Summer Time

Ah, the summer months. For those with children (and those still holding onto the ‘inner-child’), these are the months filled with water-soaked hair, animated movies, and never-too-many freeze-pops. However, between the sleepovers and the sleeping-in, summer provides an ample amount of time every teacher’s biggest worry – forgetting. Accounting for a significant loss in literacy rates, the annual 3-month break brings for teachers a required catch-up session every fall. For low-income students, this decline is even steeper than with their middle-income peers, serving as a strong contributing factor to the achievement gap.

Here in York, there are plenty of opportunities for parents and grandparents and siblings and aunts and uncles to engage with the youth in their life in order to maintain their reading level during the sleepy summer months. Check out a few of the resources below to get started:

Looking for something this weekend? Check out a reptile show, puppet show, and lots of local vendors at Gifford Pinchot State from 10 am – 2 pm this Saturday, July 13^th all sponsored by the York County Libraries.

Know a youth in high school? Check out York Libraries’ “Money $chool” that just started! Pre-registration is required so head here -> http://www.yorklibraries.org/web/guest/money-school for more information.

Want to hone your child’s writing skills? Check out this summer writing contest for 5^th and 6^th graderssponsored by the Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/kids-teachers/booksthatshape/

Have some time to spare? Join the York County Literacy Program and York County Libraries in their literacy tutoring efforts by volunteering your time. Check out http://www.yorklibraries.org/york-reads for more information!

Looking for an event the whole family can join? Check out the York County Libraries’ Summer Reading Club. Watch the video below and look for more information at your local library!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_sIWJ-K3oE&feature=youtu.be

Glimpse on Truancy

So what if students skip school? Should truancy rules be as strict? Even though it seems like the life of students are engulfed by education, is it worth worrying about a student deciding not to go to school when he or she does not feel like?  These are questions that parents and student have thought about.  Believe it or not, there are many problems dealing with students skipping school. 

According to studies by Lorenzo A. Trujillo, Assistant Dean of Students and Professional Programs at the University of Colorado School of Law, students that are left unattended, and the problem of truancy grows, it will have a severe impact on schools, courts, and communities.  “The importance of school attendance to achievement, engagement, and educational success has been neglected in most education reform and prevention initiatives.  School discipline, zero tolerance, and school safety concerns have combined to produce strategies that are counterproductive by pushing the problem out of the school and into the community.”  This is just a glimpse of the topic on truancy.  What do you think?  Read more of Trujullo’s study at:

* http://jjlp.law.ucdavis.edu/archives/vol-10-no-1/Truancy.pdf    

Discrimination Does Exist, by Pacheque Barber

            Discrimination, racism, sexism, prejudice, and hetero-sexism are all of the things that we as humans are aware of, but only a few admit that these things are a problem in our society.   . It’s like the “Big pink elephant” in the room; people know these issues are there, but no one wants to talk about it. I was on the Fox 43 news website and the title of an article caught my eye: “School: Transgender student’s birth name will be read at graduation.”  

Isaak Wolfe, originally born as female Sierra Liberty Stambaugh, wanted to run for prom king. The Red Lion Area School District denied Isaak the chance to run for prom king and decided to enter him for prom queen under his birth name.  He received help from the ACLU, and was allowed to go to prom with his date, but will not be in the running for prom king. Isaak states that he is disappointed in the school district because he believes that the district does not protect their transgendered students.

The Red Lion Area School District expressed that while Isaak Wolfe is able to wear a black cap and gown for graduation – colors worn by male students – his school plans on reading his birth name during the graduation ceremony. Upon turning 18 years old, Isaak plans on legally changing his name but it would not be in time for graduation. His family, friends and some of the teachers calls him by his male name and support him.

