Building a Birth-to-College Model: Professional Learning Communities

The newest in a planned series of case studies on building a birth-to-college model of education released by the University of Chicago Urban Education Institute (UEI) and the Ounce of Prevention Fund this case study outlines how to create professional learning communities (PLCs) of teachers, administrators and family support staff spanning the early childhood to K-12 spectrum. The intent of the PLCs is to create environments where practitioners take the lead in collaboratively studying and piloting effective, developmentally informed practices that prepare children for college, beginning at birth.This teaching case study is intended to illustrate the evolutionary process of PLC development by UEI and the Ounce and inform the work of others interested in building similar birth-to-college systems to benefit children and families. It is based on interviews of 25 participants in the Birth-to-College Partnership, observations of PLC and other Birth to-College Partnership meetings over the six-month period between January 2012 and June 2012, and a review of Birth-to-College meeting notes and other documents dating back to June 2010

The Winnebago Educare Program: Be Strong and Educate My Children

Educare of Omaha began in 2002 as a private, non-profit collaborative effort of the Buffett Early Childhood Fund, the Omaha Public Schools, and the local Head Start grantee. Two sites are located in Omaha serving diverse communities in North and South Omaha. Educare differs from other early child care programs due to its prominent focus on children in poverty, and providing highest quality care by highly educated staff. “Students and families from low-income homes often face unique barriers in developing foundations for success and Educare’s program model is specifically designed to help at-risk students and their families overcome such barriers” (The Educare Report-Evaluation Summary 2011-2012). Educare is expanding its’ efforts to the Winnebago Reservation in Winnebago, Nebraska. It is estimated that 44 percent of the Native American population on the Winnebago Reservation lives at or below the poverty level. Demographic projections include doubling the population due to high birthrates by 2040. One critical aspect of Educare is the importance the program places on parent engagement. For Native American communities, the family is the centerpiece; the generational strengths of all including non-blood relatives must be accounted for and to. This article will examine qualities that the Winnebago Educare Program will utilize, including its adherence to cultural competence and a culturally infused curriculum in relation to Winnebago or Ho Chunk culture. Included will be interviews with leadership in the Winnebago-Educare Program and tribal leaders who will give their wisdom and interpretation of how this program will meet its’ goals for the next generation of Native American children

Educating through communities of practice

The aim of this paper is to attempt at building a bridge between education and situated learning. The etymology of the word education outlines the two major ways of envisioning education. The meaning which we give to the term ‘education’ surely influences the ways in which the process of education unfolds and is actually conducted. The Constructivist Approach which is being used in education today is characterised by its studentcenteredness rather than teacher‑centeredness. The adoption of Communities of Practice from the industrial sphere to the realm of Catholic schools is a way in which education as bringing forth from the student (e‑ducere) and the constructivist approach developed earlier can be put into practice in Catholic Schools. Communities of practice create the right condition for situated learning in Catholic schools today. It is here that legitimate peripheral participation can be put into practice, thus fulfilling the Church’s mission of evangelisation in our contemporary culture by drawing students from the periphery of the educational endeavour, making them active participants at the core.peer-reviewe

Engaging Family, Friend, and Neighbor Informal Caregivers

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation's Children, Families and Communities program is investing in exploratory projects to learn more about informal care settings. The overall goal of this work is to test strategies to provide information to family, friends, and neighbors (FFN), or informal caregivers, connect them with resources as well as each other, and support them in providing quality care for young children. Harder+Company Community Research, in partnership with the Center for Evaluation Innovation, conducted an evaluation of four informal care grants with an emphasis on learning from and with grantees, and using evaluation tools to support and strengthen the projects

