SUCCESS in the Middle - Recently Updated Pages

SUCCESS in the Middle Home

jwencel — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:32:56 CST

The mission of SUCCESS in the Middle is to tap the magic of relationships to support and encourage middle schoolers as they develop the academic and psychosocial skills needed for their future education, career and civic life. Volunteers are needed to tutor and mentor middle schoolers at several schools around Wichita, neighborhood sites near Wichita State University and in some community-based programs.	To volunteer or update your information Click here or call 316-973-6669
Volunteers complete an online info form and attend an orientation/training (where they complete required registration forms) and are then placed at any of the following schools or sites based on their interests, availability and preferences. Click here to see where and when volunteers are needed. Kansas Mentors. Youthfriends (partnering with USD259) and Big Brothers Big Sisters are Gold Star programs of Kansas Mentors, which means they have met the highest standards of practice for mentoring. Volunteers may indicate a preference for a Gold Star program when they complete a volunteer information form. Click here for more information about Kansas Mentors, including options for volunteers outside Wichita. CONTACT INFO, ADDRESSES, VOLUNTEER OPTIONS, click here. Schools with an on-site coordinator: Brooks, Coleman, Curtis, Gordon Parks, Hadley, Hamilton, Jardine, Marshall, Pleasant Valley, Robinson, Truesdell, Wilbur Neighborhood Sites with an on-site coordinator: Atwater, Dellrose, Fairmount, Tabernacle Community-based Options for meeting with a middle schooler: Big Brothers Big Sisters, Compeer, Youth Horizons

The mission of SUCCESS in the Middle is to tap the magic of relationships to support and encourage middle schoolers as they develop the academic and psychosocial skills needed for their future education, career and civic life.

Volunteers are needed to tutor and mentor middle schoolers at several schools around Wichita, neighborhood sites near Wichita State University and in some community-based programs.

To volunteer
or update your information

Click here
or call 316-973-6669

Volunteers complete an online info form and attend an orientation/training (where they complete required registration forms) and are then placed at any of the following schools or sites based on their interests, availability and preferences. Click here to see where and when volunteers are needed.

Kansas Mentors. Youthfriends (partnering with USD259) and Big Brothers Big Sisters are Gold Star programs of Kansas Mentors, which means they have met the highest standards of practice for mentoring. Volunteers may indicate a preference for a Gold Star program when they complete a volunteer information form. Click here for more information about Kansas Mentors, including options for volunteers outside Wichita.

CONTACT INFO, ADDRESSES, VOLUNTEER OPTIONS, click here.

Schools with an on-site coordinator: Brooks, Coleman, Curtis, Gordon Parks, Hadley, Hamilton, Jardine, Marshall, Pleasant Valley, Robinson, Truesdell, Wilbur

Neighborhood Sites with an on-site coordinator: Atwater, Dellrose, Fairmount, Tabernacle

Community-based Options for meeting with a middle schooler: Big Brothers Big Sisters, Compeer, Youth Horizons

CALENDARS Progress Reports were distributed last week (12/7) December 18 - last day of first semester January 4 - first day of second semester Wichita Public Schools 2009-2010 calendar Link to USD259 e-calendar	CURRENT FOCUS Recruiting new volunteers for test prep starting in January Small Groups (academic, assessment prep, social, interest-based, career-based)	25 BOOK CAMPAIGN All USD259 middle schoolers are required to read at least 25 books this year. Ask your students regularly about the books they are reading. Book Lists

CALENDARS

Progress Reports were distributed last week (12/7)
December 18 - last day of first semester
January 4 - first day of second semester

Wichita Public Schools 2009-2010 calendar

Link to USD259 e-calendar

CURRENT FOCUS

Recruiting new volunteers for test prep starting in January

Small Groups (academic, assessment prep, social, interest-based, career-based)

25 BOOK CAMPAIGN
All USD259 middle schoolers are required to read at least 25 books this year. Ask your students regularly about the books they are reading.
Book Lists

FOR PROSPECTIVE VOLUNTEERS To see options for volunteering, click here. How to get started, click here. For orientation dates and times, click here. To complete an online volunteer info form, click here.	FOR CURRENT VOLUNTEERS Click here for news, contacts and updates Resources, articles, websites, research: click here Tutoring math Tutoring reading comprehension	OTHER SUPPORT NEEDS Click here for a list of ways (other than tutoring or mentoring) to support SUCCESS in the Middle. Immediate needs: strategy board games, clerical help, incentives for students, funds to pay for volunteer background checks.

FOR PROSPECTIVE VOLUNTEERS

To see options for volunteering, click here.
How to get started, click here.
For orientation dates and times, click here.
To complete an online volunteer info form, click here.

FOR CURRENT VOLUNTEERS

Click here for news, contacts and updates
Resources, articles, websites, research: click here
Tutoring math
Tutoring reading comprehension

OTHER SUPPORT NEEDS

Click here for a list of ways (other than tutoring or mentoring) to support SUCCESS in the Middle.
Immediate needs: strategy board games, clerical help, incentives for students, funds to pay for volunteer background checks.

Research from Johns Hopkins University has found that high-poverty 6th graders who failed English or math, whose attendance fell below 80% or who received an out-of-school suspension (or failing behavior grade) "had only a 10% to 20% chance of graduating on time," and fewer than one out of four graduated in five years... The majority of students’ off-track indicators appeared in 6th grade, and those who started falling off track then "had worse outcomes than students who did not begin to develop off-track indicators until at least the 7th grade." Read the full report here.

SUCCESS: Students Undertaking Control of their Character, Effort, Skills and Support. See more details.

Volunteers are placed with students at a school or site or program listed here. Click on any link for more information about the organization.

	Mental Health Association of South Central Kansas

Mental Health Association of

South Central Kansas

Wilbur Middle School

jgriffin3 — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:56:08 CST

CALENDAR HIGHLIGHTS
Monday, January 4th - School Resumes
Monday, January 18th - No School
Tuesday, January 19th - No School

Master calendar

NEWS
We have 18 volunteer tutors and are currently needing to serve over 50 students. We continue to recruit and would welcome your help and ideas. Email jgriffin3@usd259.net to volunteer for tutoring or to help spread the word about helping at Wilbur Middle School.

OUR WONDERFUL VOLUNTEERS

Sheila Arensberg	Wilbur Parent	Denise Colborn	Wilbur Parent
Courtney Ballenger	Wilbur Parent	Karen Austin	Wilbur Parent
Minnie Campbell	Foster Grandparents	Heidi Headley	Wilbur Parent
Maybrit Cramer	Wilbur Parent	Chris Paul	Community
Griffin Wheatcroft	WSU	Ashley Hall	WSU
Teri Neubert	Community	Valerie Williams	Wilbur Parent
Valerie Perkins	Community	Joan Sherwood	Community
Michelle Powers	Wilbur Parent	Tammey Shimon	Westlink Christian Church
Tom Shine	Wilbur Parent	Toni Tyson	Wilbur Parent

Training Volunteers

jwencel — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:14:37 CST

It is essential to equip volunteers with the information and resources to best serve middle schoolers. Volunteers need to know who middle schoolers are (even though we rarely forget what it was like to be one), what their needs are, how we can help them. They also need to know the nuts and bolts of the program.

The training powerpoint currently used for SUCCESS in the Middle is attached below and maybe used or modified as needed for another program.

In addition, a couple of orientations were recorded using a Flip video camera and are posted below in segments. (It is hoped that the funds will be available some day to do a higher-quality set of recordings. In the meantime, they can be used as desired to train volunteers to tutor and/or mentor middle schoolers.

If you watch or share any of the videos, please send an e-mail to Judith Wencel at jwencel@usd259.net to provide feedback for future versions.

About Middle Schoolers and their Needs	About SUCCESS	How to Support Middle Schoolers
Tutoring Middle Schoolers	Tutoring Reading Comprehension
	Vocabulary Vivacity

For Schools/Coordinators

jwencel — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:27:28 CST

This section of the site is for those who are currently running a tutoring/mentoring program and would like additional resources, or who are considering starting one. I have learned a lot (some of it the hard way) in the last 17 years since I started a program, but I am well aware that I don't know everything. I hope others will jump in and share lessons learned, make suggestions, share resources, etc.

For general information on starting and managing volunteer tutoring and mentoring programs, click here.

Coordinator Job Description	Creating a Target List	Forms, templates, resources, etc.
Developing the Vision and Plan	Recruiting Volunteers
Program Setup	Training Volunteers

Coleman Middle School

jwencel — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:15:41 CST

CALENDAR
December 18 - last day of 1st semester January 4 - first day back from break

NEWS
Radical Reading is starting in January! Students will do at least two computer-based Reading Plus lessons at home, at school or anywhere they can find a computer. They will also meet in groups of 2 or 3 students with a volunteer who will work on reading comprehension with them.

Assessments are Coming
Reading and math assessments are in February and March this year. Our focus for the first weeks back from the break will therefore be on doing practice problems in math (and working on addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, math vocabulary, fractions, decimals and percent). Sample assessments are available for volunteers to go through practice problems. For reading comprehension practice, we will use the Reading Attainment or SRA or social studies books. We'll take turns reading paragraphs and asking each other questions about what we've just read. We will read questions FIRST and we will LOOK BACK when we don't know the answer.

