NPR : Helping Dropouts Break the Cycle of Poverty

NPR : Helping Dropouts Break the Cycle of Poverty: "If you come from a poor family, you are more likely to drop out of high school. And if you drop out and stay out of high school, you are more likely to be poor. In Portland, Ore., one program is designed to break this cycle by helping dropouts finish their education.

"

Area Soon to Be Mostly Minority

Area Soon to Be Mostly Minority: "The minority population in the Washington region will become the majority in well under a decade, a benchmark of the racial and ethnic change that is reconfiguring the area's political, economic and social identity.

Among residents younger than 40, minorities already outnumber whites, and experts say the trends that have driven up those numbers are certain to continue."

Study Shows Increase in Hispanic Entrepreneurship

Study Shows Increase in Hispanic Entrepreneurship: "Hispanics are opening businesses at a rate that is three times faster than the national average, according to a report released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. There are nearly 1.6 million Hispanic-owned firms in the country, and they generated $222 billion in revenue in 2002.

Nearly one-fourth of those companies opened between 1997 and 2002. The last time the Census Bureau counted in 1997, there were 1.1 million Hispanic-owned businesses and they had revenue of $186 billion."

Educators’ Events at Busboys and Poets

Brought to you by Teaching for Change
at Busboys and Poets
Restaurant/Coffeehouse/Performance Space and Bookstore
2021 14th Street NW Washington, DC


Wednesday, March 29, 2006
6-8 PM
BOOK EVENT: Why We Teach
Sonia Nieto, a distinguished teacher in her own right, has gathered the insights and inspirations of K-12 classroom teachers as they examine how and why they find purpose and value in the work they do. This inspirational book focuses on the quintessential values of teaching by challenging current notions that focus only on accountability, testing, and standardization, and provides a compelling message of hope for public education. Sonia Nieto is Professor of Language, Literacy, and Culture at the School of Education, University of Massachusetts, Amherst and author of many key texts including Affirming Diversity, The Light in Their Eyes, What Keeps Teachers Going?, and most recently, Why We Teach. Nieto will respond to questions about and be available to sign all of these books.



Thursday, April 20, 2006
6:30 PM
BOOK EVENT: We Can't Teach What We Don't Know: White Teachers, Multiracial Schools.
Join author Gary R. Howard to launch the second edition of this bestselling book on culturally responsive teaching. The new edition adds sections on closing the achievement gap and No Child Left Behind. Borrowing from the words of Malcolm X, "We can't teach what we don't know, and we can't lead where we can't go," Gary Howard's book acts on both points. He explains why teachers mustn't fake it, but must acquire the knowledge, skills, and disposition to successfully teach all students. A great book for teacher-candidates and experienced teachers. Carl A. Grant, Professor, University of Wisconsin Madison.


Monday, April 24, 2006
5:30-7:30 PM
BOOK EVENT/VISUAL PRESENTATION: Possible Schools: The Reggio Approach to Urban Education
Ann Lewin-Benham shares invaluable insights from the Reggio Emilia approach to education in the early years. Lewin was the founder and director of the Model Early Learning Center (MELC) in Washington, D.C. — the only school in a U.S. urban area to successfully implement the principles of the Municipal Preschools of Reggio Emilia. Ann Lewin-Benham also ran the Capital Children’s Museum in Washington, DC for twenty years. This is an excellent presentation for early childhood parents and teachers.


All of these events are free and open to the public. Seating is first come, first served. Dinner/refreshments are available to be purchased from the Busboys and Poets menu. Dates of events may be subject to change. Please call Busboys and Poets 202.387.POET for more information or to confirm event schedules.

For many more excellent equity focused professional development opportunities for educators in the DC Metro area and nationally, visit: http://www.teachingforchange.org/Calendar/Conferences/conferences.html or visit Teaching for Change and click on Calendar.

AIDS leaves 9 million orphans in Africa - AIDS - MSNBC.com

AIDS leaves 9 million orphans in Africa - AIDS - MSNBC.com: "Some 9 million children in Africa have lost a mother to AIDS, British charity Save the Children said Monday, calling on donors to sharply increase aid to meet their needs.

“Incredibly, the impact of HIV and AIDS on children is still being ignored,” Save the Children Chief Executive Jasmine Whitbread said in a statement.

The charity said in a report that a lack of testing facilities meant that many mothers, especially in the poorest countries, did not know their HIV status until they were ill and unable to fight off even the simplest infections."

CNN.com - Study: White kids most likely to abuse inhalants - Mar 16, 2006

CNN.com - Study: White kids most likely to abuse inhalants - Mar 16, 2006: "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Kids who try to get high by sniffing glue, lighter fluid and other chemicals are more likely to be white and come from families that make more than double the poverty level, according to a federal study.

The study of inhalant abuse found that about 34 percent of young people between 12- and 17-years-old who tried inhalants for the first time came from families that earned at least 200 to 399 percent more than the federal poverty threshold. About 33 percent came from families that make 400 percent or more of the poverty level."

CNN.com - Shedding light on slavery in the north - Mar 17, 2006

CNN.com - Shedding light on slavery in the north - Mar 17, 2006: "OYSTER BAY, New York (AP) -- A group of mostly white seventh and eighth graders sleepily sauntered into their school library one recent morning, soon to get a surprise awakening about a part of their town's history they never knew existed.

