Bullying has come more into focus in recent years as a threat to the health and welfare of victims. The use of force, threat, or coercion to abuse or intimidate others is more recognized and less tolerated than ever before, especially in our schools where it is called peer abuse.

We all need to recognize abuse and take steps to stop it. We need to take measures to anticipate it and prevent it from happening. Becoming aware of the negative impact of bullying, organizations are becoming involved as part of an international movement to change the attitudes and actions of bullies and to show support for victims and potential victims.

Anti-Bullying Organizations, Programs & Communities Spread Awareness

Many organizations are involved in providing direction, education, and events supporting anti-bullying including and STOMP Out Bullying.

The PACER organization encourages students, parents, and others to become more aware of the effects of bullying and its consequences. PACER was created to not only raise awareness of bullying but also to change the culture surrounding it. It was once thought of as merely a harmless rite of passage for children. But it has led to like school avoidance, loss of self-esteem, depression, and even self-harm and suicide.

STOMP Out Bullying is known as one of the country鈥檚 leading national anti-bullying and cyberbullying organization for children in the U.S. It brings attention to issues like bullying, cyberbullying, sexting and other digital abuse.

It educates against homophobia, discrimination, violence, racism, and hatred in schools, as well as online and in communities throughout the country. It promotes inclusion and equality throughout the country and internationally.

Leading merchandisers and news and information providers have become active partners with 聽STOMP Out Bullying including ABC and , Aeropostale, Armour Foods, ESPN, Fox Sports Supports, Hollister, iHeartMedia, JCPenney, Planet Fitness and Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

National Bullying Prevention Month Themes &听础肠迟颈惫颈迟颈别蝉

October is the time when schools and organizations across the country join STOMP Out Bullying in observing National Bullying Prevention Month by encouraging positive steps to create an environment of acceptance, equality, and compassion in children of all ages.

Monday, October 1^st, 2018 –聽#BlueUp

Monday, October 1, is the day when everyone is encouraged to wear blue. The idea is the signature campaign of STOMP聽Out Bullying and part of its聽 celebrated very first Monday in October.

School children will be wearing STOMP Out Bullying “2018 Limited Edition” Blue Shirts or will wear their own blue shirts to send a message that this is the day that bullying prevention is heard around the world. It鈥檚 an effort to change the culture. Over 100,000 children will be impacted by Blue Shirt Day庐 World Day of Bullying Prevention funding.

Week of October 8th – Make New Friends

This week, students are encouraged to make friends with someone they don鈥檛 know at school. They can help someone who might feel 鈥渓eft out鈥� or isolated. It鈥檚 a chance for students to become leaders at their school.

It鈥檚 also the week children are encouraged to make acts of kindness and challenge their friends and classmates to do the same. October 11^th is and the day for celebrating the coming out of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or LGBTQ questioning, or to acknowledge support.

Week of October 15^th – STAND UP for Others

Students are encouraged to for anyone they see being bullied. Experience shows that many bullies back off when other kids stand up for the victims. If kids don鈥檛 feel safe about it, they are asked to seek an adult for support.

Students can show support in many ways for anti-bullying including having 鈥渒indness鈥� dances, posting positive notes on bulletin boards, sharing positive stories, or creating anti-bullying videos. on the STOMP Out Bullying website.

Week of October 22^苍诲听– Inclusion Week

This is the week students are asked to make sure that 鈥渘o one eats alone鈥� in a cafeteria or on a field trip. Students should include other students in school activities and after-school activities.

The entire month is one where students should be learning about other students, especially those who have a different culture or mode of life. The idea is to show that everyone is together and no one should feel insecure or intimidated.Students are asked to 鈥�.鈥�

Week of October 29^迟丑听– Start Conversations Among Peers

Students are being asked to start conversations with other students to find out how their school can better deal with bullying and how it is better to be a judgment-free school.

STOMP Out Bullying offers a 聽to begin conversations on how a school can be judgment-free and bully-free.

Working Together to Stop Bullying & Cyberbullying

There are many warning signs of bullying, children come home with torn, damaged, or missing pieces of clothing or books. They have unexplained cuts or bruises. They seem to have few friends at school. They show anxiety about going to school or riding on school buses. They have trouble sleeping or complain of physical illnesses. They seem depressed or lack self-esteem. These are all possible signals that parents should recognize.

What are some steps to take to support your child? Have a discussion with your children about the dangers of social media and revealing personal information or posting inflammatory comments. Teach them to use common sense on their phones as well as their computers. Teach them to be cautious on social media and not be drawn into group conversations that might be harmful to someone else.

