High School » Carol J. Carter

To Reduce Dropouts, Obama proposes $900M for schools

Carolâ€™s summary:

In spite of our countryâ€™s relative affluence worldwide, only about 70% of entering freshmen finish high school, and the numbers are even worse for African-American and Latino students, with only a 50-50 chance that theyâ€™ll graduate on time.Â Big city schools fare worst:Â Fourteen urban school districts have on-time graduation rates lower than 50%; they include Detroit, Baltimore, New York, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Miami, Dallas, Denver and Houston, and compared to other developed countries, the United States ranks 13^th among 20 members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Last year, 16 percent of all public high-school students left the system, up from 9.3 percent in 2006 (a 6.7 percent increase). Source: U.S. Department of Education.

This week President Barack Obama proposed $900 million in â€œSchool Turnaround Grantsâ€ at the nationâ€™s 5,000 lowest performing schools over the next five years.Â If we are to remain competitive relative to the new global competition for talent, schools and districts must commit to strategies that help students persist with their educational goals.Â Some of the attitudes and behaviors that result in low achievement start all the way back in elementary school, and LifeBound offers programs starting in fifth grade. Specific to high school, schools need to adopt student success and transition programs designed to help students get off to the strongest start possible. The new second edition of our book for 9^th graders, MAKING THE MOST OF HIGH SCHOOL: Success Secrets for Freshmen, which is coming outÂ in April of 2010, includes the following features:

Exercises on financial literacy in every chapter
Two new chaptersÂ are devoted toÂ financial literacy and technology
An 8-year academic plan for students that covers high school and college
End of chapter exercises that that promote critical and creative thinking and ACT/SAT preparation
A fully updated Appendices on activities for students both in high school and outside of high school to develop their leadership skills.

To reserve a copy of our new updated book for freshmen success, or any of our other resources, call us toll free at 1.877.737.8510 or email contact@lifebound.com

How can we build better early-warning systems for struggling students?How can we effectively use the data to transform learning and reduce the drop out rate?

How can we connect classroom learning with real-world experiences toÂ motivate more students to finish high school?

ARTICLE

USA Today

WASHINGTON (AP) â€” President Barack Obama on Monday addressed the nation’s school dropout epidemic, proposing $900 million to states and school districts that agree to drastically change or even shutter their worst performing schools.

Obama’s move comes as many schools continue to struggle to get children to graduation, a profound problem in a rich, powerful nation. Only about 70% of entering high school freshmen go on to graduate. The problem affects blacks and Latinos at particularly high rates.

To view the entire article visit

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-03-01-obama-dropouts_N.htm

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Obama’s Teacher Plans Stress Competitive Grants

Carolâ€™s summary:
Over the next four years, more than a third of the nationâ€™s 3.2 million teachers could retire, leaving schools bereft of experienced instructors. The problem is aggravated by high attrition among novice teachers, with one of every three new teachers leaving the profession within five years, a loss of talent that costs school districts millions in recruiting and training expenses, according to a 2009 report by the National Commission on Teaching and Americaâ€™s Future, a nonprofit research advocacy group. To help counter this predicament, the Obama administration is proposing competitive grants for teachers to recruit, train and evaluate teacher performance relative to student success. I applaud this emphasis for three main reasons:

1) Competition is valuable. When teachers have incentives to be and do their best work, they are incented to grow, to keep learning and keep their knowledge on the
cutting edge–all of which our students need to be competitive in the global world.
Â 2) Change. A lot has changed among students in the last eight years since No Child Left Behind
was created. The teachers who understand the impact and usefulness of technology in addition to their subject areas will drive the future of facilitated learning–active learning where students discover the learning through their own curiosity, initiative and leadership. Students who learn like this in class will have the inspiration and the motivation to make a difference outside of school–in their careers and personal lives–with the applications of what they have learned.
Â 3) Staying Ahead. Right now, American students after fifth grade are not toe to toe with their foreign counterparts in developed nations. The more that the best teachers are encouraged within our current system and new teachers are brought in from different walks of life which provide the experience through which students can value their learning, the more we will have purposeful,
self-directed and inspired graduates.

The focus on raising the bar for teachers comes at a time when the administration is calling for more parents to set up a culture of learning in their homes–through turning off the TV, modeling reading and and doing homework with their children. Other frontiers are: exploring what it
takes for principals and school districts to be effective as leaders and analyzing how the community, AARP and other organizations from the community can support school performance and outcomes.
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ARTICLE
In its fiscal 2011 budget request , the Obama administration has laid out its intention of carrying forward key teacher-effectiveness policies within the economic-stimulus law into the next edition of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

In doing so, the budget proposal would invest heavily in competitive grants for new ways of recruiting, training, evaluating, and compensating teachers and principals, dramatically shrink the amount of teacher-quality funding doled out by formula, and consolidate a handful of smaller teacher programs that have fierce congressional defenders.

