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Our only limitations are the ones we accept.
May 19, 2016
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We Choose is Catching Fire!
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Over the past year, we have won major victories for education justice, despite fighting extremely well-funded privatization forces. In order to continue to build the power we need to transform our schools we have launched a
crowd fundraising campaign!
We will never match them dollar for dollar, but we know that we will out-organize our opponents with our commitment, our love for our communities, and with your unwavering support. We are asking you to give what you can, knowing the people will sustain our movement.
Donate today!
Subscribe for the Journey for Justice Newsletter.
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Congratulations to Our Very Own Zakiya Ansari, Alliance for Quality Education
Congratulations to Journey for Justice Coordinating Committee Member and Advocacy Director, of the Alliance for Quality Education
Zakiyah Ansari who was honored by New York City & the State of New York as one of Brooklyn's 25 Most Influential People!
She is a mother of 8,
all of whom have graduated or are currently attending NYC public schools
, organizer, education warrior
for decades now. She has been leading the fight to make sure all kids from all over the
country
get a
quality
education!
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Community Schools
: Problem-Solving Machines
Roosevelt Middle School: A Case Study
Community schools implement evidence-based strategy to bring together the resources of school, family, and community in order to make schools stronger and help young people thrive. With a century-long history in the United States. Community Schools now serve over 5 million students in approximately 5,000 schools across the country. While Community Schools might take different approaches, these schools generally employ whole-child, research-based strategies and elevate innovative and holistic practices in order to achieve results that go beyond test scores. In fact, when Community Schools are able to employ the multiple strategies outlined in this report, their results can be sustainably transformational: increasing school attendance, decreasing suspensions and expulsions, creating healthy and safe communities, and improving academic outcomes. This report was developed by The Center for Popular Democracy, Coalition for Community Schools, and Journey for Justice (J4J).
Read the full Community Schools Report and download a copy
here
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HBCU Grads show Betsy DeVos she is completely unwanted at their commencement and it is amazing
Daily Koz - Choosing Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos as the
commencement
speaker at Bethune-Cookman University was a nothing short of a complete disaster. Her support of racist, bigoted policies and tone-deafness aside, that she was chosen to speak in spite of the fact that she represents an administration that poses a grave threat to institutions like Bethune-Cookman, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and the students they serve demonstrates that school administrators were willing to trade values and integrity for money and a photo-op.
There is something to be said for engaging with those you disagree with, and there is a time and a place for such things. However, commencement is not the occasion for debate and discourse. It is a time for celebration and recognition. And the students at Bethune-Cookman were absolutely not about to let Betsy ruin their moment. After a week of protests, they let DeVos know at their Wednesday
graduation
that she and the values she represents were not welcome at their ceremony.
Read full article and see video here
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We Choose Culturally Relevant Curriculum & Culturally Responsive Schools
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Victory in Philadelphia
There is cause for celebration for Philadelphia Student Union (PSU) and all their supporters. After a year long fight, the Philadelphia Student Union has won a monumental victory by getting the School District of Philadelphia to create a new district wide school police complaint system! Following the
assault of one of our members last year, and the increase of
stories nationally of school police violence against students, our members went to work drafting and creating a complaint system that would give students and the community a real opportunity to hold officers accountable for their actions.
This complaint system is one of only a handful nationally, and one of the only ones to exist in a large urban school district. And while we are extremely proud of our victory, we know that more work needs to be done to win a truly transparent and effective system of accountability. That's why on Thursday, May 11th we are joining both local and national organizations for a rally outside of the School District's offices to demand that they expand the current complaint system to include the provisions PSU students have developed.
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National Equity Assessments
America does everything but equity. Closes schools. Online charter schools. Zero tolerance policies to push out students. Creates a charter industry. Puts a media spin on mediocre corporate education interventions. Anything but equity. Equitable schools are spaces where inspiration happens. One child can dream and explore, while another child rebels from being treated like they don't matter. We call for a national equity assessment for public schools in the United States
Inequity goes far beyond the funding of public schools. We are clear that inequity expresses itself in curriculum, teacher supports, wraparound supports, and student climate and community engagement. We are proposing that America moves policy and resources to respond to the results of this assessment, which should be completed by August 2017.
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We Choose Campaign Catching Fire...
The We Choose Campaign is catching fire all over the country! On May 1st members from all over with various actions and rallies from Boston, to Chicago, New Orleans and many places in between they are raising their voices to say we are working together and standing up to say #WeChoose Education Equity, Not the Illusion of School Choice!
The We Choose Campaign is a declaration from hundreds of thousands of parents and students and cities across the United States with the clear, yet profound message - we reject and resist corporate education policies that are inflicted upon our children without our voice. The failure of previous administrations to respect the voices of all Americans had set the tone for this perilous moment that we are in now. We reject a point of school boards. We reject zero tolerance policy is that criminalize our children. We reject mediocre corporate education interventions that are only excepted because of the race of the children served. We choose equity. We choose sanctuary cities for Muslims and all immigrants. We will organize local coalitions and alliances to build the power to realize this vision.
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Al Franken BLASTS Betty DeVos "Fundamentally Incompetent'" Education Dept." on YouTube
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The Badass Teachers Association
4th Annual Education Conference!
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Journey for Justice (J4J) is an alliance of grassroots community, youth, and parent-led organizations in 22 cities across the country: Atlanta, Baltimore, Birmingham, Boston, Camden, Chicago, Dayton, Detroit, Eupora, Jersey City, Kilmichael, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Newark, New Orleans, New York City, Patterson, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington D.C., and Wichita
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