Using IM or text-messaging can be just as dangerous as can be personal videos and photos. Parents need to be aware of the electronic media their children use and familiar with online protocols, message boards, chat lines, social sites, and video sites.

Bullying is a practice that has lasted for a long time. While we probably can鈥檛 eliminate it completely, we parents, teachers, and caring organizations can to reduce its occurrence and impact on the children we have the chance to influence and support.

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Lack of federal funding prevents 90% of eligible children from receiving support from federal programs. The problem is especially severe in rural areas where only 44% of children are enrolled in preschool services compared with 79% in suburban areas.

Low-income families are also negatively affected by lack of federal support. Children from these families receive lower-quality care. Head Start programs serve less than 20% of three- and four-year-old children who come from low-income families.

A new law is designed to change all that.

Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Promotes Early Learning

On December 10, 2015, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) was reauthorized through the passing of the Every Student Succeeds Act (). This law replaced the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and allows federal funds to be used for early learning and care.

enables the sharing of policy decisions with the states, which will help facilitate greater early learning alignment and coordination with local elementary schools. These changes will allow states to develop better systems and processes to identify and improve the nation鈥檚 lowest-performing schools.

Key Component of ESSA Is Preschool Development

Among ESSA鈥檚 many important learning provisions, the most significant is a new Preschool Development Grant program (). This program provides competitive grants that are managed jointly by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Education. The program provides for states to improve access, coordination, and quality in early childhood education for low- and moderate-income children from birth to age five.

First Five Years Fund (FFYF) Promotes ESSA

In helping to make ESSA successful, the First Five Years Fund () is a voluntary advocacy group that promotes federal investment in quality early childhood education for disadvantaged children from birth to age five.聽FFYF provides research and information to policymakers, advocates, business leaders, and the public and is committed to helping states and school districts understand and use the ESSA law.

FFYF works closely with other federal advocacy groups and with White House officials, agency leaders, and members of the Senate and House of Representatives to advance early childhood policy recommendations.

States Submit Plans

Earlier this year, all states submitted consolidated plans to the U.S. Department of Education (ED) on how they plan to implement the new law.聽 These plans indicate that the states view ESSA as an integral part of their educational development initiatives and plan to improve their schools and hold them more accountable.

The initiatives are important because they are essentially voluntary since few of the 鈥渆arly learning鈥� provisions of ESSA are federally mandated. The education agencies overseeing the law include a State Education Agency (SEA) for each state and the Local Education Agency (LEA) appropriate for each community.

The SEA is normally the State Board of Education responsible for the supervision of public elementary and secondary schools in the state. But the SEA could also be an office or agency designated by the governor or state law.

The LEA is a public board of education that has legal authority to service schools in a city, county, township, school district, or other political subdivision in a state.

The FFYF Progress Report

The First Five Years Fund released a new report on how all states are using ESSA to leverage federal support for early learning.

ESSA requires states to publish annual report cards to describe how their public schools are performing, as well as promoting greater transparency about educational opportunities.

requires these state report cards to include the number and percentage of students enrolled in preschool programs.

Neither states nor districts are obligated to use Title I funding for early learning, but if they elect to do so, they must develop a strategy for supporting, coordinating, and integrating early childhood education services as part of their Title I plan.

According to the report, 13 states plan to make early-learning initiatives a part of their state accountability systems under Title I. For example, the Illinois Board of Education plans to evaluate P-2聽as part of its accountability system.

15 states and the District of Columbia plan to make early learning a strategy for school improvement within Title I.

Professional development and academic enrichment are also mentioned in using funds to improve early learning effectiveness.聽 This is part of strategies. 31 states plan to use their Title II professional development funds to help high school support professionals work with children aged eight and under.

addresses the offering of well-rounded educational experiences to all students, including underrepresented low-income students. These experiences high-quality STEM initiatives, activities and programs in music, the arts, and other subjects that provide a well-rounded education.

Under Title IV, 38 states plan to include early learning as part of their 鈥淲ell-Rounded Education Initiatives.鈥�

Title V covers support to rural schools. Massachusetts and Tennessee, for example, are using Title V funds to support low-achieving students in Rural and Low-Income Schools (RLIS) with the objective of improving achievement. Colorado offers a聽Rural Education Achievement Program ().

Title VIII requires that SEAs, LEAs, or other federally financed entities provide equitable services to eligible participants in elementary and secondary schools.

