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Issues brief - 10/11/09
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1. Study Finds High Rate of Imprisonment Among Dropouts
Sam Dillion is reporting in the New York Times about a Northeastern University study which finds a high rate of dropouts in prison.
On any given day, about one in every 10 young male high school dropouts is in jail or juvenile detention, compared with one in 35 young male high school graduates, according to a new study of the effects of dropping out of school in an America where demand for low-skill workers is plunging.Americans, with nearly one in four young black male dropouts incarcerated or otherwise institutionalized on an average day, the study said. That compares with about one in 14 young, male, white, Asian or Hispanic dropouts.Researchers at Northeastern University used census and other government data to carry out the study, which tracks the employment, workplace, parenting and criminal justice experiences of young high school dropouts.“We’re trying to show what it means to be a dropout in the 21st century United States,” said Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern, who headed a team of researchers that prepared the report. “It’s one of the country’s costliest problems. The unemployment, the incarceration rates — it’s scary.”A coalition of civil rights and public education advocacy groups and a network of alternative schools in Chicago commissioned the report as part of a push for new educational opportunities for the nation’s 6.2 million high school dropouts.“The dropout rate is driving the nation’s increasing prison population, and it’s a drag on America’s economic competitiveness,” said Marc H. Morial, the former New Orleans mayor who is president of the National Urban League, one of the groups in the coalition that commissioned the report. “This report makes it clear that every American pays a cost when a young person leaves school without a diploma.”
Recently, the Seattle School Board delayed a decision to allow students with a “D” average to graduate. See, Issues Brief - 10/6/09 Melissa Allison and Amy Hernandez had a recent article in the Seattle Times about the difficulty even those with great credentials are having in the current labor market. See, Job Seekers Caught in a Retail Crunch The key is to identify at risk students early and correct the challenges they face in reading and other skills before they dropout or are in the case of the district proposal, simply get passed along. Simply passing children along without sufficient skills to support themselves and any others who may rely on them for support is a recipe for disaster.
2. Disputes About What a Study of Charter Schools Means
Deborah Viadero reports in Education Week about the dispute between researchers about whether there were methodology errors in a recent charter school study
The authors of a recent national study that found students in regular public schools outperforming their charter school peers are rebutting criticism that their research suffered from a “serious mathematical mistake” that negatively skewed the results.In a memorandumposted online last week, researchers from the Center for Research on Education Outcomes, or CREDO, at Stanford University responded to criticism made last month by their Stanford colleague Caroline M. Hoxby. Ms. Hoxby, an economics professor, issued a memo critiquing the CREDO study in tandem with results from her own study of charter schools in New York City.That study showed that charter schools in the city were having the opposite effect on their students’ achievement as the CREDO researchers found. Compared with their public school counterparts, Ms. Hoxby found, students in charter schools made more progress in closing achievement gaps with better-off peers in the suburbs. ("N.Y.C. Charters Found to Close Gaps," Sept. 22, 2009.)“She claims that we modeled charter schools in a particular way and that was inaccurate,” Margaret E. Raymond, CREDO’s director, said of Ms. Hoxby’s critique of the statistical analysis. “And her proof was based on her inaccurate specification.”Ms. Raymond said Ms. Hoxby’s critique also failed to consider the many factors that the CREDO study took into account in its analysis.Stakes High“Imagine that we’re going to compare height and shoe size, and that we’re going to do it for all the people in the office,” Ms. Raymond said. “Those two things might actually correlate in a particular way because they’re only two factors. But if we’re going to predict shoe size based on many more factors, like age or parents’ height or parents’ shoe sizes, that’s a much more precise way of estimating.”Criticism and RebuttalWith charter schools a high-profile policy issue, researchers who came to opposite conclusions about their effect on student achievement are debating their analyses.The CREDO researchers also argue in their memorandum that Ms. Hoxby’s estimates of the magnitude of the bias in their results was faulty.The researchers’ arguments failed, however, to persuade Ms. Hoxby. In an e-mail response to Education Week, she said CREDO’s analysis contained “logically incorrect assertions.”“They assert that the proof proceeds in a way that it does not,” Ms. Hoxby wrote. “Since their main rebuttal is based on misreading a simple proof, their rebuttal is wrong.”
My takeaway from this flap is there is no magic bullet or panacea in education. The only constant to life is change. Every child is unique although they may share some traits with other children. What might be a successful teaching strategy for one child in a family, for example, may not work with another child in that same family. What might be successful at one point in time might not be as successful later or may not work in all schools. The key is to have all available strategies available. Another point, children are failing in some public schools, so why is there reluctance to move them to schools where they might succeed? Adults, should get over their blind allegiance to political philosophies and theories begin to focus on what actually works in practice
3. We Need More Teachers Like This
Nelson Hernandez writes in the Washington Post about Mena Lofland, an old school type teacher who is very successful in developing entrepreneurs.
