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GAO report: Better oversight is needed in program for homeless children

Moi wrote in 3rd world America: Money changes everything: The increased rate of poverty has profound implications if this society believes that ALL children have the right to a good basic education. Moi blogs about education issues so the reader could be perplexed sometimes because moi often writes about other things like nutrition, families, and personal responsibility issues. Why? The reader might ask? Because children will have the most success in school if they are ready to learn. Ready to learn includes proper nutrition for a healthy body and the optimum situation for children is a healthy family. Many of societies’ problems would be lessened if the goal was a healthy child in a healthy family. There is a lot of economic stress in the country now because of unemployment and underemployment. Children feel the stress of their parents and they worry about how stable their family and living situation is.

This government, both parties, has failed to promote the kind of economic development AND policy which creates livable wage jobs. That is why Mc Donalds is popular for more than its dollar menu. They are hiring people.
This economy must focus on job creation and job retention and yes, hope. Both for those racing through college and those who have paid their education and training dues. “You deserve a break today at Mc Donalds,” the only employer who seems to be hiring. https://drwilda.com/2011/11/22/3rd-world-america-the-economy-affects-the-society-of-the-future/

Lauren Camera reported in the Education Week article, Better Oversight Needed of Federal Program for Homeless Students, GAO Says:

The U.S. Department of Education needs to provide better oversight of a federal program aimed at ensuring that homeless students have access to the public education system, a new Government Accountability Office report found.
The authors of the report, obtained by Education Week, listed several challenges to the Education for Homeless Children and Youth program, which provides students with transportation to and from school as well as wraparound services such as health care, counseling, and food assistance. The biggest of those include limited staff and resources, the high cost of transportation, student stigma associated with homelessness, and responding to students made homeless by natural disasters.
And while the department has protocols for monitoring the program, the report notes, it doesn’t have a plan to ensure adequate oversight in every state. In fact, it the department assessed the program in just 28 states from fiscal year 2010 to 2013, and in only three states since then….. http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2014/08/gao_report_ed_department_needs.html

Here are the highlights of the GAO report:

Contact:
Kay Brown
(202) 512-7215
brownke@gao.gov
Office of Public Affairs
(202) 512-4800
youngc1@gao.gov
What GAO Found
To identify and serve homeless students under the Education for Homeless Children and Youth (EHCY) program, officials in the 20 school districts where GAO conducted interviews reported conducting a range of activities to support homeless youth, but cited several challenges. With regard to GAO’s interviews, 13 of the 20 districts identified homeless students through housing surveys at enrollment, while all 20 relied on referrals from schools or service providers. However, officials in 8 of the 20 districts noted that the under-identification of homeless students was a problem. Districts GAO reviewed provided eligible students with transportation to and from school, educational services, and referrals to other service providers for support such as health care or food assistance. Among the challenges that officials in the 20 districts cited were limited staff and resources to provide services, the cost of transportation, student stigma associated with homelessness, and responding to students made homeless by natural disasters. Nationally, school districts surveyed most recently in school year 2010-11 by the Department of Education (Education) reported providing many services while facing similar challenges.
Education’s EHCY program manager and state program coordinators have collaborated with other government agencies and with private organizations by sharing information, participating in interagency councils on homelessness, and providing technical assistance to relevant staff. In addition, state EHCY program coordinators have provided training to school districts and helped connect local programs to ensure homeless students receive various services. However, federal and state officials frequently cited limited resources and differing federal definitions of homelessness as constraints to greater collaboration.
Education has protocols for monitoring state EHCY programs, but no plan to ensure adequate oversight of all states, though monitoring is a key management tool for assessing the quality of performance over time and resolving problems promptly. Prior to fiscal year 2010, it had been Education’s policy to monitor 50 states and 3 area programs at least once during a 3-year period, and it did so for fiscal years 2007 to 2009. Subsequently, the department adopted a risk-based approach in fiscal year 2010 and monitored 28 states over the next 3 years. In fiscal year 2013, Education again changed its approach to EHCY program monitoring and has monitored 3 state programs since then. Department officials cited other priorities and a lack of staff capacity as reasons for the decrease in oversight. As a result, Education lacks assurance that states are complying with program requirements. GAO found gaps in state monitoring of districts that could weaken program performance, reinforcing the importance of effective federal monitoring of states.
Declining Frequency of Federal Monitoring for EHCY Compliance since Fiscal Year 2007
Why GAO Did This Study
The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act established a grant program to help the nation’s homeless students—more than one million in school year 2011-12—have access to public education. Under the Education for Homeless Children and Youth grant program, states and their school districts are required to identify homeless children and provide them with needed services and support. In fiscal year 2014, Education received about $65 million to administer this program. Education provided formula grants to states, which competitively awarded funds to school districts to help meet program requirements. GAO was asked to review program implementation and oversight.
GAO examined (1) how districts identify and serve homeless students and challenges they face (2) how Education and states collaborate with other service providers to address student needs and any barriers, and (3) the extent to which Education monitors program compliance. GAO reviewed relevant federal laws, guidance, and reports, and analyzed Education’s state and school district survey data from school year 2010-11. GAO also interviewed federal officials, and state and local officials in 20 school districts—representing a mix of urban, suburban, and rural districts and grant status—in four states, selected for geographic diversity and other characteristics, such as experience with natural disasters.
What GAO Recommends
GAO recommends that Education develop a plan to ensure adequate oversight of the EHCY program. Education concurred with our recommendation.
For more information, contact Kay Brown at (202) 512-7215 or brownke@gao.gov.
Status Legend:

• Review Pending
• Open
• Closed – implemented
• Closed – not implemented
Recommendation for Executive Action
Recommendation: To help ensure state compliance with the McKinney-Vento Act, Education should develop a monitoring plan to ensure adequate oversight of the EHCY program. This plan could, for example, determine a schedule of states to be monitored and incorporate procedures to assess whether states need to update their state plans.
Agency Affected: Department of Education
Status: Open
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Education of Homeless Students:
Improved Program Oversight Needed
GAO-14-465: Published: Jul 31, 2014. Publicly Released: Aug 22, 2014.
• Highlights http://www.gao.gov/assets/670/665184.pdf
View Report (PDF, 65 pages)

Click to access 665185.pdf

Additional Materials:
• Podcast:
o http://www.gao.gov/multimedia/podcasts/665378

Many educators have long recognized that the impact of social class affects both education achievement and life chances after completion of education. There are two impacts from diversity, one is to broaden the life experience of the privileged and to raise the expectations of the disadvantaged. Social class matters in not only other societies, but this one as well.

A few years back, the New York Times did a series about social class in America. That series is still relevant. Janny Scott and David Leonhardt’s overview, Shadowy Lines That Still Divide http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/15/national/class/OVERVIEW-FINAL.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 describes the challenges faced by schools trying to overcome the disparity in education. The complete series can be found at Social Class http://www.nytimes.com/pages/national/class/

There is no magic bullet or “Holy Grail” in education. There is only what works to produce academic achievement in each population of children. That is why school choice is so important.

Hard times are disrupting families https://drwilda.com/2011/12/11/hard-times-are-disrupting-families/

3rd world America: The link between poverty and education https://drwilda.com/2011/11/20/3rd-world-america-the-link-between-poverty-and-education/

3rd world America: Money changes everything
https://drwilda.com/2012/02/11/3rd-world-america-money-changes-everything/

Where information leads to Hope. © Dr. Wilda.com

Dr. Wilda says this about that ©

Blogs by Dr. Wilda:

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Tags: 3rd World America, 7 Things About Homeless Kids You Probably Didn't Know, Better Oversight Needed of Federal Program for Homeless Students, business, Carey Fuller, Century Foundation, Children and Poverty, current-events, economy, education, Education of Homeless Students: Improved Program Oversight Needed, First Focus, For Kids, GAO, GAO Says, General Accounting Office, Homeless, Homeless children, homeless kids, Homeless students, How to attack the growing educational gap between rich and poor, Jobless Benefits Miss the Mark, Parents' Unemployment Affects Students at Home, politics, Poverty, Poverty and Education, The Century Foundation, The Urban Institute, Trading Down: Laid-Off Americans Taking Pay Cuts and Increasingly Kissing Their Old Lives Goodbye, Unemployment, Unemployment from a Child’s Perspective

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Categories Dr Wilda

Challenges faced by homeless kids

27 May

Richard D. Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation wrote the informative Washington Post article, How to attack the growing educational gap between rich and poor:

In fact, research published by The Century Foundation and other organizations going back more than a decade shows that there are an array of strategies that can be highly effective in addressing the socioeconomic gaps in education:
* Pre-K programs. As Century’s Greg Anrig has noted, there is a wide body of research suggesting that well-designed pre-K programs in places like Oklahoma have yielded significant achievement gains for students. Likewise, forthcoming Century Foundation research by Jeanne Reid of Teachers College, Columbia University, suggests that allowing children to attend socioeconomically integrated (as opposed to high poverty) pre-K settings can have an important positive effect on learning.
* Socioeconomic Housing Integration. Inclusionary zoning laws that allow low-income and working-class parents and their children to live in low-poverty neighborhoods and attend low-poverty schools can have very positive effects on student achievement, as researcher David Rusk has long noted. A natural experiment in Montgomery County, Maryland, showed that low-income students randomly assigned to public housing units and allowed to attend schools in low-poverty neighborhoods scored at 0.4 of a standard deviation higher than those randomly assigned to higher-poverty neighborhoods and schools. According to the researcher, Heather Schwartz of the RAND Corporation, the initial sizable achievement gap between low-income and middle-class students in low-poverty neighborhoods and schools was cut in half in math and by one-third in reading over time.
* Socioeconomic School Integration. School districts that reduce concentrations of poverty in schools through public school choice have been able to significantly reduce the achievement and attainment gaps. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, for example, where a longstanding socioeconomic integration plan has allowed students to choose to attend mixed-income magnet schools, the graduation rate for African American, Latino, and low-income students is close to 90 percent, far exceeding the state average for these groups.
* College Affirmative Action for Low-Income Students. Research finds attending a selective college confers substantial benefits, and that many more low-income and working-class students could attend and succeed in selective colleges than currently do. Research by Anthony Carnevale and Stephen J. Rose of Georgetown University for the Century volume, America’s Untapped Resource: Low-Income Students in Higher Education , found that selective universities could increase their representation from the bottom socioeconomic half of the population from 10 percent to 38 percent, and overall graduation rates for all students would remain the same.
In addition to these ideas, Century Foundation research by Gordon MacInnes has highlighted promising programs to promote the performance of low-income students in New Jersey. Forthcoming research will suggest ways to revitalize organized labor, a development that could raise wages of workers and thereby have a positive impact on the educational outcomes of their children. We will also be exploring ways to strengthen community colleges as a vital institutions for social mobility. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/how-to-attack-the-growing-educational-gap-between-rich-and-poor/2012/02/10/gIQArDOg4Q_blog.html

This economy must focus on job creation and job retention and yes, hope. Both for those racing through college and those who have paid their education and training dues. “You deserve a break today at Mc Donalds,” the only employer who seems to be hiring. https://drwilda.com/2011/11/22/3rd-world-america-the-economy-affects-the-society-of-the-future/

Ann Brenoff wrote in the Huffington Post article, 7 Things About Homeless Kids You Probably Didn’t Know:

Here are seven things about being a homeless kid that you probably didn’t know:
1. Making friends is harder when you’re homeless.
Carey Fuller, who lives in her car with her 11-year-old daughter Maggie Warner in the Pacific Northwest, said she “cringed” when she recently took Maggie out to play in a park. Things were going fine until “someone asked her where she lived,” Fuller explained. It’s the death knell question, the one that throws the wet blanket on the playdate and it’s usually just a matter of seconds before the other kid takes off in the direction of someone else….
Fuller became homeless after losing her job in the financial services sector in Seattle. Initially, the family downsized to a smaller apartment, but when that still proved too costly, Fuller bought an RV and moved into it with her two daughters. Maggie was a toddler at the time. The family has since downsized to a minivan. Fuller, who takes whatever part-time work she can find, is well-known as an advocate for homeless kids and writes about her life as a homeless mother living in a van.
2. Birthdays can be disappointing for a homeless kid.
Forget having a big party with lots of friends coming over. Sure you can have a party in the park if it’s a nice day. But who is going to pay for the pizza and cake and if people give you presents, where will you put them anyway?
3. Canned food drives don’t actually make much sense.
“Where are homeless people supposed to cook all those cans of food you collect?” asks Maggie Warner. Homeless people have no kitchens, she points out.
Gift cards or a credit to the grocery store where they can buy fresh fruit and pre-made meals makes more sense. But some donors are reluctant to do this because they think homeless people will use the money for beer or alcohol.
4. Homeless kids aren’t as healthy as kids with homes.
The National Center on Family Homelessness says that homeless kids have four times as many respiratory infections, twice as many ear infections and five times more gastrointestinal problems. They are three times more likely to have emotional and behavioral problems than non-homeless children.
Being homeless is stressful and practicing good hygiene is harder when you don’t have ready access to bathrooms, sinks and showers. Homeless kids are also exposed to the weather and elements. Homelessness is connected to poverty and when you are poor, you often must rely on free clinics for health care; seeing doctors is not a regular thing.
5. Homeless kids may try hard but are more likely to struggle in school.
Of homeless elementary students, only 21.5 percent are proficient in math and 24.4 percent in reading. It is even worse among high school students, where just 11.4 percent are proficient in math and 14.6 percent in reading….
Agnes Stevens, a retired teacher, began tutoring homeless kids in a park in Santa Monica, Calif., encouraging them to stay in school and participate in school activities. In 1993, she founded School on Wheels, a program that tutors homeless kids in six Southern California counties. The organization also provides backpacks, school supplies and school uniforms for homeless kids and helps their parents navigate school resources. The group runs two learning centers too.
6. Homeless kids put up with a lot of daily indignities, small things that you probably don’t realize.
They appreciate getting your used clothing donations, but once in a while they’d like to wear something without some other kid’s name written in it. They also don’t feel great sneaking in the school bathroom before class to brush their teeth, but it’s often the only place available. Maybe there’s a way to issue them a free lunch card that looks like the lunch card everyone else uses? If their family doesn’t have a post office box, it’s hard to mail home their report card. They don’t want everyone to know if the PTA paid for them to go on the class field trip. School projects that involve a trip to the crafts store for supplies pose a special burden on their families who can’t afford it. Participating in sports sounds great, but soccer cleats and baseball uniforms aren’t exactly in the budget. A lost textbook is a problem for a regular kid; a lost textbook is a catastrophe for a homeless kid.
7. Homeless kids are a pretty resilient lot.
When The Huffington Post asked Maggie what she wanted to say to our readers, this is what she said: “Never give up and never stop hoping things will get better even when you feel like you’re at the bottom.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/25/homeless-kids_n_5359430.html?utm_hp_ref=education&ir=Education

There is no magic bullet or “Holy Grail” in education. There is only what works to produce academic achievement in each population of children. That is why school choice is so important.

Hard times are disrupting families
https://drwilda.com/2011/12/11/hard-times-are-disrupting-families/

3rd world America: The link between poverty and education
https://drwilda.com/2011/11/20/3rd-world-america-the-link-between-poverty-and-education/

3rd world America: Money changes everything
https://drwilda.com/2012/02/11/3rd-world-america-money-changes-everything/

Where information leads to Hope. © Dr. Wilda.com

Dr. Wilda says this about that ©

Blogs by Dr. Wilda:

COMMENTS FROM AN OLD FART© http://drwildaoldfart.wordpress.com/

Dr. Wilda Reviews © http://drwildareviews.wordpress.com/

Dr. Wilda © https://drwilda.com/

Tags: 3rd World America, 7 Things About Homeless Kids You Probably Didn't Know, business, Carey Fuller, Century Foundation, Children and Poverty, current-events, economy, education, First Focus, For Kids, Homeless, Homeless children, homeless kids, Homeless students, How to attack the growing educational gap between rich and poor, Jobless Benefits Miss the Mark, Parents' Unemployment Affects Students at Home, politics, Poverty, Poverty and Education, The Century Foundation, The Urban Institute, Trading Down: Laid-Off Americans Taking Pay Cuts and Increasingly Kissing Their Old Lives Goodbye, Unemployment, Unemployment from a Child’s Perspective

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Cambridge International Exams trying to make inroads into AP and International Baccalaureate turf

11 Dec

Moi wrote about “advanced placement” or AP courses in Who should take AP classes?
AP courses tend to attract students who are preparing for college and are very goal oriented. So, what if a student either doesn’t want to go to college or may want a career, should they take AP courses? Since the average person, according to Career Information Online will have three to five careers over the course of a life time, the best advice to everyone is prepare for any eventuality. Even if students don’t attend college after high school, they may attend later as part of a career change. Many former automobile workers are now getting college degrees in nursing and other fields, for example.
Huffington Post is reported in the article, AP Exams: Most Students Who Should Be Taking The Tests Aren’t:

More than 60 percent of students considered to have AP potential didn’t take the exam last year, even though their PSAT scores showed they could perform well on one, according to a College Board report released last week. Overall, black, Latino and Native American students were less likely to take AP exams than their white and Asian counterparts….
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/13/ap-exams-most-students-wh_n_1273980.html?ref=email_share

The question is not only should a particular student should take AP courses, but whether the choice should be between AP courses or an International Baccalaureate. https://drwilda.com/2012/02/14/who-should-take-ap-classes/

Caralee Adams reported in the Education Week article, Racial and Income Gaps Persist in AP and IB Enrollment:

Each year, about 640,000 low-income students and students of color are “missing” from AP and IB participation—students who could benefit if they merely enrolled at the same rate as other students in their schools, the report says.
It is not just a matter access. About 1 million students do not attend schools that offer AP, and the authors note that only a small percentage of the gaps by race or family income can be accounted for by which schools do and do not offer the classes.
In many cases, students from disadvantaged backgrounds are not enrolling in existing programs…
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/college_bound/2013/06/racial_and_income_gaps_persist_in_ap_and_ib_enrollment.html

Education Trust released this information about Finding America’s Missing AP and IB Students. http://www.edtrust.org/sites/edtrust.org/files/Missing_Students.pdf

Caralee J. Adams wrote in the Education Week article, Cambridge Academic Program Makes Inroads in U.S.: Critical thinking, writing are central:

For more than 800 years, the University of Cambridge has been educating students on its stately and historic campus in the heart of England. But the esteemed British institution’s reach goes much farther, and it’s now working aggressively to expand a menu of precollegiate offerings in U.S. schools.
The university owns and operates the Cambridge International Exams, part of a nonprofit division that provides academic courses of study in various subjects with a focus on promoting critical thinking, in-depth analysis, and strong writing skills. It currently serves more than 9,000 schools in 160 countries and students ages 5 to 19.
Cambridge is still a relatively small player in the United States, especially in comparison with the ubiquitous Advanced Placement program. But it has seen rapid growth in recent years. It now provides college-preparatory curricula for about 230 U.S. schools at the elementary and secondary levels in 27 states, up from 80 schools in 2009. This year, 50,000 Cambridge exams were taken by high school students here, a 50 percent increase from 2012…
Analyzing and Synthesizing
While most programs are in public high schools, Cambridge offers curricula for elementary and middle schools, too. At all levels, students are assessed on their progress at year’s end, with high school courses culminating in extensive exams that can translate into college credit.
Michael J. O’Sullivan, who joined Cambridge International Exams last spring as the new chief executive officer, has high hopes for its foray into the U.S. market. He notes that the nation’s decentralized education system and emphasis on school choice make it attractive. And he’s also making the case that the Cambridge program dovetails closely with the Common Core State Standards adopted by all but four states….
The Cambridge approach is designed to be rigorous and deep. In history courses, for example, rather than memorize dates and take multiple-choice tests, students dig into research through primary sources, develop arguments, and present their findings. End-of-course exams require analyzing and synthesizing information in a writing-intensive format.
Math and science instruction is often integrated to allow students to apply what they’ve learned across courses. A math course might include various topics, and, in some courses, teachers can customize the syllabus to choose a combination of pure math, statistics, and mechanics to build a path to the exam, based on the needs and interests of students.
At the elementary and middle school levels, the Cambridge program is focused on English/language arts, math, and science. At high school, however, it offers some 70 courses, including biology, economics, and world literature.
For high school students, the Cambridge exams last six to eight hours over a few days. Multiple-choice questions are limited, with a focus instead on essays, analysis, and even hands-on science labs included in assessments.
Despite the increased Cambridge presence in U.S. schools, it is dwarfed by the AP program, which gave 3.4 million exams to U.S. public high school students last year. And while Cambridge operates in more schools globally than the International Baccalaureate program—which is seen as another competitor—Cambridge falls well short of the nearly 1,500 U.S. high schools now served by the IB. Still, the United States is the fastest-growing market for Cambridge, according to Mr. O’Sullivan, the CEO….
Examine the Claims
To become a Cambridge school, schools must pay a registration fee and annual membership dues to have access to online materials and training. There’s also a charge for each exam. The high-school-level exams typically run between $78 and $86 per student, per subject. The norm is for students to take three or four.
But before outsourcing curriculum, Jack Schneider, an assistant professor of education at the College of the Holy Cross in Worchester, Mass., cautions that school officials closely examine the claims of programs. Cambridge, in particular, has a prestige factor that needs to align with the merits of the program, notes Mr. Schneider, who has researched college-prep curricula.
“It might look better than it really is. What are people really excited about? Are students actually learning more, or are parents excited to have a branded program?” he said.
A 2011 study of the Cambridge program in the United States, published in the College & University Journal, said students generally described the program as motivating and stimulating, and more challenging than other curricula. Teachers said the courses prompted students to form their own opinions and gain real-world application of subject knowledge.
Meanwhile, a 2011 case study focused on the academic achievement of freshmen at Florida State University who had successfully earned a Cambridge diploma credential. The research, published in the Journal of College Admissions, suggests the program may offer some academic benefits later on, but it was not an experimental study.
How schools choose to offer the Cambridge program varies. Some high schools have students take a full schedule of Cambridge courses, while others give students the choice to take a class or two in their areas of strength. If students take a certain number of exams in various subjects, they can earn a Cambridge diploma credential.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/12/04/13cambridge.h33.html?
tkn=ZUVFTvbUkj5IKSx4wQqAO7aagFJga1D9PsNC&cmp=clp-edweek

Here is what Cambridge says about their programs:

About Cambridge
•Cambridge International Examinations is the world’s largest provider of international education programmes and qualifications for 5 to 19 year olds.
•Over 9000 schools in more than 160 countries offer Cambridge programmes and qualifications.
•We are a division of Cambridge Assessment, a not-for-profit organisation and part of the world-renowned University of Cambridge.
•In 2008, we celebrated the 150th anniversary of the formation of our parent organisation Cambridge Assessment, and in 2009 we celebrated the 800th anniversary of the University of Cambridge.
Our programmes and qualifications
•Cambridge Primary is taught in over 650 schools worldwide.
•Every year we receive more than 54000 entries for Cambridge Checkpoint, our tests for 11 to 14 year olds.
•Cambridge IGCSE is the world’s most popular international qualification for 14 to 16 year olds. It is taken in over 140 countries and in more than 3700 schools.
•2013 marks the 25th anniversary of the first Cambridge IGCSE exam.
•Every year we have more than 650 000 subject entries for Cambridge O Level from 80 countries.
•Cambridge International AS and A Levels are taken in more than 125 countries with 350 000 entries each year.
•We developed Cambridge Pre-U, an alternative to A Level for UK schools. It prepares students for university and was first examined in June 2010.
•Cambridge Pre-U is taught in over 150 UK state and independent schools.
•We hold more than 16 000 training days a year providing 6500 teachers from across the globe with the skills and knowledge they need to help their students succeed.
Examinations
•Cambridge examinations are marked by around 9000 highly skilled examiners.
•We produce around 5.7 million question papers each year.
About us http://www.cie.org.uk/about-us/
Who we are http://www.cie.org.uk/about-us/who-we-are/
What we do http://www.cie.org.uk/about-us/what-we-do/
Our regional teams http://www.cie.org.uk/about-us/our-regional-teams/
Our standards http://www.cie.org.uk/about-us/our-standards/
Facts and figures
http://www.cie.org.uk/about-us/facts-and-figures/
http://www.cie.org.uk/

Moi wrote in Race, class, and education in America:
Many educators have long recognized that the impact of social class affects both education achievement and life chances after completion of education. There are two impacts from diversity; one is to broaden the life experience of the privileged and to raise the expectations of the disadvantaged. Social class matters in not only other societies, but this one as well.
A few years back, the New York Times did a series about social class in America. That series is still relevant. Janny Scott and David Leonhardt’s overview, Shadowy Lines That Still Divide http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/15/national/class/OVERVIEW-FINAL.html?pagewanted=all describes the challenges faced by schools trying to overcome the disparity in education. The complete series can be found at Social Class http://www.nytimes.com/pages/national/class/
https://drwilda.com/2011/11/07/race-class-and-education-in-america/
https://drwilda.com/2012/12/22/the-role-economic-class-plays-in-college-success/

Stanford University report: Advanced placement may not be the cure for education ills https://drwilda.com/2013/04/30/stanford-university-report-advanced-placement-may-not-be-the-cure-for-education-ills/

An interesting critique of the College Board’s AP test report https://drwilda.com/2013/03/10/an-interesting-critique-of-the-college-boards-ap-test-report/

The International Baccalaureate program as a way to save struggling schools https://drwilda.com/2012/04/30/international-baccalaureate/

Where information leads to Hope. © Dr. Wilda.com

Dr. Wilda says this about that ©

Blogs by Dr. Wilda:

COMMENTS FROM AN OLD FART© http://drwildaoldfart.wordpress.com/

Dr. Wilda Reviews © http://drwildareviews.wordpress.com/

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Tags: AP courses, AP Exams: Most Students Who Should Be Taking The Tests Aren't:, Ap. Advanced Placement Class, business, Cambridge International Examinations, Cambridge International Exams, Cambridge program, economy, education, Education Trust, Finding America's Missing AP and IB Students, IB, International Baccalaureate, politics, Race and Class, Racial and Income Gaps Persist in AP and IB Enrollment, research, science, Shadowy Lines That Still Divide

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Categories Dr Wilda

‘Believe in Ohio’ tries to encourage high school students to become entrepreneurs and innovators

26 Nov

An Ohio program highlights the question of whether entrepreneurship can be taught. Andrew Corbett wrote in the Forbes article, ‘You Can’t Teach Entrepreneurship’:
There truly is a method to teaching entrepreneurship but it is substantially different than traditional management teaching most of which evolves from theory focused on large existing firms. Some of the tools are the same but the mindset about what you do is clearly different. I spoke to a friend and colleague Mike Haynie from Syracuse University’s Department of Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises about teaching entrepreneurship and his thoughts parse out this perspective. “Arguably, you can teach anyone 99% of the ‘activities’ related to launching and growing a venture, and we do every day in b-schools everywhere. This is because, at the end of the day, these are fundamental business skills and processes that are not necessarily idiosyncratic to entrepreneurship – other than the context of new firms. So given that, I would argue that I can teach someone to be very skilled in those processes. We can teach someone how to write a great business plan, develop a great marketing strategy, produce financial projections, etc. – thus we can teach the activities that compose that act of ‘entrepreneurship’ – starting and growing a venture.”
But there’s more. Professor Haynie then goes on to illustrate why some schools have changed how they teach entrepreneurship with a focus on bringing action and ‘doing’ into the classroom. “However, a different and more relevant and precise question is can you teach someone to recognize ‘entrepreneurial opportunity’ – the step before entrepreneurial action? This is a question that gets to both cognition and motivation. I’m not convinced that we can do this in a mainstream model of Higher-Ed, but do believe that we can ‘enable’ such learning through experiential pedagogy. In other words, while we can seed such learning in a classroom in this regard – with courses related to understanding motivation, sense-making, and other concepts – we also have to deliver a means for those seeds to be planted such that the teaching someone to be ‘entrepreneurial’ becomes about them teaching and learning on their own and by ‘doing.’
So it’s both about teaching individuals to build ventures but also teaching them to think and act entrepreneurially. And it is being done both at Babson and many others around the world. Most importantly, the old ways of teaching entrepreneurship with war stories of successful entrepreneurs and a mindset and theories taught in a straight line from the practice of large, existing organizations is dying (if not dead everywhere already). This point about the evolution of teaching entrepreneurship leads me to a thought from a good friend and mentor. Here is the perspective of Don Kuratko from Indiana University’s Kelly School.
“People who say we cannot teach entrepreneurship are dangerous people to society. They are the keepers of the old thinking and their beliefs ensure that we cannot advance ourselves. Remember that in the late 1800s it was believed then that medicine could not be taught. It was a trade to be learned “on the job….”http://www.forbes.com/sites/babson/2012/05/24/you-cant-teach-entrepreneurship/
See, Can Entrepreneurship Be Taught? http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052970204603004577267271656000782
Karen Farkas of the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported in the article, “Believe in Ohio” will encourage high school students to become innovators and entrepreneurs:
A new statewide program to develop young entrepreneurs in science, technology, engineering and math will begin next year following the approval Monday of $5 million in funding by the State Controlling Board.
Believe in Ohio will introduce high school teachers and students to STEM research and development and venture programs through online and in-class programs and regional forums.
The first forum, which will include scientists, researchers and practitioners, will be held Feb. 22 at Hudson High School.
That school is in the northeast region, one of six established in the state for Believe Ohio. Each region has an affiliated nonprofit that cultivates entrepreneurship. JumpStart Inc. is the program organizer for Northeast Ohio.
Universities will be asked to work with schools in their region and develop online courses that outline STEM and entrepreneurial opportunities for students.
A statewide STEM mentoring network and teacher support program to connect students with “real-world” mentors is also planned.
The funding, for two years, was in the Ohio Board of Regents budget and will go to the Ohio Academy of Science, which will be the lead agency overseeing the program.
Believe in Ohio evolved from a collaboration between the Ohio Board of Regents and Entrepreneurial Engagement Ohio, a nonprofit organization created a few years ago in Northeast Ohio by Julian Earls, retired director of the NASA Glenn Research Center and executive-in-residence at Cleveland State University and John Klipfell, a retired American Greetings senior executive.
They operated several STEM entrepreneurial programs in high schools.
They wanted to develop a statewide program but realized they needed to affiliate with other agencies.
About the same time, the Board of Regents outlined its focus on the need for STEM education in its recent commercialization task force report and said a pathway was needed between secondary education and higher education.
Earls and Klipfell met with Vinny Gupta, the regent heading the commercialization task force, and legislators in 2012 to convince them their organization could expand its existing successful program statewide, and that the Ohio Academy of Science had the expertise to run it. They also worked with NorTech….
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/11/believe_in_ohio_will_encourage.html
Believe in Ohio is closely allied with Entrepreneurial Engagement Ohio.
This is what Entrepreneurial Engagement Ohio says about its mission:
Entrepreneurial Engagement Ohio (EEO) is a 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Corporation that was formed for the educational and charitable purpose of:
1.) Promoting student and community awareness as to the challenges and opportunities the changing regional, national and global economies present for the future;
2.) Providing educational instruction, curriculum, research, training, mentoring and other information that helps develop the entrepreneurial, economic, business, and scientific literacy of students and the community, and other 21st Century skills that may needed for the future. http://www.eeohio.org/eeohio_site/eeoabout.html
Here is a description of Scholarship of Entrepreneurial Engagement Program:
The SEE Economics & Entrepreneurship program during the 2012-2013 school year variously included approximately 800 students from fifteen Northeast Ohio high schools, who participated in a mini-course of study to teach students how the American free enterprise system works and the importance of entrepreneurship and innovation in the context of the global economy. As part of the program more than 600 students participated in business plan development activities leading up to local high school business plan competitions and SEE’s Northeast Ohio business plan competition. The twelve finalists and the five first place award winners in the Spring 2013 SEE Northeast Ohio Business Plan competition were recognized at the SEE Program’s Year End Recognition Event held on May 23, 2013.

The SEE Science & Technology program included its Fall 2012 Science & Technology Forum attended by nearly 500 students, teachers and parents in which students learned from more than a dozen noted entrepreneurial STEM thought leaders about the wide range of STEM research and development activities occurring in Northeast Ohio. Also as a part of the SEE Science & Technology program, 130 students participated in a science concept plan competition. Five of those science concept plans we recognized as first place award winners at the SEE Program’s Year End Recognition Event held on May 23, 2013.
The Introduction to the Innovation Economy of Northeast Ohio” online course was first introduced at the Ohio Board of Regents January 2013 meeting. The course was developed by Entrepreneurial Engagement Ohio with the cooperation of The Ohio Academy of Science and features more than fifty instructional videos authored by three dozen leaders of Northeast Ohio’s innovation economy that are grouped into seven different content tracks. People may view individual videos that may be of interest to them or view a larger portion of the course content if they want to understand the many economic development initiatives that will help determine the future economic prosperity of the region.

Although best viewed on iTunes University via iPad or iPhone, the course is also available at http://www.NEOInnovates.com and on YouTube. The iTunes U site features additional reading materials, assessment quizzes and the ability to print out student quiz results if a student chooses to use the course to obtain high school or college course credit.

