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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
Longer
school year gains momentum
Many districts, including CUBE districts have
considered or are already making the school year
longer for students by lengthening the amount of
time children are in school per day, or in some
cases eliminating the long summer break.
Research has indicated an improvement on test scores
for students who do not experience the 'summer
slide' backward, and USA Today outlines a few of the
pros and cons of having students in school
longer. In New Jersey, a new plan seems to
help urban districts, while a study in Miami
questions the validity of a longer school
year. One researcher from Johns Hopkins
University makes an important point, "They real
key is what you do with the extra time...it has to
be high quality."
Link
to USA Today 6/9/09
Communication is the key
As urban districts face the most difficult
financial time in decades, it's important for school
boards to effectively share their policies and
decisions with the community they serve. Some
districts, like Guilford County in North Carolina,
are setting up ways to share news with employees and
former employees so they get the information
directly, rather than from news or other media
outlets. Messages are often concise updates,
not taking much time to create or read, but
demonstrating that the district is working with its
employees to share what's happening.
Link
to eSchool News
6/2/09
Update on common standards
Frequent readers of CUBE's Urban Edge have
read about push for national standards in recent
months. Now 46 states have agreed to
participate in the initial framework to create these
standards that will be considered
"internationally competitive." While
the details of the framework remain a mystery, for
now at least, the Department of Education and other
groups are excited to make this step.
Secretary Duncan says that today's system is
"lying to children and their parents, because
states have dumbed down their standards."
It is likely there will be much more attention on
this issue in the coming months, and we will
continue to update CUBE often.
Link
to Washington Post 6/1/09 (free
registration)
Fourth grade success equals high school
graduation?
High school graduation ceremonies in June are
an American tradition that bring tears to millions
of parent's and family member's eyes nationwide, but
the reality is a large percentage of high school
students never graduate, and it is considered one of
the major flaws of our educational system.
Truancy, boredom, difficult home lives, and many
other factors play into why students don't graduate,
and one theory is that these students never feel
successful in schools. A director in an urban
alternative school in Illinois said that she consistently
finds "the last time these students felt
successful in school was the fourth
grade." The Associated Press wrote an
article that looks at some of the reasons and
research on dropouts.
Link
to Education Week (Associated Press) 6/2/09
Bullying
comes front and center
Last week, the American Academy of Pediatrics
suggested that doctors get more active in their
community to stress the dangers of bullying.
"Violence is a public health problem that needs
to be dealt with in the context of health
care," one of the committee members on the
panel who wrote the recommendations said. A
CUBE district has come up with an innovative way of
dealing with bullying in their district.
Hillsborough County (Tampa), Florida, will begin
using a web site next [school] year so that students
can anonymously report bullying. The report
will then be handled by the school administration so
that any reported bullying is addressed. Many
students discussed their experiences with school
board members and they hope the site will empower
students to report incidents without fear of
retaliation.
Link
to Chicago Tribune Story 6/11/09
Link
to Tampa Bay Online 6/10/09
Link
to Academy of Pediatrics Study 6/10/09 NSBA
Advocacy Update
E-Rate
Update
In
an ongoing effort to secure access to
telecommunications services for schools, NSBA signed
onto a letter asking U.S. Senators to co-sponsor S.
348, a bill to permanently exempt E-Rate funding
from the Anti-Deficiency Act (ADA). The E-Rate
is the discount that eligible schools and libraries
receive for the acquisition of telecommunication
services necessary for deploying technology into the
classroom. Application of the ADA to E-Rate
dramatically impacts the processing of funding
requests and the ability to keep a steady, reliable
flow of funds to schools and libraries. S. 348
would eliminate a potential barrier for educational
systems.
Meetings
Minute
CUBE's
Issues Seminar is still open!
It's not too late to join CUBE in Chicago for
keynote speakers Paul Vallas, Superintendent of
Recovery School District in New Orleans, Greg
Darnieder, longtime head of Chicago Public
Schools Office office of College and Careers and
now special assistant on college access to
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, and Vicki Phillips from the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation. We will focus on urban education
reforms and how they are shaping federal policy in 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, email cube@nsba.org.
As an added bonus, we will be in Chicago during the
annual Taste
of Chicago.
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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