New Jersey, New Mexico, Delaware, South Carolina, and Washington are including as their objectives the serving of preschool children in private schools through appropriate ESSA programs.

Washington will provide a on ESSA early-childhood provisions for its school districts. 聽The guide will include options for school districts to collaborate with private schools and other early learning providers in providing joint professional development and sharing tools and resources.

Through federal programs like ESSA, individual state initiatives, and supporting organizations like FFYF, the gap may finally be closing between urban high- and medium-income family children and underrepresented rural and disadvantaged children.

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The movement today in education is toward understanding the whole child, the whole student. Schools are being asked to broaden their approach beyond academic work and support social and emotional development, too.

Researchers say all these aspects are deeply and are central to learning. They also point out that students have a sense of purpose and belonging. They have goals in life and will face challenges beyond academics.

Those who can develop their sense of purpose and belonging, set and meet goals, overcome challenges, and become adept at literacy, using numbers, and grasping scientific concepts are the ones who are more likely to reach their full potential.

Social-emotional learning (SEL) is the by which students acquire and apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.

SEL enhances students鈥� capacity to integrate their skills, attitudes, and behaviors so they can deal effectively with daily tasks and challenges.

SEL Beyond the Classroom, Into the Community

Beyond the classroom, social-emotional learning prepares students for tomorrow鈥檚 workforce, giving them the tools for successful careers. SEL prepares employees to solve work-based problems, manage emotions, and communicate effectively.

The effort to educate the whole child is a daunting one and it does take a village. Teachers have not been prepared to deal with SEL on their own. They need special training and peer support. Colleges are not prepared to teach the teachers how to deal with SEL needs and solutions. Federal, state, and local administrations do not understand the issue fully nor do they provide adequate guidelines or funding.

But there are some organizations that are taking a leadership position in making SEL a top priority in our schools. One of them is a Chicago-based organization, CASEL.

CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning) is a growing organization with the mission to help make evidence-based SEL an integral part of primary and secondary education. CASEL provides research to create evidence for developing, synthesizing and disseminating information that documents the impact of social and emotional learning.

The organization demonstrates what is possible in classrooms, schools, and communities that focus on SEL, implementing and refining quality SEL in school districts and creating tools and resources that can be used by other school systems.

CASEL is also helping to develop country-wide state and federal policies on SEL by developing practices that are scalable and sustainable across the U.S.

The organization guides curriculum choices in classrooms,leads efforts for staffing and professional development with an SEL focus and drives school-wide practices and policies. It promotes the interaction of adults and students at all levels and creates a climate of learning and caring.

Core SEL Competencies Are Essential to Success in School, Life

has developed an integrated framework that promotes intrapersonal, interpersonal, and cognitive competence for students. It promotes five core competencies that can be taught in many ways and in different environments like classrooms, homes, school districts, and communities.

Self-awareness is the ability to recognize one鈥檚 own emotions, values, and thoughts and how they influence behavior. It includes knowing one鈥檚 strengths and limitations and includes the development of self-confidence.

Self-management is the ability to regulate one鈥檚 emotions and behaviors in different situations and manage stress, control impulses, and motivate oneself. It includes goal-setting and organizational skills.

Social awareness is the ability to empathize with and have respect for others with diverse backgrounds and cultures.

Relationship skills are the ability to listen to others, communicate well, cooperate, negotiate, engage socially, be team-oriented, and build relationships.

Responsible decision-making is the ability to identify problems, analyze solutions, solve problems, and make good decisions about personal behavior and social interactions based on social norms, safety concerns, and ethical standards.

Importance of Teacher Participation in SEL

Teachers need to know more than curriculum management to . They need to be able to recognize the characteristics that define SEL dysfunction and know how to provide the direction and support required.

Teachers also need time to spend with other teachers and collaborate with each other to support one another, share ideas, and develop a camaraderie that leads to their own social and emotional growth.

Teachers need to have so they can learn to recognize the messages they are sending students and how to model positive social and emotional behaviors. This modeling can help all students, not just those with behavioral needs or history of trauma. This strategy promotes equity in the classroom.

To be successful, the strategy needs to include other members of 鈥渢he village.鈥� It should incorporate school officials and a school climate that understands and supports the importance of SEL.

The school district should focus on SEL as well as academic development at its level and influence the policies and practices at the school level.

It should include family engagement with direct parent involvement. And it should include an interested community with partnerships that further the efforts of educators to make schools SEL inclusive.

