Comments for The Hechinger Report https://hechingerreport.org/ Covering Innovation & Inequality in Education Tue, 30 May 2023 19:54:00 +0000 hourly 1 Comment on Why schools’ efforts to block the Internet are so laughably lame by Sanka Sumire https://hechingerreport.org/schools-efforts-block-internet-laughably-lame/comment-page-3/#comment-48476 Tue, 30 May 2023 19:54:00 +0000 http://hechingerreport.org/?p=16588#comment-48476 As a student still actively in school, this is not good for me. The school has blocked every therapeutic site and anything that helps me as a neurodivergent person calm down. They have the freaking abuse hotline blocked, they have the trevor project blocked, they have character ai blocked ONLY after I told them that the website was my source of comfort during panic attacks at school. And now look where I am, my mental health declining once again. So confusing, I’m starting to struggle once more, and my grades are dropping. They also blocked Spotify, so I can’t listen to music.

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Comment on In Japan, plummeting university enrollment forecasts what’s ahead for the U.S. by Nnamdi Okechukwu Nwaodu https://hechingerreport.org/in-japan-plummeting-university-enrollment-forecasts-whats-ahead-for-the-u-s/comment-page-1/#comment-48451 Tue, 30 May 2023 01:13:02 +0000 https://hechingerreport.org/?p=92676#comment-48451 There seems to be other factors responsible drop on University enrollments?

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Comment on The paradox of working while in college by Claude Kujat https://hechingerreport.org/the-paradox-of-working-while-in-college/comment-page-1/#comment-48388 Sat, 27 May 2023 15:37:26 +0000 https://hechingerreport.org/?p=53541#comment-48388 Working students must try harder to handle their time but there are a lot of them with high rates of success in college and later in their professional life.

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Comment on OPINION: Algebra matters, so let’s stop attacking it and work together to make it clearer and more accessible by Corey Minyard https://hechingerreport.org/opinion-algebra-matters-so-lets-stop-attacking-it-and-work-together-to-make-it-clearer-and-more-accessible/comment-page-1/#comment-48342 Thu, 25 May 2023 21:46:33 +0000 https://hechingerreport.org/?p=93225#comment-48342 My son liked math until junior high where he had terrible teachers. Then he hated it. When he got to college, I told him that math is the closest thing we have to magic in the real world. That seems to have changed everything. He enjoyed calculus and did ok in math through college.

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Comment on Tennessee law could hold back thousands of third graders in bid to help kids recover from the pandemic by Edie Guida https://hechingerreport.org/tennessee-law-could-hold-back-thousands-of-third-graders-in-bid-to-help-kids-recover-from-the-pandemic/comment-page-1/#comment-48126 Tue, 23 May 2023 22:20:36 +0000 https://hechingerreport.org/?p=92651#comment-48126 My granddaughter is a third grader in Tennessee. She is a straight A student, with a 97% average in ELA for the year. On earlier tests to gauge where students are performing and to collect data on how they should do on the TCAP, she scored 35% higher than the average. So there was no reason for her to be on the “watch list” of possible failure on the TCAP. Guess what, she did not pass. So now we wait until Friday to learn her fate….summer school, year long tutoring, or both. There is a major flaw, is it the curriculum, the teacher, or the test???? Answers, we need answers.

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Comment on The college degree gap between Black and white Americans was always bad. It’s getting worse by Jeannie Ringo https://hechingerreport.org/the-college-going-gap-between-black-and-white-americans-was-always-bad-its-getting-worse/comment-page-1/#comment-48116 Tue, 23 May 2023 18:52:36 +0000 https://hechingerreport.org/?p=93325#comment-48116 I appreciate much of the focus of this article; however, it follows a troubling trend that conflates and distorts data and seems to drive to a conclusion that college and spending for college or grad school is ‘not worth it for Black people.’ For example, the data point referenced from the Brookings study is quoted here as ‘black students who make it to graduation owe 50% more than in loans whites’. And the quote is called out later in the article as a talking point with no footnote. The link to the Brookings article shows that’s not accurate, and in particular that the 50% number is 4 years after graduation, and includes usage of different loan product AND grad school borrowing, which is an entirely different issue and again implies Black people shouldn’t use any loans or credit to get to the same place that higher income (white) people get to. The Brookings study also includes non borrowers, which isn’t explained in your piece. The article then implies this 50% more debt is held by Black people with lower paying jobs. But these are the folks who got grad degrees?

The reality is that due to many historic and wide ranging factors, Black students in the US are often lower income – on average – than white peers in college. So, unless financial aid or grants are more abundant, they are going to have to find funds to close the gap to get a college degree. I agree that Black and low income students should have better pathways to pay for college, but I strongly disagree that they should be discouraged to complete college – 2 year or 4 year – until it magically costs less . I fear that is the prevailing theme here.

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Comment on OPINION: We can and must do better to help Black students enroll in college and succeed by Julinda LeDee https://hechingerreport.org/opinion-we-can-and-must-do-better-to-help-black-students-enroll-in-college-and-succeed/comment-page-1/#comment-48112 Tue, 23 May 2023 15:23:59 +0000 https://hechingerreport.org/?p=93449#comment-48112 “Fostering students’ sense of belonging inside and outside of the classroom directly impacts how they experience the institution”. It vital to Black student success. As a para-educator at the community college level we must hire and promote Black staff to support Black students.

