This spring we’re definitely not sitting still at LifeBound. In the next few months we have many new events, trainings, blogs, and more that will reach communities who are dedicated to improving learning opportunities for students, teachers, and professionals. One initiative we’re supporting all summer long is to get more students involved in productive learning activities over the summer months.

Research shows all young people experience learning losses when they do not engage in educational activities during the summer. That’s why LifeBound is offering summer enrichment workshops at Lighthouse Writers Workshop for students in middle school through high school that foster self-awareness, critical thinking, and practical know-how. You can find out more about our week-long workshops for teens at our website. We are also encouraging students to read over the summer with our book display at the Tattered Cover Book Store on Colfax.

Coming up on Wednesday, April 10th, I’m excited to give a keynote to faculty at University of Oklahoma’s First-Year Experience Program. If you’re in the area, the event is free and open to the public. You can find out more at the event website.

Also coming up this month, is our three-day academic coaching training. Academic Coaching is an ongoing partnership to help students produce fulfilling results in their lives. Through the process of coaching, students deepen their learning, take responsibility for their actions, improve their effectiveness, and consciously create their outcomes in life. We conduct trainings for professors, teachers, administrators, and counselors. LifeBound Academic Coaching trainings are available year-round. Learn about our lead trainers, check out upcoming dates, and register for your next coaching session at our coaching website www.lifeboundcoaching.com.

Last but not least, I am now blogging for the Huffington Post under “Impact”.  For the next two months, I will be focusing on remedial students, posting every Tuesday.  Check out my most read article, “Why Aren’t Low Income Students Succeeding in School?” You’ll see some of the best insights include what readers posted in response.  Below is a sample of some of the topics I will be exploring in the future. Let me know in the comments if you have any additional ideas for blog topics.

• “From Trailer Park to Corporate Executive: One Woman’s Path to Personal and Professional Success”
• “Where Are We Struggling With Literacy?”
• “Why And How Are We Struggling with Innumeracy?”
• “Why And How Are We Struggling with Thinking Skills?”
• “Why And How Are We Struggling with Communication?”
• “Pipeline Success for Developmental Students.”

I look forward to sharing more about this eventful season. For inquiries about academic coaching, speaking engagements, summer reading, and anything else, call the LifeBound office at 1-877-737-8510.

As a result of lost manufacturing and outsource jobs, the U.S. needs to look to the future—to new opportunities and growing markets to be able to compete globally, and all indicators point to STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields.

According to research compiled by the Joint Economic Committee Chairman’s Staff in their report, “STEM Education: Preparing for the Jobs of the Future,” technology innovations have fueled the American economy, with some studies crediting over half of our economic growth in the past fifty years coming from improved productivity resulting from innovation. And the trend seems to be continuing. The demand for workers with degrees in the STEM fields is rising and expected to increase according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

However, the U.S. is not producing enough graduates in the fields of math, engineering, computer science, and therefore creating a skill gap. Forbes Magazine published a list “10 Skills that will Get You Hired in 2013” and mathematics was sixth on the list. The need for understanding arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics and the corresponding applications was found in 6 out of the 10 most in-demand jobs now.

So why are we as a nation struggling to impact math achievement when we know what today’s and tomorrow’s economy will demand of future workers, and what an increase in math achievement will provide for all?

As a nation, we must first acknowledge and embrace the changing economy and the demands that will be placed on the next generation of workers. We must educate students and parents about the opportunities that await those who achieve in the fields of math and science, and get more children, especially girls and students of color, into these fields. We must honestly invest in K12 education, attracting teachers to the field who can not only teach math but help bridge the classroom to the real world applications. We must introduce legislation that emphasizes the need for math achievement, rewards the schools getting it right, and provides the financial means to make schools successful in these areas.  And finally, we must continue the fight to make higher education accessible to students.

Children from low-income families tend to fall behind their more affluent peers in every stage of life. They are less likely to be prepared to enter school at age 5, achieve academic and social competencies by the end of elementary schools graduate from high school with good grades, no crime involvement, or teen pregnancy, or achievement equivalent income in their twenties.[i] 

 

Look at all the cognitive elements in the reading comprehension framework and it becomes obvious why students who have minimal access to books and spoken language in the home fall behind. An exposure to language is how students learn to form sentences, understand new words and build vocabulary, and comprehend what is being spoken or read. Without a book or someone to share a book with, a child doesn’t get experience deciphering new words, understanding phonemes, and structuring language.