Reminders: Don't forget to jot a note on the tutoring log in the students' folders every time you come. We need that information for data gathering at the end of the year.
OUR WONDERFUL VOLUNTEERS so far this year

Amy McDaniel	WSU
Anne Crook	WSU - Gamma Phi
Antione Sherfield	City of Wichita
Ashley Murphy-Lehman	East HS
Ashten Anderson	WSU
Brian Luna	State Farm
Carol Hirsh	Retired
Chad Milford	National Guard
Chelsea Foster	Trinity Academy
Chi Zhou	East HS
Clanita Jiggetts	Grene Vision
Craig Duerksen	Commerce Bank
Darral Sessions	WSU
David Tuong	East HS
Dawn Cole	Community
Demarcus Rucker	Southeast HS
Diana Vo	Southeast HS
Doug Neff	Commerce Bank
Earline Jackson	Foster Grandparents
Ed Corriston	State Farm
Emily Ripperger	Trinity Academy
Gabbi Webb	WSU
Gina Stewart	WSU
Hannah Wise	Independent
Jane Buchanan	Eastminster
Janet Rhoads	Community
Janna Vo	East HS
Jarod Regier	WSU
Jenna Scheer	WSU - Gamma Phi
Jeremiah Holland	Kapaun 2010
Jessica Kuszak	WSU
Jim Vasey (alt)	State Farm
Jo Olander	Eastminster
Joey Fink	Eastminster
John Regan	Retired
Jordan Phimmasone	East HS

Judi Harris	LSI
Kasey Jolly	WSU
Kaylee Wells	WSU - Gamma Phi
Ken Bengtson	MKEC
Kevin Le	Southeast HS
Lila Vaught	Plaza Real Estate
Linda Ast	Coleman parent
Linda Mai	Southeast HS
Lori Woods	WSU
Margot Kalina	Foulston, Siefken
Marjean Fooshee	First E Free Church
Marlene Hayes	Community
Marlene Merritt	Foulston, Siefken
Matt Knoblauch	Foulston, Siefken
Matt Phillips	East HS
Megan McMichael	Cargill
Micki Healy	Plaza Real Estate
Milan Kumar	Collegiate
Mimi Balazs-Shellito	Coleman neighbor
Nick Ariens	Kapaun 2010
Ouma Samy	Butler CC
Pat Oxley	Retired
Patricia Sorensen	Coleman Parent
Phog Pywell	Southeast HS
Rachel Nguyen	East HS
Randy Davis	MKEC
Richard Crowson	Community
Roz Alford	Coleman Parent
Sandra Vu	Kapaun
Sara Ciccolari-Micaldi	Kapaun
Shelly Johnson	Massage Therapy
Simeon Atanasov	Southeast HS
Son Pham	East HS
Suzanne Koch	Former Coleman teacher
Tacy Pounds	WSU - Gamma Phi
Taylor Broadfoot	East HS
Tom Bloxham	Wichita Clinic
Tracy Travis	WSU
Tram Nguyen	East HS
Wendie Phelps	Cargill
Windy York	Coleman Parent

Schools, Sites and Agencies

jwencel — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 11:18:41 CST

Volunteer tutors, mentors, small group leaders and other support help is needed at the following schools, sites and community-based programs. To sign up to volunteer, click here.

If you have general questions about the SUCCESS in the Middle model, contact Judith Wencel at jwencel@usd259.net or 973-6669.

For news and updates for each site, click on the school name.

SCHOOLS (CIS = Communities in Schools sites)

Brooks Middle School 3801 East 27th Street North (Between Hillside & Oliver on 27th)	Best times: Mon-Fri at Lunch: 10:19-11:03, 11:08-11:52, or 11:57-12:39 Mon-Tues 2:30-5:00; Wed 3-4 (activities) 4-4:50 (tutoring)	Joni Hawks jhawks@usd259.net 973-6469
Coleman Middle School 1544 N. Governeour (North of 13th betw. Rock & Woodlawn)	Best times: Mon-Thurs 11:35 (6th grade); 12:20 (8th); 1:05 (7th) Mon-Thurs 3:15-4:00 (tutoring); 4:00-5:00 (activities)	Judith Wencel jwencel@usd259.net Mimi Shellito mshellito@usd259.net 973-6636
Curtis Middle School (CIS) 1031 S. Edgemoor (Lincoln & Edgemoor)	Best times: Mon-Fri any time between 8:00 and 3:10	Cassie Kline ckline@ciswichita.org 973-7410
Gordon Parks Academy 2201 E. 25th Street North (west of 25th & Grove)	Best times: Mon - Thurs. 11:13-1:30 Mon - Thurs. 4-5pm (6th-8th)	Mary Hall mhall4@usd259.net 973-7500
Hadley Middle School 1101 N. Dougherty (southwest of 13th & West St.)	Best times: Tuesdays at lunch	Libby Mason emason@usd259.net ; 973-7800
Hamilton Middle School (CIS) 1407 S. Broadway (Lincoln & Broadway)	Coming soon	Ginger Pollock gpollock@ciswichita.org 973-5371
Jardine Middle School (CIS) 3550 Ross Parkway (South of Pawnee, East of Hillside)	Best times: Mon-Fri 10:27-11:07	Crystal Botts cbotts@ciswichita.org 973-4300
Marshall Middle School (CIS) 1510 Payne (North of 13th, west of Waco)	Best times: Mon-Fri 11:00-11:45; 12:30-1:15	Anne Lee alee@ciswichita.org 973-9075
Pleasant Valley Middle School (CIS) 2220 W. 29th St. (west of Amidon)	Best times: Mon-Fri 11:04-11:44	Laura Vitolas lvitolas@ciswichita.org 973-8007
Robinson Middle School (2nd & Oliver)	Best times:	Donna Burkes dburkes@usd259.net
Truesdell Middle School (CIS) 2464 S. Glenn (South of Pawnee, west of Seneca)	Best times: Mon-Fri 11:30; 12:15; 1:40 3:20-5:00 Mon-Thurs	Dawn Hansen dhansen@ciswichita.org 973-3914
Wilbur Middle School 340 N. Tyler Road (South of Central & Tyler)	Best times: Mon-Fri any time between 8:00-3:10 Mon, Wed, Thurs 3:20-5:00	Jim Griffin jgriffin3@usd259.net 973-1086

COMMUNITY SITES

Site	Location	Available Times	Contact
Atwater Community Center	19th & Volutsia	Mondays & Wednesdays 4:30-6:30	Pat Houston 303-8017; phouston@wichita.gov
Dellrose Methodist Church	14th & Oliver	Mondays-Thursdays 3:00-6:00	Dorothy Hilliard 684-5182; dabhilliard@hotmail.com
Fairmount GoZones	16th & Fairmount	Saturdays 12-3 12:00-12:45 Lunch; 12:45-3:00 Read/Rec/Activity	Gretchen Eick 210-5491; eick@friends.edu
Tabernacle Baptist Church	17th & Volutsia	Tuesdays & Thursdays 6:00-7:00	Gladys Kee 744-2741; gladyskee@att.net

OTHER PROGRAMS

Big Brothers Big Sisters Bigs in Schools, Community-Based or "PLUS" Match	Mentor one child once a week at a school or in the community-based program, or a combination of both (PLUS match)	Call 290-8822 for more info Website: www.ksbbbs.org
Communities in Schools	Tutor or mentor a student or group at a Title I school	Call 973-5110 for more info Website: ciswichita.org
Foster Grandparents (a program of Catholic Charities)	Elders tutor and/or mentor students at a school or community site 15+ hours a week; small stipend	Lyndon Drew, 264-8344, x211 ldrew@catholiccharitieswichita.org
Compeer Mentoring, a program of Mental Health Association of South Central Kansas	Mentors needed to help children with social and academic skills in school and community-based matches	Patty Gnefkow, 685-1821, x497 pgnefkow@mhasck.org Website: www.mhasck.org
Youth Horizons	Spend 4-6 hours a month with a fatherless child in a faith-based community-based match.	Donnovan Karber, 262-8293 donnovan@youthhorizons.net Website: www.youthhorizons.net

How to Get Started

jwencel — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 11:13:34 CST

1. Complete an online volunteer information form here. Your info will be shared with the coordinator of the site that is the best fit for your schedule, location and preferences and he/she will get you started after you attend an orientation.

2. Attend an orientation. If you plan to tutor, mentor or meet with a small group, the orientation is required unless you've attended one in the last two years at USD259 or Big Brothers Big Sisters. Orientations last about 1.25 hours.

If you prefer, you may complete paperwork ahead of time and come 15 minutes after the listed start time. Print forms below and bring them with you, completed.
Clerical and other volunteers are not required to attend.
High school students are not required to attend but are strongly encouraged to.
The orientation schedule is listed below. You can choose one and RSVP to jwencel@usd259.net or wait to be contacted about attending one as needed.
To schedule an orientation for 3 or more friends/co-workers at a location of your choice, e-mail jwencel@usd259.net and propose two possible dates and times.
Big Brothers Big Sisters has an additional training for those volunteers who choose to be matched through their organization.

ORIENTATION/TRAINING SCHEDULE
Sign in at the office (if attending a school orientation) and you will be directed to the orientation location.

Date	Time	Location	Address	Notes
Thurs, Dec 17	3:30	Wilbur Middle School	314 N. Tyler	Meeting is in the library
Fri, Dec 18	12:00-1:15	Coleman Middle School	1544 N. Governeour	Light lunch provided
Fri, Jan 8	11:45-1:00	Coleman Middle School	1544 N. Governeour	Light lunch provided

For Prospective Volunteers

jwencel — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:16:11 CST

Tutoring	Mentoring	Small Groups	Other Volunteering Options
Schools, Sites and Agencies	About the Students	Requirements to Volunteer	Volunteer Info Form

Tutoring (math, reading, homework): meet with the same student(s) every week or "float" in a classroom, after-school program or summer program. Materials provided. Mentoring: One-on-one, small groups. Academic, social, interest or career focus. Small Groups: Academic, career-focused or social; based on need, career aptitude or interests (instrumental or vocal music, sports, arts & crafts, drama, etc.). Other: Support a site with clerical help, data entry, phone calling, copying, filing, recruiting, website maintenance, food preparation, fundraising, spiffing up spaces, special events.	Schools, Sites and Agencies. There are several schools, neighborhood sites and agencies to choose from. Available time slots include school day, after school, evenings and weekends. About the Students. Students are 6th, 7th or 8th graders of all ability levels who need or want academic or other support or who need someone to help them see a connection between middle school and their future. Requirements. Registration, background checks and an orientation are required of new volunteers. Details here. Sign Up! So easy. Click here for the online form and orientation information.

Tutoring (math, reading, homework): meet with the same student(s) every week or "float" in a classroom, after-school program or summer program. Materials provided.

Mentoring: One-on-one, small groups. Academic, social, interest or career focus.

Small Groups: Academic, career-focused or social; based on need, career aptitude or interests (instrumental or vocal music, sports, arts & crafts, drama, etc.).

Other: Support a site with clerical help, data entry, phone calling, copying, filing, recruiting, website maintenance, food preparation, fundraising, spiffing up spaces, special events.

Schools, Sites and Agencies. There are several schools, neighborhood sites and agencies to choose from. Available time slots include school day, after school, evenings and weekends.

About the Students. Students are 6th, 7th or 8th graders of all ability levels who need or want academic or other support or who need someone to help them see a connection between middle school and their future.

Requirements. Registration, background checks and an orientation are required of new volunteers. Details here.

Sign Up! So easy. Click here for the online form and orientation information.

IMMEDIATE NEEDS. Click here to see a list of the highest priority needs at the schools and sites.