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Comment on OPINION: How one city removed the police from schools, and why others should follow by Tammie Kiihnl https://hechingerreport.org/opinion-how-one-city-removed-the-police-from-schools-and-why-others-should-follow/comment-page-1/#comment-48098 Tue, 23 May 2023 05:07:24 +0000 https://hechingerreport.org/?p=71425#comment-48098 My son (whom is white)
attended a school and was constantly bullied by the resource officers who were all white as well .

He had one teacher whom was his best teacher a black teacher that took up for him . That seen what was going on and who said something about it in a Email to me .
My son was in the bathroom when a School Resource Officers Beat on the door of the bathroom stall he was in forcing him to come out and he was sitting on the toilet
Pulled out of the stall Jerked him around saying he was in there vaping but they find NO Vape on him
His teacher was standing out by his door and witness these 2 RSOfficers and
He told the officers to Leave him alone . He had permission to go to he restroom
His stomach stayed upset and caused him to have diarrhea because of how these officers treated him daily . Other kids would have vapes in the bathroom and visibility vaping but they wouldn’t do nothing to them but continued to Target my son.
Thank God for that teacher that took up for him

My son suffered terrible abuse from school officials
Number one was the resource officers who carried a gun and use force upon my child .
That school year was the last school year he attended .
I went to the principal and told her My son will never EVER be back.
Thank God I got him out of that school . I Homeschooled him and the District did everything in there power to stop that as well . They turned me into the local juvenile system saying he missed all these days in in reality he never missed a day of school exception for doctor visits for his sickness of throwing up and diarrhea. Which was all caused from the stress of what he went through .

I had him see a good doctor that specializes in all kinds of sickness and illness .
His doctors was very concerned about how he was being treated at .
The attendance Lady threw his doctor excuses away
I had to go back to retrieve this from the doctors when they turned me over to Juvenile System .
Which the School Board of had later corrected after all this ordeal .
This is just a small detail of how that school treated him .
The resource officers and attendance office lady treated my Son terrible along with assistant principal and principal .
No teenagers no matter white or black should be mistreated abused and bullied . EVER!!!
There is absolutely no reason to bang on a bathroom door and grab a student off the toilet . Come on . What is it in People that does this ? That is very unprofessional
devious pure Evil .
Using their Power or Badge to scare and bully a kid and a good kid at that .
Something needs to change
They definitely need to be trained differently. Check theses people out good before their hired to be around students . Police Officers definitely need more Training
Look at all the stuff going on with these Law Officers who are supposed to be take a Oath to Protect Citizens not beat them with sticks and use Excessive Force on them . Get these Police Officer’s
into some Deep Training of how to deal with individuals.
They ALSO need Training on Mental Diseases and Disorders.
MANY mental disorders are caused from the very people who should be there Protecting our Children
Stop bullying these kids
You want to do Something
Be A good Mentor to them
After my husbands death
I found out these 2 SRO had beef with my husband !
My deceased husband and father to my Child
They didn’t like him .
Something from the past and They took this out on my Son.

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Comment on ‘Waste of time’: Community college transfers derail students by Andrew Lars Ekstrom https://hechingerreport.org/waste-of-time-community-college-transfers-derail-students/comment-page-1/#comment-47913 Sun, 21 May 2023 15:04:41 +0000 https://hechingerreport.org/?p=93061#comment-47913 1) The article refers to community colleges as a waste of time and focuses mostly on California. There is more to the country than CA.

2) Community colleges offer classes that are career prep and or remedial. These types of classes rarely ever transfer. If the lowest class your university offers in math is say Pre-calc, all the courses a student takes at a community college to get ready for pre-calc will not transfer. So sorry, your hs level pre-algebra, algebra 1 and 2 won’t make the cut.

3) I tell my students to take 60cr of classes that transfer into their program of choice, not the university. You might need to take 80cr at the comm coll, but, starting as a Junior is worth it.

4) Some community college class are harder than university classes because they will have 1 course that covers everything at all the other universities. University students might do a selection 10 chapters from a book. The comm coll will do 12 chapter from that same book, just so the class transfers everywhere.

5) Some universities have really dumb transfer policies. In my state, Wayne State University used to deny transfer of all foreign language classes. One friend took 4 semesters of Spanish in comm coll and spoke Arabic natively at home. She was told her 4 classes didn’t count and she needed to retake a foreign language! A coworker took enough Japanese to have a minor in it from another university, transferred to WSU and was denied any of it. He was told he needed to start over. Both took a language 101 class and quit.

6) When it comes to classes at most comm college vs universities, you can use the same book, same material sometimes even the same prof. Trying to claim the comm coll was inferior to get more money out of students clearly doesn’t work. If most students drop out, the university wasted time and money of the student, money from the govt, and failed to get all the money it could have.

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Comment on For preschoolers after the pandemic, more states say: Learn outdoors by Eva Tutor https://hechingerreport.org/for-preschoolers-after-the-pandemic-more-states-say-learn-outdoors/comment-page-1/#comment-47870 Sun, 21 May 2023 06:45:59 +0000 https://hechingerreport.org/?p=93371#comment-47870 I just came across your article on the shift towards outdoor learning for preschoolers post-pandemic, and it’s truly inspiring. It’s heartening to see more states recognizing the benefits of outdoor education for young children. The emphasis on nature-based experiences, hands-on learning, and holistic development aligns with the growing understanding of the importance of outdoor exploration. Thank you for shedding light on this positive educational trend. Great read!

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