School District Rejects Federal Grant Money, Claiming Race to the Top Doesn’t Work

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Times are hard for school systems across the country, so why is the Jones County school district, refusing $1.3 million in Race to the Top federal funds? The school system, located southeast of Atlanta, claims the funding comes with stipulations, requiring that over half the money ($900,000) be spent on paying teachers based on merit, according to WMAZ-TV. The school board voted unanimously to reject the funds. The money was too targeted and restrictive to help the district, Superintendant William Mathews told the TV station. Mathews also explained that research does not show that paying teachers based on merit works.

Report: Foundations Do Little to Help Education for Disadvantaged Kids

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Few foundations direct a large share of their education funding to helping low-income kids in marginalized communities, according to a new report from the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy. From 2006 through 2008, 672 foundations gave at least $1 million in grants for education, according to the report entitled Confronting Systemic Inequity in Education: High Impact Strategies for Philanthropy. Only 11 percent of those foundations used at least half of that money for students from marginalized communities. Only 2 percent used at least a quarter of their education funding to improve advocacy, community organizing or civic engagement. The National Committee describes marginalized communities as “primarily children in low-wealth families and children of color, English language learners, gay and gender-nonconforming youth, students with disabilities, immigrant youth and females in male-dominated fields.”

The Committee argues that education reform can’t succeed without making educational access equal for all kids, regardless of race, ethnicity and parental income.

Social Training for Kids Doesn’t Improve School Performance

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Programs aimed at improving a child’s character and social skills have almost no positive effect on the behavior and academic performance of elementary school kids, according to the National Center for Education Research. Over 6,000 third-graders, caregivers, teachers and principals in 84 schools that had Social and Character Development (SACD) programs were studied by the National Center. Researchers found that kids in schools with SACD programs were no different than kids without them, in terms of:

Social and emotional competence
Behavior
Academic performance
Perceptions of school climate

The study looked at students in seven programs as the kids moved through third, fourth and fifth grades. It measured things like altruistic and problem behavior, feelings of safety, support for teachers and academic confidence. Only 2 of 20 students showed any statistical benefits from the programs.

SACD programs teach children how to deal with their feelings and improve other social behaviors.

Non-Profit Seeks New Director

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Here’s a plum job for someone who’s into juvenile justice reform:

Reclaiming Futures, a non-profit that focuses on helping kids involved with drugs, alcohol and crime, is looking for a new national director. Started by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Reclaiming Futures uses a 6-step model that brings judges, probation officers, substance abuse treatment professionals and community members together to help kids in need. Some of the job responsibilities include:

Create a strategic plan for policy, programming, communications, operations and budgets. Track and measure the performance of Reclaiming Futures sites
Perform site visits, develop funding opportunities, attend meetings and make conference presentations
Network, coordinate and promote activities with other national organizations and other interested parties

This position pays $105,000 - $120,000, depending on experience and you’d have to move to Portland, OR. To download the application, click here.

Feds Warn Schools to Get Tougher on Bullying and Civil Rights Violations

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In a rare move, the Department of Education is sending out a 10-page letter today to thousands of school districts, colleges and universities, to make sure they are complying with federal rules to prevent bullying and harassment. They warn that some types of bullying may actually be discriminatory  harassment under the Civil Rights Act. The letter clarifies when student bullying may violate federal education anti-discrimination laws. It explains educator’s legal obligations to protect students from the following kinds of harassment and bullying. Racial and national orientation
Sexual and gender-based
Disability

The letter provides examples of harassment and explains how schools should respond to each case.

Forsyth County Most Aggressive in Fighting Teen Sexting

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There have been at least 10 sexting cases in the Forsyth County school system over the past four years. This is what drives sheriff’s investigator Jeff Roe in his campaign against sexting and Internet based sex crime among teens, according to the AJC. He visits schools with a blunt message: kids have committed suicide after being exposed on the Internet and in picture text messages. He urges students to take the problem seriously by not participating in any form of sexting, explicit text messaging or sharing of lewd images online. Is the reach out to the community working?

Juveniles Arrested for Vandalizing Cobb School and Setting Fire

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Two children were arrested Monday for setting fire to a trailer at Lost Mountain Middle School in Kennesaw.  They are also accused of breaking 14 windows on the sixth-grade wing of the school, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.  Both kids face felony charges of arson and criminal damage.

Grant Provides Lawyers for Kids Fighting Deportation

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Every year, immigration officials discover more than 8,000 children who’ve come to the states unaccompanied. These kids have to figure out how to find and pay for their own lawyers while facing deportation. Microsoft has partnered with actress Angelina Jolie to grant $3 million to Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), an organization based in Washington, D.C. that helps young people who are facing the immigration system alone. KIND has helped almost 1,900 kids originating from more than 35 countries in the past year.  More than 1,900 attorneys have received training from KIND in an effort to build a national pool of lawyers for unaccompanied kids in the U.S.

For the full news release, click here.

Sex Abuse in Detention: Numbers are Low, But Still Troubling

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The FBI did some extensive research on sexual victimization in juvenile facilities across the country and found that violent sex assaults are relatively rare, but the numbers are still disturbing. The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) published Sexual Victimization in Juvenile Facilities Reported by Youth, 2008-2009. The report found that out of about 26,000 kids in both state and privately run facilities, 12.2% (3,220) said they experienced sexual violence. Here’s a breakdown:

Youth-on-youth sex abuse incidents: 2.6%. Youth-on-youth incidents involving force: 2%
Staff-on-youth sex abuse incidents: 10.3%
Staff-on-youth incidents involving force: 4.3%

And here’s a surprising find: Facilities that housed only girls had the highest rates of youth-on-youth sex abuse (11%), while detention centers that housed only boys had the highest rates of sexual misconduct involving staff (11.3%).

Good News, Bad News About Teen Driving Deaths

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The number of 16 and 17-year-olds dying in car crashes went down 36 percent from 2004 to 2008. The overall number of teens dying on the road has steadily decreased since 1996, according to research compiled in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), released in October by the Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention. But there’s still bad news. Car accidents remain the leading cause of teen deaths, accounting for 1/3 of teen fatalities every year. So, what’s driving the decline?