Students on Debate Teams Do Better in School

Today’s Drum highlights a new study from Virginia Commonwealth University which demonstrates that African American students who participate on debate teams get better grades: The new study conducted by researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University, examined 2,500 Chicago Public Schools students who participated in at least one debate tournament over a 10-year period, comparing their performance [...]

Defining African American Studies

John McWhorter questions what African American Studies students should learn (The New Republic): While this year has become best known as the fortieth anniversary of Woodstock, it was also forty years ago that the first African-American Studies department was established, at San Francisco State University. Forty-one fall semesters later, there are hundreds of such departments. [...]

Guest Post: Dr. Maya Rockeymoore: My Learning Story

Dr. Maya Rockeymoore, President and CEO of Global Policy Solutions.  Working with the Forum for Education and Democracy’s Rethink Learning Now campaign, Dr. Rockeymoore shares her “learning story.”  This campaign is designed to get people engaged in education reform by sharing their “learning stories.”   They are seeking to collect stories from across the United [...]

Financially Strapped with Student Loans?

Don’t get me wrong, student loans allow aspiring students to attend college.  And at the time you’re filling out your loan application it doesn’t seem like such a large amount, and you intend to pay it back promptly.  Ten years later, you’ve become an expert on forbearance requests, deferments, and employer-provided student loan repayment programs.  And [...]

Obama Effect on Black Student Achievement? Not So Fast

While I am as excited as the next person about the role President Obama will play in the lives of young black children, I am a realist. This will take time to realize, and even longer to accurately measure. So imagine my surprise reading an article suggesting that research supports a “bounce.” In a study [...]

School Vouchers: Okay for Lawmakers, Not Okay for Your Kids?

Vouchers for black children to leave failing schools in order to attend public or private schools remains a touchstone in education policy and politics.  However, if one reviews the choices lawmakers choose for their own children, surveys show that 38 percent of Members of Congress have sent their children to private school, and 20 percent [...]

Enforce Education at Home

Oneita Jackson writes in the Detroit Free Press about how she enforces academic achievement in the home: I gave my son a one-sentence ultimatum the other day and went on about my business. I didn’t stutter, didn’t repeat myself, and didn’t wonder how he would take it. It was about his academic achievement. “You have [...]

Importance of Learning A Foreign Language

I graduated with my degree in Spanish, with my mother shaking her head wondering if I’d ever find a job. Fortunately for both of us, I remain gainfully employed 12 years later. But my diploma assigning my Bachelors of Arts in Spanish neglected to fully realize the incredible lessons that language has taught me, and that continues to guide me today. Those lessons are passion, perspective and place.

Getting Schooled

Perhaps my favorite portion of President Obama’s address to Congress was when he cautioned American schoolchildren and challenged all Americans to “get schooled.”

Black Student Unions: A Win-Win Decision for Black Students

Courtland Milloy writes in The Washington Post:  Now that the First Kids have started classes at Sidwell Friends in Washington, they are likely to face this decision in the years to come: Whether to join the school’s Black Student Union. Or not. Will their choice matter either way? Sure, it will, unfair as that might [...]

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