Parent Advocates - ParentAdvocates.org

What Happens When Kids Don't Have Internet at Home?

January 21, 2015

As part of an effort to bridge the so-called digital divide—the gap between rich and poor when it comes to access to technology—the Kent School District has for six years given every student a laptop, beginning in seventh grade. But some of these students don’t need to carry the bags home—because they can’t get onli...

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Crippling the Right to Organize

December 17, 2011

UNLESS something changes in Washington, American workers will, on New Year’s Day, effectively lose their right to be represented by a union. Two of the five seats on the National Labor Relations Board, which protects collective bargaining, are vacant, and on Dec. 31, the term of Craig Becker, a labor lawyer whom Pre...

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Penn State,My Final Loss of Faith by Thomas L. Day

November 13, 2011

I’m 31, an Iraq war veteran, a Penn State graduate, a Catholic, a native of State College, acquaintance of Jerry Sandusky’s, and a product of his Second Mile foundation. And I have fully lost faith in the leadership of my parents’ generation.

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The Southern District U.S. Attorney Sues Orange County Law Firm Larkin, Axelrod, Ingrassia & Tetenbaum and Partner John Ingrassia For Title III ADA Violations

November 9, 2011

The suit (See Complaint) alleges that Larkin, Axelrod, Ingrassia & Tetenbaum and partner John Ingrassia violated Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act when they refused to let a client, Lauren Klejmont, enter the office with Reicha, her German shepherd. Title III prohibits providers of public accommodatio...

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Whistleblower Michael Woodford Exposes Olympus' Hiding Years of Investment Losses

November 9, 2011

Olympus said Tuesday that more than $1 billion in merger payouts were used to hide years of losses on investments, an acknowledgment that is an abrupt about-face for the company, which had denied any wrongdoing in the wake of a widening scandal. That revelation alone could make this one of the biggest accounting fra...

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Cyberwar Hysteria Aids Consultants, Hurts U.S

October 29, 2011

On Feb. 3, President Barack Obama and the entire West Wing lost access to e-mail for more than seven hours. A tree-trimmer had accidentally cut the lines running out of the White House data center. White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer sent a bulletin via Twitter -- the only way he could get the news out,...

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Julia Steiny: Face It: Helping All Kids Graduate Requires a Second Shift of Supportive Adults

October 26, 2011

Of the 20-year-olds who were unemployed during the recent recession, roughly 70 percent were high-school drop-outs. Dr. Robert Balfanz asks, “With no diploma and no work history, are they ever going to work? Every year we (America) put a million kids into that pipeline.” Which leads to prison, chronic unemployment...

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The Legal Minefield of Cyberbullying

October 24, 2011

Seemingly impersonal and distant cyberbullying and other forms of online harassment can hurt the recipient's feelings, destroy lives (as is evident in the recent case involving a Rutgers University student), and, in some cases, result in expensive lawsuits. Cyberbullying is possible among all groups, from children a...

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Bloomberg Tells Occupy Wall Street Protesters They Must Leave Zuccotti Park So That The Space Can Be "Cleaned"

October 13, 2011

It looks like Friday is going to be an interesting day at Zuccotti Park. Just two days after declaring that the occupiers of Wall Street could stay in the park indefinitely, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced last night that protesters will have to leave at least temporarily for a cleaning of the park on Fri...

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New York State Court of Appeals Reviews The Question Of A Custodial Parent Moving From The Agreed Upon Area

October 9, 2011

In each of these appeals, a divorced spouse who was previously granted custody of the couple's minor offspring seeks permission to move away from the area in which the noncustodial spouse resides. Both noncustodial spouses oppose the move, contending that it would significantly reduce the access to the children that...

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The Secrets of a Principal Who Makes Things Work

September 27, 2011

While Ivy Leaguers in their 20s can now become principals, Jacqui Getz, 51, the new principal of Public School 126, a high-poverty school in Chinatown, came up the old way. This is her third principal position, but before that, she was a teacher for nine years and an assistant principal for four. It’s hard for princ...

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Mayor Michael Bloomberg and The Young Men's Initiative by Justin Birch

September 26, 2011

Last month Mayor Bloomberg approved a $127 million initiative to improve the circumstances of the city's black and Latino men, contributing $30 million of his own money to the effort. The initiative purports to, over the next three years, help out in areas of education, jobs, health and the justice system....Unfortu...

Gay Adoptions: The New Reality TV?

