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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
'Swine Flu' dominates the headlines
H1N1, commonly called Swine Flu by the media leads most news stories as the nation wonders which state will succumb to the virus next. As school leaders, you are also in the headlines to protect the children you serve and ease the spread of the outbreak. While all of Mexico's schools have closed temporarily, some U.S. districts are facing a similar situation. Fort Worth, Texas, closed its doors and is keeping 80,000 schoolchildren, teachers, and staff at home, while other local districts grapple with what to do next. ABC News estimates 250,000 students are home across the nation. NSBA's school health department has developed information to share with school board members and its director, Brenda Greene, was quoted in an AP article on Wednesday. Your state school board association is also a valuable resource and may have guidelines that impact your state. For more information, we've provided links below.
Link to Associated Press Story on Swine Flu and Schools 4/29/09
Link to NSBA's page on Swine Flu
Newport News gets tough on truancy
While some CUBE districts tackle how to keep students safe and away from school in order to prevent a pandemic, other CUBE districts are focused on keeping their students in school and preventing them from dropping out. Newport News, Virginia, is going beyond traditional measures to keep students in school and gathering those who are truant. Their efforts have paid some short term dividends, enrolling hundreds of student who may have dropped out in alternative education programs or in at home learning situations to make sure they continue with school. Newport News' dropout recovery system is highlighted in the article below and is one of several stories the Daily Press is running on the Newport News School District's efforts against truancy.
Link to Daily Press 4/27/09
Chicago expands year round schools
Chicago's Board of Education has decided to expand its Track E, or year round school program, from 65 schools to 132. By more than doubling the number of schools in the program, Chicago superintendent and Ron Huberman and board members hope to reduce the learning loss that commonly occurs over the long summer break. Like many year round school year programs, the students will go to school the same number of days, but the breaks will be spread out throughout the year and the 10 week summer break will be shortened.
Link to Chicago Tribune 4/22/09
Link to Chicago Public School's press release 4/22/09
Middle school math may be key to school success
Remember your middle school math class? Most adults probably do not think of it as the crystal ball defining what is going to happen in the future, but a new report from the University of Illinois says that middle school math classes are the key to academic success, especially for urban and minority students. In fact, with increased access to higher level math classes and the proper support, the report states that the achievement gap between white and black students could be sharply narrowed.
Link to Science Daily 4/22/09
Another report related to the achievement gap shows that No Child Left Behind has not improved the achievement gap, its primary reason for being created by the Bush administration. NAEP, often referred to as the nation's report card, looks at the results of standardized testing for America's students, and shows that the gap between white and black 17 year old students is equivalent to about two or three academic years, according to an associate commissioner for assessment at the Department of Education.
Link to New York Times story 4/28/09 (free registration)
Associated Press story on NAEP results 4/28/09
Group announces ideas for ARRA school funds
The Coalition for Student Achievement has released five objectives for how they think school leaders should spend the monies allocated for education in the American Relief and Recovery Act (ARRA). They have set a goal that by 2012 Americans should see results in education that include college readiness standards for 40 states, representing the majority of America's students. For more information about the Coalition, check their website.
Link to the five recommendations
NSBA News
Has the weight of the stories above dragged you down a bit? One of our recent BoardBuzz posts, (NSBA's blog), brought out an urban school story that is making lots of people smile. It's about music students at a New York City school who demonstrate how they love singing.
Link to BoardBuzz
An upcoming webinar 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 time to register. For more information, click the link below.
Link to NSBA's National Affiliate Webinar Page
CUBE Award for Excellence
Last Chance! The CUBE Annual Award deadline is Monday May 4. 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 (may take a few moments to download) or email cube@nsba.org. As an added bonus, we will be in Chicago during the annual Taste of Chicago.
Interested in presenting at NSBA's Annual Conference in 2010?
The application process for presentations has opened up for NSBA 2010 in Chicago. If your school district has something to share with other districts, consider putting in a proposal to present and share your knowledge and experience with board members and superintendents from around the country. NSBA's proposal page has all the information you need. Click here for more information. The deadline for submissions is June 1, 2009.
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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