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Welcome!
What is
Urban Edge?
Urban Edge is a service that provides CUBE districts
with relevant information to help your awareness of education issues around the
country. We will glean news sources, blogs, research studies, and NSBA's wide range of expertise for timely information that guides CUBE districts in making sound decisions. The
importance of parents
Baltimore
puts new parental involvement policy in place
A newly adopted policy for Baltimore City Schools
will include a school climate component, requiring
schools to hold parent meetings at least four times
per year. This move also involves community
leaders and gives more autonomy to principals
regarding how they spend their budget. CUBE
has released three studies on school climate in the
last three years, to learn more about how climate
can impact student achievement and for a copy of the
reports, click here.
Link
to Baltimore Sun
2/11/09
Dallas gets serious about truancy
Dallas has adopted a policy that can charge
students with a misdemeanor, and their parents can
also be charged if the students don't go to
school. Using a centralized method of
attendance, and stepping up efforts to keep students
in school have helped the district get serious about
students missing school. "Truancy is a symptom
of dropping out," the superintendent said, and
many other CUBE districts in Texas are also
addressing truancy. Since this is a law in
Texas, Houston, Fort Worth, and Austin are also
tackling the issue, and parents have no choice but
to take it seriously.
Link
to Dallas Morning News 2/3/09
Around
the nation
Link
between achievement and music
A recent study has been released that shows a
link between music and academic achievement.
Although this link has been shown in previous
studies, this most recent report from Science Daily
discusses the role of socioeconomic resources, race,
and equity in the correlation between music and
achievement. The authors conclude, “This has
major policy implications for federal, state, and
local agencies, as well as knowledge that can help
families allocate resources that are most beneficial
to children.”
Link
to Science Daily 2/11/09 From
Washington
Duncan
speaks candidly about NCLB
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan spoke with
U.S. News about his thoughts on the stimulus
package, higher education, and the No Child Left
Behind law. As he meets with representatives
from many educational associations (including NSBA),
Duncan continues to outline some of his ideas about
education and how he will function in his role as
secretary. He hopes to travel the country to
gather more information before making any sweeping
changes. "Having lived with this [NCLB],
I have a good sense of what makes sense and what
doesn't," he said.
Full
story from U,S. News and World Report 2/5/09
NSBA
holds Federal Relations Network Conference
More than 900 attendees, including many
CUBE district representatives, came to Washington,
D.C. to participate in the annual FRN conference on
February 1-3. The timing was excellent this
year, as the House and Senate were working on the
economic stimulus package which includes billions of
dollars for education. CUBE held an early bird
session on education equity, a Capitol Hill Luncheon
with Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) on school
nutrition, and state association delegations,
including many CUBE attendees, presented NSBA's
legislative agenda to their respective members of
Congress. In fact, the team from San Diego
posted a video of their efforts to share their experience
with the community. To find out more, click
the links below.
CUBE's
FRN presentations
San
Diego's video
Official
says state, local officials can challenge census
data
From Education Daily and the Department of
Education:
State and
local school officials are invited to review the Census
Bureau's 2007 population and poverty estimates
and lodge complaints if they believe the data are
inaccurate, according to a recent memo from Title I
Director Zollie Stevenson Jr. to state officials.
The estimates will be used to determine allocations
for Title
I and related programs for the 2009-10 school
year.
With the economic
stimulus package that is currently under
consideration in Congress poised to distribute $13
billion in additional Title I funds over the next
two years, accuracy of the Census estimates could be
critical.
According to the
memo, the Census Bureau will consider
"non-statistical errors" in its data,
which are derived from a statistical model based on
the decennial census, household surveys,
administrative records and population estimates.
Errors may include data processing mistakes or
boundary inaccuracies.
The Census
population and poverty estimates for all school
districts are available here.
SEAs and LEAs have
until March 10, 2009, to register a protest of the
data. Officials should contact the Small
Area Income and Poverty Estimates Branch at the
Census Bureau by phoning (301) 763-3193, or by
sending an e-mail to hhes.saipe@census.gov.
Include your name, mailing address, telephone
number, e-mail address and organization affiliation.
For more information about challenges, click here.
Program
Note
Did
you know that all previous editions of the Urban
Edge are available on CUBE's web site? If
you missed an issue, wanted to go back to find a
link to a research study we referenced, or need some
information about what other districts are doing,
click here.
NSBA
News
NSBA's
Center
for Public Education has released an original
study that looks at high school students who take
five to six years to earn a regular high school
diploma. In “Better Late Than Never,” Jim Hull
examines late grads’ outcomes related to
postsecondary education, work, civic participation
and health, and compares their performance to that
of their peers who graduated on time, earned GEDs,
or dropped out altogether. He finds, not
surprisingly, that graduating on time is the best
scenario for young people. Nonetheless, young people
who stick with school another year or two and earn a
diploma consistently perform better than GED
recipients and dropouts, showing that the extra
effort by students and schools is worth the time and
resources.
This
report can make an important contribution to our
understanding of what it takes to keep kids in
school and on track to a diploma. You can see the
report by following this link.
After reading the report, if you have questions you
can e-mail Jim at: jhull@nsba.org.
Meetings
Minute
NSBA
Annual is coming to San Diego
NSBA's Annual Conference is just two months
away. If you are planning to join us, you
will see school visits in CUBE districts San
Diego and Chula Vista Elementary, participate in
sessions about a wide range of topics, and hear
President Obama's former education advisor and
Stanford professor, Linda Darling Hammond.
It's not too late to register, for more information,
contact cube@nsba.org.
For a glimpse at what CUBE will be programming at
NSBA Annual, click here.
CUBE is invited to attend the Council of
School Attorneys (COSA) opening session at NSBA
Annual. The session is titled "What
are the financial and political implications for
schools in educating undocumented students?"
CUBE does not have a session at the same time and
CUBE attendees are permitted to participate without
any additional fees.
Disclaimer
Links
on the Urban Edge are subject to change or
become inactive after a period of time. Please
be aware that CUBE has no control over links to
other organizations or entities.
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