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The Oakland Unified School District Board recently voted 4-3 to shut down all three American Indian Model schools. Why? Because of unfounded allegations against Dr. Ben Chavis.
OUSD alleges that Chavis misappropriated about $3.4 million in public funding in rent, construction, and other fees. First of all, it is not illegal to lease facilities to a [...]

Dr. Chavis’s recent Stossel appearance has created some buzz, including misguided allegations of racism from so-called progressive websites, like Media Matters.
I wish people would take a look at the big picture rather than generalizing from a soundbite. Does it make sense that an educator (himself a minority) would devote time and money to educating poor [...]

Dr. Ben Chavis and current students at American Indian Public Charter School in Oakland were interviewed as positive examples of academic achievement for the follow-up version of Stupid in America with John Stossel on Fox News.
The first link below features Ben and the students. Click the other links to enjoy seeing Stossel make mental fools [...]

Saturday, September 17th at 10PM EST on Fox News Channel:
There will be a new Stupid in America special program. Rumor has it that former American Indian Public Charter School students will be interviewed.
Read John Stossel’s blog on the subject.

A new article from The New York Times provides insight into how technology affects the brains and lifestyles of children and adults. Impulse control, concentration, empathy, immersion in an activity, true social skills–many of these important traits are being lost in the din of email alerts, Facebook updates, compulsive email checking, and so-called multitasking, which [...]

Whitney Tilson, an influential and passionate education reformer, has recently released a documentary called A Right Denied: The Critical Need for Genuine School Reform. I haven’t seen it; has anyone reading this viewed it? What did you think of it? I love the cover image (shown below and followed by the copy from the back [...]

Jaime Escalante, the inspiration behind the movie Stand and Deliver, passed away this week at the age of 79 after a battle with cancer.
Jay Mathews provides a touching tribute to Jaime Escalante’s education legacy in the following article:
Jaime Escalante didn’t just stand and deliver. He changed U.S. schools forever.
By Jay Mathews
Sunday, April 4, 2010; B02 [...]

I was sad to read this news in an email from education reformer Whitney Tilson. Below is the text from Tilson’s email. Information on donations is also below:
KTLA News, 2:17 PM PST, March 1, 2010

Jaime Escalante
LOS ANGELES — Jaime Escalante, the Los Angeles math teacher whose inspirational career was made famous in the 80s hit [...]

Regent Angus Davis, who helped to recruit State Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist from Washington, D.C., came to Gist’s defense among the heat she and Frances Gallo were taking for their decision to fire all the staff at Central Falls High School in Rhode Island. (See my earlier post for the full story.) Davis’s words [...]