For Current Volunteers

jwencel — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:37:39 CST

Orientation/Training Powerpoint attached below
Middle School Tutoring Handbook attached below
Orientation/Training Videos are posted here

FIRST TIME (all volunteers) "Getting to Know You" survey. This is a conversation, not an assignment - ask each other the questions and have the student write all answers. School Game Survey, Interview, Learning Styles. Get as far as you'd like the first time, then try to finish the packet in the next 3 weeks. (Math tutors only) Math quick assessment. Watch student so you can see where the gaps might be in his/her computation - don't help. Tell him to skip the ones he doesn't know how to do and you can work on those later. Homework. If there is an urgent need for help, and you have signed up to help with homework, feel free to do some the first time. EVERY TIME (all volunteers) Catch up. 3-5 minutes of chat time. Ask student about his/her week and at least one question that shows you're interested in their life outside of school, too. Check up. 3-5 minutes of asking about the planner (is it all filled out?), homework (all turned in?), goals, etc. School Game Survey/Interview (try to complete within first four weeks). 2-3 minutes Tutoring/mentoring/group. 20-30 minutes End with something fun. Vocab game, dice math facts game, board game, basketball, soccer, walking, etc. if time allows.	RESOURCES For Math Tutors For Reading Tutors Progress Reports - click for suggestions for discussing them About Middle Schoolers. We've all been there, but it's good to be reminded what's happening physically, emotionally and otherwise with the children we are supporting. What Middle Schoolers Need and How Volunteers Can Help Them. Whether you are focusing on academics or other things, this link will direct you to resources to help you support your student(s). Effective Mentoring. This page has a list of links and articles of interest to volunteers who are mentoring students (with or without an academic focus). Effective Tutoring. Resources for helping students with math, reading, social studies, science, assessment prep Articles, Websites, Research and Videos. This page has links to articles and research pertaining to learning, other programs, etc. SUCCESS What does SUCCESS stand for?

FIRST TIME (all volunteers)

"Getting to Know You" survey. This is a conversation, not an assignment - ask each other the questions and have the student write all answers.
School Game Survey, Interview, Learning Styles. Get as far as you'd like the first time, then try to finish the packet in the next 3 weeks.
(Math tutors only) Math quick assessment. Watch student so you can see where the gaps might be in his/her computation - don't help. Tell him to skip the ones he doesn't know how to do and you can work on those later.
Homework. If there is an urgent need for help, and you have signed up to help with homework, feel free to do some the first time.

EVERY TIME (all volunteers)

Catch up. 3-5 minutes of chat time. Ask student about his/her week and at least one question that shows you're interested in their life outside of school, too.
Check up. 3-5 minutes of asking about the planner (is it all filled out?), homework (all turned in?), goals, etc.
School Game Survey/Interview (try to complete within first four weeks). 2-3 minutes
Tutoring/mentoring/group. 20-30 minutes
End with something fun. Vocab game, dice math facts game, board game, basketball, soccer, walking, etc. if time allows.

RESOURCES

For Math Tutors

For Reading Tutors

Progress Reports - click for suggestions for discussing them

About Middle Schoolers. We've all been there, but it's good to be reminded what's happening physically, emotionally and otherwise with the children we are supporting.

What Middle Schoolers Need and How Volunteers Can Help Them. Whether you are focusing on academics or other things, this link will direct you to resources to help you support your student(s).

Effective Mentoring. This page has a list of links and articles of interest to volunteers who are mentoring students (with or without an academic focus).

Effective Tutoring. Resources for helping students with math, reading, social studies, science, assessment prep

Articles, Websites, Research and Videos. This page has links to articles and research pertaining to learning, other programs, etc.

SUCCESS What does SUCCESS stand for?

What Middle Schoolers Need and How Mentors Can Help

jwencel — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:37:08 CST

Middle schoolers need people in their lives who are aware of what's happening to them physically and emotionally and who are willing to help identify academic and life skills gaps and do what they can to help fill them. They need as many adults as possible to encourage and support them as they navigate adolescence on their way to becoming contributing members of the community.

We humans are created for relationship. That's why we see such positive results regardless of whether an adult focuses on academics, plays board games, shoots baskets, chats over lunch.

Following are links to articles that provide some guidance for mentors and tutors:

Paving the Way for Success in High School and Beyond (Public/Private Ventures report)
Preparing Middle Schoolers for High School (Education Commission of the States report)
Power to Change Lives; Developing Resiliency
Physical Activity Improves Learning
Engage boys with creativity and activity
Tying Education to Future Goals May Improve Grades More than Helping with Homework
Motivation: Students who believe you have to be born smart in order to do well in school are less motivated to study hard than those who think intelligence can be developed and that it comes from hard work. The study focuses on 8th and 9th graders, who are arguably among the most motivationally challenged of all age groups when it comes to schoolwork.
What Kids Need to Succeed (Search Institute)
Understanding Poverty (AHA Process - Ruby Payne). Excellent set of resources for understanding how poverty affects students and what we can do to help.
Teaching the Distracted

Articles and Research

jwencel — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:21:54 CST

Middle School Success
Achievers for Life (Florida dropout program targeted toward engaging middle schoolers) http://www.uwnefl.org/Documents/ExecutiveReport_AchieversForLife.pdf
What Can Schools Do to Promote Success in the Middle Grades? http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/81/38/8138.pdf
Paving the Way for Success in High School and Beyond: The Importance of Preparing Middle School Students for the Transition to Ninth Grade. www.ppv.org/ppv/publications/assets/269_publication.pdf

Brains, Thinking and Learning
Brain Plasticity (Transcript from NPR radio program "Science Friday" ). The brain we're born with can be changed. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7131130
A brain exercise designed to help people improve memory also boosted their problem-solving abilities. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=aXqkqmdvjX40&refer=australia

Social/Emotional Intelligence
Overview of Social/Emotional Intelligence http://www.edutopia.org/social-emotional-learning-overview-video (video)
Math as a social activity http://www.edutopia.org/math-social-activity-sel-video (video)
Putting social-emotional theory into practice http://www.edutopia.org/emotional-intelligence-sampler

Understanding Students in Poverty
AHA Process (Ruby Payne)

Effective Tutoring

jwencel — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:34:40 CST

This page contains links to articles, website and other resources of benefit to all tutors, regardless of subject matter.

SUCCESS in the Middle Orientation Video (a better version will be recorded soon).

Guidelines for Tutoring Sessions

For Reading Tutors

For Math Tutors

Assessment Prep

Study Skills

Effective Mentoring

jwencel — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:33:40 CST

National Mentoring Center
Mentoring.org
How to Connect: Communicating with Youth
If you want to listen, STOP TALKING
Females Mentoring Females

About Middle Schoolers

jwencel — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:32:16 CST

In order to be as effective as possible at tutoring or mentoring middle schoolers we need to know as much as we can about them. In a way, we all have a certain amount of expertise on middle schoolers because we all were middle schoolers, or junior high students, at one time. However, there's a lot of research on adolescence that's been done fairly recently, and the more familiar we become with the results of that research regarding how their brains work, what's happening with their development, etc., the better we can meet their needs.

Some of the articles, sites, links, etc., that we have found most helpful are listed below. Please let us know of others as you come across them.

http://www.middleweb.com (a compilation of articles on middle school and middle schoolers)
Turning Points - Vision for Students
Turning Points - The Young Adolescent Learner (pp 1-20, in particular)
What Do Students Want, and What Really Motivates Them?
Preparing Adolescents for a New Century
Why Don't Students LIKE School? (includes a section on how to help slower learners)
Physical Activity Improves Learning
Engage boys with creativity and activity
Brain Plasticity (Transcript from NPR radio program "Science Friday" ). The brain we're born with can be changed.

SUCCESS

jwencel — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 13:07:59 CST

Students Undertaking Control of their Character, Effort, Skills and Support

Middle School Students are at the age now where they can, and should, Undertake increasing levels of Control, or responsibility, for the development of the academic and psycho-social skills they'll need for high school, post-graduate education and life.
Parents, teachers, coaches, pastors and others deliver messages about Character, but the students themselves are the ones who have to make the decision to be responsible, self-disciplined and caring, to show respect and to be a person of integrity.
Students also have total control over their Effort, much to the chagrin of the adults in their lives sometimes. No matter how much natural ability a student has, it's effort and work ethic that are going to determine how successful they are.
Parents, teachers, tutors and others are introducing and reinforcing the importance of all kinds of Skills, but the students themselves are the ones who have control over how hard they are going to work to master those skills.
Support is provided by the adults in their lives, but this is the time to help students develop an understanding that everyone needs support of one kind or another. The sooner students identify what support they need, where to get the support and then actually take control and get it, the farther they are along the road to success. For a lot of students, just getting to the point of raising their hand and asking for help in class or in the After-School Program is a big step forward on the road to developing a support system.

The SUCCESS in the Middle model

SUCCESS in the Middle is a model, not a program, and the goal of the SUCCESS in the Middle website is to provide a resource and method of communication for volunteers (prospective and current) and schools/sites/agencies. As we learn more about how best to serve middle schoolers, the hope is that we will share that knowledge with one another and thereby improve our service to middle schoolers. In the end, we hope to improve outcomes for middle schoolers, which will improve the outcomes for our communities in the not-too-distant future.

In order to best serve the volunteers and students, the following elements have been put in place in schools and sites using the SUCCESS in the Middle model:

A volunteer coordinator (paid or volunteer) is on site when volunteers to meet with students. The coordinator meets and greets and supports tutors and mentors and acts as a liaison to the school staff as needed.
SUCCESS in the Middle volunteers attend an orientation/training specific to supporting with middle schoolers.
SUCCESS in the Middle schools and sites have materials and resources available on-site that are specific to middle schoolers' needs.

Other Needs

jwencel — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 12:24:01 CST

For those who would like to help but don't have the time or inclination to tutor or mentor, here are some ideas:

Help get the word out to businesses, churches, schools, organizations, etc. E-mail Judith Wencel at jwencel@usd259.net for a flyer to post or to schedule a short presentation.
Sponsor a volunteer orientation luncheon
Donate (or fund the purchase of) board games. Suggestions: Blokus, Chess, Sequence, Apples to Apples Junior, Boggle, Yahtzee, Stratego, Set, Backgammon, Settlers of Catan, Labyrinth, Scotland Yard, Brain Quest, Othello
Help with clerical tasks at a site or agency (filing, data entry, copying, etc.)
Donate small incentives for students, or provide funds to purchase some

Also please feel free to make a donation directly to any of the agencies listed on the schools and sites page.