            It takes courage and strength to be a LGBT student in a high school where this community is not widely accepted. I imagined all of the issues that Isaak could have possibly gone through and it made me think: “if I were a student who identifies myself as LGBT, it would take a lot for me to attend school every day with the judgment and ridicule from students and even faculty.” Just think about it, there are kids everywhere who are a part of the LGBT community and are constantly bullied either because they classify themselves as LGBT or their parents do.  This can lead to events like the students not coming to school regularly, not doing any of their work, cutting classes or a full day, get into trouble, and all other issues that can occur. The school then goes from being a “safe environment” to a place where these students do not want to be.  I believe that the schools should do what it takes to protect each and every single one of their students and help them and motivate them to be successful and follow their dreams.

http://fox43.com/2013/05/06/school-trangender-students-birth-name-will-be-read-at-graduation/#axzz2SXTt6O8v 

The Impact of Early Chulidhood Education and Motivation

I recently watched a conference online about the importance and the impact of early childhood education in Union City, New Jersey. David Kirp, one of the guest speakers at the conference, stressed the importance of early childhood education and how it is imperative for students to be able to read by the third grade. If a child is not able to read by the third grade, then that child cannot read to learn about science, history, etc. Along with that, if the child has problems academically, by the time they get to the eighth and ninth grades, which are their crucial years of their education, there is a possibility that the truancy rate and dropout rate for those students will increase. Kirp talked about building a school system from preschool to high school which will help students exercise their skills and patience. Full days of high quality preschool education will keep and enhance their reading skills. This system will be continuous, engage parents in their children’s education, encourage parent meetings with the teachers, build a strong connection between students and thought-provoking teachers, as well as challenge students to their full potential. I agree with Kirp on his outlook on how important it is to have a positive rapport between teachers, students and parents. Parents who are engaged in their child’s education are extremely important because it gives both parent and child a chance to work on the child’s education and help inspires the child to succeed in school. 

Robert Slaven,another guest speaker, said “When given the resources and opportunity, the urban child will succeed.” I am not too sure if a completely agree with this statement only because I think that it takes more than resources and opportunity to make an urban child succeed. I say this because the child has to want to succeed and that drive has to be there along with the support of their caregivers. If the child is not motivated and is too wrapped up in the world that surrounds them, often times the child will still go down the path they choose no matter how many resources are out there. Being an urban child myself, I had different opportunities to pursue my childhood dream which was to be a dancer, but the school I was in and the people around me had no motivation for success at all. Because of their lack of motivation, even though there were resources available to me, I did not take advantage of them like I should have. The environment that I lived in and went to school in impacted me in a negative way. I started to lack motivation, and did not search for or use the little resources that were provided to me, I had no thoughts of furthering my education past high school because my surroundings were all that I knew. My mother pushed me into getting a higher education. Had she not given me two options to choose from (which were to either go away to college or stay home, work, and pay her rent) then I don’t know where I would be today. I do believe that getting a head start on education as early as possible, and staying consistent with the encouragement and motivation, will help a child succeed. 

Is Dating in Middle School and High School Affecting Your Children?

By Pacheque Barber

A recent Medical Press article I read titled “Dating in middle school leads to higher dropout, drug-use rates” suggests that students who date at an early age have significantly worse study skills and are more likely to drink alcohol, use drugs and drop out of school. While this isn’t farfetched to me, there are factors other than just dating that can cause a student to drop out or use alcohol. Pamela Orpinas who is a professor in the College of Public Health as well as the Department of Health Promotion and Behavior in Georgia conducted a study following a group of 624 students from the sixth to the twelfth grade. She conducted this study because there were very few studies that look at romantic relationships and how adolescents differ in the development of these relationships. At the end of each year the group completed a survey which indicated whether they had dated, and reports of different behaviors that included frequent use of drugs and/or alcohol. The teachers also had to complete questionnaires about the students’ academic efforts. The investigators who were following the students used two indicators of students’ school success which are high school dropout rates and yearly teacher-rated study skills.

            What they found in the study was that those students who reported to never, or hardly, date from middle school to high school had consistently the best study skills according to their teachers. Study skills consist of doing homework, doing the assigned reading, extra credit, being organized and working hard. The teacher also reported that students with the highest rate of dating had the worst study skills. "When the couple splits, they have to continue to see each other in class and perhaps witness the ex-partner dating someone else. It is reasonable to think this scenario could be linked to depression and divert attention from studying." Orpinas said. This isn’t unrealistic. If you think back to your middle and high school days and you were dating, think about how that really distracted you from your work on top of other adolescent issues. Take into consideration if there are other problems outside of school. I think that adults tend to forget how challenging it can be as an adolescent going through identity crisis and trying to find their niche. I remember being in high school in the only relationship I had during my time in high school; that was a rough time for me trying to find balance between school, family, boyfriend and friends. Once we broke up, it was so devastating that I didn’t want to come to school knowing my ex would be there, yet I forced myself to go every day. When my ex decided drop out and continue working at his father’s job, it made it a lot easier for me to come to school and be happy and concentrate on my work. My ex decided to drop out of school before we started dating, but I was doing my best to try to keep him motivated and stay in school. It didn’t work that way and I don’t believe that our relationship and his dropping out were connected.

