Author Archives: Dr. Ramona Edelin

By Dr. Ramona Edelin, Special to the AFRO With the scandal surrounding the federal investigation into inflated high-school graduation rates at D.C. Public Schools—the traditional public school system—and the decision of the charter board to revoke the charters of two public charter schools, the District’s public schools have made news lately.  But as parents and guardians […]

Public education reform is under attack in a new book from Diane Ravitch. Her book, Reign of Error, is hitting bookstores nationwide. Ravitch attacks chartered public schools, which are run independently of the traditional public school system and educate 44 percent of all public school children here in the nation’s capital, as part of a […]

High-quality public education is critically important to America’s future, and we are falling behind globally. On the standardized tests administered every three years by the Program for International Student Assessment, American school students finished 25th in math, 17th in science and 12th in reading among all industrialized countries. This worrying discrepancy, as well as national […]

As Mayor Gray highlighted the importance of continuing to improve public education here in the nation’s capital in his State of the District address, my thoughts turned to recent controversies surrounding our public schools. First came proposals from D.C.’s Board of Education to increase the graduation requirements for high school students enrolled in public school. […]

The fate of children growing up in our nation’s capital rarely receives the attention it deserves from our nation’s lawmakers, who live and work here. Yet the facts are startling. Among the more than 100,000 children who live in the District of Columbia, a child is abused or neglected every three hours. Every four days, […]

This month marks the 44th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. As we commemorate the life of Dr. King, I am reminded that for people in the education reform movement, the struggle to obtain equal access to a high-quality public education for all of our children is the civil rights issue of our […]

I have worked for civil rights for all of our citizens since attending my first demonstration, at the age of 3, in the segregated south in Orangeburg, S.C., courtesy of my grandparents. The Sunbeam Bread Company would not hire African-Americans, and so we marched. Today’s civil rights struggle centers on the classroom, where the public […]