Carol J. Carter

Carol’s summary:

Here’s some good news:  A national survey funded by the Department of Justice reports that the percentage of students being “physically bullied over the past year had declined from nearly 22 percent in 2003 to under 15 percent in 2008,”and anti-bullying programs are credited for the improvement.  To continue this trend, programs need to be put in place nationwide that not only intervene before problems begin, but proactively reduce bullying by giving kids the tools they need to manage strong emotions and learn conflict resolution skills. 

Right now my staff is in the process of tabulating results from schools using our PEOPLE SMARTS program, which helps students develop emotional intelligence. Our results show that schools have experienced a reduction in the number of children who say they’re being bullied, and equally encouraging, more students say they stand up for someone and themselves who is the victim or physical or verbal abuse. Our data also shows that students in the PEOPLE SMARTS program experience better relationships with their siblings after taking the class (on the pre-assessment, 35.3% reported they “get along well with their siblings;” and the POST-assessment 50.1% reported that they do), a finding which is significant since bullying behavior is often learned at home where many children report being bullied by their brothers or sisters. 

While anti-bullying programs play an important role in our nation’s goal to curb aggressive behavior, programs that help students build stronger communication, emotional, and social skills as a prevention strategy, can make the greatest impact. If you would like to receive a review copy of our PEOPLE SMARTS book, or any of our other resources, call us toll free at 1.877.737.8510 or email contact@lifebound.com.

How can we do a better job of being preemptive so that students have the self-awareness and communication skills to stand up for respectful behavior? How can parents, teacher, and counselors get on the same page to use the language of emotional intelligence so that students are getting these principles reinforced in every sphere of life?

How can districts effectively collect and use the data to measure the results of these programs?  

ARTICLE

March 3, 2010

Associated Press

NEW YORK - There’s been a sharp drop in the percentage of America’s children being bullied or beaten up by their peers, according to a new national survey by experts who believe anti-bullying programs are having an impact.

The study, funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, found that the percentage of children who reported being physically bullied over the past year had declined from nearly 22 percent in 2003 to under 15 percent in 2008. The percentage reporting they’d been assaulted by other youths, including their siblings, dropped from 45 percent to 38.4 percent.

The lead author of the study, Professor David Finkelhor, said he was “very encouraged.”

“Bullying is the foundation on which a lot of subsequent aggressive behavior gets built,” said Finkelhor, director of the University of New Hampshire’s Crimes Against Children Research Center. “If it’s going down, we will reap benefits in the future in the form of lower rates of violent crime and spousal assault.”

To view the entire article visit

http://bit.ly/b0vyTj

Carol’s summary:A new study shows why guidance counselors need the support of student success programs that give them the skills and tools to be effective in their jobs.  The Public Agenda reports that, “Most young adults who go on to college believe that the advice of their high school guidance counselors was inadequate and often impersonal and perfunctory.  Most troubling, and potentially significant for policy makers,” the study added, “is that young people who characterized their interactions with guidance counselors as anonymous and unhelpful were less likely to go directly from high school into a postsecondary program.”

LifeBound is proactive in working with counselors across the country to solve the very problems cited in this article.  Our stair-step program for every grade, 5-12, addresses the academic and developmental issues specific to each grade level.  For instance, our PEOPLE SMARTS book addresses behavior and motivation issues by helping students become emotionally intelligent.  Our new edition of MAKING THE MOST OF HIGH SCHOOL, is designed to help students develop an eight-year academic plan starting their freshmen year.  We’ve had outstanding results in giving counselors the methods for impacting students in positive ways and developing their leadership skills through coaches training so they have greater credibility and influence in their districts.  Many of the counselors who’ve completed our academic coaches training classes have been promoted to district level positions. For review copies of LifeBound’s materials, please email contact@lifebound.com or call toll free 1.877.737.8510.  We look forward to hearing from you.How can we help counselors solve the myriad of problems they face in their profession and give them the tools to be more effective in their roles?What can we do to better engage students and families in the college and career planning process?

How can we elevate the counseling profession so that it fulfills its mission as set by the American School Counselor Association?