Integrating SEL Into College

today offer courses in subject area mastery and basic teaching methods. But they seldom incorporate the of SEL with traditional learning techniques, even in advanced degree programs

Those colleges and that seek to train to meet the holistic needs of children with SEL issues should provide teachers with the knowledge, skills, and necessary to integrate SEL and academics. And they should provide guided practice.

Communities and companies have an interest, too. SEL skills matter across all cultures, including the characteristics of positive behavior, respect for other beliefs, social acceptance, and self-reliance.

SEL Skills, Strengths in the Workplace

In the workplace, SEL skills can lead to job attainment, career advancement, and civic engagement. Since these skills can be taught to all students, they bring value to their companies when they join a workforce.

Having learned empathy, they can be great at customer service. With impulse control, they can react calmly to pressure situations.Through emotional control, they can deal with family or company disputes or emergencies.

Through better communications, they can better listen, focus, and share their ideas. Problem-solving and assertiveness can put them at the head of important projects.

The importance of SEL training reaches many spheres of life. It isn鈥檛 just for students with learning issues. It is for everyone. It makes everyone more capable and contributes significantly to self-image and the potential for success throughout life鈥檚 adventures.

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A startup is a business or organization based on an idea that something can be done better to solve an existing problem, and through research and experimentation, learn that many people want to solve that problem better.

Research is a key concept for the startup. The business has to keep learning about itself and its competition. It has to be aware of the world around it and how that world is changing. The business has to keep changing, keep reinventing itself, to keep up with the new world. A startup is a learning machine that continues to explore and experiment, get feedback, and reset itself in order to keep growing.

Startups are active, not passive. They do not wait around for someone to knock on their doors. They actively seek new information on selected problems, try new solutions, tweak them, and when ready, present their solutions to customers who have those problems. If they can develop solutions before their competitors, or if they can develop better solutions, they grow very quickly and are successful. If they do not, they cease to exist.

Traditional School Student-Consumer Approach

Traditional schools, on the other hand, are not competitive with each other. They offer the same product, year after year. Students wait passively for information. There is no sense of urgency and no real consequences. There will be a next grade and a next year, regardless of outcomes, in most cases. They are consumers of the traditional educational product given them.

Teachers are prepared for the basics of what they teach. They understand the basics of what students need and how to process the basic learning techniques for the subjects they teach. They do not necessarily prepare for individual differences and individual problems faced by students with special gifts or special needs. They may not be familiar with the research. They are not in the business of finding new solutions. And they are insulated from real-world problems and applications.

Students may not be familiar with research on the subjects they need to learn, either. This is the other side of the coin. Students are not asked to go beyond the basics. They respond to the presentation of problems by the teacher. Most students are not in the business of finding new solutions, either.

But if they are still interested in going beyond the basics to further explore the problems and get more detailed explanations or see what effects this problem may have in other areas, they are often out of luck. There is no time nor avenue of pursuit. If they want to find new solutions, they can鈥檛.

Entrepreneurial Thinking

Like entrepreneurs, students like to be actively engaged in solving problems. And like entrepreneurs, they can be very good at identifying problems that need to be solved, especially 聽– problems requiring more than a one- discipline solution.

Entrepreneurial thinking is the kind of thinking done at post-secondary schools, colleges,and universities. It is not usually required of K-12 school students.

But it could be.

Just like startups, successful students at the K-12 level are resilient, able to absorb new information, and can challenge their assumptions and conclusions. This is not your typical standard classroom. But it is the new classroom for some systems where entrepreneurial programs are springing up. These programs are designed to help students prepare for college by taking on complex problems and showing them how to work in teams under the guidance of mentors and industry specialists.

is an all-girls PK-12 independent school that offers entrepreneurial programs that ask students to drive their own learning. That could mean participating in bi-weekly discussions based on articles that the students select or it could mean visiting with entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. It might also mean meeting with expert mentors in some field. These activities help the students develop a research focus before they graduate and move on to college.

One element that excites the students is the development of a business plan that they present to investors with the hope that it will help them start a business of their own while they are still in school.

Real-World Problems & Solutions

Another school, Louisville Collegiate, is a JK-12, coed day school in Louisville, KY, whose programs are available to entrepreneurial-minded students. In the lower and middle grades, students are taught some of the principles of entrepreneurial thinking like empathy, reflection, and the identification of problems as opportunities.

Then, in sixth grade, students learn to do research on a real-world project (like water pollution). The project requires the students to work in teams to design and test water filters.

