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There isn’t a greater correlation than between poor and rich students.  The latest survey by the Pew Research Center found half of all students in higher income families have access to the Internet at home through a computer or mobile device. The figure drops to 20 percent for middle income children and just 3 percent of students from poor homes.

Technology has become essential to middle school and high school learning, but a gap in access to the Internet between the rich and poor is leading to troubling disparities in education. The growing disparity of Internet access is leading to a gap in performance, about 56 percent of teachers said.

 

Let me start by saying that I am opposed to the Common Core Standards for a variety of reasons. 

 I do not believe that a single measure can address the myriad of problems in education.  I also believe that we need to “follow the money” ““ where has the Common Core come from?  Who has financed it and who will profit when it is implemented? I do not believe that the winners of the common core will be the students or their parents.  The blog that follows identifies many of the reasons why I oppose the common core but Anthony Cody states it more clearly and better than I can.  After reading this, please pass it on, whether you agree with it or not.  It is entitled “Common Core Standards: Ten Colossal Errors.”

https://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2013/11/common_core_standards_ten_colo.html?cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS2

According to Child Trends, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research center on children and youth issues, examined a range of available statistics to provide this portrait of the high school class of 2013:

• 89 are covered by health insurance.
• 71 have experienced physical assault; 28 have been victimized sexually; 32 have experienced some form of child maltreatment.
• 68 will go on to a college or university.
• 64 have had sexual intercourse.
• 56 participated in school sports in the past year.
• 54 are white; 23 are Latino; 15 are African American; 8 are something else.
• 53 have parents who say their neighborhood is “always safe.”
• 51 used no alcohol, cigarettes, or illicit drugs during the past 30 days.
• 48 are sexually active.  27 of them used a condom and 12 were on birth control pills the last time they had sex.
• 45 get the recommended amount of physical activity.
• 45 watch television for one hour or less on weekdays; 20 watch four hours or more.
• 39 participated in school music or other performing arts in the past year.
• 39 have ever been bullied, physically or emotionally; 16 have been bullied in the past year.
• 38 have a reading achievement-test score that puts them in the “proficient or above” category.
• 35 volunteered in the past year.
• 35 eat meals together with their families 6 or 7 days a week; 35 do so on three or fewer days.
• 34 are overweight; of these, 18 are obese.
• 29 felt “sad and hopeless” continuously for at least two weeks during the past year.
• 28 attend religious services at least once at week; 26 say religion plays a very important role in their lives.
• 28 rode in a car during the past year with a driver who had been drinking.
• 27 were in a physical fight last year.
• 27 have a writing achievement-test score that puts them in the “proficient or above” category.
• 26 have a mathematics achievement-test score that puts them in the “proficient or above” category.
• 24 were binge-drinking in the past two weeks.
• 23 smoked marijuana in the past 30 days.
• 22 are living in poverty; 10 are living in deep poverty.
• 21 had a sexually transmitted infection in the past year.
• 18 have special health care needs.
• 17 are current cigarette smokers.
• 17 are employed.
• 16 carried a weapon in the past year.
• 14 thought seriously about attempting suicide in the past year; 6 went through with the attempt; and 2 required medical attention afterward.
• 12 have ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder).
• 12 had unintentional injuries in the past year that required attention in a hospital emergency room.
• 11 have asthma.
• 10 have at some time been diagnosed by a professional with having a learning disability.
• 10 report they were victims of dating violence in the past year.
• 10 report they have been raped.
• 8 used an illicit drug other than marijuana in the past 30 days.
• 8 have unmet dental needs.
• 7 smoke marijuana every day, or nearly every day.
• 6 were victims of hate speech during the past six months.
• 4 have an eating disorder where they’ve vomited or taken laxatives to lose weight.
• 3 were victims of violent crime in the past year.
• Of the females, 3 or 4 have been, or are, pregnant. One has had an abortion.
• 1 used steroids in the past year.
• 1 or two are in foster care.

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If you like British humor, try this one.

I am indebted to Youth Today for seeking out and identifying these grants.  More grants can be found on their website.  The General Mills Foundation – Champions for Healthy Kids program Deadline: March 15th, 2014 Through the Champions for Healthy Kids program, the General Mills Foundation will award 50 grants of to nonprofit organizations working to improve nutrition and physical fitness behaviors for youth. The Foundation will begin accepting applications February 1, 2014. Funder: The General Mills Foundation Eligibility: Organizations must have a current 501(c)(3) Public Charity status from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), be a school or a unit of government. Programs should be focused towards youth ages 2-18. Program must incorporate physical education and nutrition education. A registered dietician or registered dietetic technician must oversee the delivery of the nutrition education. Amount: $10,000   Dorothea Haus Ross Foundation – Child Welfare and Health Grants Deadline: Ongoing. The Ross Foundation provides direct aid and assistance to vulnerable children, including those who are ill, orphaned, disabled, injured, disfigured, abused and malnourished or have limited access to education.  They are looking for small grassroots projects that they can fully fund or nearly fully fund with the small grants that they make.  The Ross Foundation is less interested in larger projects or capital campaigns that are better left to larger foundations and organizations. Funder: Dorothea Haus Ross Foundation Eligibility: The Ross Foundation provides financial assistance to organizations that are qualified under the laws of the United States Department of the Treasury as a charitable organization for projects that directly benefit vulnerable children. The foundation typically does not fund day-to-day operations, individuals, conferences, day care or public education. Water projects are limited to schools, orphanages and medical centers where children predominate. Amount: Generally $1,000 – $15,000. Larger grants are made occasionally. The Harry Chapin Foundation – Community Education, Arts-In-Education, and Agricultural and Environmental Grant Programs??Deadline: Ongoing.?The Foundation will focus its funding program in the following areas: community education programs that identify community needs and mobilize resources to meet them, fostering social and economic justice; arts in education programs and other approaches to educating young people which create a healthier and more peaceful world; agricultural programs that support the preservation of individually-owned farms and support for citizen organizations that promote equitable food production and distribution; and environmental programs which promote a safe and sustainable environment.?Funder: The Harry Chapin Foundation Eligibility: 501(c)(3) not for profit programs that operate in the United States.?Amount: up to $10,000   Conservation Program to Introduce Youth to Natural Resource Conservation Careers??Deadline: December 4th, 2014?The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) intends to award funds to the Student Conservation Association (SCA) for a period not to exceed five years. The funds are intended to provide an introductory developmental educational experience of natural resource careers to young people, including culturally, ethnically and economically diverse students, through training, hands-on experience and mentoring at a variety of USFWS programs including, but not limited to, national wildlife refuges, fish hatcheries, and ecological services offices. Under this program, individuals and/or groups of youth and young adults will be introduced to natural resources careers through hands-on work with, and training by, natural resource professionals employed by the USFWS.?Funder: Fish and Wildlife Service?Eligibility: Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education.?Amount: Unspecified.