ARTICLE

New York Times

by Jacques Steinberg

Most people who graduated from high school in the last dozen years believe that their guidance counselors provided little meaningful advice about college or careers, a new study has found. And many said the best advice on their futures came from teachers. “Most young adults who go on to college believe that the advice of their high school guidance counselors was inadequate and often impersonal and perfunctory,” according to the study by Public Agenda, a nonprofit research organization. “Most troubling, and potentially significant for policy makers,” the study added, “is that young people who characterized their interactions with guidance counselors as anonymous and unhelpful were less likely to go directly from high school into a postsecondary program.” To view the entire article visit
http://nyti.ms/bxLm3x

Carol’s summary:
Business schools are recruiting former military members, and the post 9/11 GI Bill, means more instructors will be teaching veterans. These are nontraditional students entering a very difficult economy, and we need to figure out how to engage them and draw on their unique experiences. Higher education institutions report that veterans bring a unique perspective to their education, and employers say their military training equips them with strong teamwork and leadership skills. At Harvard Business School, veterans currently make up 3% of the class of 2011’s 930 students.

How can we show honor to our veterans for their military service?

How can we best tap their experiences to sharpen our teaching methods and help other students benefit from the different perspective that veterans bring to education?

How can we help ex-military members make a smooth transition from the battlefield to the classroom?

How can educators treat both the emotional and the academic needs that these returning vets will have in the classroom?

What other campus services can they access for support?

ARTICLE
By DIANA MIDDLETON
Five years ago, Augusto Giacoman was commanding about 30 soldiers and leading raids in Iraq. Now he spends his days in classrooms alongside former bankers, engineers and other civilians earning a master’s in business administration.

Mr. Giacoman, a retired U.S. Army officer, is evidence of a growing effort among business schools to lure ex-military members into M.B.A. programs, where they are prized for their leadership skills and ability to bring an alternate perspective to the classroom, say school administrators.
At Harvard Business School, veterans currently make up 3% of the class of 2011’s 930 students.

From Boot Camp to Business School
Known for its case study method, Harvard relies on students’ personal experiences to propel cases, says Deirdre Leopold, director of admissions at Harvard Business School. Veterans, she says, bring something to the room that other students don’t. “They’ve been responsible for lives, which brings a gravitas to classroom discussion,” Ms. Leopold says.

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

CAROL’S SUMMARY:
According to the National Center for Health Statistics, about two-thirds of Americans are counted as either overweight or obese. Childhood obesity is a serious health crisis, and Michelle Obama is launching a campaign addressing this issue, as cited in a Wall Street Journal earlier this week.

Ms. Obama’s objectives are to:
o improve nutrition and physical education in schools;
o promote activity such as walking and biking in community planning;
o make healthy food more available, particularly in poor areas;
o and make nutrition information on food packages clearer.

Today’s article from AOL News cites a related study that links children’s preference for sweets to a family history of alcoholism or depression. Funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the research was conducted by scientists at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, and published online in the journal Addiction. As the article iterates:

“The findings suggest that a preference for sweets might not be solely about taste buds, but instead could have to do with the child’s chemical makeup and family history. However, an outside expert at the U.K.’s Cardiff University, professor Tim Jacob, told the BBC the Monell study’s findings were interesting, but that it’s tough to make firm conclusions from one study alone. The results could reveal something about children’s brain chemistry, but also might be explained by behavior and upbringing, he said.

“While it is true that sweet things activate reward circuits in the brain, the problem is that sweets and sugar are addictive, because the activation of these reward circuits causes opioid release, and with time more is needed to achieve the same effect,” Jacob said. “But the taste difference may be explained by differences like parental control over sweet consumption.”

Helping students make healthy choices starts at an early age by offering them develop strong decision-making skills. As educators, we can help to make a difference by fostering critical thinking skills and life skills that promote delayed gratification and how to manage strong emotions. All of LifeBound’s student success programs aim to equip students with the skills they need for school, career and life, and our PEOPLE SMARTS book empowers them to make informed decisions. In addition to content that challenges students to assess the outcomes of their behavior, each chapter contains a true story courageous teens who have overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles through personal action. We also offer sessions for parents that teach coaching skills to support them in their role as leaders at home. For more information or for a review copy or to receive a curriculum sample of the PEOPLE SMARTS text, please call the LifeBound office toll free 1.877.737.8510 or email at contact@lifebound.com.

