Education – Page 3

Open Educational Resources (OER)

Problem

Rising costs of higher education including tuition, administrative fees, and textbook costs are hindering students from accessing the materials and resources they need to excel in college.

Solution

Representative Tobias Read helped lead the passage of legislation in Oregon to expand Open Educational Resources (OER), open source textbooks and class materials. OER materials reduce higher education costs by making content shareable, flexible, interactive, customizable and portable. The bill will help schools make use of existing OER resources and provide funds for the creation of new materials to make textbooks more relevant and effective for students.

Schools as Community Hubs

Problem

Many school communities in underserved areas lack a physical site for health, education, literacy, employment and human services to be provided. Great schools are community hubs that connect students, families, teachers, nonprofits and businesses into a strong fabric of learning, service, opportunity and prosperity.

Solution

Mayor Dayne Walling has helped expand the community schools movement in Flint, Michigan by collaborating with the Corporation for National and Community Service to utilize AmeriCorps volunteers in the process of making schools into community hubs. In the demonstration project in Flint, over 40 Operation AmeriCorps national service members in the new Flint Community Schools Corps will be placed in 4 sites with the assignment of developing volunteers and mentors for the schools. This approach simultaneously addresses both the necessity of boosting student academic performance and the obligation to engage the wider network of parents and leaders in human development. Making schools into community hubs leverages the existing investment in the school building and expands before and after school as well as evening programming opportunities. By collaborating with the AmeriCorp program, Mayor Walling also hopes to encourage volunteerism and national service in local education.

School and City Financial Merger

Problem

The financial software that the Board of Education uses in Middletown is outdated and inefficient, not allowing the school system to meet Connecticut’s state standards on financial reporting. Furthermore, the lack of coordination and transparency between city and school finances often leads to duplicative efforts and a lack of understanding how funds are being used each year.

Solution

Mayor Dan Drew helped lead the merger of financial operations between Middletown’s city hall and school system in order to save millions, prevent future litigation, and enable more transparent public school expenditures. The integration will provide upgraded software that will help make financial reporting more efficient for both the city and schools. By using the same software, the city will be also able to remove duplicative efforts between the two parties and help provide a better understanding for how city and school finances are being spent. Mayor Drew also hopes that this plan will ameliorate some of the pressure from school funding on local regressive tax rates by improving communication between city and school finances.

Next Generation Schools

Problem

US Schools are more racially and economically segregated than 40 years ago. In Maryland, the most segregated schools have the highest level of low income students: schools where 99 to 100% of the student population is minority, about 73% of the population is low income. The current education model fails to educate all students adequately and equally, and as a result of the rapidly changing workforce demands, the US could be facing a shortage of up to 95 million high-and-medium-skilled workers by 2020. Additionally, our public schools fail to equip students with next generation skills but instead replicate traditional school models that do not keep up with 21st century demands. Subsequently, academic outcomes are stagnant and generally underperforming.

Solution

Senator Bill Ferguson introduced legislation that establishes Next Generation Schools in Maryland. These schools provide a rigorous 21st Century education to a diverse student body, while establishing an education innovation community that will stimulate an ecosystem of high-performing school models and will improve Maryland’s education structure. Next Generation Schools proposes to address these problems through the creation of 5 new schools that will innovate education through curriculum, structure and diversity. The schools will allow freedom of curriculum to educate 21st century skills, they will create new learning environments that allow schools to partner with universities, businesses and industry, and they will prepare students to work with people from different economic and cultural backgrounds by encouraging school diversity. Additionally, Next Generation Schools will innovate Maryland’s education system by establishing the Education Development Collaborative (EdCo). EDCo is a 15 member board that acts as an education innovation hub, modeled after Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO), that will leverage philanthropic and federal funds to aggregate and stimulate an ecosystem of 21st century school models with the purpose of studying and implementing evidence-based best practices to develop school curriculum, technology and structures.

Decoding Dyslexia

Problem

The data shows that nearly one in five students are dyslexic or have a visual processing disorder, making learning the basics of reading, writing, and math much more challenging; traditional teaching methods simply don’t work for these children. Despite the staggering number of people affected, our system of education makes no accommodations to help these students succeed. For the students who are fortunate enough to be diagnosed, many parents will spend thousands of dollars to get their children the help they need. Students who aren’t diagnosed and who don’t have access to treatment or tutoring are significantly more likely to struggle academically and are less likely to graduate. Furthermore, national and state studies have shown that a statistically high percentage of the prison population has some type of learning disability.

Solution

Working with the Oregon chapter of Decoding Dyslexia, Representative Val Hoyle helped pass legislation to create a comprehensive statewide system for training teachers to recognize and educate students with dyslexia to improve grade-level reading and math performance and maximize the academic and professional potential of all children.

Denver Youth Thrive

Problem

Every child in Denver deserves access to quality afterschool programs. Decades of research indicate that participation in quality afterschool programs keep kids safe, helps working families, and improves student engagement in school, thus improving academic achievement. Yet like many other cities across the nation, Denver’s afterschool field is fragmented, quality is inconsistent, and there is no sustainable source of funding to support programs.

