March » 2009 » Carol J. Carter

Discipline of Military Redirects Dropouts

CAROL’S SUMMARY: There is a new spotlight on programs like the Job Corps, YouthBuild, and Youth Challenge after President Obamaâ€™s insistence that every student graduate high school and aim for some form of higher education. These programs help dropouts earn their G.E.D. and develop career training. They are also a way for dropouts to learn about themselves, their wherewithal and their aspirations beyond the military.

Questions to consider:
1. Does your community have a program for at-risk or dropout students?
2. What do these programs offer that schools donâ€™t?
3. In what ways can we reach more students before they become inclined to drop out?
4. Who are the military role models that these new recruits have to look up to in their new line of work?

ARTICLE:

By ERIK ECKHOLM
Published: March 7, 2009

FORT GORDON, Ga. â€” By his own account, Donteâ€™ A. Dungey had no motivation in high school, sleeping through classes and sometimes showing up only for the free lunch to reduce the burden on his mother, who was struggling with nine other children. Held back three times and scheduled to enter the 10th grade at nearly 18, he knew that â€œhigh school just wasnâ€™t going to work for me,â€ he said.

But he was also ready to change. More than five months ago, Mr. Dungey took up residence in a program for dropouts called Youth Challenge, run by the National Guard, that is proving effective at using military atmosphere and discipline to turn around at-risk teenagers.

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Great Depression a Timely Class Topic

CAROL’S SUMMARY: The current economic crisis has students more interested in history, because of parallels with topics like the Great Depression. There is an opportunity for students to reinvent themselves in much the same way the men and women did after World War II. The current generation of students has much to learn from the determination, spirit, perseverance and innovation the â€œGreatest Generationâ€ had to offer.

Questions to consider:
1. Do you find yourself more interested in topics of study that apply to you today?
2. How could teachers make more lessons applicable to the lives of their students?
3. How can students come up with their own solutions for some of our national and world problems?
4.What contributions can students make in the next few years that will equal the Works Progress Act, the vision behind the National Parks, and other programs hatched during the Great Depression?

ARTICLE:

By Mary Ann Zehr
March 9, 2009

Margo M. Loflin teaches sophomores in Oklahoma, a state that was once part of the Dust Bowl of the Great Depression era. But most school years, her high school students donâ€™t find the struggles of Oklahoma farmers to combat drought and financial hardship in the 1930s relevant to their lives. That’s not true this year.

“I’ve taught [the Great Depression] for a long time. Usually, kids are not interested at all. They were very interested this year,” she said recently.

Ms. Loflin, who teaches U.S. history at Norman High School in Norman, Okla., is among a number of history and social studies teachers who have found that because of the parallels they’re able to draw between the current economic crisis and the Depression, their students are seeing that history is relevant. Theyâ€™re engaging more deeply in history lessons than they have in previous years.

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Experts Wonder How Education Goals Will Be Met

Carol’s Summary: Experts Wonder How Education Goals Will Be Met

Obama has a strong and formidable vision that the US will lead the world by 2020 with the most number of college graduates. However, with 25% of high school graduates currently not going to college and the drop-out rate once students get to college hovering at around 40%, we have a lot of work to do.

One of the most encouraging parts of Obamaâ€™s current plan is to give a $4,000 tax credit to students who can prove that they spent 100 hours or more doing community service. There are numerous advantages to students with this plan:

1) In this economy, many older twenty and thirty-somethings are taking minimum wage jobs typically held by college and high school students. There will be fewer of those jobs this summer, but the wise student can volunteer with a cause of his choice to put this tax credit in his pocket.

2) One of the biggest limits currently with American students is that they often lack experience. They can wander in college or drop out because they donâ€™t know themselves, their interests or their abilities. Volunteering fosters self discovery, leadership and purpose. The more students who have volunteered for 100 hours before or during the freshmen year, the more focused and committed those students will be.

