Top Stories
The 2012 report update of
Building a Grad Nation: Progress and Challenge in Ending the High School Dropout Epidemic, by the Alliance for Excellent Education, America’s Promise Alliance, Civic Enterprises, and the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University, shows high school graduation rates continue to improve nationally.
Afterschool Programs That Follow Evidence-Based Practices to Promote Social and Emotional Development Are Effective, by Joseph Durlak and Roger P. Weissberg, reviewed 68 studies on the effects of afterschool programs and found significantly higher outcomes among students who attended programs that emphasize active forms of learning; focus time and attention on skill development; and are explicit in defining the skills they’re attempting to promote.
Sound Connections
Strengthening School Improvement: Developing a Comprehensive (Systemic) System of Learning Supports (AASA, Scholastic and UCLA Center)
Archived webcast available of Grad Nation Summit general sessions See key presenters such as Alma J. Powell, General Colin Powell, George Lucas, Arne Duncan, Michelle Rhee, superintendents, youth leaders and executives from State Farm, Target, AT&T, and many more.
Interview with Dr. Heather Clawson, Vice President for Research and Evaluation at Communities In Schools, talks about the most recent evaluation of the program.
Videos
The author, Tom Loveless, of the 2012
Brown Center Report on American Education, shares a visual synopsis of the three highlights of the report.
How Well Are American Students Learning discusses the effect of common core state standards on student achievement, measuring achievement gaps, and misinterpreting international test scores.
Policy Updates
States Loosening "Seat Time" Requirements States have established an array of policies to free schools from awarding credits based on "seat time." The goal is to make it easier for struggling students to catch up, exceptional students to race ahead, and students facing geographic and scheduling barriers to take the courses they need.
Education Week
A National
Governors Association brief summarizes many of these state policies regarding seat time.
Effective Strategies
Early Literacy
Building 21st Century Writers, an article published in
THE Journal, describes how technology has significantly improved writing in two schools in California and Colorado.
In an ASCD article,
Taming the Wild Text, Lit-World executive director, author, and Books for Boys program founder Pam Allyn offers a top-10 list of strategies for creating a reading culture that helps all students — even vulnerable readers — "build reading muscles for lifelong strength."
How to improve content understanding using reading strategies
The latest issue of
ASCD Express shares strategies for helping students keep up on reading. A featured
video clip from the
How to Improve Content Understanding Using Reading Strategies DVD offers a look at two high school biology classes that are bringing their school's policy of incorporating reading strategies across the curriculum to life, showing that science class can indeed support the development of reading skills.
Mentoring/Tutoring
Research of Civic Enterprises and America’s Promise Alliance Shows Mentoring Is Needed for Disconnected Youth
Opportunity Road The Promise and Challenge of America’s Forgotten Youth Workshop presentations, speaker biographies and additional content from the 2012 National Mentoring Summit in Washington, D.C.—Invest in the Future: Mentor a Child—are now posted online.
Collaborative Mentoring Webinar Series will air the third Thursday of each month. Next webinar is Thursday, April 19 at 1:00 EDT
Students with Disabilities
Education Week’s
Spotlight on Special Education examines major trends in special education, including response-to-intervention, research-based teaching techniques, professional development and much more.
From
ASCD Express,
"Disabilities and Culture: A Tale of Two Schools" Mary Fowler shares her experience as a consultant in two school districts, and the difference empowerment made in the outcome.
Funding
All funding sources now have their own page on the
NDPC/N Web site
Resources & Tools
Ten great sites with free teacher resources With cuts to school budgets, teachers are often left searching for ways to innovate without breaking the bank.
ASCD Special Report -- Reading: The Core Skill (Part I) Is an entire issue of their
SmartBrief devoted to discussions regarding the teaching of reading.
Show Me the Money: Tips & Resources for Successful Grant Writing
Three Must-See Social Bookmarking Sites for Educators
Free websites help boost student engagement, teacher productivity
Online tool helps teachers evaluate open educational resources
Feedback
We appreciate comments from our readers. We invite new subscribers to receive the Dropout Prevention Update. Please contact us at ndpc@clemson.edu
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