Could developing a kids’ thinking and behavioral skills cut crime among youth?

It’s a very good possibility, found a new study from the University of Chicago’s Crime Lab. In the study, about 1400 kids in 7th through 10th grade from high-crime neighborhoods in Chicago were chosen to participate in the 30-week program Becoming A Man. A similar group was tracked who did not go through the course. Researchers found students who had been through the Becoming A Man program were 44% less likely to have been arrested by the end of the year.

The program uses Cognitive Behavior Therapy, which “aims to get people to think about the way they think, and to recognize unconscious patterns of thought that produce unhappy life outcomes,” according to NPR.  One activity the participants had to do began with the group dividing into teams of two. One kid had a ball and it was the job of the other teammate to get the ball from him. Fighting ensued, and the program leader stopped them and asked why not one of them just asked their teammate for the ball. The kids trying to get the ball thought it would show weakness. When the teammate with the ball was asked what they would have done if they would have been asked for the ball, they said they would have given it to their teammate. This activity helped students see that their perception of what the other person in a confrontation is thinking can often be “falsely imagined.”

Read the full story, “Therapy Helps Troubled Teens Rethink Crime,” at NPR.

Critical thinking, social, and emotional skills are just as important as academic skills for success in school, professional, and personal life. My books Critical & Creative Thinking for Teenagers and People Smarts for Teenagers are perfect for teens to learn critical thinking skills for school, home, and life. If you are interested in learning more about how these books can be used for a summer reading program or enrichment class at your school, contact me at caroljcarter@lifebound.com

When you visualize the 21^st century classroom, what do you see? A smartboard on the front wall, iPads in every student’s hands, individualized learning programs on the computer, setting the pace of a lesson while a teacher stands by for questions…

Some classrooms have moved into the digital age, however, the 21^st century classroom is more commonly described as overcrowded and underfunded. The student demographic is diverse with disabled, gifted, English language, impoverished, and enriched learners. Teachers are faced with having to teach to all levels of the classroom, and due to lack of time, resources, and bandwidth, they teach to the students in the middle; often leaving those who are falling behind behind and those who are gifted unchallenged.

In 1983, the National Commission on Excellence in Education released the report “A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform” inspired by “a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people.”[i] This report, though controversial, did bring to light educational issues we are still fighting today.

The following are some noteworthy statistics from the 1983 report:

• · Functional illiteracy among minority youth may run as high as 40 percent.
• · The number and proportion of students demonstrating superior achievement on the SATs have dramatically declined.
• · Many 17-year-olds do not possess the “higher order” intellectual skills we should expect from them.
• · There was a steady decline in science achievement scores of the U.S. 17-year-olds as measured by national assessments of science in 1969, 1973, and 1977.
• · Between 1975 and 1980, remedial mathematics courses in public 4-year colleges increased by 72 percent.
• · Too many teachers are being drawn from the bottom quarter of graduating high school and college students.

Sound familiar? Three decades later, minorities are trending toward becoming the majority, while the achievement gap continues to grow; college students are graduating with weak critical thinking skills; students’ competency in STEM subjects aren’t keeping up with the amount of job openings in STEM fields; and teachers are now said to come from the bottom one-third of their class.[ii]

[i] “A Nation at Risk” By The National Commission on Excellence in Education

[ii] “Achievement Gap” http://www.edweek.org/ew/issues/achievement-gap/

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

What could cause a student to go from Student of the Month one year to nearly failing the next? Family problems, class size, social changes, and a more challenging workload could all be indicators of a rough academic year. For Shania, a third grade student at P.S. 148 in New York who was profiled in a recent Huffington Post article, a combination of these factors brought her grades so low she came close to repeating the third grade.  She is not alone, especially among low-income, urban, and rural students in the United States.

Budget Cuts Lead to Overcrowding in Public Schools

The biggest problem for teachers and students like those at P.S. 148 is familiar in public schools across much of the U.S.  Budget cuts have led to less teachers and larger classroom sizes. Students are receiving less one-on-one time from teachers to assist them with their academics and teachers have less time to stay informed on changes in students’ personal lives that could be affecting their academic lives.  This onerous situation is taxing to teachers and leaves little, if any time, to work on grading papers, giving students specific feedback and planning for effective class facilitation where students can be involved in dynamic participation.

The National Education Association found there were the same number of education jobs in April 2005 as there are today. However, there are 300,000 more students, according to the article. That number is staggering and has implications for our economy in both the short and long run.

