Elementary » Carol J. Carter

Kids Watch More Than a Day of TV Each Week

According to a Neilsen study released this week, children between the ages of 2 to 11, are watching more than a day a week of television, and older children watch an average of 3 hours and 20 minutes a day. Patricia McDonough, Nielsen’s senior vice president of insights, analysis and policy, says the increase in viewing is the result of “more programming targeted at kids” and extra media outlets such as video on demand. “When I was a kid, I had Saturday morning cartoons,” McDonough said. “And now there are programs they want to watch available to them whenever they want to watch them.”

Health Advocates

Children’s health advocates are alarmed by these findings which link excessive viewing to delayed language skills and obesity. Dr. Vic Strasburger, a professor of pediatrics at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and a spokesman for the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) said, “The biggest misconception is that it’s harmless entertainment,” said Strasburger, who has written extensively about the effects of media on children. “Media are one of the most powerful teachers of children that we know of. When we in this society do a bad job of educating kids about sex and drugs, the media pick up the slack.” The AAP recommends little-to-no TV viewing for children four-and-under and less than 10 hours per week (about 1 Â½ hours per day) for children in grades K-12. Susan Linn, director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, said the way infants are exposed to media shapes their future relationship with television.

“Once you start hooking babies on media, it’s harder to limit it,” she said. “If we start children early in life on a steady diet of screen time and electronic toys, they don’t develop the resources to generate their own amusement, so they become dependent on screens.”

ADHD

In a 2004 study by Dr. Dimitri Christakis and his colleagues, they reported for the Journal of Pediatrics that early TV viewing (ages 1 and 3 were studied) is associated with attentional problems (ADHD) at a later age (age 7). The children studied watched a mean of 2.2 hours per day at age 1 and 3.6 hours per day at age 3. Specifically, Christakis reports that watching about five hours of TV per day at age 1 is associated with a 28% increase in the likelihood of having attentional problems at age 7. Further, in 2000, the American Psychological Association “publicly denounced the use of psychological techniques to assist corporate advertising to children. The average child watches over 40,000 commercials per year. In addition to potentially damaging a child’s self-esteem, many ads also likely contribute to health problems, given that the most common products marketed to children include sugared cereals, candies, sodas, and snack foods. A child’s diet heavy in such foods may contribute to the increase in the number of overweight children and the rise in diabetes, especially given the sedentary behavior of children.”

[Source: http://www.limitv.org/health.htm]

The Role of Schools

Schools can play a key role as a hub in their communities to inform families on these kinds of issues. In particular, school counselors, who are often at the forefront of these trends, can promote behaviors consistent with academic, emotional and social success. Questions to consider:

How can we as child advocates and educators better support counselors in their roles as leaders for promoting a healthy school community?
How can we spark an appetite among students for healthy alternatives to excessive media use, such as reading and extracurricular activities, while embracing the positive aspects of technology?
What do these kinds of addictive behaviors, including video gaming, tell us about our students and our responsibility as educators to prepare them to become critical and creative thinkers for the 21st century?

____________________________________________________________________________________________

ARTICLE
Los Angeles Times
by Matea Gold
Reporting from New York – More than an entire day — that’s how long children sit in front of the television in an average week, according to new findings released Monday by Nielsen.

The amount of television usage by children reached an eight-year high, with kids ages 2 to 5 watching the screen for more than 32 hours a week on average and those ages 6 to 11 watching more than 28 hours. The analysis, based on the fourth quarter of 2008, measured children’s consumption of live and recorded TV, as well as VCR and game console usage.

“They’re using all the technology available in their households,” said Patricia McDonough, Nielsen’s senior vice president of insights, analysis and policy. “They’re using the DVD, they’re on the Internet. They’re not giving up any media — they’re just picking up more.”

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A Push for Colleges to Prioritize Mental Health

CAROL’S SUMMARY:
As the NPR story below indicates, college campuses are seeing a surge in mental health issues among students. From a compilation of research reported by the University of Michigan’s, Daniel Eisenberg, statistics reveal:

* In 2007, approximately 15 percent of students reported having been diagnosed with depression, according to the American College Health Association
Â *Over 90 percent of college counseling centers who were surveyed nationwide say they are seeing more severe cases of mental health issues
Â *Half of all cases of mental illness first show up in the early teen years
Â *75 percent are present by age 24.

