult and confusing it can be. So when a three-year-old growing up in a bilingual household inserts Spanish words into his English sentences, conventional wisdom assumes that he is confusing the two languages. Research shows that this is not the case. In fact, early childhood is the best possible time to learn a second language. Children who experience two languages from birth typically become native speakers of both, while adults often struggle with second language learning and rarely attain native-like …

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When Trump proposed a wall and California tore one down

Prop 58 bilingual, dual-language programs improve education prospects for all kids. Next stop: finding teachers This article was written by PATRICIA GÁNDARA As the election results were rolling in across the country signaling that Donald Trump would become the 45th  president of the United States, nearly three-quarters of Californians had voted to restore bilingual education in California. The Trump campaign had been overtly anti-immigrant, while the restoration of bilingual education was an affirmation of the valuing of the children of immigrants. How could California and the nation be at such great odds? In 1976, California was one of the first states …

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