Developing World Class Schools and Graduates
I am in the process of writing a book dealing with “Safe Schools”. I would appreciate any suggestion in how your districts are dealing with bullying, cyber bullying, fighting, suicides, etc. Please send any suggestions to [email protected]
And thank you.
Chicago, like many places, has a truancy problem. The data indicate that truancy is a major predictor of students dropping out of school. As a result, a “Truancy in Chicago Public Schools Task Force” is being formed that would include representatives appointed by the statehouse leadership, as well as by city and state schools officials, the governor and Chicago’s mayor, community groups and business leaders, and top state agencies.
The task force would schedule public hearings and report its findings to the general assembly next year.
Chapa LaVia (D-Aurora) is seeking to create the task force in response to a Chicago Tribune investigation finding that nearly 32,000 Chicago students in grades K-8 “” or roughly 1 in 8 “” missed four weeks or more of class during the 2010-11 year, while the cash-strapped district does little to stem the problem.
Absenteeism in the elementary grades is especially acute in African-American communities on the South and West Sides that are scarred by gang violence, unemployment and poverty. Counting truancy, excused absences and gaps in enrollment, more than 20 percent of black elementary school students missed at least four weeks of school in 2010-11, compared with 7 percent of whites and 8 percent of Hispanics, the Tribune found.
Children with a learning or emotional disability also miss class in disproportionate numbers, despite federal laws designed to keep such students in school. About 42 percent of K-8 students with an emotional disability missed four weeks of classes in 2010-11, compared with 12 percent of students without a disability, for example.
The flood of empty desks places the education of thousands of children in peril, undermines the Chicago Public Schools’ efforts to boost achievement and costs the district millions in attendance-based funding, the Tribune found.
Does your district have a truancy problem? What is the district doing to lower the truancy rate, especially among elementary school students?
Most people go to college to get a higher paying job. In the current economic climate, what are the most lucrative jobs for those with a college degree and what do they have in common?
The top 15 highest-earning college degrees all have one thing in common””math skills. That’s according to a recent survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers, which tracks college graduates’ job offers. Specifically, engineering diplomas account for 12 of the 15 top-paying majors. The three non-engineering majors in the top 15″”computer science, actuarial science, and construction management””all require a high level of math skill.
While engineering graduates are feeling the pinch of fewer job offers, graduates with technology degrees have an advantage in a tough job market. “It’s a tech-driven world, and demand [for engineers] is only going to grow,” said Farnoosh Torabi, employment expert and Quicken blog editor. “You can’t say that about many fields, especially in a recession.”
15 Top-Earning Degrees
1. Petroleum engineering $83,121
2. Chemical engineering $64,902
3. Mining engineering $64,404
4. Computer engineering $61,738
5. Computer science $61,407
6. Electrical engineering $60,125
7. Mechanical engineering $58,766
8. Industrial engineering $58,358
9. Systems engineering $57,438
10. Engineering technology $56,447
11. Actuarial science $56,320
12. Aeronautical engineering $56,311
13. Agricultural engineering $54,352
14. Biomedical engineering $54,158
15. Construction management $53,199
Source: National Association of Colleges and Employers
U.S. Soccer Foundation – Program and Safe Places to Play Grants
Deadline: October 1st, 2013
The U.S. Soccer Foundation awards grants on an annual basis to support both soccer programs and field-building initiatives in underserved areas nationwide. Grants are provided to support all aspects of the game – from assisting programs with operational costs to creating Safe Places to Play.
Funder: The U.S. Soccer Foundation
Eligibility: Any organization with a 501(c)(3) tax exempt status may apply. This can also include churches, individual schools or school districts, cities or municipalities, etc.
Amount: Program Grants: up to $50,000
Search: Safe Places to Play Grants: Varies depending on project scope.
