Texting, Surfing, Studying?

CAROL’S SUMMARY:

Often to the angst of their parents, many children spend time texting, watching television, listening to music and surfing the Internet –all while studying for tests and doing their homework. Based on the article below, the big question is: Can young people who have grown up with new technologies multitask more effectively than older generations, specifically their parents? “Kids are spending an extraordinary amount of time with media,” says Dr. Victor C. Strasburger, a professor at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. “We don’t really know what they pay attention to, what they don’t. We don’t know how it impacts their school performance, whether it impacts their school performance.”

While studies have shown a decrease in productivity among adults who multi-task, some scientists surmise that the elasticity of the brain of children and teens might be more adept at these kind of mental gymnastics, but the verdict is still out. “The literature looking at media and its impact on attentional skills is just in its infancy,” said Renee Hobbs, a professor of mass media and communications at Temple University and a specialist in media literacy.

Dr. Dimitri Christakis, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington mentions a digital divide, previously between the rich and poor, but now between parents and their children. “Parents are digital immigrants,” says Dr. Christakis. “We’re fairly clueless about the digital world they inhabit.” According to Harris M. Cooper, a professor of psychology at Duke, “One of the things that homework is supposed to do for us is help us generalize where we feel we can learn.” Harris offers this advice to parents: “If they’re doing well [in school], permitting them to have some choice permits them to find their own style.”

Regardless of media’s impact on studying, students need the requisite skills to process and absorb new information in order to thrive in school, career and life. LifeBound’s Study Skills book is an effective tool for helping students develop their own best strategies for learning. To view a sample chapter and lesson plan, visit www.lifebound.com and click on books. To request a review copy of this book, send an email to contact@lifebound.com or call toll free 1.877.737.8510.

ARTICLE:
New York Times
October 13, 2009
18 and Under
Texting, Surfing, Studying?
By PERRI KLASS, M.D.

Certain subjects make self-righteous parents of us all: our children thinking they are doing homework when in reality the text messages are flying, the Internet browsers are open, the video is streaming, the loud rock music is blaring on the turntable — oh, wait, sorry, that last one was our parents complaining about us.

Heaven knows, I understand the feeling. And not just as a pediatrician. I have my own children — a high school student, a college student and a medical student — and I know the drill.

But if you ask the experts, they are pretty unanimous that we don’t know much.

“The literature looking at media and its impact on attentional skills is just in its infancy,” said Renee Hobbs, a professor of mass media and communications at Temple University and a specialist in media literacy.

To view this entire article visit www.nytimes.com

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Successful Schools Avoid False Choices

Today’s commentary published in Education Week by Karen Chenowith, senior writer for the Education Trust Foundation, contains broad and profound implications supported by brain-based learning and cognitive research. In her observations of successful schools who work with disadvantaged students, she writes: “they based their teaching not on a preset philosophy, or a set of program prescriptions, but on what would best help their students learn” (italics mine). People often say that everyone can learn. Yet the reality is that everyone does learn. As Prentice Hall author, Dr. Lynn Quitman Troyka, writes in the introduction of some of her books, “Thinking is not something you choose to do any more than a fish chooses to live in water. To be human is to think.”

Indeed, the brain’s ability to act and react in ever-changing ways is known, in the scientific community, as “neuroplasticity.” This special characteristic allows the brain’s estimated 100 billion nerve cells, also called neurons (aka “gray matter”), to constantly create new pathways for neural communication and to rearrange existing ones throughout life, thereby aiding the processes of learning, memory, and adaptation through experience. Without the ability to make such functional changes, our brains would not be able to memorize a new fact or master a new skill, form a new memory or adjust to a new environment. The brain’s plasticity is the reason it can heal itself after stroke or injury and overcome addictions. According to Dr. Norman Doidge, author of The Brain That Changes Itself: “The brain is not ‘hardwired’ from birth, but holds a remarkable lifelong power to change—a phenomenon called ‘plasticity.’ Positive or negative environments, exercise, nurture, learning, and other experiences continue to change the brain throughout life.”

Which brings us back to today’s article. The reason a flexible approach to teaching works– as this article implies–is because students aren’t a one size fits all, nor is their intelligence fixed at birth. Everyone’s brain is unique and malleable for endless learning possibilities. As the principal at Imperial High School, Lisa Tabarez, in the Imperial Valley of California, quoted in this article said: “Every single student who comes before us has the ability to learn. As educators, we must accept our daily responsibility of taking students, at whatever level and place in their lives they may be, and helping them to learn—to learn how to become productive, contributing members of our society through the opportunity of education.”

