Connect for Kids / Child Advocacy 360 / Youth Policy Action Center - Education

Creativity Transcending Boundaries: the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards 2008

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 14:12:14 -0500

Get the scoop in the 2008 contest and listen to a special CFK podcast with Bryan Doerries, program director of Alliance for Young Artists and Writers, which administers the Scholastic Art and Writing Award, and two of the high school students who took top honors in photography.

CFK Top Pick - Cultivating a Natural Resource: Youth as Change Agents

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 12:46:26 -0500

Hampton, Virginia, a 400-year old city once dubbed “Crabtown” for its abundant seafood, has an exciting new natural resource: youth as change agents. In April 2007, 40 community leaders from coast to coast gathered there for an “Innovations Site Visit” to learn more about the city’s award-winning, holistic model for youth civic engagement.

Parents Design L.A. Parent Involvement Model

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:28:49 -0500

In 2009, the Los Angeles Unified School District launched a new model for parent involvement that specifically addresses the needs of "parents of color with kids who struggle in urban schools." It's designed by and for parents to improve learning and connection to schools. Get the story.

College Mental Health: A Different Diagnosis

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:12:13 -0500

Students' struggles with college mental health services are leading to some important changes, as WireTap's Annie Robinson reports.

10 Elements of a Successful High School

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 14:19:43 -0500

Drawing from the work of leading researchers and educators from around the country, the Alliance for Excellent Education has identified ten key elements that every high school should have in place to ensure that all its students are successful.

Exploring Quality Choices: Vouchers

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 11:38:27 -0500

This publication presents an in-depth look at Annie E. Casey Foundation's investment in the Washington, DC voucher
effort and summarizes results and lessons learned so far. It also includes stories about the

Creating Quality Choices: Charters

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 11:35:51 -0500

This publication provides an overview of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s investments in chartering along
with selected results and lessons learned. It also presents stories about two successful charter

Graduation Rates: Real Kids, Real Numbers

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 10:27:18 -0500

During the past year, we have repeatedly heard that the nation's public schools are facing a high school completion crisis. My research at the Urban Institute, for example, reveals an overall graduation rate of 68 percent.

Vibrant Neighborhoods, Successful Schools: What the Federal Government Can Do to Foster Both

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 08:52:29 -0500

Every parent recognizes the inextricable connections between where we live and the quality of our children's education. Although public policies have historically contributed to disparities in both neighborhood affordability and school quality, federal programs focused on affordable housing rarely take public schools into account and school officials typically assume that they have no influence over housing patterns.

The Narrowing Gap in New York City Teacher Qualifications and Implications for Student Achievement in High-Poverty Schools

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 15:18:48 -0500

This important research explores the effects of district policy interventions on the distribution of teacher qualifications and student achievement. Authors use a 5-year span of individual teacher- and student-level longitudinal data from New York City (NYC) from 2000 through 2005 to estimate the differences in the effectiveness of teachers entering NYC schools through different pathways to teaching.

Assessing the Potential of Using Value Added-Estimates of Teacher Job Performance for Making Tenure Decisions

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 15:12:59 -0500

Using individual teacher and student-level longitudinal data from North Carolina, this research brief presents selected findings from work examining the stability of value-added model estimates of teacher effectiveness, focusing on their implication for teacher tenure policies and making high stakes personnel decisions.

A Detailed Picture of Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:58:17 -0500

Using data from the Health and Retirement Study, we consider how parental education relates to four outcomes in the children's generation: education, lifetime earnings, health, and wealth. By focusing on parents' and children's ranks, we characterize relative mobility in terms of distributions of outcomes and can see patterns that even a relatively disaggregated analysis, like a quintile-based transition matrix, can obscure.

Promoting Economic Mobility By Increasing Postsecondary Education

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:28:34 -0500

A college education strongly affects whether or not children from poor or low-income families move up the economic ladder when they become adults. But they are less likely to enroll in either two- or four-year colleges, and less likely to complete a degree when they do, relative to those from middle- and upper-income families — even after accounting for differences in academic preparation.

The Student Loan Scam

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 11:29:09 -0500

The federal college loan program that pays private lenders a generous subsidy to make loans that are guaranteed by the government is an enormous waste of money thathas long served more to enrich lenders than to help students. A bill introduced by Representative George Miller, a Democrat of California, would end the unnecessary private lending subsidies and plow the savings into important education programs. The bill, for example, devotes $40 billion to the all-important Pell grant program, which has allowed millions of poor and working-class students to attend college.

Neighborhood Factors Influence Youth Participation in Programs

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:37:21 -0500

A new Child Trends brief finds that youth who have not participated in out-of-school time programs are significantly more likely than are their participating peers to live in an unsupportive neighborhood; to spend more than two hours a day watching TV or playing video games; and to have parents who are in poor health, who don't exercise, and who have less than a high school education.