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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. Around
the nation
Hillsborough
program focuses on future teachers
A Hillsborough County (Tampa), Florida program
introduces students to the world of education
through a different lens. The Urban Teaching
Academy, a magnet program gives students the chance
to learn the subject matter as a student, then turn
around and teach their peers as well.
Hillsborough got the idea from fellow Florida CUBE
district, Broward County, and the program will help
pay for college for these students if they stay with
the program. With the high demand for teachers
in Florida, the likelihood of a guaranteed job when
they graduate is appealing.
Link
to Tampa Tribune
4/12/09
Meanwhile, the New York Times printed an
article about the number of teachers who will retire
in the next four years, in addition to the attrition
that new teachers face (one in three leave the
profession in the first five years), projecting a
great need for teachers across the country and a
critical issue for urban districts.
Link
to New York Times
4/7/09 (free registration)
Philadelphia's
public versus private debate continues
A new report states that Philadelphia's
public schools have shown bigger academic gains than
schools run by private companies, despite millions
of dollars being spent by the district to run the
privately managed schools. The study, put
together by a Johns Hopkins University researcher
and published in the American
Journal of Education, looked at students in
grades six through eight over a nine year
period. For more information, the entire
report can be found under the link below.
Link
to Philadelphia Inquirer 4/9/09
Link
to entire report Published
in May 2009 edition
Columbine changes America's schools
Later this month, it will be ten years since
the shootings at Columbine High School. While
school shootings are not limited to rural, suburban,
or urban districts, many policy makers have been
forced to look closely at how to keep students safe
in school. USA Today spent time looking at a
Roanoke, VA middle school and how they tackle
security. They also de-bunk many of the myths
about the Columbine shooting that were falsely
reported and after further research have been proven
to be untrue. These clues may help school
leaders prevent another disaster.
Link
to USA Today story 4/13/09
Link
to USA Today story on how to prevent another attack
4/13/09
Link
to "The Real Story" from USA Today 4/13/09
Memphis
and Toyota develop partnership
In Memphis, Hispanic parents and students are
working together to learn English, and Toyota has
contributed $600,000 to the cause. In the last
five years, Memphis has seen a jump in immigrant
students and like many CUBE districts, is focused on
improving the achievement gaps that exist between
native English speakers and non-native
speakers. The program is designed to also help
parents feel more comfortable with schools, which
can be a challenging task for immigrant families,
according to CUBE's What
We Think school climate report.
Link
to commercialappeal.com (Memphis) 4/7/09 Secretary
Duncan in San Diego
In the weeks leading up to the NSBA Annual
Conference, Education Secretary Arne Duncan made
several comments about school boards and their
effectiveness for children. The mainstream
media and blogosphere picked up on this making his
general session remarks at the conference one of the
most closely watched sessions this year. He
asked those in attendance to challenge the status
quo and raise the bar so that children "race to
the top" of what they can achieve in school,
rather than a "race to the bottom," which
is what he said NCLB set up for students.
School Board News covered the event and NSBA has
issued a statement about governance in large and
urban districts. Both links can be found
below.
Link
to School Board News, Conference Daily 4/5/09
Link
to NSBA statement
Keeping in the spirit of collaboration with your
city's leaders, and in our continued effort to help
your awareness of what other organizations are doing
and how they can help impact urban education, the National
League of Cities is hosting an hour long
audioconference on Thursday, April 23 that
will focus on their national initiative to promote
child and family well-being. This FREE
audioconference may be a good opportunity for you to
hear what mayors are doing in your community, or
around the country, to impact the children you
serve. Registration for the audioconference
ends Tuesday, April 21.
Registration
form for audioconference
Mayors Action Challenge Home Page
NSBA
School Health Update
Every
day, school districts and schools across the nation support
successful school health initiatives, enact cutting
edge policy, and pilot innovative projects. These
districts and schools are effective in establishing
internal coordination, enlisting school board and
administrator support, creating partnerships,
involving parents and communities, finding funding,
engaging youth, demonstrating links between
health and learning, and carrying out other
strategies. NSBA’s School Health Programs
developed the new Promising District Practices
website to provide an ever growing collection of
“best practices” in a practical and easily
accessible way.
The
website features a searchable database of local
school district successes in developing,
implementing, and evaluating policies and practices
that address health risk behaviors and health
promotion issues. The stories are submitted by
school districts and schools across the country.
While the current topics are limited to Coordinated
School Health Programs, Tobacco Use, Asthma, Healthy
Eating, and Physical Activity, these may be expanded
in the future.
If
you have effective policies and practices that you
would like to share with your peers, please submit
them to NSBA for possible publication using the
website’s online submission form. By providing
your story and guidance, you can help others
build effective school health approaches that may
strengthen students' health and education outcomes.
To
explore the Promising District Practices website,
please click
here.
For
more information, please contact NSBA’s School
Health Programs at schoolhealth@nsba.org.
Upcoming
Webinars
Two
upcoming National Affiliate Program webinars have
particular interest for CUBE districts. The
first is tomorrow and looks at the Columbine
shooting along with Jefferson County school
officials as they examine what happened following
the tragedy.
The
second focuses on school-university partnerships and
how they can work to help school districts fill gaps
and serve the needs of the community. This
webinar occurs on May 13, so there's still plenty of
time to
register. For more information, click the link
below.
Link
to NSBA's National Affiliate Webinar Page CUBE
Award for Excellence
The CUBE Annual
Award application has been mailed to you. The award is
a chance to show how your district has progressed
over a period of time and offers ALL of CUBE
an opportunity to self-assess your governance team,
as well as showcase the good things happening in
your district. For more
information about the award, click here
or E-mail
Kevin Scott for more information.
Meetings
Minute
Coming
soon!
CUBE's Issues Seminar will focus on urban education
reforms and how they are shaping federal
policy. We head to Chicago June 25-28 to
look at some of the reforms Chicago has developed
recently and how they may provide guidance to the
rest of the country as Secretary of Education Arne
Duncan proposes his ideas on a federal level.
For more information, see the brochure
or email cube@nsba.org.
Unable
to attend NSBA's Annual Conference in San Diego?
NSBA's 69th Annual Conference in San Diego was a big
success. If
you weren't able to attend, but want to
learn more about what was discussed, CUBE's web
site has most of the materials from the
conference.
If you attended, please take a few minutes to
fill out our evaluation.
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.
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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