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Since its creation in 2001, the Department of Education College Opportunities Online (COOL) website has helped hundreds of thousands of students and families learn about colleges and universities. Now, COOL's successor, called College Navigator and located at http://collegenavigator.ed.gov offers consumers even more information in an easy-to-use format. |
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Family
Involvement in Middle and High School Our newest brief, Family Involvement in Middle and High School Students' Education, synthesizes research studies that link family involvement in middle and high school to youth’s academic and social outcomes. The brief profiles evaluated programs to show what works to promote family involvement and student achievement during this critical developmental period and highlights how you can use this research to promote effective policies and practices. http://www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/projects/fine/resources/research/adolescent.html |
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MAKING
WRITING INSTRUCTION A PRIORITY IN AMERICA’S MIDDLE AND HIGH
SCHOOLS The Alliance for Excellent Education has released a new brief which argues that the ability to write well for a variety of audiences and in multiple contexts is as great a predictor of success as is the ability to read proficiently. However, large numbers of American students are graduating from high school unable to write at even the minimal level of ability required by colleges and employers. It is critical that writing proficiency be recognized as an integral skill for success in an increasingly competitive 21st century economy, and that America's secondary schools incorporate more writing instruction into students' coursework. In Writing Next, published in October 2006, the Alliance identified 11 specific teaching techniques that research suggests will help improve the writing abilities of the nation’s middle and high school students. The new brief suggests policy options that would support strategies designed to improve students’ ability to write proficiently and help to ensure that they graduate with the skills necessary to succeed in postsecondary education and in today’s workplace. Funded by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York, "Making Writing Instruction a Priority in America’s Middle and High Schools" is available at: http://www.all4ed.org/publications/WritPrior.pdf |
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"High
School, College Standards Out of Sync, Survey Finds" A study by ACT Inc., the producer of the ACT college-admissions tests, highlights the gap between what high schools are teaching in their college-preparatory courses and what colleges want incoming students to know. The study is based on a national curriculum survey of more than 6,500 middle school, high school and postsecondary teachers. The new survey found that college professors generally want incoming students to have a deeper understanding of a selected number of topics and skills, while high school teachers in all content areas tend to rate a far broader array of content and skills as "important" or "very important." More than half the states are now working to better align high school standards, tests and curricula with college expectations. An equally large number have created so-called "P-16" or "P-20" councils to help coordinate goals and activities across the various levels of education. Nearly two-thirds of professors said their state standards prepare students "poorly" or "very poorly" for college-level work in their respective subject areas. In contrast, a majority of high school teachers said their state standards are preparing students "well" or "very well" for college-level work. The study also highlights significant differences between high school instruction and college expectations in specific curriculum areas. |
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"Study:
Volunteer Work Gives Poor Teenagers a Boost" Volunteer work gives poor teenagers a boost in confidence that can propel them to college, but other teens are more likely volunteers, a federal study finds. Youth from low-income backgrounds have a volunteer rate of 43%, compared with 59% for other youth and are less likely to participate in other service or school civic clubs, according to the Corporation for National and Community Service study. The group said it found that poor youth are more likely to volunteer with religious organizations than with youth civic or leadership groups. Some 48% of youths from disadvantaged backgrounds who volunteered said they did so because of religious or spiritual beliefs. By volunteering, poor youth are 40% more likely to believe they can make a difference in their community and 50% more likely to say they probably will graduate from a four-year college, according to the report. |
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Forces Recruiter Access to Secondary School Students
It's important that parents know that under NCLB the law requires that high schools can have access to their children for recruitment into the military. |
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ARE
