Sharp drop seen in childrenâ€™s bullying

Carolâ€™s summary:

Hereâ€™s some good news:Â A national survey funded by the Department of Justice reports that the percentage of students being â€œphysically bullied over the past year had declined from nearly 22 percent in 2003 to under 15 percent in 2008,â€and anti-bullying programs are credited for the improvement.Â To continue this trend, programs need to be put in place nationwide that not only intervene before problems begin, but proactively reduce bullying by giving kids the tools they need to manage strong emotions and learn conflict resolution skills.Â

Right now my staff is in the process of tabulating results from schools using our PEOPLE SMARTS program, which helps students develop emotional intelligence. Our results show that schools have experienced a reduction in the number of children who say theyâ€™re being bullied, and equally encouraging, more students say they stand up for someone and themselves who is the victim or physical or verbal abuse. Our data also shows that students in the PEOPLE SMARTS program experience better relationships with their siblings after taking the class (on the pre-assessment, 35.3% reported they â€œget along well with their siblings;â€ and the POST-assessment 50.1% reported that they do), a finding which is significant since bullying behavior is often learned at home where many children report being bullied by their brothers or sisters.Â

While anti-bullying programs play an important role in our nationâ€™s goal to curb aggressive behavior, programs that help students build stronger communication, emotional, and social skills as a prevention strategy, can make the greatest impact. If you would like to receive a review copy of our PEOPLE SMARTS book, or any of our other resources, call us toll free at 1.877.737.8510 or email contact@lifebound.com.

How can we do a better job of being preemptive so that students have the self-awareness and communication skills to stand up for respectful behavior? How can parents, teacher, and counselors get on the same page to use the language of emotional intelligence so that students are getting these principles reinforced in every sphere of life?

How can districts effectively collect and use the data to measure the results of these programs?Â Â

ARTICLE

March 3, 2010

Associated Press

NEW YORK – Thereâ€™s been a sharp drop in the percentage of Americaâ€™s children being bullied or beaten up by their peers, according to a new national survey by experts who believe anti-bullying programs are having an impact.

The study, funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, found that the percentage of children who reported being physically bullied over the past year had declined from nearly 22 percent in 2003 to under 15 percent in 2008. The percentage reporting theyâ€™d been assaulted by other youths, including their siblings, dropped from 45 percent to 38.4 percent.

The lead author of the study, Professor David Finkelhor, said he was â€œvery encouraged.â€

â€œBullying is the foundation on which a lot of subsequent aggressive behavior gets built,â€ said Finkelhor, director of the University of New Hampshireâ€™s Crimes Against Children Research Center. â€œIf itâ€™s going down, we will reap benefits in the future in the form of lower rates of violent crime and spousal assault.â€

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Graduates Fault Advice of Guidance Counselors

A new study shows why guidance counselors need the support of student success programs that give them the skills and tools to be effective in their jobs. The Public Agenda reports that, â€œMost young adults who go on to college believe that the advice of their high school guidance counselors was inadequate and often impersonal and perfunctory. Most troubling, and potentially significant for policy makers,â€ the study added, â€œis that young people who characterized their interactions with guidance counselors as anonymous and unhelpful were less likely to go directly from high school into a postsecondary program.â€

LifeBound is proactive in working with counselors across the country to solve the very problems cited in this article. Our stair-step program for every grade, 5-12, addresses the academic and developmental issues specific to each grade level. For instance, our PEOPLE SMARTS book addresses behavior and motivation issues by helping students become emotionally intelligent. Our new edition of MAKING THE MOST OF HIGH SCHOOL, is designed to help students develop an eight-year academic plan starting their freshmen year. Weâ€™ve had outstanding results in giving counselors the methods for impacting students in positive ways and developing their leadership skills through coaches training so they have greater credibility and influence in their districts. Many of the counselors whoâ€™ve completed our academic coaches training classes have been promoted to district level positions. For review copies of LifeBoundâ€™s materials, please email contact@lifebound.com or call toll free 1.877.737.8510. We look forward to hearing from you.How can we help counselors solve the myriad of problems they face in their profession and give them the toolsÂ to be more effective in their roles?What can we do to better engageÂ students and families inÂ the college and career planning process?

