America is an aging nation. A recent Education Week article entitled, “In Districts Where Seniors Outnumber Children, Schools Adjust,” points out that “[s]eniors now outnumber students in more than 900 counties across the U.S., and that “seniors outnumber schoolchildren by more than 2-to-1 in 33 counties,” according to recent numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau. This can have a significant effect on education funding, as senior citizens are statistically more likely to favor lower taxes and cuts in education spending. The same article points out, however, that some of these counties have found ways to minimize this effect by involving the local senior population in the school experience. In a book published several years ago entitled, Gray Dawn: How the Coming Age Wave Will Transform American — And the World, Peter G. Peterson explored not only these implications in the U.S. but also aging trends worldwide.

Today, let’s look at the United States. The Allegheny Valley school district in Pennsylvania fosters “good will” between young students and the aging population by avoiding pushes for tax increases, as well as by hosting a yearly senior brunch and inviting the seniors to academic presentations and Veteran’s Day activities. Sumter County, Florida, which has one of the largest senior-to-student ratios in the country, teaches lifelong learning courses on one of its campuses, which also organized a volunteer corps where participating seniors donate 6,000 to 7,000 hours a year. These programs have been successful in involving seniors in education and encouraging them to take an interest in children’s lives. The direct benefits for students who interact with seniors, however, could be proportionately greater. Most important, these communities value the wisdom seniors can impart to young people providing a role for seniors in their golden years and showing young people how to build valuable relationships with mentors who can help them.

The program Elias suggests is one of many possible ways to involve seniors in the classroom to their and the students’ mutual benefit. As they share in these experiences, teachers will have a unique opportunity to form bridges across the generation gap that will influence their students (and participating seniors) for the rest of their lives. Students today need experience, wisdom, and positive role models. Every community, regardless of religious, political, or social affiliation, can benefit from this collaboration.

Alignment is key to getting more students through school and into a fulfilling career. We need to align middle school to high school, high school to college, and college to career. We also need alignent between K-12 systems, colleges, and businesses. And most importantly between students, schools, and parents.

Fixing education is a community effort that requires collaboration from every piece of the puzzle. In a recent Education Week article, “For Many Latino Students, College Seems Out of Reach,” we get powerful examples of how more Hispanic students are going on to college by aligning early education with future careers and emphasizing the power of community. Making higher education accessible to more of the Hispanic population is a high priority. In the next fifteen years, it’s predicted that 60% of the workforce will be Hispanic. Today, less adult Hispanics have finished some college or an associate’s than Asians, whites, and blacks, according to the article. Below are examples of how it looks when K-12 schools, business, and colleges work together to impact the future of our students and workforce.

K12 Schools: Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School in Manhattan serves a student population between 6th and 12th grade that is 98 percent Latino and 100 percent qualified for free and reduced lunch. Principal Brett Kimmel says in the article, “Our goal is to work with students and families to prepare academically and socially for success in college and beyond.” How? By creating a “college -going culture” starting in 6th grade that parents, students, and educators are involved in. 100 percent of this year’s graduating class has applied to college.

Creating a college-going culture is important for all students. Whether the college culture is supported in the home, at school, or both, students can get more personally invested in their K-12 education when they can make correlations between school, college, and career.

Businesses: Nonprofits like College Possible and Harlem Educational Activities Fund (HEAF) provide free after-school and summer programs for low-income students, many of whom English is not their native language. These programs help students prepare for the ACT and SAT. They also help students and their families fill out FAFSA forms and other college entrance paperwork. The majority of students who use these resources are first-generation college students who have limited outside help during the college application process, according to the article.

This summer LifeBound created a summer learning experience with help from doctors at Denver Health’s La Casa/Quigg Newton. We supplied students with our book Study Skills for High School Students to read with their parents to improve literacy, mastery of the English language, and skills to succeed in school. See my article from early this summer about working with La Casa/Quigg Newton.

College Outreach: Some colleges have included programs that start teaching kids about college as soon as 7th grade. The need to create a college culture as soon as possible for students and their families is repeated here. Students can’t be the only ones invested in pursuing a college education. Their parents must also support, understand, and motivate their children to get through school with a college and career focus. Colleges with an outreach program have meetings with families that teach them how to fill-out college applications and financial aid paperwork so they feel included in the process. They might also ensure students are up to speed on their academics by having them take math and reading placement exams before entering college.

Schools around the country have seen amazing changes once their students understand a college education is an attainable goal that leads to a brighter future. How can you mentor one student to consider college or help them with the application program? How can your community support students who have a desire to earn a college degree?

Promoting unity between learning and future opportunities can stabilize American education and grow our workforce.

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“For Many Latino Students, College Seems Out of Reach,” by Caralee J. Adams. 7 June 2012. Education Week. Accessed on 22 June 2012. http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/06/07/34college.h31.html

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:

Lessons on the events of 9/11 are not included in social studies standards for more than half of American classrooms. As we approach the 10th anniversary of the attacks on September 11, students will be hearing many stories about the tragedy on the Internet, radio or television, around the dinner table, or possibly in conversations with friends. These students have spent most or all of their lives in an America where terrorism is a real threat, but how much do they know about it and have they ever been taught how to cope with it?

Whether students are old enough to remember the day of the attack or not, this upcoming anniversary presents an opportunity to not only reflect on 9/11, but start discussions about bigger concepts like coping with a tragedy, healing, and community.

In the following activity, students will start a campaign to build a conscience classroom community that everyone wants to be a part of and be accountable for.

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Materials:

• Writing materials

Grades:

• Elementary through middle school

Description:

• Students will discuss the behavior they do and do not want to see in class. After all students have shared their ideas, write the 5 most popular answers on poster board for the class to see so they can be reminded of the community they wanted to build.

Start a class discussion about behavior students would like to see, or not see, in the class. This can be something that they do personally or that they see other people do. Get students thinking about the best way they can operate as a community by asking questions like the following:

• What are a few goals you have for this semester? (Passing the class, showing up to class on time, asking more questions)
• What are a few things that get in the way of you reaching your goals?
• How can you overcome your obstacles?
• What is one thing you wish you could change in the classroom environment? (More respect from peers)
• What behaviors would you like to see practiced in class?
• What behaviors would you like to see not practiced in class?
• What is your ideal learning environment?

Give students time to think on their own about these questions. Then, have them write down the class rules they think should be implemented and respected by all the class. Answers might include:

• Arriving to class on time
• Raising your hand when you need to speak
• Being quiet when you take a seat
• Respecting people’s space and things

Have each student share their best proposed rules with the class. Choose the top 5 rules from the class and write them on poster board to hang somewhere in the classroom. Decide how the community will enforce their rules. Is it okay for one student to tell another that they aren’t following the community rules, or do they need to tell the teacher? How will students be accountable for sticking to the rules they created? Do they need to be told to respect the rules? When students share their ideas, if they sound accusatory, ask them how they can make the statement into a positive.

When students are given a say in developing the classroom rules they are more likely to follow them and keep their classmates in check. Developing a community in the classroom is just one way to make your classroom come together while teaching the importance and power of working with peers toward a common goal.