Creative Solutions for Overcrowded Public Schools and the Community 

If school—students, teachers, parents and administrators—are to be effective given the current budget climate, we need a community-based model for education. In that model, the Public Library and the Housing Projects need to be the places where enrichment classes for students are held, tutors are available, and after school and evening mentor programs can thrive. During the summer, these same students need to be in measured and meaningful summer reading programs and classes like the ones LifeBound is conducting this summer in Omaha, Colorado Springs, and Denver. We need to support parents to provide enrichment classes for them on topics like how to set up a culture of learning in your home, how to advocate for your child so that they can learn to advocate for themselves, how to be a coach for your child, etc. These initiatives, along with the leadership from people like the physicians and staff at La Casa/Quigg Newton low-income clinic in Denver, promote reading and literacy with all family members with parents as positive role models.

Are these measures likely to turn around this situation in the short run?  No, but we can in the short run mobilize the strength of our communities in ways that will provide more advantages to low-income students, their families, and their teachers. If we enact these partnerships now, we can work over the next few years to get class sizes back to a reasonable level while still promoting the gifts, talents, and abilities of every student learning in a packed classroom today.

ACT Inc. just announced they are developing new assessments aimed at students between 3rd and 10th grade to test their college and career readiness skills. Many states are pushing for more students to leave school with the skills they need to succeed in college and career and ACT believes their new series, to be launched in 2014, will be the answer.

The New ACT College and Career Readiness Series 

The new ACT college and career readiness series will largely be available in a digital format to offer students and teachers instant feedback, with the option to take a written test for schools that don’t have access to technology. Tests will include multiple-choice, open-response, and interactive questions that will be analyzed to learn more about students’ strengths and weaknesses.

States are right. Schools need to incorporate college and career readiness curricula in tandem with students’ academics to help them make an early connection between high school and college; an education and a career; and their strengths, interests and goals for the future. LifeBound books like Gifts and Talents, People Smarts, and Making the Most of High School encourage students from middle school to high school to search for their interests and passions so they can become more connected with their peers, their schoolwork, and themselves, as well as develop critical thinking skills and social and emotional intelligence. ACT wants to teach to the “whole” child, however, part of the self-discovery process that prepares students for college and career is in the doing, not the  testing.

Students can take assessments that help them evaluate what they are good at and the professions that align with their strengths. However, learning about a career and being ready for a career path are two different things. Last year, an unprecedented study found 45% of college students didn’t learn critical thinking skills over four years in college. Giving students another test to take, whether or not it’s directed at college and career readiness, will not exercise the critical thinking skills they need to be successful in their college or career years. So, while we applaud the need to have a greater emphasis on career exploration, we encourage the ACT and all who look thoughtfully at this issue to provide a more expansive way to look at self, options, and the people who can help students learn about themselves through the lens of experiences they have had through fields of study and actual workplace contributions.

Experiential learning is key for students to explore college and career interests, develop critical thinking skills to deal with real-world problems, and assess both their strengths and weaknesses. In college, “success” is defined by much more than what students know. Students are graded on what they know how to do. This learning happens by doing their coursework, getting an internship, making valuable connections, and becoming involved with people who can be of help in the discovery process. Professionals are also evaluated on what they know how to do, not just on what they know. This learning happens in the field and out of the classroom. It is where risk meet reward to create opportunity.

College and Career Success Is Not a Formula

Let’s help students early and often to develop critical thinking skills, self-awareness, a knowledge of strengths, weaknesses and interests and a curiosity that can help them to negotiate any unknown in their learning, professional or personal.  Let’s use technology, reading, and advocacy groups which students can form themselves; role models who can guide and inspire; informed and aware teachers and counselors all of which provide the network students need to ignite genuine passion. That motivation can propel students in the most purposeful and effective way no matter what career they may decide to pursue.

Success is not a formula, but an awareness. Let’s promote awareness over yet another quick-fix recipe so that we can broadly, not narrowly, help students to understand themselves, their options, and the paths which make sense for them to pursue their goal. For the informed, self-directed and inspired student who is given the gift of space and time to consider these options, the career paths and opportunities are limitless.

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Sources

“ACT to Roll Out Career and College Readiness Tests for 3rd-10th Grades” by Caralee Adams. 2 July 2012. Education Week. Accessed on 9 July. http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/college_bound/2012/07/act_plans_to_roll_out_career_and_college_readiness_tests_for_3rd-10th_grades.html

“Study: Many college students not learning to think critically,” by Sara Rimer. 18 July 2012. The Hechinger Report. Accessed on 9 July 2012. http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/01/18/106949/study-many-college-students-not.html#storylink=cpy

Summer learning losses are a real threat to all students entering the summer months. Providing kids with educational games, activities, materials, and experiences during their summer vacation is crucial in retaining information learned during the school year and preparing them for the transition into next year.

