The Larger Context

The Coalition for Community Schools recently released a series of case studies examining how more universities are utilizing community schools to fulfill their service missions.

A recent article in Education Week examined school discipline policies and cites Elev8 as a model that reduces suspensions and discipline issues.

A recently-released report from the Harvard Family Research Project, entitled Partnerships for Learning: Community Support for Youth Success, features Elev8 as an example of a successful community schools initiative.

This November 2 article examines growing “momentum and recognition” for school-based health centers around the country.

This recent article reports on school-based discipline options that keep students learning while they are suspended.

This Education Week article examines five new bills recently signed into law in California, in response to growing "concerns about the effects of out-of-school suspensions on students' education trajectories."

An article on the Huffington Post reports that more than half the states have reduced their per-student education spending this year, including three of the four states where Elev8 operates.

On July 30, the New York Times Opinion page was host to a lively debate about how to evaluate schools. Nine experts weighed in on the question: "How can we measure achievement of students, teachers and schools in a way that is fair and accurate, and doesn't provide incentives for obsessive testing, and cheating?"

New research shows the middle school years are a crucial turning point that may determine whether or not students drop out of high school, underscoring the importance of middle school initiatives like Elev8.

Neal Peirce, whose weekly syndicated column appears in over 50 newspapers around the country, wrote a piece titled “Community Schools: America’s New ‘Village’.”

Every year the National Assembly on School-Based Health Care (NASBHC) brings together more than 900 child and adolescent health providers and advocates for the National School-Based Health Care Convention. 

The 2012 theme: New Directions for School-Based Health Care: Hot Topics for our Future, highlights NASBHC's focus on recent advancements of school-based health care on Capitol Hill, in communities and in schools. 

This March 13 article in Education Week reports growing interest in the Community School model. 

This new brief describes increasing numbers of American children living in concentrated poverty, where "critical resources for their healthy growth and development" are scare.

This report by the Research Alliance for New York City Schools examines two groups of public middle schools--one that greatly improved performance between 2006 and 2010, and one that remained basically stagnant--to discern effective strategies for turning around low-performing schools.

The New York Times published a provocative front-page article on Feb. 10 about the growing education gap between rich and poor students. The article sparked an intense response from readers, particularly to a quote from Douglas J. Besharov, who said "no one has the slightest idea what will work" and "the cupboard is bare." Elev8 joined numerous other groups in challenging this assessment.

 Elev8's school-based health centers (SBHCs) keep students healthy and support academic achievement, across a wide variety of schools, in urban, rural and tribal communities. Read about one parent's fight to bring a SBHC to her child's school in Oakland. And join us in reflecting on the accomplishments of Elev8's health centers, across Baltimore, Chicago, Oakland and New Mexico, in celebration of National School-Based Healthcare Awareness Month.

Like so much of the current debate around education reform and the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind, Secretary Duncan's piece focuses on academic standards and testing, school and state accountability, and teacher evaluation. These are important and complex issues, to be sure, but Elev8's experience suggests that critical services for students and families must also be part of our country's education reform agenda.

 To learn about Elev8's recommendations for improving NCLB (also known as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act), click here.

A new report by the Northeastern University Center for Labor Market Studies examines the growing costs of students dropping out of high school in Illinois.

In an Op-Ed published in the New York Times on Dec. 7, Helen F. Ladd and Edward B. Fiske argue that our country's education policy must "address the ways in which poverty undermines student learning. " They highlight initiatives that "provide poor students with the social support and experiences that middle-class students enjoy as a matter of course."

The New York Times reports that "millions of American schoolchildren are receiving free or low-cost meals for the first time as their parents, many once solidly middle class, have lost jobs or homes during the economic crisis, qualifying their families for the decades-old safety-net program... The number of students receiving subsidized lunches rose to 21 million last school year from 18 million in 2006-7, a 17 percent increase..."

There has been an increase in research affirming the importance of the middle school years, which has led to a growing number of college- and career- readiness programs aimed at middle school students. Many educators are now arguing that these programs cannot solely be concerned with the mapping out of coursework and preparing students to take standardized tests; to be truly successful, programs must include the combined efforts of parents, schools, and communities.

 A new Harvard University study of Florida schools suggests that the critical transition for students may be the transition into middle school.