About The SEE Program
Jim Montaquila, SEE Executive in Residence
Email: tribe123@windstream.net
John Klipfell, SEE Program Director
Email: jklipfell1@aol.com http://www.eeohio.org/SEE/seehome.html

Ian Armitage of the Independent wrote in the article, Why we need more entrepreneurs about why programs like Believe in Ohio are so important:
Putting aside this rather parochial view, entrepreneurship does matter. As our environment is subject to a constant stream of externally and internally generated shocks or movements, our society must be able to adapt itself quickly, or else we simply become victims of events.
Entrepreneurs are the first people to read the straws in the wind, to identify new patterns of demand, and to identify new methods of making or delivering goods and services. Their activity is both the product of change and a driver of change. For example, in response to the spiralling costs of healthcare, several entrepreneurial-minded managers and companies have introduced novel methods of drug design, managing the R&D process (Clinical Research Organisations), and delivering healthcare (e.g. home i.v. therapy).
Entrepreneurs have a wonderful record of achievement. The great enterprises of today are almost, without exception, built on the foundations created from the vision, talent and drive of entrepreneurs. For example, the great retailers such as Walmart and Marks & Spencer, the major oil companies such as BP, and the leading consumer electronics business, Sony, are all founded by entrepreneurs of vision and energy….http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/why-we-need-more-entrepreneurs-1173409.html
The economic well-being of any nation depends upon job creation and providing revenue for the functioning of a civil society. Innovation is key to a successful economy.

Study: Troubled teens likely to be successful entrepreneurs https://drwilda.com/tag/troubled-teens-are-more-likely-to-be-successful-entrepreneurs/

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Tags: "Believe in Ohio" will encourage high school students to become innovators and entrepreneurs, Believe in Ohio, business, Can Entrepreneurship Be Taught?, economy, education, Entrepreneurial Engagement Ohio, entrepreneurs, Northeast Ohio, Ohio, research, Scholarship of Entrepreneurial Engagement Program, science, The 14 Character Traits of the Entrepreneur, Traits of entrepreneurs, Troubled Teens Are More Likely to Be Successful Entrepreneurs, Who Becomes an Entrepreneur and Does it Pay?, Why we need more entrepreneurs

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Study: Troubled teens likely to be successful entrepreneurs

23 Aug

Moi wrote in A possible model for corporate involvement in the inner city: Carolee Adams reported in the Education Week article, Internship Pairs Detroit Students With GM Retirees:

The Cody team is one of 11 in the Student Corps in what started as a summer employment program, but morphed into a comprehensive experience that combines service, life-skills education, and mentoring. All told, 110 high school students, 60 retirees, and 12 college interns are involved in this, its first year. Since 2010, when the GM Foundation gave $27 million to the United Way to create “networks of excellence” in a handful of high-need area schools, company liaisons have been working with students. Last fall, the idea of a summer internship program emerged.
GM retirees, who oversee the teams, give encouragement to students who are growing up in a city that just filed for bankruptcy, where many grocery stores have bars on the windows, unemployment is higher than the national average at 16.3 percent, and about one-third of the population lives below the poverty line.
“It’s not like this everywhere,” Mr. Wright told his charges in a mentoring session during lunch. “Until you see something different [from Detroit], that’s the way you think it is.”
Broad Exposure
Company officials wanted to do more for schools than write a check. So they turned to Mike DiGiovanni, 65, a retired GM executive, and asked him to become the director of the Student Corps and recruit fellow retirees.
“Our program is unique because it’s not just putting kids to work, it’s teaching them about life,” said Mr. DiGiovanni “It’s giving them a paid internship and GM on their résumé to set them up for life. This is about exposing them to the skills and education they need to succeed in life.”
The retirees wanted the summer to be about more than cleaning up parks. The organizers soon realized the breadth of retiree talent and considered how to fill rainy days with activities, said Heidi Magyar, the manager of Student Corps. Also, the company had miscalculated the caliber of the students—most have aspirations to go to college—so the program expanded in response.
“These kids have grit. They are determined to be successful in life,” said Mr. DiGiovanni. “Their need and drive was way beyond what we anticipated.”
Research solidly shows that having a mentor can help students from disadvantaged backgrounds who often don’t have the support system and social capital needed to make it in college, said David Conley, the director of the Center for Educational Policy
Research at the University of Oregon, in Eugene. Mentors “take something that is abstract and make it real,” he said.
The transition process from high school to college is far more complex and demanding than most schools acknowledge, said Mr. Conley. In these kinds of programs, students learn skills that help them feel more in control of their lives, which is a huge step in the process of getting ready for college, Mr. Conley said…..http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/08/07/37career.h32.html?tkn=ZRSF2oKy2uM74XRBHRHnMIyyPZ0JBSHWUR4u&cmp=clp-edweek&intc=es

The GM program is not only an example of corporate involvement, but it provides mentors and guidance to children who may be at-risk. https://drwilda.com/2013/08/08/a-possible-model-for-corporate-involvement-in-the-inner-city-gm-and-detroit/

The National Center for Policy Analysis reported in the article, Troubled Teens Are More Likely to Be Successful Entrepreneurs:

Smart, rule-abiding teenagers are less likely to become successful entrepreneurs than equally intelligent teens who engage in illicit activities, according to new research. In a working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, economists Ross Levine and Yona Rubinstein examine what it takes to become an entrepreneur and whether entrepreneurship pays off in terms of wages. Using data from the March Supplements of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, they look at the cognitive, non-cognitive and family traits of self-employed individuals who have incorporated businesses and compare it to the characteristics of salaried workers and the self-employed who don’t have incorporated businesses, says the Wall Street Journal.
Previous research on entrepreneurs has looked at the entire population of self-employed workers, which, Levine and Rubinstein say, doesn’t distinguish between a hot dog vendor and Michael Bloomberg. The process of incorporating a business (making it a separate entity under the law) can be lengthy and expensive.
• The economists argue that self-employed workers who incorporate their businesses show the intent and agency to start a new, profitable venture and are therefore more representative of entrepreneurship than those who haven’t incorporated their businesses.
• Furthermore, not many self-employed workers switch from unincorporated to incorporated and vice versa, the economists say, providing more support for the idea that incorporation coincides with an entrepreneurial venture.
The economists find that self-employed workers with incorporated businesses were almost three times more likely to engage in illicit and risky activities as youth than were salaried workers.
• These behaviors include but aren’t limited to shoplifting, marijuana use, playing hooky at school, drug dealing and assault.
• In addition, the self-employed with incorporated businesses exhibited greater self-esteem, scored higher on learning aptitude tests, were more educated and were more likely to come from high-earning, two-parent families than other employment types.
The economists find that individuals who left their salaried jobs to start incorporated businesses work more hours but also earn more per hour than other employment types, and those who start successful incorporated enterprises enjoy substantially larger boosts in earnings relative to their own wages as salaried workers.
Source:
Khadeeja Safdar, “Troubled Teens Make More Successful Entrepreneurs,” Wall Street Journal, August 14, 2013. http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2013/08/14/troubled-teens-make-more-successful-entrepreneurs/?mod=e2fb
Ross Levine, Yona Rubinstein, “Smart and Illicit: Who Becomes an Entrepreneur and Does It Pay?” http://www.nber.org/papers/w19276
National Bureau of Economic Research, August 2013.
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=23515

Citation:

Smart and Illicit: Who Becomes an Entrepreneur and Does it Pay?
Ross Levine, Yona Rubinstein
NBER Working Paper No. 19276
Issued in August 2013
NBER Program(s): CF LS
We disaggregate the self-employed into incorporated and unincorporated to distinguish between “entrepreneurs” and other business owners. The incorporated self-employed have a distinct combination of cognitive, noncognitive, and family traits. Besides coming from higher-income families with better-educated mothers, the incorporated—as teenagers—scored higher on learning aptitude tests, had greater self-esteem, and engaged in more aggressive, illicit, risk-taking activities. The combination of “smarts” and “aggressive/illicit/risk-taking” tendencies as a youth accounts for both entry into entrepreneurship and the comparative earnings of entrepreneurs. In contrast to a large literature, we also find that entrepreneurs earn much more per hour than their salaried counterparts.
You may purchase this paper on-line in .pdf format from SSRN.com ($5) for electronic delivery.
Information about Free Papers
You should expect a free download if you are a subscriber, a corporate associate of the NBER, a journalist, an employee of the U.S. federal government with a “.GOV” domain name, or a resident of nearly any developing country or transition economy.
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There are character traits which are common to entrpreneuers.

Leslie Fiegler posted The 14 Character Traits of the Entrepreneur:

1. A burning passion or intense drive to succeed.

A powerful drive to create success, wealth, legacy or fame is the primary motivator for most entrepreneurs. They are intensely passionate about what they do, almost to the point of fanaticism. Their goals are set high and when attained, are reset even higher. Money is not usually sought for its own sake, but as way of keeping score.

2. The ability to adapt to changing circumstances.

Rather than resisting or resenting change, entrepreneurs have the ability to easily adapt to changing circumstances and conditions. In fact, many entrepreneurs thrive on change. On the negative side, some are so thrilled by change that they will force it, even when things are going perfectly.

3. The need for autonomy.

Some people just need to be their own boss. While many employees see a job as providing security, entrepreneurs see a job as a form of economic slavery and prefer to have personal autonomy to economic security. The worst part about being your own boss is that the expectations for your job function are set higher than for everyone else. The best part about being your own boss is that if you don’t like your orders, you can change them anytime you please.

4. Decisiveness.

The ability to make decisions, sometimes quickly, is a key component of the entrepreneurial personality. This willingness to make, and hold to, a decision is a necessary leadership skill. The awareness that there may be better decisions at any choice point does not result in the indecisiveness that other people often demonstrate.

5. A sense of personal destiny.

Most entrepreneurs have more than just a strong desire to mold their personal destiny; they have a strong belief in their ability to create their own destiny by their own choices and actions. If they are among the few who believe in a set fate or predetermined destiny, they believe that they are fated or destined to be successful.

6. Energy.

Entrepreneurs are energetic. They put in more work hours than most people. They also often play hard and competitively. You won’t find many entrepreneurial couch potatoes. They are usually too busy working or playing to be spectators. This high personal energy level translates as constant enthusiasm and personal charisma. This enthusiasm and charisma attracts other people into the game plan of the entrepreneur.

7. Enterprising.

Entrepreneurs are dealmakers. They make deals with themselves. (When I reach a certain goal, I will reward myself with…). They make deals in their personal relationships. (A movie date is as much a contract as a business deal.) And, of course, they love to make business deals. They seem to be always negotiating something with somebody.

8. A desire for personal growth.

Entrepreneurs are learners and self-improvers. They are always on the lookout for ways to get the competitive edge, to become better at doing what they do, to develop new skill sets or understandings. They understand that what you have depends upon what you do and what you are able to do depends upon who you are. They work constantly to become more.

9. A highly developed intuition.

Most entrepreneurs rely more on gut feelings to make decisions than they do on conscious analysis of a situation. Even though they may be highly analytical and like to accumulate lots of data, their actual decisions are usually based on what feels right. A recent survey of top level executives and company owners reported that most high income decision makers gather as much information as possible and consult with their Master Mind team, but in the end, make decisions based on gut feelings or intuition.

10. Opportunity seeking.

Most people wait for the right opportunity to present itself. The true entrepreneur is always on the lookout for yet another new opportunity. It is often just a matter of perspective. There is the famous story (usually attributed to Joseph Bata) about the shoe company who sends an employee to a country in Africa to ascertain if there is a market for their shoes. The representative reports back, “There is no shoe market here. These people don’t even wear shoes.” The boss, on hearing this news, exclaims, “This is wonderful. No one has any shoes yet. What a huge opportunity!”