For low-income kids, the oncoming summer vacation can bring forth different feelings than it does for privileged students. Due to a lack of accessibility, availability, and financial resources, low-income students often don’t have equal summer learning opportunities as privileged students, which contributes to increased summer learning losses and puts them at a disadvantage at the start of each new school year. Some of these students care for younger siblings all summer. Others play the role of parent to parents who may struggle with addiction or other issues. Others are in foster families or are raised by a grandparent because their parents are in prison or not fit to raise them.

This year, teen unemployment rates are soaring between 23.2 – 23.8 percent ¹, which may prove to be even more problematic for low-income teens looking to work more hours to contribute to the family, make money for the upcoming school year, or to simply keep busy and off the street.

Many communities offer a number of ways for students to learn and grow this summer.  In some cities, like Denver, La Casa/Quigg Newton Medical Facility is promoting reading by distributing LifeBound books to parents and students who are their patients.  Many of these Spanish speaking patients are encouraged to read with their kids, improving both their English language skills and their overall literacy. Public libraries are reinventing themselves as well. The Omaha Public Library is running a youth program for more than 1700 students including some programs for parents. Housing Projects, which have been hit hard by a dip in federal funds for GED, computer skills, and financial literacy classes, are discovering new ways to promote reading and learning.

Beyond these initiatives, parents, and students can use the following ideas to make a summer activity schedule. Educators who work in low-income area can use the following ideas to generate a specific list of things to do in their students’ area during the summer months that keep them active, learning, and growing in diverse and challenging ways:

The classroom bully is not a new character, but technology has given the bully new shape. The Internet and the accessibility of handheld devices for younger and younger kids has afforded the bully to be more elusive and far-reaching, both in audience and victims.

Findings of a new cyberbullying study illuminates the changes and challenges well. According to the study, physical bullying decreases as children get older, but cyberbullying increases. The study also found:

• Almost 90 percent of students are online by third grade.
• 83 percent of middle school students have a mobile device.
• 35-40 percent of elementary students report being targets of bullying, and 50-53 percent of middle and high school students say they have been victims.

 (“One-Fifth of Third-Graders Own Cell Phones” — CNET)

Abuse, harassment, and bullying are not only physical; verbal and written forms of hurtful behavior also make long-lasting and high impact imprints on the victim. Educators, parents, students, and policy makers understand that cyberbullying needs to be reigned in, but how it will be done is still unknown. One reason squashing cyberbullying is so hard is that it doesn’t have a clear-cut definition. Is gossip or rumor spread over social media cyberbullying? Whose jurisdiction does cyberbullying get tried in (law, parental, education)?

One eighth grader, Charlsea Brewer, was recently profiled for being the target of a fast moving rumor on Facebook, in the article “Rumors of Violence, Spread by Social Media, Weigh on Teens, Schools.” After having been picked on, Charlsea wrote a post that wished the popular kids at her school would get shot, which definitely wasn’t a well-thought out statement to share on Facebook, but held no real threat. Within hours, the rumor spread that Charlesea had a “hit list” from which she suffered lasting backlash from parents, peers, and school officials.

The article quotes a Pew Research study as finding that 95 percent of teens are online, and eight out of 10 of those teens have a social media account. “Social media are vital to teens’ lives,” said Amanda Lenhart, a researcher with Pew. “This is their space of social interaction.”

Clearly, social media is a preferred method of communication for most teens, but is part of the attraction due to them not having to be themselves? The anonymity users get from having an online identity can bring out the worst in people. Adults can be just as guilty of spreading inappropriate and scarring words on the Internet. Some teen cyberbullies have even turned to impersonating students and faculty through fake Facebook and Twitter accounts they set up to post offensive comments, according to the article “Students Create Fake Online Profiles to Bully Peers.”

It’s clear that we have a responsibility to teach kids how to be respectable members of society both on-and off-line. We are already seeing how social media can not only be used as a vehicle to hurt other people, but can drive people to self-destruction as well. Adult users of social media who post inappropriate pictures and comments can lose careers, career opportunities, college admission, college scholarships, and personal friends.