A Vera Institute of Justice blog post recently highlighted research findings that show that zero-tolerance policies tend to lead to negative outcomes for youth. Breaking Schools' Rules, a report by the Council of State Government's Justice Center, reported that youth who were the target of disciplinary actions had worse educational outcomes than their counterparts who did not receive the same level of discipline and were three times as likely to be involved with the juvenile justice system.

In a recent New York Times opinion piece, Luis A. Ubiñas and Chris Gabrieli argue that more classroom time is needed for improved school performance. The authors note that budget cuts are contributing to reduced classroom time in schools, when the exact opposite is needed for student success. Schools in Boston and Brooklyn are used as examples as how increasing classroom time has dramatically improved graduation rates and proficiency in math and reading. Brooklyn Generation School was able to do this while at the same time decreasing class size-and without increasing spending.

Now that summer has begun, students are at risk to lose the academic progress they made during the school year. In fact, research shows that students lose approximately two months of grade-level equivalency in mathematical computation skills during summer vacation. And, low-income students lose more than two months in reading achievement, even though middle-class students tend to make slight gains over the same time period.

This handbook stemmed from a request from Chicago Elev8 principals who requested written guidelines for working with their School-Based Health Centers.  

A new RAND report discusses the potential for summer programs to improve achievement, and the challenges of developing and sustaining such programs.

The Center for Law and Social Policy has released a new toolkit designed to help state and local policymakers, program operators and advocates identify federal funding streams that can be used for integrated service delivery.

Jack Jennings, President and CEO of The Center on Education Policy, examines the prospects for reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education in the 112th Congress.

The New York Times discusses a new report on racial disparities in school suspensions.

The Connecting Kids to Coverage Challenge aims to enroll five million uninsured children in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program within five years.

Congress is proposing cutting food stamp funding in order to pay for other federal assistance programs, including the child nutrition programs.

The National Summer Learning Association's annual conference, Summer Changes Everything, will be held November 9-10, 2010 in Indianapolis, IN.

Zero tolerance rules, which mandate strict punishments for even small offenses, have been subject to increased discussion about their effectiveness with student success.

A new publication produced by the YEF Institute with support from the Surdna Foundation provides a step-by-step guide for local leaders who want to create meaningful opportunities for youth participation in local government.

TIME Magazine's cover story details the learning loss that occurs over summer vacation—a loss that especially affects low-income students.

The Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics has released a new brief detailing child well-being across the country.

The federal government is funding community groups to knock on doors and canvass neighborhoods with health insurance forms, in an effort to insure all eligible children for health care by 2015.

Over the past few months, educators, the teachers unions and lawmakers in California have clashed so bitterly regarding the changes tied to Race to the Top that state officials privately say the weakened bid stands at best a 50-50 chance of gaining approval — and a sorely needed $700 million — from Washington.

Across United States public schools, just 74.9 percent of students who were freshmen in the fall of 2004 graduated from high school on time in 2008, according to a report from the National Center for Education Statistics. There's a huge amount of variation though, depending on where the students live.

POLITICO recently produced a series of in-depth interviews with Washington leaders to discuss the issues facing America's youth.

The Nonprofit Newswire and Patrick Lester report that the implementation moneys for the Promise Neighborhoods program in the Department of Education are in jeopardy—and so are the moneys for HUD’s Choice Neighborhoods program.

Reports of serious student behavior problems have dropped 77 percent at six targeted schools -- and Chicago Schools CEO Ron Huberman on Wednesday credited his $60 million anti-violence initiative.

The Supreme Court ruled in May that juveniles cannot be sentenced to life without parole for crimes other than murder, in a significant 5-4 decision that says imposing such sentences violates the Constitution's prohibition on "cruel and unusual" punishment.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan came to the defense of emergency funding to forestall public teacher layoffs, saying President Barack Obama is “unequivocal” in his support of the initiative and White House Budget Director Peter Orszag “works for the president.”

A federal law that President Obama signed early last year to expand health insurance to 4 million more low-income children has gotten off to a slow start because of budget problems in the states.

A federal law that President Obama signed early last year to expand health insurance to 4 million more low-income children has gotten off to a slow start because of budget problems in the states.

Despite a substantial increase in federal support for subsidized child care, which has enabled some states to stave off cuts, others have trimmed support, and most have failed to keep pace with rising demand, according to poverty experts and federal officials.

California children’s dental health was ranked third from the bottom in the National Survey of Children’s Health, above only Arizona and Texas. n 2007, the last year that data for many reports was available, more than 500,000 California children between the ages of 5 and 17 missed at least one day of school in a year because of dental problems.