Hadley Middle School

jwencel — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:17:41 CST

CALENDAR HIGHLIGHTS
Wednesday, November 11th - NO SCHOOL

Master calendar

NEWS

VOLUNTEERS

Name	From
Anthony Shelton	Hadley Parent
Deanna VonFange	Hadley Parent
Lisa Smith	Hadley Parent
Jeff Cooper	Hadley Parent
Rachel Shannon	WSU Student
Julie Ballenger	WSU Student

Name	From
Lisa Smith	Hadley Parent
Cathy Jones	Hadley Parent
Michelle Sutton	Hadley Parent
Stacy Champagne	Hadley Parent
Britt Leake	Hadley Student
Chinassa Phillips	North High, former Hadley Student

Preparing Adolescents for a New Century

jwencel — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:51:45 CST

Great Transitions: Preparing Adolescents for a New Century (excerpts)

A TIME OF OPPORTUNITY AND RISK Many of the problems of adolescence begin to surface in the turning point years of ten through fourteen. Important in its own right as a potentially rewarding time of personal growth and development, early adolescence is the phase when young people begin to adopt behavior patterns in education and health that can have lifelong consequences. At the same time, it is an age when, much like younger children, individuals still need special nurturing and adult guidance. For these reasons, early adolescence offers a unique window of opportunity to shape enduring patterns of healthy behavior. There are nineteen million adolescents ages ten through fourteen in the United States. Approximately 20 percent of them live below the poverty line, and close to 30 percent are members of minority groups. If they are to compete in the complex global economy of the future, all of these young people must grow up healthy and well-educated. The question for our society is how these goals may be achieved in the face of the profound social and economic transformations of the late twentieth century. The changes of just the past thirty years have provided many young people with remarkable material benefits and opportunities, but they have also introduced severe stresses into the adolescent experience--stresses that, among other effects, are taking an increasing toll in emotional and behavior-related illness. Young adolescents initially explore risk-taking behaviors tentatively. That is why, before damaging patterns are firmly established, it is important to intervene early to prevent later casualties and promote more successful outcomes. Adolescence, in fact, is the last phase of life in which society has reasonably ready access to virtually the entire population, so the potential for constructive influence is great. THE REQUIREMENTS FOR HEALTHY ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT All adolescents have basic human needs that must be met if they are to grow up into decent, caring, informed citizens. They must find ways to earn respect, establish a sense of belonging in a valued group, and build a sense of personal worth based on mastery of useful skills, including social skills. They must learn the peaceful management of conflict, the elements of ethical behavior, and how to use the social support systems available to them. Hopefully, during adolescence, they will acquire a positive vision of the future and of constructive opportunities in the adult world. But in our contemporary society--one that places an increasingly high premium on competence in many domains, even more is asked of adolescents. They must cultivate inquiring and problem-solving habits of mind, acquire the technical and analytic capabilities to participate in a worldwide economy, and have the capability for lifelong learning and adaptation to changing circumstances. Further, they must learn, in our pluralistic society, to live peacefully and respectfully with a wide array of ethnic, religious, and cultural groups. COMPREHENSIVE, GENERIC APPROACH Current interventions on behalf of young adolescents are typically targeted to one problem behavior, such as drug abuse, delinquency, or teenage pregnancy. While targeted, or categorical, interventions of this kind can be useful, they often do not take into adequate account two findings from research: that more than one problem behavior is likely to occur in the same individual; and that these problems are likely to have common roots in childhood and educational experience. The Carnegie Council's approach is to deal more directly with the underlying factors that predispose adolescents to engage in high-risk or problem behaviors in the first place. Such an approach is generic, comprehensive, and preventive in nature. At its heart is the restoration and strengthening of social supports that were once available to young adolescents within their families and communities but that can no longer be taken for granted. Such a generic approach focuses not just on problem behaviors after they occur, but on their common antecedents. It emphasizes the positive possibilities inherent in the adolescent transition--possibilities for educating and motivating young adolescents to pursue healthy lifestyles; for fostering interpersonal and decision-making skills to help adolescents choose alternatives to very risky behavior; and for providing them with reasons and tools to build constructive lives. Young Adolescents Face Serious Risks HEALTH RISKS · Injuries are the leading cause of death for young adolescents. The largest single cause of death among these adolescents is injuries from motor vehicle crashes.[1] · The firearm homicide rate for ten- to fourteen-year-olds more than doubled between 1985 and 1992 (from 0.8 to 1.9 per 100,000). For black males, the rate increased from 3.0 to 8.4 per 100,000 during the same period.[2] · In 1992, twelve- to fifteen-year-olds had a high overall victimization rate. They were victims of assault more than any other age group.[3] · In a national representative sample of adolescents ten to sixteen years old, one-fourth of respondents reported having experienced an assault or abuse in the previous year.[4] Approximately 20 percent of the documented child abuse and neglect cases in 1992 involved young adolescents between the ages of ten and thirteen years.[5] · Use of alcohol and cigarettes remains more widespread than use of illegal drugs. · Although it is illegal to sell alcohol to individuals under twenty-one years of age, two-thirds of eighth graders report that they have already tried alcohol and a quarter say that they are current drinkers. Twenty-eight percent of eighth graders say that they have been drunk at least once.[6] · Among eighth graders, who are thirteen to fourteen years old, the rate of current smoking (smoking any cigarette in the past thirty days) rose by 30 percent between 1991 and 1994, from 14.3 to 18.6 percent.[7] · Marijuana use among eighth graders more than doubled between 1991 and 1994 from 6.2 to 13.0 percent.[8] · Over the last three decades, the age of first intercourse has declined. Higher proportions of adolescent girls and boys reported being sexually experienced at each age between the ages of fifteen and twenty in 1988 than in the early 1970s. In 1988, 27 percent of girls and 33 percent of boys had intercourse by their fifteenth birthday.[9] · While the number of births to those ages fifteen and younger is not large, this group is experiencing the greatest rate of increased births. Pregnancy rates for all girls younger than fifteen years old rose 4.1 percent in the United States during the period between 1980 and 1988--higher than any other teenage group.[10] · Current evidence indicates that increases in depressive disorders and mood swings are greater for girls than for boys during adolescence. By age fourteen to fifteen, girls are twice as likely as boys to suffer from depression, a gender difference that persists into adulthood. · From 1980 to 1992, the rate of suicide among young adolescents increased 120 percent and increased most dramatically among young black males (300 percent) and young white females (233 percent). Suicide rates for ten- to fourteen-year-old American Indians are four times higher than those for ten- to fourteen-year-olds of all races.[11] EDUCATIONAL RISKS · The average proficiency in science, mathematics, and writing among thirteen-year-olds was slightly higher in 1992 than it was in the 1970s. However, these achievements have not improved enough to keep pace with the higher level of skills required in a global economy.[12] · Only 28 percent of eighth graders scored at or above the proficiency level in reading in 1994. Two percent read at or above an advanced level.[13] · In 1990, 7 percent of the eighth-grade class of 1988 (most of whom were then fifteen and sixteen years old) were dropouts.[14] By their senior year (1992), 12 percent of this class were dropouts.[15 ]Dropout rates vary by students' race/ethnicity: white (9.4); black (14.5); Hispanic (18.3); Asian/Pacific Islanders (7.0); and American Indian (25.4).[16] Chapter 2 Research shows that, by the time they reach age eighteen, about a quarter of all adolescents have engaged in behaviors that are harmful or dangerous to themselves or others. Another quarter are at moderate risk of engaging in such behaviors. About half of all American adolescents--an estimated 14 million girls and boys--are therefore at high or moderate risk of ruining their life chances through early experimentation in serious problem behaviors. The proportion is higher in distressed communities, where neighborhoods are less likely to furnish jobs that generate sufficient incomes and to have adequate social supports. In these neighborhoods, young people have the least access to good education and health care and the least exposure to role models who can raise their expectations and hopes about the future.	TURNING NEW RISKS INTO OPPORTUNITIES Adult Mentoring. A fundamental need of young people, particularly in high-risk areas, is for a stable, supportive bond with a caring adult who can help them prepare for social roles that earn respect, route them to needed resources, and encourage them to persist in education. Among poor children from urban areas, research has shown that those who cope well usually have at least one significant, positive adult role model, not necessarily the parent. Elder citizens can contribute substantially as mentors to adolescents, bringing new meaning to their own lives while helping the younger generation grow up. The task is not a simple one. A mentor is expected to provide sustained support, guidance, and concrete help when an adolescent goes through a difficult time, enters a new situation, or takes on new tasks. It is also important that a mentoring program be integrated with other resources in the community. Particularly for high-risk youth, who often experience multiple problems, connecting them to education, health, and social services is crucial. Economic Consequences of Preventable Problems Adolescent pregnancy and substance abuse are not simply problems when they happen. The consequences of these acts reach far into the future, and their antecedents emerge even before adolescence. The following costs illustrate the importance of preventing such problems. DROPPING OUT · Remaining in school is the single most important action adolescents can take to improve their future economic prospects. In 1992, a high school graduate earned almost $6,000 per year more than a high school dropout.[1] · Going to college boosts income even more. In 1992, college graduates had a mean annual income of $32,629, while high school graduates had a mean annual income of $18,737. Earning a professional degree added $40,000 a year to the mean annual income of college graduates.[1] · Gender also affects income. A male high school graduate's mean monthly income is likely to be twice as much as a female high school graduate's, a statistic that highlights the significance of education for women.[2] BEARING CHILDREN · Women who become mothers as teenagers are more likely to find themselves living in poverty later in their lives than women who delay childbearing. Although 28 percent of women who gave birth as teenagers were poor in their twenties and thirties, only 7 percent of women who gave birth after adolescence were living in poverty in their twenties and thirties.[3] · In 1992, the federal government spent nearly $34 billion on Aid to Families with Dependent Children, Medicaid, and food stamps for families begun by adolescents.[4] · Providing family planning services is one way to lower taxpayers'costs. Each public dollar spent on family planning services saves an average of $4.40 by reducing expenditures on medical, welfare, and nutritional programs.[5] SUBSTANCE USE AND ABUSE · Substance abuse costs the United States more than $238 billion a year, including the expense for treatment of abuse, the productivity losses caused by premature death and inability to perform usual activities, and costs related to crime, destruction of property, and other losses.[6] · Each year more than a million young people start smoking regularly, a decision that will cost the health care system $8.2 billion in preventable medical expenditures during their lifetimes.[7] · During the last two decades, the tobacco industry has dramatically increased the money it spends on advertising. In 1992, the industry spent more than $5.2 billion on advertising, making cigarettes second only to automobiles in advertising dollars spent.[8] INJURIES · An estimated 10 to 20 percent of all injuries to children and young people occur in and around schools. Falls were the most common cause of injuries. Representing 46 percent of all incidents, falls were followed by sports activities at 30 percent and assaults at 10 percent. The resulting costs of these injuries vary substantially. The bill for treating something as simple as a forearm fracture, for example, can exceed $3,900. A serious injury such as spinal cord damage can incur medical costs higher than $188,000.[9] · Injuries to young adolescents, ages ten to fifteen, in motor vehicles cost more than $13 million in 1991, or about $56,000 per injured child.[10] · The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that simply switching to break-away bases for softball games could prevent 1.7 million injuries a year and save $2 billion in acute medical costs.[11] · A recent U.S. Government Accounting Office report estimated that the nation's schools need $112 billion to complete all of the repairs, renovations, and modernizations required to restore facilities to good overall condition and comply with federal mandates that ensure the safety of students.[12] VIOLENCE · Violence is a social problem with tremendous economic costs. In 1993, the cost of providing emergency transportation, medical care, hospital stays, rehabilitation, and related treatment for American firearm victims ages ten through nineteen was $407 million.[13] Chapter Four: Educating Young Adolescents for a Changing World If it were possible to reach any consensus about high-priority solutions to our society's problems, a good education throughout the first two decades of life would be a prime candidate. Every modern nation must develop the talents of its entire population if it is to be economically vigorous and socially cohesive. A well-educated young adult is rarely found in our nation's prisons. In the past two decades, however, the achievement levels of American adolescents have virtually stagnated. The performance of our students is too low to support adequate living standards in a high-technology, information-based, transnational economy. A persistent misconception among many educators is that young adolescents generally are incapable of critical or higher-order reasoning. Many school systems do a disservice to middle grade students by not offering challenging instruction. Education to capture the young person's emergent sense of self and the world, and to foster inquiring, analytical habits of mind, is not only feasible but constitutes essential preparation for life. FACILITATING THE TRANSITION TO THE MIDDLE GRADES In the move from elementary school, where a student has spent most of the day in one classroom with the same teacher and classmates, to the larger, more impersonal environment of middle school or junior high school farther from home, an adolescent's capacities to cope are often severely tested. Such an abrupt transition coincides with the profound physical, cognitive, and emotional changes of puberty, a juxtaposition that for some students can result in a loss of self-esteem and declining academic achievement. Middle grade education was largely ignored in the education reforms of the 1980s. With the publication in 1989 of the Carnegie Council's report, Turning Points: Preparing Youth for the 21st Century, however, the nascent movement to reorganize middle schools to make them more developmentally appropriate for young adolescents was powerfully reinforced. Middle grade education, said the report, should be more intellectually challenging, in line with young adolescents' new appreciation for the complexity of knowledge and ideas, and supportive of their desire for individual attention. Schools should have curricula that provide the information, skills, and motivation for adolescents to learn about themselves and their widening world. They should promote a mutual aid ethic among teachers and students, manifest in team teaching and cooperative learning. They should integrate students of varying ability levels in a single classroom, and they should provide opportunities for academically supervised community service.

