It’s almost time to go back to school and college freshmen might be getting a surprise when they realize the cost of college doesn’t end with the tuition bill. Whether students are living in the dorms, at home, or renting, they are all transitioning into a new environment with a new lifestyle and new expenses.

College students are notorious for eating out for too many meals, taking out too many loans, and not worrying about their debt until it’s time to start paying it off. However, just a few hints and tips can help shape a more financially secure college experience for students. Since it’s never too early to start planning your finances for college, this list is also great for high school students who plan to attend college in the future.

• Scholarships and grants: Don’t make the excuse that you won’t qualify for a scholarship or grant. You might be intimidated by merit-based money awards that rely on your impressive grades to qualify, but if you’re an average scoring student, you might still qualify for general or need-based awards. Did you know there is a scholarship for being a male who stands over 6′ 2″? Do your research and try to finance your college with little or no loans.

• Start saving: Setting aside a dollar amount or percentage of your income for college is a great way to start a college fund. Even if it’s only $100 a month, the money will add up and you’ll be happy you have it when it comes time to pay for books, groceries, gas, or treat yourself to a movie.

• Cut back on spending: Make a budget so you know how much money you need to live, how many hours you need to work, and how much financial aid assistance you need to cover the difference. Once you make a budget, cut out your unnecessary spending by doing the following:
  • Mark which items are ‘wants’ and which are ‘needs.’
  • Ask yourself: Can I get rid of any of these wants? Am I being honest about which expenses are wants and which are needs?
  • Cut out as many wants as you feel comfortable with cutting out at this time.
  • Hold yourself accountable to sticking with your budget. It’s helpful to have support. Tell those closest to you about your new healthy spending habits.

• Know where to find help: Do you know where the financial aid office is on campus? Do you have an advisor? Do you know where the closest location of your bank is? Do you know how to speak to a personal banker? Do you know your bank’s customer service line? Don’t wait until financial disaster strikes to look for help. When you sense trouble, get financial help right away.

Getting financially literate before making mistakes like signing a lease with a boyfriend/girlfriend, using a credit card for all your purchases, accepting all the loans the school offers you, or not paying your bills on time is important to your financial security. So is knowing how to get out of a financial bind when you accidentally lose your way. LifeBound’s newest book Dollars and Sense: How to Be Smart About Money is a great resource for teens to learn about their relationship with money, saving, investing, budgeting, and getting financially fit for the future.

Carol’s Summary:

When I was young,  I was blessed to grow up on four acres of random desert in Tucson, Arizona.  My Mom would have us go outside after breakfast and at 5:00 she would ring an enormous bell and we knew that we had fifteen minutes to make our way back to the house to get cleaned up for dinner.  During the day, we would spend hours hunting for materials with which to build forts in the desert.  We would also play in an old log cabin and sometimes in my Mom’s old 1956 car which sat in our driveway unused.  We would spend hours observing lizards, hoping to find snakes and chasing quail and roadrunners. Little did I know that the ingenuity the five of us had in these endeavors with our friends would be the foundation of our lives—personally and professionally.  Time away from school in the great outdoors, parks or places of recreation are invaluable assets to developing healthy, creative, capable and strong-minded thinkers.

Today, as the article below indicates, many kids are programmed with little time to spend outside alone or with their friends exploring and creating.  When kids have to think of things themselves—instead of having all decisions made for them—they learn to see choices, trade-offs and consequences.  These critical thinking skills are crucial to success in college, career and life.  The experience that students get while recreating not only helps many students burn-off excess energy, it helps them to develop a healthy, holistic outlook to life. In LifeBound’s books, we emphasize academic, emotional and social development and we don’t think one is better than the others. They are all needed for life success.

Article: Play time: Kids need invaluable, old-style, free-form fun

All work and no play makes very dull kids, and a tight schedule of organized activities — soccer, art classes, music lessons — is no help.