  • How can we ignite and nurture student minds and emotions to transform learning?
  • How can the revolutionary findings in the field of neuroplasticity direct us to new possibilities for ‘rewiring’ the brain to help overcome learning disorders and to enhance memory, learning, and achievement in all learners?
  • What are the implications of cognitive research for student success and transition programs, which seek to address opportunities and vulnerabilities during adolescence?

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

ARTICLE:
Education Week
Published in Print: October 14, 2009
Commentary
Successful Schools Avoid False Choices
By Karin Chenoweth

I know I am not the first to notice that education as a field tends to get whipsawed between what seem like incompatible alternatives: We can teach phonics or surround children with literature; we can teach skills or content; we can prepare students for the workforce or for college; we can provide schools that are equitable or schools that are excellent. The examples are endless.

For the past five years, I have been examining schools that have, for the most part, sidestepped these battles. They are schools I have visited as part of my work for the Education Trust, a Washington-based nonprofit organization. The job involves identifying and writing about schools with significant populations of low-income children and children of color that are also high-achieving or rapidly improving. In many of these, just about all of the students meet or exceed state standards, and achievement gaps are narrow, or sometimes nonexistent.

To view this entire article visit www.edweek.org

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CHS lifts ban on social networking sites

CAROL’S SUMMARY:
As the article below illustrates, educators are discovering that social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, have applications that extend beyond an individual’s circle of family and friends to the classroom. Although not cited in the article, following are observations from a landmark study by researchers at the University of Minnesota, released on July 8, 2008:

94 percent use the Internet, 82 percent go online at home and 77 percent had a profile on a social networking site. When asked what they learn from using social networking sites, the students listed technology skills as the top lesson, followed by creativity, being open to new or diverse views and communication skills. Data was collected over six months from students, ages 16 to 18, in thirteen urban high schools across the Midwest. Beyond the surveyed students, a follow-up, randomly selected subset was asked questions about their Internet activity as they navigated MySpace.

“What we found was that students using social networking sites are actually practicing the kinds of 21st century skills we want them to develop to be successful today,” said Christine Greenhow, a learning technologies researcher in the university’s College of Education and Human Development and principal investigator of the study. “Students are developing a positive attitude towards using technology systems, editing and customizing content and thinking about online design and layout. They’re also sharing creative original work like poetry and film and practicing safe and responsible use of information and technology. The Web sites offer tremendous educational potential.”

“Now that we know what skills students are learning and what experiences they’re being exposed to, we can help foster and extend those skills,” said Greenhow. “As educators, we always want to know where our students are coming from and what they’re interested in so we can build on that in our teaching. By understanding how students may be positively using these networking technologies in their daily lives and where they as yet unrecognized educational opportunities are, we can help make schools even more relevant, connected and meaningful to kids.” Based on these findings, here are questions to consider:

How can we incorporate the educational benefits of social networking into student success and transition programs, which may offer a more flexible teaching format than core curriculum classes?

How can we create a 21st century global education to include project-based learning, which connects social networking to curriculum standards?

How can we teach students to become online leaders and digital citizens by using technology in appropriate, respectful ways?

####

ARTICLE via ASCD feed–BIMSMARCK, ND
Century Star
by Jordan Stalk
What started out as a way to keep in touch with family and friends has how grown to be much more. Social networking has been absorbed into the lives and daily needs of the average person.

To view the entire article visit
http://bit.ly/7ZPz8

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Newest Professions, Growing Salaries

CAROL’S SUMMARY:
Yahoo! hotjobs posted an article this week on new careers from the Occupational Information Network’s latest directory. Employment expert and author, Laurence Shatkin, stated “O*Net [Occupational Information Network] officially recognizes job titles once there is a critical mass of workers in those jobs and a clear road map for attaining the position.” According to the BLS, small companies have the highest percentage and large companies have the lowest percentage of new and emerging occupations. Small companies— those with fewer than 50 employees— often lead the economy in innovation. They can respond quickly to consumer trends and advances in technology. Professional associations and trade groups are good sources to identify jobs in emerging occupations. Some international careers open to new college graduates include global business credit risk analyst, trade relations coordinator, and import and export specialist. A software localization engineer translates and adapts programs to a foreign country, with sensitivity to customs and cultural values. Most international positions are held by employees with experience or graduate degrees.