A TIME OF OPPORTUNITY AND RISK
Many of the problems of adolescence begin to surface in the turning point years of ten through fourteen. Important in its own right as a potentially rewarding time of personal growth and development, early adolescence is the phase when young people begin to adopt behavior patterns in education and health that can have lifelong consequences. At the same time, it is an age when, much like younger children, individuals still need special nurturing and adult guidance. For these reasons, early adolescence offers a unique window of opportunity to shape enduring patterns of healthy behavior.

There are nineteen million adolescents ages ten through fourteen in the United States. Approximately 20 percent of them live below the poverty line, and close to 30 percent are members of minority groups. If they are to compete in the complex global economy of the future, all of these young people must grow up healthy and well-educated. The question for our society is how these goals may be achieved in the face of the profound social and economic transformations of the late twentieth century. The changes of just the past thirty years have provided many young people with remarkable material benefits and opportunities, but they have also introduced severe stresses into the adolescent experience--stresses that, among other effects, are taking an increasing toll in emotional and behavior-related illness.

Young adolescents initially explore risk-taking behaviors tentatively. That is why, before damaging patterns are firmly established, it is important to intervene early to prevent later casualties and promote more successful outcomes. Adolescence, in fact, is the last phase of life in which society has reasonably ready access to virtually the entire population, so the potential for constructive influence is great.

THE REQUIREMENTS FOR HEALTHY ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT
All adolescents have basic human needs that must be met if they are to grow up into decent, caring, informed citizens. They must find ways to earn respect, establish a sense of belonging in a valued group, and build a sense of personal worth based on mastery of useful skills, including social skills. They must learn the peaceful management of conflict, the elements of ethical behavior, and how to use the social support systems available to them. Hopefully, during adolescence, they will acquire a positive vision of the future and of constructive opportunities in the adult world.

But in our contemporary society--one that places an increasingly high premium on competence in many domains, even more is asked of adolescents. They must cultivate inquiring and problem-solving habits of mind, acquire the technical and analytic capabilities to participate in a worldwide economy, and have the capability for lifelong learning and adaptation to changing circumstances. Further, they must learn, in our pluralistic society, to live peacefully and respectfully with a wide array of ethnic, religious, and cultural groups.

COMPREHENSIVE, GENERIC APPROACH
Current interventions on behalf of young adolescents are typically targeted to one problem behavior, such as drug abuse, delinquency, or teenage pregnancy. While targeted, or categorical, interventions of this kind can be useful, they often do not take into adequate account two findings from research: that more than one problem behavior is likely to occur in the same individual; and that these problems are likely to have common roots in childhood and educational experience.

The Carnegie Council's approach is to deal more directly with the underlying factors that predispose adolescents to engage in high-risk or problem behaviors in the first place. Such an approach is generic, comprehensive, and preventive in nature. At its heart is the restoration and strengthening of social supports that were once available to young adolescents within their families and communities but that can no longer be taken for granted. Such a generic approach focuses not just on problem behaviors after they occur, but on their common antecedents. It emphasizes the positive possibilities inherent in the adolescent transition--possibilities for educating and motivating young adolescents to pursue healthy lifestyles; for fostering interpersonal and decision-making skills to help adolescents choose alternatives to very risky behavior; and for providing them with reasons and tools to build constructive lives.

Young Adolescents Face Serious Risks

HEALTH RISKS · Injuries are the leading cause of death for young adolescents. The largest single cause of death among these adolescents is injuries from motor vehicle crashes.[1] · The firearm homicide rate for ten- to fourteen-year-olds more than doubled between 1985 and 1992 (from 0.8 to 1.9 per 100,000). For black males, the rate increased from 3.0 to 8.4 per 100,000 during the same period.[2] · In 1992, twelve- to fifteen-year-olds had a high overall victimization rate. They were victims of assault more than any other age group.[3] · In a national representative sample of adolescents ten to sixteen years old, one-fourth of respondents reported having experienced an assault or abuse in the previous year.[4] Approximately 20 percent of the documented child abuse and neglect cases in 1992 involved young adolescents between the ages of ten and thirteen years.[5] · Use of alcohol and cigarettes remains more widespread than use of illegal drugs. · Although it is illegal to sell alcohol to individuals under twenty-one years of age, two-thirds of eighth graders report that they have already tried alcohol and a quarter say that they are current drinkers. Twenty-eight percent of eighth graders say that they have been drunk at least once.[6] · Among eighth graders, who are thirteen to fourteen years old, the rate of current smoking (smoking any cigarette in the past thirty days) rose by 30 percent between 1991 and 1994, from 14.3 to 18.6 percent.[7] · Marijuana use among eighth graders more than doubled between 1991 and 1994 from 6.2 to 13.0 percent.[8] · Over the last three decades, the age of first intercourse has declined. Higher proportions of adolescent girls and boys reported being sexually experienced at each age between the ages of fifteen and twenty in 1988 than in the early 1970s. In 1988, 27 percent of girls and 33 percent of boys had intercourse by their fifteenth birthday.[9] · While the number of births to those ages fifteen and younger is not large, this group is experiencing the greatest rate of increased births. Pregnancy rates for all girls younger than fifteen years old rose 4.1 percent in the United States during the period between 1980 and 1988--higher than any other teenage group.[10] · Current evidence indicates that increases in depressive disorders and mood swings are greater for girls than for boys during adolescence. By age fourteen to fifteen, girls are twice as likely as boys to suffer from depression, a gender difference that persists into adulthood. · From 1980 to 1992, the rate of suicide among young adolescents increased 120 percent and increased most dramatically among young black males (300 percent) and young white females (233 percent). Suicide rates for ten- to fourteen-year-old American Indians are four times higher than those for ten- to fourteen-year-olds of all races.[11]

EDUCATIONAL RISKS · The average proficiency in science, mathematics, and writing among thirteen-year-olds was slightly higher in 1992 than it was in the 1970s. However, these achievements have not improved enough to keep pace with the higher level of skills required in a global economy.[12] · Only 28 percent of eighth graders scored at or above the proficiency level in reading in 1994. Two percent read at or above an advanced level.[13] · In 1990, 7 percent of the eighth-grade class of 1988 (most of whom were then fifteen and sixteen years old) were dropouts.[14] By their senior year (1992), 12 percent of this class were dropouts.[15 ]Dropout rates vary by students' race/ethnicity: white (9.4); black (14.5); Hispanic (18.3); Asian/Pacific Islanders (7.0); and American Indian (25.4).[16]

Chapter 2 Research shows that, by the time they reach age eighteen, about a quarter of all adolescents have engaged in behaviors that are harmful or dangerous to themselves or others. Another quarter are at moderate risk of engaging in such behaviors. About half of all American adolescents--an estimated 14 million girls and boys--are therefore at high or moderate risk of ruining their life chances through early experimentation in serious problem behaviors. The proportion is higher in distressed communities, where neighborhoods are less likely to furnish jobs that generate sufficient incomes and to have adequate social supports. In these neighborhoods, young people have the least access to good education and health care and the least exposure to role models who can raise their expectations and hopes about the future.

TURNING NEW RISKS INTO OPPORTUNITIES Adult Mentoring. A fundamental need of young people, particularly in high-risk areas, is for a stable, supportive bond with a caring adult who can help them prepare for social roles that earn respect, route them to needed resources, and encourage them to persist in education. Among poor children from urban areas, research has shown that those who cope well usually have at least one significant, positive adult role model, not necessarily the parent. Elder citizens can contribute substantially as mentors to adolescents, bringing new meaning to their own lives while helping the younger generation grow up. The task is not a simple one. A mentor is expected to provide sustained support, guidance, and concrete help when an adolescent goes through a difficult time, enters a new situation, or takes on new tasks. It is also important that a mentoring program be integrated with other resources in the community. Particularly for high-risk youth, who often experience multiple problems, connecting them to education, health, and social services is crucial.

Economic Consequences of Preventable Problems

Adolescent pregnancy and substance abuse are not simply problems when they happen. The consequences of these acts reach far into the future, and their antecedents emerge even before adolescence. The following costs illustrate the importance of preventing such problems.