11. Perseverance and determination.

This is a big attribute. The obstacles that cause many people to quit are minor setbacks for the true entrepreneur. Winners persist. Losers desist. It is often that simple personality difference that separates the happy successful person from the frustrated failure. There is no better way to state the importance of persistence than to quote Calvin Coolidge, “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

12. Problem solving.

When others focus on existing problems, entrepreneurs focus on possible solutions. There is always a solution. There is always a problem. For most people, a problem is an impediment. For the entrepreneur, a problem is an opportunity to discover or create a better solution.

13. Risk tolerance.

The entrepreneur has a high tolerance for risk. The average person is afraid of doing something in case they fail. The true entrepreneur knows that failing to attempt something is a greater failure than trying and not succeeding. In fact, they often don’t even realize that they are taking a risk. What others may judge as a risky situation, entrepreneurs see as an opportunity for a higher reward.

14. A strong sense of self-confidence.

Many people will look at a successful person and see a big ego and think that this superstar has a big ego because he/she is successful. In fact, most successful people have a very high level of self-esteem before they achieve success. They know in their hearts that they deserve success. The lack of sufficient self-esteem and self-confidence is what inhibits many people in their quest for success. Entrepreneurs (and other winners) are confident in their ability to achieve their ideals. http://www.lesliefieger.com/articles/entrepreneur_character.htm

See, Therapy Helps Troubled Teens Rethink Crime
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/07/02/188646607/therapy-helps-troubled-teens-rethink-crime?utm_medium=Email&utm_source=share&utm_campaign=

It is going to take coordination between not only education institutions, but a strong social support system to get many of these children through school. This does not mean a large program directed from Washington. But, more resources at the local school level which allow discretion with accountability. For example, if I child is not coming to school because they have no shoes or winter coat, then the child gets new shoes and/or a coat. School breakfast and lunch programs must be supported and if necessary, expanded. Unfortunately, schools are now the early warning system for many families in crisis. In addition, to families and schools, corporate support can be useful in helping to move at-risk children into the mainstream.

Resources:
10 Personality Traits Every Successful Entrepreneur Has http://www.businessinsider.com/traits-of-successful-entrepreneurs-2013-2

The Four Essential Personality Traits Of Every Entrepreneur http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghancasserly/2012/10/11/the-four-essential-personality-traits-of-every-entrepreneur/

‘Becoming A Man’ course: Helping young African-American men avoid prison https://drwilda.com/2013/07/03/becoming-a-man-course-helping-young-african-american-men-avoid-prison/

Study: The plight of African-American boys in Oakland, California
https://drwilda.com/2012/05/27/study-the-plight-of-african-american-boys-in-oakland-california/

Schott Foundation report: Black and Latino boys are not succeeding in high school https://drwilda.com/tag/african-american-male/

We give up as a society: Jailing parents because kids are truant https://drwilda.wordpress.com/2011/12/18/we-give-up-as-a-society-jailing-parents-because-kids-are-truant/

Jonathan Cohn’s ‘The Two Year Window’ https://drwilda.wordpress.com/2011/12/18/jonathan-cohns-the-two-year-window/

Who says Black children can’t learn? Some schools get it
https://drwilda.com/2012/03/22/who-says-black-children-cant-learn-some-schools-gets-it/

Inappropriate discipline: The first step on the road to education failure https://drwilda.com/2011/12/13/inappropriate-discipline-the-first-step-on-the-road-to-education-failure/

Where information leads to Hope. © Dr. Wilda.com

Dr. Wilda says this about that ©

Blogs by Dr. Wilda:

COMMENTS FROM AN OLD FART© http://drwildaoldfart.wordpress.com/
Dr. Wilda Reviews © http://drwildareviews.wordpress.com/
Dr. Wilda © https://drwilda.com/

Tags: business, economy, education, entrepreneurs, research, science, The 14 Character Traits of the Entrepreneur, Traits of entrepreneurs, Troubled Teens Are More Likely to Be Successful Entrepreneurs, Who Becomes an Entrepreneur and Does it Pay?

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Dr. Wilda Reviews: ‘Luke and Linda Learn What a Bank Can Do’

7 Aug

Moi received a complimentary copy of Luke and Linda Learn What a Bank Can Do. Here is the information about the book:

Title What a Bank Can Do: Luke and Linda Learn
Author John Tuzee
Publisher Kids Life Press, 2012
ISBN 0975534882, 9780975534885

Financial literacy is not only an issue for adults, but is a topic that children should be taught. Investopedia defines financial literacy in the article, Teaching Financial Literacy To Kids: Introduction:

Financial literacy is the ability to use knowledge and skills to make effective and informed money management decisions. Personal financial literacy encompasses a range of money topics, from everyday skills such as balancing a checkbook to long-term planning for retirement. While literacy – the ability to read and write – is a fundamental part of the education system, financial literacy is often left out of the equation. In the United States, fewer than half of states have any financial literacy requirements for their K-12 education systems, and only four states require high school students to take personal finance classes.

While there is a movement to include more finance-related coursework in elementary, middle and high school settings, parents and guardians are the primary educators when it comes to teaching children the skills they need to develop a strong foundation for life-long financial competence. Many adults, however, avoid talking to kids about money, because they lack confidence in how they’ve handled their own finances. This is unfortunate, because adults have two things that children do not when it comes to finances: experience and perspective. You do not have to be a financial rock star with a perfect track record to teach your child personal finance basics and get the money conversation started. If your finances are currently in a mess, you can work to get them in order and be a positive role model.
http://www.investopedia.com/university/teaching-financial-literacy-kids/

Tuzee’s book is a good basic primer about the financial system. The themes of the book are financial literacy and teaching an understanding of the banking system. It is basic knowledge, but Tuzee does a great job.

Moi liked the book because the illustrations were colorful and sure to catch a child’s eye. The graphics and pictures were good. Concepts were explained clearly and the text flowed.

The age range for the book could be from about five years on. Yes, even some older children could benefit from the book because the level of financial literacy in the country is low among many populations. The cover is great because it lets the reader know exactly what the book is about. There is also good and concise biography information about the author and the illustrator on the cover.

Moi loved the book and would highly recommend the book to parents who are interested in teaching their children about the banking system.

Here is the press info about the book:

Union Bank Partners With Nationally Recognized Children’s Authors To Teach Kids About Money

Survey reveals more than three fourths of U.S. youth want to learn more about how to save money.

“We want to spread the word about What a Bank Can Do and the important story it tells,” says Leis. “The book is a great addition to John and Diane Tuzee’s collection and especially relevant for Union Bank and the financial industry at large.”

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (PRWEB) July 11, 2013

In an effort to demonstrate its commitment to responsible banking and financial education, Union Bank, N.A., today unveiled a new, limited edition children’s book, What a Bank Can Do, by nationally recognized children’s authors John and Diane Tuzee. The bank also announced the results of its national YouthQuery survey, conducted online by Harris Interactive® from June 13-26, 2013, providing insight into the financial needs and desires of 8 to 18 year olds.

The survey of more than 1,200 U.S. youth reveals that 83 percent agree that they should spend less of their money in order to save more, and 76 percent want to learn more about how to save money. Eighty percent agree it is very important for someone their age to have a savings account, and the majority of U.S. youth also want to talk more with the adults in their life (e.g., parents, teachers) about how to save money (63 percent) and wish they had better sources of information about how to save money (61 percent).

“This study is eye opening, and confirms that our nation’s youth are hungry for knowledge, including learning and talking more about how to save with teachers, parents and other adults,” says Union Bank Executive Vice President George Leis, regional president for the bank’s Central Coast division, which is hosting a special book signing in San Luis Obispo with the Tuzees in July. “What a Bank Can Do tells a great story about the importance of saving and the role that banks have in our communities and our nation, and we hope it will be a fun learning tool for all adults to share with the youth in their lives. Educating and empowering youth using tools like this book will help build and sustain strong communities for the future.”

Colorful and easy-to-read, What a Bank Can Do explores the fun and importance of saving money through its main characters Luke and Linda, who first learn with their toy banks and later with their own bank accounts. With rhyming verse-text, the book reminds children of “one thing that’s kind of simple…always save more than you spend…” To help tell its story, What a Bank Can Do also features bold, lively illustrations by Mike Kasun, a nationally recognized commercial artist.

“It was clear to us that there’s a great need for books like What a Bank Can Do and other learning materials,” says Leis. “We support financial education throughout the year at Union Bank, and it is one of our core areas of philanthropic giving – supporting this book is a natural continuation of our commitment.”

Union Bank provided underwriting support for the development and initial distribution of What a Bank Can Do, donating many copies to schools and youth groups. The Tuzees hope the story, a 30-page journey sure to please the young and young-at-heart, will generate interest from other underwriters to support additional copies. “We’re pleased that Union Bank stepped up to support our initial print of nearly 5,000 copies, and we want to create a demand for more books,” says John Tuzee.

To preview What a Bank Can Do online, please click here: What_A_Bank_Can_Do.pdf.

Survey Methodology
Harris Interactive® conducted the survey online within the United States on behalf of Union Bank from June 13-26, 2013, among 1,211 8-18 year olds. Results were weighted as needed for age, sex, race/ethnicity, parental education, education, urbanicity and region. All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, Harris Interactive avoids the words “margin of error” as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal. Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in Harris Interactive surveys. The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the U.S. 8-18 year old population. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to be invited to participate in the Harris Interactive online research panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

About UnionBanCal Corporation & Union Bank, N.A.
Headquartered in San Francisco, UnionBanCal Corporation is a financial holding company with assets of $97 billion at March 31, 2013. Its primary subsidiary, Union Bank, N.A., is a full-service commercial bank providing an array of financial services to individuals, small businesses, middle-market companies, and major corporations. The bank operated 443 branches in California, Washington, Oregon, Texas, Illinois, and New York as well as two international offices, on March 31, 2013. UnionBanCal Corporation is a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd., which is a subsidiary of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. Union Bank is a proud member of the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, one of the world’s largest financial organizations. In July 2013, American Banker Magazine and the Reputation Institute ranked Union Bank #1 for reputation among its customers. Visit http://www.unionbank.com/ for more information.

