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:

“Everybody, can I have your attention real quick?” he said. “We don’t know what’s going on, but we will pray. We know that prayer is power, and that God is able. Let’s pray.” (more…)

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
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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…)

It is a sentiment that runs rampant within the current administration. The State Department says radical Islam will stop beheading if they can just implement a Jobs for Jihadist program; now the Education Secretary says Chicago gangs will stop shooting if they have a Jobs for Thugs program. Then again, we thought the unemployment “problem” was fixed now….
(CNSNews.com) – Education Secretary Arne Duncan said on Tuesday that he has met with gang leaders in his hometown of Chicago and they’ve told him that it’s a lack of jobs that keeps them on the streets.

“We have to have jobs for young people,” Duncan said at the National Summit on Youth Violence Prevention in Crystal City, Va. “I probably shouldn’t say this in a room like this, but occasionally when I go home I’ll sit down with some of the gang leaders – back home in Chicago.” (more…)

Long before anyone was paying attention to Baltimore.

…”It will take hard, collective action to dramatically reduce the overuse of exclusionary discipline and to consistently create positive school climates. But we know it can be done. There are amazing examples all across the country of leadership making a difference. And in fact, it’s being done right here in Baltimore, and right here at Frederick Douglass High School”….

[…] I thank you for your unwavering commitment to equal opportunity for all students and your leadership in rethinking school discipline in Maryland. And I’m so pleased to be joined here today [Frederick Douglas School] by my good friend and colleague, Attorney General Holder.

[…] So today, the Departments of Education and Justice are joining together to release a guidance package on school discipline for a broad range of stakeholders–educators, principals, district administrators, school board members, charter school heads, school resource officers, counselors, social workers, parents, community leaders–and, importantly, students themselves.
[…] This is the first Administration to provide guidance to the public on discrimination in school discipline. And we want to continue to provide leadership on this critical problem going forward to ensure equal opportunity for all students.
[…] Racial discrimination in school discipline is a real problem today, and not just an issue from 40 to 50 years ago.
[…] The need to rethink and redesign school discipline practices is long overdue. Too many schools resort too quickly to exclusionary discipline, even for minor misbehaviors (more…)

Education Secretary Arnie Duncan is reminding parents in America “that all your children belong to them”. In a not-so-very veiled threat Secretary Duncan states the Federal Government will step in if parents continue to opt their children out of Common Core testing.

(Via Doug Ross Journal) Secretary of Education Arne Duncan issued a veiled threat to the parents and students who choose to opt out of Common Core testing – The Feds “have an obligation to step in.”
Federal law, under No Child Left Behind, requires 95 percent of students in a state to take the annual standardized tests in reading and math from grades 3-8. It is a requirement which until now has never needed enforcement or consideration.
With as many as 184,000 students in New York choosing to opt out, the 95 percent threshold will not only be in jeopardy, it will be an easily missed mark.
When asked what would happen in states with such a high opt out rate, whether they would have to force consequences upon schools, parents, and students, Duncan responded “We think most states will do that.”
He added, “If states don’t do that, then we have an obligation to step in.” (more…)