            I do think that Orpinas has a point with her study and this article made me look back and think about what I was doing around the time I was dating. The only thing I think that Orpinas failed to do was take into consideration whether the students have other issues outside of a relationship that can cause an increase in drug/ alcohol use and dropping out.

            Overall I do think this was an interesting study and an interesting article to read. Below, the link provided to read the article. Enjoy!

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-dating-middle-school-higher-dropout.html

Is There a Simple Solution for Decreasing Dropout Rates?

By Pacheque Barber

As a first time intern and being able to actually see what it’s like from the inside out concerning issues of truancy and dropouts, I’m able to get a better understanding of how issues are being handled. My main question about dropout rates and truancy was ‘Why can’t the Board of Education just come up with a solution that benefits all students?’ Even though I knew it was more complex than just a simple solution, I just didn’t realize how complex it actually was. As I began to learn more about dropout rates, I learned that there is no one simple solution for these problems. An article I recently read called “Solving the dropout jigsaw puzzle” by Matt Harvey who is the Assistant Managing Editor for The Exponent Telegram, hit on certain points with which I completely agreed. In his article, Harvey quoted Delegate Marty Gearheart who represents West Virginia’s Third Congressional District. Gearheart stated that West Virginia has about a twenty-two percent dropout rate. Harvey broke that statistic down: “two out of every ten kids who start out in kindergarten won’t make it to where they obtain a diploma.” That alone shocked me, because we constantly hear about dropout rates and percentages but rarely understand what those numbers mean until they are actually broken down.

Dropouts and children who are truant are more likely to get into trouble with the law and possibly end up in prison. The prisons are overcrowded and the wheels are turning in the minds of those trying to prevent youth from being imprisoned; maybe one of the solutions is to continue to push students to keep them from dropping out. Harvey states that many defendants who show up in the courts are without diplomas or a GED. Harvey mentions Judge Alan D. Moats who looks over the Taylor/Barbour County in West Virginia who has a plan to target truancy early to prevent kids from dropping out. Moats’s plan continues after getting a hold of truancy early; he will not stop there but continue to stay on top of things to make sure that the kids are staying in schools and not behind bars.

Harvey mentions another thing to consider is that no child is the same and each child learns differently and is faster in some subject areas than others. One point he made that stood out to me was that trying to use the same educational methods and strategies may not be adequate for all students. And if the schools are trying a “one way” method without considering those who are not on the same levels, some students would be “bound to fail miserably.” Harvey explains not every student is a fast learner; there are some who need more time to process and understand the information being presented to them. Another issue may be the student isn’t getting the proper support from home. These issues appear very early in the education system and such children are labeled as troublemakers and are quickly over looked.

Altogether I was pleased with this article and agreed with the points that Harvey made. The dropout and truancy issues don’t have just a one solution fix and that the problem is a jigsaw puzzle. I do believe that there are many pieces in this puzzle and that focusing on a few pieces at a time will help complete the bigger picture which is helping our youth.

Below is the URL for the article so that you can read it yourself. I really do think this is an interesting short read and highly suggest reading it!

http://www.exponent-telegram.com/opinion/columns/article_e9d86744-7ed4-11e2-9120-001a4bcf887a.html

A Glimpse into the Youth Court Alliance...

Ever wonder what type of training our Youth Court Alliance students receive?  Wonder what I mean when I talked about Balanced and Restorative Justice (BARJ?)  Read on...

Rethink the Juvenile Justice Process:

Listed below is an example of a case scenario, which is similar to some of the cases heard in Youth Court Alliance. To get a better understanding of just how different the Youth COurt Alliance process is from the traditional court system process, read the scenario and look at the different Outcomes for John.

