tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55123258296285912142024-03-05T22:35:49.309-06:00Urban School Foundation BlogUrban School Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08220502747205518461noreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512325829628591214.post-12314439995502350982011-09-09T10:55:00.001-05:002011-09-09T10:59:56.179-05:00In the Classroom: TechnologyIn 2002 Google launched it's Google Books project that sought to answer a simple but important question: "how long would it take to digitally scan every book in the world?" Years later they're still working at it, but educators and education administration alike were thrilled by the prospect that so much information can be at our children's fingertips in even the most remote areas.<br />
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Digital libraries and technology in general are touted as the wave of the future in education, but the question Matt Richtel of the New York Times asks is will technology really change the classroom? He recently wrote an article titled <i><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/technology/technology-in-schools-faces-questions-on-value.html?_r=1&ref=mattrichtel">In Classroom of Future, Stagnat Scores</a></i> that examined why, in classrooms completely outfitted with the latest technology, are test scores still stuck at the same levels they've always been?</div>
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Richtel seems to answer his own question. Innovative and engaging teachers who put that technology to good use produce creative and intelligent kids. <i><a href="http://www.quickanded.com/">The Quick & the Ed</a> </i>explains this well:</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">"In another vignette a teacher projects a true or false question onto a large scre</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">en: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">“Jefferson Davis </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #111111;">was the commander of the Union Army.” Students used clickers to give their answers and, just like on a game show set, a computer instantly compiled the results. It was an electronic show of hands. This is the kind of right-or-wrong question that only calls on students to regurgitate what they know. Whatever the response methodology, the question wouldn’t lead to a rich discussion in which students had to defend their answers with historical evidence. A better question would be to ask students to discuss why Davis, who was trained at West Point, fought bravely in the Mexican American War, was a U.S. Senator and served as Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce, was loyal to the Confederacy. They could research the answer on line—on their own or as a class."</span></span></blockquote>
Richard Lee of <i>The Quick & the Ed</i> goes on to ask the followup questions regarding technology in the classroom:<br />
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"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">Q. How does it change the role of the teacher? </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">Q. Does the technology make it easier for teachers to understand students’ thinking? Where they need extra help? </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">Q. Does it make it easier for students to learn from one another, perhaps using social media? </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">Q. Does it help students learn basic material more quickly so that more class time can be devoted to in-depth discussions and applications of knowledge to solve problems? </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">Q. Does it extend learning effectively beyond the classroom?" </span></blockquote>
Ultimately, though technology in the classroom is a very exciting prospect, we must not forget the importance of a good teacher to make good use of it.<br />
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<br />Urban School Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08220502747205518461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512325829628591214.post-27101603344328059282011-08-10T12:00:00.001-05:002011-08-10T12:00:10.022-05:00New Chicago Schools Chief Talks With WBEZ Callers<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img height="240" src="http://www.wbez.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/665x500/story/photo/2011-August/2011-08-08/P1030506.JPG" width="320" /> The new CPS chief, Jean-Claude Brizard, took calls for an hour last night for the first monthly installment of WBEZ's program <i>Schools on the Line. </i>Students, parents and Chicagoans called in with their questions. Here are a couple of excerpts from his answers:</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><em><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Bottom line is that when you look at the school day in Chicago compared to New York, or Houston or Boston, we have the shortest school day, school year of the big systems in the country." </span></span></em></span><br />
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"We have kept class size constant despite the massive shortfall in the budget that we've experienced for this school year."</span></span></i><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">Listen to the entire hour on <a href="http://www.wbez.org/story/chicago-schools-chief-talks-wbez-callers-90282">WBEZ's website</a> and tune in the first Thursday of September for the second installment. </span></span><br />
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</span>Urban School Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08220502747205518461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512325829628591214.post-33612736948411009332011-08-03T12:50:00.001-05:002011-08-03T12:56:15.762-05:00Matt Damon's Take on TeachersThis is a followup to our <a href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.blogspot.com/2011/08/inconvenient-truth-behind-waiting-for.html">post</a> <i>The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman </i>which explored the film that offered a rebuttal to Davis Guggenheim's famous documentary, <i>Waiting for Superman</i><i>. </i>While <i>Guggenheim's film </i>explored perspectives on tenure, ED spending, unions and charter schools through the lens of some of the nation's most powerful figures and institutions,<i> </i>this latest documentary claims it has captured the voice of the people working in the trenches - the parents, teachers, social workers and ed reform advocates.<br />
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On July 30th 2011, reason.tv was at the <a href="http://www.saveourschoolsmarch.org/">Save Our Schools March</a>, where this film were screened. Michelle Fields spoke with attendees and speakers like actor Matt Damon, author Jonathan Kozol, and historian Diane Ravitch that support the stance this new documentary takes. See what they had to say:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/TJ7icVvDK9I" width="560"></iframe>Urban School Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08220502747205518461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512325829628591214.post-17196724623870315542011-08-03T12:10:00.001-05:002011-08-03T12:18:07.955-05:00The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman...the movieThere has been much ado about the documentary film <i>Waiting for Superman. </i>In many ways this film has done much good for the education reform movement. It got people motivated. But there are many people, primarily parents, teachers and activists, who voiced that the film was too simplistic and destroyed much of the momentum towards true reform.<br />
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</div><div>SocialistWorker.org states, "[Waiting for Superman] touted corporate reformers as education "experts" and painted teachers, tenure, and the unions that protect them as the enemy. The film completely ignored the effects of broader social problems like poverty and racism, while pointing to charter schools and privatization as magic solutions." (read more about Waiting for Superman on our blog post Join the <a href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.blogspot.com/2011/04/join-conversation-charter-schools.html"><i>Conversation: Charter Schools</i></a>)<br />
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A new documentary claims it has captured the true voices of education reform from parents, teachers and community members. It's called <i>The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman.</i><br />
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</div><div>According to Diane Ravitch (in the film promo above) <i>Waiting for Superman's</i> message demoralized teachers. "It takes a village to raise a child and the corporate reform movement has caused the village to fall into distension and people are fighting each other. At the same time the budget for education is being slashed and corporate taxes are going down." She says, "we're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore." </div><div><br />
</div><div><a href="http://socialistworker.org/2011/05/18/premiere-of-a-movement">Read the article here.</a> <a href="http://www.waitingforsupermantruth.org/">Read more about the documentary here.</a></div><div><div><br />
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</div></div></div></div>Urban School Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08220502747205518461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512325829628591214.post-27974474877830781952011-07-05T16:28:00.002-05:002011-08-03T12:14:58.867-05:00Escaping Endless Adolescence. Why are teens growing up so slowly?<div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-mce-href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/entrepreneurship_ed.jpg" href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/entrepreneurship_ed.jpg"><img alt="" class="alignright size-full wp-image-303" data-mce-src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/entrepreneurship_ed.jpg" height="139" src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/entrepreneurship_ed.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; float: right;" title="entrepreneurship_ed" width="210" /></a>I just found an interesting <a data-mce-href="http://www.newsweek.com/blogs/nurture-shock/2009/11/05/why-teenagers-are-growing-up-so-slowly-today.html" href="http://www.newsweek.com/blogs/nurture-shock/2009/11/05/why-teenagers-are-growing-up-so-slowly-today.html">Newsweek article written by Po Bronson</a> reviewing the book <em><a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/Escaping-Endless-Adolescence-Teenagers-Before/dp/0345507894/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257472728&sr=1-1" href="http://www.amazon.com/Escaping-Endless-Adolescence-Teenagers-Before/dp/0345507894/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257472728&sr=1-1">Escaping Endless Adolesence</a>. </em>The book's authors, Dr. Joe Allen and Dr. Claudia Worrell Allen, asks the question, "Why are teens growing up so slowly?" In other words, why does it take teens today so long to mature and be ready for the world? Their answer to this question is reflected in the current education reform discussion.</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Structural changes in our school system is part of the national conscious when it comes to education reform, whether it's extending the school day, extending the school year, block scheduling, starting the school day later, or any of the other ideas that have been tossed around, it's been part of the mainstream conversation. What these authors have concluded is structural change is needed and should provide real-life, hands on experience that better prepare our children and offer them options to explore their talents, creativity and maturity.</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; padding-left: 30px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"We place kids in schools together with hundreds, sometimes thousands, of other kids typically from similar economic and cultural backgrounds. We group them all within a year or so of one another in age. We equip them with similar gadgets, expose them to the same TV shows, lessons, and sports. We ask them all to take almost the exact same courses and do the exact same work and be graded relative to one another. We give them only a handful of ways in which they can meaningfully demonstrate their competencies. And then we’re surprised they have some difficulty establishing a sense of their own individuality... We don’t give teens enough ways to take risks that are productive.”</span></div><div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; padding-left: 30px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">At Urban School Foundation we're trying to provide this opportunity through entrepreneurship education. We're creating a program in which students actually start a business and run it. All proceeds from this business are then donated to the school program of their choice.</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span data-mce-style="color: #00ccff;" style="color: #00ccff;"><a data-mce-href="http://www.urbanschoolfoundation.org/what-are-the-benefits/" href="http://www.urbanschoolfoundation.org/what-are-the-benefits/">Read more about our program here</a></span>.</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