DROPPING OUT · Remaining in school is the single most important action adolescents can take to improve their future economic prospects. In 1992, a high school graduate earned almost $6,000 per year more than a high school dropout.[1] · Going to college boosts income even more. In 1992, college graduates had a mean annual income of $32,629, while high school graduates had a mean annual income of $18,737. Earning a professional degree added $40,000 a year to the mean annual income of college graduates.[1] · Gender also affects income. A male high school graduate's mean monthly income is likely to be twice as much as a female high school graduate's, a statistic that highlights the significance of education for women.[2]

BEARING CHILDREN · Women who become mothers as teenagers are more likely to find themselves living in poverty later in their lives than women who delay childbearing. Although 28 percent of women who gave birth as teenagers were poor in their twenties and thirties, only 7 percent of women who gave birth after adolescence were living in poverty in their twenties and thirties.[3] · In 1992, the federal government spent nearly $34 billion on Aid to Families with Dependent Children, Medicaid, and food stamps for families begun by adolescents.[4] · Providing family planning services is one way to lower taxpayers'costs. Each public dollar spent on family planning services saves an average of $4.40 by reducing expenditures on medical, welfare, and nutritional programs.[5]

SUBSTANCE USE AND ABUSE · Substance abuse costs the United States more than $238 billion a year, including the expense for treatment of abuse, the productivity losses caused by premature death and inability to perform usual activities, and costs related to crime, destruction of property, and other losses.[6] · Each year more than a million young people start smoking regularly, a decision that will cost the health care system $8.2 billion in preventable medical expenditures during their lifetimes.[7] · During the last two decades, the tobacco industry has dramatically increased the money it spends on advertising. In 1992, the industry spent more than $5.2 billion on advertising, making cigarettes second only to automobiles in advertising dollars spent.[8]

INJURIES · An estimated 10 to 20 percent of all injuries to children and young people occur in and around schools. Falls were the most common cause of injuries. Representing 46 percent of all incidents, falls were followed by sports activities at 30 percent and assaults at 10 percent. The resulting costs of these injuries vary substantially. The bill for treating something as simple as a forearm fracture, for example, can exceed $3,900. A serious injury such as spinal cord damage can incur medical costs higher than $188,000.[9] · Injuries to young adolescents, ages ten to fifteen, in motor vehicles cost more than $13 million in 1991, or about $56,000 per injured child.[10] · The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that simply switching to break-away bases for softball games could prevent 1.7 million injuries a year and save $2 billion in acute medical costs.[11] · A recent U.S. Government Accounting Office report estimated that the nation's schools need $112 billion to complete all of the repairs, renovations, and modernizations required to restore facilities to good overall condition and comply with federal mandates that ensure the safety of students.[12]

VIOLENCE · Violence is a social problem with tremendous economic costs. In 1993, the cost of providing emergency transportation, medical care, hospital stays, rehabilitation, and related treatment for American firearm victims ages ten through nineteen was $407 million.[13]

Chapter Four: Educating Young Adolescents for a Changing World

If it were possible to reach any consensus about high-priority solutions to our society's problems, a good education throughout the first two decades of life would be a prime candidate. Every modern nation must develop the talents of its entire population if it is to be economically vigorous and socially cohesive. A well-educated young adult is rarely found in our nation's prisons. In the past two decades, however, the achievement levels of American adolescents have virtually stagnated. The performance of our students is too low to support adequate living standards in a high-technology, information-based, transnational economy.

A persistent misconception among many educators is that young adolescents generally are incapable of critical or higher-order reasoning. Many school systems do a disservice to middle grade students by not offering challenging instruction. Education to capture the young person's emergent sense of self and the world, and to foster inquiring, analytical habits of mind, is not only feasible but constitutes essential preparation for life.

FACILITATING THE TRANSITION TO THE MIDDLE GRADES
In the move from elementary school, where a student has spent most of the day in one classroom with the same teacher and classmates, to the larger, more impersonal environment of middle school or junior high school farther from home, an adolescent's capacities to cope are often severely tested. Such an abrupt transition coincides with the profound physical, cognitive, and emotional changes of puberty, a juxtaposition that for some students can result in a loss of self-esteem and declining academic achievement.

Middle grade education was largely ignored in the education reforms of the 1980s. With the publication in 1989 of the Carnegie Council's report, Turning Points: Preparing Youth for the 21st Century, however, the nascent movement to reorganize middle schools to make them more developmentally appropriate for young adolescents was powerfully reinforced.

Middle grade education, said the report, should be more intellectually challenging, in line with young adolescents' new appreciation for the complexity of knowledge and ideas, and supportive of their desire for individual attention. Schools should have curricula that provide the information, skills, and motivation for adolescents to learn about themselves and their widening world. They should promote a mutual aid ethic among teachers and students, manifest in team teaching and cooperative learning. They should integrate students of varying ability levels in a single classroom, and they should provide opportunities for academically supervised community service.

