COVID-19 Updates: Visit our Learning Goes On site for news and resources for supporting educators, families, policymakers and advocates.
Webinar August 24
See a demo of IDRA’s new School Resource Hub for educators. Get an overview of America is Me (AIM) framework with five intercultural skills to promote students’ understanding of equity issues. Hear students on why inclusive education is important to them.
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Classnotes Podcast (August 17, 2022) Effective evaluation is critical to understanding more than just whether or not an initiative worked. … read more
Listen NowSchool Opening Alert
As a new school year begins, this alert is a reminder that public schools, by law, must serve all children. See IDRA's bilingual infographic: Welcoming Immigrant Students in School, which is also available as a poster. Other free resources and tools are available online.
Education of undocumented students is guaranteed by the Plyler vs. Doe decision, and certain procedures must be followed when registering immigrant children in school to avoid violation of their civil rights.
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Injunction Could Cost Universities Millions, Reduce Funds for Academics and Supports for Texas Students
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IDRA Signs onto Amicus Brief Spotlighting Student Voices Urging the Court Not to Censor their Racial and Ethnic Identity in College Applications
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In statehouses across the country, opponents of public education seek to censor teacher speech, limit what students can say and learn about racism and current events, and whitewash history. But as IDRA’s new We All Belong – School Resource Hub shows, these forces will not prevail. Educators are committed to serving their students well by strengthening education, not watering it down or hiding from the truth.
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In this issue
• The Facts about School-based Police
• A Policy Roadmap – School Safety for All Students, by Makiah Lyons
• Implementing Restorative Practices to Strengthen School Communities
• Alternative Responses to Student Behavior – Steps for Teachers, Administrators and School Staff
• Recent News
eNews
Six students received prizes in a national competition among participants in the IDRA Valued Youth Partnership program, a nationally-recognized cross-age tutoring program. The VYP tutors wrote about how the program helped them do better in school and how they had helped their tutees to do better.
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In yet another opinion centering extremist views, the U.S. Supreme Court has further constrained public schools’ ability to protect all students’ religious freedom and free expression. The Court’s 6-3 opinion in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District held that a public high school violated the free speech and free exercise clauses of the First Amendment when it required a football coach to respect the rights of students from all religious and cultural backgrounds by directing the coach to stop publicly praying on the field immediately after games.
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IDRA welcomes Joanna D. Sánchez, Ph.D., as IDRA’s senior policy researcher. In this role, she collaborates with the policy and research teams to develop relevant and timely data analyses, visualizations and research studies that support IDRA’s mission. Previously, Joanna served as the chief of staff and vice president for research at Excelencia in Education. In these roles, she contributed to the organization’s mission of accelerating Latino student success in higher education.
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Yesterday, in a 6-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states providing tuition assistance to secular private schools must also allow public funding to go toward private religious schools. Its opinion in Carson v. Makin defied the fundamental principle of separation of church and state and opened the door for taxpayer dollars to flow to schools that may not welcome all children.
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Then, on June 15, 1982, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that public schools must serve all children, including undocumented students. In honor of the Plyler v Doe's 40th anniversary, IDRA released resources and tools to support schools in welcoming immigrant students. Learn more about the history of the cases that lead to the final decision, including a video interview with Dr. Albert Cortez, who testified in one of the early cases.
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The Texas high school attrition rate declined to 19% last year, which is the lowest rate in over three decades. IDRA released detailed findings today from its latest study, which examines time series data covering 2020-21, the first full school year during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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• IDRA Denounces Court Ruling Jeopardizing Texas’ Dream Act
• Resources to Address Digital Equity
• Introducing IDRA’s Youth Advisory Board
• IDRA Joins More than 200 Organizations and Individuals to Push for an End to Corporal Punishment
eNews
IDRA's Knowledge is Power is a national resource for educators and advocates to help you do your work for equity and excellence in education in the midst of classroom censorship policies.
In this edition…
- Censorship Policies Undermine Excellent and Equitable Public Schools
- Texas State Board of Education Considers Social Studies Standards
- Advocacy Tools
eNews
We are pleased and proud to officially introduce IDRA’s 2022 Youth Advisory Board members!
