My New Blogs on the Huffington Post

Last week I had my first blog published on Huffington Post. The open forum in the Huffington Post comment sections has already been a great writing and learning experience, and I look forward to engaging with more opinionated readers.

My latest article explores why low-income students are often less likely to receive a quality K-12 education, graduate from high school, and enter college with college-level skills. Over the next few weeks I’m going to continue the conversation by sharing how low-income students can find learning opportunities outside of school to improve their personal, academic, and professional achievement as well as share some stories of  people I know personally who have overcome poverty.

You can read and comment on my blog “Why Aren’t Low-Income Students Succeeding in School?”  at the Huffington Post.

“We cannot rest until each of us would be satisfied with randomly assigning our own children to any public school in the nation.” 


-  Jason Kamras

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Education Equity: Involving Students, Parents, Community this Summer

Children from low-income families tend to fall behind their more affluent peers in every stage of life. They are less likely to be prepared to enter school at age 5, achieve academic and social competencies by the end of elementary schools graduate from high school with good grades, no crime involvement, or teen pregnancy, or achievement equivalent income in their twenties.[i] 

This summer, LifeBound is working to equalize summer learning opportunities for students by assisting communities, organizations, school districts, and individuals in creating a summer learning solution that fits their students’ needs. Early and consistent intervention is key to student success.
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Opportunities for Low-Income Students: Summer Learning and Work Which Turns to Gold

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.

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The Real Cost of Cutting Art Programs for Low-Income Kids

Education in the arts can do more than boost a student’s creativity. A new report by the National Endowment for the Arts shows high school students who had “arts-rich experiences” had a higher overall GPA than students who weren’t involved in the arts. The report also found disadvantaged high school students involved in the arts were more likely to enroll in competitive colleges than their peers who weren’t involved, according to the article “Arts Involvement Narrows Student Achievement Gap.

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Fight Summer Learning Losses: Preparing for a Summer of Reading, Engagement, and Curiosity

Spring break is coming to an end and that’s a sure sign summer vacation will be here before we know it. When students go on summer vacation it is important for them to be mentally challenged. Why?  Students who aren’t engaged in learning activities don’t  retain information learned during the school year and often start the following year behind their counterparts who do grow their brains in the summer.
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Funding STEM Education: Corporations Give Big Money But Not Ideas

One-quarter of high school students drop out every year. Of the students who do graduate, two-fifths leave underprepared for college or career and fifty-seven percent leave not having mastered remedial math, according to a recent Fast Company article.  These statistics are tragic, but anymore, they aren’t shocking. Today, there is a fight for better institutions, educators, leaders, technology, funding, parents, and students. The article goes on to share some statistics that show why the fight is more important than ever.
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The Achievement Gap: Students with Devices Lack Internet Access

We have many dreams for today’s students. We want to ensure they get an education that prepares them for a successful career. We want them to have all the latest technology. We want them to use technology to become a new generation of innovators and creative thinkers. We want them to have the best teachers. We want a system that values learning, not memorization.

Many people have many different ideas for how education can be reformed, but they all have one thing in common: they they all require funding.

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Students Speak-up for their Technological Rights

Some schools choose to ban technology, saying it’s not that complicated and kids will learn it later. Other classrooms fully embrace technology to open windows to new worlds, including their own. But for many schools, financial restraints make the choice for them. Recently a group of inner-city students from Los Angeles who were fated with a technology depleted school decided instead of accepting their circumstances, they should set out to to start a revolution and change them, according to the Mind/Shift article “Students Demand the Right to Use Technology in Schools.”

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