Education as it relates to children

Education as it relates to children

Organization 1: Jumpstart

Mission of the Organization:

The vision of the organization states: “every child in America enters kindergarten prepared to succeed” (“Mission & Vision”, 2021).

Their mission then states: “Jumpstart advances equitable learning outcomes for young children in underserved communities by recruiting and supporting caring adults to deliver high-quality programming to children and drive systems change through teaching, advocacy, and leadership” (“Mission & Values”, 2021).

Primary Target Population:

The primary target population of Jumpstart is children from under-resourced communities.

Needs of Target Population:

According to Jenson & Fraser (2016), “youth of color are at greatest risk for school adjustment problems during the elementary grades, and they are more likely than other students to become school dropouts” (p. 156).

Scope of Services Provided:

Jumpstart looks to help children before they enter kindergarten gain the academic and social skills that they will need in order to help the be successful.

These skills include oral language development in addition to social emotional language skills (“Our program”, 2021).

Because the program is offered in many states, they also prepare the members with the skills to best help the children they are working with (“Our program”, 2021).

Organization 2: The New Teacher Project

Mission of the Organization:

“The New Teacher Project works to end educational inequality. Its primary goal is to create engaging classrooms, focused schools, and strategic school systems” (Fritz, 2020, p. 1).

Primary Target Population:

“Recent reports have indicated that the American education system is still struggling to reach all students effectively” (Jenson & Fraser, 2016, p. 156).

The New Teacher Project works to help teachers understand what they need to help these students in a way that is beneficial to their specific needs.

Needs of Target Population:

The New Teacher Project helps to then identify the actual problems for specific schools/ “Our experts collect key information- from observing 1,000 classrooms to surveying 10,000 teachers- to pinpoint root causes and map a way forward” (“The New”, 2021).

As they were identifying barriers to education, they looked at systemic issues like culture, leadership, retention, and compensation (Fritz, 2020).

According to Jenson & Fraser (2016), protective factors are ones that help limit risks and other issues. “Protective factors like attachment to teachers or other adults at school have the potential to reduce risk and decrease the likelihood of school-related problems” (p. 158).

Scope of Services Provided:

According to their website, The New Teacher Project provides advice to different education leader “on how to approach questions of educational quality, from navigating negotiations to engaging community members to communicating a superintendent’s vision” (“The New”, 2021, p.1).

The New Teacher Project looks at training educators, helping to invest in academic content, helping with teacher evaluations, teacher recruiting, and more (“The New”, 2021).

Education Policy 1:

There are different policies and practices for American education that are influenced by political ideology (Jenson & Fraser, 2016)

Conservative: emphasize knowledge-centered education, traditional forms of learning and curricula, respect for authority and discipline, and the adoption of rigorous academic standards (Jenson & Fraser, 2016, p. 160).

Liberal: curricula are responsive to the induvial as well as to social and environmental context (Jenson & Fraser, 2016).

According to Jenson & Fraser (2016), “policy directed at the nation’s schools has lacked a guiding set of consistent values and principles. Principles of risk, protection, and resilience can be applied to education policy in two fundamental ways” (p. 186).

Option 1 looks at focusing on youth and their adjustments to school. “Such a strategy tends to concentrate program and policy efforts on youth from disadvantaged backgrounds because socioeconomic status is a key risk factor for educational failure” (Jenson & Fraser, 2016, p. 186)

Option 2 looks at “risk, protection, and resilience to design promotive educational policies and programs that are beneficial for all children, regardless of risk exposure” (Jenson & Fraser, 2016, p. 186)

Education Policy

A recent education policy from the 1990s was No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).

“NCLB was designed to create a stronger, more accountable education system, to change the culture of education and to use evidence-based strategies that have been determined effective through rigorous research” (Jenson & Fraser, 2016, p. 169)

This policy assisted children by setting clear and high standards through an assessment system to measure their progress (Jenson & Fraser, 2016).

“In addition to its emphasis on early reading programs, NCLB is noteworthy for its attention to the critical role that parents play in children’s educational experiences. NCLB has dramatically affected educational practices, which now place a premium on students meeting standards of learning and assessment and on school-based management, teacher empowerment, and school choice” (Jenson & Fraser, 2016, p. 169).

References

Fritz, J. (2020, September 28). What nonprofits support education? The Balance Small Business. Retrieved November 29, 2021, from https://www.thebalancesmb.com/best-education-nonprofits-working-with-public-schools-4178960.

Jenson, M. M., & Fraser, M. W. (2016). Social policy for children and families: A risk and resilience perspective (3rd ed.). Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publishing.

Mission & vision. Jumpstart. (2021, August 31). Retrieved November 29, 2021, from https://www.jstart.org/about/mission-and-vision/.

