#tellEWA Member Stories (August 19-25)

Here’s what we’re reading by EWA members this week.

A Southlake, Texas, school district clarified that it hasn’t banned a book about George Dawson, the grandson of a slave who learned to read when he was 98. Some community members remain skeptical. Social media posts circulated suggesting the book was banned from the middle school named in honor of Dawson, Meghan Mangrum reports for The Dallas Morning News.

Boise State University – and its first female president – stayed “virtually silent” after a tenured male professor went viral for criticizing career-oriented women. The university also refused to comment to Idaho Education News Kevin Richert about whether it investigated if the professor graded female students fairly. So Richert filed a public records request to fill in gaps, getting 1,160 pages of revealing emails.

 

“When I say I’m from Uvalde, they’re gonna know exactly where that is, know exactly what happened …” As high school graduates from Uvalde, Texas, prepare to leave for college, they’re experiencing conflicting feelings of grief and excitement and worries about people forever linking them to the Robb Elementary School shooting, Kate McGee writes for The Texas Tribune.

About 77% of teachers are female, and many are of childbearing age. Yet most school districts don’t offer paid parental leave nor accommodate teachers who are breastfeeding or experiencing pregnancy loss. Education Week’s Madeline Will speaks to several educators who miscarried or experienced stillbirths, breaking down stigmas and highlighting flawed teachers’ leave policies.

Sixteen incarcerated men in Illinois are on track to receive bachelor’s degrees from Northwestern University’s prison education program. The cohort don’t have computers and face other challenges, but the chance to get higher education motivates them. “When I leave the prison cell and that prison cell house and come into that classroom, I feel like I’m around my brothers,” Brandis Friedman reports for WTTW/Chicago PBS.

Black students and scholars told a CalMatters reporting team that California State University, the country’s largest public university, needs to do more to support them and address anti-Blackness. The system’s six-year Black graduation rate is just 50% and 63% overall. Mikhail Zinshteyn, Michaella Huck and Julie Watts explain what resources exist for Black students, what’s lacking and what CSU leaders are doing.

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