Education
Florida education officials report hundreds of books pulled from school libraries, including Toni Morrison, Richard Wright and Maya Angelou
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye.” “Forever” by Judi Blume. “Slaughterhouse Five” by Kurt Vonnegut.
According to the newest information, all of them have been withdrawn from the shelves of some Florida schools list developed by the Florida Department of Education and containing books removed by local school districts.
Recent changes in state law have made it possible for fogeys and residents to take this motion challenge books to school libraries and required districts to submit an annual report to the state detailing which books were restricted of their schools. Florida continues to steer the nation in withdrawing books from school libraries, in accordance with an evaluation by the American Library Association and the advocacy group PEN America.
“Restricting access means limiting the freedom to read,” said Kasey Meehan of PEN America. “Students are losing the opportunity to access books that reflect their own life experiences, to access books that help them learn and to empathize with people who… have different life experiences.”
The list, published for the 2023-2024 school yr, includes titles by American literary icons similar to Maya Angelou, Flannery O’Connor and Richard Wright, in addition to books which have turn into top targets for censorship across the country as a consequence of LGBTQ+ characters, discussions about gender and sexuality and descriptions of sexual encounters, e.g. “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George Johnson and “Gender Queer” by Maja Kobabe. Supporters of conservatism have described such content as “pornographic.”
The list of books removed from libraries also includes Holocaust accounts similar to “The Diary of Anne Frank: A Graphic Adaptation” and “Sophie’s Choice.” It’s an analogous story with the graphic novel, an adaptation of “1984,” George Orwell’s groundbreaking work on censorship and surveillance.
“Everywhere from Toni Morrison to Alice Walker to Slaughterhouse-Five to George Orwell,” said Stephana Farrell, co-founder of the Florida Freedom to Read Project, which tracks book challenges within the state. “If you take the time to look through this list, you will see that there is a problem with… this movement.”
In an announcement to the Associated Press, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Education maintained that no books have been banned in Florida and defended the state’s efforts to remove “sexually explicit material” from schools.
“Once again, far-left activists are promoting the book ban scam to Floridians. “The better question is why these activists continue to fight to expose children to sexually explicit material,” spokeswoman Sydney Booker said.
The list shows that the number of book withdrawals varies widely across the state, with some districts reporting no restrictions and others reporting hundreds of titles pulled from shelves. Farrell of the Florida Freedom to Read Project said that based on the group’s evaluation of public records, the department’s report is an undercount since it doesn’t include books removed in consequence of an internal staff review, only those withdrawn in consequence of a grievance filed by a parent or resident.
Farrell believes that almost all Florida parents want their children to have broad access to literature.
“We live in a country where parental rights should be recognized, heard and taken into account,” Farrell said. “We are asking for accountability and an accurate record of the impact of these laws on our children and what is available to them.”
Schools have restricted access to dozens of books by Stephen King, a master of the horror genre known for bestsellers similar to “It” and “Pet Sematary.” Clay County officials also found his book, “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft,” inappropriate for college kids.
King, who spends part of the yr in Florida, talked about attempting to get his books out of students’ hands, urging readers to run to the closest library or bookstore.
“What the hell?” In August, King posted on social media reacting to the choice of some Florida schools to drag his books from shelves.
Multiple school districts in Florida have filed legal challenges for restricting students’ access to books, including Escambia County, which is being sued by PEN America and Random penguin housethe biggest publisher within the country.
Nassau County School District in September settled lawsuit brought by the authors of “And Tango Makes Three,” an image book based on the true story of two male penguins who raised a chick together at New York’s Central Park Zoo. Under the terms of the settlement, the district needed to return three dozen books to the shelves.
Education
Literacy materials being withdrawn from many schools are facing new pressure from parents of children with reading difficulties
A lawsuit filed by two Massachusetts families deepens opposition to an approach to teaching reading that some schools proceed to make use of despite evidence that it will not be probably the most effective.
States across the country were modernization of reading programs for research-based strategies, generally known as “learning to read”, including an emphasis on sounding out words.
This week’s lawsuit takes aim at an approach that does not try this emphasize phonics. These include the time-tested “three clues” strategy, which inspires students to make use of images and context to predict words by asking questions comparable to: “What happens next?”, “What is the first letter of the word? ” or “What clues do the photos give?”
The families of the Massachusetts students who did this it was hard to read filed a lawsuit against authors and publishers who supported this approach, including Lucy Calkins, a lecturer at Teachers College at Columbia University. He is demanding compensation for the families allegedly harmed by the fabric.
Thousands of schools once used the three-signal approach as part of the “balanced literacy” approach advocated by Calkins and others, which focused, for instance, on having children read books they liked independently and spend less time on phonics or letter relationships and sounds. Over the past few years, greater than 40 states have passed laws emphasizing evidence-based and research-based materials, in keeping with the nonprofit Albert Shanker Institute.
It’s unknown how many school districts still use the programs at issue since the numbers aren’t monitored — but there are many, in keeping with Timothy Shanahan, professor emeritus of education on the University of Illinois at Chicago. Many teachers have been trained to show the three-pointer, so it could actually be used even in classrooms where it will not be part of the curriculum, he said.
He said research does show the advantages of teaching phonics, but there may be less information in regards to the three-cue method.
“There is no research that isolates the practice of teaching three-pointers – so we don’t know if it helps, hurts, or is just a waste of time (although logically it would seem to conflict with phonics, which may or may not be the case when teaching children),” he wrote in an email.