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</span></div>Urban School Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08220502747205518461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512325829628591214.post-10448886682246237422011-06-25T16:29:00.000-05:002011-07-19T16:31:49.492-05:00Business Promo Videos<div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Urban School Foundation takes a look back on our first year of our entrepreneurship education program. We had some really creative businesses. Here are the promotion videos for the top two business plans:</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div data-mce-style="text-align: center;" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: center;"><a data-mce-href="http://animoto.com/play/y6UeCsvhI3NZ5UfuMzD41g?utm_content=main_link" href="http://animoto.com/play/y6UeCsvhI3NZ5UfuMzD41g?utm_content=main_link" title="Rookie's "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">ROOKIE'S</span></a></div><div data-mce-style="text-align: center;" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: center;"><a data-mce-href="http://animoto.com/play/y6UeCsvhI3NZ5UfuMzD41g?utm_content=main_link" href="http://animoto.com/play/y6UeCsvhI3NZ5UfuMzD41g?utm_content=main_link"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-392" data-mce-src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/rookies.png?w=300" height="168" src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/rookies.png?w=300" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Rookies" width="300" /></span></a></div><div data-mce-style="text-align: center;" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div data-mce-style="text-align: center;" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: center;"><a data-mce-href="http://animoto.com/play/Qj0swBzjSFfA5fEu044BLw?utm_content=main_link" href="http://animoto.com/play/Qj0swBzjSFfA5fEu044BLw?utm_content=main_link" title="DoggyStyle"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">DOGGY STYLE</span></a></div><div data-mce-style="text-align: center;" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: center;"><a data-mce-href="http://animoto.com/play/Qj0swBzjSFfA5fEu044BLw?utm_content=main_link" href="http://animoto.com/play/Qj0swBzjSFfA5fEu044BLw?utm_content=main_link"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-394" data-mce-src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/doggystyle1.png?w=300" height="168" src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/doggystyle1.png?w=300" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="DoggyStyle" width="300" /></span></a></div>Urban School Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08220502747205518461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512325829628591214.post-66527027983199788752011-06-10T16:11:00.008-05:002011-07-22T11:35:40.469-05:00Entrepreneur in Focus: Jake Nickell<div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-mce-href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/800px-threadless_store.jpg" href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/800px-threadless_store.jpg"><img alt="" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-338" data-mce-src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/800px-threadless_store.jpg?w=300" height="169" src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/800px-threadless_store.jpg?w=300" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; float: right;" title="800px-Threadless_Store" width="300" /></a>For this round of Entrepreneur in Focus I was eager to write about one of my favorite hip Chicago businesses, <em><a data-mce-href="http://www.threadless.com/" data-mce-style="color: #00ccff;" href="http://www.threadless.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #660000;"><b>threadless</b></span></a><b>, </b></em>but I didn't have to. S<span data-mce-style="color: #000000;" style="color: black;">o many people love <em>theadless </em>that my job was already done for me. In fact, I've probably had more trouble choosing the video that best portrays this plugged-in, Generation Y company. But let me indulge in a short who-is-<em>threadless</em>-intro. </span></span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span data-mce-style="color: #000000;" style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><strong><span data-mce-style="text-decoration: underline;" style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Who Is <em>threadless</em>?</span></span></strong></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>Threadless</strong> is a online apparel store run by skinnyCorp of Chicago, Illinois and driven by the graphic arts community. Co-founders Jake Nickell and Jacob DeHart started the company in 2000 with $1,000 in seed money after entering an Internet t-shirt design contest. How does <i>threadless</i> work?<span class="Apple-style-span" data-mce-style="font-size: 11px;" style="font-size: 11px;"> </span>Members and artists submit t-shirt designs online that are open to the public to choose what designs they like the best. A small percentage of submitted designs are selected for printing and sold through an online store. Creators of the winning designs receive a prize of cash and store credit. It's a company the relies heavily on <a data-mce-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdsourcing" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdsourcing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #660000;"><b>crowdsourcing</b></span> </a>and <a data-mce-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #660000;">web 2.0</span></b></a> to connect to the public, and it's this open connection and two-way communication that laid the foundation for this company's success.</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">This is a <span data-mce-style="color: #00ccff;"><a data-mce-href="http://www.motherboard.tv/2010/9/8/the-threadless-story-how-an-internet-t-shirt-company-went-xxl--2" href="http://www.motherboard.tv/2010/9/8/the-threadless-story-how-an-internet-t-shirt-company-went-xxl--2"><span data-mce-style="color: #00ccff;" style="color: #660000;">great documentary</span></a></span> that explains the history of the company.</div><script charset="utf-8" src="http://www.vbs.tv/vbs_player.js?width=600&height=328&ec=Qwc2VwMTpalToJAwUdL6Jehr88VwwIx3&st=undefined&pl=http://www.motherboard.tv/2010/9/8/the-threadless-story-how-an-internet-t-shirt-company-went-xxl--2" type="text/javascript">
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</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><a data-mce-href="http://www.motherboard.tv/2010/9/8/the-threadless-story-how-an-internet-t-shirt-company-went-xxl--2" href="http://www.motherboard.tv/2010/9/8/the-threadless-story-how-an-internet-t-shirt-company-went-xxl--2"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"></span></a></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">And in case you can't watch this video at the moment, here's a great blog post that Jake Nickell wrote about the history of his company. You can find the post on the <em>threadless</em> blog, <a data-mce-href="http://www.threadless.com/profile/1/skaw/blog/227766/Threadless_com_The_History" href="http://www.threadless.com/profile/1/skaw/blog/227766/Threadless_com_The_History"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #660000;">here</span></a>.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Some insight into <i>threadless' </i>interesting corporate culture:</span><br />
<iframe frameborder="0" height="328" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/15672936?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" width="600"></iframe><br />
<a href="http://vimeo.com/15672936">10 Years of Awesome!!!</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/threadless">Threadless.com</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</div>Urban School Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08220502747205518461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512325829628591214.post-41659124392543287342011-06-02T16:10:00.001-05:002011-08-03T12:14:58.868-05:00Back to School for Billionaires<div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-mce-href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/back2schoolbillionaires.jpg" href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/back2schoolbillionaires.jpg"><img alt="" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-348" data-mce-src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/back2schoolbillionaires.jpg?w=300" height="200" src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/back2schoolbillionaires.jpg?w=300" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; float: left;" title="back2schoolBillionaires" width="300" /></a>This <a data-mce-href="http://www.newsweek.com/2011/05/01/back-to-school-for-the-billionaires.html" href="http://www.newsweek.com/2011/05/01/back-to-school-for-the-billionaires.html">Newsweek article</a> explores the various methods employed by our nation's concerned billionaires in an effort to reform the US education system. In their efforts to do good they've found that it's not as simple as it seems.</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; padding-left: 30px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"The business titans entered the education arena convinced that America’s schools would benefit greatly from the tools of the boardroom. They sought to boost incentives for improving performance, deploy new technologies, and back innovators willing to shatter old orthodoxies.</span></div><div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; padding-left: 30px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; padding-left: 30px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">They pressed to close schools that were failing, and sought to launch new, smaller ones. They sent principals to boot camp. Battling the long-term worry that the best and brightest passed up the classroom for more lucrative professions, they opened their checkbooks to boost teacher pay.</span></div><div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; padding-left: 30px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">It was an impressive amount of industry. And in some places, it has worked out—but with unanticipated complications."</span></div><div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; padding-left: 30px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">With so much success in the business world it would make sense to run schools in a business-like manner, but what we're all realizing is that education reform is much more complicated.</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; padding-left: 30px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"...The Walton Family Foundation hoped that its $8 million investment in Milwaukee charters would produce strong schools and a competitive environment to raise the bar across all the city’s schools. But the charters failed to outperform traditional schools. Reading scores were mostly flat over the past five years citywide. In math, elementary- and middle-school gains were stronger than in the rest of Wisconsin, but high-school proficiency dropped 2 points.</span></div><div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; padding-left: 30px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">This causes pause to the cause. Should education reform be about school or teacher reform, or do we need to be looking at broader issues in society?</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"></div><a name='more'></a><br />
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</span></div><div data-mce-style="text-align: left;" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;"><span data-mce-style="text-decoration: underline;" style="text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-mce-href="http://www.newsweek.com/2011/05/01/grading-the-moneymen.html" href="http://www.newsweek.com/2011/05/01/grading-the-moneymen.html">Billionaires Graded for Their Efforts: Michael & Susan Dell Foundation</a></span></span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><strong></strong>Started with $400 million in Austin, Texas, in 1999 to improve education for the urban poor through charters, school leadership programs, and data systems that track student performance. Received the best grade:<em> B-</em></span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><em><a data-mce-href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/billioinaires1.jpg" href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/billioinaires1.jpg"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-350" data-mce-src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/billioinaires1.jpg?w=300" height="142" src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/billioinaires1.jpg?w=300" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="billioinaires" width="300" /></span></a></em></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
