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Recent Articles on Arts & Involvement
The Dana Foundation has posted an interesting interview with Michael S. Gazzaniga, director of the UC-Santa Barbara SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind, Learning, Arts and the Brain. He led the three-year, seven university consortium that issued the report of the same name.
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From this week's Public Ed Digest, four articles related to family/community involvement in schools. Now that summer is almost here, I really hope to be able to concentrate on strategies to encourage more active community involvement next fall. I know all of the volunteer groups at NHS hope to find some ways to collaborate to increase excitement and knowledge about the many ways our schools can benefit with strong involvement. I'd love to hear your ideas & suggestions about this in the coming weeks!
Here are links to the articles…
NC COLLEGE GRADS MAY BE REQUIRED TO SERVE K-12 SCHOOLS TO GET DIPLOMAS
Under legislation proposed by NC State Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand, all students seeking bachelors' degrees in the state's public and private colleges and universities would be required to spend 20 hours a semester tutoring or mentoring students in North Carolina public schools, writes Dan Kane of The News & Observer. The program would be named in honor of two students randomly murdered this year, Abhijit Mahato of Duke University and Eve Carson of UNC-Chapel Hill. "In our public schools, we always say that if we could get the family involved, how much better everything would be," said Senator Rand. "Well, some of children in public schools don't have families. Sometimes the family doesn't want to be involved. And so programs involving these college students would be a real boost." If the legislation passes, all bachelor's degree recipients would have to complete this community service requirement in order to graduate. Some universities and colleges already have such programs, but do not require participation to graduate. Other programs, such as N.C. Central University in Durham, require 120 hours of community service to graduate; officials there announced they will now steer their students toward helping public school students within a two-mile radius of their campus.
USING CONSTITUENCY BUILDING TO IMPROVE PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Building quality schools for all students requires a public commitment and a broad, active constituency able to challenge the status quo and create the conditions for change. The Constituency Building for Public School Reform (CBPSR) initiative was founded by the Ford Foundation -- 13 years ago -- to help build such a constituency. At the heart of this initiative is a conviction that civic participation is essential to a healthy democracy in general and to public school improvement efforts in particular. In a new report, "A Foundation Returns to School: Strategies for Improving Public Education," Janice Petrovich, director of Education, Sexuality and Religion, writes that the initiative was based on two premises. First, that low-income communities -- those most likely to benefit from school improvement -- are typically excluded from the school reform arena and need to assume a more active role. This is particularly important given that the issue of educational equity often takes a back seat to concerns about educational quality. Second, that successful reform depends on well-informed and inclusive coalitions capable of mobilizing a broad cross sector of the community. Only an engaged public can generate the political energy to initiate and sustain reform and hold public officials accountable. Although many efforts have aimed at long-term school improvement, progress has been elusive. Experience in school reform has shown that no matter how well crafted or well intentioned reforms may be, they will not endure without community support -- and that community support is won not through public relations campaigns, but through active participation. The Ford Foundation's Constituency Building for Public School Reform initiative has demonstrated that civil society organizations can provide platforms for education issues, inform the development of appropriate interventions, educate the public, increase transparency and accountability, and enhance democratic participation.
BUILDING THE FUTURE OF FAMILY INVOLVEMENT
Historically, policymakers' and schools' investments in family involvement have been limited and inconsistent, due to shifting political ideologies, issues of control and accountability, and the challenging nature of building and sustaining meaningful family –school relationships. Today, educators, researchers and parents alike see the need and opportunity to move beyond individual programs to continuous and systemic family involvement efforts. Research is beginning to document what years of field experience show: Families are involved not just in schools and homes, but in a variety of settings. From the everyday "teachable moment" to formal educational institutions, families can encourage learning everywhere -- in museums, on playgrounds, and in grocery stores, to name just a few settings. Broadening the concept of family involvement to include all of these settings provides more opportunities for families to support learning, reduces or compensates for barriers to traditional forms of involvement, and promotes continuity of involvement. Families can and should be a centerpiece of what we call complementary learning -- a systemic approach that intentionally integrates school and nonschool supports to promote educational and life success. This double issue of The Evaluation Exchange from the Harvard Family Research Project examines the current state of and future directions for the family involvement field in research, policy, and practice. Featuring innovative initiatives, new evaluation approaches and findings, and interviews with field leaders, the issue is designed to spark conversation about where the field is today and where it needs to go in the future.
TELL YOUR STORY OF COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT IN PUBLIC EDUCATION
The Learning First Alliance recently interviewed best-selling author Dave Eggers about the urban tutoring centers he has helped establish in 7 major cities nationwide. Those centers focus on student writing for children aged 6 to 18, and they also work with teachers to promote better writing instruction in schools. Eggers describes the centers' success in engaging communities in public education. The centers operate behind storefronts that draw people off the streets and help program directors recruit volunteer tutors -- who now number in the thousands. The centers also encourage strong family involvement. Eggers describes his new site -- www.onceuponaschool.org -- which encourages people to tell their stories of successful community involvement in public schools. Eggers also describes his forthcoming documentary on the challenges faced by public school teachers. He's working with Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Christine Roth to create a film that will do for public education what "An Inconvenient Truth" did for the environmental movement. He plans to release a film trailer next week and to begin final production in the fall.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
From this week's Public Ed Digest, four articles related to family/community involvement in schools. Now that summer is almost here, I really hope to be able to concentrate on strategies to encourage more active community involvement next fall. I know all of the volunteer groups at NHS hope to find some ways to collaborate to increase excitement and knowledge about the many ways our schools can benefit with strong involvement. I'd love to hear your ideas & suggestions about this in the coming weeks!