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Obama’s Teacher Plans Stress Competitive Grants

Carolâ€™s summary:
The Obama administration is proposing competitive grants for teachers to recruit, train and evaluate teacher performance relative to student success. I applaud this emphasis for three main reasons:

To view the entire article visit
http://bit.ly/9QLUCb

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High Schools to Offer Plan to Graduate 2 Years Early

Carolâ€™s summary:
There is a new plan based on the educational systems of Denmark, England, Finland and Singaporeâ€”for public schools to offer 10th graders an early diploma if they bass a battery of tests and enroll immediately at a community college. While I applaud the effort to retain many of the students currently at college-age who are remediated for poor math and English skills, I have concerns about this plan for three reasons along with strategies which can help:

1) In America, many high school freshmen arenâ€™t ready for college or high school academically, emotionally and socially. I am sure that the countries on which this model is based have far more rigor in the early grades levels which gradually prepares students for success in their studies, their careers and in their lives.

Solution: More rigor for ninth graders for success throughout high school.

If ninth graders are encouraged to read at home at night, study at least two to three hours a night and really learn to love challenge, they can expand their world through work, volunteer activities and school involvement. These â€œsoft skillsâ€ are key to building lifelong habits of success and a quality mindset which creates quality in work, society and oneâ€™s personal decisions. Reinforcing a culture of learning with low-income, first-generation families needs to be a parallel strategy.

2) Many at-risk students start high school with no sense of who they are, what they like or dislike, or how high school and college can benefit them later. They start out in an uncommitted, undetermined frame of mind. So, even if they test well, they often donâ€™t have the maturity, critical thinking or problem-solving abilities to make good decisions and manage themselves effectively. Putting them into a more complex environment when they havenâ€™t mastered the high school environment, allows students to skip a step and can set them up for emotional and social setbacks.

Solution: More clear expectations and preparation for eighth graders BEFORE they get to high school.

If eighth graders are given the chance to explore the benefits of high school, learn what they might do once they get there, take an inventory of their weaknesses so they can find ways through extra work, tutors and other resources to get help, they will anticipate and be prepared for the new world they will enter. Without these skills of looking ahead, preparing adequately and learning how to advocate for what one needs, students are in a â€œmiddle schoolâ€ mindset when they are asked to do high school level work.

3) America goes toe-to-toe with foreign counterparts until middle school. Research shows that fewer than 2 in 10 of the nationâ€™s eighth graders are on track to be academically prepared for college and high school may be too late to bring them up to speed.

What happens in middle school that causes our nationâ€™s test scores to drop?

What can be done to bring Americaâ€™s middle school students up to speed with their counterparts in Finland, Denmark, England and Singapore?

Solution: Success and Transition Programs for 5/6th graders.

Weâ€™ve been working with districts who emphasize both an emotional intelligence program and a transition success program for their fifth graders. Not only have the schools had fewer referrals to the principalâ€™s office, parents, teachers and counselors report that students are observing their behaviors, asking themselves about their options, connecting more with other students, and solving their own problems more effectively. And an unexpected outcome: these schools had a boost in their state test scores. All of learning is based on emotion. When students understand their emotions, they can calm down, focus, learn and have the motivation to study on their own.

Iâ€™m all for trying the early college program if we can implement these three steps to better prepare students for college, career and personal success when they are so immature and emotionally unready for lifeâ€™s adult decisions. Employers complain frequently that todayâ€™s graduates often lack the communication, thinking skills and maturity to contribute in real ways in their first few years out of college. Letâ€™s be realistic about the preparation which low-income students and all students need and letâ€™s give them the perspective, the tools, the resources and the experience to excel in todayâ€™s complex global world where they will be working toe-to-toe with their colleagues in Denmark, England, Finland, and Singapore once they do graduate from college.

ARTICLE
By SAM DILLON
Dozens of public high schools in eight states will introduce a program next year allowing 10th graders who pass a battery of tests to get a diploma two years early and immediately enroll in community college.

Students who pass but aspire to attend a selective college may continue with college preparatory courses in their junior and senior years, organizers of the new effort said. Students who fail the 10th-grade tests, known as board exams, can try again at the end of their 11th and 12th grades. The tests would cover not only English and math but also subjects like science and history.