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</div>Urban School Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08220502747205518461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512325829628591214.post-33846148465024065442011-05-19T16:09:00.000-05:002011-07-19T16:10:22.926-05:00Proud to Support<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">The urban school foundation feels strongly about providing quality education. Congruent with this notion is our esteem for quality public broadcasting, which we feel can offer quality educational programming. That is why we're proud to support wttw Chicago.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/K0M423A3IyM?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</div>Urban School Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08220502747205518461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512325829628591214.post-49362892317576814412011-05-05T16:26:00.001-05:002011-07-25T13:45:25.711-05:00We're soooo official!<div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-mce-href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/tax-exempt.gif" href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/tax-exempt.gif"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-308 alignleft" data-mce-src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/tax-exempt.gif" height="200" src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/tax-exempt.gif" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; float: left;" title="tax-exempt" width="193" /></a>We're completely official now. Back in January we received our 501(c)3 tax exempt status from the IRS. Now we have our <em>e-number </em>exempt status with the State of Illinois. Yipee!</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><strong><span data-mce-style="color: #00ccff;"><a data-mce-href="http://www.urbanschoolfoundation.org/donate/" href="http://www.urbanschoolfoundation.org/donate/"><span data-mce-style="color: #00ccff;" style="color: #660000;">Make a tax-exempt donation</span></a></span></strong>! Donate a backpack and make an immediate difference in a student's life today, or donate to our Young Entrepreneurs program and impact a student's life <em>forever. </em><strong>Remember, with no administrative costs, ALL of your donation goes towards our backpacks and entrepreneurship education.</strong></span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><strong><br />
</strong></span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Read more about our programs, <strong><span data-mce-style="color: #00ccff;"><a data-mce-href="http://www.urbanschoolfoundation.org/programs/" href="http://urbanschool.squarespace.com/all-programs/"><span data-mce-style="color: #00ccff;" style="color: #660000;">here</span></a></span></strong>.</span></div>Urban School Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08220502747205518461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512325829628591214.post-21282620550176281502011-05-05T16:02:00.000-05:002011-07-19T16:55:22.492-05:00Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour!<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><a data-mce-href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/eet_logo_sm_000.jpg" href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/eet_logo_sm_000.jpg"><img alt="" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-361" data-mce-src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/eet_logo_sm_000.jpg?w=300" height="204" src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/eet_logo_sm_000.jpg?w=300" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; float: left;" title="EET_Logo_sm_000" width="300" /></a>This past Friday our Schurz Young Entrepreneurs students were invited by Junior Achievement to take part in the <span data-mce-style="color: #00ccff;" style="color: #00ccff;"><a data-mce-href="http://www.extremetour.org/" href="http://www.extremetour.org/">Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour</a></span>. We all learned so much from speakers <a data-mce-href="http://www.arelmoodie.com/Professional_Bio.html" href="http://www.arelmoodie.com/Professional_Bio.html">Arel Moodie</a>, <a data-mce-href="http://www.adamwitty.com/" href="http://www.adamwitty.com/">Adam Witty</a> and <a data-mce-href="http://www.extremeyouthsports.com" href="http://www.extremeyouthsports.com/">Duane Spires</a>.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">All the speakers on the Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour are young entrepreneurs under 30 who have made their first million dollars. These speakers gave our entrepreneurs sound advice on how to find the confidence in ourselves to start a business. They also offered pearls of wisdom through personal and business stories. We learned that when you're starting a business you should:</div><ol style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><a data-mce-href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/image-8.jpeg" href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/image-8.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-377" data-mce-src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/image-8.jpeg?w=300" height="149" src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/image-8.jpeg?w=300" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; float: left;" title="image (8)" width="200" /></a>
<li>Commit</li>
<li>Learn the proper technique</li>
<li>Find a mentor</li>
<li>Take action!</li>
</ol><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">And though we were learning, we had so much fun doing it! A great thanks to the Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour, all our speakers and Junior Achievement.<br />
<br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/oVXIOIV7TpA?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">(USF Young Entrepreneurs dance off to win Arel Moodie's new <a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/Your-Starting-Point-Student-Success/dp/0982431902/ref=as_li_wdgt_js_ex?&camp=212361&linkCode=wey&tag=arelmoodiinte-20&creative=380733" href="http://www.amazon.com/Your-Starting-Point-Student-Success/dp/0982431902/ref=as_li_wdgt_js_ex?&camp=212361&linkCode=wey&tag=arelmoodiinte-20&creative=380733">inspirational book</a>)</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"></div>Urban School Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08220502747205518461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512325829628591214.post-22716945056171594542011-04-28T16:00:00.000-05:002011-08-03T12:14:58.869-05:00Parents spell out detailed school reform blueprint<div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I found this article on The Washington Post. It's an interesting new twist to the public education reform debate. In it, a national grassroots organization called<em> <a data-mce-href="http://parentsacrossamerica.org/" href="http://parentsacrossamerica.org/" target="_blank">Parents Across America</a> outlines </em><a data-mce-href="http://parentsacrossamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/ESEApositionFINAL4-20-11.pdf" href="http://parentsacrossamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/ESEApositionFINAL4-20-11.pdf" target="_blank">its own blueprint</a> for the rewriting of <a data-mce-href="http://parentsacrossamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/ESEApositionFINAL4-20-11.pdf" href="http://parentsacrossamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/ESEApositionFINAL4-20-11.pdf" target="_blank">No Child Left Behind</a>.</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Congress has been considering how to rewrite the No Child Left Behind Act. For those who've heard of it, but may not know what it is, a little history. NCLB was originally proposed by the administration of George W. Bush immediately after he took office. The bill, shepherded through the Senate by co-author Senator Ted Kennedy, received overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress.</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-mce-href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/nochild.jpg" href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/nochild.jpg"><img alt="" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-287" data-mce-src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/nochild.jpg?w=292" height="300" src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/nochild.jpg?w=292" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; float: left;" title="nochild" width="292" /></a>NCLB supports standards-based education reform, which is based on the belief that setting high standards and establishing measurable goals can improve individual outcomes in education. The Act requires states to develop assessments in basic skills to be given to all students in certain grades, if those states are to receive federal funding for schools. The general consensus today is the NCLB is broken and must be revisited.</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Parents Across America believe, "[NCLB] has dramatically harmed our local schools with its overemphasis on high-stakes testing, narrowing of the curriculum, and punitive unfunded mandates that have been especially harmful to schools with high-needs student populations. What it has not done is improve achievement." </span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">They're against:</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">· Policies that use standardized test scores as the most important accountability measure for schools, teachers or students, and/or expand the use of standardized testing in our schools.</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">· Competition for federal funds; a quality education is not a race but a right.</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">· “Parent trigger” laws, vouchers, charter takeovers or other forms of school privatization that take resources from the schools attended by most students and put them into private hands, with less oversight.</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">· Limiting federally-mandated school improvement models to a narrow set of strategies, including charter schools and privatization, which are favored by corporate reformers but which have had little verified success.</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Find this article here: <span data-mce-style="color: #3366ff;" style="color: #3366ff;"><span data-mce-style="color: #3366ff;" style="color: #3366ff;"><a data-mce-href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/parents-spell-out-detailed-school-reform-blueprint/2011/04/22/AFO7XzOE_blog.html" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/parents-spell-out-detailed-school-reform-blueprint/2011/04/22/AFO7XzOE_blog.html">http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/parents-spell-out-detailed-school-reform-blueprint/2011/04/22/AFO7XzOE_blog.html</a></span></span></span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span data-mce-style="color: #3366ff;" style="color: #3366ff;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span data-mce-style="color: #3366ff;" style="color: #3366ff;"><br />
</span></span></div>Urban School Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08220502747205518461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512325829628591214.post-36423090569418954552011-04-11T15:57:00.000-05:002011-08-03T12:14:58.870-05:00The Creativity Crisis<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><a data-mce-href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/creativity-test.jpg" href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/creativity-test.jpg"><img alt="" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-277" data-mce-src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/creativity-test.jpg" height="200" src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/creativity-test.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; float: left;" title="creativity-test" width="300" /></a><a data-mce-href="http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/10/the-creativity-crisis.html" href="http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/10/the-creativity-crisis.html">Here's an interesting article</a>that follows a study done by E. Paul Torrance. The study started in 1958 with group of nearly 400 Minneapolis children who took part in a creativity study. The question you might be asking yourself is, how does one measure creativity? Well according to this study you can show the amount of creative potential and thought by judging whether the subjects of the study had "unusual visual perspecitve" and "an ability to synthesize diverse elements into meaningful products."</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">What does that mean exactly? Well, Ted Schwarzrock, a participant in the study, can still remember the task given to him when he was 8. He was given a fire truck and asked, "How could you improve this toy to make it better and more fun to play with?" He was able to find 25 ways, like adding a removable ladder, which impressed his evaluators.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">Torrance's creativity tasks have since become the gold standard, and "what's shocking is how incredibly well Torrance's creativity index predicted those kids' creative accomplishments as adults. Those who came up with more good ideas on Torrance's tasks grew up to be entrepreneurs, inventors, college presidents, authors, doctors, diplomats, and software developers...the correlation to lifetime creative accomplishment was more than three times stronger for childhood creativity than childhood IQ." Though they differ in content, both the creativity test (CQ) and the IQ tests are very similar in the ways they are administered, the results are very different. "With intelligence, there is a phenomenon called the Flynn effect-each generation, scores go up about 10 points. Enriched environments are making skids smarter. With creativity, a reverse trend has just been identified and is being reported for the first time here: American creativity scores are falling."</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">The researchers speculate on the reasons behind the decline - too many hours in front of the television or video games rather than engaging activities. In 2009 a controversial documentary came out that has another explanation. This review comes from <em>Variety </em>online:</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</div><div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; padding-left: 30px;"><strong>"The War on Kids" contradicts popular wisdom. Studded with news reports of extreme "zero tolerance" incidents (children expelled for possessing Ibuprofen or for pointing a chicken tender and saying "bang"), Cevin Soling's documentary posits that, far from being ridiculous exceptions to the rule as media coverage implies, such examples are endemic to a highly repressive, authoritarian [education] institution whose sole purpose is to control and contain. ...[The] docu then takes a giant if seamless step forward to suggest that the entire system of compulsory learning is designed, in the words of an award-winning teacher, "to infantilize the mass mind and condition it to take orders in a docile fashion."</strong></div><div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; padding-left: 30px;"><strong><br />
