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  Another Day Has Passed and I Still Haven’t Used Pythagoras’ Theorem: American Education May Need to Trade Academic Test Scores for Career and Technical Education

  Rieser, Len; The Sheller Center for Social Justice (Temple University) (2022-12)

  Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs seek to produce graduates with developed workplace and life skills, technical aptitude, and employability. Historically, however, CTE legislation has enabled bias, allowing educators to segregate students by race and ability out of college prep tracks. At the same time, laws promoting conventional higher education programs have narrowed instruction by incentivizing performance on stanadardized tests. This paper proposes supporting CTE programs which have proven to achieve both vocational and academic success.
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  Rethinking Discipline to Combat the School-to-Prison Pipeline

  Rieser, Len; The Sheller Center for Social Justice (Temple University) (2022-12)

  This article argues that school disciplinary policies that remove students from classrooms do not serve learners' long-term goals, but instead alienate them from structured, social, learning support systems. The author recommends learning environments respond to undesirable behavior with staff to provide counseling, psychological support, or social service referrals, and enforcement officers limited to act only on threats to school and student safety. Such regulation should be driven at the state level to combat disparate handling by individual school districts.
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  Under Watchful Eyes?: Examining the Disproportionate and Disparate Impact of Mandatory Reporting Laws for Teachers on Black Students

  Rieser, Len; The Sheller Center for Social Justice (Temple University) (2022-12)

  Teachers are not only empowered to report but face penalties for failing to report suspected child abuse and neglect. This builds a surveillance environment and may contribute to the overreporting of Black students and their disporportionate number in the foster care system. The author studies Pennsylvania statutes and recommends amendments mandating implicit bias training for teachers and allowing teachers to discuss potential reports with school counselors or administrators before submission.
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  Improving Classroom Instruction for English Learners in the United States

  Rieser, Len; The Sheller Center for Social Justice (Temple University) (2022-12)

  This study proposes federal legislation to provide educational support for English Learners (students who lack English language proficiency). Federal law could establish standards and requirements not just for specialized English as a Second Language teachers but general classroom teachers, as well; place regulation, enforcement, and funding with the Department of Education; and level disparate state solutions.
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  The Minority Voice Demands More Choice: Why that Choice Should Be Montessori

  Rieser, Len; The Sheller Center for Social Justice (Temple University) (2022-12)

  This paper proposes schools diversify educational programs to combat inequities perpetuated by school choice. For example, the Montessori method, which contains social and emotional development aspects, also decenters the instructor, therein reducing unconscious bias to non-majority students. Federal funding mechanisms have not adequately recognized the efficacy of alternative educational programs and thus limited the viability of such programs in school choice systems.

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