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Book Review: Luke and Linda Learn What A Bank Can Do

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Tags: Banking, business, Children and Financial Literacy, Children and Money, Dr Wilda, Dr. Wilda Reviews, economy, education, Financial Literacy

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Montgomery County Public Schools study: Identifying potential dropouts early

29 Jul

Moi has several posts about dropouts. In Studies: Lack of support and early parenthood cause kids to dropout, she wrote:
Caralee Adams writes in the Education Week article, Why High School Students Drop Out and Efforts to Re-Engage:

Parenthood—either being a parent or missing out on parental support—is the leading reason cited by dropouts for leaving school, according to a new survey.
The 2012 High School Dropouts in America survey was released today by Harris/Decima, a division of Harris Interactive, on behalf of Everest College, a part of the for-profit Corinthian College Inc.
The poll was commissioned to help policymakers and educators understand why students drop out of high school and find effective ways to re-engage them in the hope of improving graduation rates.
The survey asked 513 adults, ages 19 to 35: “Which, if any, of the following reasons prevented you from finishing high school?” Here are the responses:
1.Absence of parental support or encouragement (23 percent)
2.Becoming a parent (21 percent)
3.Lacking the credits needed to graduate (17 percent)
4.Missing too many days of school (17 percent)
5.Failing classes (15 percent)
6.Uninteresting classes (15 percent)
7.Experiencing a mental illness, such as depression (15 percent)
8.Having to work to support by family (12 percent)
9.Was bullied and didn’t want to return (12 percent)
In the survey, conducted online in October, 55 percent of the dropouts looked into, but had not started the process of getting their high school equivalency or GED. The likelihood of doing so is higher for those who are married (67 percent). The reasons for not getting a GED: “not having enough time” (34 percent) and “it costs too much” (26 percent).
One-third of high school dropouts say they are employed either full time, part time, or are self‐employed. Another 38 percent of the men and 26 percent of the women were unemployed.
Attracting young adults who have dropped out back for more education is a challenge.
Often students don’t want to return to the same school they left and are looking for flexible options. One approach that is showing promise is the Boston Public Re-Engagement Center. There, students can retake up to two courses they previously failed; try online credit recovery, or attend night school or summer school. Coming into the program, out-of-school youths are connected with an adult to discuss goals, finances, and enrollment options. http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/college_bound/2012/11/examining_reasons_for_dropping_out_of_high_school_and_ways_to_re-engage_students.html

See, High School Dropouts Worsened By Lack Of Support, Becoming A Parent: Survey http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/15/lack-of-support-becoming-_n_2137961.html?utm_hp_ref=email_share
https://drwilda.com/2012/11/19/studies-lack-of-support-and-early-parenthood-cause-kids-to-dropout/

Montgomery County Public Schools are studying dropout indicators in an effort to intervene early.

Sarah D. Sparks wrote in the Education Week article, Dropout Indicators Found for 1st Graders:

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.
“The message for Montgomery County is, our kids are there in school; they just aren’t doing well,” Mr. West said at a discussion of the data system at the National Center on Education Statistics’ annual conference in Washington this month.
Similarly, elementary schools very rarely handed out punishments as severe as suspensions, but more subtle behavior cues, such as report card notations of incomplete homework, more accurately signaled future problems for elementary children.
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.
“A parent has the report card, student has report card, teacher has a report card,” Mr. West said, “so if we base our conversation on the report card, at least everybody’s talking from the same page.”
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.
“We went from a very complicated approach to one that’s much simpler and geared toward teachers rather than the district,” Mr. West said. “It’s like getting your blood pressure checked; you have to do it often and over time.”
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.
Flagging Students at Risk
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.
SOURCE: Thomas C. West, Montgomery County Public
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/07/29/37firstgrade.h32.html?tkn=QRXFprTOCCfY3%2B%2Fka0Ul8vACJd2GV5tKy4Ul&cmp=clp-edweek

Here is the summary for Just the Right Mix: Identifying Potential Dropouts in Montgomery County Public Schools Using an Early Warning Indicators Approach:

Office of Shared Accountability Reports
Show search options
http://sharedaccountability.mcpsmd.org/reports/list.php
Title: Just the Right Mix: Identifying Potential Dropouts in Montgomery County Public Schools Using an Early Warning Indicators Approach
Topic: Other Data
Produced by: Research Team
Section: Early Warning Indicators
Published: March 2013
Authors: Thomas C. West
Keywords: early warning indicators, dropout, on-track, off-track, graduation
Years of Study: 2010-2011, 2011-2012
School Levels: Elementary, Middle, High
Format: Report
Pages: 28
Description: By applying the Early Warning Indicators (EWIs) approach to Montgomery County Public Schools’ student data, this report identifies the attendance, behavior, and coursework indicators of MCPS dropouts for the first marking periods of Grades 3, 6, and 9. Additionally, for the first time in EWI research, this report identifies EWIs for Grade 1.
Recommendations:
An EWIs monitoring tool should be created based on research and cut points determined by the Office of Shared Accountability (OSA) for all elementary, middle, and high school grades.
EWI monitoring should be incorporated into teacher and administrator PLCs across all grades.
School staff, officials, counselors, and parents should work together to develop intervention strategies specific to individual students’ needs.
File name: Just the Right Mix_MCPS_West2013.pdf
Click here to open report (510KB PDF)
http://montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/sharedaccountability/reports/2013/Just%20the%20Right%20Mix_MCPS_West2013.pdf

History is a race between education and catastrophe.
H. G. Wells

This world is in a period of dislocation and upheaval as great as the period of dislocation which ushered in the “industrial revolution.” The phrase “new, new thing” comes from a book by Michael Lewis about innovation in Silicon Valley. This historical period is between “new, new things” as the economy hopes that some new innovator will harness “green technology” and make it commercially viable as the economy needs the jump that only a “new, new thing” will give it. Peter S. Goodman has a fascinating article in the New York Times, Millions of Unemployed Face Years Without Jobs Unless, children are given a meaningful education which provides them with basic skills to adapt to a changing environment, the education system is producing a permanent underclass which will not be able to participate in the next “new, new thing.”

Resources:

School Dropout Rates Add To Fiscal Burden
http://www.npr.org/2011/07/24/138653393/school-dropout-rates-adds-to-fiscal-burden
The Facts: National Dropout Rates
http://boostup.org/en/facts/statistics

Dropout prevention: More schools offering daycare for students https://drwilda.com/2013/01/14/dropout-prevention-more-schools-offering-daycare-for-students/
Where information leads to Hope. © Dr. Wilda.com
Dr. Wilda says this about that ©
Blogs by Dr. Wilda:
COMMENTS FROM AN OLD FART© http://drwildaoldfart.wordpress.com/
Dr. Wilda Reviews © http://drwildareviews.wordpress.com/
Dr. Wilda © https://drwilda.com/

Tags: Becoming A Parent, Dropout, Dropout Indicators Found for 1st Graders, Dropout Prevention, Early Intervention, economy, education, High School Dropouts Worsened By Lack Of Support, Just the Right Mix: Identifying Potential Dropouts in Montgomery County Public Schools Using an Early Warning Indicators Approach, Montgomery County Public Schools, politics, research, Why High School Students Drop Out and Efforts to Re-Engage

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Too many children of color skip advanced IB and AP courses

5 Jun

Moi wrote about “advanced placement” or AP courses in Who should take AP classes?

AP courses tend to attract students who are preparing for college and are very goal oriented. So, what if a student either doesn’t want to go to college or may want a career, should they take AP courses? Since the average person, according to Career Information Online will have three to five careers over the course of a life time, the best advice to everyone is prepare for any eventuality. Even if students don’t attend college after high school, they may attend later as part of a career change. Many former automobile workers are now getting college degrees in nursing and other fields, for example.

Huffington Post is reported in the article, AP Exams: Most Students Who Should Be Taking The Tests Aren’t:

More than 60 percent of students considered to have AP potential didn’t take the exam last year, even though their PSAT scores showed they could perform well on one, according to a College Board report released last week. Overall, black, Latino and Native American students were less likely to take AP exams than their white and Asian counterparts.

“AP potential” as defined by the College Board is a 70 percent or greater likelihood that a student will score a 3 (out of 5) or higher on an AP exam. The “potential” is calculated based on more than 2 million public school PSAT/NMSQT takers in the class of 2011.

Of those, nearly 771,000 graduates were classified as having AP potential, but nearly 478,000 — about 62 percent — did not take a recommended AP subject. The study points out that underserved minorities were disproportionately impacted: 74 percent of Native American students, 80 percent of black students and 70 percent of Hispanic students did not take recommended AP subject tests. A majority of Asian students with AP potential took the exams — 42 percent did not — and 62 percent of white students with AP potential didn’t take the exams.

This year’s report echoes findings from last year’s, as the College Board report last February revealed that while the number of minority students taking the exam has increased, it is still disproportionately low. To add to that, those groups are also still struggling to excel in performance: Of the half million students who passed an AP exam in 2010, just 14.6 percent were Hispanic or Latino. Only 3.9 percent of passing students were black….

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/13/ap-exams-most-students-wh_n_1273980.html?ref=email_share

The question is not only should a particular student should take AP courses, but whether the choice should be between AP courses or an International Baccalaureate. https://drwilda.com/2012/02/14/who-should-take-ap-classes/

Caralee Adams reported in the Education Week article, Racial and Income Gaps Persist in AP and IB Enrollment:

Each year, about 640,000 low-income students and students of color are “missing” from AP and IB participation—students who could benefit if they merely enrolled at the same rate as other students in their schools, the report says.

It is not just a matter access. About 1 million students do not attend schools that offer AP, and the authors note that only a small percentage of the gaps by race or family income can be accounted for by which schools do and do not offer the classes.

In many cases, students from disadvantaged backgrounds are not enrolling in existing programs.

Overall, about 11.7 percent of high school students attending schools with AP classes participate. Middle- and high-income students at these schools are three times as likely to enroll in an AP course as are low-income students. Black and American Indian students participate at about half the rate of the national average, while about 9 percent of Hispanic students sign up. This translates into about 614,000 students missing out on the opportunity.

The IB program offered in high schools to 11th and 12th graders is smaller than AP, but the Education Trust also identifies areas for growth among disadvantaged students. Looking at about 570 schools in 2010, the researchers found about one in 19 students participate in IB. White and upper-income students were more likely to enroll, leaving about 33,000 students of color and those from low-income families “missing” from the IB rolls.

The Education Trust report highlights schools that have managed to level the playing field, as evidence that these gaps can be closed. http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/college_bound/2013/06/racial_and_income_gaps_persist_in_ap_and_ib_enrollment.html

Education Trust released this information about Finding America’s Missing AP and IB Students

New Analysis Finds Too Many Students Missing From AP and IB Programs

Programs like Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) are designed to provide high school students with challenging academic course work and a head start on a college education. But despite aggressive efforts — by federal and state lawmakers, private philanthropy, and districts and schools — to expand participation, there remain significant differences in the rates at which students from different racial and economic groups gain access.

These differences have been documented repeatedly and over time. What is less clear is why they persist. This new report from The Education Trust and Equal Opportunity Schools, “Finding America’s Missing AP and IB Students,” tackles the question head on. Do we simply need to expand the programs to more schools, especially those serving low-income students and students of color, or does the problem lie elsewhere? If we can identify and remedy where and why these inequities exist, these courses can be a powerful means of disrupting the high-end achievement gap, documented in the first report in this series.

Co-authors Christina Theokas, director of research at The Education Trust, and Reid Saaris, executive director of Equal Opportunity Schools, examined spring 2010 test-taking data from the College Board, which administers AP, and The International Baccalaureate and found that nationally, low-income students are one-third as likely to enroll in AP as their middle and high-income peers, while black and American Indian students participate at a rate about half that of white students. IB programs are both fewer and smaller, but similar national participation gaps exist. All in all, the authors found over 640,000 low-income students and students of color “missing” from existing AP and IB programs — that is, the additional numbers who would be participating if such students participated at the same rate as other students.

The report shows that 71 percent of traditional public high schools in the United States have AP programs. These schools serve about 91 percent of the high school student population. And, as a whole, “AP schools” enroll students who are reasonably representative of the full economic and racial diversity of all high schools, with the exception of American Indian students. Those schools without an AP program tend to be small, higher poverty, and rural. These deficiencies need to be remedied, but only a small part of the national participation gaps can be accounted for by which schools offer AP and which do not.