ARTICLE
AOL News
by Lauren Frayer
(Feb. 10) – A new study finds that children are more likely to have an intense sweet tooth if they have a family history of alcoholism, or if they’ve suffered from depression themselves.

The research was conducted by scientists at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, and published online in the journal Addiction.

Sugary foods and alcohol trigger many of the same reward circuits in the brain, so scientists in this case decided to test the sweet tooth of children with a family history of alcohol dependence. They also hypothesized that children who suffer from depression might be more likely to crave sweets, because they make them feel better.

To view the entire article visit
http://bit.ly/9sfGXk

CAROL’S SUMMARY:

A new study sponsored by the University of Arizona titled:  “Wave 1.5 Economic Impact Study: Financial Well-Being, Coping Behaviors and Trust Among Young Adults,” cited in the Chronicle of Higher Education, reveals how the recession has affected students’ financial attitudes and behaviors.  More students reported engaging in what the researchers term “typical” financial coping strategies, like cutting back unnecessary spending. For example, 31 percent said they cut back on communication expenses. However, the report also revealed there was a large jump in the use of “risky” coping strategies, like dropping a class, postponing health care, or using one credit card to pay off another, though relatively few students reported these behaviors.

Even though the number of students engaging in risky behaviors remains small, the researchers predict that habits formed in the college years will stay with the students over their lives, said Joyce Serido, assistant research scientist and co-principal investigator of the study. That means the impact of choices made in college could be magnified over a lifetime. Therefore, it is important for educators to help students make better financial decisions, like borrowing a reasonable amount to stay in school rather than dropping out because of the expense, said Soyeon Shim, professor of family and consumer sciences at the University of Arizona and principal investigator of the study.

 LifeBound’s updated version of MAJORING IN THE REST OF YOUR LIFE (fifth edition), teaches students about personal finance and is relevant for seniors in high school or freshmen in college. Additionally, LifeBound’s ninth grade success book, MAKING THE MOST OUT OF HIGH SCHOOL, will be revised this spring and will include a whole chapter on financial planning and exercises at the end of each chapter to build financial literacy skills well before college. To receive a review copy of either or both books, please call the office toll free at 1.877.737.8510 or email contact@lifebound.com, and we will ship a copy to you.

ARTICLE
Chronicle of Higher Education
By Beckie SupianoThe economic downturn has had many negative effects, but for one group of researchers, it came with a silver lining: the chance to see how young adults respond to financial upheaval. Their findings, which show a rise in risky financial behaviors and a drop in self-reported well-being, were released Monday.
The researchers were working on a longitudinal study of college students’ financial attitudes and behaviors when the recession unexpectedly provided a “natural laboratory” for measuring the students’ response to tight times.To view entire article visit
http://chronicle.com/article/Recession-Affected-Students/64053/

CAROL’S SUMMARY:

This month, University of Chicago Press releases a new book, Organizing Schools for Improvement: Lessons From Chicago, based on 15 years of data from this city’s 409,000-student school system. The research identifies five keys to urban school success:

1) Strong leadership, in the sense that principals are “strategic, focused on instruction, and inclusive of others in their work”;

2) A welcoming attitude toward parents, and formation of connections with the community;

3) Development of professional capacity, which refers to the quality of the teaching staff, teachers’ belief that schools can change, and participation in good professional development and collaborative work;

4) A learning climate that is safe, welcoming, stimulating, and nurturing to all students; and

5) Strong instructional guidance and materials.

The authors liken these “essential supports” to a recipe for baking a cake: Without the right ingredients, the whole enterprise just falls flat. In the interview below for Education Week, lead author Anthony S. Bryk said: “Often what happens in school reform is that we pick just one strand out, and very often that becomes the silver bullet.”