</strong></div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: center;">Check out the trailer below.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/Nlnwm11d6II?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">"A recent IBM poll of 1,500 CEOs identified creativity as the No. 1 'leadership competency' of the future." What are your thoughts on the creativity crisis? Does it relate to the <a data-mce-href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.wordpress.com/2011/04/08/why-does-the-us-need-education-reform-a-nation-in-crisis/" href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.wordpress.com/2011/04/08/why-does-the-us-need-education-reform-a-nation-in-crisis/">education crisis</a>, as <em>War on Kids </em>implies? <a data-mce-href="http://urbanschool.squarespace.com/discussion-forums/post/1460890" href="http://urbanschool.squarespace.com/discussion-forums/post/1460890">Respond on our discussion board.</a> You can read more about the creativity test at <a data-mce-href="http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/10/the-creativity-crisis.html" href="http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/10/the-creativity-crisis.html">Newsweek</a> and a full review of the documentary at <a data-mce-href="http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117941621?refcatid=31" href="http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117941621?refcatid=31">Variety</a> or the <a data-mce-href="http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/movies/18kids.html" href="http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/movies/18kids.html">New York Times</a>.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
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</div>Urban School Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08220502747205518461noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512325829628591214.post-76072666034678140252011-04-11T15:52:00.001-05:002011-08-03T12:14:58.871-05:00Why does the US need education reform? A nation in crisis.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_i0Wow5kvuqM/Sl86MPAq2yI/AAAAAAAAAFw/A6SNoh3qo5U/s320/rotten.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_i0Wow5kvuqM/Sl86MPAq2yI/AAAAAAAAAFw/A6SNoh3qo5U/s320/rotten.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Throughout history there have been defining periods of human ingenuity and creative thought that have transformed society. Inventions in the 1700's were precursors to the industrial revolution in the 1800's. The 1900's saw the advent of the mass-produced automobile, the telephone, television, radio, computers, internet and more. In the past 20 years we've seen just how the internet and communications technology can change the world. It still amazes this blog writer that just just a few years ago Facebook burst onto the scene, a site that assisted in an Egyptian revolution and most of us generally can't live without. We're all living in a time when the world that's changing at the speed of technology.</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">This ever-changing world has put our nation in crisis. Today's HS graduate will have on average 8-15 careers in his/her lifetime, even if they stay with the same company. This is paradime-shifting in it's implications for educating our children. Our competitive advantages of the past (natural resources, capital, technology and human captial) have been eroded by globalization. Brain power is now the competitive advantage in the 21st century, making ed the center of global competition.</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">If brain power is the new global capital, how is the US measuring up? Let's take a look. ABC's 20/20 host, John Stossel, made a persuasive feature he titled <a data-mce-href="http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/story?id=1500338" href="http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/story?id=1500338">"Stupid in America"</a> arguing that a lack of choice cheats our kids out of a good education. This is clearly a pro-charter feature, which is a topic we've explored in previous blog posts and not why we're referencing it. (See previous posts <em><a data-mce-href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.wordpress.com/2011/04/01/join-the-conversation-charter-schools/" href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.blogspot.com/2011/04/join-conversation-charter-schools.html">Join the Conversation: Charter Schools</a> </em>& <em><a data-mce-href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.wordpress.com/2011/04/04/join-the-conversation-public-schools-the-myth-of-charter-schools/" href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.blogspot.com/2011/05/join-conversation-myth-of-charter.html">The Myth of Charter Schools</a></em>) What was interesting about this report was a comparison between students at an above average Jersey high school and to students at an equivalent level at a school in Belgium. ABC gave parts of an international test to each class. After taking the test each class felt they had done well on the test. How did they fare?</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div data-mce-style="padding-left: 30px;" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; padding-left: 30px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"Belgian kids cleaned the American kids' clocks, and called them 'stupid.' We didn't pick smart kids to test in Europe and dumb kids in the United States. The American students attend an above-average school in New Jersey, and New Jersey's kids have test scores that are above average for America. Lov Patel, the boy who got the highest score among the American students, told me, 'I'm shocked, because it just shows how advanced they are compared to us.' ...When students from 40 countries are tested, the Americans place 25th."</span><br />
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</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-mce-href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/jay-walking.png" href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/jay-walking.png"><img alt="" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-260" data-mce-src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/jay-walking.png?w=300" height="240" src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/jay-walking.png?w=300" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; float: right;" title="Jay Walking" width="300" /></a></span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Today, more than 220 of the world's biggest companies have their IT operations in India. Many of these jobs are skilled, high-paying technology jobs. Why are major corporations moving overseas? America is facing the challenge of an increasingly global and constantly changing world with an education system that's entrenched in educating for a world that doesn't exist anymore, and the market is holding this hard fact up to our face. Intel's Sr. Vice president fears four our competitive future as a nation. Lester Thorough of MIT expressed, "if we do not get a handle on this problem of non-functionals entering the labor market, the US will become a third world labor market by the year 2030."</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I was planning on throwing some more statistics at you demonstrating rising dropout rates and talk about how they'll affect our economy and our ability as a nation to govern, but instead I think I'll just show you these clips from Jay Leno's late night comedy show:</span></div><ol style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-mce-href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVD20pAZkCI&feature=related" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVD20pAZkCI&feature=related">Jay Walking: Geographically Challenged.</a> Jay quizzes high school students on geography because he couldn't believe that 11% of American students between the ages of 18 and 24 couldn't locate the United States on a map (that's 1 in 10 students)</span></li>
</ol><div data-mce-style="padding-left: 60px;" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; padding-left: 60px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><em>Note: one of the comments below this video reads, "M</em><em>an americans are stupid! I thought war was the only way for them to learn geography, but they don't even know where they're fighting."</em></span></div><ol style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-mce-href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH73yIUtho4&NR=1" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH73yIUtho4&NR=1">Jay Walking: Citizenship Test.</a> Jay asks passersby to answer questions from the American citizenship test and deports those who fail.</span></li>
</ol><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">So, the question remains, how do we prepare our children to live in an ever-changing world? We need to find a better way to instill in our students the agility to learn and relearn, to think and re-think creatively and connect ideas, solve problems and think for themselves. It's clear we're not doing that now, so what are we going to do about it?</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-mce-href="http://urbanschool.squarespace.com/what-are-the-benefits/" href="http://www.futurentrepreneurs.org/what-are-the-benefits.html">Learn how entrepreneurship education can help.</a></span><br />
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</div>Urban School Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08220502747205518461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512325829628591214.post-73767823707545801742011-04-10T15:48:00.000-05:002011-07-19T16:56:24.540-05:00Chicago Teachers are Strapped for Supplies<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-mce-href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/chicago-teachers-are-strapped-for-supplies.jpg" href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/chicago-teachers-are-strapped-for-supplies.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-249" data-mce-src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/chicago-teachers-are-strapped-for-supplies.jpg" height="425" src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/chicago-teachers-are-strapped-for-supplies.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="ct-x-c-donors-choose-website" width="640" /></a>Urban School Foundation blogger here, again. Hello blogee! I've got some local news for you today. In the past few blog posts we've been launching our discussions on education reform, touching on the hot button issues and ideas of how to shape our educational system for the needs of the future. It's a problem at a national level, and all seems a bit daunting. But don't be discouraged! There are small things you can do on the local level to help out our students and teachers in need.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-mce-href="http://www.wsbt.com/news/ct-x-c-donors-choose-website-20110406,0,7533273.story" href="http://www.wsbt.com/news/ct-x-c-donors-choose-website-20110406,0,7533273.story">A recent article by Lisa Pevtzow</a> highlights an issue that schools and teachers face every day: there's not enough money for supplies.</span><br />
