Sound Connections

Our October Solutions to the Dropout Crisis webcast features Fifteen Effective Strategies that should be part of every comprehensive dropout prevention plan!

Mark your calendar for the November 29th Solutions to the Dropout Crisis radio webcast: The Design and Evaluation of Alternative Education Programs presented by Chet Edwards and Drew Hinds.

Diary of a Turnaround School Listen to the webinar describing how a Massachusetts high school, using literacy strategies, turned around a 70% poverty/73% minority school. Go here for additional resources for this site.

Media Spotlight

Edutopia's Schools That Work package has produced an excellent video on a re-teach method that allows time for every student.

Funding Sources

· State Farm Good Neighbor Service-Learning Grants - Nov. 9
· Project Ignition Grants - Nov. 15
· The College Board: Costas Awards - Nov. 18
· MLK Day Lead Organizer Grants - Nov. 18
· NGA/Home Depot: Youth Garden Grant- Nov. 28
· Zula International/NSTA: Early Science Educator Awards - Nov. 30
· Student Organizing and Assistance Resources (SOAR) Grants - Nov. 30
· AAPT: High School Physics Teachers Grants - Dec. 1
· New Leaders for New Schools: Aspiring Principals Program - Dec. 1
· ASME: Discover Educator Recognition Award - Dec. 1
· 2011 SeaWorld/Busch Gardens Environmental Excellence Awards - Dec. 1
· CVS Caremark: Community Grants - Jan - Oct 2012
· Ezra Jack Keats Minigrants - Mar. 15
· CSCP minigrant to increase the participation of K-12 youth with disabilities in computer science

Policy Updates

Challenges and Solutions for Student Mobility A new report,"Challenges and Solutions to Educating Mobile Students", examines the challenges of students changing schools in the middle of the school year for both students and teachers and identifies promising strategies for overcoming these challenges. Following the Nevada Growth Model, the emphasis is placed on student growth rather than grade-level expectations.

The Pew Center on the States released Pre-K Now's final report, which advocates shifting policy making toward a pre-K-through-12 system.

A new report from UCLA's Center for Mental Health Dropout Prevention: Do Districts Pursue Best Practice Recommendations?

Effective Strategies

The future of the American economy increasingly depends on the preparation of our youth. Alliance for Excellent Education's new report, "Expanded Learning Opportunities: A More Comprehensive Approach to Preparing High School Students for College and a Career, suggests strategies for preparing the nation's youth.

NLC Study Finds Citywide Approaches to Afterschool Spreading Across the Country: Research Report Highlights Progress in 27 Leading Cities.

Visitors to New York State's CareerZone Web site will notice right away that it was designed with teenagers in mind. It's described as an online career exploration and planning system to make career exploration and planning fun and easy.

In this report, "Building Local Leadership for Change: A National Scan of Parent Leadership Training Programs", the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, describes and analyzes four successful parent leadership training programs around the country, each with a different focus: leadership training, immigrant families, child learning support, and understanding and navigating the educational system.

America's Promise Alliance is inviting communities to become Grad Nation Communities to be part of a national network of cities and towns focusing on the local schools that are most in need of improvement.

The Coalition for Community Schools is hosting a series of webinars beginning at noon Nov. 2nd to learn how to scale up community schools using their new online interactive Scaling Up Guide.

Students with Disabilities

The National Dropout Prevention Center for Students with Disabilities - Reentry Programs for Out-of-School Youth with Disabilities

Resources & Tools

New Resources on High School Tiered Interventions to accompany the report, "Tiered Interventions in High Schools: Using Preliminary Lessons Learned to Guide Ongoing Discussion."



The National Dropout Prevention Center on Facebook.