Among the new jobs mentioned in the article below are wind farm engineers, business continuity planners and directors of social media. Many new occupations, especially those in the technical and scientific fields, require diverse skills. Multidisciplinary occupations may be a good match for the increasing number of students who choose to double or triple major. This trend was highlighted in “So, What’s Your Other Major?,” an article in the March issue of Counterpoint: The MIT-Wellesley Journal of Campus Life. Career advisers often see students with wide-ranging interests who choose multiple majors (or majors and minors) because of those broad interests

In order for students to effectively compete in a global marketplace amid today’s restricted economy students need 21st century skills, particularly problem-solving and critical and creative thinking abilities. That’s why each LifeBound book offers a corresponding curriculum that includes rigor and relevance activities, as well as powerful questions for discussion within a cross-disciplinary context.

Questions to consider:

As educators, how can we challenge and best prepare students to enter emerging career fields and acquire 21st Century Skills?

How do we engage students in meaningful lessons that build the necessary skills to compete in today’s global marketplace?

To learn more about LifeBound’s books and curricula, visit www.lifebound.com

ARTICLE:

Yahoo! hotjobs
Newest Professions, Growing Salaries
Larry Buhl, for Yahoo! HotJobs

The latest directory of job titles from Occupational Information Network (O*Net) features a variety of new entries that many people have never heard before.

Some of these jobs — at least the duties — have been around in some form for a while. What’s new is a “professional pathway” for these careers, according to employment expert and author Laurence Shatkin. “O*Net officially recognizes job titles once there is a critical mass of workers in those jobs and a clear road map for attaining the positions,” he says.

To view this entire article visit www.yahoo.com

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Study Finds High Rate of Imprisonment Among Drop Outs

CAROL’S SUMMARY:
A new study from Northeastern University cites that students who quit high school are 3.5 times more likely to become incarcerated in their lifetimes than high school graduates. The research also estimates a national cost of $292,000 per drop out, based on lost tax revenues and government assisted amenities and programs.The director of the report, Andrew Sum, told New York Times reporter, Sam Dillon:

“We’re trying to show what it means to be a dropout in the 21st century United States,” said Sum. “It’s one of the country’s costliest problems. The unemployment, the incarceration rates — it’s scary.”

Among African-American males who drop out of high school–which is estimated at 40 percent–the situation is worse. Of those, 72 percent are jobless, and the likelihood of being incarcerated jumps to 60 percent, according to statistics from Ronald B. Mincy, professor of social work at Columbia University and editor of “Black Males Left Behind” (Urban Institute Press, 2006).

One obvious question is why do students drop out? While it’s often assumed that students do so because they can’t keep up with the academic load, recent studies paint a different picture. For example, in a joint project by the Civic Enterprises and Peter D. Hart Research Associates for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,”The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of High School Dropouts,” the study found:

Nearly half of the former students – 47 percent – quit not because of the academic challenge, but because they found classes uninteresting. “These young people reported being bored and disengaged from high school,” the report said. “Almost as many (42 percent) spent time with people who were not interested in school. These were among the top reasons selected by those with high GPAs and by those who said they were motivated to work hard.”

An even larger number of students – 69 percent – said they were not motivated or inspired to work hard. In fact, two-thirds said they would have worked harder had it been required of them.

These findings underscore why schools must challenge students and prepare them for the different transitions they face. Freshmen year, in particular, is a precarious time in student’s academic future because students typically drop out the summer between their freshmen and sophomore years. If we don’t engage them at this entry point, we may lose them for the rest of their lives at great cost to the student and to society.

1) As educators, how can we provide a more supportive academic environment at school and at home that would improve students’ chances of remaining in school? What needs to be different—with students, parents, teachers, counselors and administrators—for that to happen?

2) How can we continuously challenge teachers so that they are always learning, growing and contributing to their own passion-level? If a teacher isn’t motivated, students aren’t likely to be either.

3) How can we help students discover their gifts and talents so that they can envision the crucial role that education plays in their future? When students know what they are good at, research shows they will persevere.

4) What can we do to increase awareness of the value of student success and transition programs in fostering engagement and relevance in the classroom? How can we start these classes in fifth grade so that we avoid these costly patterns from the get-go?

