CFK Update: October 7, 2009

We often say that "children are our future" but our recent history seems to indicate that, as a nation, we're content to wait for that future to just happen -- without allocating more than a tenth of the federal domestic budget to help nurture, educate, and feed children during the course of their childhood and youth.

The latest Census poverty figures show that child poverty rates were too high even before the recession [13]. And the Economic Policy Institute documents the ways in which recessions can have long-lasting effects on families and their children [14], from forcing families to cut back on health care, summer and after-school activities and college plans to threatening housing stability and nutritious meals.

The federal government responded to the current economic crisis with a stimulus plan (ARRA) that did boost spending on children [15] but over the last five years, the children's share of the yearly federal budget [16] has declined to about 10 percent of all domestic spending.

When will children finally get their due?

In the spring, the Obama administration's budget proposal set spending and tax policies that would begin to make a u-turn [17] in the downward curve in federal investments in education, health care and social supports for children and youth. The Congressional budget blueprint followed suit.

Until Congress completes its work on actual appropriations, however, we won't know if there are really any u-turns for kids in the near future.

All the more reason to keep working for kids, everyone!

Jan Richter, editor emeritus
jan@connectforkids.org [18]

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CFK gathers, synthesizes and promotes the best news, research, and stories from the child and youth field. To suggest content, email weekly@connectforkids.org [19].

New on Connect for Kids

Middle School Youth Lead the Way: Creating Pathways to Leadership in After-School Programs [20]

[21]by Sarah Zeller-Berkman, Youth Development Institute

Middle school is a critical period of vulnerability -- and opportunity. Here's how one New York-based Beacons out-of-school time program is successfully engaging young people from age 9 through 21 in a deliberate pathway from participant to "professional" and preparing them for success in high school and beyond. Third in the CFK series, Tips for Engaging Adolescents.

One More Time: Don't Pit Preschoolers Against Teens [22]
By Karen Pittman, the Forum for Youth Investment
KP IMAGE

[23]
In her latest Youth Today column, Karen Pittman writes, "Clearly there is a value in investing in preparation and prevention versus waiting to intervene further down the road... But [it's] wrongheaded and dangerous to equate prevention with early childhood and intervention with teens. We need to make sustained investments in the 'cognitive, social and emotional' development of all children."

...and don't forget, CFK is merging with the Youth Policy Action Center and National Youth Development Information Center to bring you SparkAction: for children, for youth, for change later this fall.

Stay tuned!

[24]America's Giving Challenge Launches Today!

30 days... $50,000 for Your Cause [25]
Your organization can use the power of social media to win awards of up to $50,000! America's Giving Challenge is a 30-day national competition open to anyone who wants to make a difference for a cause they care most about. It's sponsored by the Case Foundation, in partnership with Causes on Facebook and PARADE. Take the challenge now!

[26]

Boosting Student Success

Help Early Learning Teachers Cope with Difficult Behaviors [27]

Negative, disruptive behaviors interrupt learning. With training, staff can channel curiosity and energy and support positive emotional development and behaviors. This MDRC study says staff were able to free up instructional time and create a positive learning environment for low-income children in early learning centers in Newark, New Jersey.

State Test Score Trends Show Narrowing Gaps [28]

The Center on Education Policy reports that in many states, low-performing students have raised their test scores to narrow the gap with high-performing students, although the gaps are still large. Across subgroups and states, there was more progress in closing gaps at the elementary and middle school levels than at the high school level.

[29]Raising Rigor, Getting Results: Lessons Learned from AP Expansion [30]
The National Governors Association reports states can narrow the achievement gap between low and higher-income students by expanding student participation and success in advanced placement courses. Key to several states' success was a comprehensive approach combining an expansion of access, building teacher and student capacity and incentives for schools and students.

[31]Use Student Achievement Data to Improve Instruction [32]
We put kids through a lot of testing these days. Why not make use of the data to improve how we teach? This Education Department Practice Guide offers recommendations and examples on how to use data to improve teaching and learning and even help students themselves develop goals for future learning.

