U.S. Education Department issues guidance on racial disparity in nation’s schools - The Washington Post

U.S. Education Department issues guidance on racial disparity in nation’s schools - The Washington Post: The Obama administration issued new guidance Wednesday to states and school districts aimed at reducing inequities in educational opportunity between students of color and their white peers.

“Even with all the good work that we see around the country, we also continue to see opportunity gaps that need correction,” said Catherine E. Lhamon, assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education. She said the country needs to end “the tired practice of offering students of color less than we offer other students.”

To that end, the department’s 37-page guidance reminds states and school districts that they are required by federal law to provide the same quality of resources — strong teachers, facilities, rigorous coursework and extracurriculars — to students regardless of color and income. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 says that while states and school districts do not have to provide the exact same resources to all schools, all students must have equal access to educational opportunity.

Prince George’s NAACP opposes schools for English-language learners - The Washington Post

Prince George’s NAACP opposes schools for English-language learners - The Washington Post: The Prince George’s County branch of the NAACP is opposed to the county school system’s plan to open two high schools designed specifically for recent immigrants and second-generation students, arguing that the concept might be unconstitutional.

Bob Ross, president of the county NAACP, told schools chief Kevin M. Maxwell and the Board of Education at a meeting Tuesday night that he thinks the plan to open schools for English-language learners next year is not in line with the 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education. The landmark Brown ruling declared that separate public schools for black and white students violated the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

“You risk having [Prince George’s] having a segregated school system,” Ross said. “I’m afraid we’re turning the bus around.”

Interview: Jeff Hobbs, Author Of 'The Short And Tragic Life Of Robert Peace' : NPR

Interview: Jeff Hobbs, Author Of 'The Short And Tragic Life Of Robert Peace' : NPR: On a May night in 2011, a man was murdered — shot — in a basement just outside Newark, N.J. Cash and marijuana were found at the scene.

Given the circumstances, it might be easy to make assumptions about that man.

Reality, however, is more complex.

Robert Peace, a 30-year-old African-American, was a Yale University graduate and an almost straight-A student in molecular biophysics and biochemistry. He also dealt marijuana.

Peace's death and life is the subject of a new book, the result of over 300 hours of interviews with the people who knew him best.

Author Jeff Hobbs, who was Peace's roommate in college, tells NPR's Steve Inskeep that The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace started as a way for him to make sense of the many different sides of his friend.

Texas' New Public School Textbooks Promote Climate Change Denial and Downplay Segregation | Mother Jones

Texas' New Public School Textbooks Promote Climate Change Denial and Downplay Segregation | Mother Jones: The battle over Texas textbooks is raging once again. On Tuesday, hundreds of citizens turned out for the first public hearing on the controversial social-science materials now under review as part of the state's contentious once-in-a-decade textbook adoption process. During the all-day proceedings, activists and historians pointed out numerous factual errors and complained that the books promoted tea party ideology while mocking affirmative action and downplaying the science linking human activity to climate change. "They are full of biases that are either outside the established mainstream scholarship, or just plain wrong," Jacqueline Jones, who chairs the history department at the University of Texas-Austin, said from the podium. "It can lead to a great deal of confusion in the reader."

Other speakers raised concerns about the treatment of religion, especially the tendency of some books to play up the role of Christianity in our nation's founding. Kathleen Wellman, a professor of history Southern Methodist University, noted with dismay that a popular civics text was filled with references to Moses and claimed that the biblical prophet had inspired American democracy.

The Only One: A Talk With Shonda Rhimes : Monkey See : NPR

The Only One: A Talk With Shonda Rhimes : Monkey See : NPR: I saw Shonda Rhimes at a panel presentation at the Television Critics Association press tour this summer where she helped introduce How to Get Away with Murder, the new ABC drama she helps produce but did not create. I found her pleasantly (and a little amusingly) transparent in not loving some of the questions she was asked (including one about whether she was worried that #HTGAWM, which was printed on the promotional cookies ABC handed out, was an unwieldy hashtag), and I thought, "She is an interview for which you would want to be on your toes."

So when the Smithsonian Associates asked me to spend an hour talking to her on stage in front of 550 people at the Natural History Museum, I thought, "Hey, what's the worst thing that can happen, other than me looking like never mind let's not think about it sure OK let's do it."

