Disparate Impact is the social justice legalese term when an innocuous process or qualification standard disqualifies minority applicants at a higher rate than non-minorities.
‘Legal work status’ for employment eligibility is another insane example of applying “disparate impact” rules. Because, as the theory applies, Hispanics are disqualified from employment at a greater rate than non-Hispanics -when employment eligibility is reviewed- it is therefore unlawful to use a standard of a social security number check (for eligible employment authenticity) when considering job applicants. 
In essence, this is why progressives don’t like “card-check” systems; and, in a more broad sense this is why President Obama tried to institute employment eligibility in his Executive action last fall. 
Any qualification standard that adversely impacts minorities more than non-minorities is considered racist; the same applies to testing candidates. 
(Via Daily Caller) A federal judge in New York has struck down a test used by New York City to vet potential teachers, finding the test of knowledge illegally discriminated against racial minorities due to their lower scores.
At first glance, the city’s second Liberal Arts and Science Test (LAST-2) seems fairly innocuous. Unlike the unfair literacy tests of Jim Crow, LAST-2 was given to every teaching candidate in New York, and it was simply a test to make sure that teachers had a basic high school-level understanding of both the liberal arts and the sciences. (more…)

Last month we brought you the story of Oakland California and the school district decision to eliminate suspensions because too many black students were being suspended for poor behaviors. Now another California school district reports alarming High School crisis in exhaustive detail.

BTA teachers say they are discouraged by the principal from suspending students. But they also note that her approach reflects a statewide trend to find other types of resolution for problematic behavior, including by managing it more often in the classroom.

BERKELEY – Teachers at Berkeley’s alternative high school have raised concerns about the state of affairs on campus, citing “extreme behavior” among students, chronically low attendance, a lack of academic rigor, and a generally unsafe campus environment due to deficient security resources and limited district support.
Berkeley Unified School District officials and the school principal have repeatedly declined to speak in depth about safety at Berkeley Technology Academy, the district’s lone continuation high school. The campus serves the district’s highest-need students, many of whom are minorities who come from challenging home environments. Data reviewed by Berkeleyside paints a stark picture of increasing suspensions and dangerous activity at the school site in recent years, including a spike last year in suspensions related to assault or battery on school staff.  (read more)

A teacher defied Michelle Obama?

This shall not stand !  …”All your children are belong to us”!

WILLIAMSON, W.V. – Students and parents are rallying to the defense of a teacher who is accused of violating federal school snack rules.
The Williamson PreK-8 teacher, who was not identified, would give her students “wrapped candy” as a reward for their hard work and good behavior.
Because the practice was an alleged violation of the federal rules championed by first lady Michelle Obama, Mingo County Schools Director of Child Nutrition Kay Maynard “placed a call to officials at the West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) to report the incident,” the Williamson Daily News reports. (more…)

However, the significance of the improvement is what might be surprising…

(Via MNN) […] To date, schools that have tried to enforce a “no electronics” policy have met with backlash from parents who want their kids to have access to a phone in case of an emergency. But that may change with the release of a new study that found kids do better in school when mobile devices are banned.

For the study, researchers at the London School of Economics, the University of Texas, and Louisiana State University looked at the impact of cellphones on student performance by evaluating 91 schools in four cities in the U.K. — Birmingham, London, Leicester and Manchester — before and after cellphone bans. By looking at the test scores of teens at each of the schools, researchers were able to determine what — if any — effect cellphone bans had on students’ grades.
Across the board, teens’ test scores increased by 6 percent after phone bans were implemented. The results were even better for kids who were struggling academically; their scores improved by 14 percent after the ban. (more…)

A family member of a graduating student at Clay-Chalkville High School fell ill and had a medical emergency during the graduation ceremony.

As the paramedics and first responders quickly arrived on scene, the general attention, nervousness, murmurs and distraction amid the audience became more apparent. The graduating class could see something was amiss in the stands but could not identify the issue.
Christian Crawford, the senior class president, quickly approached the podium and took action – While not knowing what was taking place in the crowd, he knew enough to  lead the Cougar Stadium audience in prayer.  Watch:

A school puts up posters promoting abstinence and warning young ladies to protect their virtue and “character” by not engaging in sex on prom night.  Planned Parenthood calls the advocacy program “despicable“, and encourages teen girls to dismiss the message.
Obviously the business model of Planned Parenthood has a vested interest in teen pregnancies.

Seventeen Magazine agrees with Planned Parenthood and supports all the girls having sex.

The food is delicious comrade citizen, don’t you agree. Those stories and accompanying pictures of horrible school lunches do not actually exist. All of the delivered state nutrition is joyful, splendid and inspiring comrade.  Smiles everyone, smiles.

WASHINGTON DC – The U.S. Department of Agriculture is pushing back against a campaign criticizing First Lady Michelle Obama’s school lunch rules by showing one picture of a somewhat appetizing child’s lunch.
“They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and in the digital age we have ample opportunity to document and broadcast every moment, meeting and meal,” wrote Deborah Kane, the national director of the USDA Farm to School Program, in a blog post Thursday. “We have all seen those unappetizing photos of food served at school that quickly go viral. A lonesome whole wheat bun atop a sad fish fillet; a mysterious-looking meat mixture served next to an apple. It’s natural to ask, ‘Is this what they serve for lunch!?’ No, it’s really not.”

(more…)

~ BACKSTORY ~

Link to Press Release
(more…)

When a corrections system focuses entirely on equality of outcome; and when the administrators of the policy are wilfully blind (in that they never addresses the source behavior); and when the non-compliant variables within the system refuse to modify behavior – the only administrative option left is to remove the consequence.
FYI the racial composition of Oakland’s public school system is about 32 percent black, a little under 40 percent Hispanic, about 15 percent Asian and about 12 percent white, according to Oaklandreads.org
(Via Truth Revolt) Board members of California’s Oakland Unified School District unanimously voted on Wednesday to cease suspending students for what they call “willful defiance.” Those behaviors can include swearing/yelling at teachers, refusing direct orders, texting, and storming out of class, to name a few.
The reason?
Concern that too many black students are being suspended for willful defiance.
One sophomore student, Dan’enicole Williams, told the San Francisco Gate, “They never take time out, if someone is sleeping in class, to ask what’s wrong. They may be acting that way because they didn’t eat the night before.” (more…)

It is always fascinating to research the ways liberals find legislative maneuvers to skirt around the realities of running out of money to pay for their various “social justice” causes.  A review of Baltimore Maryland education spending highlights their approach when they run out of other people’s money.

We say “other peoples money”, because we all know that liberals don’t spend their own money on these programs – instead they develop ways to “reach out” beyond their own economic roadblocks.
In Maryland there is a program called the Geographic Cost of Education Index or GCEI. A liberal legislative maneuver described thusly:

… a discretionary fund for school systems where educational costs are above the state average.

Removing the parseltongue you find the GCEI actually means a state budgetary funding trick to help pay for education within a community that has already exhausted its own ability to fund itself.
Expanding on the reality the GCEI also means: a state budgetary funding trick to pay for unsustainable union wages and benefits for educators within the school system that has exhausted its own ability to fund itself. (more…)