Transforming education
by putting children first

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IDRA Launches Resource Hub to Promote Accurate and Inclusive Education

New Hub Provides Lesson Plans and Tools for Teaching History and Current Events About Race and Gender in Today’s Classroom Censorship Climate

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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Six Teens Win VYP National Essay Contest Awards

IDRA Valued Youth Partnership Program Tutors Share Stories of the Program's Impact on Their Lives

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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IDRA Education Policy Fellows Call for Applications for Georgia & Texas

Apply Today!

IDRA is changing the landscape of state education advocacy by training early- to mid-career advocates to influence state laws and lead a powerful network of impacted and engaged communities. The 2022-23 cohort of Education Policy Fellows will receive real-world training on advancing an educational equity agenda during the 2023 legislative sessions in Texas and Georgia (applicants will be asked to select whether they would like to focus on Texas or Georgia).

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Supreme Court Further Erodes Separation of Church and State in Public Schools

Public School Employees Should Not Elevate Any Faith Over Another

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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Joanna D. Sánchez, Ph.D., Named IDRA Senior Policy Researcher

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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Plyler v. Doe Supports High-Quality Schools

U.S. Supreme Court Ruling 40 Years Ago Today Confirms Immigrant Students' Rights to Attend Public Schools

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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Texas High Schools Reach All-Time Low Attrition Rate but Still Lose 80,000 Students

IDRA Study Gives a First Look at the Pandemic’s Effect on Attrition Rates

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 Federal Education Policy Update

• 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

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Knowledge is Power: U.S. House Hearing Examines Political Attacks on Classroom Censorship; TX Board Considers Social Studies Standards

IDRA new resource - Knowledge is Power

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

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IDRA Names Inaugural Youth Advisory Board Members

Ten High School Students Will Serve as Advisors for Education Equity Initiatives While Learning New Skills

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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IDRA Valued Youth Partnership Re-engages Struggling Students

See How the IDRA Valued Youth Partnership Works

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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Georgia Education Policy Update: General Assembly Wrap Up

Community voices were strong

This alert outlines the status of education-related bills after the 2022 session ended Monday, April 4. We extend our deepest gratitude to our partner organizations, who worked tirelessly to advocate for more equitable and just public education in Georgia.

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IDRA Celebrates International Transgender Day of Visibility

IDRA supports books and inclusive curricula that affirm trans youth

March 31 was International Transgender Day of Visibility. Within our organization and beyond it, IDRA proudly commits to center the well-being of gender-expansive youth, educators and their families.

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IDRA’s 2022 José A. Cárdenas School Finance Fellows to Study K-12 and College Spending Patterns and Priorities During COVID-19

Dr. Vanessa Sansone, Dr. Davíd Martínez Named as Fellows

IDRA has named University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) assistant professor Dr. Vanessa A. Sansone and University of South Carolina assistant professor Dr. Davíd G. Martínez as 2022 IDRA José A. Cárdenas School Finance Fellows. The fellows program honors the memory of IDRA founder Dr. José Angel Cárdenas. Since its founding in 1973, IDRA has been at the forefront of legislative and litigation efforts to achieve school funding equity. The goal of the fellowship is to engage the nation’s most promising researchers in investigating school finance solutions that secure equity and excellence for all public school students.

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Learning Goes On - IDRA COVID-19 Resource for Education – Mar 23, 2022 Edition

New issue: Learning Goes On: Restorative Practices Can Build and Strengthen Relationships in Post-Pandemic Schools, Women’s History is U.S. History and more!

When schools closed due to COVID-19, IDRA immediately responded to educators and families so students could continue learning. We launched Learning Goes On to provide materials, webinars, and other information and resources. This work continues because, although the closures have ended, educators and students are still facing its impact.

In This Issue

• Realizing Our Common Humanity – Restorative Practices Can Build and Strengthen Relationships in Post-Pandemic Schools
• Building Supportive Schools from the Ground Up
• Women’s History is U.S. History
• New Colassnotes Podcast Episodes
• What do you think about school dress codes?
• Networks

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IDRA Launches ‘Southern Education Equity Network’ to Support Family & Community Advocates

SEEN’s New Virtual Tool Helps Students, Families and Educators Stand Up for Accurate and Inclusive Education

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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International Women’s Day - Award-winning PBS series about Unsung Women Who Changed History Now Available with Spanish Subtitles

IDRA Partners with Unladylike2020 to Share Inclusive Materials for Students

In honor of International Women’s Day, the award-winning series Unladylike2020 is launching its content for viewing and streaming with Spanish subtitling. The series tells the inspiring stories of little-known heroines and the women who follow in their footsteps. IDRA is partnering with Unladylike2020 to give students access to inspiring stories representing diverse cultural backgrounds. The subtitled digital series and supporting educational resources, that focus on women who accomplished great things before women had the right to vote, is available starting this March for Women’s History Month.

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Representing Texas Communities of Color in the Room Where it Happens

IDRA’s First Education Policy Fellows Reflect on their Experience and the Texas Legislature

IDRA changed the landscape of Texas education by training advocates to influence state law and lead a powerful network of impacted communities, according to a report released today. Texas policy advocacy is traditionally run by people who do not reflect the population of its K-12 schools, 72% of whom are students of color.

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New Toolkit on Interrupting Bullying & Harassment in Schools

IDRA EAC-South Launches Free Tools for Creating Safe, Friendly & Learning Supportive Spaces 

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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Free e-courses are now available on ensuring equitable learning environments for all students

CPEs available from the IDRA EAC-South

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

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Texas is Not Financing College Readiness

IDRA Releases Study on Inequitable Access to College Prep Math Courses

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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Knowledge is Power - Announcement

Students Tell Texas Attorney General that Racial Discrimination in School is Real

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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New Power Advisory Team Guides Program to Support Budding Teen Software Designers

San Antonio Middle School Students to Become Software Designers in IDRA & Texas A&M University–San Antonio “VisionCoders™ Program

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.