Solution

The Denver Afterschool Alliance is working arm in arm with every stakeholder citywide to establish a comprehensive, sustainable afterschool solution that will ensure equity in access to quality afterschool programming throughout the city. This coordinated approach will help keep kids safe and inspire them to be successful in school and graduate ready for career, college, and life. By working collaboratively with Denver Public Schools and other community stakeholders, the Alliance will be able to identify which programs are the most effective and dramatically accelerates the City’s progress in supporting Denver’s youth.

Degrees, Not Debt

Problem

There is over $1 trillion in outstanding student loan debt nationally, and approximately $7.2 billion in Nevada. Allowing so much outstanding debt to exist is a drag on economic growth, and it prevents people from investing in themselves. Student loan debt depletes savings and drags down credit, prevents young people from buying a first home, limits flexibility in career options and opportunities, and decreases consumer spending, which creates a ripple effect into the larger economy. Unsustainable levels of student loan debt will also ultimately limit risk taking, preventing the next wave of innovative entrepreneurs from starting businesses. If student loan debt continues to rise, we should expect fewer and fewer people to be able to participate fully in the economy.

Solution

Aaron Ford proposes that the State of Nevada create the Student Loan Refinancing Program, a state lending program that gives Nevadans the opportunity to consolidate and refinance student loans. Easing the burden on students paying off their loans will spur growth that benefits everyone. Nevada is currently attempting to create a one-stop shop for Nevadans to consolidate loans into one payment and refinance at a lower interest rate. The proposal also includes educational components that are designed to help prevent students from making bad decisions regarding how much and when to borrow so they can be prepared before they begin taking on debt.

The Denver Education Compact

Problem

For too long, far too many of Denver’s children have grown up without a full opportunity to succeed, and in a city as resource rich as Denver that shouldn’t be the case. Incredible organizations and people have been tirelessly working to provide Denver’s youth the opportunities they deserve to access a high quality education. However this work was often done in silos. There were often competing interests and scattered strategies. This led to unnecessary overlap, limited financial resources, and not enough students getting the supports and services they deserved.

Solution

Mayor Michael Hancock helped coordinate the creation of “The Education Compact,” a citywide collaboration between 20+ key Denver institutions working to create a robust cradle-to-career continuum for Denver’s youth – where all students enter kindergarten prepared, graduate high school prepared, complete a postsecondary pathway and obtain a job. By having a diverse group of community leaders that represent Denver’s many neighborhoods, industries, and sectors housed under one organization means that resources can be brought to bear and deliberate collaboration can occur to increase educational attainment for all Denver students.

The City of West Sacramento Kids’ Home Run

Problem

Since its incorporation in 1987, West Sacramento has been a regional leader for infill housing and economic development. The city’s workforce development activities however, have yet to mature with the changing economic landscape. Once a blue collar city across the river from Sacramento, West Sacramento has developed tremendously in the past 28 years into a hub of research and development, advanced manufacturing, food processing, and logistics. The education system has yet to fully respond to the altered business environment, and the area has one of the highest unemployment rates in the region.

Solution

The Kids’ Home Run is an educational and jobs initiative that combines new and existing programs in the lives of children ages four to eighteen. The initiative supports improved alignment of the education system and workforce needs, providing classroom instruction and on the job training for entry level careers while ensuring high school youth enroll and complete community college, all through partnerships between the city, school district, community college, and local nonprofits. The initiative is composed of four programs: Universal Preschool for every four year old, a guaranteed $50 college savings account for kindergartners, guaranteed internships for high school students and a college promise program for one year of fee free community college. Voters approved funding the initiative in November through a sales tax initiative, and our business community, school district and community college district have all come together to support it.

Whole Child Leon: Building Community Support for our Youngest Children

Problem

We know that 90% of brain development takes place before the age of 5, yet community support for families with young children is sporadic and fragmented. Although Leon County houses the Capitol of Florida, 2 major research universities and a community college, more than 25% of Leon County children live in poverty and a corresponding 25% enter Kindergarten without the language or basic skills to succeed. Leon County rates for infant mortality, premature births and low birth weight in Leon County are higher than in the state as a whole.

Solution

Whole Child Leon (WCL) is a community-wide initiative designed to address critical issues affecting our children by bringing together public, private and nonprofit partners, business leaders, elected officials, educators, health care providers, parents and caregivers to work together towards systemic change. WCL empowers these partners with data to better understand children’s needs and equip the entire community to measure progress, provide recommendations and to inform progress moving forward. Key initiatives include the PACT Early Childhood System of Care, a monthly Whole Child Leon Professional Network, an annual Maternal Child Health Community Conference, an ongoing Breastfeeding Policy Workgroup, bi-annual Early Childhood Developmental Screenings, ongoing Childhood Obesity Prevention Education and neighborhood equity work.

Open Educational Resources (OER)

Problem

Solution

Schools as Community Hubs

Problem

Solution

School and City Financial Merger

Problem

Solution

Next Generation Schools

Problem

Solution

Decoding Dyslexia

Problem

Solution

Denver Youth Thrive

Problem

Solution

Degrees, Not Debt

Problem

Solution

The Denver Education Compact

Problem

Solution

The City of West Sacramento Kids’ Home Run

Problem

Solution

Whole Child Leon: Building Community Support for our Youngest Children

Problem

Solution

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