-Example Scenario-

John is constantly missing his first period math class.  If he does go, he is always falling asleep. John doesn’t get a lot of sleep at night because lately his parents have been fighting every night; he doesn’t want the rest of the students to know that, so he doesn’t say anything.  He doesn’t like the teacher, Mr. Smith, because Mr. Smith makes fun of his inability to stay awake. For instance, when the teacher woke John up last time, he said: "Maybe if you didn't sleep in class you wouldn't suck at math." John feels like he is innocent and the teacher is unfairly picking on him.

Traditional Court system Outcome’s for John:

        John has missed more than three days consecutively.  His parents will be cited to go to court, unless they plead guilty and pay the fine.  In court, his parents will undergo scrutiny about the how they get John to school and the Judge may shift the responsibility for the truancy onto John.  If this is the case, John will be fined and/or his chances of obtaining a license will be suspended.   Failure to pay the fine could follow John into adulthood and show up on his credit record.  

        In the court system, John has broken a rule and must pay the consequences.  He will never be given the chance to explain his side of the story.  If he does, he is explaining his story to an adult who is far removed from the daily goings on of a school.

       The problem that made John late to class in the first place will never be addressed nor will a solution come about.  His parents will still fight (unless they change something), he continue to sleep poorly, and will struggle stay awake in class.  Further, he will have to somehow pay the fine.

        John will have to find a way to deal with his truancy on his own, without knowledge of the resources around him to help him.

Youth Court Alliance (Restorative) Outcome’s for John:

        John has missed three or more consecutive days of school, so he’s being referred to Youth Court Alliance, where he and his parents have to sit in front of a group of John's peers.

        John will be asked questions about why he is truant.  This is where he can give his side of the story.

      The Jurors will be able to assist John in confronting his parents and the math teacher.

      Youth Court Alliance will recommend programs to help John, (Family-group counseling, teacher-student meeting, tutoring), instead of making him pay a fine.

   The Jurors will have to give John at least one session of Jury Duty where he will sit with the Youth Court Alliance members and hear cases just like his.  This is to help him understand that all actions have consequences - while he may not be FULLY at fault for sleeping in class, he must take responsibility and give back his time.  It will also help him understand the effects that people's actions have on others as he hears the cases of other students in his school.

      Once successfully completing the Youth Court Alliance process, John will have the chance to become a Member of Youth Court Alliance, and help others like he was helped.  

   If you're a parent, where would you rather send your child?  Better yet, if this was YOU, where would you rather go?

Experience the Olympics!

The Olympics are a time of nations coming together and competing in different athletic events for the top three spots on the podium: gold, silver, and bronze. Although a serious competition among the world’s countries, newscasters, the athletes themselves, families of the athletes, and world leaders,talk about how this is not a battle or grudge match, but rather a chance to have friendly competition, strengthen ties, and bring people together to educate them on the different nationalities and their customs.

            This biannual opportunity is going on right now and waiting for you to experience its joys and educational merits. The coverage of the 2012 Olympic Summer Games in London, England is a chance to learn about the host country’s background through the opening ceremony.  For the people who are actually there, it is a chance to visit another nation and interact with the people from around the world. Sitting at home you are still able to listen to the newscasters talk about the personal stories of the athletes and the sport itself, such as how long the sport has existed or how long the athlete has been preparing.

            If you do not have access to a computer or television to watch these activities at home then you can always try going to different restaurants or community centers that may have televisions so that you can be a part of the exciting competition. Go USA!

By Katie Lamb

Truancy Success in Queensland

In 2009, the Australian town of Beenleigh began to work against a known truancy problem within their schools. At the time, an average of fifty students a week spent their days “wagging,” the Australian term for skipping school.  A partnership was created between local schools, businesses, and the police department called the Beenleigh Together Against Truancy program.

 The new truancy program involved the schools’ administrators, a coalition of local businesses promised to help work against the problem, and a full-time truancy officer. Businesses that joined agreed to refuse service and report truant students to the police department. The new truancy officer traveled to areas identified as “wagging hotspots” or visited businesses that reported students. Students he found were returned to school. (Australia does not impose fines for truancy, but will withhold some forms of public welfare if a child is found truant multiple times.)