'Did anybody in this room know there were 60 enslaved Africans, people, human beings, buried a mile from here?' Alan Singer, a professor at Hofstra University, asked them. 'Those people have been erased from history. It is as if they never existed.'"

Fairfax's Ailing Poor Waiting

Fairfax's Ailing Poor Waiting: "If you are poor and mentally ill in Fairfax County, it can take you as long as six months to see a therapist. If you need a place in a group home, you could be waiting for years.

Those bleak assessments come from the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board, an agency that operates mental health, mental retardation and substance abuse programs for the county on a $149 million budget."

Rejection Slip

Rejection Slip: "t's a time-honored stereotype: the social outcast who ignores the derision of classmates to become a straight-A student, the kid who madly waves his or her hand in a desperate attempt to answer the teacher's every question.

Yet the reality, it seems, is starkly different: Researchers who followed 380 Midwestern children from the ages of 5 to 11 found that those who were chronically rejected by their classmates were more likely to withdraw from school activities and scored lower on standardized tests than their more popular peers."

CNN.com - Stanford: No tuition for low-income students - Mar 16, 2006

CNN.com - Stanford: No tuition for low-income students - Mar 16, 2006: "STANFORD, California (AP) -- Hoping to encourage students scared by rising higher education costs, Stanford University is eliminating tuition for undergraduates from some of the lowest-income families."

Use the link to read the entire article.

New York Post Online Edition: news

New York Post Online Edition: news: "YOUNGSTER'S BLACK-POWER POEM RILES SCHOOL
A 7-year-old prodigy unleashed a firestorm when she recited a poem she wrote comparing Christopher Columbus and Charles Darwin to 'pirates' and 'vampires' who robbed blacks of their identities and human rights.

Hundreds of parents of Peekskill middle- and high-school students received a recorded phone message last week apologizing for little Autum Ashante's poem, titled 'White Nationalism Put U in Bondage.'"

Use the link to read the entire article.

'Life' Photographer And 'Shaft' Director Broke Color Barriers

'Life' Photographer And 'Shaft' Director Broke Color Barriers: "Gordon Parks, a photographer, filmmaker and poet whose pioneering chronicles of the black experience in America made him a revered elder and a cultural icon, died yesterday at his home in New York. He was 93."

Use the link to read the entire article.

Study: Minority Population Patterns Changing

Study: Minority Population Patterns Changing: "The nation's racial and ethnic patterns are changing dramatically this decade, according to a study released today: Many Hispanic and Asian residents have staked a claim to new metropolitan areas. Black Americans have accelerated their migration to the South. And many large regions are losing white residents to smaller ones.

The nation's Asian and Hispanic populations, which are growing faster than those of whites or blacks, are less likely this decade than in the past to move to traditional immigrant centers, the study by Brookings Institution demographer William H. Frey found. Frey based his work on Census Bureau population race and ethnic group estimates for 2000 through 2004."

Use the link to read the entire article.

CNN.com - Huge gaps in state, federal test scores - Mar 3, 2006

CNN.com - Huge gaps in state, federal test scores - Mar 3, 2006: "In Mississippi, 89 percent of fourth-graders who took a state reading test were rated proficient or better. But when the same students took a federal test, only 18 percent reached that standard.

Such discrepancies are not uncommon. Students from all over the country performed worse on a tough federal test than they did on state exams in reading and math -- raising questions about whether states are setting lower standards."

Use the link to read the entire article.

Report: Hispanics lagging in education - Yahoo! News

Report: Hispanics lagging in education - Yahoo! News: "Getting the children of Spanish-speaking immigrants to finish high school and go to college is crucial to the economy as much of the nation's workforce edges toward retirement, says a report released Wednesday by a prominent government advisory board.

'Hispanics are coming of age in an aging society,' says Marta Tienda, a Princeton University professor who headed a panel that studied the impact of the nation's 41 million Hispanics. 'Education is the bottom line.' The study was released by the non-profit National Research Council."

Use the link to read the entire article.

Museum to re-examine the scars of slavery - Science - MSNBC.com

Museum to re-examine the scars of slavery - Science - MSNBC.com: "FREDERICKSBURG, Va. - Deep in the territory of the old Confederacy, a new glass and stone edifice will soon begin rising — the first national museum in the United States devoted to the subject of black slavery.

Builders will soon start sinking foundations for the 29,000-square-foot United States National Slavery Museum that organizers hope to open to the public in early 2008.

Use the link to read the entire article.

Newborn deaths still high among minorities - Children's Health - MSNBC.com

Newborn deaths still high among minorities - Children's Health - MSNBC.com: "NEW YORK - Even with early and equal access to prenatal care, racial differences still persist in the death rate of newborn infants, according to a report in the medical journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.

“The results strongly suggest the presence of racial disparities in contemporary obstetric practice,” Dr. Andrew J. Healy from Columbia University, New York told Reuters Health. “The existence of these disparities must be regarded as unacceptable and foster more funding and research in this area.”

Use the link to read the entire article.

Disturbing trends rise on Hispanic assimilation - Race in America - MSNBC.com

Disturbing trends rise on Hispanic assimilation - Race in America - MSNBC.com: "WASHINGTON - Millions of Hispanics come to America looking for jobs and educations, but remaining here seems to be bad for their health.

The longer Hispanics are here, the more likely they are to become obese, to develop diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. And Hispanics born here have even higher rates of those illnesses, a new government report shows.

Use the link to read the entire article.