Public support for providing students needed services

Alyssa HaywoodeLeave a comment

It’s not surprising that a recent poll on public schools found that people think schools should do a better job of preparing students.

What’s striking is the finding on how to do this work.

“More than 85 percent of all Americans believe schools should provide mental health services, according to the latest PDK poll, a survey of the public’s attitudes about the nation’s schools,” the website RealClearEducation reports.

“What’s more, 79 percent think schools should provide general health services to students who need them, according to the survey. Support for wraparound services was even high across party lines, with 68 percent of Republicans—and 65 percent of “strong conservatives” —agreeing that schools should provide them.”

In addition, 92 percent support the idea of public schools offering after-school programs.

This finding comes from the “49th Annual PDK Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools,” which “is based on a random, representative, 50-state sample of 1,588 adults interviewed by cell or landline telephone, in English or Spanish, in May 2017.” Continue reading →

The Weekly Connect 10/16/17

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Here’s the new edition of The Weekly Connect. Check it out and sign up to have it delivered to your inbox!

These are some of the things we’ve been reading about:

The use of kindergarten assessments offers mixed results.

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos shares her vision for “American education.”

A study of New York City’s Community Schools.

To read more, click on the following links. Continue reading →

Winning in Ohio

Alyssa HaywoodeLeave a comment
Photo Source: Our Lady of the Rosary School’s Facebook page.

Over time, the student body at Our Lady of the Rosary School changed. The Dayton, Ohio, Catholic, K-8 elementary school was serving more Latino students who are recent immigrants.

It was a shift other urban Catholic schools were seeing. And educators knew they had to adapt. Mary Walsh, City Connects’ Executive Director, was seeing the same population changes as well as the need for schools to keep up with students’ needs.

“Sustainability in the urban environment requires not only educational excellence but also cultural responsiveness to new immigrant groups in these communities, e.g., Latinos, Haitians, Cape Verdeans,” Walsh wrote in a 2011, co-authored report, “Sustaining Urban Catholic Elementary Schools An Examination of Governance Models and Funding Strategies.”

“Urban Catholic schools can and should provide a safe educational environment that is tailored to the cultural and linguistic needs and strengths of immigrant students and their families,” the report adds.  Continue reading →

The Weekly Connect 10/9/17

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Here’s the new edition of The Weekly Connect. Check it out and sign up to have it delivered to your inbox!

These are some of the things we’ve been reading about:

Students who had teachers of the same race reported feeling more cared for and said they were more interested in their schoolwork.

Teenagers’ online friendships provide emotional support.

Congress has let the Children’s Health Insurance Program — which covers 9 million children — expire. If action isn’t taken soon, school children could be affected.

The high school dropout rate among Hispanics reaches an all-time low.

To read more, click on the following links. Continue reading →

Johns Hopkins University looks at City Connects

Alyssa HaywoodeLeave a comment

Last month the Johns Hopkins’ Institute for Education Policy hosted a conversation in Baltimore on “A Holistic Approach to Student Needs: Community Schools and Integrated Student Supports.” The event featured City Connects Executive Director Mary Walsh, the Daniel E. Kearns Professor of Urban Education and Innovation at the Boston College Lynch School of Education.

The event’s central question: What do we know about how can schools “nurture students’ intellectual progress” and address “the substantial non-school stressors that often interfere with learning?”

As it turns out, we know quite a bit. Research continues to show that addressing children’s out-of-school problems helps them succeed in school.

The conversation considered a variety of programs that help students “from community schools to Integrated Student Support models” – and how these programs meet students’ academic, emotional, and physical needs? Continue reading →

The Weekly Connect 10/2/17

Alyssa HaywoodeLeave a comment

Here’s the new edition of The Weekly Connect. Check it out and sign up to have it delivered to your inbox!

These are some of the things we’ve been reading about:

The link between academic performance and food stamps.

Many States focusing on chronic absenteeism and college/career readiness in their ESSA plans (for the Every Student Succeeds Act).

Trends in home schooling.

Disconnect between parents’ expectations about educational attainment and what students actually achieve.

To read more, click on the following links. Continue reading →

Accelerating success: City Connects in Hartford

Alyssa HaywoodeLeave a comment
Girl Scouts Bridge Celebration. Photo: Courtesy of Charlene Diaz

 

In the Hartford Public Schools (HPS), City Connects isn’t just a partner. We’re part of Hartford’s Acceleration Agenda.

The agenda – which is itself part of a larger strategic operating plan — is an effort “to address educational equity and achievement by optimizing support for schools and creating consistency of practice.”

The goal is to “accelerate learning by taking a case-management approach to personalize solutions for all of our students, classrooms and schools.”

It’s a promising vision of achieving district-wide success one student and one school at a time in a system where the majority of students come from low-income families.

City Connects coordinators started working in Hartford’s schools last year, and initially there was a learning curve, Charlene Perez Diaz explains. Continue reading →

The Weekly Connect 9/25/17

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Here’s the new edition of The Weekly Connect. Check it out and sign up to have it delivered to your inbox!

These are some of the things we’ve been reading about:

The importance of social and emotional learning is in the news again.

Most states are still using the Common Core.

A federal program helps expand high-speed internet access for the nation’s schools.

Teachers are quitting, creating a growing teacher shortage.

To read more, click on the following links. Continue reading →