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We Can Overcome Poverty's Impact on School Success
Education Week (January 17, 2012) Commentary by Michael A. Rebell and Jessica R. Wolff - In passing the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001, Congress stated that one of the law's main purposes was closing the achievement gap between disadvantaged children and their better-off peers by ensuring that all students in the United States would be proficient in meeting challenging academic standards by 2014. -see commentary
Raising Standards for Head Start
New York Times (January 3, 2012) Editorial - The Head Start program, which prepares disadvantaged 3- and 4-year-olds for school, has served nearly 30 million children since it was created in 1965. While there is little doubt that the federal program is critically important for these children and their parents, quality varies widely among programs. -see editorial
Class Matters. Why Won’t We Admit It?
New York Times (December 11, 2011) Op-Ed by Helen F. Ladd and Deward D. Fiske - Durham, N.C. - NO one seriously disputes the fact that students from disadvantaged households perform less well in school, on average, than their peers from more advantaged backgrounds. But rather than confront this fact of life head-on, our policy makers mistakenly continue to reason that, since they cannot change the backgrounds of students, they should focus on things they can control. -see opinion
The Real No-Brainer
Huffington Post / Education (October 22, 2011) Opinion by Elizabeth Gregory - Last week NYTimes columnist Nicholas Kristof endorsed major investment in early childhood education as the only way out of poverty for millions -- the only way to even the playing field for all citizens. -see opinion
Occupy the Classroom
New York Times (October 19, 2011) Opinion by Nicholas D. Kristof - Occupy Wall Street is shining a useful spotlight on one of America’s central challenges, the inequality that leaves the richest 1 percent of Americans with a greater net worth than the entire bottom 90 percent. -see opinion
How to Help Young Men? Start When They're Children
The Huffington Post (October 11, 2011) Opinion by Dr. Harold Koplewicz - New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently announced an ambitious project to help the more than a quarter million young black and Latino men in our city who seem to be slipping into a kind of dysfunctional parallel universe: failing in school, finding no jobs, and landing, in appalling numbers, in prison. Bloomberg and philanthropist George Soros each pledged $30 million personally, to cover about half of the project, dubbed the Young Men's Initiative. -see opinion
Early Learning on the Brain: Policymakers, Take Note
huffingtonpost.com (October 11, 2011) Opinion by Susan Ochshorn - The day after NBC's Education Nation summit, former NYC school chancellor Harold Levy weighed in on our national conversation about education, on display, for millions, at the broadcaster's annual extravaganza. "Irrelevant and quaint," he declared, lambasting a panel of ten of the nation's governors for missing the boat on the newest wave of scientific research on brain development and early learning. "The power of brain research... to revolutionize teaching and learning simply hadn't gotten through to the governors." -see opinion
Fed economist: Investing in poor kids pays off
Portland Business Journal (October 3, 2011) By Wendy Culverwell - Investing early in the educations of poor and at-risk children pays greater dividends than almost any other form of economic development, according to research by a Federal Reserve economist. -see opinion
Delay Kindergarten at Your Child’s Peril
New York Times / Sunday Review (September 24, 2011) Opinion by Sam Wang and Sandra Aamodt - THIS fall, one in 11 kindergarten-age children in the United States will not be going to class. Parents of these children often delay school entry in an attempt to give them a leg up on peers, but this strategy is likely to be counterproductive. -see opinion
Invest in violence prevention efforts
Now is a good time to invest in prevention efforts
DemocratandChronicle.com (September 21, 2011) Opinion - With the rates of crime and violence down significantly both locally and across the country, what ordinarily would be major issues in the fall election campaign are hardly mentioned. Smart lawmakers and policymakers won't become complacent. -see opinion
Diane Ravitch On How To Fix K-12
Forbes (August 31, 2011) Opinion by Diane Ravitch - To improve education, the first thing needed is a sense of modesty and scale. Education is a complex activity that involves students, teachers, administrators, parents, legislators, and the mass media. No single program will produce fast change. It won’t happen, and you will be disappointed. -see opinion
Playing to Learn
New York Times (February 1, 2010) Op-Ed By Susan Engel - THE Obama administration is planning some big changes to how we measure the success or failure of schools and how we apportion federal money based on those assessments. It’s great that the administration is trying to undertake reforms, but if we want to make sure all children learn, we will need to overhaul the curriculum itself. -see Op-Ed
No Time for Budgetary Games
New York Times (March 26, 2009) Editorial - The education portion of the stimulus package passed by Congress last month could revive the national school reform effort while shielding the schools from budget cuts and teacher layoffs driven by the recession. That is a tall order, but the opportunity is there — an opportunity that could slip away if the states are not required to hold up their end of the bargain. -download editorial
Throwing billions at schools won't fix them
cnn.com (March 5, 2009) Commentary By Pedro A. Noguera - NEW YORK (CNN) -- The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, President Obama's stimulus package, could serve as a historic investment in our children's future, an initiative that could very well change the course of our nation. -see commentary
An Early Start
Is Really Just Right on Time
The Westbury Times (January 30, 2009) Opinion By Stanton Brown -
Conventional wisdom would put forward that academic success in middle and high school is accomplished through a combination of effective parenting and teaching, good curricula, and determined students. I would agree that these are necessary aids in preparing students for success in academics. However, there is another factor that turns out to be incredibly significant to ensuring strong performance - when children start "school". -see opinion
Home Visiting
OpEd (December 2008)
By the Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy - If you see a child being abused, is it your responsibility to try and stop it? If you suspect a child is being abused, is it your responsibility to report it? Most of us would answer “yes” to those questions. -download opinion
Baby Talk: Leaders must tackle worsening child care crisis
The Post-Standard / Syracuse.com (December 5, 2008) By Post-Standard Editorial Board -
Parents and child care advocates have been screaming "help" for years, but government, business and economic development leaders seem unable to hear them. -download opinion
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