As psychologists theorize why campuses are seeing this increase, Eisenberg thinks one factor is better screening and earlier diagnosis of mental illness in high school and even before than in previous generations. New medications for depression, bipolar disorder and other problems are enabling many people to go to college who would not have been able to in the past. While many people think college is a prime time to intervene and get these kids on a healthy path, that may not be soon enough. If we can give young adolescents the tools and coping skills earlier, we may help avert some of the suffering associated with mental illness and anxiety disorders before students get to college. LifeBound’s resources, such as Success in Middle School and People Smarts, boost social and emotional skills requisite to success in school, career and life.

How can we effectively teach students appropriate coping and self-advocacy skills at each of the various educational levels (elementary, middle and high school) and start a national dialogue about emotional and social skills for all students?

What are the percentages of students who experience the onset of various mental health difficulties before the 9th grade, and how can we do a better job reaching out to them?

How can we create a more supportive school culture to help students at risk of developing mental health issues?

How can parents, teachers, counselors and students at early ages be aware of these issues to address problems early before they escalate?

How can all of us be more authentic ourselves in ways that give students the permission to avoid â€œsuper humanâ€ tendencies which often fuel mental illness, depression and desire to contemplate suicide?

ARTICLE
National Public Radio
by Deborah Franklin

Arcadio Morales, one of six residence deans at Stanford University, has lived in an apartment in the campus dorms for 15 years, often fielding late-night phone calls from students about everything from Frisbee injuries to mid-term anxiety to alcohol poisoning. He says some arriving freshmen have always packed emotional baggage along with their laptops and books. But the mix of problems he’s called to weigh in on has become more serious in recent years.
Colleges See Rise In Mental Health Issues, Oct. 19, 2009. “Early on,” he says, “most of the issues that surfaced were roommate issues, compatibility issues.” He still gets that sort of thing, along with the calls from “very involved” parents who want him, for example, to go down the hall and wake up their son or daughter. But these days, Morales is getting more calls about students in need of substantial psychiatric support.

To view entire article visit
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=114055588

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Study Finds Growing Work for School Counselors

CAROL’S SUMMARY:
According to the New York Times article below, the ratio of school counselors to students, particularly at public high schools, continues to increase in part because of the influx of students applying to college. Nearly half of public schools have raised the caseloads of high school counselors this year, compared with last year, with the average increase exceeding 53 students, according to a study by the National Association for College Admission Counseling. While the core role of many counselors is helping students through the college admissions process, an equally if not more challenging task is helping at-risk students stay in school. Another report published in 2005 by the Educational Testing Service titled, One-Third of a Nation: Rising Dropout Rates and Declining Opportunities, documents, “On average, only one certified counselor is available for each 500 students in all schools, and one counselor to 285 students in high schools. “And they have many assignments that leave little time to spend with students at risk of dropping out.”
Source: http://www.ets.org/Media/Education_Topics/pdf/onethird.pdf

While the role of guidance counseling has largely been ignored in the education reform movement of the past two decades, that trend is beginning to change. Increasingly, counselors are driving student success and transition programs in districts and schools across the country, which is one of the antidotes to stemming our nation’s high school drop out rate. In my work with counselors, I see a commitment to managing their divergent demands and growing their role as school leaders. The president-elect for Florida’s School Counselor Association, Karalia Baldwin, had this to say: “School counselors must seem themselves as leaders of their programs, advocates for counseling, for students, and representatives of the profession, as they are an integral part of student learning.” Former president of the American School Counselor Association (ASCA), Dr. Judy Bowers, says, “It is critical that school counselors move beyond their current roles as helper-responders in order to become proactive leaders and advocates for the success of all students.”

LifeBound’s curriculum is coordinated to the national ASCA model, and is being implemented in Advisory and other programs by counselors who are in a unique position to be agents of change. At LifeBound, one of our objectives is to support school counselors in their role as leaders, and here are questions we ask of ourselves and others at the forefront of education reform:

How can we prepare school counselors to become action-oriented, critical thinkers and champions of change? One way we do this at LifeBound is through academic coaches training, and counselors from across the country who have attended this training have been promoted in their schools and districts.