It could be possible that the solution to cyberbullying isn’t a completely new idea. Students don’t need new social skills to navigate an online environment; they need to take the same morals and ethics they should have in the physical world and apply them online. LifeBound’s book People Smarts for Teenagers gives students the skills to help them learn about themselves and how to socialize with their peers. A socially and emotionally intelligent person has empathy for people, understands social boundaries, and thinks before they act, no matter if they are in a digital or physical forum.

Is it mandatory that educators use technology to engage young minds in the digital age?

For many schools and individuals, the terms “student” and “education” have become redefined — and undefined — by digital tools. For example, “students” can still be teens who attend a brick and mortar high school, but they might also be a retired lawyer who takes advantage of Stanford’s free online classes. Some students attend a “flipped-classroom” where they take a lesson at home on YouTube and come to class to do their homework. Some students master activities through gaming, answer tests on their cellphones, and collaborate with peers by developing computer software.

In today’s classroom, it’s hip to throw out traditional classroom conventions for shiny technology in an attempt to relate to a new generation. However, as tech savvy as some of the new generation is, they are still a generation defined by a lack of critical thinking and STEM skills, and they suffer from high dropout and low-college completion rates, staggering unemployment rates, and a lack of real-world skills. Student engagement, not technology, is still key in getting students involved in school. Technology is one way to capture young minds, but it isn’t the only way to make a lesson fresh, engaging, and challenging.

Some recent articles show how educators are bringing life to their lessons, and they do so without a mention of technology.

ART

Eric Azcuy is a young art teacher at a 6-12 grade South Bronx school, where 91.2 percent of kids qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The art projects he assigns in his class aren’t only for aesthetics, they also help students make a connection between art and their other lessons, according to the article “The Art of Slipping in Some Learning.”

Azcuy gives the example of how he incorporated math skills in a sixth-grade drawing assignment. He asked students to draw a picture of an item that was 100% the object, then 75% the object and 25% imagination, and on and on until the object was 100% imagination. Students didn’t even know they were learning fractions. Educators don’t have to be artists to bring art into their lessons. The purpose of combining art with math, science, etc. is to make learning about an intimidating subject more accessible, hands-on, and creative. How can you bring sculpture into a math, science, or English class to enhance your lesson? How can you bring music into an art class?

POETRY

Engage students in a subject by using something — beside technology — that they can relate to. In 1975, Bob Lenz’s teacher played the Beatles’ song Fool on the Hill to introduce poetry. The class analyzed the pop song and used it as a jumping off point to study other genres of poetry and write their own, Lenz explains in the article “Poetry Can Change a Student’s Life.” In the end, students presented their collection of poems in a handmade, handwritten book of poetry, and read an excerpt to their parent-audience in the classroom that had been turned into a cafe, complete with refreshments.

Lenz says this project-based class he had over 30 years ago inspired his career in teaching and how he presented his lessons. What are the most vivid lessons you remember from your school years? Were they project-based?

KINESTHETIC

Do you know the difference between explicit learning and implicit learning? Explicit learning is defined as “labeled learning,” including what students read, write, and talk about. “Implicit learning includes, hands on learning, role-play, trial-and-error, life experiences, drama games, and active learning,” writes Karen Boyes. “Researchers believe that implicit learning is much more reliable than old-style classroom education, with an emphasis on reading textbooks and memorizing facts.”

In her article “The Value of Kinesthetic Arts Within the Classroom,” Boyes gives many suggestions for energizing your classroom routines with kinesthetic arts. One idea she gives is to use dramatic arts as a vehicle to teach math. For this project, students will use their math skills to measure, calculate budgets, and order supplies in order to make a set for a play.

Technology can be powerful, but it shouldn’t be forgotten that the mind and body are also powerful tools in the learning process. When you define relevance for a student, what is relevant to their lives beside technology? How can you help them develop practical and relevant skills while using the visual, oratory, or physical arts?

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Sources:

“The Art of Slipping in Some Learning,” by Eddie Small. 6 April 2012. SchoolBook (The New York Times). Accessed on 10 April 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/2012/04/06/the-art-of-slipping-in-some-learning/

“Poetry Can Change a Student’s Life,” by Bob Lenz. 6 April 2012. Eduptopia. Accessed in 9 April 2012. http://www.edutopia.org/blog/using-lyrics-poetry-classroom-bob-lenz?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_content=blog&utm_campaign=poetrychangelife

“The Value of Kinesthetic Arts within the Classroom,” by Karen Boyes. 9 April 2012. LifeBound. Accessed on 9 April 2012. http://www.lifebound.com/blog/educators/the-value-of-kinesthetic-arts-within-the-classroom/