To view the entire article visit
http://nyti.ms/aylDDv

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Kids’ Sweet Tooth Linked to Alcoholism, Depression

CAROLâ€™S SUMMARY:
According to the National Center for Health Statistics, about two-thirds of Americans are counted as either overweight or obese. Childhood obesity is a serious health crisis, and Michelle Obama is launching a campaign addressing this issue, as cited inÂ a Wall Street Journal earlier this week.

Ms. Obamaâ€™s objectives are to:
o improve nutrition and physical education in schools;
o promote activity such as walking and biking in community planning;
o make healthy food more available, particularly in poor areas;
o and make nutrition information on food packages clearer.

Todayâ€™s article from AOL News cites a related study that links childrenâ€™s preference for sweets to a family history of alcoholism or depression. Funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the research was conducted by scientists at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, and published online in the journal Addiction. As the article iterates:

â€œThe findings suggest that a preference for sweets might not be solely about taste buds, but instead could have to do with the child’s chemical makeup and family history. However, an outside expert at the U.K.’s Cardiff University, professor Tim Jacob, told the BBC the Monell study’s findings were interesting, but that it’s tough to make firm conclusions from one study alone. The results could reveal something about children’s brain chemistry, but also might be explained by behavior and upbringing, he said.

“While it is true that sweet things activate reward circuits in the brain, the problem is that sweets and sugar are addictive, because the activation of these reward circuits causes opioid release, and with time more is needed to achieve the same effect,” Jacob said. “But the taste difference may be explained by differences like parental control over sweet consumption.â€

Helping students make healthy choices starts at an early age by offering them develop strong decision-making skills. As educators, we can help to make a difference by fostering critical thinking skills and life skills that promote delayed gratification and how to manage strong emotions. All of LifeBoundâ€™s student success programs aim to equip students with the skills they need for school, career and life, and our PEOPLE SMARTS book empowers them to make informed decisions. In addition to content that challenges students to assess the outcomes of their behavior, each chapter contains a true story courageous teens who have overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles through personal action. We also offer sessions for parents that teach coaching skills to support them in their role as leaders at home. For more information or for a review copy or to receive a curriculum sample of the PEOPLE SMARTS text, please call the LifeBound office toll free 1.877.737.8510 or email at contact@lifebound.com.

ARTICLE
AOL News
by Lauren Frayer
(Feb. 10) â€“ A new study finds that children are more likely to have an intense sweet tooth if they have a family history of alcoholism, or if they’ve suffered from depression themselves.

The research was conducted by scientists at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, and published online in the journal Addiction.

Sugary foods and alcohol trigger many of the same reward circuits in the brain, so scientists in this case decided to test the sweet tooth of children with a family history of alcohol dependence. They also hypothesized that children who suffer from depression might be more likely to crave sweets, because they make them feel better.

To view the entire article visit
http://bit.ly/9sfGXk

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How Students Can Improve by Studying Themselves

CAROLâ€™S SUMMARY
Todayâ€™s article from the Chronicle of Higher Education describes a new method of improving study habits called â€œself-regulated learningâ€ proposed by Barry J. Zimmerman of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, who purports that â€œexplicitly coaching students to think about their study processes and to monitor their learning can pay large dividends.â€ As the article below notes:

â€œMr. Zimmerman has spent most of his career examining what can go wrong when people try to learn new facts and skills. His work centers on two common follies: First, students are often overconfident about their knowledge, assuming that they understand material just because they sat through a few lectures or read a few chapters. Second, students tend to attribute their failures to outside forces (“the teacher didn’t like me,” “the textbook wasn’t clear enough”) rather than taking a hard look at their own study habits.â€

LifeBoundâ€™s student success programs are designed to help students improve academically, socially and emotionally, and our teacher training centers around coaching skills to help students be their best. Our most widely-used book by middle schools and high schools across the country is titled, Study Skills for Teenagers, which encourages students to notice how they study and to discover their learning preferences. The book also outlines data-proven techniques to help students sharpen their study skills before they get to college. Our innovative book, Critical and Creative Thinking for Teenagers, is coordinated to 21st century skills and helps students think about thinking. To request review copies of these books, please call the LifeBound office toll free at 877.737.8510 or email contact@lifebound.com.

How can we better inform curriculum directors at the k-12 district level to adopt learning models that help students be their own best mentors?

How can we help teachers learn coaching techniques that foster best practices across the disciplines?

What can we do to promote deeper learning among our studentsâ€”learning that focuses not only about subject matter but about themselves and the world at largeâ€”which is the cornerstone of critical and creative thinking?

ARTICLE
Chronicle of Higher Education
by David Glenn

“OK, how many of you were overconfident about this question? I want to see someone who wrote down a 4 or 5 for confidence.”