How can we help counselors integrate student success and transition programs that positively impact school attendance, test scores, grades and behavior?

How can counselors lead the way with parents and coach them on modeling behaviors at home, such as turning off the TV and initiating conversations about the value of an education, that we know impact at-risk students?

ARTICLE
By JACQUES STEINBERG

The struggling economy has taken a toll on those directly responsible for advising students about the college admission process. Nearly half of public schools have raised the caseloads of high school counselors this year, compared with last year, with the average increase exceeding 53 students, according to a study by the National Association for College Admission Counseling.

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Once Convictsâ€™ Last Hope, Now a Studentsâ€™ Advocate

CAROL’S SUMMARY:

â€œIt is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.â€ –Frederick Douglass

Former defense attorney, Tom Dunn, traded in the courthouse for the classroom, where he now works as a middle school teacher in a disadvantaged district of Atlanta, Georgia. From his 20-years of defending inmates on death row, Dunn observed a common thread among prisoners: the absence of a positive role model such as a father or a teacher, that might have meant â€œthe difference between a good life and a ruined life.â€ The impetus for Dunn’s career change came after a devastating illness that led to congestive heart failure. Recognizing he could no longer endure the stress of being a lawyer, Dunn resigned and took a volunteer post at Teach for America with a focus on special education, because he saw learning disabilities â€œin nearly every caseâ€ on death row.

Almost ten years ago, I had the opportunity to volunteer for two years at the Federal Prison, with Native Americans in maximum security and men in the â€œcamp” who were going to be released in the next year. I absolutely agree with Dunnâ€™s assessment. I often reflected that if the men I worked with had been born into my family, they wouldnâ€™t be there. Had I been born into their families and oppressive circumstances, I may very well be in their shoes. This experience left an indelible mark on me and has greatly shaped the work I do with LifeBound. I saw that the men in prison had practical intelligence, but not school smarts. Without emotional intelligence and at least one positive role model, these young men were doomed.

I believe strongly that we need to begin to see students and their gifts and talents more broadly. If someone is struggling in school, it doesnâ€™t mean they are a second-class citizen. It means they need intervention, extra help, tutors and the respect to continue to explore who they are becoming. Not everyone in this country is meant to go to college right out of high school, but with the right guidance, students strong in practical intelligence can learn to do work that is meaningful while developing the maturity which Higher Education requires. Letâ€™s start to look more broadly at students of all kindsâ€”especially those who struggle at a young age. I would rather put money into helping them as children, than pay $65,000 a year on average per inmate within our growing prison system.

ARTICLE
New York Times
By JOHN SCHWARTZ

ATLANTA â€” â€œPick your head up, buddy,â€ Tom Dunn said to Darius Nash, who had fallen asleep during the morningâ€™s reading drills. â€œSabrieon, sit down, buddy,â€ he called to a wandering boy. â€œFocus.â€

Mr. Dunnâ€™s classroom is less than three miles from his old law office, where he struggled to keep death row prisoners from the executionerâ€™s needle. This summer, after serving hundreds of death row clients for 20 grinding, stressful years, he traded the courthouse for Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School.

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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 brainâ€™s ability to act and react in ever-changing ways is known, in the scientific community, as â€œneuroplasticity.â€ This special characteristic allows the brainâ€™s estimated 100 billion nerve cells, also called neurons (aka â€œgray matterâ€), 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 â€˜hardwiredâ€™ from birth, but holds a remarkable lifelong power to changeâ€”a phenomenon called â€˜plasticity.â€™ 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: â€œEvery 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 learnâ€”to learn how to become productive, contributing members of our society through the opportunity of education.â€

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 â€˜rewiringâ€™ 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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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:

â€œWeâ€™re trying to show what it means to be a dropout in the 21st century United States,â€ said Sum. “Itâ€™s one of the countryâ€™s costliest problems. The unemployment, the incarceration rates â€” itâ€™s scary.â€

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 differentâ€”with students, parents, teachers, counselors and administratorsâ€”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 isnâ€™t motivated, students arenâ€™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.