Read the full article at: denverpost.com

Carol’s Summary:

Healthy Lifestyle Choices is a program dedicated to empowering children in grades kindergarten to eighth grade, through teaching lifelong skills in the areas of nutrition, safety, fitness, conflict resolution and violence prevention and substance abuse prevention. The program is currently in 40 states and is part of a nationwide initiative to improve youth health.

The HLC program realizes the power they can have in fighting the epidemic of childhood obesity, but the program aims to look at the bigger picture. HLC hopes healthy changes in children’s lives will not only give them a chance to turn their lives around before they reach adolescence, but also help HLC answer the question: “Do healthier students perform better academically and have less behavior problems at school?”

Article: Students take healthy lifestyle pledge

Students at Krotz Springs Elementary School, like fourth-grader Jaidyn Robinson, lined up Tuesday to take a healthy lifestyle pledge.

Read the entire article at: www.dailyworld.com

Carol’s Summary

Freedom School’s are growing around the country in efforts to close the achievement gap between white students and black and Latino students, by improving literacy with a six-week summer program. The initiative was developed by the Children’s Defense Fund, a nonprofit child advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. that “is modeled after efforts in Mississippi and other Southern states in the 1960s to educate African Americans still encumbered by separate and unequal school systems.”

Through a program that starts the day with song, dance, meditation, and sharing of experiences called harambee, a Swahili word meaning “let’s pull together,” to afternoon activities outdoors, students are having fun at school and enjoying experiences, like exploring museums and soaring in a plane, they might not otherwise get. Freedom School teaches students to think critically, have a healthy mind and body, be creative and read multiple books a week. And at Freedom School, parental participation is required.

Article: This summer’s lesson: Learning is fun

It is a hot, energy-sapping morning on a quiet residential street, but inside the Lynwood United Methodist Church, summer school students are raising the roof with inspirational chants, boogie-down dances and affirmations of friendship.

To read this article: www.latimes.com

Carol’s Summary:
The method by which to identify gifted students at a New York City high school is now being challenged, as the school admits students based on the results of a single test, which is written by a teacher at the school. This test ultimately determines a student’s eligibility to attend, and has  sparked a debate about what qualifies a student as gifted, particularly because this test has caused a decline in black and Hispanic student enrollment at the school.

Critics say that the test gives certain students an unfair advantage, whereas many others who come from less fortunate backgrounds may not be as well-prepared to take such a test. The cost of prep materials and tutoring gives wealthy students a good chance at being accepted, while students who come from less fortunate families may not be able to pay for the preparation.

Therefore, they may not be as well-prepared to take such a test. They say that the admissions tests should utilize several kinds of evaluations, including portfolios of students’ past work, essays, and interviews.

There are currently 3 million students nationwide who are identified as gifted, and it is believed that there are many more who have not yet been noticed or who have undergone one-sided tests such as the one previously mentioned. It is necessary to employ various strategies to identify gifted students, so that they may receive the education they deserve.

To hold back a student who is gifted may make the student likelier to grow bored with school and possibly even drop out, because their abilities are not being recognized. At LifeBound, we believe it is incredibly important to tailor teaching to individual students, their abilities and their needs. In our curriculum that accompanies each of our books, we have included activities for both gifted and at-risk students, so that no child’s needs are left unattended to. Visit www.lifebound.com or e-mail contact@lifebound.com for more information about our books and curriculum.

Article:
Identifying Gifted Students
By Walt Gardner

The latest chapter in the gifted student saga was on display at Hunter College High School in New York City when a graduating senior delivered a commencement address that called into question the basis for admission to the storied school (“Diversity Debate Convulses Elite High School,” Aug. 5). The school uses a single, teacher-written test that has not changed for decades. Although the test is defended by Hunter College, which oversees the high school, as “very valuable in terms of preserving the kind of specialness and uniqueness that the school has,” it has resulted in a decline in the percentage of black and Hispanic students enrolled.

To read the full article: www.edweek.org

Carol’s Summary:

A report by the Education Testing Service shows that the achievement gap between black and white students, and efforts to narrow the gap have been stagnant for 20 years. The Educational Testing Service has examined the achievement gap and efforts to close it since 1910.