Adding Color To 'The Great White Way' : Code Switch : NPR

Adding Color To 'The Great White Way' : Code Switch : NPR: Sharp observations about race, class and gender plus pure passion for the theater: That's what you get when you ask a distinguished panel of playwrights whether "The Great White Way" is still too white.

Award-winning dramatists David Henry Hwang, Lydia Diamond, Kristoffer Diaz and Bruce Norris are some of America's most critically acclaimed contemporary playwrights. Their work captures the tensions and aspirations of an increasingly diverse America, but they all acknowledged that it was a challenge to bring a more diverse audience to theaters.

Tony award-winning actor Stephen McKinley Henderson raised the curtain on the event, A Broader Way, at WNYC's The Greene Space. He began by thanking "playwrights everywhere, for actors everywhere."

It launched a night of memorable moments, but here are my top 5.

Coming Soon, a Century Late: A Black Film Gem - NYTimes.com

Coming Soon, a Century Late: A Black Film Gem - NYTimes.com: For decades, the seven reels from 1913 lay unexamined in the film archives of the Museum of Modern Art. Now, after years of research, a historic find has emerged: what MoMA curators say is the earliest surviving footage for a feature film with a black cast. It is a rare visual depiction of middle-class black characters from an era when lynchings and stereotyped black images were commonplace. What’s more, the material features Bert Williams, the first black superstar on Broadway. Williams appears in blackface in the untitled silent film along with a roster of actors from the sparsely documented community of black performers in Harlem on the cusp of the Harlem Renaissance. Remarkably, the reels also capture behind-the-scenes interactions between these performers and the directors.

MoMA plans an exhibition around the work called “100 Years in Post-Production: Resurrecting a Lost Landmark of Black Film History,” which is to open on Oct. 24 and showcase excerpts and still frames. Sixty minutes of restored footage will be shown on Nov. 8 in the museum’s annual To Save and Project festival dedicated to film preservation.

Examining Bill Cosby's Legacy As 'The Cosby Show' Turns 30 : Code Switch : NPR

Examining Bill Cosby's Legacy As 'The Cosby Show' Turns 30 : Code Switch : NPR: The Cosby Show celebrates its 30th birthday on Saturday.

It was a monster hit inspired by the comedy and life experiences of its star, Bill Cosby, as shown in the new biography Cosby: His Life and Times. In the book, author Mark Whitaker makes a strong argument that Cosby's comedic style and approach to race issues turned The Cosby Show into television's most quietly subversive program.

The Cosby Show rarely came off like a revolutionary situation comedy — especially because the situations, often centered on loving-yet-sardonic parents Cliff and Clair Huxtable, seemed so ordinary.

"I was a beautiful woman once, before the children came," Phylicia Rashad's Clair says in one scene to Bill Cosby's Cliff. "Do you think when they grow up I'll be beautiful again?"

Cosby delivered the punch line, speaking for many an exasperated parent: "I just hope they get out of the house before we die."

Jacqueline Woodson On Being A 'Brown Girl' Who Dreams : Code Switch : NPR

Jacqueline Woodson On Being A 'Brown Girl' Who Dreams : Code Switch : NPR: The first time author Jacqueline Woodson says she really understood poetry — and loved it — was after reading Langston Hughes in elementary school.

"Until then, I thought it was some code that older white people used to speak to each other. I didn't know what was going on with the line breaks and the words," Woodson recalls. "Once the floodgates opened, they opened."

Woodson has made a career out of breaking down that "code" for young readers. She's published 30 books, and won three Newbery Honor Medals and a National Book Award. Her latest book, Brown Girl Dreaming, is a memoir in free verse. It is under consideration for a National Book Award for young adult literature.

Stanford professor wins MacArthur 'genius grant' for racial awareness studies - San Jose Mercury News

Stanford professor wins MacArthur 'genius grant' for racial awareness studies - San Jose Mercury News: America is pushing forward in a post-racial society, blind to skin color. That's the conventional wisdom.

But the research of Jennifer Eberhardt, the Bay Area's newest and only recipient of the famed MacArthur fellowship, the "genius grants," has proved otherwise.

She has found that skin color prejudices the perceptions of jurors, police officers and even the ordinary student who volunteers in research at Stanford University.