Grazyna Niezgoda, a veteran instructor at New York City College of Technology, is reviewing an algebra quiz in front of a crowded section of developmental mathematicsâ€”a noncredit course for students who have failed the City University of New York’s mathematics entrance test. If these students want to stay at City Tech, they need to pass that test.

Across the country, many students trip on obstacles like this. But after a decade of trial and error, Ms. Niezgoda and her colleagues believe they have found an effective way to help people through. The technique is “self-regulated learning,” a series of steps that encourage students to evaluate how they study and notice where they are going wrong.

To view the entire article visit
http://chronicle.com/article/Struggling-Students-Can/64004/

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Recession Affected Students’ Financial Attitudes and Behaviors, Study Finds

CAROLâ€™S SUMMARY:

A new study sponsored by the University of Arizona titled:Â â€œWave 1.5 Economic Impact Study: Financial Well-Being, Coping Behaviors and Trust Among Young Adults,” cited in the Chronicle of Higher Education, reveals how the recession has affected studentsâ€™ financial attitudes and behaviors. Â More students reported engaging in what the researchers term “typical” financial coping strategies, like cutting back unnecessary spending. For example, 31 percent said they cut back on communication expenses. However, the report also revealed there was a large jump in the use of “risky” coping strategies, like dropping a class, postponing health care, or using one credit card to pay off another, though relatively few students reported these behaviors.

Even though the number of students engaging in risky behaviors remains small, the researchers predict that habits formed in the college years will stay with the students over their lives, said Joyce Serido, assistant research scientist and co-principal investigator of the study. That means the impact of choices made in college could be magnified over a lifetime. Therefore, it is important for educators to help students make better financial decisions, like borrowing a reasonable amount to stay in school rather than dropping out because of the expense, said Soyeon Shim, professor of family and consumer sciences at the University of Arizona and principal investigator of the study.

Â LifeBoundâ€™s updated version of MAJORING IN THE REST OF YOUR LIFE (fifth edition), teaches students about personal finance and is relevant for seniors in high school or freshmen in college. Additionally, LifeBoundâ€™s ninth grade success book, MAKING THE MOST OUT OF HIGH SCHOOL, will be revised this spring and will include a whole chapter on financial planning and exercises at the end of each chapter to build financial literacy skills well before college. To receive a review copy of either or both books, please call the office toll free at 1.877.737.8510 or email contact@lifebound.com, and we will ship a copy to you.

ARTICLE
Chronicle of Higher Education
By Beckie SupianoThe economic downturn has had many negative effects, but for one group of researchers, it came with a silver lining: the chance to see how young adults respond to financial upheaval. Their findings, which show a rise in risky financial behaviors and a drop in self-reported well-being, were released Monday.
The researchers were working on a longitudinal study of college students’ financial attitudes and behaviors when the recession unexpectedly provided a “natural laboratory” for measuring the students’ response to tight times.To view entire article visit
http://chronicle.com/article/Recession-Affected-Students/64053/

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Failure Rate for AP Tests Climbing

According to the article below from USA Today, the number of students taking AP exams has climbed but so has the failure rate. Students last year took a record 2.9 million exams through the AP program, which challenges high school students with college-level courses. The newspaper’s analysis finds that more than two in five students (41.5%) earned a failing score of 1 or 2, up from 36.5% in 1999.

Next week I will be presenting a session at the First Year Experience 2010 annual conference on the topic: Raising the Bar: Creating Better Prepared Freshmen. If students are to compete with their global counterparts, schools need to adopt Bill Gates’ four Rs: Rigor, Relevance and Relationships, for the 21st century workforce. LifeBound’s programs are coordinated to 21st century skills so that entering freshmen are optimally prepared for college level work and success in their first job out of college. To receive examination copies of our books and curriculum, call toll free 1.877.737.8510 or email contact@lifebound.com.

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ARTICLE
USA TODAY
by Jack Gillum and Greg Toppo

The number of students taking Advanced Placement tests hit a record high last year, but the portion who fail the exams â€” particularly in the South â€” is rising as well, a USA TODAY analysis finds.

To view the entire article visit
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-02-04-1Aapscores04_ST_N.htm

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Students to Help Teachers Better Use Tech

CAROL’S SUMMARY:
Today’s article from the School Library Journal features a new program called START (Service & Technology Academic Resource Team) that draws upon our school communities’ brightest experts in the field of technology: students. Sponsored by Microsoft and the Corporation for National and Community Service, the program aims to help teachers and staff better integrate technology into schools, starting with six pilots at the following locations:

* New Yorkâ€™s Lower East Side Preparatory High School M515,
* Mississippiâ€™s Tupelo Middle School,
* Pennsylvaniaâ€™s Parkway West High School,
* North Carolinaâ€™s East Garner Magnet Middle School,
* Virginiaâ€™s VA Star program at Forest Park High School, and
* Californiaâ€™s Winston Churchill Middle School.