Here are links to the articles…
NC COLLEGE GRADS MAY BE REQUIRED TO SERVE K-12 SCHOOLS TO GET DIPLOMAS
Under legislation proposed by NC State Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand, all students seeking bachelors' degrees in the state's public and private colleges and universities would be required to spend 20 hours a semester tutoring or mentoring students in North Carolina public schools, writes Dan Kane of The News & Observer. The program would be named in honor of two students randomly murdered this year, Abhijit Mahato of Duke University and Eve Carson of UNC-Chapel Hill. "In our public schools, we always say that if we could get the family involved, how much better everything would be," said Senator Rand. "Well, some of children in public schools don't have families. Sometimes the family doesn't want to be involved. And so programs involving these college students would be a real boost." If the legislation passes, all bachelor's degree recipients would have to complete this community service requirement in order to graduate. Some universities and colleges already have such programs, but do not require participation to graduate. Other programs, such as N.C. Central University in Durham, require 120 hours of community service to graduate; officials there announced they will now steer their students toward helping public school students within a two-mile radius of their campus.
USING CONSTITUENCY BUILDING TO IMPROVE PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Building quality schools for all students requires a public commitment and a broad, active constituency able to challenge the status quo and create the conditions for change. The Constituency Building for Public School Reform (CBPSR) initiative was founded by the Ford Foundation -- 13 years ago -- to help build such a constituency. At the heart of this initiative is a conviction that civic participation is essential to a healthy democracy in general and to public school improvement efforts in particular. In a new report, "A Foundation Returns to School: Strategies for Improving Public Education," Janice Petrovich, director of Education, Sexuality and Religion, writes that the initiative was based on two premises. First, that low-income communities -- those most likely to benefit from school improvement -- are typically excluded from the school reform arena and need to assume a more active role. This is particularly important given that the issue of educational equity often takes a back seat to concerns about educational quality. Second, that successful reform depends on well-informed and inclusive coalitions capable of mobilizing a broad cross sector of the community. Only an engaged public can generate the political energy to initiate and sustain reform and hold public officials accountable. Although many efforts have aimed at long-term school improvement, progress has been elusive. Experience in school reform has shown that no matter how well crafted or well intentioned reforms may be, they will not endure without community support -- and that community support is won not through public relations campaigns, but through active participation. The Ford Foundation's Constituency Building for Public School Reform initiative has demonstrated that civil society organizations can provide platforms for education issues, inform the development of appropriate interventions, educate the public, increase transparency and accountability, and enhance democratic participation.
BUILDING THE FUTURE OF FAMILY INVOLVEMENT
Historically, policymakers' and schools' investments in family involvement have been limited and inconsistent, due to shifting political ideologies, issues of control and accountability, and the challenging nature of building and sustaining meaningful family –school relationships. Today, educators, researchers and parents alike see the need and opportunity to move beyond individual programs to continuous and systemic family involvement efforts. Research is beginning to document what years of field experience show: Families are involved not just in schools and homes, but in a variety of settings. From the everyday "teachable moment" to formal educational institutions, families can encourage learning everywhere -- in museums, on playgrounds, and in grocery stores, to name just a few settings. Broadening the concept of family involvement to include all of these settings provides more opportunities for families to support learning, reduces or compensates for barriers to traditional forms of involvement, and promotes continuity of involvement. Families can and should be a centerpiece of what we call complementary learning -- a systemic approach that intentionally integrates school and nonschool supports to promote educational and life success. This double issue of The Evaluation Exchange from the Harvard Family Research Project examines the current state of and future directions for the family involvement field in research, policy, and practice. Featuring innovative initiatives, new evaluation approaches and findings, and interviews with field leaders, the issue is designed to spark conversation about where the field is today and where it needs to go in the future.
TELL YOUR STORY OF COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT IN PUBLIC EDUCATION
The Learning First Alliance recently interviewed best-selling author Dave Eggers about the urban tutoring centers he has helped establish in 7 major cities nationwide. Those centers focus on student writing for children aged 6 to 18, and they also work with teachers to promote better writing instruction in schools. Eggers describes the centers' success in engaging communities in public education. The centers operate behind storefronts that draw people off the streets and help program directors recruit volunteer tutors -- who now number in the thousands. The centers also encourage strong family involvement. Eggers describes his new site -- www.onceuponaschool.org -- which encourages people to tell their stories of successful community involvement in public schools. Eggers also describes his forthcoming documentary on the challenges faced by public school teachers. He's working with Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Christine Roth to create a film that will do for public education what "An Inconvenient Truth" did for the environmental movement. He plans to release a film trailer next week and to begin final production in the fall.
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