W.K. Kellogg Foundation – Family Engagement Efforts to Support Early Childhood Educational Success
Deadline: September 23rd, 2013
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) announces a $5 million investment to identify and cultivate innovations in the growing field of family engagement that support children’s educational success from birth to 8 years old. Organizations that have developed effective family engagement models that address obstacles faced by low-income families are encouraged to send initial submissions.
WKKF defines family engagement as a shared responsibility of families, schools and communities for student learning and achievement. It is a continuous process from birth to third grade and beyond that occurs across multiple settings where children learn. The foundation seeks to support and expand on-the-ground family engagement efforts that include program design and implementation, service delivery and/or policy development and implementation.
Funder: The W.K. Kellogg Foundation
Eligibility: Public entities or nonprofit organizations that are tax-exempt under Section 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code and can demonstrate the fiscal capacity to manage the funds are welcome to apply.
Amount: up to $500,000.
Contact: The W.K.Kellogg Foundation
These grants are listed on the Youth Today website. There are many others. Check: https://youthtoday.org/grants.cfm?topic_id=99
According to Marcie Lipsitt co-chair of the Michigan Alliance for Special Education, the sequestration cuts are devastating special education. There is a 5% reduction in federal funding of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Lipsitt said it means that many schools have eliminated resource rooms where children can go to get help in areas such as math, reading, writing and organizational skills. Many schools will have fewer speech, occupational or physical therapists, along with social workers and school psychologists, which means students who previously received speech therapy twice a week might only receive it once week, for example. And in some general education classrooms that had two teachers ““ one for the whole class and one specifically to support students with special needs ““ the special education teacher has been eliminated.
There is little hard data on the impact of the budget cuts on special education. The U.S. Department of Education estimates the sequester cut about $579 million in federal funding for IDEA Part B, which supports students age 3-21 with specific learning disabilities, speech or language impairments, intellectual disabilities, autism or emotional disturbances.
The National Education Association estimated that if states and local school systems did not replace any of the funds lost through sequestration, nearly 300,000 students receiving special education services would be affected. The union estimated up to 7,800 jobs could be lost as a result of the federal budget cuts. 6.5 million disabled children from ages 3-21 received services funded by the
In a survey by American Association of School Administrators, earlier this year on the impact of the recession on schools, more superintendents indicated that special education spending would decline for the first time in the nearly five years the survey has been conducted. In previous years, school systems were able to cover the cuts in federal funding, but superintendents indicated this year they can no longer do so because of continuing recessionary pressures and the depth of the sequestration cuts.
Those cuts further exacerbate the federal government’s chronic underfunding of its contribution toward the education of students with disabilities. Under the IDEA, the federal government committed to giving states funding for up to 40% of the difference between the cost of educating a disabled student and a general student. The most the federal government has ever given the states is 18.5% in 2005 (aside from a one-time infusion of economic stimulus funding in fiscal year 2009). Under the sequester, the federal share fell to 14.9%, the lowest federal contribution by percent dating to 2001. Federal funding aside, local school systems are obligated by law to provide children with disabilities with a free appropriate education.
The impact of the sequester on special education varies from state to state and even district to district. Many school systems have also reduced or eliminated staff development, which is critical in special education.
Virginia schools reported big cuts in budgets for materials and technologies to support students with disabilities, which can include electronic devices to help nonverbal students communicate, technology to help students who are hearing-impaired and computers to enlarge text, for example.
In Florida, Broward County this year eliminated five of 11 behavior specialists, 10 program specialists and an assistant technology position.
As schools reopen across America, teachers will see that there will be significant changes in the curriculum and battles about educators will be evaluated. These changes will be one of the most dramatic in the way public education plays out in classrooms.
Forty-five states and the District of Columbia have adopted the Common Core math and language art- standards which spell out about what students should know at each grade level. More than 40 states have agreed to link teacher evaluations to test scores or other student-achievement measures and four states plan to remove teacher licenses if the students do not improve.
Fourteen states have passed laws allowing for more charter schools.
Eight states have adopted or expanded voucher programs allowing tax monies to be used to pay for private or church-run schools.
