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January 15, 2003
The Back Page
By Amy Poftak & Kristen Kennedy
Gleanings
Some Parents Left Behind
A new study from the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University reports that 47 percent of parents in poor, urban areas have not heard of the No Child Left Behind Act, which, among other things, requires schools to tell parents if their child's teachers are not "highly qualified." In fact, only 25 percent of districts nationwide have complied with this part of the law, says the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now-not surprising when you consider that only about half of states have come up with a definition for "highly qualified."
Video Games and Race
According to findings published in a recent Kaiser Family Foundation fact sheet, African American and Hispanic youth ages 8-18 play more video games than whites, and kids from low- and middle-income homes spend more time gaming than those from high-income areas. Despite their popularity among minority youth, nine out of 10 video game heroes are white, and a study of the seven top-selling games for children found that all of the games' human characters were white.
Readers Note Few Changes in School Calendar
Our October Trend Watch asked readers if school calendars are changing to accommodate the need for more standardized test prep. Seventy-two percent of our online QuickPoll respondents said that their schools hadn't started school earlier or adopted block scheduling to build in more time for assessment. Nevertheless, a small but noteworthy minority of 28 percent said their school calendars had changed, but didn't specify how.
Hit List
Online/Offline
Chicago is known for its creative projects-remember the funky art cows displayed throughout the city in 1999? One Book, One Chicago provides more evidence of this civic spirit. Coordinated by the City of Chicago and the Chicago Public Library, One Book, One Chicago came about three years ago from a simple yet powerful idea: What if an entire city read the same book together? The most recent pick, Willa Cather's My Antonia, was read by thousands of the city's denizens and discussed at local libraries, bookstores, and coffee shops over a week's time. A print and Web resource guide provided thought-provoking questions to help spark the conversations. Educators looking to plan a similar, if perhaps smaller-scale, event in their own community should take advantage of the project Web site for details on how Chicago did it, as well as reading guides for My Antonia, Night, and To Kill A Mockingbird.
Articles
Educators facing the end of the holiday season and the challenge of winter term may want to rekindle their belief in the transformative power of education by reading "Shabana Is Late for School," featured in the September 29th edition of The New York Times Magazine. Writer Susan Dominus chronicles the rebirth of learning in Kabul through Shabana, a shy 11-year-old girl attending school for the first time. Throughout Dominus' profile, we see Shabana's hesitation in the classroom change into confidence, as learning encourages her and other girls to explore life outside the home-without the veil. Without idealizing education in classrooms that have inadequate supplies and seating, Dominus portrays the way a generation of young women is coming to terms with social and intellectual deprivation suffered under the Taliban. The full text of the article can be purchased online for $2.95 at www.nytimes.com.
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