Diplomas Count

jwencel — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:33:44 CST

(Excerpts) To earn a decent wage in this country, young people need to anticipate completing at least some college. For Job Zone 3, for which the median annual income is $35,672 nationally, 37 percent of jobholders have some college education and another 26 percent hold a bachelor’s degree. For Job Zone 4, with a median annual income of $50,552, fully 68 percent of jobholders have a bachelor’s degree and 21 percent have some college. Fewer than one in 10 employees in Job Zone 3 or higher have less than a high school diploma. At the bottom end of the job-zone classifications, in which workers with a high school diploma or less are concentrated, the median annual income is $12,638 a year. But while the analysis confirms the strong link between education and earnings, it’s just a first step. For one thing, it captures only a moment in time. It doesn’t show what a state’s job market will look like when today’s 18-year-olds are in their 40s. And it doesn’t answer the more detailed question that many states are now struggling with: What’s the precise mix of academic and nonacademic skills that best prepares young people to take advantage of labor-market opportunities? Academic Gaps Clearly, employers want better academic skills than many high school graduates now possess. A survey of more than 430 human-resource officials, conducted in spring 2006 by the New York City-based Conference Board, found that 72 percent rated recent hires as deficient in basic English writing skills, such as grammar and spelling, and 81 percent rated them as deficient in written communications more broadly, such as memos, letters, and complex technical reports. In a 2005 survey conducted for the National Association of Manufacturers, 84 percent of respondents said schools were not doing a good job preparing students for the workplace, with more than half citing specific deficiencies in mathematics and science and 38 percent citing deficiencies in reading and comprehension Daniel Furman, the director of education policy for the nonprofit Fund for Colorado’s Future, which provided staff support for a governor-appointed council to align high school standards with the demands of college and work, remembers being surprised by a representative of the Denver pipe fitters’ union. “He had just looked at 100 applications,” he says, “and he mentioned they just had weak math and science skills. For a pipe fitter, perhaps you don’t assume that you need individuals with strong math and science skills, but in fact you really do.” Through the American Diploma Project Network, coordinated by Achieve, 29 states have committed to aligning their high school standards with what it takes to succeed in college and the workplace. Achieve, which was formed by business leaders and state governors, has been working with 24 of those states to help them adopt high school standards that meet that goal. Based on that work, the group has found that state standards tend to lack attention to several key areas that college faculty members and business leaders have identified as critical for success: • While high school English standards and courses tend to emphasize literature, most of the reading material students will encounter in college or on the job is informational, such as textbooks, manuals, articles, briefs, and essays. • While state academic-content standards tend to stress narrative writing, most of the writing young people will do in college and at work is to inform or to persuade, often requiring them to conduct research and use evidence to support a position. • The ability to work in teams and to orally present one’s work is cited by professors and employers as critical for success. Yet state standards don’t always cover those skills sufficiently, according to Achieve. On the math side of the ledger, Achieve found that state standards sometimes fall short on data analysis and statistics, and often give only superficial treatment to important geometric concepts, such as proofs. Moreover, while reasoning and solving mathematical problems are often cited as the most important skills for both college freshmen and employees, state standards don’t always cover those topics explicitly. Studies have found that students who take advanced math courses such as Algebra 2 in high school or who score higher on math tests are more likely to succeed in college and secure better-paying jobs. But some researchers and labor experts say that in many high-salary, in-demand jobs, the level of math actually needed rarely rises above the 9th or 10th grade level. Fluency in advanced math topics is less crucial, they contend, than skills in solving problems and applying math to different tasks. “The debate in states is what is the evidence that kids really need to know this stuff in the real world.” Michael Cohen President, Achieve College professors appear to agree. Based on a national survey of more than 6,500 middle school, high school, and postsecondary teachers, the Iowa City, Iowa-based test-maker ACT Inc. found that postsecondary instructors rated being able to understand and rigorously apply fundamental math skills and processes as more important than exposure to more advanced topics. “The debate in states is what is the evidence that kids really need to know this stuff in the real world?” says Cohen of Achieve. That question has led states such as Louisiana to search for examples of the specific math or English skills needed in various occupations, in part to demonstrate the relevance of state content standards to the business community. Louisiana officials point out, for example, that to calculate drug dosages, nurses with an associate’s degree need to know how to calculate and apply ratios, proportions, rates, and percentages. Nurses with a bachelor’s degree must be able to select and use formal, informal, literary, or technical language appropriate for their audience so they can write formal reports to health-care managers. “I just think there’s such a lack, in textbook or curriculum guides, of ‘real world’ applications” of such skills, says Stanley G. Jones, Indiana’s commissioner of higher education. Soft Skills Employers complain even more, though, about a lack of “soft” or “applied” skills among America’s high school graduates than about inadequate academic skills. In the Conference Board survey, for example, 70 percent of human-resource officials cited deficiencies among graduates in applied skills, such as professionalism and work ethic, defined as “demonstrating personal accountability and effective work habits, such as punctuality, working productively with others, time and workload management.” Similarly, in the NAM survey, 55 percent of employers rated the public education system as deficient in equipping students with basic employability skills, such as attendance, punctuality, and a strong work ethic. Those sentiments were echoed in focus groups and roundtables that were conducted in Arkansas and Colorado with local employers. In his state, says Furman of the Fund for Colorado’s Future, employers complained that high school graduates “would not come into an interview dressed appropriately. They would not come prepared to talk about the job they were interviewing for.” “If they were lucky enough to land a job,” he says, “they didn’t realize they had to show up to work on time Monday through Friday.” In Arkansas, according to a January 2007 study by the Arkansas Department of Education , 76 percent of employers said recent high school graduates who applied for jobs in their companies lacked the necessary writing skills and the ability to do basic math. And more than 60 percent weren’t satisfied with graduates’ ability to read and understand instructions and other materials. But the lack of soft skills—defined as everyday social skills, such as work ethic, verbal and nonverbal communications, attendance, interview abilities, and attitude—dominated the complaints of business leaders in Arkansas. “Employers we interviewed said they were able to redesign jobs around academic-skills deficiencies, but not soft-skills deficiencies.” James E. Rosenbaum Sociologist, Northwestern University As one Arkansas employer said in a focus group, “We want somebody who shows up on time, somebody who works hard, and someone who’s trainable.” James E. Rosenbaum, a sociologist at Northwestern University who’s interviewed employers about their workforce needs, says: “Employers we interviewed said they were able to redesign jobs around academic-skill deficiencies, but not soft-skills deficiencies.” Nearly all jobs, he says, “require basic work habits, such as regular attendance, motivation, and discipline, and our schools are not taking steps to improve students in these areas. Indeed, the opposite may be occurring. If teachers are compelled to focus more on academic skills and test scores, they may devote less attention to soft skills and efforts to improve them.” At least one analysis , by the Princeton, N.J.-based Mathematica Policy Research Inc., suggests that improvements in nonacademic competencies—such as work habits and a belief that success results from hard work rather than luck—may be just as important for improving later earnings and postsecondary success for some students as gains in academic skills. Using data from the National Educational Longitudinal Survey, or NELS, a federal database that followed a cohort of students from the time they were 8th graders in 1988 until 2000, the study found that for most students, improving one of the nonacademic competencies would have had a larger effect than better math scores on their chances of enrolling in and completing a postsecondary program, with 43 percent benefiting most from an improvement in work habits. When it came to earning a bachelor’s degree, however, improving math scores still had the largest effect for the most students. In general, the Mathematica study found, students reaped the most benefit from improving in areas where they were weak. “Considering individual strengths and weaknesses when deciding which competencies to improve might be a more effective strategy than simply encouraging all students to improve the same competencies,” write researchers John Deke and Joshua Haimson.	21st-Century Skills Beyond specific content knowledge and soft skills, researchers increasingly point to a range of applied skills that span academic areas as important for success. According to Anthony P. Carnevale, an economist and research professor at Georgetown University, individuals who score higher on measures of complex problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity, and fluency with ideas have higher mean earnings in the labor market, across all levels of education. David T. Conley, a professor of education at the University of Oregon, says that in addition to specific content knowledge, “a range of cognitive and meta-cognitive capabilities, often described as ‘habits of mind,’ have been consistently and emphatically identified by those who teach entry-level college courses as being as important or more important than any specific content knowledge taught in high school.” Examples include analysis, interpretation, precision and accuracy, problem-solving, and reasoning, he writes in “Toward a More Comprehensive Conception of College Readiness,” a paper prepared for the Seattle-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Similarly important, he continues, are the attitudes and behavioral attributes that students who succeed in college demonstrate, including study skills, time management, awareness of their own performance, persistence, and the ability to use study groups. And the Harvard University psychologist Howard Gardner, writing in his new book, Five Minds for the Future, defines the cognitive abilities that he argues will command a premium in the years ahead. He describes them as the disciplinary mind (mastering ways of thinking in one or more content disciplines or a professional craft); the synthesizing mind (able to integrate ideas across disciplines and communicate that to others); the creating mind (able to uncover and clarify new problems, questions, and phenomena); the respectful mind (being aware of and appreciating differences among human beings); and the ethical mind (knowing and acting on one’s responsibilities as a worker and a citizen). “No one knows precisely how to fashion an education that will yield individuals who are disciplined, synthesizing, creative, respectful, and ethical.” Howard Gardner Harvard University psychologist Unfortunately, Gardner writes, “No one knows precisely how to fashion an education that will yield individuals who are disciplined, synthesizing, creative, respectful, and ethical.” Such skills, moreover, are hard to assess or to insert in content-oriented state high school standards. “It’s easier to get some coalescing around standards with respect to content,” says Jones, the Indiana higher education commissioner. “Some of these other concepts—like working in teams, or leadership skills, or communication skills—are harder to quantify and clearly harder to assess. And so I think people recognize their importance, but they’re still grappling with how you would actually do it.” More than half the employers surveyed for the Conference Board, for example, said critical thinking and problem-solving were “very important” for successful performance on the job, yet nearly three-quarters rated recent high school graduates as deficient in such skills. Career and Technical Education The focus on college and workforce readiness, combined with concerns about maintaining the United States’ economic competitiveness, has led at least some states to place a renewed emphasis on career and technical education. Research suggests that participation in CTE courses can reduce high school dropout rates and increase short- and medium-term earnings for students. But the research is mixed about whether participation in various types of career and technical education reduces college-going rates—or simply has no effect. Based on analyses using students’ transcript data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, researchers Stefanie DeLuca and Stephen Plank, sociologists at Johns Hopkins University, found that while participation in career-related programs did not generally impede college attendance, students who took proportionately more career and technical courses than academic ones were less likely to attend college, even after adjusting for other characteristics. Moreover, while students from low-income families were the least likely to participate in career-related programs and activities, they were the most likely to take higher ratios of CTE to academic courses. Using the same database, the Johns Hopkins researchers found that a middle-range mix of career and academic courses may decrease the risk of dropping out for students who are not over the normal age for their grades—but only up to a point, or “something in the range of one CTE course for every two core academic courses,” the authors write. They suggest trying to keep an “optimal balance” between career and academic classes, and giving students a chance to take career classes earlier, as a way to increase graduation rates. Given that about 45 percent of high school students earned three or more occupational-course credits throughout the 1990s, the improvement of career and technical education has to be part of the “readiness” agenda, argues Richard Kazis, the director of policy for the Boston-based Jobs for the Future. But CTE programs of the future need to have greater academic rigor, be more responsive to economic trends and local labor markets, and have stronger connections to postsecondary education, he says. Maryland, for example, has redesigned its career and technical education system around 10 career clusters, representing high-growth areas of the state’s economy. More than 350 employers from across the state validated the clusters, all of which must have a postsecondary component so that students can earn at least some higher education credits while in high school. In the 2006 graduating class, 51 percent of students who had completed a CTE program (defined as four credits in one career concentration) also had completed all the course requirements for entry into the state’s four-year public colleges. “When we first started to measure that, in 1998, it was only 14 percent,” says Kathy Oliver, Maryland’s assistant state superintendent for career technology and adult learning. “The goal is 100 percent, and we’re moving toward that.” This past year, the National Governors Association contracted with the Monitor Group, a consulting group based in Cambridge, Mass., to produce analyses for each state of emerging, high-growth clusters. “Cluster strategies for states are efforts to take advantage of naturally existing groupings of companies, usually within a particular industry but often including suppliers,” explains Steve Crawford, who directs the NGA’s division of social, economic, and workforce programs. “That sort of expertise creates a synergy in a region and gives a competitive advantage to the companies and firms.” While there is a well-established literature on the competitive advantage of clusters, he adds, “the key ingredient in any industry is knowledge or human talent, so part of a good cluster strategy is to make sure that universities, the high schools with their career academies, the community colleges, are producing folks with the skills you’d want.” Vol. 26, Issue 40, Pages 7-8, 10,12 Diplomas Count is produced with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

(Excerpts)

To earn a decent wage in this country, young people need to anticipate completing at least some college. For Job Zone 3, for which the median annual income is $35,672 nationally, 37 percent of jobholders have some college education and another 26 percent hold a bachelor’s degree. For Job Zone 4, with a median annual income of $50,552, fully 68 percent of jobholders have a bachelor’s degree and 21 percent have some college. Fewer than one in 10 employees in Job Zone 3 or higher have less than a high school diploma. At the bottom end of the job-zone classifications, in which workers with a high school diploma or less are concentrated, the median annual income is $12,638 a year. But while the analysis confirms the strong link between education and earnings, it’s just a first step. For one thing, it captures only a moment in time. It doesn’t show what a state’s job market will look like when today’s 18-year-olds are in their 40s. And it doesn’t answer the more detailed question that many states are now struggling with: What’s the precise mix of academic and nonacademic skills that best prepares young people to take advantage of labor-market opportunities?

Academic Gaps Clearly, employers want better academic skills than many high school graduates now possess. A survey of more than 430 human-resource officials, conducted in spring 2006 by the New York City-based Conference Board, found that 72 percent rated recent hires as deficient in basic English writing skills, such as grammar and spelling, and 81 percent rated them as deficient in written communications more broadly, such as memos, letters, and complex technical reports. In a 2005 survey conducted for the National Association of Manufacturers, 84 percent of respondents said schools were not doing a good job preparing students for the workplace, with more than half citing specific deficiencies in mathematics and science and 38 percent citing deficiencies in reading and comprehension Daniel Furman, the director of education policy for the nonprofit Fund for Colorado’s Future, which provided staff support for a governor-appointed council to align high school standards with the demands of college and work, remembers being surprised by a representative of the Denver pipe fitters’ union. “He had just looked at 100 applications,” he says, “and he mentioned they just had weak math and science skills. For a pipe fitter, perhaps you don’t assume that you need individuals with strong math and science skills, but in fact you really do.” Through the American Diploma Project Network, coordinated by Achieve, 29 states have committed to aligning their high school standards with what it takes to succeed in college and the workplace. Achieve, which was formed by business leaders and state governors, has been working with 24 of those states to help them adopt high school standards that meet that goal. Based on that work, the group has found that state standards tend to lack attention to several key areas that college faculty members and business leaders have identified as critical for success: • While high school English standards and courses tend to emphasize literature, most of the reading material students will encounter in college or on the job is informational, such as textbooks, manuals, articles, briefs, and essays. • While state academic-content standards tend to stress narrative writing, most of the writing young people will do in college and at work is to inform or to persuade, often requiring them to conduct research and use evidence to support a position. • The ability to work in teams and to orally present one’s work is cited by professors and employers as critical for success. Yet state standards don’t always cover those skills sufficiently, according to Achieve. On the math side of the ledger, Achieve found that state standards sometimes fall short on data analysis and statistics, and often give only superficial treatment to important geometric concepts, such as proofs. Moreover, while reasoning and solving mathematical problems are often cited as the most important skills for both college freshmen and employees, state standards don’t always cover those topics explicitly. Studies have found that students who take advanced math courses such as Algebra 2 in high school or who score higher on math tests are more likely to succeed in college and secure better-paying jobs. But some researchers and labor experts say that in many high-salary, in-demand jobs, the level of math actually needed rarely rises above the 9th or 10th grade level. Fluency in advanced math topics is less crucial, they contend, than skills in solving problems and applying math to different tasks.