A key part of the sport is the tricue Reading the recovery programwhich was utilized in over 2,400 US elementary schools. In 2023, the Reading Recovery Council of North America filed a lawsuit alleging that Ohio lawmakers violated the authority of state and native boards of education through the use of a budget bill banning the three-pointer.
The new lawsuit accuses Calkins and other outstanding figures in the sphere of childhood literacy of using fraud to trick schools into purchasing and using flawed methods. The parents who sued alleged that their children had difficulty reading after studying in public schools in Massachusetts, where a 2023 Boston Globe study found that almost half of schools used materials that the state Department of Education deemed to be of low quality.
The lawsuit asks the court to order authors, their corporations and publishers to supply an early literacy program that features reading instruction for gratis.
One plaintiff, Michele Hudak of Ashland, said she thought her son was reading at an elementary level until fourth grade, when he had difficulty reading his assigned textbooks. By then, tests showed he was reading at an elementary level, the lawsuit said, “solely because he could successfully guess the words from the pictures.”
Calkins didn’t reply to an email looking for comment. It has maintained its approach, even adding more phonics to its literacy curricula, called units of study.
But last 12 months Teachers College announced it was closing the Reading and Writing Project, which Calkins founded, saying it desired to foster more conversation and collaboration between different approaches to literacy. Calkins has since founded the Reading and Writing Project in Mossflower to proceed her work.
“Teachers must use the best approach and differentiate their instruction depending on the specific child they are working with,” Calkins said in a video posted on the new project’s website.
Michael Kamil, professor emeritus of education at Stanford University, said that although Calkins dropped phonics, it is just one component of teaching children to read.
“There are lots of reasons why students don’t learn to read, and the reading program is very rarely the main reason,” Kamil said.
Education
Actor Michael Rainey Jr. donates $2.4 million to improve financial literacy in Staten Island schools
“Power Book II: Ghost” star Michael Rainey Jr. just made a significant move into power — starting this 12 months’s holidays early.
The 24-year-old actor has partnered with the Restoring America Through Recovery Education (RARE) Foundation to donate $2.4 million in financial literacy tools and support to three high schools in Staten Island, New York.
“A huge THANK YOU to (Michael Rainey Jr.) for sponsoring Port Richmond High School and providing each student and their parents with the necessary education in financial literacy and Equifax identity theft protection! Your commitment to empowering the next generation is truly inspiring,” RARE officials captioned the post on the web site Instagram.
The post included a video from the day Rainey visited Port Richmond High School to present the organization with an enormous check. There, he spoke candidly about his financial literacy journey and posed for photos with students. School officials and community organizers were also available to talk to students about financial literacy.
“Together with the support of the RARE Foundation Board of Directors, this is the first step in our mission to ensure that every student in New York is financially prepared for adulthood,” the post continued. “This is just the beginning – there are many more schools to come! Let’s make financial literacy a priority for every student!”
According to the organization’s website, the RARE Foundation strives to provide disadvantaged communities with “essential financial recovery education and training.” By partnering with RARE, Rainey hopes to further empower disadvantaged and at-risk youth with sage advice in order that they can confidently navigate their financial future, local radio station HOT 97 reported.
Rainey is from Louisville, Kentucky, and “Power Book II: Ghost,” a derivative of fifty Cent’s “Power” TV series, is ready in the five boroughs of New York City. In the spirit of the season, this wasn’t the one charity event Rainey took part in on Staten Island in recent days. According to videos uploaded to his Instagram Storiesthe actor also appeared on the Staten Island Turkey Drive, where he greeted guests and handed out T-shirts.
Education
VSU is the first HBCU with an accredited social work program
Virginia State University (VSU) is making HBCU history with a brand new accredited program.
Virginia State University distinguishes itself from other Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) by adding a Master of Social Work degree program. The advanced degree program will likely be the first of its kind accredited by the Council on Social Work (CWSE) to be offered at an HBCU.
The university announced the accreditation of the program on November 21 on the university’s official website. The program has been operating since 2022, but only now has it received full accreditation. CWSE grants accreditation retroactively, covering previous semesters through fall 2022.
With the addition of the program, VSU’s mission is to teach culturally and socially competent mental health experts to assist support and lift up your communities.
“Preparing graduates to systematically and strategically address the well-being of people who have experienced trauma. It is also committed to promoting human rights and social and economic justice through community engagement, advocacy and collaborative research that influences professional practice at the local, national and global levels,” the press release reads.
VSU is not the only HBCU that has found success in academia. BLACK ENTERPRISES it was recently reported that Jackson State University is the first HBCU to win the Founder’s Award from the National Academy of Inventors (NAI).
NAI was founded in 2011 and has welcomed over 700 fellows. The organization promotes and honors creativity, diversity and invention. To join this prestigious organization, a scientist must hold no less than one U.S. patent.
JSU is a founding member of the organization and boasts many successful innovators who’ve change into NAI scholarship recipients.
Introduced in 2012, Ernest Izevbigie obtained two patents that led to the creation of EdoBotanics. The dietary complement helps cancer patients cope with the unwanted effects of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Other inductees included Kamal Ali ’17 and Danuta Leszczyńska ’18.
JSU President Marcus Thompson accepted the honor: “This distinction further underscores our commitment to academic excellence, economic development and social progress. This is a significant milestone not only for JSU, but for all HBCUs and the state of Mississippi.”
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