Some experts have developed a theory that standardized testing alone cannot account for the results of the study, and that social and environmental factors must also be taken into account. In order to close the achievement gap any further, it may be necessary to break the cycle of poverty first. However, the cycle of poverty is not only a result of the achievement gap, but also one of its main causes.

In order to further narrow the achievement gap, it will be necessary to provide equal opportunities for academic growth. Textbooks in poverty-stricken areas would need to be of the same quantity and quality as books for children in middle-class areas. Standardized testing results will have to take into account more than the scores alone but also the advantages and disadvantages, and individual needs of the schools and students.

Teachers who work in schools in impoverished areas will also need to be trained in such a way that they can identify and connect better with their students and the issues that students face both in and out of the classroom. LifeBound visits with teachers from schools in both middle-class areas and areas where people are disadvantaged, and we coach them with our books and curriculum so they can collaborate and work with all students, regardless of their background. To learn more, visit www.lifebound.com or e-mail contact@lifebound.com

 Article:

Report: When/why progress in closing achievement gap stalled

Progress seen over several decades in narrowing the educational achievement gap between black and white students has remained stalled for 20 years, according to data analyzed in a new report.

Called “The Black-White Achievement Gap: When Progress Stopped,” the report by the Educational Testing Service examines periods of progress and stagnation since 1910 in closing the achievement gap.

To read the full article: www.washingtonpost.com

Carol’s Summary:
Twenty-seven states have adopted a nationwide standardized curriculum that was proposed around two months ago by the Department of Education, partially due to the Race to the Top competition, which will award billions of dollars in funding to states with plans to implement education reform.

Massachusetts, New York, and Colorado are among the states that will adopt the new set of curriculum. The standards contain a detailed description of what students at each grade level will be expected to learn and comprehend, and what academic skills they should have at each level. However, the process of implementing the new national standards is estimated to take years to complete.

Education reform and the implementation of national standards is predicted to save states money in the long run, as states will no longer have to make their own individual curriculum standards. Some educators are also worried that the cost of re-training teachers may be more trouble than it’s worth initially. When LifeBound has coaching sessions, we do so with the goal of showing teachers how to communicate and connect with students effectively and in a way that allows for long-term success. Training teachers is a highly effective way of ensuring future success with students.

As society continues to change, the education system must catch up and be restructured as well. The way that children learned fifty years ago is much different from how they learn now, and it will take possibly years of trial and error to fully restructure the education system as it has been proposed. What’s most important is that education fosters the goals and needs of all children, and of the whole child, not just academically speaking.

Article:
Many States Adopt National Standards for Their Schools
By TAMAR LEWIN
Published: July 21, 2010

Less than two months after the nation’s governors and state school chiefs released their final recommendations for national education standards, 27 states have adopted them and about a dozen more are expected to do so in the next two weeks.

To read the full article: www.nytimes.com

Carol’s Summary:
Over $1 trillion is spent on education every year, by the K-12 school system as well as colleges and universities. Schools are constantly looking for new ways to teach students, whether it is with the use of new technologies, using new books, and changing curriculum.

Most recently, the U.S. Department of Education has created a $650 million education innovation fund; this provides many entrepreneurs in the education industry with new opportunities to share their ideas and products with schools nationwide.

However, it is often a costly and time-consuming process for schools to adopt new strategies and products for educating their students. The funding can connect the entrepreneurs to education researchers, which would provide schools with a smoother transition to implement new curriculum and technologies.

Recently, education reform has been a “hot topic”, with the Race to the Top competition entering its final stages, and the debate over whether our nation’s schools should adopt one standardized curriculum. It has become evident that we are beginning to witness major changes in our education system, particularly with funding from Race to the Top and the education innovation fund.