ARTICLE
New York Times
by Sam Dillon

On any given day, about one in every 10 young male high school dropouts is in jail or juvenile detention, compared with one in 35 young male high school graduates, according to a new study of the effects of dropping out of school in an America where demand for low-skill workers is plunging.

To view the entire article visit
http://bit.ly/MIGHi

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Attorney General, in Chicago, Pledges Youth Violence Effort

CAROL’S SUMMARY
Chicago has been in the national and international news lately not only for losing the bid as host city for the 2016 summer Olympics, but for the tragic beating death of high school honor student, Derrion Albert, who was caught between two rival gangs on his way home from school on the city’s southside. Derrion’s murder is sparking a national conversation about youth violence. Many people compare the incident, which has been viewed by millions over YouTube, to Emmett Till’s brutal killing at the hands of white supremacists in 1955, when his open-casket funeral on television sparked the American Civil Rights Movement. Derrion was the third adolescent killed this school year. Since the beginning of 2007, close to 70 students have been murdered mostly on their way to or from school.

As the New York Times article below points out, youth violence isn’t only a Chicago problem; “it’s an American problem,” said Attorney General Eric H. Holder in his meeting yesterday with U.S. Secretary Arne Duncan, the former superintendent of Chicago Public Schools. As an admission counselor (who asked to not be identified) from another local high school on Chicago’s westside neighborhood said, “We’ve always heard of kids fighting kids, but they lived to tell about it. That’s not true anymore.”

Addressing such serious issues like youth violence requires support from many facets of society, including our school system. When former New York Times science journalist and co-founder of the Yale University Child Studies Center (now at the University of Illinois at Chicago) Daniel Goleman first coined the term emotional intelligence, he cited strong emotions as holding the potential for promoting great good in society as well as terrible atrocities, because some people use violence to release feelings of anger or frustration. LifeBound’s People Smarts for Teenagers program works with adolescents on developing self-awareness, as well as managing strong emotions. The principal at Skyway Elementary School in Colorado Springs, Patrick Webster, who used the People Smarts resources last spring told his counselor: “We have had ZERO disciplinary referrals from 6th grade this year, which is phenomenal.” In a typical time frame they would have received half a dozen by now.

As educators we need to cultivate a vision and establish a comprehensive game plan like they have in Colorado Springs for helping school communities curb violence and assess measurable goals. In addition to our resources for students and faculty, LifeBound provides programs for parents on coaching skills and other strategies so that they learn how to model the kinds of attitudes and behaviors they want their children to emulate. Children absorb how parents deal with a job layoff and other traumatic and stressful life events, and supporting parents in their roles is another effective way to stem the escalation of violence among school-aged children and teens.

For a review copy of People Smarts and more information about our programs for parents, please contact us by calling toll free 1.877.737.8510 or emailing contact@lifebound.com, and we’ll be glad to help you. Together we can answer the call to make a profound difference in our school communities.

ARTICLE:
Attorney General, in Chicago, Pledges Youth Violence Effort
By SUSAN SAULNY
Published: October 7, 2009

CHICAGO — Trying to spark what he called “a sustained national conversation” about youth violence, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. met with public school students and elected officials here Wednesday, pledging a heightened crime-fighting commitment from the federal government toward vulnerable children.

Mr. Holder, joined by Education Secretary Arne Duncan, the former head of the local public schools, said the Obama administration was dedicated to being a full partner in the fight against youth violence, in part, because “too many of today’s victims become tomorrow’s criminals.”

To view this entire article visit www.nytimes.com

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Twitter Tool Could Help Educators

CAROL’S SUMMARY:

A new Twitter program called Need4Feed was introduced this week by web developers at Purdue University to rank posts— known as “tweets”—on the social networking site. Designed specifically for educators and students, Need4Feed aims to filter out the “noise” of unrelated tweets and help visitors weed out the junk mail, by highlighting popular tweets using an algorithm that analyzes how other Twitter users respond to a message by reposting it, replying to it, marking it as a favorite or whether the message starts a longer conversation.

This tool will be used for the first time at the HighEdWeb 2009 conference in Milwaukee to help attendees find tweets gaining the most attention. The goal of Need4Feed is to help facilitate faculty-student conversations and help educators and students more effectively locate information regarding education trends and homework help or tips. Technology is always evolving and Twitter’s growth is proof of this. For k-12 and higher education institutions to stay current, they will need to embrace these new technologies and Need4Feed just may help them do that.

