Instead of promoting ‘social justice,’ let’s promote our humanness

 
by Christopher Paslay
Fighting for social justice, the 21st century term for “equality” or “civil rights,” is the hippest thing since wearing pink for breast cancer.  Topped only by going green, promoting social justice has become the latest adopted cause of politicians, universities, educational researchers, and of course, the starry-eyed, idealistic school teachers fresh out of [...]

President Obama’s back-to-school speech inspires teens to achieve

 
 
by Christopher Paslay
 
The brouhaha surrounding Barack Obama’s speech to our nation’s school children, to use a cliché, was much ado about nothing.  In the end, the President’s address was not only squeaky clean but quite inspirational to boot. 
 
Using examples from his own life and from the lives of other students [...]

Advocacy group that promotes terrorist William Ayers will train Miss. school teachers on Civil Rights Movement

 
 
by Christopher Paslay
 
Last spring, as part of my master’s degree in education at Eastern University, I took a course called Multicultural Education.  I enrolled because I wanted to learn new methodologies that would broaden my teaching repertoire and help me better educate students from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds.  Granted, I grew up in [...]

Daily News publishes ‘myth of racial inequality’ commentary

 

Today, the Philadelphia Daily News published my commentary on the myth of racial inequality in the Philadelphia School District, which originally appeared on this blog on July 10th.
If you missed this one (or want to give it another read in the pages of the Daily News), click here.  Feel free to leave comments below.
 
Thanks,
 
Christopher [...]

The myth of racial inequality in Philadelphia public schools

 
Despite accusations of segregation, academic achievement and failure in district schools transcend neighborhoods and racial boundaries.
 
by Christopher Paslay
 
There’s a line in the movie JFK where Kevin Costner explains to the jury that theoretical physics can prove that an elephant can hang from a cliff with his tail tied to a daisy.
         
“But use your eyes, your common sense,” [...]

Philadelphia School District graduation rate betters America’s college graduation rate

by Christopher Paslay
 
In a recent Inquirer article headlined “School proposal targets dropout problem,” writer Kristen A. Graham describes the Philadelphia School District’s graduation rate as “among the worst in the country—about 50 percent.” 
 
I find her choice of words quite interesting.  For starters, the district’s graduation rate isn’t among the worst in the country.  According [...]

When the community steals from its students

 
by Christopher Paslay
 
Over the past decade, education advocates and community groups have been focusing their attention on school equity—the idea that all students, regardless of race and socioeconomic status, should receive an equal education.
 
As a teacher in the Philadelphia School District, I agree wholeheartedly.  All children deserve a quality education.  The reality, of course, is [...]

New report links nine parental factors to achievement gap

 
by Christopher Paslay
 
In a newly released report titled Parsing the Achievement Gap II, the Educational Testing Service tracked national trends between students of different racial and socioeconomic backgrounds.  The report listed 16 factors that have been linked to student achievement. 
 
Of the 16 factors, nine were directly related to a child’s parents and home environment.  [...]

The Notebook responds to Chalk and Talk article

 
 
by Christopher Paslay
 
On March 3rd, I posted an article here on Chalk and Talk headlined Do Phila. teachers really view minority children as criminals?  In the article I criticized the Philadelphia Public School Notebook for running an objectionable editorial (Changing the odds) that suggested Philadelphia public school teachers were racist and afraid of the communities [...]

Eye on The Notebook: Do Phila. teachers really view minority children as criminals?

 
 
by Christopher Paslay              
 
In their recent editorial, “Changing the odds,” the Notebook discusses ways the Philadelphia School District can close the achievement gap between white and minority students.  In addition to having engaging teaching staffs and building strong bonds between schools and surrounding communities, the Notebook talks about overcoming racism.
 
Perhaps the hardest barriers to overcome [...]