Our program. Jumpstart. (2021, August 31). Retrieved November 29, 2021, from https://www.jstart.org/about/mission-and-vision/.

The New Teacher Project. (2021). What we do. TNTP. Retrieved November 29, 2021, from https://tntp.org/what-we-do.

Extra note from readings

Trends in School Failure and Academic Achievement

The reasons for education are differing. According to Fuhrman & Lazerson (2005), “these competing interests include preparing students for the workforce, teaching basic academic skills, developing social and cognitive skills, and preparing youth to be productive future citizens” (Jenson & Fraser, 2016, p. 155).

“Education plays a prominent role in the acquisition of economic and social benefits associated with gainful employment. Unfortunately, evidence from years of research indicates that access to quality public education is far from equal” (Jenson & Fraser, 2016, p.156).

Student-specific factors as to why someone could dropout or have academic failure are “low academic achievement, student misbehavior, suspensions and expulsions, negative narrative comments in school records, frequent referrals for in – and out- of school problems, number of elementary schools attended, and early environment in the juvenile justice system” (Jenson & Fraser, 2016, p. 156).

“Students perform better and achieve at higher levels when they feel a sense of attachment to school, which is characterized by bonding or connection that occurs through a process of school engagement” (Jenson & Fraser, 2016, p. 156).

For other students, particularly for youth of color, structure and culture in school are often quite different from those in the home. This disparity often alienates students and contributes to disengagement and subsequent dropout (Patterson, Hale, & Stessman, 2007). Youth of color are at greatest risk for school adjustment problems during the elementary grades, and they are more likely than other students to become school dropouts (p. 156)

Risk and Protective Factors for School Adjustment and Achievement Problems

Protective factors are characteristics or traits that buffer and moderate exposure to risk. In high-risk situations, protective factors like attachment to teachers or other adults at school have the potential to reduce risk and decrease the likelihood of school-related problems. In the absence of risk, protective factors have a neutral effect (p. 158)

Promotive factors are defined as forces that exert positive influences on behavior, irrespective of the presence or absence of risk (Sameroff & Gutman, 2004). Examples of promotive factors include high intelligence and strong social skills, which can promote positive behavioral outcomes regardless of risk exposure (p. 158)

Education Policy: Past and Present

American educational policies and practices are profoundly influenced by political ideology, which is most frequently viewed in terms of a conservative or liberal stance. Historically, a conservative view of education has promoted the idea that individual students have the capacity to earn—or fail to earn—their place among the academic elite (p. 160)

Policy approaches based on conservative views tend to emphasize knowledge-centered education, traditional forms of learning and curricula, respect for authority and discipline, and the adoption of rigorous academic standards. In contrast, educational approaches based on liberal perspectives have tended to support curricula that are responsive to the individual as well as to social and environmental contexts (p. 160)

Education policy also stemmed from the conservative notion that mass education was necessary to ensure that the citizenry could obey the law, vote, pay taxes, serve on juries, and participate in the armed forces (p. 163)

Education Policy from 2001 to 2010

NCLB was designed to create a stronger, more accountable education system, to change the culture of education, and to use evidence-based strategies that have been determined effective through rigorous research. Rather than providing specific resources for at-risk youth, NCLB proposed assisting children and youth by holding them accountable to high educational outcomes and standards. NCLB required each state to set clear and high standards and to put an assessment system in place to measure student progress toward those standards (p. 169)

Specifically, NCLB required states to test all students annually in Grades 3 through 8 and once in Grades 10 through 12 in reading and math. Scores reported by states must be disaggregated by poverty, race and ethnicity, disability, and English-language proficiency so that potential achievement gaps can be identified. Schools that fail to make adequate yearly progress toward identifiable goals are identified for improvement and are subject to corrective action (p. 169)

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004, a reauthorization of PL 94-142, continued the trend of promoting the adoption of effective interventions and placed a premium on primary prevention by altering substantially the screening and identification procedures for children with learning disabilities. Specifically, the Act permits school districts to use a process that determines if the child responds to scientific, research based intervention as a part of the evaluation procedures used to assess functional capacity (p. 169)

Using Principles of Risk, Protection, and Resilience to Achieve Integrated Education Policy

Principles of risk, protection, and resilience can be applied to education policy in two fundamental ways. One option requires policymakers to focus efforts on youth who are most likely to experience school adjustment and achievement problems. Such a strategy tends to concentrate program and policy efforts on youth from disadvantaged backgrounds because socioeconomic status is a key risk factor for educational failure (Brooks-Gunn & Duncan, 1997). A second approach uses knowledge of risk, protection, and resilience to design promotive educational policies and programs that are beneficial for all children, regardless of risk exposure (p. 177)