What's Lucy Reading?

TASC President Lucy N. Friedman catches you up on her list of must-reads:

An article in the December newsletter of the Center for Social and Emotional Education contains a review of the research on how to cultivate connections between high school students and their schools. Research scientist Janet Whitlock concludes that "the most disconnected kids have the most to gain by opportunities to connect." We've seen the same results in our City Connection program, where we train high school students to work with younger kids in after-school programs.

Ms. Whitlock finds, however, that the kids who have the most to gain are not the ones most likely to be offered chances to connect with adults in their schools. Those opportunities go most often to kids who have proven their academic or leadership capabilities. It's not a surprising finding, but one that sheds light on persistent achievement gaps. One of the points of City Connection is to steer those opportunities to kids at risk of dropping out.

In a recent column, Bob Herbert at The New York Times kvelled over the promise of a tuition-free, three-year doctoral program in educational leadership that Harvard Graduate School of Education is offering. Students will spend year three in a "field placement." Every chance I get, I urge schools of education to place future teachers and educational leaders in out-of-school time settings, both to expose them to multiple ways of teaching and learning, but also to prepare them to form strong working relationships that deliver kids fully-rounded educations.

A six-year study of community organizing as a strategy for public school reform is summarized in a new book by Kavitha Mediratta, a program officer at New York Community Trust, and her co-authors from the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University. In "Community Organizing for Stronger Schools: Strategies and Successes," they describe how community organizers worked with school leaders and districts in eight cities to create "effective inside-outside relationships" in support of common goals. Their research found that the most effective organizing campaigns increased the responsiveness of district leaders to the concerns of low-income parents; secured substantial new resources and assured their equitable distribution; and introduced new policy to improve curriculum, school organization, teacher recruitment and preparation, and parent engagement.