ED’s OSHS PREVENTION NEWS DIGEST Office of Safe and Healthy Students MARCH 16, 2012 VOLUME 7, NUMBER 11 | |
In This Issue 1. U.S. ED OESE/OSHS’ Safe and Supportive Schools TA Center Announces Webinars on Enhancing Peer-to-Peer Relationships to Strengthen School Climate on 3/28/12 and 3/29/12 2. U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Justice and National Organizations Convene Judicial Leadership Summit on School-Justice Partnerships 3. New Data from U.S. Department of Education Highlights Educational Inequities Around Teacher Experience, Discipline and High School Rigor 4. Study Finds Link Between School Bullies and Substance Use 5. New Awareness Campaign Teaches Kids to be Cell Phone Smart 6. Funding Opportunities - Mentoring Best Practices Research funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, OJP, OJJDP - Children’s Health & Wellness Grants funded by Build-A-Bear Workshop Foundation - State Farm Youth Advisory Board National Grant Program funded by the State Farm Youth Advisory Board The opinions expressed herein may not reflect the views of the Office of Safe and Healthy Students or the U.S. Department of Education. The availability of information from a variety of sources does not constitute and should not be considered as an endorsement of those sources by the U.S. Department of Education. We hope that you find this information to be useful. If you think ED’s OSHS PREVENTION NEWS DIGEST would be helpful to a friend or colleague, please send them to this website to: self enroll, change information, or unsubscribe. Contact Us: If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact me at: Sharon Burton Editor | U.S. ED OESE/OSHS’ Safe and Supportive Schools TA Center Announces Webinars on Enhancing Peer-to-Peer Relationships to Strengthen School Climate on 3/28/12 and 3/29/12 The Safe and Supportive Schools Technical Assistance Center (SSSTA), supported by the Office of Safe and Healthy Students in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, announces its next School Climate Webinar Series event, “Enhancing Peer-to-Peer Relationships to Strengthen School Climate.” It will be offered twice to accommodate schedules: Session 1: Wednesday, March 28, 2012, 4:00 pm − 5:30 pm Eastern Time; Session 2: Thursday, March 29, 2012, 11:00 am − 12:30 pm Eastern Time. Since positive relationships are central to a safe and supportive school climate, this Webinar will focus on how to enhance student-to-student relationships. Vincent Omni, Ph.D., the project director of the KS Safe and Supportive Schools grant program will share recent school climate survey results that indicate the need to improve peer-to-peer relationships and what schools in KS are planning to address that need. Flora Sánchez, M.A., senior trainer for Vision Training Associates and former teacher, guidance counselor, Safe and Drug-Free Schools Coordinator and past-president of the New Mexico Board of Education, will (1) briefly describe the latest evidence on the impact of student relationships on school climate and student achievement and then (2) provide practical strategies and explore opportunities for enhancing student relationships through classroom and school organization and through curriculum and practice. To participate, please register for one of the sessions at http://safesupportiveschools.ed.gov/index.php?id=9&eid=1538. Those who successfully register will receive an e-mail confirmation from the SSSTA. Information on how to connect to each Webinar will be sent to those who register. However, since space is limited, please register now. Audience: This Webinar is appropriate for school district superintendents and allied staff, school administrators, school climate teams, student support personnel, classroom teachers and support staff. For more information, email [log in to unmask]. Source: Office of Safe and Healthy Students, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, U.S. Department of Education U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Justice and National Organizations Convene Judicial Leadership Summit on School-Justice Partnerships The National Leadership Summit on School-Justice Partnerships, which was held March 11-13, 2012, in New York City, was designed to promote the development of partnerships among the court system, school administration, law enforcement and the community to work together to increase graduation rates while decreasing school suspensions, expulsions and arrests. With funding from The Atlantic Philanthropies, MacArthur Foundation, Skadden, Arps and Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U. S. Department of Justice, Judith S. Kaye, former Chief Judge of the State of New York and Chair of the Commission, convened this national summit for top state justice and education officials and their partners to raise awareness of the importance of focusing on school-justice partnerships in order to promote practices and policies of our education and justice systems that can help children succeed in school and in turn reduce the number of children involved in the juvenile and adult court systems. Russlynn Ali, Assistant Secretary of the Office of Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education, provided the keynote address and Melodee Hanes, Acting Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice also participated. Following the collaborative approach of other judicial leadership summits, teams from each state – comprised of the state’s top justice and education officials, a juvenile court judge and an additional representative determined by the team –focused attention on the importance of school-justice partnerships and provide an opportunity to focus on strategies to help students succeed in school and reduce their involvement in the justice system. The Commission reached out to federal agencies, philanthropies, national organizations and experts in the field to convene a multidisciplinary Partners Planning Committee –including representatives from the American Association of School Administrators; American Bar Association’s Commission on Youth at Risk; Conference of Chief Justices; Conference of State Court Administrators; National Alliance of Pupil Services Organizations; National Association of State Boards of Education; National Center for State Courts; National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges; and Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, U.S. Department of Education – to help develop the Summit’s agenda and participate in the peer review process for the Call for Papers. The event highlighted the work of the states currently receiving federal and private funding to address school discipline issues. For more information, visit http://www.nycourts.gov/ip/justiceforchildren/school-justice.shtml Source: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education via NYCourts.gov New Data from U.S. Department of Education Highlights Educational Inequities Around Teacher Experience, Discipline and High School Rigor Minority students across America face harsher discipline, have less access to rigorous high school curricula, and are more often taught by lower-paid and less experienced teachers, according to the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR). In an event at Howard University attended by civil rights and education reform groups, federal education officials today released new data from a national survey of more than 72,000 schools serving 85% of the nation’s students. The self-reported data, Part II of the 2009-10 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), covers a range of issues including college and career readiness, discipline, school finance, and student retention. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said the CRDC findings are a wake-up call to educators at every level and issued a broad challenge to work together to address educational inequities. "The power of the data is not only in the numbers themselves, but in the impact it can have when married with the courage and the will to change. The undeniable truth is that the everyday educational experience for many students of color violates the principle of equity at the heart of the American promise. It is our collective duty to change that,” Duncan said. Among the key findings are: -African-American students, particularly males, are far more likely to be suspended or expelled from school than their peers. Black students make up 18% of the students in the CRDC sample, but 35% of the students suspended once, and 39% of the students expelled. -Students learning English (ELL) were 6% of the CRDC high school enrollment, but made up 12% of students retained -Only 29% of high-minority high schools offered Calculus, compared to 55% of schools with the lowest black and Hispanic enrollment. -Teachers in high-minority schools were paid $2,251 less per year than their colleagues in teaching in low-minority schools in the same district. Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Russlynn Ali said that for the first time, this survey includes detailed discipline data, including in-school suspensions, referrals to law enforcement, and school-related arrests. “These new data categories are a powerful tool to aid schools and districts in crafting policy, and can unleash the power of research to advance reform in schools,” Ali said. Part II of the CRDC also provides a clear, comparative picture of college and career readiness, school finance, teacher absenteeism, student harassment and bullying, student restraint and seclusion, and grade-level student retention. The data from both phases of the 2009-10 CRDC are available on OCR’s website for the CRDC, http://ocrdata.ed.gov. The website, which has been improved for better usability, also contains CRDC data from 2000-2006. For further information about OCR, please visit, www.ed.gov/ocr. For further information on the 2009-10 CRDC, visit http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/whatsnew.html. Source: U.S. Department of Education New Awareness Campaign Teaches Kids to be Cell Phone Smart For kids getting their first cell phone, the possibilities are endless. Used appropriately, a cell phone keeps kids in touch with the people they care about, but used in the wrong way, it can be a distraction or even a hazard, so teaching kids smart and safe cell phone use is of the utmost importance. Beginning a discussion about cell phone use early on builds good habits kids will carry into their teenage years. According to U.S. Teen Mobile Report in 2010, teenagers send and receive over 3,000 text messages per month. It is important to ensure that kids know not to include the following in text messaging -- personal information or mean or inappropriate comments. They should also not use texting as a replacement to engage in conversation with a person – this becomes even more important as kids get older. In an effort to educate youth, a new public awareness campaign recently launched in Rochester aims to teach area youth about safe and smart cell phone use. The “Cell Phone Smart” campaign supports the Mobile Safe curriculum available along with cell phone resources at www.cellphonesmart.org. The public awareness campaign is comprised of educational public service ads for movie theaters and radio. Grassroots materials complement the campaign with posters, brochures and fact sheets that are colorful and give simple, easy to understand lessons for youth. Materials are available for teachers and community leaders to use as awareness tools. The campaign is available for co-branding in communities across the country. The "Cell Phone Smart" campaign is one of six public awareness initiatives addressing child and youth safety issues and is a part of Project Youth Safety, a comprehensive multimedia, multicultural youth safety awareness effort. Other Project Youth Safety campaigns topics include child abuse, impact of domestic violence on kids, teen homelessness, and teen dating violence. To learn more about this, please go to www.PROJECTYOUTHSAFETY.org to see and download the materials. The "Cell Phone Smart" campaign is a partnership between INOBTR (“I Know Better”), a non-profit organization focused on educating kids through public awareness to keep them safe, and the Internet Keep Safe Coalition (iKeepSafe), a non-profit international alliance focused on teaching youth about using new media devices and platforms in safe and healthy ways. In the creation of this project, the Internet Keep Safe Coalition has partnered with the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), home to leading researchers in the area of child internet and cell phone use; the Center for Media and Child Health at Children’s Hospital at Boston; and Woogi World, a virtual school for K-6 students. Funding for this campaign comes from a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice and Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Program, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Funding Opportunities Mentoring Best Practices Research U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Deadline: April 30, 2012 The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has announced the following funding opportunity: Mentoring Best Practices Research. OJJDP will fund as many as six research studies to enhance help fill gaps in the knowledge about the effectiveness of mentoring as a prevention strategy for youth who are at risk of involvement or already involved in the juvenile justice system. OJJDP is also interested in research that will help identify the components of a mentoring program that have the greatest impact on risk factors known to lead to delinquency and/or increase in the incidence of juvenile delinquency and offending. Applications are due by 11:59 p.m. E.T., on April 30, 2012. To obtain further information about the above and other current OJJDP solicitations, including eligibility criteria, application deadlines, and frequently asked questions, visit www.ojjdp.gov/funding/FundingList.asp. Source: JUVJUST Children’s Health & Wellness Grants Source: The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools (CHHCS) State Farm Youth Advisory Board National Grant Program State Farm Youth Advisory Board Deadline: May 4, 2012
Source: GrantStation.com |