Tag Archives: school reform

At Risk Students: Changes in the SAT Amount to Nothing Useful

Summary: New changes in the SAT serve only to respond to increased market share on the part of the ACT, and distract from the business of improving schools and stimulating at risk students to make use of opportunities before them. … Continue reading

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At Risk Low Income Students: Sometime Victims of a Blame Game

Summary: Stereotypical assumptions about low income kids should not cloud the will to social investment, via schools, in their economic future. Yesterday I visited with an old friend and neighbor in a community in which I had lived for 35 … Continue reading

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At Risk Students: Lessons from the Post High School Scene

  Summary: Community colleges struggle with the same deficits in low income students that handicap their progress in elementary and high school. Here are a couple of very different approaches to this pivotal dilemma. Serendipity sometimes informs the writer. Shortly … Continue reading

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At Risk Low Income Students: Readiness Is All

Summary: In the race to improve the academic skills of low income students various “soft” skills need address as well. Student self-perception and personal vision, possession of a viable road map to success, and social skills pertinent to socioeconomic advancement … Continue reading

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Schools and Politics: The Focus on Income Inequality Is Good News for School Reform

Summary: The rising political focus on income inequality brings renewed scrutiny to the role of school reform for low income students, and a cautious opening to political consensus. Many low income students I encountered as a high school counselor confounded … Continue reading

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School Reform Via Targeted Hires and “Big Data”

Summary: The use of “big data” and derivative algorithms to predict which applicants will be successful hires in companies may prove useful in the identification of quality teacher candidates. The fact that 46% of new teachers leave the profession within … Continue reading

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At Risk Students: Parent Volunteers to the Rescue

Summary: Parent volunteers in schools can provide the critical attention needed to alter the academic trajectory of at risk kids. The daunting organizational tasks required, however, are often beyond the funding capabilities of schools themselves. One neighborhood association in Chicago … Continue reading

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At Risk Kids: Wrap Around Services for Troubled Folk

Summary: The work of one non-profit and one Seattle Schools program showcase the intensive human support of at risk kids needed to bring those troubled kids along into the academically successful mainstream. Fine hors d’oeurves and good wine greeted us … Continue reading

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Schools and Culture: Dysfunctional Cultural Currents Stymie School Reform?

Summary: In Yale students and public school students alike, cultural currents surface and raise questions how these patterns influence our children in their studies. News in the Yale Alumni Magazine that 62% of Yale undergraduates earned A or A- in … Continue reading

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School Reform: Yup, Some Regular Every Day Schools Are Doing It

Summary: One low income school stages a dramatic turnaround. How it was done maps out a route that other reformed schools have followed, yet poses dilemmas for the choice makers. The Seattle area’s White Center Heights Elementary prior to the … Continue reading

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