“The debate in states is what is the evidence that kids really need to know this stuff in the real world.” Michael Cohen President, Achieve College professors appear to agree. Based on a national survey of more than 6,500 middle school, high school, and postsecondary teachers, the Iowa City, Iowa-based test-maker ACT Inc. found that postsecondary instructors rated being able to understand and rigorously apply fundamental math skills and processes as more important than exposure to more advanced topics. “The debate in states is what is the evidence that kids really need to know this stuff in the real world?” says Cohen of Achieve. That question has led states such as Louisiana to search for examples of the specific math or English skills needed in various occupations, in part to demonstrate the relevance of state content standards to the business community. Louisiana officials point out, for example, that to calculate drug dosages, nurses with an associate’s degree need to know how to calculate and apply ratios, proportions, rates, and percentages. Nurses with a bachelor’s degree must be able to select and use formal, informal, literary, or technical language appropriate for their audience so they can write formal reports to health-care managers. “I just think there’s such a lack, in textbook or curriculum guides, of ‘real world’ applications” of such skills, says Stanley G. Jones, Indiana’s commissioner of higher education.

Soft Skills Employers complain even more, though, about a lack of “soft” or “applied” skills among America’s high school graduates than about inadequate academic skills. In the Conference Board survey, for example, 70 percent of human-resource officials cited deficiencies among graduates in applied skills, such as professionalism and work ethic, defined as “demonstrating personal accountability and effective work habits, such as punctuality, working productively with others, time and workload management.” Similarly, in the NAM survey, 55 percent of employers rated the public education system as deficient in equipping students with basic employability skills, such as attendance, punctuality, and a strong work ethic. Those sentiments were echoed in focus groups and roundtables that were conducted in Arkansas and Colorado with local employers. In his state, says Furman of the Fund for Colorado’s Future, employers complained that high school graduates “would not come into an interview dressed appropriately. They would not come prepared to talk about the job they were interviewing for.” “If they were lucky enough to land a job,” he says, “they didn’t realize they had to show up to work on time Monday through Friday.” In Arkansas, according to a January 2007 study by the Arkansas Department of Education , 76 percent of employers said recent high school graduates who applied for jobs in their companies lacked the necessary writing skills and the ability to do basic math. And more than 60 percent weren’t satisfied with graduates’ ability to read and understand instructions and other materials. But the lack of soft skills—defined as everyday social skills, such as work ethic, verbal and nonverbal communications, attendance, interview abilities, and attitude—dominated the complaints of business leaders in Arkansas.

“Employers we interviewed said they were able to redesign jobs around academic-skills deficiencies, but not soft-skills deficiencies.” James E. Rosenbaum Sociologist, Northwestern University As one Arkansas employer said in a focus group, “We want somebody who shows up on time, somebody who works hard, and someone who’s trainable.” James E. Rosenbaum, a sociologist at Northwestern University who’s interviewed employers about their workforce needs, says: “Employers we interviewed said they were able to redesign jobs around academic-skill deficiencies, but not soft-skills deficiencies.” Nearly all jobs, he says, “require basic work habits, such as regular attendance, motivation, and discipline, and our schools are not taking steps to improve students in these areas. Indeed, the opposite may be occurring. If teachers are compelled to focus more on academic skills and test scores, they may devote less attention to soft skills and efforts to improve them.” At least one analysis , by the Princeton, N.J.-based Mathematica Policy Research Inc., suggests that improvements in nonacademic competencies—such as work habits and a belief that success results from hard work rather than luck—may be just as important for improving later earnings and postsecondary success for some students as gains in academic skills. Using data from the National Educational Longitudinal Survey, or NELS, a federal database that followed a cohort of students from the time they were 8th graders in 1988 until 2000, the study found that for most students, improving one of the nonacademic competencies would have had a larger effect than better math scores on their chances of enrolling in and completing a postsecondary program, with 43 percent benefiting most from an improvement in work habits. When it came to earning a bachelor’s degree, however, improving math scores still had the largest effect for the most students. In general, the Mathematica study found, students reaped the most benefit from improving in areas where they were weak. “Considering individual strengths and weaknesses when deciding which competencies to improve might be a more effective strategy than simply encouraging all students to improve the same competencies,” write researchers John Deke and Joshua Haimson.

21st-Century Skills Beyond specific content knowledge and soft skills, researchers increasingly point to a range of applied skills that span academic areas as important for success. According to Anthony P. Carnevale, an economist and research professor at Georgetown University, individuals who score higher on measures of complex problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity, and fluency with ideas have higher mean earnings in the labor market, across all levels of education. David T. Conley, a professor of education at the University of Oregon, says that in addition to specific content knowledge, “a range of cognitive and meta-cognitive capabilities, often described as ‘habits of mind,’ have been consistently and emphatically identified by those who teach entry-level college courses as being as important or more important than any specific content knowledge taught in high school.” Examples include analysis, interpretation, precision and accuracy, problem-solving, and reasoning, he writes in “Toward a More Comprehensive Conception of College Readiness,” a paper prepared for the Seattle-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Similarly important, he continues, are the attitudes and behavioral attributes that students who succeed in college demonstrate, including study skills, time management, awareness of their own performance, persistence, and the ability to use study groups. And the Harvard University psychologist Howard Gardner, writing in his new book, Five Minds for the Future, defines the cognitive abilities that he argues will command a premium in the years ahead. He describes them as the disciplinary mind (mastering ways of thinking in one or more content disciplines or a professional craft); the synthesizing mind (able to integrate ideas across disciplines and communicate that to others); the creating mind (able to uncover and clarify new problems, questions, and phenomena); the respectful mind (being aware of and appreciating differences among human beings); and the ethical mind (knowing and acting on one’s responsibilities as a worker and a citizen).

“No one knows precisely how to fashion an education that will yield individuals who are disciplined, synthesizing, creative, respectful, and ethical.” Howard Gardner Harvard University psychologist Unfortunately, Gardner writes, “No one knows precisely how to fashion an education that will yield individuals who are disciplined, synthesizing, creative, respectful, and ethical.” Such skills, moreover, are hard to assess or to insert in content-oriented state high school standards. “It’s easier to get some coalescing around standards with respect to content,” says Jones, the Indiana higher education commissioner. “Some of these other concepts—like working in teams, or leadership skills, or communication skills—are harder to quantify and clearly harder to assess. And so I think people recognize their importance, but they’re still grappling with how you would actually do it.” More than half the employers surveyed for the Conference Board, for example, said critical thinking and problem-solving were “very important” for successful performance on the job, yet nearly three-quarters rated recent high school graduates as deficient in such skills.

Career and Technical Education The focus on college and workforce readiness, combined with concerns about maintaining the United States’ economic competitiveness, has led at least some states to place a renewed emphasis on career and technical education. Research suggests that participation in CTE courses can reduce high school dropout rates and increase short- and medium-term earnings for students. But the research is mixed about whether participation in various types of career and technical education reduces college-going rates—or simply has no effect. Based on analyses using students’ transcript data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, researchers Stefanie DeLuca and Stephen Plank, sociologists at Johns Hopkins University, found that while participation in career-related programs did not generally impede college attendance, students who took proportionately more career and technical courses than academic ones were less likely to attend college, even after adjusting for other characteristics. Moreover, while students from low-income families were the least likely to participate in career-related programs and activities, they were the most likely to take higher ratios of CTE to academic courses. Using the same database, the Johns Hopkins researchers found that a middle-range mix of career and academic courses may decrease the risk of dropping out for students who are not over the normal age for their grades—but only up to a point, or “something in the range of one CTE course for every two core academic courses,” the authors write. They suggest trying to keep an “optimal balance” between career and academic classes, and giving students a chance to take career classes earlier, as a way to increase graduation rates. Given that about 45 percent of high school students earned three or more occupational-course credits throughout the 1990s, the improvement of career and technical education has to be part of the “readiness” agenda, argues Richard Kazis, the director of policy for the Boston-based Jobs for the Future. But CTE programs of the future need to have greater academic rigor, be more responsive to economic trends and local labor markets, and have stronger connections to postsecondary education, he says. Maryland, for example, has redesigned its career and technical education system around 10 career clusters, representing high-growth areas of the state’s economy. More than 350 employers from across the state validated the clusters, all of which must have a postsecondary component so that students can earn at least some higher education credits while in high school. In the 2006 graduating class, 51 percent of students who had completed a CTE program (defined as four credits in one career concentration) also had completed all the course requirements for entry into the state’s four-year public colleges. “When we first started to measure that, in 1998, it was only 14 percent,” says Kathy Oliver, Maryland’s assistant state superintendent for career technology and adult learning. “The goal is 100 percent, and we’re moving toward that.” This past year, the National Governors Association contracted with the Monitor Group, a consulting group based in Cambridge, Mass., to produce analyses for each state of emerging, high-growth clusters. “Cluster strategies for states are efforts to take advantage of naturally existing groupings of companies, usually within a particular industry but often including suppliers,” explains Steve Crawford, who directs the NGA’s division of social, economic, and workforce programs. “That sort of expertise creates a synergy in a region and gives a competitive advantage to the companies and firms.” While there is a well-established literature on the competitive advantage of clusters, he adds, “the key ingredient in any industry is knowledge or human talent, so part of a good cluster strategy is to make sure that universities, the high schools with their career academies, the community colleges, are producing folks with the skills you’d want.” Vol. 26, Issue 40, Pages 7-8, 10,12

Diplomas Count is produced with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Requirements

jwencel — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:46:05 CST

The primary "requirement" is a willingness and ability to listen and show a middle schooler that you care about him/her. Children 10-14 need positive role models who will help them develop a vision for the future and strengthen the academic and/or psychosocial skills needed to achieve that vision.

The minimum age is 15, but exceptions can be made, depending on the placement.

We ask that volunteers who are planning to tutor, mentor or meet with a small group commit to at least six 42-minute sessions (once a week or twice a month), but we also welcome volunteers who are willing to circulate in a study hall, classroom, after school or at one of the neighborhood sites and help students on a more infrequent basos (especially with math).

Volunteers who can commit to an entire school year and would like to be matched one-on-one with a student are encouraged to consider Big Brothers Big Sisters' Bigs in Schools (or community-based) program.

Registration and Orientation Requirements

Volunteers 18 and up working one-on-one or with a small group	Volunteers under 18 working one-on-one or with a small group	Classroom helpers or "floaters" in an after-school program, etc.
Volunteer Registration, Background Checks, Youthfriends Form	Volunteer Registration (Part A), Youthfriends Form	Volunteer Registration (Part A)
Orientation required (see orientation schedule here)	Orientation strongly recommended (see orientation schedule here)	Orientation recommended, but not required

Click here to sign up.