The real advanced course opportunity gap exists not between schools but within schools. Although the vast majority of students in every racial and economic group attend a school with an AP program, this is not well reflected in who is actually enrolled in AP courses.

The co-authors conducted a school-by-school analysis and examined whether various student groups within schools participated at similar rates. Unfortunately, within-school participation rates in many schools weren’t even close to parity, correlating with significant numbers of black, Latino, and low-income students missing from AP courses. Indeed, if all schools worked hard to find and enroll their “missing students,” the black and Hispanic national participation gaps would be entirely closed, and the low-income student gap would nearly close (90 percent).

Certainly, preparation prior to high school is part of the problem, and the nation’s schools need to work hard on that. But a recent analysis of PSAT scores by the College Board suggests there are far more students who have the potential to be successful, but are not enrolling. The College Board found that 72 percent of black students and 66 percent of Hispanic students whose PSAT scores suggested they had the potential to be successful in an AP math course, as well as 69 percent of black students and 65 percent of Hispanic students whose scores suggested they had the potential to be successful in an AP science course, were left out of the program.

Equal Opportunity Schools was created in 2008 to work with districts and schools on finding their “missing” students. Saaris and his team find that a focus on matching students with challenging high school learning opportunities results in immediate gains on the achievement gap and college readiness, while catalyzing a higher sense of what’s possible in our schools. Again and again, they discover that there are many low-income students and students of color literally sitting across the hall from the very high-level courses in which they are ready to succeed.

“We don’t need to re-invent the wheel here. At the vast majority of our high schools, we’re already using AP or IB classes to prepare students for the academic rigors of college. And yet most any educator will tell you that additional students could be benefiting from them right away,” said Saaris. “Some schools are making breakthroughs by studying the issue and quickly deploying innovative solutions to transition all their missing students up to AP or IB course participation and success.”

Lessons emerging from schools and districts already taking on these challenges can provide information for others working toward disrupting current patterns:

As one of the first school districts in the country to make college readiness a goal for all its students, the San Jose Unified School District began more than a decade ago requiring students to take the full sequence of courses needed for admission to the University of California system. More recently, district leaders began looking at gaps at the top: in AP participation. Staff at each school analyzed their own data and generated appropriate solutions. And, over time, participation rates for under-represented student subgroups doubled.

In the Federal Way Public Schools in Washington state, district leaders spotted the gaps in their data and knew that many of their students would be underprepared for college as a result. They started with a policy offering “open access” to AP/IB courses. But when that produced insufficient progress, they decided to automatically enroll students who scored proficient or better on the state exam. That approach has now been endorsed by the state Legislature, with other schools encouraged to follow a similar path.

“As states across the country implement college- and career-ready standards, we must take immediate action to close the devastating participation gaps that currently exist in our most rigorous courses,” said Christina Theokas. “Educators are the backbone of these efforts, and should be encouraged to take steps to examine enrollment patterns at their school, audit entry requirements, examine what students and teachers know about accessing a school’s AP or IB program, and work together as a team encouraging and supporting students in these classes. By following the example of schools and districts that have already found success with these steps and others, educators will be better prepared to close the gap in high-end achievement.”

There is also more work to be done by federal and state policymakers. The report recommends that policymakers make sure that all high school students have access to AP or IB programs, require all high schools to offer a minimum number of advanced courses, and — to help close the large within-school gaps in participation — require schools to report school-level participation and success rates for all groups of students.

Furthering the research in this area is a new report by The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, “The Road to Equity: Expanding AP Access and Success for African-American Students,” which examines successful strategies used by school systems that have not only maintained their level of AP participation by African-American students, but have also been able to increase AP test passing. Released today, the report provides case studies of six districts that provide even more examples for other educators, schools, and districts to follow.

—May 5, 2013

www.edtrust.org/sites/edtrust.org/files/Missing_Students.pdf

Moi wrote in Race, class, and education in America:

A few years back, the New York Times did a series about social class in America. That series is still relevant. Janny Scott and David Leonhardt’s overview, Shadowy Lines That Still Divide describes the challenges faced by schools trying to overcome the disparity in education. The complete series can be found at Social Class

https://drwilda.com/2011/11/07/race-class-and-education-in-america/

https://drwilda.com/2012/12/22/the-role-economic-class-plays-in-college-success/

An interesting critique of the College Board’s AP test report https://drwilda.com/2013/03/10/an-interesting-critique-of-the-college-boards-ap-test-report/

The International Baccalaureate program as a way to save struggling schools https://drwilda.com/2012/04/30/international-baccalaureate/

Blogs by Dr. Wilda:

Tags: AP Exams: Most Students Who Should Be Taking The Tests Aren't:, Ap. Advanced Placement Class, business, economy, education, Education Trust, Finding America's Missing AP and IB Students, IB, International Baccalaureate, politics, Race and Class, Racial and Income Gaps Persist in AP and IB Enrollment, research, science, Shadowy Lines That Still Divide

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Study: Parental unemployment adversely affects children

30 Mar

In 3rd world America: The economy affects the society of the future, moi said:

So what future have the Goldman Sucks, cash sluts, and credit crunch weasels along with we don’t care, we don’t have to Washington Georgetown and Chevy Chase set – you know, the “masters of the universe” left those on a race to get through college? Lila Shapiro has the excellent post, Trading Down: Laid-Off Americans Taking Pay Cuts and Increasingly Kissing Their Old Lives Goodbye at Huffington Post:

This government, both parties, has failed to promote the kind of economic development AND policy which creates livable wage jobs. That is why Mc Donalds is popular for more than its dollar menu. They are hiring people.

Nirvi Shah writes in the Education Week article, Parents’ Unemployment Affects Students at Home, School:

About 6.2 million children lived in families with unemployed parents in 2012, and that number rises to 12.1 million American children—about one in six—when including families with unemployed or underemployed parents during an average month of 2012. That’s a decrease from 2010, when the figure was about 13.5 million children, but a huge increase from 2007, when the number was 7.1 million children.

These children may especially feel the effects of their parents’ unemployment in their education, the report says:

One of the earliest signs that children are not doing well is their school performance. Several studies have documented lower math scores, poorer school attendance, and a higher risk of grade repetition or even suspension or expulsion among children whose parents have lost their jobs. …[P]arental job loss increases the chances a child will be held back in school by nearly 1 percentage point a year, or 15 percent.

But the effects of parental job loss can persist as children age: The report notes that low-income youth whose parents lose a job have lower rates of college attendance. Looking back at the recession of the 1980s, boys whose fathers lost jobs when manufacturing and other plants closed at that time grew into men who had annual earnings that were about 9 percent lower than similar men whose whose fathers did not lose those jobs. http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/rulesforengagement/2013/03/parents_unemployment_affects_students_at_home_school.html?intc=es

Here is the press release from First Focus:

For Kids, Jobless Benefits Miss the Mark
Press Release

March 25, 2013

Contact:
Madeline Daniels
(202) 999-4853 (office)

Washington – Federal benefits are largely failing to reach children affected by unemployment, according to a report released today by the bipartisan children’s advocacy organization First Focus.

“One in six children live with an unemployed or underemployed parent, so our leaders should be doing everything they can to prevent kids from falling through the cracks,” said First Focus president Bruce Lesley.

Unemployment from a Child’s Perspective, authored by Julia Isaacs of the Urban Institute, examined the reach of three federal initiatives designed to help the families of the unemployed; Unemployment Insurance (UI), the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps), and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF); and found:

UI reaches just 36 percent of children with at least one unemployed parent.

More than one fourth (29 percent) of children with unemployed parents have incomes limited enough to be eligible for and receive SNAP and/or TANF, but did not receive the larger UI benefits in the last year.

The remaining 35 percent of children impacted by parental unemployment do not receive any of these three benefits designed to support unemployed or low-income families.

Families experiencing long-term unemployment and the exhaustion of available federal unemployment benefits are particularly vulnerable to economic stress. This group has more than tripled since before the recession to 2.8 million children, or almost half of all children living with an unemployed parent. Poverty nearly tripled among parents who remained out of work for six months or longer.

While 9 percent of children experience parental unemployment overall, children from families of color are disproportionately impacted:

14 percent of African-American children live with at least one unemployed parent.

11 percent of Latino children live with at least one unemployed parent.

7 percent of Caucasian children live with at least one unemployed parent.

6 percent of Asian children live with at least one unemployed parent.

The analysis also shows that economic stress can have significant consequences for children. Job loss can have a negative impact on family dynamics through increased parental irritability, depression, and higher levels of family conflict. Family unemployment has a marked impact on children, including documented lower math scores, poorer school attendance, higher risk of grade repetition, and suspension/expulsion.

The report cites recent threats to federal funding for unemployment insurance, SNAP, and TANF. The federal budget resolution passed last week by the U.S. House of Representatives would make deep cuts to SNAP and other anti-poverty initiatives.

“This is an important reminder that kids are still recovering from the recession, and parents should expect their lawmakers to deliver a federal budget that invests in our children,” said Lesley.

Citation:

March 25, 2013

By Julia Isaacs, The Urban Institute

Download this Resource

Moi wrote in 3rd world America: Money changes everything:

The increased rate of poverty has profound implications if this society believes that ALL children have the right to a good basic education. Moi blogs about education issues so the reader could be perplexed sometimes because moi often writes about other things like nutrition, families, and personal responsibility issues. Why? The reader might ask? Because children will have the most success in school if they are ready to learn. Ready to learn includes proper nutrition for a healthy body and the optimum situation for children is a healthy family. Many of societies’ problems would be lessened if the goal was a healthy child in a healthy family. There is a lot of economic stress in the country now because of unemployment and underemployment. Children feel the stress of their parents and they worry about how stable their family and living situation is.

Richard D. Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation wrote the informative Washington Post article, How to attack the growing educational gap between rich and poor:

In fact, research published by The Century Foundation and other organizations going back more than a decade shows that there are an array of strategies that can be highly effective in addressing the socioeconomic gaps in education:

* Pre-K programs. As Century’s Greg Anrig has noted, there is a wide body of research suggesting that well-designed pre-K programs in places like Oklahoma have yielded significant achievement gains for students. Likewise, forthcoming Century Foundation research by Jeanne Reid of Teachers College, Columbia University, suggests that allowing children to attend socioeconomically integrated (as opposed to high poverty) pre-K settings can have an important positive effect on learning.

* Socioeconomic Housing Integration. Inclusionary zoning laws that allow low-income and working-class parents and their children to live in low-poverty neighborhoods and attend low-poverty schools can have very positive effects on student achievement, as researcher David Rusk has long noted. A natural experiment in Montgomery County, Maryland, showed that low-income students randomly assigned to public housing units and allowed to attend schools in low-poverty neighborhoods scored at 0.4 of a standard deviation higher than those randomly assigned to higher-poverty neighborhoods and schools. According to the researcher, Heather Schwartz of the RAND Corporation, the initial sizable achievement gap between low-income and middle-class students in low-poverty neighborhoods and schools was cut in half in math and by one-third in reading over time.

* Socioeconomic School Integration. School districts that reduce concentrations of poverty in schools through public school choice have been able to significantly reduce the achievement and attainment gaps. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, for example, where a longstanding socioeconomic integration plan has allowed students to choose to attend mixed-income magnet schools, the graduation rate for African American, Latino, and low-income students is close to 90 percent, far exceeding the state average for these groups.

