High School » Carol J. Carter

Great Depression a Timely Class Topic

CAROL’S SUMMARY: The current economic crisis has students more interested in history, because of parallels with topics like the Great Depression. There is an opportunity for students to reinvent themselves in much the same way the men and women did after World War II. The current generation of students has much to learn from the determination, spirit, perseverance and innovation the â€œGreatest Generationâ€ had to offer.

Questions to consider:
1. Do you find yourself more interested in topics of study that apply to you today?
2. How could teachers make more lessons applicable to the lives of their students?
3. How can students come up with their own solutions for some of our national and world problems?
4.What contributions can students make in the next few years that will equal the Works Progress Act, the vision behind the National Parks, and other programs hatched during the Great Depression?

ARTICLE:

By Mary Ann Zehr
March 9, 2009

Margo M. Loflin teaches sophomores in Oklahoma, a state that was once part of the Dust Bowl of the Great Depression era. But most school years, her high school students donâ€™t find the struggles of Oklahoma farmers to combat drought and financial hardship in the 1930s relevant to their lives. That’s not true this year.

“I’ve taught [the Great Depression] for a long time. Usually, kids are not interested at all. They were very interested this year,” she said recently.

Ms. Loflin, who teaches U.S. history at Norman High School in Norman, Okla., is among a number of history and social studies teachers who have found that because of the parallels they’re able to draw between the current economic crisis and the Depression, their students are seeing that history is relevant. Theyâ€™re engaging more deeply in history lessons than they have in previous years.

Visit www.edweek.org for the entire article

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In Shifting Era of Admissions, Colleges Sweat

CAROL’S SUMMARY: Colleges are altering their admissions guidelines in an effort to attract and keep more students in this difficult economy. Faculty, advisors, tutors and college support staff will have to gear up to work with students who may be underprepared for college academically, emotionally or socially. What burden will that have for colleges and how will they deal with that added responsibility of size and readiness?

Questions to consider:
1. Has the economy affected your college selection?
2. How can you benefit from the changes in admissions?
3. How can colleges maintain high standards while admitting less prepared students?
4. What do colleges need to do to help the 2.5 million students remediated for math in this country and the 1.5 remediated for English?

ARTICLE:

March 8, 2009

By KATE ZERNIKE

As colleges weigh this yearâ€™s round of applications, high school seniors are not the only anxious ones.

Just as nervously, colleges â€” facing a financial landscape they have never seen before â€” are trying to figure out how many students to accept, and how many students will accept them.
Typically, they rely on statistical models to predict which students will take them up on their offers to attend. But this year, with the economy turning parents and students into bargain hunters, demographics changing and unexpected jolts in the price of gas and the number of applications, they have little faith on those models.

Visit www.nytimes.com for the entire article

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Hispanics one-fifth of K-12 students

CAROL’S SUMMARY: By 2050, the United States will be a majority Hispanic country. Right now, Hispanic students make up one fifth of k-12 students. Here are some questions to think through as we prepare to be the most educated country in the world by 2020:

Â· How many k-12 teachers are able to speak Spanish?

Â· How much will non-Hispanic children benefit long term from learning Spanish?

Â· In what ways do our schools and teachers need to work effectively with the
Spanish native population, their families and their parents?

Â· How will the US as a whole benefit from this rich cultural opportunity?

Â· What specific learning characteristics do k-12 educators need to know to maximize opportunities for Hispanic students and all other students as we march forward to set a world standard for education?

ARTICLE:

By Hope Yen, Associated Press

WASHINGTON â€” Roughly one-fourth of the nation’s kindergartners are Hispanic, evidence of an accelerating trend that now will see minority children become the majority by 2023.
Census data released Thursday also showed that Hispanics make up about one-fifth of all K-12 students. Hispanics’ growth and changes in the youth population are certain to influence political debate, from jobs and immigration to the No Child Left Behind education, for years.

Visit www.usatoday.com for the entire article

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Bridging the Character Education Achievement Gap

By Paul Sutton, Posted February 26, 2009 on www.edweek.org

Throughout his now-famous “Last Lecture,” the late Carnegie Mellon University professor of computer science Randy Pausch talked about what he called the “head fake.” It is the idea that learning and education work best when they work on the personal and general levels simultaneously. Itâ€™s clear what calculus can teach a high school student. But beyond that learning, a character education lesson on the dialogues between Socrates and Crito can teach critical-reading skills and democratic dialogue, while also teaching personal and social justice and integrity. The study of both calculus and Socrates demands intellectual rigor, and yet these subjects are not valued in the same way in our public high schools.

Visit www.edweek.org for the entire article

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Rethinking College Prep Costs in Tough Times

In an effort to optimally prepare their sons and daughter for college success, parents often pay thousands of dollars to give them a leg up before they ever step foot on campus. In our current challenging economic climate, families may need to revise their strategy and enlist the help of free resources right around them: the school guidance counselor, college admissions counselors, and other frugal parents whoâ€™ve already successfully helped their kids work through the maze.

1) What balance exits with school counselorâ€™s time between high-potential students and students who struggle? What alternatives can we develop to involve and challenge all level of students about their future so that they can all progress effectively? The advisory class during the semester and summer boot camp or reading programs are some possibilities to achieve this.

2) How can parents be more creative about helping their studentâ€™s access free or lower-cost resources? What is the trade-off to well-meaning parents who do too much work for their children? What does that teach their students about self-sufficiency? What does that teach their students about how to work through difficulty and figure things out on your ownâ€”a key component to adult and workplace success?