<div data-mce-style="text-align: justify; padding-left: 30px;" style="padding-left: 30px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"If you have $400 to spend and it's either books for the classroom or a recess cart, you get the books," said Joseph Hailpern, principal of Edison School in north suburban Morton Grove. A photograph of a red shopping cart overflowing with balls and hula hoops figures prominently on a DonorsChoose page for the school. The caption reads: "Recess Cart in Need of TLC, No More Shopping Carts!"</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Did you know in 2010, 92 percent of United States teachers spent a collective sum of<strong> $1.3 billion</strong> out of pocket for school supplies. How much is one billion? To put it into perspective, one billion seconds ago was the Cuban Missile Crisis and prior to our moon landing. A billion minutes ago the Roman Empire was in full swing. If these analogies aren't helping, suffice it to know that some teachers spend over $1000 of their own earnings in order to do their job and teach our kids. Take Teresa Jazo as an example.</span><br />
<div data-mce-style="text-align: justify; padding-left: 30px;" style="padding-left: 30px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"When Teresa Jazo, a music teacher at Bateman Elementary School in Chicago, ran out of her school-allotted supply of paper in October, she bought more with her own money. Then, she went online to DonorsChoose.org, an Internet-based educational charity outfitting many of the nation's classrooms, and asked the worldwide Internet community to buy her enough for the rest of the year. 'Can we learn new music?" Jazo posted. "Sorry we have no paper!' Within a week, she had her paper."</span></div><div data-mce-style="text-align: justify;" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-mce-href="http://www.donorschoose.org/?return=true" href="http://www.donorschoose.org/?return=true">DonorsChoose.org</a> is a great way to get involved, or check out the great stuff we're up to! Urban School foundation is working closely with Chicago schools to supply the homeless and low income students in our city and suburban schools. Learn more about what we're doing, and consider donating a backpack full of supplies to a student in need. <a data-mce-href="http://urbanschool.squarespace.com/about-pack-2-school/" href="http://urbanschool.squarespace.com/about-pack-2-school/">Click here for more information.</a></span></div>Urban School Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08220502747205518461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512325829628591214.post-58826348745111493302011-04-08T15:34:00.000-05:002011-08-03T12:14:58.872-05:00Entrepreneur in Focus: Geoffrey Canada<div style="line-height: 19px;"><a data-mce-href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/geoffry-canada-hcz.jpg" href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/geoffry-canada-hcz.jpg"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><img alt="" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-149" data-mce-src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/geoffry-canada-hcz.jpg" height="225" src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/geoffry-canada-hcz.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; float: left;" title="Geoffry Canada HCZ" width="300" /></span></a></div><div style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">In the spirit of expanding our blog to spotlight a successful entrepreneur, it's fitting that our first Entrepreneur in Focus be one who has been the subject of our previous blog posts on education reform. His name is Geoffry Canada. As the CEO of the Harlem Children's Zone he's helped to revolutionize the way a nonprofit enterprise can "change the trajectory of a poor child's future in an inner-city neighborhood."</span><br />
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</span></div><div style="line-height: 19px;"><span data-mce-style="text-decoration: underline;" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration: underline;">YOUNG GEOFFRY CANADA</span></div><div style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Geoffry Canada was raised by his mother, Mary, in Harlem, New York. Finances were tight. In the early years Mary struggled to support her four sons, and as a result Canada's early life was marked by poverty. She loved and cared for her boys, working hard to raise them with values. Limiting their television intake, tutoring them herself and taking them to civil rights rallies, she instilled in them the importance of education and concepts of social equality. Living in a poor, unsafe neighborhood Canada had to learn street smarts to stay safe.</span></div><div style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">In his teens he went to live with his grandparents in Freeport, Long Island where he excelled in school and won a scholarship. He continued his education at Bowdoin College where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology and sociology in 1974. He also holds a Master's degree in education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.</span></div><div style="line-height: 19px;"><span data-mce-style="text-decoration: underline;" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration: underline;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 19px;"><span data-mce-style="text-decoration: underline;" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration: underline;">EARLY CAREER</span></div><div style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">After graduation Canada joined the faculty of Robert White School, an alternative school for troubled youth in Boston, Massachusettes. His ability reaching these students, especially the most violent ones, was a reason for his quick rise to the director position of Robert White.</span></div><div style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">In 1983 he returned to Harlem determined to make a difference in his old neighborhood. He wanted to help others succeed as he had. He got a job working for the Rheedlen Centers for Children and Families as a program director in the Truancy Prevention Program, and by 1990 had risen to President of the organization. Canada was unsatisfied with the scope of Rheedlen, and he began to make changes. The Rheedlen Center was renamed the Harlem Children's Zone and Canada shifted the entire makeup of the organization.</span></div><div style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span data-mce-style="text-decoration: underline;" style="text-decoration: underline;">E</span><span data-mce-style="text-decoration: underline;" style="text-decoration: underline;">NTREPRENEUR IN "THE GREAT SOCIAL EXPERIMENT": HARLEM CHILDREN'S ZONE BEGINNINGS</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">In an interview for the documentary film<em>, <a data-mce-href="http://www.waitingforsuperman.com/action/" href="http://www.waitingforsuperman.com/action/">Waiting for Superman</a></em>, Geoffry Canada explains that he decided to go study what was wrong with the public education system so he "could fix it.” After earning a master’s degree from Harvard, he figured this would take “two, maybe three years.” That was over 35 years ago. NPR's <em>This American Life</em> did a segment on him for their "<a data-mce-href="http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/364/going-big" href="http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/364/going-big">Going Big</a>" show. Going big was what Canada realized needed to be done to reform education.</span><br />
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</span></div><div style="line-height: 19px;"><a data-mce-href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/map-of-hcz.jpg" href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/map-of-hcz.jpg"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><img alt="" class="alignright size-full wp-image-228" data-mce-src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/map-of-hcz.jpg" height="550" src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/map-of-hcz.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; float: right;" title="map of HCZ" width="300" /></span></a></div><div style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The idea came to him when he and his wife had a son. As the narrator on <strong><em>"</em></strong>Going Big" explains, Canada was in his 40's and things had changed for him. "He was no longer trying to make ends meet. He was now a well-educated, upper middle class guy living in a big home in the suburbs surrounded by trees and lawns and golf courses." As a dad he found out there was a ton of new research on the benefits of stimulating your child's brain at a young age, and it surprised him that everyone in the suburbs seemed to know about it. "They were obsessed with preparing their children," he explains. People in the suburbs were buying up every Baby Einstein product or other brain building toys for kids in sight. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Canada said he felt "overwhelmed" by all this new information and wondered how the parents they were working with in his organization were fairing in the "parenting revolution." He asked his staff to canvass the neighborhood and what they found was there was nothing. Abolutely no one was teaching anything - no best practices, no parental education, nothing - for moms and dads of 0-3 year olds. It dawned on him that places like Harlem "are often left out of the science of developmental education."</span></div><div style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">At the same time Canada began rethinking his approach to social work. After so many years of frustration saving one child and having 10 more slip through the cracks he wondered if there was a tipping point, a point at which the the entire culture, the cycle of teen pregnancy and dropping out of high school could be altered. Could he reach 40 or 50% of these kids? He went to his board with these thoughts and the conclusion: we've been going about this the wrong way.</span></div><div style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">It was this revelation that led to the complete re-thinking of how they were approaching urban poverty and education reform. The two were intertwined. Middle class and upper middle class families had access to this information and talked about it openly. It completely passed over lower-income families. Kids in middle to upper middle class families have opportunities to continue to grow and develop after school with programs, clubs, sports and more. Kids from lower-income families are too often left unsupervised, because their parents, or parent, are working. Single parents in the neighborhood had little access, or knowledge, of support systems. What Harlem Children's zone aimed to do was provide a quality education for the children of Harlem as well as design a support network that is "designed to mimic the often-invisible cocoon of support and nurturance that follows middle class and upper middle class kids through their childhood" until they graduate college.</span></div><div style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 19px;"><span data-mce-style="text-decoration: underline;" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration: underline;">HARLEM CHILDREN'S ZONE PROGRESS AND PROGRAMS</span></div><div style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Quoting from the <a data-mce-href="http://www.hcz.org/about-us/the-hcz-project" href="http://www.hcz.org/about-us/the-hcz-project">HCZ Project web page</a>: "The HCZ Project began as a one-block pilot in the 1990s, then following a 10-year business plan, it expanded to 24 blocks and then 60 blocks. The goal is to serve 15,000 children and 7,000 adults by 2011. The budget for the HCZ Project for fiscal year 2009 is over $40 million, costing an average of $3,500 per child."</span><br />
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</span></div><div style="line-height: 19px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/7SYwR4yuv3A?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The ambitious Harlem Children's Zone Project has expanded the comprehensive system of programs to nearly 100 blocks of Central Harlem and aims to keep children on track through and beyond college, as former students enter the job market. So, what programs and services are included in HCZ?</span></div><ul style="line-height: 19px;"><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Baby College, a series of workshops for parents of children ages 0-3</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Gems, an all-day pre-kindergarten program</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Harlem Peacemakers, reducing violence through negotiation skills and self defense classes</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Promise Academy, extended-day charter schools from kinder to 12th grade</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">TRUCE Arts & Media, fostering career readiness through media literacy and artistic ability</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Employment & Technology, teaching computer and job-related skills to teens and adults</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">College Success, an office that supports HCZ graduates throughout the college admission experience and during their college education</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Community Pride, organizes tenant and block associations</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Family Support, provides crisis intervention services, advocacy, groups on parenting and anger management training</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Asthma & Obesity Initiatives, educating families and providing management counciling</span></li>