3) Volunteering teaches real world skills like how to manage a project, keep deadlines and work as part of a team. These skills are necessary for college, career and life. A volunteer job done well can turn into a much earned letter of recommendation or better, continued participation or a paid position.

Students need experience to compete in the global worldâ€”volunteer experience, travel experience and experience outside of the â€œcomfort zoneâ€. This proposition will get students in a mode to begin early in their lives to make a contribution and, with luck, continue that for the rest of their lives.

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In Shifting Era of Admissions, Colleges Sweat

CAROL’S SUMMARY: Colleges are altering their admissions guidelines in an effort to attract and keep more students in this difficult economy. Faculty, advisors, tutors and college support staff will have to gear up to work with students who may be underprepared for college academically, emotionally or socially. What burden will that have for colleges and how will they deal with that added responsibility of size and readiness?

Questions to consider:
1. Has the economy affected your college selection?
2. How can you benefit from the changes in admissions?
3. How can colleges maintain high standards while admitting less prepared students?
4. What do colleges need to do to help the 2.5 million students remediated for math in this country and the 1.5 remediated for English?

ARTICLE:

March 8, 2009

By KATE ZERNIKE

As colleges weigh this yearâ€™s round of applications, high school seniors are not the only anxious ones.

Just as nervously, colleges â€” facing a financial landscape they have never seen before â€” are trying to figure out how many students to accept, and how many students will accept them.
Typically, they rely on statistical models to predict which students will take them up on their offers to attend. But this year, with the economy turning parents and students into bargain hunters, demographics changing and unexpected jolts in the price of gas and the number of applications, they have little faith on those models.

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America’s Shame

CAROL’S SUMMARY: Poverty is a world-wide issue. There are1.4 billion people living in extreme poverty. The World Bank defines extreme poverty as not having enough income to meet the most basic human needs (food, water, shelter, clothing, sanitation, health care, or education). One half of the worldâ€™s population lives on $2 US dollars a day. What implications does this have for us in an abundant country like America? What responsibility do we have to help the rest of the world with their issues of poverty, water sanitation, air pollution, etc. ? If we think effectively about these problems, how will the world benefit and how will be benefit here in the US?

Questions to consider:
1. How can you help fight poverty?
2. What would it be like if you lived on $2 a day?
3. What excesses are in your life currently?

ARTICLE:

When are we going to do something about global poverty?

By PETER SINGER

Reducing the number of people living in extreme poverty throughout the world is clearly one of the great moral challenges of our time. Although the issue is by no means absent from what we study and teach, as educators in the United States we appear to be falling short in the task of ensuring that our students are adequately informed about world poverty, its consequences, and the ways in which it can be reduced. Is it possible that some of the reluctance to deal with the topic stems from the fact that it may have uncomfortable conclusions for our own lives?

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Hispanics one-fifth of K-12 students

CAROL’S SUMMARY: By 2050, the United States will be a majority Hispanic country. Right now, Hispanic students make up one fifth of k-12 students. Here are some questions to think through as we prepare to be the most educated country in the world by 2020:

Â· How many k-12 teachers are able to speak Spanish?

Â· How much will non-Hispanic children benefit long term from learning Spanish?

Â· In what ways do our schools and teachers need to work effectively with the
Spanish native population, their families and their parents?

Â· How will the US as a whole benefit from this rich cultural opportunity?

Â· What specific learning characteristics do k-12 educators need to know to maximize opportunities for Hispanic students and all other students as we march forward to set a world standard for education?

ARTICLE:

By Hope Yen, Associated Press

WASHINGTON â€” Roughly one-fourth of the nation’s kindergartners are Hispanic, evidence of an accelerating trend that now will see minority children become the majority by 2023.
Census data released Thursday also showed that Hispanics make up about one-fifth of all K-12 students. Hispanics’ growth and changes in the youth population are certain to influence political debate, from jobs and immigration to the No Child Left Behind education, for years.