Working Together to Build a Birth-to-College Approach to Public Education

In 2009, the University of Chicago Urban Education Institute (UEI) and the Ounce of Prevention Fund (the Ounce) embarked on an effort to form a partnership whose vision is to "...build a model of public education for children and their families that begins at birth and creates success in school, and life." UEI designed and operates four public charter school campuses offering families a pathway to college for their children that begins with prekindergarten (preK) and continues through high school. The Ounce created and operates the Educare School, which prepares at risk children from birth to age five for success in school. The partnership will initially demonstrate what it means when children begin their education early with Educare, enter UEI's charter campuses for elementary, middle and high school, advance to college, and persist to graduation. Ultimately, the partnership plans to harness and share the academic expertise and real-world experience of members of both organizations. The goal is to collaboratively and continuously align and create instructional practices, and academic and social supports, to demonstrate a new model of public education that seamlessly and successfully prepares children for college, beginning at birth. In the United States, early childhood education (ECE) is not publicly mandated. All children in the U.S. receive public schooling that generally begins with kindergarten. As a result, many children do not have access to sufficient learning opportunities early in life, and may start kindergarten at a disadvantage. Given that K-12 attempts at closing the achievement gap are costly and generally ineffective, calls are being made to prevent the achievement gap from ever occurring. This requires intervention at a very young age, since differences in achievement based on income level can be seen as young as nine months and become larger by kindergarten. Even children who have been exposed to high quality ECE can experience a "fade" of those benefits upon entering K-12, depending on the quality of elementary school. For many children, the achievement gap begins to widen once again. In the city of Chicago, high school graduation rates hover around 50 percent. Of those students who graduate, only 35 percent go on to attend four-year colleges and universities. The numbers grow even smaller for children who are African American, Latino, or low-income. The achievement gap that opens in early childhood tends to widen throughout K-12, and many children who start with a disadvantage at kindergarten never graduate from high school. If they do, they are unlikely to attend and graduate from college. Higher education levels are related to higher incomes, lower levels of unemployment, and other positive outcomes. In order to be competitive in a world where a college degree is increasingly important, the United States must ensure that children graduate high school and are prepared to graduate from college. Preventing an achievement gap and ensuring that the fade of benefits from high-quality ECE does not occur in elementary school, while at the same time raising the bar to "college for all," requires collaboration between the worlds of ECE and K-12. In the United States, however, there exists a structural divide between the two fields. Despite the fact that they share similar goals for educating children, policies, standards, and funding streams contribute to a "disconnect." The partnership's goals are to effect change in public education by creating a demonstration model of birth-to-grade 12 education that prepares students for success in college and life. In order to accomplish this, the two organizations will work together to share expertise, and align and co-create practices, to ensure the best possible chance for success for students. The partnership first needed to be established, strengthened, and trusted by key players from each organization -- this was not a simple task. UEI and the Ounce began this effort by developing a roadmap that includes a shared vision and mission, core values, and goals and activities of the partnership. We focus here on the formation of the shared vision and mission, a document that represents the goals and aspirations of the partnership between the two organizations. In the service of creating this document, a working group comprised of educators, administrators, researchers, and teacher leaders from each organization was formed. The working group used an iterative process, where they revised, questioned, and adjusted the roadmap during a series of ten three-hour meetings that took place over the course of nine months and were facilitated by a specialist. Working group members' testimonies about their experiences participating in the group are referenced in this study. We will also review iterations of the shared vision and mission as they changed over time

Poor Philanthropist II: New approaches to sustainable development

The second title in the Poor Philanthropist Series, this monograph represents the culmination of a six-year journey; a journey characterised in the first three years by in-depth qualitative research which resulted in an understanding of philanthropic traditions among people who are poor in southern Africa and gave rise to new and innovative concepts which formed the focus of the research monograph The Poor Philanthropist: How and Why the Poor Help Each Other, published by the Southern Africa-United States Centre for Leadership and Public Values in 2005