YOU A "HELICOPTER" PARENT? TAKE THE QUIZ You've heard of them. They're in constant contact with their children and make most of the big decisions for them. And when things get tough, they're all-too-ready to take their children's side and fight their battles for them. They're the ever-hovering helicopter parents. Helicopter parenting can have negative effects for all involved, especially maturing teenagers who need and are eager for greater independence. It's only natural to want to help your child, but helping your child become an independent adult is perhaps the most important and difficult thing you can do. With that in mind, don't hesitate to involve yourself in certain areas of your child's life. One area in which your child will probably welcome your participation is in the search for and application to colleges. In fact, a recent national survey of college-bound high school seniors, conducted by the College Board and the Art & Science Group, shows that these students wish their parents were more involved in the college search and application process. Are you hovering too close during the college admission process? Take a twelve-question quiz and find out. |
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KEEPING
MIDDLE SCHOOL PARENTS INVOLVED Despite rumors to the contrary, says the Parent Academic Resources organization, "parents can play a central role in helping their adolescent children grow into independent learners." http://academicresources.org/learning.html |
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CICC, the Center for the Improvement of Child Caring, offers a web
site of numerous programs and materials to help parents become more
effective and numerous continuing education programs and materials
for professionals who work with children and families. http://www.ciccparenting.org Their monthly newsletter. http://www.ciccparenting.org/cicc_Breaking_News_Articles.aspx?id=14 |
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Created
by the nation's governors and business leaders, Achieve, Inc., is
a bipartisan, non-profit organization that helps states raise academic
standards, improve assessments and strengthen accountability to prepare
all young people for postsecondary education, work and citizenship. http://www.achieve.org/dstore.nsf/Lookup/pollreport/$file/pollreport.pdf |
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ALPHABETICAL
LIST OF PARENTING ARTICLES BY THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION http://www.d11.org/mann/computerliteracy/parenting_teens.htm |
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Alcohol
Industry Targets Teen Girls with "Alcopop" Ads The American Medical Association (AMA) is alerting physicians, parents, and policymakers about the alcohol industry's promotion of "girlie drinks" -- also known as "alcopops" -- to girls ages 12-20. The AMA report, released on December 16, is based on two nationwide polls funded in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. "We're alarmed and concerned with these findings," says J. Edward Hill, president-elect of the AMA. "The percentage of girls who drink is on the rise faster than boys, and the average age of their first drink is now 13." The article describes alcopops as sweet flavored malt beverages that attract less experienced drinkers. Read the full story at: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/14425.html |
| ACT | U.S.
Colleges Are Not Doing Enough to Retain Students Two new reports published in December by ACT reveal an alarming trend -- U.S. colleges and universities are not doing enough to improve student retention and degree completion. "Retention of students remains a significant issue for U.S. colleges and universities, with a substantial number of students not returning for their second year of school," says Richard L. Ferguson, ACT's chief executive officer. Read the full story at: http://www.act.org/news/releases/2004/12-13-04.html NEW! Middle/High School Students Need More Help From Schools To Plan For Future http://www.act.org/news/releases/2005/5-26-05.html |
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"Web
Tool Lets Users Scrutinize University Graduation Rates" A new Web tool unveiled by The Education Trust can be used to compare graduation rates among similar public and private universities. With College Results Online, students, parents, educators and policymakers for the first time can easily discover the percentages of students individual schools are graduating -- not just overall, but by race, ethnicity and gender -- and how those rates stack up against schools that serve the same kinds of students. The site is expected to fuel a growing national movement for accountability in higher education, which has led to some calls to link government funding to graduation rates. http://www.collegeresults.org/ |
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"Bush
Plan Worries the Voc. Ed. Community" The Bush administration's recent unveiling of its plan to extend accountability and other academic measures into the nation's high schools has caused backers of vocational education to worry that the proposal may squeeze their programs out of the federal budget. Advocates for career and technical education in recent weeks have launched a pre-emptive strike to urge members of Congress and other influential parties to help them stave off potential cuts to their funding, even though the administration's fiscal 2006 budget is not expected to be released until next month. http://www.edweek.org/ |
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Strengthening
Parental Involvement in Middle and High Schools: Cultivating Communication
and Connections Direct parent involvement with children's schools often decreases dramatically during the middle and high school years, yet involvement is still very important at this age. This paper offers advice on what educators can do to improve their communication and connections with parents of teenagers. http://www.pleasestoptherollercoaster.com/Strenghtening-Parental-Involvement-HL.pdf |
