new edition of Rethinking Schools newsletter

Posted by on January 30, 2004

Leon Lynn from Rethinking Schools here. We thought you’d like to know we’ve updated our website with articles from the latest issue of Rethinking Schools magazine, Volume 18, Number 2, Winter 2003-04.

You can see for yourself at: http://www.rethinkingschools.org

Articles in the new issue include:

“Get the Lead Out” — More than 300,000 children in the United States are poisoned by lead every year, most of them students of color. The current issue includes articles on this epidemic and its implications for health and education policy, and asks why policymakers have paid so little attention to such a critical issue.

“Teaching About Toxins” — A fourth-grade teacher describes how she taught about lead poisoning and asthma, and how she helps students understand why these are greater problems for poor students and students of color.

“Voucher Schools: Special Ed Kids Need Not Apply.” Barbara Miner looks at Milwaukee’s voucher and charter school programs, which often portray themselves as a new Civil Rights Movement but systematically deny enrollment to most special-education students.

“Lessons From a Garden Spider” — Kate Lyman describes how a classroom visit from a common spider sparked a rich learning experience in her elementary-age classroom.

“Some Gaps Count More Than Others” — Stan Karp asks: What if the government applied Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) criteria to equalizing income in the United States? Why are standardized tests scores the only area of public policy where the federal government mandates 100% equality among all population groups? A look at the hypocrisy at the heart of NCLB.

“Beyond Pink and Blue” — A teacher’s unit on gender stereotypes inspires her students to take on the biases in retail sales pitches and other media.

Starting with this issue, Rethinking Schools is changing the way it posts articles on its website. In the past we have posted all articles from each new issue on our site as soon as the issue was published. Now we’ll be posting only selected articles from each issue at first. The complete text of each issue won’t be posted on our site until a subsequent issue is published.

We hope you’ll support Rethinking Schools by subscribing, which will bring you the complete text of the current issue right away. You can sign up right now with a Visa or MasterCard at:

http://www.rethinkingschools.org/orderform/subscribe.shtml

If you have any questions or comments about this change in policy, please email them to me at rsleon@execpc.com.

— Leon Lynn, Book and Website Editor
Rethinking Schools
1001 E. Keefe Ave.
Milwaukee, WI 53212
414/964-9646
Fax: 414/964-7220
E-mail: rsleon@execpc.com
http://www.rethinkingschools.org