</ul><div style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">And there are many more. Read more about <a data-mce-href="http://www.hcz.org/programs/family-community-a-health" href="http://www.hcz.org/programs/family-community-a-health">these programs</a> and <a data-mce-href="http://www.hcz.org/our-results" href="http://www.hcz.org/our-results">their success.</a>This is significant because HCZ is now helping $1,200 students, 90% of which go on to attend college. <a data-mce-href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111193340" href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111193340">The odds are in favor of college grads for breaking that cycle of poverty.</a></span></div><div style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 19px;"><a data-mce-href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/hczflowchart.png" href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/hczflowchart.png"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-244" data-mce-src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/hczflowchart.png" height="376" src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/hczflowchart.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="HCZflowchart" width="500" /></span></a></div><div style="line-height: 19px;"><span data-mce-style="text-decoration: underline;" style="font-family: inherit; text-decoration: underline;">INSPIRATIONAL</span></div><div style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Geoffry Canada's Harlem Children's Zone has been extraordinarily inspirational. president Obama launching promise neighborhoods program, 20 cities across US to mimic HCZ. <a data-mce-href="http://www2.ed.gov/programs/promiseneighborhoods/index.html" href="http://www2.ed.gov/programs/promiseneighborhoods/index.html">Read more about promis neighborhoods here.</a></span><br />
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</div>Urban School Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08220502747205518461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512325829628591214.post-58171622919978795302011-04-05T15:31:00.001-05:002011-08-03T12:14:58.873-05:00The United States' Shocking Education Statistics<div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">While it's debatable whether or not Davis Guggenheim's documentary film, <em><a data-mce-href="http://www.waitingforsuperman.com/" href="http://www.waitingforsuperman.com/">Waiting for Superman</a></em>, offers the right solution to the problems affecting the US public education system, it definitely has raised awareness of the statistics presented throughout the movie:</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-mce-href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/20100910-education-statistics-dimensions2.jpg" href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/20100910-education-statistics-dimensions2.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-205" data-mce-src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/20100910-education-statistics-dimensions2.jpg" height="504" src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/20100910-education-statistics-dimensions2.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="20100910-education-statistics-dimensions" width="500" /></a></span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The tables and graphs above shed light on our broken education system. Though we've increased spending per student, math and reading scores are abysmal. According to the PISA test, a international test that measures proficiency in core subject matter every three years, only 23% of United States high schoolers graduate at their expected level in math. That's less than 1 in 4 students. Reading proficiency is better but not by much at 35%, or a little over 1 in 3 students.</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">How do these figures measure up on a global scale? In comparison with 30 other developed countries, the US is nowhere close to the top:</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-mce-href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/math-and-science-rankings.png" href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/math-and-science-rankings.png"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-198" data-mce-src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/math-and-science-rankings.png" height="526" src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/math-and-science-rankings.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="math-and-science-rankings" width="436" /></a></span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">If we're not serving our students and they're not prepared for college or the workforce, how will this affect poverty in America? In turn, how will it affect government-supported social services? Our nation's future in general? <a data-mce-href="http://www.urbanschoolfoundation.org/discussion-forums/post/1454585" href="http://www.urbanschoolfoundation.org/discussion-forums/post/1454585">Let us know your thoughts on our discussion forum.</a></span></div>Urban School Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08220502747205518461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512325829628591214.post-33918009283835301492011-04-02T15:18:00.001-05:002011-08-03T12:14:58.874-05:00Join the Conversation: The Myth of Charter Schools<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.iancommunity.org/galleries/default-image/SCHOOL_bus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://www.iancommunity.org/galleries/default-image/SCHOOL_bus.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">This blog post is a continuation of our previous post, Join the Conversation: Charter Schools, which discussed the documentaries Waiting for Superman and The Lottery. These documentaries suggested charter schools as the answer to America's failing public education system, but not everyone would agree. </span><br />
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Diane Ravitch, a writer for The New York Review of Books embodies the sentiments of those who feel charter schools can't be a all-in-one solution for education reform. She and others argue that Davis Guggenheim's </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><em>Waiting for Superman</em></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"> is an oversimplification of what's wrong with the current system.</span></span><br />
<div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></i></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"At last we have the culprit on which we can pin our anger, our palpable sense that something is very wrong with our society, that we are on the wrong track, and that America is losing the race for global dominance. It is not globalization or deindustrialization or poverty or our coarse popular culture or predatory financial practices that bear responsibility: it’s the public schools, their teachers, and their unions."</span></em></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><em></em>In <em>Waiting for Superman</em>, charter schools are portrayed as the answer to failing public schools, but is that really true? In 2009 results from a Stanford University study were released that found, when compared to traditional public schools:</span></div><ul style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Only 17% of charter schools performed significantly better (less than 1 in 5 charter schools)</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">37% of charters performed worse</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">46% showed no different in their performance</span></li>
</ul><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">Guggenheim focuses heavily on Geoffry Canada's success with the Harlem Children's Zone as the example of a successful charter school, and rightfully so. That success is clear cut. In almost every respect students at HCZ are performing above state averages. However, Guggenheim chooses to cling to the idea that charter schools like HCZ are successful because they're mostly free from teacher unions and can fire teachers that aren't up to snuff.</div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Geoffry Canada is an advocate for the ability to fire poor performing teachers. He's not afraid to share his opinion that "some teachers just can't teach" and "when you see a great teacher you're seeing a work of art." Throughout the documentary segments of an interview with Canada are shown that portray these sentiments in support of a charter school's freedom to manage its staff. This narrow focus on whether or not schools can fire bad teachers as the cause for a failing education system is not fair to the viewer. This idea becomes the scapegoat and ignores the many other issues that are part of the cultural fabric of urban areas like Harlem.</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Canada expects their teachers to consistently perform at a level of excellence, but he also understands that excellent teachers are just part of the solution. All teachers in inner city classrooms face crime, poverty, substance abuse, and the challenges that come with dysfunctional and single parent families. </span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><a data-mce-href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/hczflowchart21.png" href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/hczflowchart21.png"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-208" data-mce-src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/hczflowchart21.png" height="227" src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/hczflowchart21.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="HCZflowchart2" width="500" /></span></a></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">H</span>CZ teachers are teaching kids that face these challenges, too. The difference is Canada's solution wasn't solely to create charter schools where he can fire teachers who aren't up to snuff. What isn't shown in <em>Waiting for Superman</em> is that HCZ created a "project pipeline," charter schools surrounded by an institutional support structure that, according to author of <span data-mce-style="text-decoration: underline;" style="text-decoration: underline;"><a data-mce-href="http://www.paultough.com/" href="http://www.paultough.com/">Whatever it Takes</a></span>, Paul Tough, is "designed to mimic the often-invisible cocoon of support and nurturance that follows middle-class and upper-middle-class kids through their childhood." This cocoon includes services like access to quality family and social services, health and community building programs that provide teacher support.</div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Let's take a quick look at inner city public schools that have found a way to create a similar support system. <a data-mce-href="http://turnaroundusa.org" href="http://turnaroundusa.org/">Turnaround for Children, Inc.</a> is an organization in New York that works with public schools, as well as the 4 in 5 failing charter schools, to help them reorganize from the inside out and make them productive learning environments. To do this they work with schools in many ways. <a data-mce-href="http://turnaroundusa.org/how-we-work" href="http://turnaroundusa.org/how-we-work">How?</a></span></div><ul style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>Services</strong>building internal school capacity to address mental health and behavioral challenges and linkages to community social services:</span><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">School-based counseling and support</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Pathways to a community-based mental health partner</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Family engagement ahd education</span></li>
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<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><strong>Skills </strong>providing outcome-driven professional development for all school staff, for example:</span><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Strategic classroom organization</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Proactive classroom management</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Knowledge of social-emotional and behavioral development in children</span></li>
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</ul><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">By providing social support and counciling, Turnaround for Kids, Inc. has found success. Schools became calmer and safer:<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; line-height: normal;"></span></span></div><ul style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">51% decrease in police-reported incidences</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">32% decrease in suspensions</span></li>
</ul><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Which also had an effect on teacher performance:</span></div><ul style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">77% decline in teacher turnover</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">34% decrease in teacher absences</span></li>