Here is an excerpt from the article’s summary of the findings:

“Schools that were rated strong in all five areas were at least 10 times more likely than schools with strengths in just one or two areas to achieve substantial gains in reading and math. Likewise, a weakness in one area exacerbated other weaknesses. For instance, 33 percent of schools with weak teacher educational backgrounds and 30 percent of schools with weak professional communities stagnated, compared with 47 percent of the schools lacking on both measures.”

LifeBound’s stair-step programs, for grades 5-12, have designed a similar approach to student success at each of these grade levels. Here are the components of the LifeBound programs:

* Quality instructional materials consisting of student books and curricula;
* Faculty training that promotes leadership development;
* Parent sessions to enlist support from home; and
* Data assessments to measure results, all work together to realize desired outcomes for success in school, career and life. When schools don’t adopt a comprehensive plan for student success and transition programs, the quality of the results suffer.

How can we help ensure that districts adopt district-wide comprehensive plans for improvement at all grades levels?

What accountability systems can we put in place at the district level that help promote and support student success for all learners?

How can we encourage district leaders and school Boards to implement sustainable change across grade levels?

ARTICLE
Education Week
by Debra Viadero

Offering a counter-narrative to the school improvement prescriptions that dominate national education debates, a new book based on 15 years of data on public elementary schools in Chicago identifies five tried-and-true ingredients that work, in combination with one another, to spur success in urban schools.

The authors liken their “essential supports” to a recipe for baking a cake: Without the right ingredients, the whole enterprise just falls flat.

“A material weakness in any one ingredient means that a school is very unlikely to improve,” said Anthony S. Bryk, the lead author of Organizing Schools for Improvement: Lessons From Chicago, which was published this month by the University of Chicago Press.

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

CAROL’S SUMMARY
According to mental health experts, self-injury behavior among adolescents often masks deep psychological trauma caused by physical or sexual abuse, but research also indicates that cutting and other forms of self-harm are ways some teens cope to relieve stress or to express strong feelings of rage, sorrow, rejection, desperation, longing, or emptiness. Worse, the behavior can become compulsive as the brain starts to connect the false sense of relief from bad feelings to the act of cutting, and it craves this relief the next time tension builds.

The article below cites that “approximately 14 to 17 percent of children up to age 18 have deliberately cut, scratched, pinched, burned, or bruised themselves at least once (Whitlock, 2009), with 5 to 8 percent of adolescents actively engaging in this behavior (J. Whitlock, personal communication, September 27, 2009).” The articles also lists stressors that can play a role in self-harming behavior, and I’ve categorized three of the most common ones here:

Peer pressure – Students that lack strong social skills or those who come from disadvantaged backgrounds may struggle to experience a sense of belonging, especially as students compete to buy expensive technological gadgets and designer clothes and shoes. Social networking can further alienate some students and make them vulnerable to cyberbullying. Some teens now refer to “MySpace” as “MeanSapce.”

Stress overload – Some students feel the pressure of having to juggle too many activites in order to gain admittance into a top college or university and worry that they’ll let down their parents and other significant adults in their lives if they don’t get accepted to their first or second school of choice. The author of this articles writes: “To cope with the stress, some of the more emotionally vulnerable adolescents turn to self-harm, resort to eating-distressed behaviors like bulimia, or engage in substance abuse.”

Poor modeling at home – Some teens witness the deficient ways their parents cope with stress by abusing prescription medication, drinking or overeating. “In families of self-harming adolescents, emotional disconnection and invalidation are common family dynamics.”

This article gives specific guidelines on ways schools can recognize and help students who are engaged in self-inflicting behaviors. One venue is by helping them become emotionally intelligent so that they acquire the coping and self-advocacy skills they need to manage strong emotions. Another antidote is to help students discover their unique abilities and gifts and to honor the many ways our students manifest these talents in the world. Three of LifeBound’s books: # 1 Success in Middle School, # 2 People Smarts for Teenagers and # 3 Gifts & Talents for Teenagers, are designed to help accentuate students’ strengths, while addressing the potential problems of growing up.

How can districts more effectively educate principals, teachers, counselors, and other faculty about self-harming behaviors and how to respond?

How can we infuse emotional intelligence into our schools to create a more positive culture where all students feel validated and welcome?