Being well-acquainted with new books, technologies and curriculum enables schools to provide their students with the tools they need to succeed. At LifeBound, we aim to provide teachers and students with books and curriculum that they can apply to the classroom as well as to life outside of the classroom, in order to ensure that students are well-rounded. Critical and Creative Thinking for Teenagers is a book that helps to inspire teens to think outside of the box, and to be open to all sorts of possibilities. To be innovative is to foster success for the future.

Article:
Educational innovation gets boost under new programs
July 30, 2010

A movement is under way to make it easier for entrepreneurs to navigate the lucrative and sometimes-tricky education market and introduce new technologies and products into classrooms.

An educator at the University of Pennsylvania wants to create one of the nation’s only business incubators dedicated to education entrepreneurs. The U.S. Department of Education (ED) is also getting into the act with a $650 million fund to boost education innovation.

To read the full article: www.ecampusnews.com

Carol’s Summary:
A survey of K-12 students nationwide shows that many students feel that their use of technology, both at school and home, contributes positively to their overall learning experience. The survey, called “Speak Up 2009: Creating Our Future: Students Speak Up about their Vision for 21st Century Schools,” collected data about technology in relation to education, to assess the way that students utilize technology both in and out of the classroom.

Technology is becoming an increasingly important aspect of learning, and each year more classrooms are adding technological activities to their curriculum and school activities. Findings from the survey revealed that more students are turning to social networking websites to discover new information, as well as conducting their own research on various topics, without the instruction of a teacher or within the structure of a classroom.

The emergence of the digital age in our nation becomes more evident every day, and its presence in education is undeniable. As students have more access to the internet, they become more informed about a wide range of topics that may or may not be discussed at school. The second edition of our book, Making the Most of High School, has a chapter about how to use technology in a way that is safe and beneficial to one’s education and career goals, as well as technology tips in each chapter.

As students become more aware of the world around them, their classrooms and curriculum must be adjusted to fit their needs. Also, teachers will have to be flexible to incorporate learning with these new tools, so that their understanding of the tools equals that of students. It is vital that digital applications are applied to academics in order to ensure that students are prepared for a future where technology is becoming an essential aspect of everyday life.

Article:
Digital access, collaboration a must for students
By Laura Devaney
In a national survey that reveals K-12 students’ use of technology at home and at school, students overwhelmingly agreed that access to digital media tools and the ability to collaborate with peers both inside and outside of school can greatly enhance education.

To read the full article: www.ecampusnews.com

Carol’s Summary:

Teach for America, an organization that hires recent college graduates to teach in low-income public schools, has become more selective in choosing graduates to teach. Even many Ivy-league graduates have had difficulty getting accepted into the non-profit program. This year, about 4,500 candidates were accepted out of over 46,000 people who applied.

Teach for America not only benefits students in low-income schools, but also offers
Résumé credentials, job security for two years, and a beginning teacher’s salary. Teach for America applicants must complete an online application, a lesson plan, a written test, a phone interview, an in-person interview and a monitored discussion.

While many agree that Teach for America is a great program to recruit and train new teachers, others have mixed feelings due to the turnover rate of the program. According to a study from Harvard, about 61 percent of teachers stay after their two-year contract ends. Others go on to graduate school or to pursue other careers. Also, some education experts and critics say that students’ academic performance is often better when they have experienced teachers.

Schools in low-income neighborhoods are in the most need of good teachers, books and other materials; Teach for America provides new teachers with hand-on experience in the professional world. LifeBound provides frequent coaching and training sessions for teachers who are looking to find new ways to connect with students and work with them to ensure maximum success. We offer curriculum ideas along with our coaching and books. To learn more about LifeBound, visit www.lifebound.com or e-mail contact@lifebound.com.

Article:

A Chosen Few Are Teaching for America
By MICHAEL WINERIP
Published: July 11, 2010
HOUSTON — Alneada Biggers, Harvard class of 2010, was amazed this past year when she discovered that getting into the nation’s top law schools and grad programs could be easier than being accepted for a starting teaching job with Teach for America.
To read the full article: www.nytimes.com