</ul><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Over a three to four year intervention period ending in 2009, students in Turnaround for Children’s New York City partner schools showed notable academic gains, as shown by the percentage of students demonstrating at or above grade-level proficiency.</span></div><ul style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Math: Students’ math proficiency scores increased from 49 to 82% at the elementary level; and from 24 to 64% at the middle school level.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">English Language Arts: Students’ ELA proficiency scores increased from 47 to 57% at the elementary level; and from 27 to 49% at the middle school level.</span></li>
</ul><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">So, reader, what do you think? Is the real question of education reform as simple as saying teachers are the problem, public shcools are inadequate and charters are the answer? <a data-mce-href="http://urbanschool.squarespace.com/discussion-forums/post/1452145" href="http://urbanschool.squarespace.com/discussion-forums/post/1452145">Contribute your thoughts to our discussion board.</a></span></div>Urban School Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08220502747205518461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512325829628591214.post-7992931968364007382011-04-01T15:07:00.001-05:002011-08-03T12:14:58.874-05:00Join the Conversation: Charter Schools<div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-mce-href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/magic-school-bus.jpg" href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/magic-school-bus.jpg"><img alt="" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-161" data-mce-src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/magic-school-bus.jpg" height="278" src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/magic-school-bus.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; float: left;" title="Magic-School-Bus" width="336" /></a>While we love boasting about the progress Urban School Foundation and its students have made here on our blog, we also feel it's important to get more people involved in the conversation about education's tough issues, to feature the <a data-mce-href="http://urbanschool.squarespace.com/what-are-the-benefits/" href="http://www.futurentrepreneurs.org/what-are-the-benefits.html" target="_blank">benefits of entrepreneurship education</a>, spotlight great entrepreneurs and their success stories and other topics surrounding the achievement gap in education and the chasm that exists between the opportunities afforded students in affluent neighborhoods compared to those in disadvantaged ones.</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Education has been called <strong>the magic bullet -</strong> a way to solve poverty, grow the economy, improve our nation's health, provide a means to better compete on the global scale and heal many more of society's ills. However, the timeless question remains, "How should we reform education so it's more engaging and effective?"</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">There are many ideas and challenges to reform that are being discussed, and I hope we'll touch on them all at some point. <strong>READER WARNING! </strong>Full disclosure: as a former teacher I have opinions on many of the topics we'll be discussing, however I don't think there's a magic bullet to this magic bullet, and with this blog I'm hoping to offer an objective perspective on the ideas that have been floating around. I want your input and thoughts on the subject matter, and I'd like to start with a current hot button issue: public schools versus charter schools.</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-mce-href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/student-2.jpg" href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/student-2.jpg"><img alt="" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-173" data-mce-src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/student-2.jpg?w=300" height="155" src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/student-2.jpg?w=300" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; float: right;" title="student 2" width="300" /></a>The idea that Charter schools could be the education system's savior has been around for over two decades, but before we discuss charter schools it would help to clarify what the difference is between a public school and a charter school. Both types of schools receive public funding, but charter schools are not subject to some of the rules and regulations that apply to public schools. For example, charter schools can hire or fire anyone they want, can have a longer school day and other differences that mark them as independent of the public school system. In exchange they have 5 years to prove they can succeed in producing successful students or their charter will not be renewed and is closed. Charters can be founded and managed by parents, community groups, nonprofits, government agencies and even corporations. The most important difference is anyone can attend a charter school if they are accepted, and therefore provide parents an alternative to their public district school.</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Last year was called the "year of the Education Documentary<em>." </em>There were many documentaries made that addressed the serious issue of the deteriorating American education system, but <em><strong>Waiting for Superman </strong></em>drew the most attention nation-wide. For those of you who may not be familiar with the documentary, here's a quick overview:</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/yFN0nf6Hqk0?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div style="font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">"Documentary filmmaker <a data-mce-href="http://www.fandango.com/davisguggenheim/filmography/p92838" href="http://www.fandango.com/davisguggenheim/filmography/p92838" style="font-style: italic;">Davis Guggenheim</a><i> explores the tragic ways in which the American </i><strong style="font-style: italic;">public </strong><i>education system is failing our nation's children, and explores the roles that </i><strong style="font-style: italic;">charter schools</strong></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><i> and education reformers could play in offering hope for the future. ...There was a time when the American public education system was a model admired by the entire world. Today other countries are surpassing us in every respect, and the slogan "No Child Left Behind" has become a cynical punch line."</i></span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Both this film and another documentary called <em>The Lottery</em> focus on Harlem and the sharp contrast between abysmal public school performance levels and the success of charters like the Harlem Children's Zone and Harlem Success Academy. These charters are raising the bar in every respect and achieving a standard of excellence in the communities that were written off long ago as impossible to turn around.</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The main points that these movies seem to be making is that these charters have been successful for a few reasons; they have the freedom to create their own curriculum and to make necessary changes in the schools without having to wade through the bureaucratic red tape. Another central point, one that I will explore in more depth in future posts, is that charter schools are largely free from union interference. This is something that leaders of both charters have identified as key points to their success, because if they feel their teachers are not meeting their standards for an educator they can replace them with a better teacher.</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The question both films ask the audience at one point or another is, if charter schools can produce this kind of educational success why don't we have more charter schools? Even President Obama has addressed the issue, coming down on the side of <a data-mce-href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20017666-503544.html" href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20017666-503544.html" target="_blank">more charter schools</a> in cities across america. These movies raise this question by showing us how the current public school system is failing our children. Schools are graduating functionally illiterate students, a shocking number of city schools are averaging a 50% dropout rate or higher, giving some schools the name "dropout factories," and many more <a data-mce-href="http://www.oprah.com/relationships/Shocking-Education-Statistics" href="http://www.oprah.com/relationships/Shocking-Education-Statistics">startling statistics</a> show the ineffectiveness of public education. Waiting for Superman even addresses the failures of schools beyond the inner-city, showing how many suburban, presumably successful, schools are also not meeting the needs of all their students.</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-mce-href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/student-1.jpg" href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/student-1.jpg"><img alt="" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-174" data-mce-src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/student-1.jpg?w=300" height="200" src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/student-1.jpg?w=300" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; float: left;" title="student 1" width="300" /></a>As the viewer we're along for the ride as we journey with five promising kids who are trying to get into high achieving charter school. Because there are more of these students than available seats at the successful charters, ambitious children like Anthony, Francisco, Bianca, Daisy, and Emil, must leave their hopes and dreams for a better education to chance in a public lottery. In the end we're for those students whose names are called, and we're disheartened when the other students were not so lucky. The most disheartening realization is knowing there are many more students and parents attending this lottery who share that disappointing experience - their name wasn't called.</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Both movies leave you with a sense of duty towards education reform, and both make the case that charters can be the answer. What do you think? <a data-mce-href="http://urbanschool.squarespace.com/discussion-forums/post/1452145" href="http://urbanschool.squarespace.com/discussion-forums/post/1452145">Post your opinion about charter schools vs. public schools in your discussion forum.</a></span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">This is just our first post on this topic. Keep an eye out for a followup posts on public school solutions and other issues affecting education.</span></div>Urban School Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08220502747205518461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512325829628591214.post-4242491254333298102011-03-17T17:40:00.000-05:002011-07-19T16:55:18.276-05:00From the mouths of BABES...<div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Ahhhh, primary market research - a great excuse to talk to that guy or girl you like so much! Continuing on our marketing theme, Schurz students are conducting surveys to learn what magnet products their peers would be most interested in purchasing.</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><a href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/magnets.jpg?w=224" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-122" data-mce-src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/magnets.jpg?w=224" height="300" src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/magnets.jpg?w=224" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px;" title="Magnets" width="224" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Why magnets? In addition to writing their own business plans, the class is starting a business as a group with the guidance of Kevin Rutter and Luciana Tiberio. The goal is to manufacture magnets that would do well in the market that exists at Schurz HS - hands on experience starting and running a business. As a lesson in social responsibility, all proceeds will be donated to a school organization of their choosing.</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Here's an example of a magnet that might be assembled and sold:</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><a data-mce-href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/magnets.jpg" href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/magnets.jpg"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"></span></a></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">4. The adhesive with vinyl lettering is placed on the magnet. The excess magnet material is cut, and the product is packaged.</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">3. Vinyl lettering is placed on the adhesive</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">2. The colored vinyl is kiss-cut with a design. Then, the excess vinyl is picked out, leaving only the kiss-cut design.</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">1. Raw magnet material</span></div>Urban School Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08220502747205518461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512325829628591214.post-15985840135199253352011-03-11T14:59:00.000-06:002011-07-19T16:57:51.883-05:00"She said Pee!"<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://tbarry.cocc.edu/merchants_of_cool.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="302" src="http://tbarry.cocc.edu/merchants_of_cool.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