How canÂ weÂ elevate the counseling profession so that it fulfills its mission as set by the American School Counselor Association?

ARTICLEan>

New York Times

by Jacques Steinberg

Most people who graduated from high school in the last dozen years believe that their guidance counselors provided little meaningful advice about college or careers, a new study has found. And many said the best advice on their futures came from teachers. â€œMost young adults who go on to college believe that the advice of their high school guidance counselors was inadequate and often impersonal and perfunctory,â€ according to the study by Public Agenda, a nonprofit research organization. â€œMost troubling, and potentially significant for policy makers,â€ the study added, â€œis that young people who characterized their interactions with guidance counselors as anonymous and unhelpful were less likely to go directly from high school into a postsecondary program.â€ To view the entire article visit
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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.

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In Middle School, Charting Their Course to College and Beyond

Carolâ€™s Summary:

While it is advantageous for middle school students to create individualized academic plans using technologyâ€”as iterated in todayâ€™s New York Times article featuring a New Jersey school districtâ€”another key component to future high school, college and career success is active reading. As students move up, they will be required to read and interpret complex texts to develop their critical and creative thinking skills. Todayâ€™s students log in far too much time watching television, surfing the Internet and playing video games. When students interact with a book for college planning by answering journal questions and other exploratory exercises, they are simultaneously developing a composite of skills that theyâ€™ll need to compete in our global world.

I agree with the comment by Penelope Lattimer, assistant director of the Rutgers University Institute for Improving Student Achievement, when she said, â€œThe more that you can personalize the academic route that students are exploring, the more they are likely to do their best work.â€ Our research has found that when students get a better sense of who they are, they have a clearer vision of whatâ€™s possible for their future. The emphasis on helping students connect what they learn to college and career goals requires programs life LifeBoundâ€™s that help students manage and understand the different developmental stages they encounter in middle school and beyond. For review copies of our materials, call LifeBound toll free at 1.877.737.8510 or email contact@lifebound.com.

To better prepare students for college level work, how can we create individualized learning plans that incorporate active reading?

What kinds of incentives do students need to read more and depend on screen entertainment less?

How can we promote active reading across subject areas, including college and career exploration?

Article:

In Middle School, Charting Their Course to College and Beyond
The New York Times
By WINNIE HU
Published: February 28, 2010

Public schools have long offered their students the same basic academic program, with little real choice aside from foreign languages or an occasional elective in what was a one-size-fits-all approach that drove many families to seek private and charter schools.

But this year, all 428 sixth graders at Linwood Middle School in North Brunswick, N.J., are charting their own academic path with personalized student learning plans â€” electronic portfolios containing information about their learning styles, interests, skills, career goals and extracurricular activities.

These new learning plans will follow each sixth grader through high school, and are intended to help the students assess their own strengths and weaknesses as well as provide their parents and teachers with a more complete profile beyond grades and test scores.

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Business Schools Tap Veterans

Carolâ€™s summary:
Business schools are recruiting former military members, and the post 9/11 GI Bill, means more instructors will be teaching veterans. These are nontraditional students entering a very difficult economy, and we need to figure out how to engage them and draw on their unique experiences. Higher education institutions report that veterans bring a unique perspective to their education, and employers say their military training equips them with strong teamwork and leadership skills. At Harvard Business School, veterans currently make up 3% of the class of 2011’s 930 students.

How can we show honor to our veterans for their military service?

How can we best tap their experiences to sharpen our teaching methods and help other students benefit from the different perspective that veterans bring to education?

How can we help ex-military members make a smooth transition from the battlefield to the classroom?

How can educators treat both the emotional and the academic needs that these returning vets will have in the classroom?

What other campus services can they access for support?

ARTICLE
By DIANA MIDDLETON
Five years ago, Augusto Giacoman was commanding about 30 soldiers and leading raids in Iraq. Now he spends his days in classrooms alongside former bankers, engineers and other civilians earning a master’s in business administration.

Mr. Giacoman, a retired U.S. Army officer, is evidence of a growing effort among business schools to lure ex-military members into M.B.A. programs, where they are prized for their leadership skills and ability to bring an alternate perspective to the classroom, say school administrators.
At Harvard Business School, veterans currently make up 3% of the class of 2011’s 930 students.

