The Larger Context

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 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.

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

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.