Strengthening Accountability to Ensure Latino Success [33]

In an analysis of the latest Title I regulations finalized by the Education Department, National Council of La Raza (NCLR) says the new rules improve regulations on measuring graduation rates and ensuring tutoring services for Latino students required by the law, but they don't do go far enough. NCLR will work on improvements in the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

PTA Can Stand for Parents as Turn-around Artists [34]
Read an interview with school visionary Ricardo Esparza describing the disconnect between parents, educators and students, and how he successfully changed all that at Granger High School. From Public School Insights.org.

October's Ed Webinars

The Education Department's What Works Clearinghouse is offering a webinar at 3 pm EST on October 8 to review its Practice Guide on helping students navigate a path to college [35]. Register by email.

E-school News is offering a free webinar Managing School IT Systems without Going Crazy [36] on October 13 at 2 pm EST.

Newsflash: Carnegie Foundation Hires Head for Community College Math Initiative [37]
Bernadine Chuck Fong has been named to lead a new community college initiative designed to improve the extraordinarily high failure rates among students in developmental mathematics in community colleges. For more information, contact Gay Clyburn [38].

Improving Health Care

IT Out of Reach for Community Centers? [39]

Community safety-nets and health centers could use federal stimulus money to shift to high-tech record keeping, but the start-up costs may be too much -- even with ARRA money.

[40]Health Coverage in Communities of Color [41]

Families USA analyzes the latest census numbers to show the importance of public health insurance programs for covering families of color, who are more likely to have low-wage jobs with no insurance benefits.

! Families USA has also updated its state health pages [42], offering information on state contacts, fact sheets and sign-ups for state health news.

The Buzz on Charter Schools

A diversion from improving all public schools or a model for success? A flash in the pan or an approach that can be brought to scale? The debate over charter schools continues, as states consider lifting the limits on their growth.

NGA Outlines How to Bring Promise of Charter Schools to Scale [43]
Today more than 1.2 million students attend the more than 4,300 charter schools established since the first state charter law was enacted in 1991. The National Governors' Association outlines how states can support efforts to replicate the kinds of charters that have been most successful.

The Data on Charter Schools: Both Sides Now
A CFK Synthesis
A story reported by New York public radio station WNYC [44] sounds promising: In New York City, students randomly selected to attend charter schools outperformed those who did not, closing the achievement gap between rich and poor.
COVER

[45]
Go back to the original Stanford University research report [46] and you find a slightly different story. This first national assessment finds that 17 percent of charter schools provide superior education opportunities for their students, but nearly half of the charter schools nationwide have results that are no different from the local public schools and more than one-third fare significantly worse. Except in a few states, students in general did worse in charter schools, but poverty-stricken students and English language learners did better. Thus, the issue is not charter schools per se, but quality.

Also:
In Charter School Express [47], EdWeek summarizes recent research, notes the red flags and urges caution on lifting the state limits on expanding charter schools.

Last week, the libertarian Cato Institute held a discussion and launch of a new book on bringing charter schools to scale: America's Top Models: Can the Nation's Best Charter Schools Be Brought to Scale? [48] Audio of the event will be available online in the next couple of weeks.

Action Steps for Kids

Learn and Serve Challenge Kicks Off Oct. 5-12 [49]

Kicking off with a national call to action for schools, college campuses and youth-serving organizations to engage significant numbers of young people in service-learning activities during the 2009-2010 school year, service-learning advocates around the country will be hosting special events and community outreach activit.ies designed to raise awareness and build support for service-learning this week (Oct. 5-12).

Learn How to Help Low-Wage Families Access Expanded Tax Credits [50]
Expanded tax credits can mean thousands of dollars for low-income families. The National Women's Law Center is offering a free seminar on Oct. 20 and Nov. 10 to train staff and volunteers on how families can access EITC and other tax credits.
WORKFAM

October is National Work and Families Month...
This event [51]offers a chance to focus on work-life balance issues. Check out Corporate Voices for Working Families toolkit on workplace flexibility [52]!

... and time to Bridge the Gap [53]
The National Human Services Assembly has launched the Bridging the Gap initiative to train community allies to reach out to low-income workers and make sure they know about tax credits, health coverage and other benefits for which they are eligible.

Make Time for Change [54]
[55]Not sure how to spend that extra hour you're getting when the clocks turn back on November 1? Here's an idea: donate it to help out vulnerable children in your community. For every pledge of time made, Frigidaire will donate $11 to support CHANGE and Save the Children's work to help children in need in the U.S.

