Archive for the ‘Middle School’ Category
Baltimore Sun writer, Liz Bowie, shares with us the great work that Higher Achievement is doing with Baltimore City students. Founded 30 years ago in Washington, DC, this model of mentoring and support is now operating in two locations in Baltimore.
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Read the entire article here
Visit the school website
A Brooklyn charter school is about to become the first in the city to open in a public housing development.
Avoiding a fight with local public schools over space, Coney Island Prep will throw open its doors at a City Housing Authority community center.
“I have tried really hard not to step on anyone’s toes,” said founder Jacob Mnookin.
More than two-thirds of the city’s 78 charter schools are in shared space in public schools, paying $1 a year.
Coney Island Preparatory Charter School will pay the Housing Authority roughly $68,000 for the first year.
“It’s a creative solution,” said city Department of Education spokeswoman Melody Meyer.
“We are always looking for creative ways to help charter schools find a facility space. This is a standout example.”
The dean of students helps students safely cross the street
In response to concerns over the growing number of serious traffic accidents involving students in Los Angeles, officials at Florence Nightengale Middle School are stepping up to ensure their students’ safety, according to the Los Angeles Journal.
The Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office will soon begin to train parents for traffic control and safety duty. The Office cites lack of resources — money for crossing guards and a decline in applicants — as a major challenge. Apparently, many children cross in the middle of the block, but according to a district official, that is caused in part because there are not enough crosswalks. I’ll pause here to toss out a few basic question: Why aren’t there enough crosswalks? What constitutes “enough?” Didn’t parents teach their children how to cross the street? Now, there is an entirely different line if questioning that needs to be explored: Why aren’t drivers slowing down in a school zone? Are there clear signs and flashing lights and other indicators visible? Is this a problem due to (not to be insensitive) students just not paying attention and darting out into the street, negligent and/or reckless drivers, or a combination of both?
So what’s the nature of the problem?
– Not enough crosswalks
– Not enough crossing guards
– Driver error
– Student absentminded-ness
– Parents not teaching their kids how to safely cross the street
– Poor school and safety official coordination (to ensure orderly dismissal)
– Lack of financial resources
– Increased traffic volume
– Poor civil engineering
– and the list could continue
Even if consensus is not reached concerning the nature of the problem, most would agree that students’ physical safety is important — it is something we care about. So, when data shows an increase in the number of serious injuryamong students as a result of traffic accidents, we will want to do something about it. But what is an appropriate response? Is it a policy problem? I think the argument could made to support an affirmative response, but it depends on how the problem is framed. If it is determined that the problem originates with drivers and driver safety, a policy response could be developed. If, however, we think that parents just aren’t doing a good enough job teaching their students common sense safety, then a policy rseponse is not as appropriate. Perhaps a programmatic response of education and training would suffice.
Have You Visited a Middle School Lately?
By Arlene Cash
Inside Higher Ed online
To dramatically increase the numbers of low-income and under-represented students on college campuses, colleges and universities will have to offer more than handsome financial aid packages. If we really want to get serious about making colleges and universities more diverse and accessible, institutions must help to change the long-standing perception — among both teens and their parents in some low-income communities — that higher education is only for wealthy white students.
To change such long-held beliefs, we need to do more than simply stand at information booths on college nights or line school hallways with glossy posters. We need to dedicate the time necessary to motivate them, and we need to do it earlier — when they’re in middle school. Read the entire article.
My online comment:
In the spirit of encouraging dialogue and considering alternative points of view, I offer a counter perspective on the statement of the problem. The author identifies elements of the problem that include too few low-income and under-represented students on college campus, not enough college and university outreach targeted at an earlier point in a student’s academic path, and the misperception among teens and their parents in some low-income communities that higher education is for wealthy white students.
I hesitate to agree that the most appropriate statement of the problem is the misperception that higher education is for wealthy white students. Undoubtedly, this perception exists and is valid. However, perhaps a more accurate statement might be that the misperception is that higher education is for wealthy students, not wealthy white students? Or that it is for white students, not necessarily the wealthy white students? Or is it possible that the misperception has to do with the false belief that under-represented students in low-income communities and failing schools and school districts are not “smart enough” to consider higher education or that higher education isn’t going to make a difference in their lives? Or that students are victims of a shameful cycle of failure that has snuffed out any possibility that higher education is an opportunity for them?
I do appreciate the author’s message, and I agree that we need to reach students at a much earlier point in their lives. I encourage efforts targeted at the middle school level and believe that they can be effective. My work with a Saturday tutoring and enrichment program in Philadelphia convinced me of this. However, I also agree that even beginning at the middle school level sometimes be too late, as the author of a previous comment stated. In much the same way that P-16 efforts are gaining traction in states across the country to align the system, so too should there be coordinated and sustained efforts (with the resources attached) to repair the leaks in the education pipeline that allow far too many low-income and under-represented students to believe, for whatever reason, that higher education is not in their future. Parents cannot be expected to do it alone, nor can schools be expected to do it alone, nor can churches, etc. For the benefit of our children, our families, our futures, we ignite a transformation that addresses the problems laid out at the outset of this article.
Education Policy & Practice 