Mena Lofland didn't get so good at developing young entrepreneurs by being a softy.The business world is tough, and so is Lofland's world in Room 160 at Suitland High School. When two boys sitting in the back row slumped over and put their heads on their desks, she led them out into the hall and closed the door. From inside the classroom, her raised voice could be heard chewing them out."I don't play that," Lofland said afterward. If they'd done that at a business meeting, they would have been fired, she noted. And that would have sent them to the streets."I'm tired of burying these boys," she said.Lofland's business philosophy is that before her students can ever sell a product, they need to understand how to sell themselves. To judge from the numerous awards Suitland students have won and the business proposals scattered across Lofland's classroom, it's a skill many of them are mastering.
Reviewing the papers of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., one can only think what might have been. It seems that has next crusades might have focused on economic issues. In order to fully participate in this society, all types of people might be involved in and understand both economics and business. It is as crucial for inner city kids and children of color to be able to participate in the economic and business life of this country as it is for anyone else. This next thought might upset some, but to get to the point where people are judged on the content of their character, all people must participate in the economy. Junior Achievement of Washington teaches kids financial literacy.
4. Parental Guidance on Web Videos
Warren Buckleitner writes in the New York Times about how to provide parental guidance for video selection because YouTube is becoming a destination for children.
Yet, according to Nielsen VideoCensus, more children under 13 watched videos in August on YouTube than on Disney.com, Nick.com and Cartoon Network combined. There is also no shortage of children’s content on YouTube. KidZui.com, a subscription-based Web portal service, lists no fewer than 60,000 child-friendly selections on its site.Parents and teachers are discovering YouTube’s potential for exposing children to new ideas. Children can learn how to carve a pumpkin or improve their sketching skills. But it can just as easily expose them to videos of births, surgeries, corpses and executions — all things conscientious parents might prefer their children discover at a later age.In my own town of Flemington, N.J., it is easy to find plenty of YouTube-using children and cautious parents. When they are not playing on their Wii, the Liebowitz children, Seth, 5, and Asa, 7, like looking up videos of homemade skits involving Webkinz, the virtual reality toys, by typing in “Webkinz idol.” They giggle at the elaborate Evian commercial featuring roller skating babies (warning: you will giggle, too). None of the parents I interviewed felt completely safe giving their children free rein on YouTube, however. “I’ve done my own searches on the topics they look for, just to be sure,” said Brooke Liebowitz. “Plus, I’m always in the next room.”They also were not aware of YouTube’s customization features, intended to filter content or offer prescreened selections to their children. Here’s a tour of how to make the most of the service’s safety features.ACTIVATE YOUTUBE’S FILTER While salty language and edgy humor and are commonplace on YouTube, explicit content is rare. Still, it is smart to test the waters with a few of your child’s favorite search terms, just to make sure you are comfortable with what shows up.Make sure you scroll down to the comments, which is usually where offensive vocabulary appears. You can bleep out these comments automatically. Look at the top of the text comments column, and choose options. This leads to a set of preferences that includes “hide objectionable words.” Once clicked, it will replace offending words with rows of asterisks, before your child sees them. Your preferences will remain in place as long as you use the same browser.UPLOAD YOUR OWN VIDEO As a YouTube content provider, you quickly learn what you can and can’t do. This experience will help you and is an effective way to better understand how the process works.BE A HALL MONITOR Notice some nasty content? YouTube makes tattling easy. When you are on the site, look for the word flag below every video. Give it a click, and you can send the video to the YouTube screeners.This self-cleansing process can help keep bad surprises away from other people’s children, but it obviously isn’t perfect. YouTube’s Advance Search options also include the ability to prevent videos that have been tagged as explicit by the screeners, like news film of a suicide bombing, for example, from showing up in your child’s search results in the first place. For more details, explore the links at the bottom of the home page, including the YouTube safety centerKEEP UP WITH TRENDS To stay abreast of the bus stop conversation, you can use YouTube’s counters to keep up with the most-viewed videos. Here’s how.From the home page, click videos, and then most viewed, and then look for the word “when” and select a time option. You’ll see that “Evolution of Dance,” a comedy routine in which Judson Laipply demonstrates various dance moves, has more than 127 million views.Other high-ranking videos of interest to your children include Potter Puppet Pals — puppet versions of Harry Potter characters — in “The Mysterious Ticking Noise” (69 million views) and Animation vs. Animator, a stick-figure cartoon (almost five million views).Be just as aware of options outside YouTube. Sources of streaming video content for children continue to grow beyond YouTube’s servers. TV Guide’s Web site lists almost 900 full episodes of online children’s programs. Sources include Comcast’s Kabillion (kabillion.com/videos) and Hulu (hulu.com/channels/Family/Kids). /LEAVE THE SORTING TO PROS A growing number of sites are powered by YouTube, but operate independently. Two of the best are ZuiTube.com, with a library of 60,000 videos, and the Totlol.com, a Canadian site that can be customized by age. Both are free, with subscription options. Another, called Kideos.com, offers fewer choices, but a cleaner interface.GET YOUTUBE’S CHANNELS Besides steering your child toward preselected, high-interest videos, you can create an activity feed, which is a running list of the latest action on any channel you have subscribed to. Because your channel can be embedded outside of YouTube — in blogs, Facebook pages or Twitter — news of fresh video uploads can spread faster.
