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Oct 29, 2024 | 
tcf.org | Alejandra Vazquez Baur |Rosybell Maria |Maggie Marcus |Alejandra Vázquez BaurFellow
Luzia has been singing her whole life. She began writing music at the age of 8, when she lived in Angola. Looking back, she describes her first songs as “silly.” Now, after just two years in Maine, Luzia has begun performing in major competitions and events across the country, including in Washington, D.C. as part of a multinational girls chorus group.
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Oct 23, 2024 | 
tcf.org | Alejandra Vazquez Baur |Conor Williams |Maggie Marcus |Rosybell Maria
Meet Annie Connor. First thing in the morning, Ms. Annie co-teaches an Algebra class of both English learners (ELs) and non-ELs, all dressed in pajamas for the school’s Spirit Week. Heads are down completing the bell ringer on the board when Ms. Annie interrupts the silence to begin vocal exercises.
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Oct 9, 2024 | 
tcf.org | Maggie Marcus |Margot Ngo |Alejandra Vazquez Baur |Chantal Hinds
In education circles, it’s relatively common to hear English learners (ELs) touted as one of the fastest-growing student groups in public schools. And that’s true—there are at least 1.5 million more ELs in the United States now than there were in 2000. Over speak one of more than 400 non-English languages at home. This growth means that these high-potential students are in essentially every community now, being served by schools in a wide range of ways.
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Oct 8, 2024 | 
tcf.org | Chantal Hinds |Tiara Moultrie |Maggie Marcus |Halley Potter
There are approximately 250,000 students in the foster system in our nation’s schools. These students are among the groups of students with the most need. They experience higher and/or disproportionate rates of chronic absenteeism, school discipline, and rates of special education. These students also have lower graduation rates and state test scores than their non-foster-system peers.
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Oct 8, 2024 | 
tcf.org | Chantal Hinds |Jonathan Zabala |Margot Ngo |Maggie Marcus
The needs of the 368,530 young people in our nation’s child welfare systemare many. A recent report from the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance highlighted the many ways that residential treatment facilities—which provide inpatient services to young people experiencing mental and behavioral health crises—are harming young people, including through abuse, unsafe conditions, and inferior education.
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Sep 25, 2024 | 
tcf.org | Tiara Moultrie |Alejandra Vazquez Baur |Maggie Marcus |Jasmine Brann
TCF fellow and Next100 senior policy entrepreneur Chantal Hinds submitted a comment to the Rockefeller Institute of Government on September 4, 2024, to inform the institute’s study of New York State’s Foundation Aid Formula.
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Sep 18, 2024 | 
tcf.org | Katie Byrnes |Maggie Marcus |Jasmine Brann |Conor Williams
In 2016, as a second-year PhD student, I attended a lecture by Katie Byrnes, who spoke of the importance of Mindful Educator Self-Care, and described tools for educators to practice, like focused attention, that will help them to be aware of one’s body and mental state. Years later—as a professor training teachers during the COVID-19 global pandemic—I incorporated yoga and breathing exercises into my lectures by inviting guest practitioners to lead us through guided practices.
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Aug 1, 2024 | 
tcf.org | Margot Ngo |Alejandra Vazquez Baur |Jonathan Zabala |Maggie Marcus
Just three miles southwest of the famous New Orleans French Quarter, several dozen newly arrived students are learning math in Spanish. Survivor’s hit song “Eye of the Tiger” plays loudly from speakers in a third-floor corner classroom of Walter L. Cohen High School while Mr. Zavala’s students race to write everything they know about slope, y-intercepts, and the formula of a line on a worksheet.
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Jul 15, 2024 | 
tcf.org | Alejandra Vazquez Baur |Maggie Marcus |Jasmine Brann |Stefan Lallinger
“Photography has nothing to do with cameras.”—Lucas GentryPhotography Without Borders started in 2009 when Tony Rocco, a lifelong Philadelphia resident and former John B. Stetson Middle School teacher, wanted to introduce some of his students to his passion for photography and allow them to explore and develop their love for photography in an afterschool setting.
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Jul 10, 2024 | 
tcf.org | Jonathan Zabala |Conor Williams |Maggie Marcus |Stefan Lallinger
In 2022, I taught a graduate class on dual-language immersion and English as a second language (ESL) for educators in a local school district. All of my students were in leadership positions at the school or at the district level. But when class started that fall, several of these students were abruptly sent back to classrooms to fill in teacher vacancies.