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A
recent research report shares that parent-teen relationships and interactions
are more positive than generally thought, and that parenting continues
to be important for adolescents. http://www.childtrends.org/Files/Parent_TeenRB.pdf |
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CASEL's
mission is to enhance children's success in school and life by promoting
coordinated, evidence-based social, emotional, and academic learning
as an essential part of education from preschool though high school. T hings parents can do to foster middle schools children's emotional well-being. http://www.casel.org/downloads/rescue.pdf things parents can do to foster emotional well-being in HS students. http://www.temple.edu/lss/pdf/partnerships/lss_partnerships111.pdf Things teachers can do: http://www.temple.edu/lss/pdf/partnerships/lss_partnerships112.pdf T he Four L's of Buildling Adolescent Identity http://www.temple.edu/lss/pdf/partnerships/lss_partnerships109.pdf The same article -- but from teachers' perspectives http://www.temple.edu/lss/pdf/partnerships/lss_parnterships110.pdf |
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An
ERIC document on parent involvement at the Middle School level. http://www.middleweb.com/ParntInvl.html |
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The
American Library Association is the oldest and largest library association
in the world, with more than 64,000 members. Its mission is to promote
the highest quality library and information services and public access
to information. ALA offers professional services and publications
to members and nonmembers, including online news stories from American
Libraries and analysis of crucial issues from the Washington Office. Good Reads for Teens http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/teenreading/recreading/recommendedreading.htm |
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As
our young people prepare to become workers and citizens, schools must
prepare them for the new expectations of our economy and society.
Today, all students need to acquire both academic knowledge and technical
skills, and yet, too many are not receiving this type of high-quality
education and development. Here is a link with some facts demonstrating
the need for high school reform. http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ovae/pi/hs/index.html |
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TeacherVision
is created by teachers for teachers. Millions of teachers rely on
TeacherVision's materials to enhance their curriculum, enrich their
students, and make their professional lives a bit easier. Advice to parents - middle and high school page http://www.teachervision.fen.com/page/3677.html?detoured=1&for_printing=1 |
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Govs and President Focus on High School After years of reform focusing on elementary schools, a growing number of politicians and policy-makers are concluding that high school education is overdue for an overhaul. Click below to read entire article. http://www.stateline.org/stateline/?pa=story&sa=showStoryInfo&id=398380 |
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The National
Parenting Center was founded in July of 1989 with the intention of
providing the most comprehensive and responsible parenting advice
to parents everywhere. The advice provided is furnished by some of
the world's most respected authorities in the field of child rearing
and development. http://www.tnpc.com/parentalk/preteen.html |
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This is a link to an article called "Great Expectations: How the Public and Parents — White, African American and Hispanic — View Higher Education." http://www.publicagenda.org/specials/highered/highered.htm A Little Push: What Teens Want From Their Parents Over the past five years, Public Agenda has conducted nearly a dozen public opinion surveys on education issues, questioning a range of Americans from parents to teenagers, from teachers to college professors and employers. Across all those surveys one theme persists: Americans are deeply doubtful about the character of the next generation. http://www.publicagenda.org/specials/parent/parent8.htm |
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The National
Center for Public Policy and Higher Education promotes public policies
that enhance Americans' opportunities to pursue and achieve high-quality
education and training beyond high school. As an independent, nonprofit,
nonpartisan organization, the National Center prepares action-oriented
analyses of pressing policy issues facing the states and the nation
regarding opportunity and achievement in higher education-including
two- and four-year, public and private, for-profit and nonprofit institutions.
This is a link to an article called "With Diploma in Hand: Hispanic
High School Seniors Talk About Their Future" By John Immerwahr
http://www.highereducation.org/reports/hispanic/hispanic.shtml |
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WHAT WE CAN'T TELL YOU: TEENAGERS TALK TO PARENTS IN THEIR LIVES How much do parents and other adults really know about the adolescents they care about? What do teenagers need from adults, if only they could say so? A forthcoming book by Kathleen Cushman and 75 youth collaborators offers some compelling answers. Click here for early excerpts: http://www.whatkidscando.org/studentwork/WhatWeCantTellYou.html |