Today launches the third Middle School Success public awareness campaign by United Way. 

Why raise awareness of middle school?

Have you even been in middle school or junior high school?  Do you remember the awkwardness and confusion of that time?  Do you remember thinking that your parents, teachers or other adults just don’t get it?  The public awareness campaign is intended to remind the adults in this community that we were there once ourselves and that we need to support and encourage youth in our community who are dealing with the middle school years.
 

Some years ago I worked with high school dropouts to prep for their GED exams and find employment.  The common joke among the participants was that they all wanted a job taste-testing in a pie factory, everything else looked hard and/or boring. We spent a significant amount of time helping them understand realities of the work world. 

At my request, we have a guest blog from Allison Jordan, Executive Director of Children First/ Communities in Schools.  “Communities in Schools” is a specific model within a Community School approach. Learn about the amazing work taking place in two local elementary schools:

In the two most recent blogs, I’ve talked about the Community School model and shared some of the research on how it works to support students, families and schools.

 In my last post, I introduced the idea of a community school: One where resources for families are offered at the school and where students learn through an integrated curriculum which makes learning more relevant to students’ lives.  Sounds OK, but does it make any difference?

It seems strange on the heels of my blog about guns that I now want to talk about community schools.  This may be a time when parents and school staff are thinking about locking out the community from our schools.  But let’s talk about it…

I doubt many of us made it through the holidays without thinking of the mass  shooting  in Newtown Connecticut..  Such a horrific event penetrates the armor of the most hardened of us.  So as we figure out ways to move on, we face two options:

1. Let time diminish our feelings about it
2. Keep the tragedy alive enough to have a national discussion about it

Earlier this year we hosted a half dozen community conversations that focused on disadvantaged youth and what gets in their way of having a chance at a good life.  We defined disadvantaged youth as teens who had dropped out of high school and were unemployed.  Many of those who joined the conversations were in their teens or twenties. 

This Community Wants Good Public Education

Recently I wrote about 4 ways to keep public education alive. Here is a slightly different slant on the public interest in public education.  Education has been one of the most significant messages from the Community Conversations we have been hosting.

The 2012 elections have ended and one of the big questions is what the results mean for public education. So now is a good time for us to take charge of what we want public education to look like. What can we control?