September 21, 2011

In June 2010 New York Surrogate Court Judge Kristin Booth Glen approved a petition from CNN to video and then broadcast the adoption proceedings of a 5-month-old boy named Nicholas by “Tony,” the partner of “Gary,” who conceived the child with a surrogate.

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Summary Judgment Affirmed in Barry Nolan v CN8 The Comcast Network et al.

September 3, 2011

Barry Nolan, a regional television personality, was discharged from his employment with The Comcast Network, LLC (“Comcast”) after he publicly protested the selection of political commentator Bill O'Reilly for a prestigious broadcasting award. In response to this discharge, Nolan filed in the Massachusetts Superio...

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Sibel Edmonds and Paul Thompson On The U.S. Government's Withholding Of Information Relating To 9/11 Attacks

September 1, 2011

Paul Thompson joins us to discuss the latest revelations by former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke and his explosive allegations against three former top CIA officials – George Tenet, Cofer Black and Richard Blee – accusing them of knowingly withholding intelligence about two of the 9/11 hijackers, Nawaf al-Haz...

Confessions Of A Bad Teacher

August 30, 2011

Good teacher? Bad teacher? I suppose it's how you measure it. As far as I know, there is only one scrap of positive data in my personnel file at the DOE, a memo from the assistant principal commending me for passing enough students to put Latinate's pass rate in the Department of Education's "safe harbor."

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Fire Department Under Pressure To Diversify

August 29, 2011

The process of hiring firefighters in New York is legendarily byzantine and divisive. According to current rules, applicants are ranked according to their written scores and are further winnowed by a pass-fail physical exam. The department is required to hire, in order, the highest-ranking candidates, who receive ad...

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Whistleblower And Former Federal Air Marshall Robert McLean Is Denied His Job Back By The Merit System Protection Board

August 6, 2011

A federal panel, upholding a decision by an administrative judge, said this week it has ruled the Transportation Security Administration's decision to fire Robert MacLean was legal and "did not exceed the bounds of reasonableness."

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Why We Must Keep Tenure

August 2, 2011

Peter Lamphere and Rachel Montagano write about their exeriences as well as those of other teachers in New York City where administrators, CEOs and leaders of the New York public school system throw everyone with tenure into the garbage. Children Last is the motto of the "new" Board of Education, an entity in New Yo...

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Wall Street Continues To Pay Lobbyists Big Money

August 1, 2011

Big banks are among the most prolific spenders. JPMorgan Chase’s team of in-house lobbyists spent $3.3 million, a slight uptick over last year. The biggest war chest among organizations focused primarily on Dodd-Frank belongs to the American Bankers Association, which so far spent $4.6 million on lobbying. The organ...

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Can Teachers Be Evaluated By Their Students' Test Scores? Should They Be?

August 1, 2011

Value-added models have become increasingly popular in today’s policy environment as a way to evaluate, reward, and dismiss teachers. These statistical models aim to isolate each teacher’s unique contribution to their students’ educational outcomes based in part on student test scores.

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Alec Exposed by John Nichols, The Nation

July 31, 2011

Founded in 1973 by Paul Weyrich and other conservative activists frustrated by recent electoral setbacks, ALEC is a critical arm of the right-wing network of policy shops that, with infusions of corporate cash, has evolved to shape American politics.

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Boy Becomes A "Problem" For Eva Moskowitz' Charter School and is "Disciplined" Out

July 24, 2011

This is a mother’s personal story about having child with different needs “counseled out” of a NYC charter school. It’s also testimony of how inclusion, a smaller class size, and the supportive attitude of a great public school made an astounding difference in my son’s life. My name is Katherine Sprowal and I’m the ...

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Joanne Barkan: The Grand Coalition Against Teachers

July 13, 2011

In a nation as politically and ideologically riven as ours, it’s remarkable to see so broad an agreement on what ails public schools. It’s the teachers......In the last few years, attention to the role of public school teachers has escalated into a high-profile, well-financed, and seriously misguided campaign to tra...

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From Sibel Edmonds: POGO, Watch-Dog Turned Lap-Dog

July 12, 2011

Real government watchdogs, if they are doing what they are supposed to be doing, if they are engaged in what they say they are engaged in, become the object of the government’s wrath and hatred. There is no way around this. No way. The executive branch agencies would be up in arms against them: digging their graves ...

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Atlanta Schools' Cheating Scandal

July 8, 2011

Atlanta Public Schools are reeling from the fallout of a state investigation that confirmed reports of a massive test cheating scandal throughout the district. On Thursday, the interim state superintendent Erroll Davis announced four main reforms the district will adopt immediately, and vowed that educators who part...