Though putting a book on a bookcase, understanding that a book is read from left to right, or chewing on a book are deceptively simple steps down the road to literacy when compared to the complexity of reading comprehension skills, literacy is rarely achieved in households that don’t have access to literature. In fact, reading aloud is known to be the most important activity that leads to literacy and determines a student’s reading success through the rest of their life.[ii]

Parent involvement is critical in early childhood development. Before the first school bell rings, 90 percent of brain development has occurred between birth and age 5.[iii] It’s no wonder why children in poverty, who hear as many as 30 million fewer words than their more affluent peers before the age of 4, are kept at a perpetual academic disadvantage. [iv]

According to the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, their research shows 37 percent of children entering kindergarten are not prepared with the skills they need to learn. Research also shows that an academic setback in kindergarten makes it very difficult for students to ever catch up.[v] The quality of a student’s early childhood education is strongly correlated with their high school success.

Email me at caroljcarter@lifebound.com if you are interested in learning more about how you can bring summer learning to your community.

Since the 1980s, more women than men have been attending college. Since 1996, more women have been attending and graduating from college.¹ A study in 2008 found the male to female ratio for attending college was 43.6 and 56.4, respectively. The gender gap in education continues to widen in favor of women, but why?

The 2011 PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study) found a consistent difference between girls’ and boys’ academic achievement in most countries.  Fourth grade girls have a much higher average reading achievement than boys, and their 2011 results continue to show this pattern. In the United States, recent research found that girls had an advantage in reading at all grades, from kindergarten through twelfth grade.  Another study conducted by PISA in 2009 showed that 15-year-old girls performed consistently better in reading than boys.³

In Richard Whitmire’s, “Why Boys Fail,”⁴ he shares the following stats to show the academic gap between boys and girls:

• The average high school grade point average is 3.09 for girls and 2.86 for boys. Boys are almost twice as likely as girls to repeat a grade.
• Boys are twice as likely to get suspended as girls, and three times as likely to be expelled. Estimates of dropouts vary, but it seems that about one-quarter more boys drop out than girls.
• Among whites, women earn 57 percent of bachelor’s degrees and 62 percent of master’s degrees. Among blacks, the figures are 66 percent and 72 percent.
• In federal writing tests, 32 percent of girls are considered “proficient” or better. For boys, the figure is 16 percent.

What is causing boys to fall behind? The most widely acknowledged theory is that the K-12 classroom is more favorable to girls. “The world has gotten more verbal. Boys haven’t,” says Whitmire. He argues that the root cause of boys falling behind at school is that the teaching methods aren’t designed to engage the minds of boys. Boredom is an all too familiar side effect of classroom teaching, which leads to frustration and causes boys to showcase behavioral problems and/or dislike going to school.

“Girls use more words. They are heavy on reading and early literacy and more social cooperation,” says author and behavioral psychologist Anthony Rao in the article, “New UGA Study: Their Classroom Demeanors Give Girls a Boost in Grades Over Boys in Classroom.”^5 The same article also lists that boys commonly display worse behavior than girls, which can cause teachers to assign higher grades to girls over boys.

Is there a remedy for this problem? Is the problem academic, social, emotional, or all of the above?

LifeBound’s books are written with the complex world of students in mind. People Smarts for Teenagers asks students to examine boundaries with their peers, strengthen their emotional intelligence, and prepare them with tools they need to be academically successful. Gifts & Talents for Teenagers helps teens start aligning their interests, passions, and strengths into higher education or career choices. Students need a framework that shows what they do in the classroom has applications in the real world.

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Sources:
¹Why Are Women More Interested in Going to College Than Men?” http://www.good.is/posts/why-are-women-more-interested-in-going-to-college-than-men
²PIRLS 2011 International Results in Reading,” <ahref=”http://timss.bc.edu/pirls2011/downloads/P11_IR_FullBook.pdf”>http://timss.bc.edu/pirls2011/downloads/P11_IR_FullBook.pdf
³ New Reading Standards Aim to Prep Kids for College But at What Cost, “http://www.npr.org/2013/01/19/169798643/new-reading-standards-aim-to-prep-kids-for-college-but-at-what-cost”
⁴“The Boys Have Fallen Behind,”http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/28/opinion/28kristof.html?_r=0

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ccap/2012/02/16/the-male-female-ratio-in-college/

⁵ New UGA Study: Their Classroom Demeanors Give Girls a Boost in Grades Over Boys in Classroom

The ability to write well is meant to evolve naturally from a few simple sentences on a first-grader’s notebook to the polished draft of a senior paper, and when it does the entire school experience tends to proceed naturally as well. In the workforce, good writing is the hallmark of a professional that can express himself clearly and display one’s company/product in an attractive way. This has only become more true in today’s world, where email, text messaging, and social media have taken over many of the communications that used to be performed by phone or in person.