Black people, especially those with very dark skin and kinky hair, are more likely to be linked to crime, handed stiffer punishments or even sentenced to death than lighter-appearing individuals, according to her research.

‘A National Admissions Office’ for Low-Income Strivers - NYTimes.com

‘A National Admissions Office’ for Low-Income Strivers - NYTimes.com: Arianna Trickey was opening a piece of mail in her bedroom during junior year of high school when a pamphlet fell out of the envelope. The pamphlet seemed to offer the impossible: the prospect of a full scholarship to several of her dream colleges.

She went running out to her father, a house painter, who was sitting on the family’s porch in Grass Valley, a California city in the Sierra Nevada foothills. “You have to see this,” she told him. “This is the scholarship that will get me to the best schools in the country.”

The pamphlet was from a nonprofit organization called QuestBridge, which has quietly become one of the biggest players in elite-college admissions. Almost 300 undergraduates at Stanford this year, or 4 percent of the student body, came through QuestBridge.

BBC News - The photographer who rejected racism in the American south

BBC News - The photographer who rejected racism in the American south: At the turn of the 20th Century, life was incredibly difficult for the African-American community in the southern states of the US. But one self-taught photographer used his camera to challenge racial barriers and capture the diversity of the American South.

"I did not know my grandfather but I am very proud that he was able to capture these people in pictures - whether they were black or white, rich or poor, farmers or businessmen," says Martha Sumler.

In an era that was marked by growing racial discrimination and the introduction of what were known as the "Jim Crow" segregation laws, a relatively unknown photographer, Hugh Mangum, did a rare thing - he opened his doors to everyone regardless of their race, gender or how much money they had.

For HBCUs, Investing in Education Abroad a Key to Marketplace Success - Higher Education

For HBCUs, Investing in Education Abroad a Key to Marketplace Success - Higher Education: The numbers show how under-represented students of color are when it comes to international experiences, but how can its increase also be connected to improving marketplace success?

Since 2000 according to the Institute of International Education, study abroad participation among U.S. college students has nearly tripled in the 2011-12 academic year, the latest available figures until November, to a new high: 283,332. The four largest groups: Whites (76.4); Asians (7.7); Hispanics (7.6); and Blacks (5.3). During the same period: 58.0, 5.8 and 14.4 percent of enrolled U.S. college students were represented by those same groups, respectively. Latinos and African Americans were virtually tied.

More than 310,000 students were enrolled at 105 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), yet only 48 were known to have gone abroad based on data from the leading source of funding for Pell Grant students, The Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program. Where African-American graduates are over-represented is in working minimum wage jobs when employed. As recruiters look for more candidates with global experiences, they cannot compete.

Army commanders: White men lead a diverse force

Army commanders: White men lead a diverse force: WASHINGTON — Command of the Army's main combat units — its pipeline to top leadership — is virtually devoid of black officers, according to interviews, documents and data obtained by USA TODAY.

The lack of black officers who lead infantry, armor and field artillery battalions and brigades — there are no black colonels at the brigade level this year — threatens the Army's effectiveness, disconnects it from American society and deprives black officers of the principal route to top Army posts, according to officers and military sociologists. Fewer than 10% of the active-duty Army's officers are black compared with 18% of its enlisted men, according to the Army.

The problem is most acute in its main combat units: infantry, armor and artillery. In 2014, there was not a single black colonel among those 25 brigades, the Army's main fighting unit of about 4,000 soldiers. Brigades consist of three to four battalions of 800 to 1,000 soldiers led by lieutenant colonels. Just one of those 78 battalions is scheduled to be led by a black officer in 2015

Rastafarian High School Student Sent Home From School For Ten Days For Having Dreadlocks | ThinkProgress

Rastafarian High School Student Sent Home From School For Ten Days For Having Dreadlocks | ThinkProgress: Legal experts are coming to the defense of a Rastafari high schooler in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, who was kicked out of class for having dreadlocks, arguing that school officials violated his right to religious freedom.

According to a letter published last week by the Louisiana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a student — identified only as “John Doe” — was sent home from the first day of school at South Plaquemines High School on August 8th because his dreadlocks were too long. The student reportedly tried to return to school at least twice, but was repeatedly dismissed — even after he pinned up his dreadlocks to meet length requirements.