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By ALINA TUGEND, Posted February 28, 2009 on www.nytimes.com

WATCHING our sonsâ€™ college funds dwindle to almost nothing, I am grateful that my older son is on his way to high school, not a university, this fall. Otherwise, we would not only be facing a staggering tuition bill, but we would also have to pay for what has become the obligatory precollege marathon.

Perhaps nothing, except the anxiety before the birth of a first baby, can match the concern parents feel about prepping for college. There is the same desire to control the process and fear that making a mistake can ruin a childâ€™s future.

So I can understand the inclination to buy every product and service possible to cover all bases.

Visit www.nytimes.com for the entire article

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Obama puts spotlight on education deficit

CAROL’S SUMMARY: According to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education (2006), the United States ranks in the bottom half–16th among 27 countries compared–in the proportion of students who complete college degrees or certificate programs. President Obama has committed his administration to raise this standard so that by 2020, U.S. graduates lead in college graduation rates world wide. His appeal isn’t only in terms of what we owe our young people ethically, but what it’s costing us as a nation financially. In this country, 1.2 million high school students drop out every year. This translates into 9 out of every 30 students. Of those 9, 4 will be unemployed, 3 will be on government assistance, and 2 will have no health insurance (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development www.ascd.org).

Turning around this disturbing trend must start earlier than high school. An article published by the Chicago Tribune (Dec. 11, 2008), reported that college preparation begins in elementary and middle school, too, based on separate studies by the ACT and the University of Chicago’s Consortium on Chicago School Research. The ACT report found that students who earned average scores in 8th grade had only a one-in-four chance of scoring high enough on the ACT to go to college. The Consortium study reported similar predictions.

These findings pose several important questions:

1) What can be done at the elementary school level to prepare students for success in middle school? Are we as a country addressing the needs of the whole child? Not only academically, but emotionally and socially?

2) What are middle schools (and parents) doing to prepare students to make a smooth transition from 8th grade to high school, what districts call “the freshmen transition”? As school reform advocates, how can we expand and support these programs?

3) What skills will graduates need in the 21st-century in order to complete globally? How can we help ensure that our schools are building the skills into the core curriculum?

ARTICLE:

He wants U.S. to have highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020.
By Frank James, Posted February 25, 2009 at www.latimes.com

Reporting from Washington â€” President Obama on Tuesday laid out a series of challenges for the nation to meet in job training and college attainment, part of an effort to give every child a “complete and competitive education.”

The president, in his first address to a joint session of Congress, said his administration would provide the support needed to give the U.S. the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020. He said there was a vital need for Americans to complete more years of education if the nation is to compete globally.

Visit www.latimes.com for the entire article

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Adolescents Involved With Music Do Better In School

CAROL’S SUMMARY: Studies show that participation in music, such as music lessons or attending concerts, has a positive effect on academic performance in reading and mathematics.

Questions to consider:
1. Why do you think this is?
2. Is your child involved with music?

ARTICLE:

From Science Daily, February 11, 2009

ScienceDaily (Feb. 11, 2009) â€” A new study in the journal Social Science Quarterly reveals that music participation, defined as music lessons taken in or out of school and parents attending concerts with their children, has a positive effect on reading and mathematic achievement in early childhood and adolescence. Additionally, socioeconomic status and ethnicity affect music participation.
Read the rest of this entry »

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Study: College success starts early

CAROL’S SUMMARY: Study shows that how a student progresses in elementary and middle school is a major factor on college preparation. High school can not be solely responsible for preparing students for college. Preparations need to be made early on by raising the level of rigor at each educational level.

Questions to consider:
1. What can you do to help your student prepare at an early age?

ARTICLE:

College preparation begins in elementary and middle school, too, authors say
By Tara Malone
Tribune reporter
December 11, 2008

Fewer than 2 in 10 of the nation’s 8th graders are on track to be academically prepared for college, and high school may be too late to bring them up to speed, according to a study released Wednesday.

The report found that how students fare in middle school is a leading predictor of their ability to succeed in college or the workplace after high school. Research by Iowa City-based ACT suggests that students who are not academically prepared going into high school are unlikely to make up ground even with rigorous schooling and academic help. The trend cut across demographic and economic lines.

Visit www.chicagotribune.com for the entire article

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Cuts could affect class sizes Schools

CAROL’S SUMMARY: Education budget cuts will most likely equate to elimination of jobs and less teachers means larger class sizes. Educators and teachers both agree that larger classes result in lower quality education.

Questions to consider:
1. How many students are in your childâ€™s class?

ARTICLE:

Educators say almost any drop in funding will mean more kids per teacher
By Lisa Schencker
Jennifer Flitton doesn’t teach her 25 sixth-graders about the science of heat by just opening a textbook. The Eastwood Elementary School teacher gives them feathers, cork, packing foam, hot water and thermometers and tells them to decide for themselves which material acts as the best insulator. Read the rest of this entry »

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Surprising Impact of Student Loan Crunch

CAROL’S SUMMARY: The National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities released a survey suggesting that the student loan credit crunch has had a surprising and serious impact on the plans of students at private colleges. Many students were unable to obtain a private loan and were forced to turn to parents, credit cards, working more, switching to part-time students, and/or dropping out.

Questions to consider;
1. Do you know how youâ€™re going to pay for college?
2. Do you know where to find scholarship information?

ARTICLE:

Cries of financial distress from students unable to find private student loans have been relatively few and far between this fall, despite lots of newspaper headlines about a lack of availability of such loans. Read the rest of this entry »

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