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

Re-Connecting our Youth Conference Calls Scheduled

Fri, 08 Sep 2006 08:34:04 -0500

Join YTFG�s Safe Passage Conference Calls
The Youth Transition Funders Group is hosting two conference calls this fall to share how funders and communities are working together to help all of America s youth connect by age 25. Panelists will discuss pathways to college and careers, reform and alternatives to incarceration, and programs that help youth become financially independent after foster care .

Who's Raining on Your Fourth of July Parade?

Mon, 03 Jul 2006 09:46:15 -0500

Are you going to the Fourth of July parade? Well, Congress has already rained on it. Here's how:

As of July 1 students starting out for college, and many of those still paying off those college loans, will have to pay much higher interest rates, thanks to the budget deal Congress made to cut spending for student aid while expanding tax cuts for investments.

Holding Them to a Funding Promise

Wed, 21 Jun 2006 08:35:04 -0500

The National PTA is urging Sen. Thad Cochran, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee to uphold the promise they made in March to direct $7.1 billion above the president's budget request to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education.

"Soft bigotry" vs hard numbers

Mon, 12 Jun 2006 11:07:12 -0500

The No Child Left Behind law is supposed to address "the soft bigotry of low expectations," by holding schools and teachers accountable for teaching all children, regardless of their race, home language, learning style, gender, economic status, etc.

Off-balance and on-task

Mon, 05 Jun 2006 12:04:19 -0500

A high school math teacher in Florida has discovered that uncertainty is a great motivator for students.

According to a story in eSchool News online, teacher Paige Allison, who is also a University of Florida graduate student in educational anthropology (latest entry in my list of "majors I never knew existed"), came across this new technique for keeping students on their toes while researching another question: how to avoid calling on certain students, or types of students, more often than others.

Middle school - still the "Bermuda Triangle" of education

Tue, 30 May 2006 15:09:20 -0500

As a parent, I will be breathing a big sigh of relief in a couple of weeks when my older son leaves middle school behind. And the parents of his classmates tell me they will be doing the same. I'm almost expecting that the entire neighborhood will feel the breeze emanating from the middle school auditorium next Wednesday when the whole ordeal finally ends for the lucky 8th graders and their parents.

A college for every kid

Tue, 23 May 2006 14:43:18 -0500

When I was applying to college three long decades ago, it seemed like there was a relative handful of schools that most students at my high school applied to. It was a list that was heavy on the Ivies, heavy on the liberal arts, and sprinkled with "safeties" that included some state schools and small single-sex institutions.

"Empty gesture" could prove full of meaning

Mon, 15 May 2006 12:08:20 -0500

Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi delivered a sharp lesson this week to the students of Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Ill. -- which was, being right is no guarantee you'll be treated right.

E-mail, already old-school

Wed, 03 May 2006 12:50:20 -0500

Recently, I've seen a few widening cracks in the stubborn resistance of many teachers I know to the use of electronic communications technology. One in particular, who used to almost boast of her inability to send, receive, open or otherwise connect with e-mail, now is in regular touch through her school-based e-mail account.

In Nebraska, Trading (Theoretical) Integration for (Potential) Empowerment?

Mon, 17 Apr 2006 14:51:47 -0500

So it's come to this.

Omaha's troubled urban school district is now poised, with the blessing of Nebraska's legislature and governor, to divide itself into three separate districts -- one mostly black, one mostly hispanic, and one mostly white. And the man behind it is the state's one-and-only black lawmaker, State Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha.

Michigan adds an "O" to the three "R's"

Mon, 03 Apr 2006 12:22:28 -0500

Does anyone else remember learning "Basic" in grade school? I can't recall any details about it, except that x equalled just about everything, but what I do remember is that it was a powerful lesson in the extreme literal-mindedness of the computer "brain." Even the tiniest typo could result in a complete breakdown of the poor machine, a mini-version of that great scene in the Hepburn-Tracy comedy "Desk Set" when the fact-checking computer starts spewing cards and smoke.

Pre-K to Three: Everything Old is New Again

Wed, 29 Mar 2006 10:52:31 -0600

There used to be an aging wooden sign outside my kids' elementary school. It identified the school as an "Early Primary School, Pre-K through Grade 3". Since the school actually goes through Grade 5, and had done so for years before my eldest enrolled, I saw the sign as one of the more benign examples of a school district not quite up to its task. Since then, the sign has rotted away and been removed.

Is it time to spread SEED?

Wed, 22 Mar 2006 13:35:47 -0600

Last year, I paid a visit to the SEED public charter school here in Washington, DC.

SEED is the only publicly-funded urban boarding school in the nation. It starts in grade X, is co-ed, and serves a very low-income, very academically needy bunch of about 320 kids in grades 7 through 12 -- virtually all of them minorities. Started by Eric Adler and Rajiv Vinnakota, the school boasts a lovely campus, two dormitories (one for boys, one for girls), a pleasant gymnasium and cafeteria, a spacious well-stocked library.

New Twist on March Madness

Thu, 16 Mar 2006 09:02:19 -0600

Okay, I admit it -- I really love this time of year. There's something about the sounds of a leather ball bouncing on a hardwood floor and that sweet swish when a shot kisses the net that makes me lose focus on just about everything but basketball. It's March Madness -- when college basketball takes center stage.

Good Enough for the Military?

Mon, 20 Mar 2006 14:39:03 -0600

Right after World War II Congress created the National School Lunch Program as a �measure of national security.� It was a direct response to the fact that many of the young men responding to the World War II draft were rejected due to conditions arising from serious nutritional deficiencies.