Need4Feed developer Kyle Bowen, director of informatics at Purdue, said the idea for the tool came after using Twitter to communicate during the Teaching and Learning with Technology Conference at Purdue in April. “We made heavy use of Twitter during the conference, and what we noticed was that there was a lot of noise, people making general comments and having conversations unrelated to the topic,” Bowen said. “What we wanted to do was find a way to get the most out of these back channel conversations.”

To find out more about education trends, follow LifeBound on Twitter at www.twitter.com/lifebound and to learn more about preparing your students for the world of work, follow me at www.twitter.com/caroljcarter.

ARTICLE
Ecampusnews.com

The micro-blogging web site Twitter is often crowded with extraneous posts and comments that distract from the site’s meaningful content. To bring order to this chaos and help make Twitter a more useful tool for educators, web developers at Purdue University unveiled a tool this week that would help Twitter members find the most popular and relevant tweets.

The Twitter program, called Need4Feed, is being used for the first time at the HighEdWeb 2009 conference in Milwaukee, where attendees can sift through hundreds of posts to find the tweets grabbing the most attention.

To view the entire article visit
http://bit.ly/32HOxk

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America Falling: Longtime Dominance in Education Erodes

CAROL’S SUMMARY:
Across the United States, higher education is tightening budgets while Singapore and many Asian countries are investing more money into their systems and into research. Experts consider the withdrawal of funds poor timing since 13 percent of European students and 20 percent of students in Asia major in engineering compared with only 4 percent of American students. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United States ranks 10th in the number of 25 to 34-year-olds who hold at least an associate degree.

The “Rising Above the Gathering Storm” report, produced by a national panel, warns that America is falling behind other countries in science and technology. Panelist, Mr. Vest, believes higher education stimulates the economy and worries that the United States won’t take action until it’s too late. “Look what happened in the manufacturing sector when the Japanese got serious,” he says. “We’ve only partially caught up.”

According to the article below, the United States has benefited from the educational advances of other countries since half of all students who earn doctorates in major science and technology fields come from overseas and one quarter of the faculty members of American colleges today are foreign-born. But as other countries improve their education systems, more top performing international students may decide to remain in their native countries. Not to mention the decline in performance of American high-school students. In 2004, half of “highly qualified” in math low-income high-school seniors enrolled in a four-year institution, 20 percentage points lower than the Class of 1992.

Many experts believe the U.S. could benefit from adopting the mindset of foreign countries desperately trying to improve their educational systems as a way of sparking economic growth. And while the 50 individual state legislations governing education makes it difficult to assess the national impact of current educational standards, everyone seems to agree that an overarching ministry of education, like those seen in Asia, is not a good fit with Americans.

Note:  Carol Carter gives keynote speeches and session presentations here in the US and overseas to gain insights on learning-based standards and to share her expertise. Here is Carol’s itinerary for this Fall:

October 14
The Tri-Association: Latin America and the Caribbean
Keynote: The New Global Competition for Talent
Location: Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

October 29 and 30
Florida School Counselor Association
Keynote: Counselors as Leaders
Location: Orlando

November 4-7
American Business Communications
Three presentations on coaching and professional skills
Location: Portsmouth, VA

November 13
Utah School Counselor Association
Keynote: Counselors as Coaches
Location: Salt Lake City

November 19-21
European Council of International Schools

Due to scheduling conflicts, Carol’s co-author on the Critical and Creative Thinking book, Maureen Breeze, is presenting three presentations in her place on coaching and critical and creative thinking skills.
Location: Hamburg, Germany

ARTICLE
Chronicle of Higher Education
by Karen Fischer

Henry T. Yang, a prominent engineer, is one of a half-dozen American academics and entrepreneurs who sit on an international panel that advises Singapore’s government on its higher-education and research efforts. At its last meeting, the group reviewed plans for a new public university, the country’s fourth.

Back at home, where Mr. Yang has been chancellor of the University of California at Santa Barbara since 1994, the situation is one of contraction, not expansion. Facing the deepest state-budget cuts in decades, public-university officials in California have slashed salaries, furloughed employees, and reduced enrollments.

