Carol J. Carter

Carol’s summary:
The U.S. is moving closer to adopting a uniform set of world-class standards for all schools k-12. This week a panel comprised of the nation’s governors and state school superintendents unveiled their proposal for year by year benchmarks citing these examples in the article below: “. . . fifth graders would be expected to explain the differences between drama and prose, and to identify elements of drama like characters, dialogue and stage directions. Seventh graders would study, among other math concepts, proportional relationships, operations with rational numbers and solutions for linear equations.”

For over a decade, LifeBound has promoted similar objectives through our stair-step programs for grades 5-12, which builds the following 21st century skills:

o Reading
o Writing
o Critical and creative thinking
o Emotional intelligence
o ACT/SAT prep
o Strategies for teachers to anticipate and plan successful transitions at each grade level.

Our books are used in advisory periods, summer reading academies, and as supplements to English and Social Studies classes. All of our curricula are coordinated to the national American School Counselor Association (ASCA) standard and 21st century skills framework. To receive review copies of our books, please call our toll free # at 1.877.737.8510 or send an email to contact@lifebound.com

ARTICLE
NYTIMES
March 10, 2010
By Sam Dillon

A panel of educators convened by the nation’s governors and state school superintendents proposed a uniform set of academic standards on Wednesday, laying out their vision for what all the nation’s public school children should learn in math and English, year by year, from kindergarten to high school graduation.

The new proposals could transform American education, replacing the patchwork of standards ranging from mediocre to world-class that have been written by local educators in every state.

To view entire article visit
http://nyti.ms/cT2LJD

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:
Over the next four years, more than a third of the nation’s 3.2 million teachers could retire, leaving schools bereft of experienced instructors. The problem is aggravated by high attrition among novice teachers, with one of every three new teachers leaving the profession within five years, a loss of talent that costs school districts millions in recruiting and training expenses, according to a 2009 report by the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, a nonprofit research advocacy group. To help counter this predicament, the Obama administration is proposing competitive grants for teachers to recruit, train and evaluate teacher performance relative to student success. I applaud this emphasis for three main reasons:

1) Competition is valuable. When teachers have incentives to be and do their best work, they are incented to grow, to keep learning and keep their knowledge on the
cutting edge–all of which our students need to be competitive in the global world.
  2) Change. A lot has changed among students in the last eight years since No Child Left Behind
was created. The teachers who understand the impact and usefulness of technology in addition to their subject areas will drive the future of facilitated learning–active learning where students discover the learning through their own curiosity, initiative and leadership. Students who learn like this in class will have the inspiration and the motivation to make a difference outside of school–in their careers and personal lives–with the applications of what they have learned.
  3) Staying Ahead. Right now, American students after fifth grade are not toe to toe with their foreign counterparts in developed nations. The more that the best teachers are encouraged within our current system and new teachers are brought in from different walks of life which provide the experience through which students can value their learning, the more we will have purposeful,
self-directed and inspired graduates.

The focus on raising the bar for teachers comes at a time when the administration is calling for more parents to set up a culture of learning in their homes–through turning off the TV, modeling reading and and doing homework with their children. Other frontiers are: exploring what it
takes for principals and school districts to be effective as leaders and analyzing how the community, AARP and other organizations from the community can support school performance and outcomes.
####

ARTICLE
In its fiscal 2011 budget request , the Obama administration has laid out its intention of carrying forward key teacher-effectiveness policies within the economic-stimulus law into the next edition of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

In doing so, the budget proposal would invest heavily in competitive grants for new ways of recruiting, training, evaluating, and compensating teachers and principals, dramatically shrink the amount of teacher-quality funding doled out by formula, and consolidate a handful of smaller teacher programs that have fierce congressional defenders.