                Beenleigh is a small town located in the Australian state of Queensland; its total population is roughly 7,500 people. The town’s small size worked to its advantage. For one, the limited population allowed the appointed truancy officer to personally return students to school in a very direct method of combating truancy.  Our population here in York would have made this tactic unfeasible: York city itself has a population of nearly 44,000. The greatest benefit was that local businesses were easily united against truancy. By September of the 2009 school year, 140 businesses had signed on. The first year of the program saw an 80% reduction in truancy.

                Beenleigh’s story is a great example of how a community can come together to work against truancy. Although some aspects of the program may not work in other communities, a few of the concepts could apply elsewhere or here in York. For instance, businesses close to schools with high-truancy rates could be brought together for the purposes of identifying and reporting truant students. All community issues are best tackled by the community at large and Beenleigh applied this concept to great success.

By Derek Shaw

 If you’d like to read more about Beenleigh’s truancy program check out their website:

http://www.beenpcyc.org.au/Templates/truancy.html

Spring Grove class of 2020 starts out on the right foot!

The Spring Grove Area School District, in partnership with Glatfelter Co. and the Truancy Prevention Initiative, sponsored a team day for the 4^th grade students.  Currently these students attend three elementary schools within the district and will merge into a single 5^th grade class at Spring Grove Intermediate School for the 2012-13 school year.  This event offered a tour of the Intermediate School and several team building activities.  Students were assigned to mixed groups from the various elementary buildings.  Due to the growing drop out concern across the nation, districts and community business partnerships are collaborating to support students as they transition to the upper elementary and middle level grades.  Truancy issues often stem from a lack of connection to the school community, low self-esteem and difficulty making new friends.  The team day activities generated discussions within the groups related to working with others, diversity and acceptance.  The Spring Grove Class of 2020 is off to a great start!!!

Parents: Looking for summer activities?

It's summertime (obviously) and you know what that means- PLENTY of free time. This is usually highly desired, but if you have kids, free time can mean planning things to occupy their time. Older children can get a job, even if that is babysitting or lawn work, but younger children need activities that expend some of their energy or keep them engaged.
If it's hot out then try to do some water activities whether that may be going to Lake Redman to boat or canoe or trying a local swimming pool or even just setting up a sprinkler and making a fun game out of that. Just remember to get sunscreen on them-and yourself-and reapply every few hours!
If it's a dreary day with rain and high winds then stay inside and make a fort in the living room or spend a day alternating movies or tv shows with books and crafts. You can try baking something or having the kids help make a special dinner that night. Try to find little lessons in every activity or have them help out with tasks increasing in difficulty as they continue to accomplish more.
There are many websites dedicated to finding fun and creative activities for kids to do during any month of the year, but especially summer. Other parents can post on some of these websites and blogs. If you want to look over some of them to get ideas or post fun things that you have done in the past, check out www.pinterest.com; http://greatschools.org/students/summer-activities/68-summer-learning-activities-that-are-practically-free.gs; http://school.familyeducation.com/summer/family-learning/36089.html
You can also try googling a phrase like "fun and inexpensive learning activities for kids during the summer!" Remember to have a fun and safe summer and to keep your kids involved with interactive activities!
By Katie Lamb

Career Mapping........ for First Graders?

Did you know that half of all states require students to create an ‘Individual Learning Plan’ as early as middle school? ‘Individual Learning Plans’, also known as ‘Student Learning Plans’, are computer based programs that allow to students to create a portfolio of their work and grades, as well as guide them in selecting classes based on possible career paths. These programs are 100% controlled by the student and also allow students to research careers and organize their college search.

School officials are finding the purpose of these plans has become two-fold. Having a ‘plan’ for mapping and completing courses has helped ‘at-risk’ students to visually see the ‘road-to-graduation’ as a path set before them. Having made this plan and marked milestones along the way, students begin to develop a sense of personal accountability in terms of their school career. It can help these students decide a career path, even if college is not the goal for them. For college preparatory students, having a ‘student learning plan’ helps them to create a virtually limitless portfolio of grades, test scores, art work and any other information they wish to add. It also helps these students select the appropriate courses they may need based on possible career paths in which they have indicated an interest in. Often times, students will be prompted to enroll in ‘advanced placement’ classes based on a possible career choice. While student-led learning plans were often thought of as a ‘reform strategy’ in the past, state policy makers are beginning to tout the concept as way to drive career and college readiness.