Celebrate Arts Education Month - Share Your Story [56]

[57]It is important to have good data, but the personal story is often what moves people to take action. The Center for Arts Education asks you to tell them your story to share how music, art or dance has made a personal impact on your child's learning.

At Work in Washington, DC

Youth Councils Network Heads to DC
Representatives from Youth Councils across the country will brief Congress on their experiences and policy recommendations at a special Congressional briefing on October 26. Get more details [58], plan to attend and spread the word!

[59]Children's Budget Finds Children Losing Out in Federal Funding [60]
When you talk politics with your neighbors, consider this: The Children's Budget 2009 finds that while the federal stimulus package boosted spending on children, this change in trends was not reflected in the federal budget overall.

Keeping Track of Health Care Reform
The Coalition on Human Needs has a good summary on what did and what did not pass among the many child-relevant amendments to the Senate Finance Committee health care reform bill [61]. There was good news for maintaining mental health services for foster youth, keeping barriers to care low for legal immigrant families and streamlining CHIP enrollment procedures.

The original Senate Finance Committee bill would have ended CHIP and sent CHIP enrollees to buy insurance in the exchange of private insurance programs for the uninsured, but the committee approved a Rockefeller amendment that restored CHIP to its original schedule [62], leaving the children's insurance program set to expire in 2013.

The Senate Finance Committee is expected to approve its bill this week.

Appropriations for FY 2010
The federal government's new fiscal year began with a continuing resolution [63] to keep federal dollars flowing while Congress continues to work on the 12 different appropriations bills needed to finalize funding for all federal programs for FY 2010.

Meanwhile the New York Times reports that the Obama administration is considering ways to soften the blow of persistent job losses [64] for affected families.

Hearings: October 8
The Income Security and Family Support Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee is holding a hearing on how well unemployment insurance, food stamps, TANF and other safety-net programs are coping with the demands of the recession [65].

The Healthy Families and Communities Subcommittee of the House Education and Labor Committee holds a hearing on innovative practices to improve child nutrition [66].

ESEA Up for Reauthorization
Education Department Secretary Duncan [67] wants no delay in reauthorizing ESEA (the Elementary and Secondary Education Act), the major legislation that sends federal dollars, and the strings attached, to states and schools across the country. Public listening sessions [68] are being held in the next few weeks.

Supreme Court to Hear Cases on Life Sentences for Teen Crimes [69]
October 5 was the first day of the new year for the Supreme Court. Among the cases before the Court this year is a case regarding life sentences given to teens for non-capital crimes. Do such sentences constitute "cruel and unusual" punishment?

Hard Times Can Be Long-Lasting

Recovery Beginning but Hard Times Not Yet Ending [70]
The latest unemployment rates were disappointingly high in September, with nonfarm payroll jobs continuing to decline and unemployment climbing, according to the latest figures from the Labor Department. Teen unemployment remained higher than for any other group cited, at over 25 percent.

Despite the bad news, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says the numbers could have been far worse without the federal stimulus package [71].

The recession came when times were already tough for a substantial number of families. Last month's Census figures showed many states experienced higher child poverty rates [72], even in the months before the recession hit, says the Coalition on Human Needs.

Improving Opportunities for Young People
Noting the disproportionately high unemployment rates for teens and young people, the House Education and Labor Committee held a hearing on improving opportunities for young people on October 1 [73].

Matt Segal, representing millions of "generation millennium" youth, outlined goals for his generation [74] - Increasing entrepreneurial services, creating jobs that tap young talents including public service jobs and reducing debt burdens for college-educated youth -- in testimony before the Committee. He urged Congress to step up to the plate by providing need-based paid internships in every Congressional office.

Recessions Can Scar Children's Futures [75]
The Economic Policy Institute finds that recessions can cause more than temporary hardships for families. Some effects on families and their children are long-lasting. Unemployment and income losses reduce parents' abilities to provide healthy meals, adequate health care, summer and after-school activities and stable housing for their children, and often force families to delay or abandon college plans, all of which can put children's futures at greater risk.

Caitlin Johnson and Thaddeus Ferber
Connect for Kids and the Forum for Youth Investment