 

A new book by Amanda Ripley ‘The Smartest Kids in the World:  And How They Got that Way” follows three American students who visit  Finland, South Korea and Poland and find out what those nations are doing differently in order to become the top preforming educational nations.

It appears that the schools in each of those nations excel because everyone focuses their energy on academic achievement and not sports, technology or excuses for failure.  In Finland, the government has poured money into teaching, making it a prestigious, well-paid profession.  One hundred percent of Finland’s teachers graduate in the top quarter of their high school classes.  In Poland, all students take the same rigorous curriculum through age 16, whether they plan to go to college or not.  In South Korea, after a full day of school, students attend “cram school” where classes last until midnight.

In Poland, the American student is shocked to find out that team sports do not exist at the school he is visiting.  In Finland, the American students asks why students work so hard.  The response is, “How else will I graduate and go to a a university and get a good job?”

Are American parents, politicians, teachers and universities willing to listen to these messages?

 

????The Dollar General Foundation – Youth Literacy Grants??Deadline: August 2014?[These grants will be available starting Jan. 2014]?Dollar General Literacy Foundation Youth Literacy Grants provide funding to schools, public libraries, and nonprofit organizations to help students who are below grade level or experiencing difficulty reading. Grant funding is provided to assist in the following areas: Implementing new or expanding existing literacy programs. Purchasing new technology or equipment to support literacy initiatives. Purchasing books, materials or software for literacy programs Youth Literacy Programs. Funder: Dollar General Literacy Foundation Eligibility: Schools, Public libraries, and Nonprofit Organizations. Amount: up to $4,000. National Science Foundation – Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate Deadline: February 12th, 2014?Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) is committed to the national goal of increasing the numbers of underrepresented minorities (URMs), including those with disabilities, entering and completing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) graduate education and postdoctoral training to levels representative of the available pool. URMs include African Americans, Hispanic Americans, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders. Increased URM participation in advanced STEM education and training is critical for supporting the development of a diverse professional STEM workforce especially a diverse STEM faculty who serve as the intellectual, professional, personal, and organizational role models that shape the expectations of future scientists and engineers. To achieve this long term goal, the AGEP program will support the development, implementation, study, and dissemination of innovative models and standards of graduate education and postdoctoral training that are designed to improve URM participation, preparation, and success. AGEP projects must focus on URM U.S. citizens in STEM graduate education, and/or postdoctoral training, and their preparation for academic STEM careers at all types of institutions of higher education. STEM professional development more broadly may be included in projects with a strong and compelling argument. AGEP is interested in proposals that include any or all STEM fields supported by NSF including the social, behavioral and economic sciences, and multi-, cross-, or inter-disciplinary STEM fields.?Funder: National Science Foundation?Eligibility: Proposals are invited from strategic alliances of institutions and organizations. Alliance partners may include all types of non-profit institutions of higher education, industry, non-profit organizations, and/or Federal National laboratories (note that AGEP grant funding is limited to the organizations that are eligible for NSF support). Amount: $200,000- $1,750,000

 

As all of you who have attended my workshops and as many of you know in live in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Our governor, Suzanna Martinez, has proposed paying teachers from high-performing schools to move to low-performance schools.  This has already been tried in Albuquerque where $4.5 million has been spent paying teachers $5,000 a year ($100 a week) to move to low-performing schools.  At the end of three years, scores in a low performing middle school not improved, but math schools have doubled. In the low-performing high school test scores have remained flat (and low) as have graduation rates.  While I believe we need to try a variety of things to improve schools, this plan raises some issues:

Labeling every teacher in a low-performing school as a “failure” and every teacher in a high-performing school as a “success” makes little or no sense.  Great schools have low-performing teachers just as low-performing schools have great teachers.

The current high-performers in low-performing schools will not receive the bonuses nor any recognition of their dedication and hard work.

Politicians are looking for sound bite solutions to highly complex problems.  Believing that they can solve the problems of education by focusing on one aspect while ignoring other aspects like poverty, and the role family plays in education doesn’t make any sense to me.

If your state/city has similar plans, you might want to send the school board and superintendent this blog.