In fact, the changing role of writing in the world today has many teachers wondering how they should adapt their teaching to make it more relevant to today’s writing needs, personally and professionally. Susan Lucille Davis, a writing teacher with over 30 years of experience, expresses this question in her blog, “Teaching Authentic Writing in a Socially Mediated World,” but admits that she herself doesn’t have the whole answer. She and many of her colleagues agree, however, that the answer would need to address and prove relevant towards improving writing in the following categories:

• Text messages to friends/colleagues.
• Captions for photos that express important information.
• Questions that probe and dig for what matters.
• Status updates that share a mood or point of view.
• Comments on interactive websites that continue the conversation.
• Product reviews that are convincing and detailed.
• Emails written with the appropriate tone and length.
• Collaborative documentation online, which requires more than simply dividing the work.
• Tweets that add valuable insight to an online conversation.
• Blogs that allow ideas and information to percolate over time.
• Citizen journalism that is current and relevant.
• Storyboards and scripts for the many different types of videos being made today.
• Proposals to make, do, or change something.
• Process analyses that help examine the way things work.
• Syntheses that help organize disparate resources and media.
• Reflections that share transparently and probe thoughtfully.

This rather daunting list points out a clear gap between traditional writing education and the evolution of writing needs in the world today. At the same time, it makes clear just how important writing skills have become in a world where every individual is a user and a maker, a consumer and a producer. The role of writing has expanded to the point where there’s hardly a place left in American society for someone who isn’t fluent in text.

Recent statistics support this idea. According to various studies cited by Gene A. Budig in his article, “Studies Show the Importance of Writing Skills,” 8 out of 10 parents believe writing is more important now than it was 20 years ago. 86% of teens believe that good writing predicts future success, and 82% express a wish to write better and for teachers to address the topic more in their classrooms. The highest percentage of teens who believed this came from minority and low-income groups.

We don’t need a study to know trends in technology have expanded the role writing plays in our lives. People of all demographics and ages text, instant message, and email every day — many times a day. We’ve hung up on using verbal communication, and turned to the more convenient, efficient, and, arguably, most unsocial mode of communication: writing.

That doesn’t mean we are all better writers for it. We’ve seen the birth of textlish, like LOL, BRB, YOLO, which has become so standard in the English language that it crossed over into verbal communication. Twenty-first century writers come with autocorrect, which knows what you want to say faster than you can type it (sometimes). Social media has unveiled our friends that don’t know the difference between there, their, and they’re. Writing may be more prominent in our daily tasks, but it doesn’t mean the art and craft of writing, critical thinking, grammar or self reflection has become more prominent with it.

It’s clear that literacy is important to America’s future, however, it’s also clear that we should begin to worry about what is to come if literacy scores in the U.S. continues to decrease.

Both the SAT and ACT scores in 2012 show poor reading levels. The SAT showed an average score that was one point lower than last year’s, and the lowest since 1972 (Layton and Brown 1-2). According to college readiness benchmarks in the SAT, only 49% of test takers were ready for critical reading at the college level (College Board 24). Only 57% of grads who took the ACT met their benchmark for reading scores, which is much the same result as last year’s tests; in fact, the average composite score for the ACT hasn’t shown much change at all in either direction since 2008 (ACT, Inc. 1,16). The reason these particular tests are important in evaluating high school graduates is because they’re one of the most important evaluation tools a college uses to determine whether an applicant should be admitted. As such, the tests are widely recognized by colleges as trustworthy in determining whether or not a student is ready for college-level work.

Though these poor results are measurable in the late teens, they find their root in early childhood. A report entitled Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children, which came out in 1998, listed some issues of that time that America is still facing in regards to teaching our young children. They point out first that a large number of our young students have difficulty learning to read, and that this is particularly true for low-income, non-white, or non-English speaking children. These issues are exacerbated by the increasing levels of learning disabilities observed among students today, many of which are directly associated with difficulty learning to read (dyslexia, e.g.). In addition, federal responses to these issues, including investments and programs, often don’t reflect current research regarding reading development and young childhood (Snow, Burns, and Griffin 17-18).

The most basic literacy skills might be sufficient for a workforce that still resembled the industrial era, but tomorrow’s workforce will need more than the ability to read a sign or a menu. Tomorrow’s workers will be expected to collaborate online with individuals who could be on the other side of the globe, adapt to new requirements and learn new skills as fields rapidly shift and change, and keep up with an increasingly hyper-connected world, not to mention graduate from high school and earn a certificate or degree.