ARTICLE
Education Leadership (Dec. 2009)
by Matthew D. Selekman

Student self-harming is one of the most perplexing and challenging behaviors that administrators, teachers, nurses, and counseling staff encounter in their schools. Approximately 14 to 17 percent of children up to age 18 have deliberately cut, scratched, pinched, burned, or bruised themselves at least once (Whitlock, 2009), with 5 to 8 percent of adolescents actively engaging in this behavior (J. Whitlock, personal communication, September 27, 2009).

Self-harming behavior is not a new phenomenon among adolescents. Mental health and health-care professionals have typically viewed such behavior as a symptom of an underlying psychological or personality disorder as a possible suicidal gesture suggesting the need for psychiatric hospitalization or as a symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder caused by sexual or physical abuse.

However, both research and practice-based wisdom indicate that the majority of self-harming adolescents do not meet the criteria for diagnosable DSM-IV1 psychological or personality disorders, have never had suicidal thoughts or attempted to end their lives, and have never experienced sexual or physical abuse (Selekman, 2009). Most self-harming adolescents use the behavior as a coping strategy to get immediate relief from emotional distress.

To view the entire article visit
http://bit.ly/4J10ZY

CAROL’S SUMMARY:

Teenagers are known to be moody and reckless, but why? As one of the leading experts in the United States on adolescent behavior and adolescent brain biology, Laurence Steinberg, a developmental psychologist at Temple University in Philadelphia was interviewed in the article below for his insights on adolescent behavior. Studies of adolescent brain development over the past five years are showing that brain systems in charge of impulse control continue to mature into our 20’s. Dr. Steinberg’s lab has been testing people of various ages with computerized risk-taking tests while images of their brain are taken. They are tested alone and then with two friends watching them. Here are their findings:

“For the adults, the presence of friends has no effect. But for adolescents, just having friends nearby doubles the number of risks they take. We’ve found that a certain part of the brain is activated by the presence of peers in adolescents, but not in adults,” said Steinberg.

Dr. Steinberg recently received the Klaus Jacobs Prize and intends to use the $1 million dollar award to extend his work to “teenagers in other cultures so that we can determine whether the patterns are universal. There’s a longstanding debate over how much of adolescent behavior is biological or cultural. Perhaps this award will lead to more answers.”

How can we as educators and parents do a better job helping adolescents navigate the emotional upheaval they experience, as well as model the behaviors we want our students to emulate?

How can we raise awareness among the education community about the need to incorporate lessons on emotional intelligence into the classroom?

How can we better utilize tools that are already available, such as LifeBound’s People Smarts for Teenagers, into the classroom to help middle school and high school students make better decisions and avoid potentially disastrous consequences from high-risk behaviors?

ARTICLE:

The New York Times
December 1, 2009
A Conversation With Laurence Steinberg
Developmental Psychologist Says Teenagers Are Different
By CLAUDIA DREIFUS

Laurence Steinberg, a developmental psychologist at Temple University in Philadelphia, is one of the leading experts in the United States on adolescent behavior and adolescent brain biology. Dr. Steinberg, 57, has won the $1 million Klaus J. Jacobs Research Prize, which will be awarded to him at a ceremony in early December in Switzerland.

To view the entire article visit www.nytimes.com

CAROL’S SUMMARY:

Girls have been the center of academic debate for years, but now that they make up over half of the college student population, some scholars and psychologists worry about the achievement of boys. The article bellows mentions many books published over the last 20 years on the subject. There is a debate over whether there is a real problem boys are facing today, but many of these books discuss varying degrees of masculinity and the need to shed the stoic, emotionally closed-off stereotype boys.

A psychology professor at New York University, Niobe Way, recently finished a book on her interviews of teenage boys about their friendships. In these interviews, Way discovered that boys frequently said they liked their best friends because “They won’t laugh at me when I talk about serious things.” This emotionally intelligent side of boys is seldom seen and seems to disappear during high school. The article below states that:

“Touchy-feely talk about friendships may seem disconnected from boys’ academic woes, but Way insists they’re pieces of the same puzzle. ‘If you don’t understand the experience of boyhood,’ she says, ‘you’ll never understand the achievement gaps.’”