* College Affirmative Action for Low-Income Students. Research finds attending a selective college confers substantial benefits, and that many more low-income and working-class students could attend and succeed in selective colleges than currently do. Research by Anthony Carnevale and Stephen J. Rose of Georgetown University for the Century volume, America’s Untapped Resource: Low-Income Students in Higher Education , found that selective universities could increase their representation from the bottom socioeconomic half of the population from 10 percent to 38 percent, and overall graduation rates for all students would remain the same.

In addition to these ideas, Century Foundation research by Gordon MacInnes has highlighted promising programs to promote the performance of low-income students in New Jersey. Forthcoming research will suggest ways to revitalize organized labor, a development that could raise wages of workers and thereby have a positive impact on the educational outcomes of their children. We will also be exploring ways to strengthen community colleges as a vital institutions for social mobility.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/how-to-attack-the-growing-educational-gap-between-rich-and-poor/2012/02/10/gIQArDOg4Q_blog.html

There is no magic bullet or “Holy Grail” in education. There is only what works to produce academic achievement in each population of children. That is why school choice is so important.

Hard times are disrupting families https://drwilda.com/2011/12/11/hard-times-are-disrupting-families/

3rd world America: The link between poverty and education https://drwilda.com/2011/11/20/3rd-world-america-the-link-between-poverty-and-education/

3rd world America: Money changes everything https://drwilda.com/2012/02/11/3rd-world-america-money-changes-everything/

Blogs by Dr. Wilda:

Tags: 3rd World America, business, Children and Poverty, current-events, economy, education, First Focus, For Kids, How to attack the growing educational gap between rich and poor, Jobless Benefits Miss the Mark, Parents' Unemployment Affects Students at Home, politics, Poverty, Poverty and Education, The Century Foundation, The Urban Institute, Trading Down: Laid-Off Americans Taking Pay Cuts and Increasingly Kissing Their Old Lives Goodbye, Unemployment, Unemployment from a Child’s Perspective

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Study of Washington community college students: Online college courses could widen achievement gap

27 Feb

Moi wrote in Online K-12 education as a cash cow for ‘Wall Street’:

There should be a variety of options and approaches in education. Still, School choice does not mean education on the cheap! K-12 education should not be the next sub-prime mortgage or derivative gambit for large for-profit companies. Lee Fang has written the alarming Nation article, How Online Learning Companies Bought America’s Schools.

While most education reform advocates cloak their goals in the rhetoric of “putting children first,” the conceit was less evident at a conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, earlier this year.

Standing at the lectern of Arizona State University’s SkySong conference center in April, investment banker Michael Moe exuded confidence as he kicked off his second annual confab of education startup companies and venture capitalists. A press packet cited reports that rapid changes in education could unlock “immense potential for entrepreneurs.” “This education issue,” Moe declared, “there’s not a bigger problem or bigger opportunity in my estimation.”

Moe has worked for almost fifteen years at converting the K-12 education system into a cash cow for Wall Street. A veteran of Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, he now leads an investment group that specializes in raising money for businesses looking to tap into more than $1 trillion in taxpayer money spent annually on primary education. His consortium of wealth management and consulting firms, called Global Silicon Valley Partners, helped K12 Inc. go public and has advised a number of other education companies in finding capital.

Moe’s conference marked a watershed moment in school privatization. His first “Education Innovation Summit,” held last year, attracted about 370 people and fifty-five presenting companies. This year, his conference hosted more than 560 people and 100 companies, and featured luminaries like former DC Mayor Adrian Fenty and former New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein, now an education executive at News Corporation, a recent high-powered entrant into the for-profit education field. Klein is just one of many former school officials to cash out. Fenty now consults for Rosetta Stone, a language company seeking to expand into the growing K-12 market.

As Moe ticked through the various reasons education is the next big “undercapitalized” sector of the economy, like healthcare in the 1990s, he also read through a list of notable venture investment firms that recently completed deals relating to the education-technology sector, including Sequoia and Benchmark Capital. Kleiner Perkins, a major venture capital firm and one of the first to back Amazon.com and Google, is now investing in education technology, Moe noted.

http://www.thenation.com/article/164651/how-online-learning-companies-bought-americas-schools

Henry M. Levin of Columbia University had some cautionary notes about for-profit K-12 education in 2001.

In the 2001 paper, Thoughts on For-profit Schools, Levin wrote:

The fact is that we know little about how for-profit schools will operate and how they will affect students and other schools. At least three major questions have yet to be answered satisfyingly:

• If schools are a potentially profitable endeavor, then why did entrepreneurs wait so long to enter the market? Is there something unique about schooling that makes it difficult to earn a profit?

• Now that we do have for-profit schools, how will they achieve cost savings? Will they bring fundamentally different approaches to education through curricular and technological innovations that will “break the mold”?

• Even if they are more effective or less costly, or both, will they earn profits that are comparable to the returns on other investments? http://www.ncspe.org/publications_files/7_OP14.pdf

Levin mused about some of the other issues that for-profit operators of K-12:

In short, even the most expensive private schools with the most elite clientele fail to cover their costs with tuition. This goes far in explaining why entrepreneurs have shied away from the K–12 market. This is not to say that an individual, for-profit, family-owned school can’t survive. I know of a few for-profit schools at the K–12 level and more at the preschool level that appear to be marginally profitable. But much of what appears as profit is due to the family members’ hard work for little pay. The salaries they draw on the school understate the value of their time, leaving the impression that the enterprise is profitable.

Whether this can be replicated on a large scale by corporate entities is doubtful. Historically, economic studies have not identified substantial economies of scale in education at school sites or in multi-school endeavors. Perhaps this is for the reason suggested by John Chubb and Terry Moe in Politics, Markets, and America’s Schools (1990): that the best results are obtained when schools are given great autonomy.2 A corporate competitor in schooling must establish brand and product identity, which necessitates relatively uniform operations and services from site-to-site. This puts the need for quality control and similarity from site to site in direct competition with the need to be responsive to differences among particular clients and settings. http://www.ncspe.org/publications_files/7_OP14.pdf

https://drwilda.com/2011/11/21/online-k-12-education-as-a-cash-cow-for-wall-street/

The study, Adaptability to Online Learning: Differences Across Types of Students and Academic Subject Areas reviewed Washington community college students and concluded that many college students do not benefit from online courses.

Jake New reports in the Chronicle of Higher Education article, Online Courses Could Widen Achievement Gaps Among Students:

Low-cost online courses could allow a more-diverse group of students to try college, but a new study suggests that such courses could also widen achievement gaps among students in different demographic groups.

The study, which is described in a working paper titled “Adaptability to Online Learning: Differences Across Types of Students and Academic Subject Areas,” was conducted by Columbia University’s Community College Research Center. The researchers examined 500,000 courses taken by more than 40,000 community- and technical-college students in Washington State. They found that students in demographic groups whose members typically struggle in traditional classrooms are finding their troubles exacerbated in online courses.

The study found that all students who take more online courses, no matter the demographic, are less likely to attain a degree. However, some groups—including black students, male students, younger students, and students with lower grade-point averages—are particularly susceptible to this pattern.

Shanna Smith Jaggars, who is assistant director of the Community College Research Center and one of the paper’s authors, said the widening gap is troubling, as it could imply that online learning is weakening—not strengthening—education equality.

“We found that the gap is stronger in the underrepresented and underprepared students,” Ms. Jaggars said. “They’re falling farther behind than if they were taking face-to-face courses.” http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/online-courses-could-widen-achievement-gaps-among-students/42521

Citation:

Adaptability to Online Learning: Differences Across Types of Students and Academic Subject Areas

By: Di Xu & Shanna Smith Jaggars

Abstract

Using a dataset containing nearly 500,000 courses taken by over 40,000 community and technical college students in Washington State, this study examines how well students adapt to the online environment in terms of their ability to persist and earn strong grades in online courses relative to their ability to do so in face-to-face courses. While all types of students in the study suffered decrements in performance in online courses, some struggled more than others to adapt: males, younger students, Black students, and students with lower grade point averages. In particular, students struggled in subject areas such as English and social science, which was due in part to negative peer effects in these online courses.

Download Working Paper No. 54 February 2013

Associated Project(s):

Online Courses in Community Colleges

Doug Lederman writes in the Inside Higher Education article, Who Benefits From Online Ed?

The new study is a follow-up prompted by questions from officials at the Washington State Community/Technical College System whose courses were examined. (The study examined the performance of 40,000 students in about 500,000 online courses.) “They asked us, ‘So who? Is it all students who fare less well, or certain subgroups?’ ” said Jaggars.

The answer is that virtually every group of students fared less well (defined by the number of course credits they completed, and/or by their grades) in online courses than they did in on-ground classes.

But some groups fared worse than others. Men showed a more negative effect from online courses than did women in terms of both course persistence and grades. Black students’ grades fell significantly more in online courses, as did those of Asian students. Students with stronger academic skills saw their course persistence and grades decline less in online courses than did students with weaker academic credentials.

Like other groups, older students were less likely to complete online courses than they were on-ground courses, though their grades were actually slightly higher. But traditional-age students saw their comparative performance decline such that while they outperformed adult students significantly in face-to-face classes, they lagged their older peers in online courses.

To the researchers, the working paper’s findings that “students who are already doing poorly in college do even more poorly when they take online courses” suggest several possible implications, said Jaggars. It may make sense, she said, “to restrict online courses only to students who demonstrate they do well in those courses.”

Other options would include incorporating into the sorts of lower-level courses in which struggling students tend to cluster training in online-learning skills, to help such students adapt better to online environments.

And most of all, the researchers suggest, colleges should focus on improving the quality of all online courses, to “ensure that their learning outcomes are equal to those of face-to-face courses, regardless of the composition of the students enrolled. Such an improvement strategy would require substantial new investments in course design, faculty professional development, learner and instructor support, and systematic course evaluations.”

The Study’s Implications

Jaggars acknowledged that the researchers did not do any analysis of the quality of the Washington State community college courses examined in the working paper. And that led numerous observers to urge caution in applying its results too broadly, as a New York Times editorial about the study arguably did last week.

The editorial focused on the terribly high attrition rates of noncredit massive open online courses and used the Community College Research Center’s study to extrapolate about online learning generally: “The picture the studies offer of the online revolution is distressing.” http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/02/25/study-finds-some-groups-fare-worse-others-online-courses

Children are not the new sub-prime mortgage business or the new derivative gambit. People must be afraid, very afraid of the vultures who are now hovering around the education sector. If folks don’t watch them, the results will not be pretty.

The University of Wisconsin ‘Flexible Option’ program: A college GED? https://drwilda.com/2013/01/25/the-university-of-wisconsin-flexible-option-program-a-college-ged/

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Tags: Adaptability to Online Learning: Differences Across Types of Students and Academic Subject Area, business, economy, education, How Online Learning Companies Bought America’s Schools, Online Courses Could Widen Achievement Gaps Among Students, Online Education, politics, science, Thoughts on For-profit Schools, Who Benefits From Online Ed?

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Study of Washington community college students: Online college courses could widen achievement gap

Adaptability to Online Learning: Differences Across Types of Students and Academic Subject Areas

Abstract

Associated Project(s):

The University of Wisconsin ‘Flexible Option’ program: A college GED? https://drwilda.com/2013/01/25/the-university-of-wisconsin-flexible-option-program-a-college-ged/

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