Student-led plans are just beginning to gain some real momentum, though some significant strides have been made in terms of making program software available to all students and in some cases, mandatory.  Typically, students begin working on their ‘plans’ as early as middle school by taking career surveys which give students a broad idea of the kind of career path that might interest them. However, U.S. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., recently introduced a bill to pilot a project in which students beginning in 1st grade could start portable online college-planning and -savings accounts.

Still there are many issues that need to be addressed such as funding for software, licensing, technical support and training.  Policy-makers hope that by making these student-led plans mandatory, funding will be made available to better train educators on how to help students properly develop their plans use the software effectively. “Kids are saying the plans helped them to know the process and it challenged them,” says Shelly Landry the leader counselor in the office of secondary transformation in Minneapolis school district’s guidance and counseling department. ““It opens their eyes to careers they hadn’t considered and just the idea of going to college.”

Video Game Implications in the Classroom: A Changing Paradigm

In their 2007 article “Violent Video Games as Exemplary Teachers: A Conceptual Analysis”, Douglas and Ronald Gentile discuss the implications of video games on learned behavior. Much like the popular belief, they discovered that “playing more frequently during a given week over multiple years was correlated with greater hostile attribution and arguments.” While the aggressive association with video games has not changed, their learned behavior associations were recently turned upside-down by researchers Ulrika Bennerstedt, Jonas Ivarsson and Jonas Linderoth.

In their study of video-game behavior, the researchers found that video games assist in the development of collaborative skills. Much like the school playground, gamers that are overly aggressive or inconsiderate do not do as well; comparatively, the best gamers are strategic and technically knowledgeable. Furthermore, the success of video-games also offers several lessons within the classroom. In their original research, Douglas and Ronald Gentile compiled the following list of lessons for the classroom:

               1. Teach fewer concepts, but require that students master and then overlearn them;

               2.Connect those concepts (via a spiral curriculum) to past and future learnings via continual review and practice, as well as reminders of the connections;

               3. Reinforce (extrinsically with grades and intrinsically with perceived self-efficacy) increasing levels of competence or automaticity, depth of understanding, and analytic or creative  applications of these concepts;

               4. Invent more ways for students to experiment with identities relevant to their studies; and

               5. Use technology where appropriate to provide practice toward automaticity in a game-like atmosphere.

In the following video, researcher James Paul Gee discusses the learned behavior and positive outcomes of video games. His discussion on the theory of learning through video games offers a great compliment to the recent research arguing the positive outcomes.

Youth Court Alliance

Did you know that less than 5% of the world’s population lives in America, yet we account for 25% of ALL incarcerated persons worldwide? Every year our juvenile justice system is virtually flooded with an influx of new inmates,  at a rate of 51,000 per year in Pennsylvania alone.  With this number on the rise each year, officials from both the justice and education systems have come up with a new idea that just may help…Youth Court.

What are Youth Courts? Youth Courts are an alternative disciplinary system that are operated by trained youth, either in a school setting, in the community or as part of the juvenile justice system.  Here in York County, ‘Youth Court Alliance’ (YCA) was developed for students who are being fined for excessive truancy. If students admit to the accusation of truancy, they may elect to participate in Youth Court Alliance, rather than sit before a District Judge in traditional Magisterial District Court. The current York City Youth Court Alliance itself is comprised of upperclassmen from William Penn High School who have volunteered to serve as members of the court in roles such as judge, bailiff, jury foreman and jurors. Students receive legal training and hold hearings to determine the appropriate consequence for truancy.

So does it work? Yes! Not only does it work, it also provides an enriching experience for all involved. Youth Court Alliance allows students to build on their public-speaking and problem-solving skills. It also provides them with a voice to express their own ideas about justice as well as serve as a platform for developing leadership skills. It’s also cost effective. Florida reports an annual savings of $50 million per year by utilizing youth courts instead of traditional truancy hearings with District Judges present. 