The Director of the Office of Education Technology of the DOE, Karen Cator, says that the START program offers a “unique way of incorporating science and technology into service, providing students with a way to give back to their school community and giving them a taste of actual work in that field.”

Empowering students to teach what they know helps develop their critical thinking and service skills, which is a powerful combination for today’s 21st century learner. LifeBound’s aim is to help equip students with these skills through our stair-step program for grades 5-12. Relevant to this article, our new edition of Making the Most of High School, designed for the 8th to 9th grade transition, includes a chapter on Technology. To reserve a review copy, please call toll free 1.877.737.8510 or email contact@lifebound.com.

ARTICLE
School Library Journal
by Lauren Barack

The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) believes that when it comes to technology training, we should look no further than a terrific resource already in the classroomâ€”students.

Thatâ€™s why Microsoft and the Corporation for National and Community Service has launched a new initiative that empowers middle and high school students to help teachers and staff better integrate tech into schools.

â€œThe concept of students as tech support and even teacher support has been around for several years,â€ says Karen Cator (pictured), Director of the Office of Education Technology at the U.S. DOE. â€œI think what this initiative does is take the best practices and take them to scale.â€

Called START (Service & Technology Academic Resource Team), the program will combine five existing projects such as GenerationYES!, in which students help teachers come up with compelling assignments using technology, and MOUSE, where students act as tech support in schools, and bring them together under one umbrella.

To view the entire article visit

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6717185.html

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Scholars Identify 5 Keys to Urban School Success

CAROL’S SUMMARY:

This month, University of Chicago Press releases a new book, Organizing Schools for Improvement: Lessons From Chicago, based on 15 years of data from this cityâ€™s 409,000-student school system. The research identifies five keys to urban school success:

1) Strong leadership, in the sense that principals are â€œstrategic, focused on instruction, and inclusive of others in their workâ€;

2) A welcoming attitude toward parents, and formation of connections with the community;

3) Development of professional capacity, which refers to the quality of the teaching staff, teachersâ€™ belief that schools can change, and participation in good professional development and collaborative work;

4) A learning climate that is safe, welcoming, stimulating, and nurturing to all students; and

5) Strong instructional guidance and materials.

The authors liken these â€œessential supportsâ€ to a recipe for baking a cake: Without the right ingredients, the whole enterprise just falls flat. In the interview below for Education Week, lead author Anthony S. Bryk said: â€œOften what happens in school reform is that we pick just one strand out, and very often that becomes the silver bullet.â€

Here is an excerpt from the article’s summary of the findings:

“Schools that were rated strong in all five areas were at least 10 times more likely than schools with strengths in just one or two areas to achieve substantial gains in reading and math. Likewise, a weakness in one area exacerbated other weaknesses. For instance, 33 percent of schools with weak teacher educational backgrounds and 30 percent of schools with weak professional communities stagnated, compared with 47 percent of the schools lacking on both measures.”

LifeBound’s stair-step programs, for grades 5-12, have designed a similar approach to student success at each of these grade levels. Here are the components of the LifeBound programs:

* Quality instructional materials consisting of student books and curricula;
* Faculty training that promotes leadership development;
* Parent sessions to enlist support from home; and
* Data assessments to measure results, all work together to realize desired outcomes for success in school, career and life. When schools don’t adopt a comprehensive plan for student success and transition programs, the quality of the results suffer.

How can we help ensure that districts adopt district-wide comprehensive plans for improvement at all grades levels?

What accountability systems can we put in place at the district level that help promote and support student success for all learners?

How can we encourage district leaders and school Boards to implement sustainable change across grade levels?

ARTICLE
Education Week
by Debra Viadero

Offering a counter-narrative to the school improvement prescriptions that dominate national education debates, a new book based on 15 years of data on public elementary schools in Chicago identifies five tried-and-true ingredients that work, in combination with one another, to spur success in urban schools.

The authors liken their â€œessential supportsâ€ to a recipe for baking a cake: Without the right ingredients, the whole enterprise just falls flat.

â€œA material weakness in any one ingredient means that a school is very unlikely to improve,â€ said Anthony S. Bryk, the lead author of Organizing Schools for Improvement: Lessons From Chicago, which was published this month by the University of Chicago Press.

To view the entire article, visit
http://bit.ly/cnXQEx

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