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

Carol’s summary:
The Obama administration is proposing competitive grants for teachers to recruit, train and evaluate teacher performance relative to student success. I applaud this emphasis for three main reasons:

1) Competition is valuable. When teachers have incentives to be and do their best work, they are incented to grow, to keep learning and keep their knowledge on the
cutting edge–all of which our students need to be competitive in the global world.
  2) Change. A lot has changed among students in the last eight years since No Child Left Behind
was created. The teachers who understand the impact and usefulness of technology in addition to their subject areas will drive the future of facilitated learning–active learning where students discover the learning through their own curiosity, initiative and leadership. Students who learn like this in class will have the inspiration and the motivation to make a difference outside of school–in their careers and personal lives–with the applications of what they have learned.
  3) Staying Ahead. Right now, American students after fifth grade are not toe to toe with their foreign counterparts in developed nations. The more that the best teachers are encouraged within our current system and new teachers are brought in from different walks of life which provide the experience through which students can value their learning, the more we will have purposeful,
self-directed and inspired graduates.

The focus on raising the bar for teachers comes at a time when the administration is calling for more parents to set up a culture of learning in their homes–through turning off the TV, modeling reading and and doing homework with their children. Other frontiers are: exploring what it
takes for principals and school districts to be effective as leaders and analyzing how the community, AARP and other organizations from the community can support school performance and outcomes.
####

ARTICLE
In its fiscal 2011 budget request , the Obama administration has laid out its intention of carrying forward key teacher-effectiveness policies within the economic-stimulus law into the next edition of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

In doing so, the budget proposal would invest heavily in competitive grants for new ways of recruiting, training, evaluating, and compensating teachers and principals, dramatically shrink the amount of teacher-quality funding doled out by formula, and consolidate a handful of smaller teacher programs that have fierce congressional defenders.

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

Carol’s summary:
There is a new plan based on the educational systems of Denmark, England, Finland and Singapore—for public schools to offer 10th graders an early diploma if they bass a battery of tests and enroll immediately at a community college. While I applaud the effort to retain many of the students currently at college-age who are remediated for poor math and English skills, I have concerns about this plan for three reasons along with strategies which can help:

1) In America, many high school freshmen aren’t ready for college or high school academically, emotionally and socially. I am sure that the countries on which this model is based have far more rigor in the early grades levels which gradually prepares students for success in their studies, their careers and in their lives.

Solution: More rigor for ninth graders for success throughout high school.

If ninth graders are encouraged to read at home at night, study at least two to three hours a night and really learn to love challenge, they can expand their world through work, volunteer activities and school involvement. These “soft skills” are key to building lifelong habits of success and a quality mindset which creates quality in work, society and one’s personal decisions. Reinforcing a culture of learning with low-income, first-generation families needs to be a parallel strategy.

2) Many at-risk students start high school with no sense of who they are, what they like or dislike, or how high school and college can benefit them later. They start out in an uncommitted, undetermined frame of mind. So, even if they test well, they often don’t have the maturity, critical thinking or problem-solving abilities to make good decisions and manage themselves effectively. Putting them into a more complex environment when they haven’t mastered the high school environment, allows students to skip a step and can set them up for emotional and social setbacks.

Solution: More clear expectations and preparation for eighth graders BEFORE they get to high school.

If eighth graders are given the chance to explore the benefits of high school, learn what they might do once they get there, take an inventory of their weaknesses so they can find ways through extra work, tutors and other resources to get help, they will anticipate and be prepared for the new world they will enter. Without these skills of looking ahead, preparing adequately and learning how to advocate for what one needs, students are in a “middle school” mindset when they are asked to do high school level work.

3) America goes toe-to-toe with foreign counterparts until middle school. Research shows that fewer than 2 in 10 of the nation’s eighth graders are on track to be academically prepared for college and high school may be too late to bring them up to speed.

What happens in middle school that causes our nation’s test scores to drop?

What can be done to bring America’s middle school students up to speed with their counterparts in Finland, Denmark, England and Singapore?

Solution: Success and Transition Programs for 5/6th graders.

We’ve been working with districts who emphasize both an emotional intelligence program and a transition success program for their fifth graders. Not only have the schools had fewer referrals to the principal’s office, parents, teachers and counselors report that students are observing their behaviors, asking themselves about their options, connecting more with other students, and solving their own problems more effectively. And an unexpected outcome: these schools had a boost in their state test scores. All of learning is based on emotion. When students understand their emotions, they can calm down, focus, learn and have the motivation to study on their own.