We must make literacy a priority in our schools, homes, and community. We need more out-of-school resources for the students who don’t get their needs met during the school day. We need more parents reading and speaking to their children from the day they are born. We need the community to step in and provide free learning opportunities in order to give underprivileged students the same learning opportunities as their more affluent peers.

We all can make a a difference. Sign up to read to young children at the library, donate books to a school, mentor a child, or start a summer learning initiative.

• 60% of America’s prison inmates are functionally illiterate and 85% of all juvenile offenders have reading problems.
• Approximately 50% of the nation’s unemployed youth age 16-21 are functionally illiterate, with virtually no prospects of obtaining good jobs.
• 55% of adults with below basic reading comprehension did not graduate high school.1

When we talk about improving student achievement in America, the conversation is usually about improving learning conditions for low-income students. While it’s valid that many low-income students do not receive the same education opportunities as their affluent peers, a new report by the Bush Institute finds that all American students are at risk when weighed against other developed countries.

The Bush Institute’s interactive map allows you to drill down to your state, county, and district to see your district’s scores and compare them to high-achieving countries. What’s unique about this interactive map is that it doesn’t just show that other countries have higher achievement rates, it adjusts your district’s reading and math score as if your district was “dropped into” one of the high achieving countries. For example, students in Denver Public Schools are in the 46th percentile in math and the 74th percentile in reading. However, if these students were dropped into Finland, they would be in the 32nd percentile in math and the 63rd percentile in reading.

What conclusions can be drawn from the reports findings?

Even though students in affluent school districts had higher achievement rates than low-income students in the U.S., they still don’t stand up to students in other developed countries. American students — all American students — must receive a better education to be competitive in the global workforce. The demand for employees in the U.S. with high-level skills is quickly growing, and if we aren’t preparing students with the education and skills to fill these jobs, someone else will fill them. In fact, today 70 percent of the engineers who graduate from U.S. universities are foreign-born, according to the article “How Does Your Child’s School Rank Against the Rest of the World?”

The demands of American students and professionals are changing. We must look to the rest of the world and ask ourselves if we can afford not to update our archaic K12 school system, get more students in higher education, and prepare our graduates with skills that will land them a job.

Use the interactive map at the Atlantic to see how your district stacks up to the rest of the world, by clicking on the image below.

The achievement gap is not an invisible problem. It is one that we can see and one that can be eliminated if we take action. Every summer underprivileged students who don’t have the means for learning resources or experiences will get set behind their more affluent peers. They also are more likely to return to a home environment every day that is not conducive to learning. Low-income families may have illiterate parents, no or limited access to technology, and a lack of literature — all influences that keep the poverty cycle going and the achievement gap strong.

Second and third-grade teacher Justin Minkel teaches to a class of 25 students, 24 of which are at the poverty level and 20 are English language learners. He recently wrote an article for Education Week where he uses his student, Melinda, as an example of how books can change a student’s life. Melinda had one book at home, was abused as a very young child, lives in poverty, and has a mother who is illiterate in English and Spanish. Today, thanks to Minkel, she has a library of 40 books. Over the last two years, she’s also gone from a kindergarten reading level to a 4th grade reading level.

Minkel attacked illiteracy in his classroom with “The 1,000 Books Project.” Each of the 25 students in his 2nd and 3rd grade classes received 3 books a month, which by the end of their two years created a library of 40 books in each student’s home, or 1,000 books in total. Scholastic took care of half the books and Minkel, alongside individuals and organizations, purchased the other half.

He calls his project “simple.” Children had home libraries “ranging from a cardboard box decorated with stickers to a wooden bookcase.” Supplies also only cost $50 per child per year. The results, however, were extraordinary. Students’ language skills improved, their reading scores soared above state expectations, and members of their families became more literate by association.

At LifeBound, we believe providing students with learning resources is key to closing the achievement gap and are working with our partners this summer to bring books to those in need. At La Casa/Quigg Newton Family Center, families are getting our book Study Skills for High School Students to be read by middle school and high school students alongside their parents. Including parents in the learning experience opens up many more opportunities for each family’s future. LifeBound is also launching a summer reading program with the Omaha Public Library this summer to get books in the hands of  1,000 students who otherwise will approach a summer without learning resources that keep their brains engaged and ready to start the next school year strong.

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Sources

“The Home Library Effect: Transforming At-Risk Readers,” by Justin Minkel. 12 June 2012. Education Week. Accessed on 14 June 2012. http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2012/06/12/tln_minkel.html?tkn=RNCCFBZesMUu%2FHLFXuXie61FaxwpDAC5G9Cd&cmp=clp-sb-ascd