TALAS E-newsletter – January 18

For years, Keira Gilmore had her heart set on going to Texas A&M University. In high school, she was accepted and started mapping out her future. But the potential cost of school caused arguments between her and her parents, then her fiancé broke up with her abruptly, and her mother, who was already pregnant, got sick.

A decade ago, in March 2012, a group of writers, artists, educators, and activists banded together to combat the deplorable actions of Arizona’s state legislature. The state’s lawmakers had recently passed a bill making the teaching of “Ethnic Studies” illegal, along with banning courses that “promote resentment toward a race or class of people” and “are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group.” The bill also created a list of banned books. Of the more than 80 books that were eventually added to the list, many of the authors were Black and Latinx.

New Jersey lawmakers approved two bills Monday intended to help schools struggling with continuing staffing issues amid a new, highly-transmissible coronavirus variant.

One bill (A5576), passed unanimously by both chambers Monday, would allow retired teachers to return to the classroom through the 2022-2023 school year and still collect their pensions.

When working with students of color, particularly Black students, teachers lower down the rigor of assignments, ask fewer open-ended questions, and assign worksheets instead of group assignments, according to a new study out of New York University. Researchers point to racial biases about the academic abilities of students of color as a major factor.

“It’s not this overt ‘I have more Black students, I’m going to be racist,’ but I think it’s that when they go into a classroom that has more Black students it’s instinctual that the teachers actually kind of lower their standards. They use less-rigorous instruction,” said Hua-Yu Sebastian Cherng, an NYU associate professor and sociologist and lead author of the study.

Glenn Youngkin will begin his term as Virginia’s governor with an executive order on critical race theory and promising to “restore excellence” in education, echoing the major themes of his successful campaign.

The pandemic and remote learning proved one size of instruction does not fit all. While paper handouts and printed books are adequate for many students, much of educational content remains locked for learners with disabilities.

Distance learning forced many educators to go digital — a step in the right direction, certainly, but there were still some shortcomings. Just because a book or worksheet is digital doesn’t mean it is accessible. As an assistive technology (AT) specialist, I work with teachers to ensure all students are given equal opportunities to a quality education so they can reach their full potential.

A street in the iconic Latino neighborhood of Boyle Heights, California, could be renamed in honor of the late legendary king of ranchera music, Mexican singer Vicente Fernández.

Fernández died in December at 81 in his native state of Jalisco, in Mexico.