I’m all for trying the early college program if we can implement these three steps to better prepare students for college, career and personal success when they are so immature and emotionally unready for life’s adult decisions. Employers complain frequently that today’s graduates often lack the communication, thinking skills and maturity to contribute in real ways in their first few years out of college. Let’s be realistic about the preparation which low-income students and all students need and let’s give them the perspective, the tools, the resources and the experience to excel in today’s complex global world where they will be working toe-to-toe with their colleagues in Denmark, England, Finland, and Singapore once they do graduate from college.

ARTICLE
By SAM DILLON
Dozens of public high schools in eight states will introduce a program next year allowing 10th graders who pass a battery of tests to get a diploma two years early and immediately enroll in community college.

Students who pass but aspire to attend a selective college may continue with college preparatory courses in their junior and senior years, organizers of the new effort said. Students who fail the 10th-grade tests, known as board exams, can try again at the end of their 11th and 12th grades. The tests would cover not only English and math but also subjects like science and history.

To view the entire article visit
http://nyti.ms/aylDDv

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:
Today’s article from the School Library Journal features a new program called START (Service & Technology Academic Resource Team) that draws upon our school communities’ brightest experts in the field of technology: students. Sponsored by Microsoft and the Corporation for National and Community Service, the program aims to help teachers and staff better integrate technology into schools, starting with six pilots at the following locations:

* New York’s Lower East Side Preparatory High School M515,
* Mississippi’s Tupelo Middle School,
* Pennsylvania’s Parkway West High School,
* North Carolina’s East Garner Magnet Middle School,
* Virginia’s VA Star program at Forest Park High School, and
* California’s Winston Churchill Middle School.

The Director of the Office of Education Technology of the DOE, Karen Cator, says that the START program offers a “unique way of incorporating science and technology into service, providing students with a way to give back to their school community and giving them a taste of actual work in that field.”

Empowering students to teach what they know helps develop their critical thinking and service skills, which is a powerful combination for today’s 21st century learner. LifeBound’s aim is to help equip students with these skills through our stair-step program for grades 5-12. Relevant to this article, our new edition of Making the Most of High School, designed for the 8th to 9th grade transition, includes a chapter on Technology. To reserve a review copy, please call toll free 1.877.737.8510 or email contact@lifebound.com.

ARTICLE
School Library Journal
by Lauren Barack

The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) believes that when it comes to technology training, we should look no further than a terrific resource already in the classroom—students.

That’s why Microsoft and the Corporation for National and Community Service has launched a new initiative that empowers middle and high school students to help teachers and staff better integrate tech into schools.

“The concept of students as tech support and even teacher support has been around for several years,” says Karen Cator (pictured), Director of the Office of Education Technology at the U.S. DOE. “I think what this initiative does is take the best practices and take them to scale.”

Called START (Service & Technology Academic Resource Team), the program will combine five existing projects such as GenerationYES!, in which students help teachers come up with compelling assignments using technology, and MOUSE, where students act as tech support in schools, and bring them together under one umbrella.

To view the entire article visit

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6717185.html

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
How many hours does a teacher spend preparing students for “multiple assessments”? According to the first of a two-part report from the ASCD (formerly the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development; Part 2 will be released tomorrow), the answer depends on what you mean by the term assessments: if you’re talking about everything from pop quizzes to standardized tests, many teachers might answer that they spend all their time teaching, if not to the tests, then with the tests in mind. Over the past 10 years, particularly with the advent of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), school culture has become a testing culture. Some educators lament that prepping for tests means taking time away from deeper learning. Marge Scherer, editor-in-chief of ASCD’s Educational Leadership says that teachers should understand the various assessments and try to raise understanding, not just student scores. David Heistad, executive director of Research, Evaluation and Assessment for Minneapolis Public Schools, says that test preparation in large amounts is “counterproductive.” He strongly discourages teachers from doing too much. “The best way to learn [reading comprehension] is to read a diversity of books. For math, keep up with daily assignments,” Heistad said in an interview for “ThreeSixty” magazine, a publication by the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis.

As assessment experts Stephen Chappuis, Jan Chappuis, and Rick Stiggins write (p. 15), “NCLB has exposed students to an unprecedented overflow of testing. But do all these multiple measures really lead us to achieve the three most often cited goals of testing: Building proficiency in basic skills, closing achievement gaps, and fostering the top-notch knowledge and skills that students will need in a competitive global society?”