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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 â€” Trying to spark what he called â€œa sustained national conversationâ€ 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 â€œtoo many of todayâ€™s victims become tomorrowâ€™s criminals.â€

To view this entire article visit www.nytimes.com

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Skills Set Drafted For Students Nationwide

CAROL’S SUMMARY:

The Common Core State Standards Initiative is a joint effort by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) in partnership with Achieve, ACT and the College Board. Governors and state commissioners of education from across the country have created a state-led process to develop a common core of state standards in English-language arts and mathematics for grades K-12.

According to their web site at www.corestandards.org, these standards will be research and evidence-based, internationally benchmarked, aligned with college and work expectations and include rigorous content and skills. The NGA Center and CCSSO are coordinating the process to develop these standards and have created an expert validation committee to provide an independent review of the common core state standards, as well as the grade-by-grade standards.

In math, the goal is to have students â€œsolve systems of equations; find and interpret rates of change; and adapt probability models to solve real-world problems.â€ In English and language arts, the goal is to have students be able to â€œanalyze how word choices shape the meaning and tone of a text; develop a style and tone of writing appropriate to a task and audience; and respond constructively to advance a discussion and build on the input of others.â€

There is still much work and research to be done if a national consensus on education is to be adopted, but one thing is certain: Students from the United States need to be prepared to compete in the global marketplace among students from Asia and Europe. With education reform inevitable, here are some important questions to consider:

Â· Could standards be developed by type of student? College-bound, career-school bound?

Â· Could we identify skills that will make students successful no matter what path they choose and emphasize cross-curricular learning?

Â· How can we better work with the initiatives such as the 21century skills, which foster critical thinking, technological literacy, cross-curricular core-competencies and global knowledge needed to compete with counterparts world-wide?

Whatever standards are developed, the voice of Higher Education and employers will need to be heard. Learning needs to be linked to success in the working world. To fuel our economy of the future, students will need knowledge, skills and the initiative to tackle the toughest problems with confidence, competence and faith that the solutionsâ€”while difficult and elusiveâ€”can and will come with a quality mindset and follow-through.

ARTICLE:

Skills Set Drafted For Students Nationwide
By Nick Anderson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Experts convened by the nation’s governors and state schools chiefs on Monday proposed a set of math and English skills students should master before high school graduation, the first step toward what advocates hope will become common standards driving instruction in classrooms from coast to coast.

The proposal aims to lift expectations for students beyond current standards, which vary widely from state to state, and establish for the first time an effective national consensus on core academic goals to help the United States keep pace with global competitors. Such agreement has proven elusive in the past because of a long tradition of local control over standards, testing and curriculum.

To view this entire article visit www.washingtonpost.com

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Schools Official in New Jersey Orders Plan to Combat Hazing

CAROLâ€™S SUMMARY:

Bullying can take many forms (verbal, psychological and physical), and administrators for a district in New Jersey will participate in sensitivity training and devise a plan within the next two months to combat hazing at Millburn High School. These actions were ordered by the president of the Board of Education after a board meeting revealed that another school year started off with hazing of freshman girls by seniors that included being pushed into lockers, having whistles blown in their faces and the release of a â€œslut list.â€

In the past, some seniors have been expelled, but Principal William Miron said that no student will be disciplined without proof. Board member Debra Fox remembers being hazed as a freshman and suggested punishing the entire female population of the senior class in order to get the names, saying â€œbecause no one is going to take the rap for someone else.â€ One parent was applauded when she said parents must also take responsibility when their children acted like bullies.

Tragically, every day thousands of students wake up afraid to go to school. As educators, we have an inherent responsibility to make our schools safe, bully-free cultures because every child and teenager has the civil right to learn unhindered. Because parents, teachers, and other adults don’t always see it, they may not understand how extreme bullying can get. According to the web site, www.kidshealth.org, two of the main reasons people are bullied are because of appearance and social status. Bullies pick on the people they think don’t fit in, maybe because of how they look, how they act (for example, kids who are shy and withdrawn), their race or religion, or because the bullies think their target may be gay or lesbian.