From Boot Camp to Business School
Known for its case study method, Harvard relies on students’ personal experiences to propel cases, says Deirdre Leopold, director of admissions at Harvard Business School. Veterans, she says, bring something to the room that other students don’t. “They’ve been responsible for lives, which brings a gravitas to classroom discussion,” Ms. Leopold says.

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As U.S. Aid Grows, Oversight Is Urged for Charter Schools

Carolâ€™s Summary:
As President Obama announced plans to devote more money to Charter Schools this week, experts stress increased oversight to help ensure success. According to todayâ€™s New York Times article, one influential charter group member told the House Education and Labor Committee that the federal government had spent $2 billion since the mid-1990s to finance new charter schools but less than $2 million, about one-tenth of 1 percent, to ensure that they were held to high standards. â€œItâ€™s as if the federal government had spent billions for new highway construction, but nothing to put up guardrails along the sides of those highways,â€ said Greg Richmond, president of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers. Here are a few important facts about Charter Schools:

o Over one million students are enrolled in more than 3,500 schools in 40 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico this year.
o Under the NCLB Act, persistently low-performing schools may be converted to charter schools as an option for restructuring them.
o On average, the funding gap between charter schools and traditional schools is 22 percent, or $1,800 per pupil. The average charter school ends up with a total funding shortfall of nearly half a million dollars.
o The Department of Education, through the Charter Schools Program (CSP), began a competitive grant program for alleviating the financial constraints in planning and starting a charter school.
o Since 1995, when CSP started administering start-up grants, the number of states that have passed charter laws has risen to 40.
o According to the first-year report of the National

Study of Charter Schools, the three reasons most often cited to create a charter school are to:
â€¢ Realize an educational vision
â€¢ Gain autonomy
â€¢ Serve a special population
Source: http://www.uscharterschools.org/pub/uscs_docs/fs/index.htm

In addition to greater oversight, charter school achievement can be accelerated by establishing student success and transition programs that are data-driven, since research is one area that charter schools lag behind compared to public schools. Every LifeBound program, grades 5-12, offers data assessments so that schools can see the results. Charter schools need the kind of support organizations like ours provide, as well as commitment from standard-setting teachers and leadership, parents and the community at large.

How can we ensure that Charter Schools have access to student success and transition programs that are proven to increase academic achievement?

Why do some charter schools perform so much better than other charter and non-charter schools?

What can traditional schools learn from high-performing charter schools that might be incorporated into the public school system?

ARTICLE
NEW YORK TIMES
by Sam Dillon

WASHINGTON â€” The Obama administration plans to significantly expand the flow of federal aid to charter schools, money that has driven a 15-year expansion of their numbers, from just a few dozen in the early 1990s to some 5,000 today.

But in the first Congressional hearing on rewriting the No Child Left Behind law, lawmakers on Wednesday heard experts, all of them charter school advocates, testify that Washington should also make sure charter schools are properly monitored for their admissions procedures, academic standards and financial stewardship.
The president of one influential charter group told the House Education and Labor Committee that the federal government had spent $2 billion since the mid-1990s to finance new charter schools but less than $2 million, about one-tenth of 1 percent, to ensure that they were held to high standards.
â€œItâ€™s as if the federal government had spent billions for new highway construction, but nothing to put up guardrails along the sides of those highways,â€ said Greg Richmond, president of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers.

Charter schools operate mainly with state financing, and with less regulation than traditional public schools. A provision of the No Child law offers federal startup grants, usually in the range of $150,000 per school, to charter organizers to help them plan and staff a new school until they can begin classes and obtain state per-pupil financing.

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Recession Could Push U.S. Further Behind in Educational Goals, Compared With Other Nations

Carolâ€™s Summary:
Compared to other nations, the United States may be losing ground in higher education amidst the global recession, due in large part to â€œuncoordinated and reactionaryâ€ spending cuts. These findings are based on a recent report, â€œHigher Education Budgets and the Global Recession: Tracking Varied National Responses and Their Consequences,” from the Center for Studies in Higher Education at the University of California at Berkeley. The paperâ€™s author, John Aubrey Douglass, a senior research fellow at the center, analyzed the impact of the recession on higher-education budgets in several member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Internationally, he says, “political leaders see higher education as a key to both short-term economic recovery and long-term competitiveness.”