Other questions to consider:

Now that the United States is poised to enter a new testing era: All but two states have agreed to work toward creating common academic standards, with the eventual goal of establishing common assessments. What will become of tests like the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)?

With these common standards, what might be a better way to construct assessment systems, and what tools can be implemented to help students develop their critical and creative thinking skills to solve real-world problems?

ARTICLE
Educational Leadership
by Marge Scherer
How many hours of classroom time do you typically spend administering standardized tests to students each school year? In my search for that statistic, I found one high school teacher estimating he spent 40 school days each year administering and prepping students for “bubble tests.”

Perhaps an even more important question is, How many hours does a teacher spend preparing students for “multiple assessments”?

That answer depends on the interpretation of the term assessment—are you counting pop quizzes and spelling bees, essays and multimedia projects, teacher-made and standardized tests, entrance and exit tests, pre-tests and post-tests, interim and benchmark assessments, statewide and national tests, and preparation for the AP exam, SAT, and ACT? Are you adding in daily, minute-by-minute checks for understanding? If all answers apply, many teachers might answer that they spend all their time teaching, if not to the tests, then with the tests in mind.

To read the entire article visit
http://bit.ly/tk11H

CAROL’S SUMMARY
Since there is a strong link between health and learning, our nation’s obsession with food containing salt, sugar and fat is creating a generation of unhealthy students. A study published in the April 5, 2006, issue of the Journal of the American Medi­cal Association found that 17.1 percent of children and adolescents ages 2 to 19 were overweight. Being overweight puts children and teenagers at greater risk for a number of serious health conditions. Type 2 diabetes; risk factors for heart disease, including high blood pressure; other health conditions including asthma and sleep apnea, and psychosocial effects such as decreased self-esteem have been associated with childhood obesity in recent studies. Fortunately, healthy eating and a physically active lifestyle can help children achieve and maintain a healthy weight and reduce obesity-related chronic diseases.

The article below from Educational Leadership magazine features an interview with the former commissioner of the Food & Drug Administration, David A. Kessler, who says the pattern today is “eating for reward–not for fuel or nutrition.” He enlisted the help of his colleague, Dr. Gaetano Di Chiara, a pharmacologist, who found that salt, sugar and fat–ingredients laded in today’s highly processed food–are addictive substances, not unlike cocaine and amphetamine in their ability to elevate the brain’s level of dopamine, a chemical responsible for cravings. In the interview, Kessler said:

“Kids look at that huge plate of food now and say, “That’s what I want.” That’s a hard cycle to break. And it’s having a profound effect on their health. In the past, adults would get type 2 diabetes in their 40s or 50s, then live for two or three decades with the disease, developing eye disease, kidney disease, cardiovascular disease, and other complications. But kids are now getting type 2 diabetes—at 10 years old!”

Kessler contends that helping our kids make healthier choices holds “profound implications for schools,” whose aim should be to teach nutrition and offer healthy lunch programs. He says, “The greatest gift you can give someone is to lay down healthy eating patterns from the beginning, to find foods that are rewarding as well as healthy.”

How can we help educate students and families early on about the importance of forming healthy eating habits for school and life success?

What role does emotional intelligence play in helping students adopt behaviors that lead to optimal health and fitness?

How can we better incorporate student success programs into our curriculum, such as LifeBound’s People Smarts book, that help students develop their decision-making skills?

ARTICLE
Amy M. Azzam
EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP
December 2009

Our kids eat too much—and what they’re eating drives them to eat even more. In this interview with Educational Leadership, David A. Kessler, former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, discusses why so many people overeat and what we can do to help children develop better habits.

In his new book, The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite (Rodale, 2009), Kessler describes how processed food and changing lifestyles are setting people up for a lifetime of food obsession.

Kessler is a lifelong health advocate. Under his watch, the FDA enacted regulations requiring standardized nutrition labels on food. He’s also known for his role in the FDA’s attempt to regulate cigarettes. Dr. Kessler is a pediatrician and has served as the dean of the medical schools at both Yale and the University of California.

To view the entire article visit
http://bit.ly/91KTkZ