Ten high school students from across Texas will provide their insights about equity in education and advocacy. Since our founding 49 years ago, IDRA has remained committed to prioritizing students in our decision-making. We selected these 10 student leaders who now form IDRA’s inaugural 2022 Youth Advisory Board.
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The ACLU of Georgia (ACLU-GA), the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), and IDRA are joining to support educators, students and parents in Georgia as they monitor how a new, restrictive education law signed today by Gov. Brian Kemp will impact public school lessons about race and racism. During a press conference, the groups announced that they will gather stories of how the law is being used.
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Valued Youth Partnership helps students build their socio-emotional skills
It is more important than ever to strengthen the school-family-community dynamic in order to reconnect with students, especially those that have been harder to reach during this time of distance learning.
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On Friday, a federal judge appointed by President Trump ruled that federal immigration law preempts Texas’ in-state tuition statute and bars Texas colleges from charging out-of-state tuition to out-of-state U.S. citizens. In the case, Young Conservatives of Texas vs. University of North Texas, the court sided with the plaintiffs, represented by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, in finding that all U.S. citizens, regardless of their connections to Texas, must be eligible for Texas’ in-state tuition rate at UNT.
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Today, April 7, the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform’s subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties held a hearing entitled Free Speech Under Attack: Book Bans and Academic Censorship. The hearing focused on how students and educators are impacted by the recent rash of bans in states and school districts that specifically target books by and about people of color, people in the LGBTQ+ community and other marginalized groups.
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As small but loud factions attack public education, students and families across the U.S. South are pushing back. IDRA’s new Southern Education Equity Network (SEEN) trains and assists communities in improving education policy and practice across the South and provides an online and mobile space for community members and coalitions to coordinate their advocacy.
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Morgan Craven, J.D., IDRA's National Director of Policy, Advocacy, and Community Engagement, testified today before the U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor's Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education Subcommittee. See the video, read her testimony and see our new infographic.
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Bullying and harassment are two forms of relational violence that can hinder the establishment of safe spaces in schools and undermine students’ abilities to learn. The IDRA EAC-South's new Interrupting Bullying & Harassment in Schools online toolkit is designed to give educators and school leaders tools that they need to prevent bullying and harassment by fostering a positive school climate.
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Now you can get effective tools and information on-demand from the IDRA EAC-South’s popular virtual convening held in July with hundreds of participants across the country. The session videos and materials are available free at IDRA’s Equity Connection community of practice. You can pick and choose from the topics that most interest you on your own time. Get effective tools and information to help reconnect with students for their mental well-being and accelerated learning and reclaim your own sense of connectedness, community and power.
This virtual conference featured equity experts from across the country addressing the five strands:
• Authentic Family and Community Engagement and Advocacy
• Leading with Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
• Reopening with Welcoming & Inclusive Schools – Response to COVID-19
• Ethnic and Cultural Studies
• Increasing Student Engagement
eNews
Texas policies and funding block students from graduating prepared for college, which includes having access to higher math, like Algebra II and calculus. Dr. Cristóbal Rodríguez, IDRA’s José A. Cárdenas School Finance Fellow, presented his research findings on the relationship between school finance policy and students’ access college and career readiness in Texas at a virtual symposium last week.
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Concerned about the impact of the new classroom censorship bill in Texas, 88 public school students described their experiences with racial discrimination in school. In response to a state representative’s request for a Texas Attorney General opinion on “‘antiracism’ teachings and Critical Race Theory (CRT) principles in Texas public schools,” the TEACH Coalition submitted a letter urging the Attorney General Ken Paxton to decline to issue such an opinion.
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Education innovation requires brilliant leadership. To provide such leadership for the VisionCoders program, IDRA established the VisionCoders advisory committee, composed of prominent education and STEM experts. The advisory committee provides students with opportunities that focus on three key areas: empowerment, education and encouragement. These opportunities empower a sense of responsibility in leadership roles, engage students through meaningful experiences, and give recognition for student accomplishments and effort.
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See our technical assistance package focusing on family engagement.
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