The York County Youth Court Alliance is wrapping up its first year so statistics on cost-savings is not yet available.  But, of the 35 cases the students have heard in just three months, 30 of them have been successful or are on their way to being successful.  The Youth Court Alliance, right now, is only for truant ninth graders.  Yet our Members indicate that they think it should be expanded to other grades.  The current program is funded by the PA Commission on Crime and Delinquency and funding does exist for us to expand to additional grades over the next year or two.  York County Youth Court Alliance anticipates expanding to two additional school districts, Hanover and Southeastern.  This expansion is funded by the York County Human Services Division.  We will keep you updated on progress!!

Organized RECESS?

Ask a group of elementary students what their favorite part of the school day is and chances are you’ll likely hear ‘RECESS!’ from a majority of them. Educators agree: recess is an extremely important part of a student’s day. It gives students a chance to cut-loose, run, play creatively and just plain get some energy out. Recess is the time of day when students engage in the majority of their social interactions and, consequently, when the greatest amount of social conflict occurs as well. 

Playworks, a non-profit organization based out of Oakland, California, was developed to help bring structure to recess and therefore reduce the amount of conflict on the playground. Playworks provides what they call a ‘recess coach.’ The ‘recess coach’ helps students to start playground games and encourages everyone to get involved by coming up with creative ways to pick teams, such as by birth month rather than by popularity. If conflicts arise, the ‘recess coach’ also comes up with creative but simple ways to settle disputes as well. A favorite among elementary students is the ever-popular ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors.’ Forty percent of teachers whose schools participate in the Playworks program report that students will often use ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’ to handle disputes when they come up in the classroom as well.

 A study that was published this week by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation also found that having more structured recess also greatly reduces the amount of time it takes students to transition from recess back into classroom time. Teachers report that students are calmer and more ready to get back to work, then without structured recess.  “Playworks is a pretty common-sense approach” says Nancy Barrand, the foundation’s senior adviser. “It's really about the school environment and how you create a healthy school environment for the children," she continued. "If children are healthy and happy, they learn better."

To learn more about Playworks visit www.playworks.org

A More Accurate Picture of Graduation Rates

A new federal requirement is forcing states to use a uniform method to report their graduation rates. The new method was part of an update in 2008 to federal education rules that now requires states to report graduation rates using what is referred to as the ‘cohort method’. The new ‘cohort method’  follows a group of first-time freshman, tracking individual students over a period of 4 years and calculating how many receive standard diplomas at the end of the 4 year period. This year marks the first time that we have true ‘graduation-rate accountability’ since the update was made in 2008. One problem, however, is that the new reporting method is putting  graduation rates, for some states, nearly 20% lower than in the past.

 

States are hesitant with the new data, given the new dramatically lower rates, even though the new ‘cohort-calculation’ is considered to be a more accurate way of tracking graduation rates.  Ryan Reyna, a program director at the National Governors Association’s Washington headquarters, points out that “Cohort rate and calculation has helped in development of early-warning data systems. Reyna also adds that states themselves, pushed for the new rate in hopes that with the precision of the new data would come better interventions and improved outcomes. States have been making an effort to clarify to stakeholders, community members and the press, that the new lower rates are not a result of the state doing worse, but that we now have an accurate picture of what is really happening in terms of individual students and corresponding graduation rates.

 While this new data is eye-opening, researchers warn that the new calculation method still needs improvement. States still have yet to agree on a completely uniform way of dictating who is a ‘drop-out’ and who is not. For example, in Kansas, students who leave school and transfer into particular home-schooling programs are recorded as ‘drop-outs’, whereas in a state such as Indiana, they are not.  Nuances such as these, still have yet to be addressed, making it difficult to accurately compare graduation rates from state to state.

The good news, so far, is that we can now prove that drop-out rates are going down. It turns out that many students are, in fact, not dropping out, but are pursuing some kind of alternative education program.  Researchers and education communities agree that there is still quite a bit of ‘fine-tuning’ that needs to be done to ensure that this data is collected and recorded accurately. Improving graduation rates will continue to be a challenge, no doubt, but with more accurate data and accountability controls, we are slowly but surely taking steps in the right direction.