News

March 21, 2014: Today, the United States Department of Education Office of Civil Rights released its civil rights data analysis from the 2011-2012 school year. This is the first comprehensive look at civil rights data from every public school in the nation in nearly 15 years. The data set, which includes reporting from all of the nation’s 97,000 school districts, shows that tremendous disparities still exist for children of color in many areas - ...

February 27, 2014: As you are surely aware by now, this has been an historic week for the field of black male achievement. Yesterday afternoon from the White House East Room, President Barack Obama announced the launch of My Brother's Keeper, "a new initiative with leading foundations and businesses taking a collaborative, multi-disciplinary approach to building ladders of opportunity that will unlock the full potential of boys and young men of color in America."  With this announcement, the President is making a significant statement and giving us validation on...

Sign up for a free webinar on using games to help students meet the high standards of the Common Core. BrainPOP is hosting Classroom, Inc. on Wednesday, January 15, 4pm ET, and we encourage you to be part of this discussion. Kathy Yu Burek and Anne Richards will look at how Classroom, Inc.’s The Sports Network 2 (available on GameUp) can be an effective way to engage students while developing reading comprehension skills...

This year's Achievement Gap Symposium, Black Male Teens: Moving to Success in the High School Years, co-convened by Educational Testing Service (ETS) and the Children's Defense Fund (CDF), was a tremendous success. The event brought together more than 400 participants from across the nation — including thought leaders in education, child advocates, researchers, educators, students and policymakers — to discuss strategies to close achievement gaps for the 1.7 million young Black men, ages 15–19, living in the United States. The conference was held in Washington, D.C....