Die Nutzung von Tagesschulangeboten an deutschschweizer Tagesschulen

There is an expectation that all-day schools – schools that provide regular compulsory school instruction and in addition extended education offerings for voluntary participation – will reduce existing education inequality. This study focuses on whether utilization of extended education offerings varies in dependency on family background (migration background and socioeconomic status) or whether all-day schools are utilized equally by all students. In the framework of the research project EduCare-TaSe – All-Day Schools and School Success? this study examined utilization of extended education offerings in 1,099 students in Grade 1 at 53 all-day schools in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. The main finding is that the odds of utilizing extended education offerings are higher for students with a migration background and, further, that the odds of utilizing extended education offerings increase with higher socioeconomic status. Among children who utilize extended education offerings, intensity of utilization was higher for students with a migration background and for students with low socioeconomic status. But there are no indications that these two (risk) factors mutually influence each other with respect to intensity of utilization. For children at risk in the Swiss education system that have both migration background and low socioeconomic status only an additive effect can be detected. (DIPF/Orig.)Eine Erwartung an Tagesschulen – eine Schule, die neben dem obligatorischen Unterricht auch freiwillige Angebote führt – ist die Verringerung von bestehenden Bildungsungleichheiten. In der vorliegenden Studie wird die Frage fokussiert, ob das Tagesschulangebot in Abhängigkeit vom familiären Hintergrund (Migrationshintergrund und sozioökonomischer Status) unterschiedlich genutzt wird oder ob es der Tagesschule gelingt, alle Schülerinnen und Schüler gleich gut zu erreichen. Im Rahmen der Studie EduCare-TaSe – Tagesschule und Schulerfolg? wurden in der Deutschschweiz 1099 Erstklässlerinnen und Erstklässler aus 53 Tagesschulen hinsichtlich deren Nutzung des Tagesschulangebots untersucht. Zentraler Befund ist, dass Nutzende des Tagesschulangebots mit Migrationshintergrund einerseits und Nutzende mit einem niedrigen sozioökonomischen Status andererseits das Tagesschulangebot intensiver nutzen als Schülerinnen und Schüler ohne Migrationshintergrund bzw. mit hohem sozioökonomischem Status. Es gibt jedoch keine Hinweise darauf, dass sich diese beiden (Risiko-) Faktoren bezüglich der Nutzungsintensität gegenseitig beeinflussen. Bei den Risikokindern des Schweizer Bildungssystems, die sowohl einen Migrationshintergrund als auch einen niedrigen sozioökonomischen Status aufweisen, lässt sich somit lediglich ein additiver Effekt hinsichtlich deren Nutzung von Tagesschulangeboten feststellen. (DIPF/Orig.

Do Job Disamenities Raise Wages or Ruin Job Satisfaction?

This study investigates the role of adverse working conditions in the determination of individual wages and overall job satisfaction in the Finnish labour market. The potential influence of adverse working conditions on self-reported fairness of pay at the workplace is considered as an alternative, indirect measure of job satisfaction. The results show that working conditions have a very minor role in the determination of individual wages in the Finnish labour market. In contrast, adverse working conditions substantially increase the level of job dissatisfaction and the perception of unfairness of pay at the workplace.compensating wage differentials, job satisfaction, working conditions

CareerAdvance® Implementation Study Findings through FY 2018

This report examines the implementation of the third year of HPOG II services in a five-year grant cycle, including post-HPOG sustainability planning for CareerAdvance®. This report focuses on how and why the program has changed and adjusted to meet the requirements of HPOG II, while responding to the needs of the participants being served, the local job market, and the partners working together to implement and sustain the program. First, this report briefly describes the organizations partnering to implement the HPOG II version of CareerAdvance®. It then examines changes made to the program components, including the eligibility requirements, recruitment, assessment, and selection process, support services, training options, and other program elements. Also, it describes the HPOG II FY 2018 (September 1, 2017-August 31, 2018) cohorts enrolled in training, including assessment scores and detailed demographic information on the participants and their families, as well as program completion and certification attainment of all HPOG II participants (April 2016-August 31, 2018). A final section addresses CareerAdvance® sustainability planning issues, options and opportunities. This report draws from previous CareerAdvance® reports, information on the HPOG II program participants and their families, and interviews with CAP, Tulsa Tech, Family and Children Services, and Tulsa Community WorkAdvance leadership and staff.Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human ServicesRay Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resource

Spirituality in education : promoting children's spiritual development through values

This paper reports on research in the Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit (WRERU) at the University of Warwick regarding an educational programme, which is based on what are perceived to be universal values. The programme aims to contribute to the spiritual development of children in schools, which is one of statutory requirements of mainstream school provision in England and Wales. The Sathya Sai Education in Human Values (SSEHV) offers material which seeks to promote ‘human values’. The paper explores what these values are and why they are perceived to be of a universal nature. The focus on values introduces spiritual dimensions which are examined with reference to the educational contexts in which they are conveyed. The contents of the programme and the development from its inception are described. The paper is based on ethnographic data collected in classrooms and other educational environments where the programme has found application