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</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Yes, I did! Our Schurz High School students are learning about creating a good marketing mix using the four P's - Price, Product, Placement and Promotion. Heading into their 7th month of our Young Entrepreneurs program, our students continue to write business plans for their business ideas, and they're learning about how to get the word out about their products and services.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">After learning about different methods of market research we watched <em><a data-mce-href="http://http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cool/" href="http://http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cool/" target="_blank">The Merchants of Cool</a>, </em>a documentary that explores how MTV discovers what's cool in popular teen culture. Girls learned that their customer profile was labeled a midriff, the boys were mooks and by the end EVERYONE understood how they were being marketed-to.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">We also learned about how marketing and branding has evolved, and the how and why they identify with one brand lifestyle and not another. Frontline's <em><a data-mce-href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders/" href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders/" target="_blank">The Persuaders</a></em> was a great way to illustrate these topics.</span>Urban School Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08220502747205518461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512325829628591214.post-86636800225956481192010-11-16T11:00:00.000-06:002011-07-19T16:58:56.437-05:00Pack Our Haunted House<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/img_20101029_202033.jpg?w=300" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-97" data-mce-src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/img_20101029_202033.jpg?w=300" height="150" src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/img_20101029_202033.jpg?w=300" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px;" title="IMG_20101029_202033" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Patriots wear their Pack 2 School t-shirt.</td></tr>
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<div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span data-mce-style="font-size: medium;" style="font-size: small;"><span data-mce-style="font-size: 13.2px;" style="font-size: 13.2px;">We want to thank the Athletic Department, particularly Chad Dauphin, Dimitra Mullins and Michael Feigh, and the wonderful students at Stevenson High School for all their help in our most recent </span></span><a data-mce-href="http://urbanschool.squarespace.com/pack-a-packathon/" data-mce-style="font-size: 13.2px;" href="http://www.pack2school.org/pack-a-packathon.html" style="font-size: 13.2px;">Pack-a-Packathon</a><span data-mce-style="font-size: medium;" style="font-size: small;"><span data-mce-style="font-size: 13.2px;" style="font-size: 13.2px;">. Selling t-shirts for their regional football game, </span></span>Stevenson<span data-mce-style="font-size: medium;" style="font-size: small;"><span data-mce-style="font-size: 13.2px;" style="font-size: 13.2px;"> Packed Their Haunted House on Halloween weekend to raise over $4,000 for backpacks. Thank you so much!</span></span></span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span data-mce-style="font-size: medium;" style="font-size: small;"><span data-mce-style="font-size: 13.2px;" style="font-size: 13.2px;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><a data-mce-href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.wordpress.com/2010/11/16/pack-our-haunted-house/img_20101029_202033/" href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.wordpress.com/2010/11/16/pack-our-haunted-house/img_20101029_202033/" rel="attachment wp-att-97"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"></span></a></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">For more photos from that evening, visit our <a data-mce-href="http://urbanschool.squarespace.com/photo-gallery/" href="http://www.pack2school.org/gallery.html">photo gallery</a>.</span></div>Urban School Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08220502747205518461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512325829628591214.post-37817991934121069652010-11-15T14:54:00.000-06:002011-07-19T16:56:16.879-05:00Principal for a Day<div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-mce-href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/img_02871.jpg" href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/img_02871.jpg"><img alt="" class="alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-81" data-mce-src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/img_02871.jpg?w=150" height="113" src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/img_02871.jpg?w=150" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; float: right; text-align: left;" title="Homeroom Pumpkin Decorating Contest" width="150" /></a></span>Luciana Tiberio and Bob Tucker took part in Chicago Public School's Principal for a Day October fundraiser. Principal for a day is an opportunity for local philanthropic organizations and businesses to learn about Chicago Public Schools and interact with students, teachers and principals.</div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-mce-href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/img_02922.jpg" href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/img_02922.jpg"><img alt="" class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-85" data-mce-src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/img_02922.jpg?w=150" height="112" src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/img_02922.jpg?w=150" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; float: left; text-align: left;" title="IMG_0292" width="150" /></a></span>Working along side Thurgood Marshall Middle School's Principal Paul Flaherty, Luciana read the morning announcements, handed out pumpkins for the homeroom decorating contest and visited several classrooms. Along with volunteering her time, The Urban School Foundation's contribution to the school and helped to purchase new sports equipment.</div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">Bob Tucker lead the charge at Schurz High School pep rally, along with volunteer friend and local radio personality <a data-mce-href="http://b96.radio.com/biographies/dougie-stylz-biography/" href="http://b96.radio.com/biographies/dougie-stylz-biography/">Dougie Stylz</a>. It was Shurz's first pep rally in three years. Needless to say the students were excited as can be for their homecoming weekend.</div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;"><span data-mce-style="font-size: 13.2px;" style="font-size: 13.2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Attending the Principal for a Day Reception at Navy Pier later that evening, USF was excited to hear that the day helped raise $1.8 million in monetary donations as well as additional support, program and training pledges from volunteer principals. We also were able to meet some of our talented students presenting everything form their newest robot inventions to their talented dance skills.</span></span></div><div data-mce-style="text-align: center;" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: center;"><a data-mce-href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/img_0293.jpg" href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/img_0293.jpg"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-83 aligncenter" data-mce-src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/img_0293.jpg" height="137" src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/img_0293.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;" title="IMG_0293" width="455" /></span></a></div>Urban School Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08220502747205518461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512325829628591214.post-51852037962393875342010-10-15T14:42:00.000-05:002011-07-19T16:56:51.561-05:00Making it rain...backpacks.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a data-mce-href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/dsc_0114-large21.jpg" href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/dsc_0114-large21.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-67" data-mce-src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/dsc_0114-large21.jpg?w=1024" height="114" src="http://urbanschoolfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/dsc_0114-large21.jpg?w=1024" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;" title="DSC_0114 (Large)2" width="400" /></a></div><div data-mce-style="text-align: center;" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div data-mce-style="text-align: center;" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"></span>Our first backpack give away! Thurgood Marshall Middle School students were so excited and grateful to get their backpacks with supplies, fun stickers, and activity books, and we were so happy to help!</div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">We want to send out a special thank you to Bob and Courtney Tucker for their generous donation of the backpacks! Thanks to Barbara Lumpkin and Mae Jefferson at the CPS Office of External Affairs and Partnerships for all your help coordinating the drop-off, and Mae for your help trucking the backpacks over to the school on such an unusually hot day. Last but not least, we want to thank everyone at Marshall Middle: our strong student helpers for helping us set up the backpacks and Principal Flaherty for all your help making sure these book bags got into the right hands. Check it out:</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"<em>This has helped out my family so much. We really need school supplies but my mom couldn't get me any this year. I've been using them a lot. I gave the coloring books to my younger brothers and they love them. I use the stickers on my bedroom door. Thank you so much. I will not forget what you have done for us." -</em>Anonymous</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">To read more thank you notes, <a data-mce-href="http://urbanschool.squarespace.com/thank-you-letters/" href="http://www.pack2school.org/students-say-thanks.html">click here</a>, and see the pictures <a data-mce-href="http://urbanschool.squarespace.com/photo-gallery/thurgood-marshall-middle-school-give-away_september-2010/" href="http://www.pack2school.org/gallery.html">here</a>!</span></div><div data-mce-style="text-align: center;" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;"><br />
</div>Urban School Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08220502747205518461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5512325829628591214.post-5636012751055623142010-09-24T11:00:00.000-05:002011-07-19T14:42:06.767-05:00Entrepreneurs in Teaching Entrepreneurship<div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">We wanted to share a little with you about our entrepreneurship education program, Future Entrepreneurs. Urban School Foundation was started with the intention of providing Chicagoland's homeless and disadvantaged students with the tools to build a brighter future, and this program is a great example of how we plan on doing this.</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">We're working closely with Illinois 2009-2010 Teacher of the Year, Kevin Rutter, and Schurz High School in Chicago to develop and deliver a hands-on, experience-based curriculum in starting, running and managing a business, starting with the junior class finance students.</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Class started on September 7th, and since then students been exploring their talents, learning about different types of businesses and recognizing opportunities for capitalizing on their skills. They've also heard about the sacrifices it took to start a business by local entrepreneur, Bob Tucker Jr, and visited and asked questions about his business. All this is building up to the start of writing and developing a strong business plan.</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">With this program we hope not only to build confidence and provide them with the skills they need to build a business for themselves one day, but also to better understand business and thereby be better employees. A benefit to not only their lives, but our collective future.</div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Stay tuned to find out what ideas the students come up on their adventure in entrepreneurship. Read more about our <a data-mce-href="http://urbanschool.squarespace.com/about-young-entrepreneurs/" href="http://www.futurentrepreneurs.org/">Future Entrepreneurs program</a> on our website, <a data-mce-href="www.urbanschoolfoundation.org" href="http://urbanschoolfoundation.wordpress.com/wp-admin/www.urbanschoolfoundation.org">www.urbanschoolfoundation.org.</a></span></div>Urban School Foundationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08220502747205518461noreply@blogger.com0