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National Standards Gain Steam

CAROL’S SUMMARY: To gauge where we are against other developed and developing nations, national standards are an important benchmark. One of the national models currently in place in schools is provided by the American School Counselors Association (ASCA) . This model outlines a stair step program for students in K-12 in areas of academics, career exploration and personal skills. Certainly a â€œsoft skillsâ€ model like this can be paired with other measurements like test scores, attendance, school involvement and grades. Overall, our schools will be tasked with producing students who can measure or exceed world class standards and who can also be world-class citizens. Those two goals arenâ€™t mutually exclusive but need a dual emphasis to make that reality happen in the U.S.

Beyond national measurements, parents should be asking two important questions:

1) What experiences is my child having to promote learning, growth and understanding (these are often outside of schoolâ€”in the community and the world)

2) To what extent is my child learning to work hard on behalf of his goals? (the

rest of the world has many smart people able to work two or more jobs to

make their goals happen)

To be world class, America needs students who can stand toe to toe, intellectually, with students in other countries. Two, they will need to learn to work just as hard as their foreign counterparts. Three, they will need to develop their leadership skills to be truthful, honest and ethical members of their communities and the companies for which they will someday work. If we can start with this vision in K-12 and promote this in what we teach with our teachers, parents and principals, we will have a nation of world-wide leadersâ€”not just learned graduatesâ€”by 2020.

ARTICLE:

Governorsâ€™ Embrace Rooted in Competitiveness Concerns
By David J. Hoff

National standardsâ€”once the untouchable “third rail” of American education policyâ€”now have the backing of the nationâ€™s governors, a growing number of education leaders, and the U.S. secretary of education.

The National Governors Association last week adopted a policy statement endorsing a process to develop common academic standards by comparing student performance on international tests.

The governors join several education groupsâ€”the Council of the Great City Schools, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, and the American Federation of Teachers among themâ€”in endorsing the idea that the nation should set a common definition of what students should know and be able to do.

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Bridging the Character Education Achievement Gap

By Paul Sutton, Posted February 26, 2009 on www.edweek.org

Throughout his now-famous “Last Lecture,” the late Carnegie Mellon University professor of computer science Randy Pausch talked about what he called the “head fake.” It is the idea that learning and education work best when they work on the personal and general levels simultaneously. Itâ€™s clear what calculus can teach a high school student. But beyond that learning, a character education lesson on the dialogues between Socrates and Crito can teach critical-reading skills and democratic dialogue, while also teaching personal and social justice and integrity. The study of both calculus and Socrates demands intellectual rigor, and yet these subjects are not valued in the same way in our public high schools.

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Rethinking College Prep Costs in Tough Times

In an effort to optimally prepare their sons and daughter for college success, parents often pay thousands of dollars to give them a leg up before they ever step foot on campus. In our current challenging economic climate, families may need to revise their strategy and enlist the help of free resources right around them: the school guidance counselor, college admissions counselors, and other frugal parents whoâ€™ve already successfully helped their kids work through the maze.

1) What balance exits with school counselorâ€™s time between high-potential students and students who struggle? What alternatives can we develop to involve and challenge all level of students about their future so that they can all progress effectively? The advisory class during the semester and summer boot camp or reading programs are some possibilities to achieve this.

2) How can parents be more creative about helping their studentâ€™s access free or lower-cost resources? What is the trade-off to well-meaning parents who do too much work for their children? What does that teach their students about self-sufficiency? What does that teach their students about how to work through difficulty and figure things out on your ownâ€”a key component to adult and workplace success?

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By ALINA TUGEND, Posted February 28, 2009 on www.nytimes.com

WATCHING our sonsâ€™ college funds dwindle to almost nothing, I am grateful that my older son is on his way to high school, not a university, this fall. Otherwise, we would not only be facing a staggering tuition bill, but we would also have to pay for what has become the obligatory precollege marathon.

Perhaps nothing, except the anxiety before the birth of a first baby, can match the concern parents feel about prepping for college. There is the same desire to control the process and fear that making a mistake can ruin a childâ€™s future.

So I can understand the inclination to buy every product and service possible to cover all bases.

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