Tell Them From Me: Canadian Students Speak About Their SchoolsTell Them From Me is an assessment system that measures a wide variety of indicators of student engagement and wellness, and classroom and school climate that are known to affect learning outcomes. The anonymous survey covers areas including: perceptions of testing, involvement in sports teams and clubs, attendance, hours spent watching TV, a sense of belonging, post-graduation goals, bullying, self esteem, student anxiety and depression.
Stay in School: Program Hugely Successful In Reducing High School Drop-OutsThe Pathways Program, founded by the Regent Park Community Health Centre in 2001, is a community-based program that delivers academic tutoring, group mentoring, student and parent advocacy and support, and scholarships for all students who complete high school and get into post-secondary programs.
-Marlene Spergel (2001)Fri, 01/18/2008 - 11:55 -- adminAssociated with dropouts is an increase of health problems, delinquency, crime, substance abuse, economic dependency and lower overall quality of life.
Student achievement report: What do standardized tests tell us about Canadian students today?How much and how well are our children learning in school? Do they have the skills to succeed in tomorrow’s world? Parents, students, employers, and the general public all want the answer to these questions, and governments and educators have designed a range of tools for monitoring and reporting learning outcomes and performance to measure the success of our learning systems. (Source: Canadian Council on Learning)
The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the WorldThu, 12/27/2007 - 10:04 -- adminThe Freedom Writers Diary is the amazing true story of strength, courage, and achievement in the face of adversity. In the fall of 1994, in Room 203 at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California, an idealistic twenty-four-year-old teacher named Erin Gruwell faced her first group of students, dubbed by the administration as “unteachable, at-risk” teenagers. This group was unlike any she had ever interacted with.
The Need for ChangeOver 40 billion dollars a year is spent in Canada getting our children from Kindergarten to Grade 12,[i], yet over 40% of our youth fail to meet expected performance levels for basic subjects[ii] and almost one quarter of our children fail to graduate with their peers.[iii]. Students are disengaging grade by grade[iv], a trend illustrated by their increasing dislike for school[v], declining academic achievement[vi] and rising rates of teenage depression[vii] and suicide[viii]. Contrary to Canada’s most fundamental democratic tenets, minority and low-income children are the hardest hit[ix].