While Mr. Douglass credits the Obama administrationâ€™s policies for easing the strain on higher education, he found that, â€œoutside the United States, most countries have thus far avoided large cuts to college budgets and that, in fact, many nations have used the recession to speed up higher-education reforms.â€ By contrast, 34 American states have already made deep reductions in spending on higher education, in some cases limiting college access, and the U.S. now ranks 10th in the proportion of its adults ages 25 to 34 who hold at least an associate degree.

The current economic climate forces us all to make hard choices, and higher education isnâ€™t being asked to do anything unlike what business and other enterprises are asked to do right now. Challenging established practices give us the opportunity to consider new ways of doing things to trim the fat. It also helps us clarify our mission and improve our institutions. If the U.S. hopes to prepare a world-class workforce, educators needs to lead the way through this kind of innovative thinking and resilience. If we are less competitive educationally, we will soon become less competitive economically. In a restricted economy, we can and must work together to creatively meet our nation and our worldâ€™s economic and social priorities. I agree with Bill and Melinda Gates philosophy that a quality education should be viewed as a civil right in our country. The way America chooses to deploy its strengths (entrepreneurship) and overcomes its weaknesses (academics) will tell if we will remain a global leader in the 21st century. My lifeâ€™s work is devoted to education reform, and the programs Iâ€™ve created through LifeBound are helping lead the way for our country to regain the ground itâ€™s lost, starting in elementary school. For review copies of our materials, call our toll free # 1.877.737.8510 or email me at contact@lifebound.com.

ARTICLE
By Karin Fischer

The recent recession could accelerate global shifts in the race to educate more people and produce top-flight research, and, as a result, the United States could lose ground.

That’s the conclusion of a new paper by the Center for Studies in Higher Education at the University of California at Berkeley. John Aubrey Douglass, the paper’s author and a senior research fellow at the center, examined the impact of the economic downturn on higher-education budgets in several member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Mr. Douglass found that, outside the United States, most countries have thus far avoided large cuts to college budgets and that, in fact, many nations have used the recession to speed up higher-education reforms. By contrast, some 34 American states have already made major reductions in spending on higher education, in some cases limiting college access.

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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:

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.
####

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:
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:

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Obama to Propose New Reading and Math Standards

Carol’s Summary:

In order to qualify for $14 billion in federal money for the Title 1 program, President Obama is requiring that schools adopt more rigorous academic standards, particularly in reading and math. His proposal to create “college and career ready” standards is the reason we’ve updated our book for 9th graders, MAKING THE MOST OF HIGH SCHOOL, which is designed to build literacy and math skills in the context of helping students learn more about themselves and understand their strengths for success in college, career and life. In addition to content in every chapter that addresses the development issues for helping students make a smooth transition into high school, we’ve included new chapters on Technology and Financial Literacy that feature an eight-year finance plan. Projecting out for their high school and college years, the text helps students see how their math skills connect directly to real life. Resesarch shows that students are far more motivated to learn these skills when they can see the real-world correlation rather than learning these skills in isolation. To reserve a review copy of MAKING THE MOST OF HIGH SCHOOL, call us toll free at 1.877.737.8510 or email us at contact@lifebound.com.

ARTICLE:

New York Times
Obama to Propose New Reading and Math Standards
February 22, 2010
By SAM DILLON

WASHINGTON â€” In a proposed change to the No Child Left Behind law, the Obama administration would require states to adopt new academic standards to qualify for federal money from a $14 billion program that concentrates on impoverished students, the White House said Sunday.

The proposal, part of the administrationâ€™s recommendations for a Congressional overhaul of the law, would require states to adopt â€œcollege- and career-ready standardsâ€ in reading and mathematics.

The current law, signed by President George W. Bush in 2002, requires states to adopt â€œchallenging academic standardsâ€ in reading and math to receive federal money for poor students under the program known as Title I, but leaves it up to states to decide what qualifies as â€œchallenging.â€

The result was that states set their standards at widely varied levels, some as rigorous as those used in high-performing countries like Japan, but others at far lower levels that lay out at best, mediocre expectations for their students.

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