To view entire article visit
http://bit.ly/35ie3G

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Models of School Reform

CAROL’S SUMMARY:

In WSJ’s Report over the weekend, Maria Bartiromo interviewed New York City Chancellor, Joel Klein, head of the largest public school system in the United States, to hear his ideas for school reform. Mr. Klein’s comprehensive education reform program, Children First, is transforming the nation’s largest public school system into a system of high-achieving schools. The first steps of the reform effort included ending social promotion in third, fifth, seventh, and eighth grades; creating a wide array of academic supports for struggling students; establishing new supports for parents by assigning a parent coordinator in nearly every school; and expanding small schools and charter schools to provide more high-quality educational options for students. The second phase of Children First involved restructuring the system, changing how schools are operated and supported, and giving principals greater control over how they run their schools while holding them accountable for results. Here are other specific ideas that Klein stated in his interview:

– Elevate the teaching role to a full-professional standing starting in higher education by recruiting the top quarter of college students to become teachers

– Promote accountability and reward success among school administrators and staff

– Learn from successes overseas; students need more time in school and the U.S. needs to establish high expectations of students while giving them the tools they need to succeed

*-Follow the data and implement programs that work.

Klein’s model hearkens to Mastery Charter Schools, a company with four schools in Philadelphia, that Education Secretary Arne Duncan and other education leaders, have called a potential “national model” for school reform (see web link to full article below). The Mastery approach aims to prepare students for college with a strong behavior code, rigorous curriculum with personal responsibility and emotional/social skills. The model includes a longer school day (8 a.m. to 4 p.m.) and a longer school year. Tutoring is mandatory for struggling students, and all students must show “mastery” by earning a grade of at least 76 percent before advancing.

How can we begin to implement these models of success into other school districts while honoring each school’s distinct population?

What role should local governments play to give principals more autonomy in running their schools?

What can colleges and universities do to help recruit its top students to K-12 teaching as a profession of choice.

*Note: LifeBound offers data assessments for every one of its programs, and we have a strong track record of results. If you would like to see a sample of our data, call us toll free at 1.877.737.8510 or email at contact@lifebound.com.

PODCAST
Wall Street Journal Report
October 4, 2009

Fixing America’s Schools: Back to school and back to business with Joel Klein, head of the largest public school system in the United States.
To hear the podcast visit
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1283037153&play=1#

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Report Finds Achievement Gap Continuing to Narrow

CAROL’S SUMMARY:

This week the Center on Education Policy (CEP) released a report that examines testing data from all fifty states to determine if achievement gaps between subgroups of students are narrowing. The report also looked at the achievement trends of subgroups of students at the elementary school level. In summary, the CEP reported that “on the whole, the disparities appear to be narrowing because of the accelerated achievement of lower-performing groups, not slower progress by high-achieving groups.”

While this is certainly good news, we have a long way to go before every student has equal access to a quality education. One important way large high schools are attempting to close the achievement gap is through freshmen success programs, or what some schools call freshmen or 9th grade academies. Schools with 1,000 or more students can apply for the federally funded Smaller Learning Communities (SLC) grant, which pays for assessments, materials and faculty training. In these classes, curriculum focuses on helping at-risk students boost their academic, emotional and social skills.

SLCs also include structures such as multi-grade academies organized around career interests or other themes, “houses” in which small groups of students remain together throughout high school; and autonomous schools-within-a-school, such as student advisories, family advocate systems, and mentoring programs. Grants are awarded for up to 60 months to the Local Education Agency (LEA) that apply on behalf of large public high schools. Projects integrate the implementation or expansion of SLCs with improvements in curriculum and instruction, and other activities to raise student academic achievement.

LifeBound works with SLC-awarded districts and schools across the country, and the Smaller Learning Communities Program plans to announce a new grant competition sometime in 2010.  For more information about applying for a SLC grant, please contact LifeBound by calling toll free 1.877.737.8510 or emailing contact@lifebound.com.

ARTICLE
Education Week
by Stephen Sawchuk

Achievement gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged students on state tests have narrowed in many instances over the past decade—continuing a trend that appears to have been bolstered in the 1990s by the standards-based-reform movement, concludes a wide-ranging analysis released today.

The study from the Center on Education Policy analyzes the achievement gap between low-income students and their peers, and between minority and white students, using test data from all 50 states collected from 2002 through 2008.

To view entire article visit
http://bit.ly/2rEqhP

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