My article about content ratings discusses how to find family friendly entertainment.
Alerts
1. The October 8, 2009 Superintendent’s ENews
The October 8th edition of the Superintendent’s ENews discusses the new school assignment plan.
Families will be able to check their proposed attendance area schools online, based on their address using a web-based address lookup tool. Updated information about each school is provided in a School Snapshot that can be accessed online by selecting a school from the drop down menu available here.
Additional information about the New Student Assignment plan and answers to frequently asked questions are also available on our New Student Assignment Web page. Brochures with the proposed maps will be sent home to all Seattle Public Schools families and are widely available now at community locations.
There are also opportunities to discuss the assignment plan.
A complete list of community meetings is available here. Interpretive services will be available at all meetings. You can also provide input via an online survey or by email.
Dick Lilly, a former school board member, discusses the school assignment plan in Crosscut.
2. Music, Music Everywhere
Seattle has two very special music events coming up. One is the Earshot Jazz Festival and the other is Seattle Opera’s La traviata
a. Earshot Jazz Festival
Hugo Kugiya reports in the Seattle Times about the upcoming Earshot Jazz Festival
Earshot features more than 50 concerts and also makes generous use of local talent. It opens Friday night at the Triple Door with the Garfield High School Jazz Band, which won this year's prestigious Essentially Ellington competition in New York. Performing with the band will be Puerto Rican saxophonist Miguel Zenon, a recent winner of a MacArthur Foundation fellowship, better known as the "genius grant."The festival closes Nov. 8 with a performance of epic scale by Seattle bassist Evan Flory-Barnes, who will lead 35 musicians and 10 dancers in a large chamber work he composed called "Acknowledgement of a Celebration." It will be the first time this piece, which has elements of jazz, hip-hop and classical, has been performed in public.
b. La traviata
Bernard Jacobsen writes in the Seattle Times about the opening of La traviata
Lovable" is a word that it is hard to avoid when talking about Nuccia Focile. This is not one of those old-style sopranos with whom you have to suspend disbelief for the sake of a good voice. Slim and graceful, she is one of the finest singing actresses in the world. She simply was Mimì in the company's 2006 production of "La Bohème," and may be counted on to convince no less touchingly as Violetta, Verdi's and Dumas's "lady of the camellias."
Her counterpart, in what I suppose must be called the "B" cast (though gold threads often show up in what is known as the "silver" lineup), is the Cuban-born Eglise Guttiérrez, who was scarcely less adorable in "I Puritani" last year. The two Alfredos, Dimitri Pittas and Francesco Demuro, will both make Seattle Opera debuts. So will Weston Hurt, the second-cast Giorgio Germont, while the other occupant of the role, Charles Taylor, returns from the 2008 "Aida."
Borrowed from the San Francisco Opera, Mark Streshinsky's production, Jenkins says, is an entirely traditional and naturalistic one. On the musical side, the withdrawal of conductor Vjekoslav Sutej for health reasons must be regretted, but the baton will be in the capable hand of Brian Garman, music director of Seattle Opera's Young Artists program, who already has impressed in the program's recent productions of operas by Ravel, Puccini, and Britten.
The Seattle Times also provides a La traviata story synopsis
3. Signs of Anorexia in Teens
Barbara Poncelet writes at About.Com about the signs of anorexia in teens
One of the essential signs of the disease is that the person restricts what he or she eats, to the point where weight loss occurs. Here are some other signs:· Refusing to maintain a normal and healthy body weight.· Extreme fear of becoming fat or gaining weight.· Continuous dieting.· Excessive and compulsive exercising.· Being obsessed with diets, calories, nutritional information, fat grams, etc.· Being very restrictive of what he or she will eat (no carbohydrates, no fat, etc.)· Avoiding food and eating or denying hunger.· Developing rituals regarding food (eating food in a certain order, excessive chewing, etc.Symptoms of the disease include the physical consequences of not eating enough calories or nutrients. These symptoms include:· Amenorrhea. The anorexic never gets her first period or her periods stop or become less frequent· Muscle weakness and loss of muscle· Bones that become brittle and osteoporosis develops· Skin that becomes dry and hair can fall out· A fine layer of hair grows over the body· Weakness and tiredness· Fainting· Irritability, depression, withdrawal from friends and family· Low blood pressure or low pulse
Back to school brings a host of issues about whether children feel accepted. Middle school and high school can be challenging for some teens. The media often doesn’t help children to have a healthy body image. Recently, Ralph Lauren was correctly taken to task for airbrushing an underweight model making her look even more anorexic. See, Ralph Lauren digitally retouches a model's photo. The key is a healthy weight for each person and that weight is determined by a medical analysis of body type and body fat. People need to eat healthy most of the time with occasional splurges. Looking at the retouched Ralph Lauren model just made me want to shove some pasta her way. The unretouched photo shows the model at a healthier weight.
Dr. Wilda says this about that ©
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