Although these studies contain conflicting data, how can parents use this information to raise emotionally intelligent boys?

What can teachers, principals and districts do to make learning more appealing to boys while encouraging emotional intelligence?

How can a middle ground be reached to pull out the best strengths of boys and the best strengths of girls?

ARTICLE:

The Chronicle of Higher Education
November 22, 2009
The Puzzle of Boys
Scholars and others debate what it means to grow up male in America
By Thomas Bartlett

My son just turned 3. He loves trains, fire trucks, tools of all kinds, throwing balls, catching balls, spinning until he falls down, chasing cats, tackling dogs, emptying the kitchen drawers of their contents, riding a tricycle, riding a carousel, pretending to be a farmer, pretending to be a cow, dancing, drumming, digging, hiding, seeking, jumping, shouting, and collapsing exhausted into a Thomas the Tank Engine bed wearing Thomas the Tank Engine pajamas after reading a Thomas the Tank Engine book.

That doesn’t make him unusual; in fact, in many ways, he couldn’t be more typical. Which may be why a relative recently said, “Well, he’s definitely all boy.” It’s a statement that sounds reasonable enough until you think about it. What does “all boy” mean? Masculine? Straight? Something else? Are there partial boys? And is this relative aware of my son’s fondness for Hello Kitty and tea sets?

These are the kinds of questions asked by anxious parents and, increasingly, academic researchers. Boyhood studies—virtually unheard of a few years ago—has taken off, with a shelf full of books already published, more on the way, and a new journal devoted to the subject. Much of the focus so far has been on boys falling behind academically, paired with the notion that school is not conducive to the way boys learn. What motivates boys, the argument goes, is different from what motivates girls, and society should adjust accordingly.

To view this entire article visit www.chronicle.com

CAROL’S SUMMARY:
The big question posed by the NPR story below that has yet to be answered is whether lower-level classes can hold students to higher standards, or whether any sorting system sends the wrong message to students about their ability to learn. Tracking has been a fundamental aspect of education in the U.S. since the early part of this century when public schools devised a system of curriculum tracks in order to accommodate the diverse group of students attending school for the first time. Recently, tracking has generated a large volume of research and policy analysis. Here’s a summary from the National Center for Education Statistics:

“There has been much debate over whether or not tracking creates unequal quality in educational experiences and later opportunity (Oakes, Garnoran, and Page 1991). There is also concern about whether tracking perpetuates, rather than alleviates, differences in children created by socioeconomic stratification (Oakes 1992). This issue has been particularly relevant for educators and researchers concerned about equal access to education by minority students who, in racially integrated schools, are disproportionately represented in curricula designed for low-ability or non-college-bound students.” The National Center for Education Statistics also reports: “Postsecondary students who take remedial reading are about half as likely as those who take no remedial courses to earn a degree or certificate.”
Source: http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2004/section3/indicator18.asp

Typically, students are assigned to levels by a combination of grades, test scores and teacher recommendations. Columbia Principal Lovie Lilly, who is African-American, conducted research on the experience of black students at her school while studying for her doctoral degree. “Black children in higher-level classes were ignored, or perceived that they were being ignored, or did not feel comfortable going to the teacher after school to get help,” Lilly says. “They gave up and decided to go to level three classes where at least there were other black children.”

Remediation is also costly. Here are annual estimates from one district that tracks this data, Maryland Public Schools:

Families pay: $283 million

Taxpayers pay: $978 million

How can schools boost the lowest performers while improving achievement for all?

What role do learning styles and multiple intelligences play in the educational outcomes of students?

How can we better prepare students for a love of learning and college level work?

ARTICLE:
Racial Achievement Gap Still Plagues Schools
by Nancy Solomon
October 28, 2009
NPR

American schools have struggled for decades to close what’s called the ‘minority achievement gap’ — the lower average test scores, grades and college attendance rates among black and Latino students.

Typically, schools place children who are falling behind in remedial classes, to help them catch up. But some schools are finding that grouping students by ability, also known as tracking or leveling, causes more problems than it solves.

To view this entire article and listen to NPR visit www.npr.org