It looks like it will be an interesting school year.
As early as 1st grade, factors such as reading below grade level or racking up more than nine absences in a year can exponentially increase the odds that a students will eventually drop out of school, according to Montgomery County’s data. Most modern early-warning systems have evolved out of the work of Robert Balfanz, the co-director of the Everyone Graduates Center and a research scientist at the Center for Social Organization of Schools at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and from the University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research. Research from the Johns Hopkins center showed that three red flags””chronic absenteeism, severe disciplinary infractions, and reading or mathematics failures””signal a student’s disengagement from school and predict his or her risk of dropping out as early as 6th grade.
The Montgomery County district compared the grades, attendance, and behavior of 723 dropouts from the class of 2011 and 523 dropouts from the class of 2012 with those of their classmates who graduated. The early-warning system reverse-engineers a risk profile based on warning signs at four critical transition points: spring of 1st grade and fall of 3rd, 6th, and 9th grades.
For example, chronic absenteeism is generally defined as missing 10 percent or more days of school, excused or unexcused. In Montgomery County, Mr. West found virtually no pupils in the early-elementary grades missed 20 days of school. But missing as few as nine days of school nearly doubled a student’s risk of dropping out later.
Report card grades proved to be the strongest predictor of dropout risk found in grades 1 and 3. An overall GPA of 1.2 (roughly a D) in the spring of 1st grade more than doubled a student’s risk of dropping out later on, and more specifically, reading or doing math below grade level in 1st grade increased dropout risk by 134 percent.
In later years, lower academic performance was even more predictive, even with higher report card grades. At both the 6th and 9th grades, a student with a GPA below 3.0 and no other risk factors still was more than 3½ times more likely to drop out of school.All told, a combination of the grades, attendance, and behavior indicators in 1st grade predicted about 75 percent of the students who dropped out in the classes of 2011 and 2012. A quarter to one-third of students who had at least one warning sign in 1st grade had more red flags in the 6th and 9th grades.
While Montgomery’s early-warning system is not yet being used to track individual students in real time, the district is changing the way it talks about student risk factors. For example, the data showed that more than 60 percent of students who dropped out were not from poor families. English-language learners were overrepresented among dropouts in the class of 2011″”16 percent compared to the 4 percent district average””and special education students accounted for more than one in five dropouts in 2011, higher than their 11 percent share of the class overall. Still, Mr. West argued grade and behavior indicators proved more reliable and less discriminatory than looking at socioeconomics or race.One reason for caution: At early grades, the system can show almost 50 percent more students at risk of dropping out as those who ultimately do. Still, Mr. West noted that it’s not certain whether the false positives come from mistakes that make sense in context””for example, a high-performing student who gets chicken pox and misses two weeks of school””or the effect of interventions to help at-risk students in later grades.
“You will not reduce dropout rates by [identifying] the students; it’s what you do with them,” he said. “Early-warning systems are not an intervention strategy; they are part of an intervention strategy. They are not a magic bullet.”The district is working to analyze changes in the indicators from grade to grade to find the trajectories that might be more accurate predictors than at a single grade. It is also analyzing data from its high school graduates to find indicators associated with later college persistence.
Not all learning takes place in the classroom. As educational budgets get cut, it becomes increasingly difficult to fund field trips. Target funds field trips up to $700 in all states. Please be aware of the September 30th deadline.
Target – Field Trip Grants
Deadline: September 30th, 2013
“Some of the best learning opportunities happen outside the classroom. We’re bringing students once-in-a-lifetime learning experiences through field trips they’ll never forget… It’s become increasingly difficult for schools to fund learning opportunities outside the classroom. To help them out, we launched Field Trip Grants in 2007. Since then, we’ve made it possible for millions of students to go on a field trip.”
Funder: Target
Eligibility: K-12 schools nationwide.
Amount: up to $700.
Contact: Target Field Trip Grants
Source: Youth Today Grants