“Although the school has not given John Doe written notice of his suspension, the actions of the school and Superintendent Rousselle are the equivalent of an unlimited suspension,” the letter read.

Preserving Black History, Americans Care For National Treasures At Home : NPR

Preserving Black History, Americans Care For National Treasures At Home : NPR: In a hall inside the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in Alabama on Saturday, long tables are draped with black linen. Experts are bent over tables, examining aging quilts, letters filled with tight, hand-penned script, and yellowing black-and-white photos tacked into crackling albums — all family keepsakes brought in by local residents.

It looks like the TV program Antiques Roadshow has come to town. But these are experts from the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, here as part of a series of workshops around the country to help identify and protect items of cultural significance.

The relics and heirlooms of African-American families, the Smithsonian says, can help tell the story of America — and should be preserved. To that end, the museum is educating people about how to take care of their own history, making ordinary people collectors of the nation's heritage.

Sagging Pants And The Long History Of 'Dangerous' Street Fashion : Code Switch : NPR

Sagging Pants And The Long History Of 'Dangerous' Street Fashion : Code Switch : NPR: Mary Sue Rich finally had enough.

The council member from Ocala, Fla., was tired of seeing the young people in her town wearing their pants low and sagging, and successfully pushed to prohibit the style on city-owned property. It became law in July. Violators face a $500 fine or up to six months in jail.

"I'm just tired of looking at young men's underwear, it's just disrespectful," Rich said. "I think it would make [people who wear sagging pants] respect themselves, and I would wager 9 out of 10 of them don't have jobs."

The rationale behind the ban enacted last year in Wildwood, N.J., was similar. "I'm not trying to be the fashion police, but personally I find it offensive when a guy's butt is hanging out," said Ernest Troiana, the town's mayor, after he announced that his city would very much be policing fashion.

Two Howard County students show up to school draped with Confederate flags - The Washington Post

Two Howard County students show up to school draped with Confederate flags - The Washington Post: Days after a Howard County student unfurled a Confederate flag at a football game, two high school students showed up at Glenelg High School on Wednesday with Confederate flags draped over their shoulders.

Rebecca Amani-Dove, a Howard schools spokeswoman, said the students displayed the flags on school property before the opening bell and were immediately told to remove them.

“They were asked to put them away, and they did,” Amani-Dove said. “It has been calm at the school.”

The incident at Glenelg came after a student displayed a Confederate flag while standing at the top of the stadium bleachers during the season opener between Glenelg and River Hill high schools on Friday night.

This Is Your Brain. This Is Your Brain On Music. : NPR Ed : NPR

This Is Your Brain. This Is Your Brain On Music. : NPR Ed : NPR: Musical training doesn't just improve your ear for music, it also helps your ear for speech. That's the takeaway from an unusual new study published in The Journal of Neuroscience. Researchers found that kids who took music lessons for two years didn't just get better at playing the trombone or violin. They found that playing music also helped kids' brains process language.

And here's something else unusual about the study: where it took place. It wasn't a laboratory — but in the offices of Harmony Project in Los Angeles. It's a nonprofit, after-school program that teaches music to children in low-income communities.

Two nights a week, neuroscience and musical learning meet at Harmony's Hollywood headquarters, where some two dozen children gather to learn how to play flutes, oboes, trombones and trumpets. The program also includes on-site instruction at many public schools across Los Angeles County.

For Small Police Departments, Increasing Diversity Is a Struggle - NYTimes.com

For Small Police Departments, Increasing Diversity Is a Struggle - NYTimes.com: MAPLE HEIGHTS, Ohio — This working-class Cleveland suburb has changed markedly since its mayor declared in 1977 that he did not know “what a minority is,” going from a nearly all-white population to two-thirds black. But its police and fire departments have not: the Maple Heights police force today still has only two black officers out of 35; the fire department is 100 percent white.

Maple Heights is far from unique. Across the country, police departments still struggle to hire and retain minority candidates, a problem that has taken on new relevance since the fatal shooting of a young black man last month in Ferguson, Mo., where just four of the 53 police officers are black, according to the police chief.

Nationwide, the total number of minority police officers has risen, but they remain heavily concentrated in larger cities, with the numbers falling off sharply in smaller ones, like Ferguson and Maple Heights.