Hazing is a form of bullying and often the result of underdeveloped emotional intelligence, or people smarts, such as empathy and compassion. LifeBoundâ€™s book, People Smarts for Teenagers: Becoming Emotionally Intelligent, helps students develop these skills by boosting self-awareness and empathy. Every chapter includes a real-life story about another teenager who overcame their own obstacles to emotional well-being. This past spring, a progressive district in Colorado Springs used this book with all of their sixth graders and observed a spike in test scores, which they attribute to this program. Learning is linked to emotions and when we teach children and teens emotional and social skills we give them another advantage in the learning process. For more information about this and other student success and transition resources, visit www.lifebound.com

ARTICLE:

The New York Times
September 22, 2009
Schools Official in New Jersey Orders Plan to Combat Hazing
By TINA KELLEY

MILLBURN, N.J. â€” The president of the Millburn Board of Education said on Monday night that district administrators would have to undergo sensitivity training and ordered them to come up with a plan within the next two months to address the longstanding tradition of hazing at Millburn High School.

The action came at a board meeting that drew about 50 parents and lasted more than three hours.

â€œThis is not acceptable behavior; it will not be tolerated,â€ the board president, Noreen Brunini, said of the most recent hazing, which included the distribution of an annual â€œslut listâ€ of incoming freshman girls. â€œThis is the end of this.â€

To view this entire article visit www.nytimes.com

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Panel Urges Attention to Adolescent Literacy

CAROLâ€™S SUMMARY:

In the article below, Carnegie Corporation of New Yorkâ€™s Council on Advancing Adolescent Literacy experts gathered to discuss their final report in which they spent five years examining the need for better reading and writing skills among students in grades 4 through 12. The experts stressed the importance of action at each state level, suggesting reading and writing standards be set high and state tests be set to the levels of the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Statewide data systems for all literacy, as well as, including adolescent-literacy training in state teacher-certification programs were considered of high importance.

Catherine Snow, a Harvard University education professor who chaired the Carnegie panel, said an important tenement of the report is to have the nationâ€™s entire education system recognize that the traditional literacy approach (focusing on building skills at a young age) doesnâ€™t help students with â€œcomplex vocabulary, composition, and concepts they encounter in high school.â€ Another panelist, Michael Kamil, a Stanford University education professor, said that the sole responsibility for teaching adolescent literacy cannot rest on the shoulders of English teachers. Literacy needs to be taught across the disciplines in each subject of middle and high school, because at these higher levels, literacy comprehension, and therefore instruction, is grounded within the content.

Students learn best when they can draw comparisons and connections between information they already know and the new knowledge presented to them. That is why in Critical and Creative Thinking for Teenagers, the basics of problem solving are presented to high schoolers within profiles about innovators in medicine, science, math, finance, art, music and English to relate their previous knowledge of the core subject to the new critical and creative thinking skills taught within the book. There is no reason why adolescent literacy cannot also be strengthened if it were taught within the core subjects.

How can literacy instruction be integrated into the curriculum of other subjects?

What can districts do to ban together and mastermind effective statewide standards and data systems to measure and track outcomes?

What role does emotional intelligence play in studentsâ€™ ability to build a strong literacy foundation for cross-curriculum learning?

ARTICLE:

EducationWeek

Published Online: September 15, 2009
Panel Urges Attention to Adolescent Literacy
By Catherine Gewertz

Washington

Leading figures in education policy, academia, and philanthropy called today for a â€œre-engineeringâ€ of the nationâ€™s approach to adolescent literacy, saying nothing short of a â€œliteracy revolutionâ€ is needed to keep students in school and ensure that they are able to learn the complex material that college and careers will demand of them.

The experts gathered to discuss and draw attention to the release of the final report of the Carnegie Corporation of New Yorkâ€™s Council on Advancing Adolescent Literacy, which has spent five years examining the need for better reading and writing skills among students in grades 4 through 12. Vartan Gregorian, the president of the foundation, urged audience members to â€œbe good ancestorsâ€ to future generations by pushing for sound adolescent-literacy policy and practice, given the pivotal role such skills play in young peopleâ€™s lives, and the low level of skill students have shown on national tests.

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