The school鈥檚 upper grades offer even more opportunity for entrepreneurial programming. One of its programs offers juniors a chance to connect with local businessmen and entrepreneurs in a quarter-long course. The course culminates in a presentation to CEOs and executives, where the students pitch solutions to local problems.

From the Bored Room to the Boardroom

Where students can be bored in traditional classrooms and lack the engagement and motivation , they are stimulated and excited to make a pitch to CEOs in company boardrooms for real-world solutions they want to be a part of. They feel their presentations are more relevant and can lead to real satisfaction.

Students are taught to look at problems as opportunities and to do research to find out more about those problems and their effects on the community as well as possible ways of addressing those issues.

The traditional school approach changes to an . There are no homework, grades, exams, or scheduled class periods. Instead, there are opportunities to share networks, gain new experiences, establish physical and digital space in which to work, get continuous feedback, and have clear starting and ending points. Rather than have teachers direct them, the students have guides to use.

Entrepreneurial schools and programs enable students to identify and research problems worth solving and research them thoroughly, designing a concept solution and bringing it to market. They learn about things like ideation. They work with peers and professionals. They tweak logos and designs. They visit offices of design firms and technology companies (like Facebook and ).

They learn that learning is a marathon; they learn when and how to scale; they learn the power of networking; they learn to use grit in the face of failure.

One senior student, who was in one of these programs, said that, when presenting his team鈥檚 ideas to a group of investors and entrepreneurs, they ultimately sought support and constructive feedback so that they could keep moving forward with their idea. Although their pitch was the end of their school program, the student said: 鈥淲e also hoped it would be just the beginning for our company.鈥�

The important thing in these schools is for the students to learn to identify real-world problems, peel them back, identify and research solutions, work with teams, be resilient, leverage networks, unblock obstacles, and work hard. These are the real benefits of the entrepreneurial approach to education.

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Here are just a few of the issues facing educators, corporate leaders and political influencers in 2018 and beyond.

Continue to Invest & Support STEM/STEAM

Educational technology is becoming increasingly important to our future. Robots are expected to replace up to 38 percent of jobs in the U.S. over the next 15 years. Students need to be prepared to succeed in a digital world when they enter the workforce. And training them is starting as early as kindergarten-age.

Educational technology a苍诲听Investment in the U.S., K鈥�12 school systems increased fourfold from 2010 to 2015, based on innovations in digital product offerings and mobile communications technologies

In 2016, things slowed down significantly with in K鈥�12 ed tech dropping by 40 percent. Last year, in 2017, there were indications that emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, and virtual reality, machine learning, and personal learning that are creating new opportunities for students to choose learning styles and accelerate learning growth.

Progressive classrooms are now equipped with Chromebooks and Google educational apps, part of recent $1 billion pledge over the next five years to help train Americans for jobs in technology.

颁补濒濒别诲听, the program is designed to affect a wide audience including teachers, students, local businesses, job seekers, developers and startups and to provide online training initiatives and programs.

Ed tech will target areas like science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The 鈥渕akerspace movement鈥� will continue to grow in U.S. schools, enabling students to actively design, experiment, build and invent as they engage in STEM subjects.

It鈥檚 a movement that has a $2 million funding from the U.S. government. And it鈥檚 already active in other countries like China, where 5,000 new maker spaces have opened last year.

While finding ways to empower students in the STEM subjects, it will also be a challenge for educators to include the arts in core curriculums. Liberal arts like reading and language should continue to be part of a well-rounded education and should not be lost in the mad dash for technology. STEM will be changing to with the inclusion of 鈥淎鈥� for 鈥渁rts + design.鈥�

Continue to Develop Career聽& Technical Education (CTE) Paths

With the increasing attention being paid to technology, there is a growing need for children to learn all they can about it before they will be asked to enter the workforce with a full knowledge of what technology means and offers in the field they choose.

In addition to colleges and universities, with high costs of tuition and entrance limitations, there have to be alternate ways to prepare. In 2017, the U.S. House of Representatives re-authorized the , providing funding for career and technical education. The bill is stalled in the Senate, but the hope is it will be passed to help students prepare for good paying jobs that don鈥檛 require traditional four-year degrees.

Also, ten states are already working to connect their CTE systems to jobs available in their states. The effort is called the 聽project. The aim of CTE initiatives is to prepare students for tomorrow鈥檚 jobs and economy. It is estimated that technology and automation will cause massive shifts in the jobs sector, with nearly of U.S. jobs being affected by the year 2030.

Preparing students for this seismic change can鈥檛 begin too early. Today鈥檚 kindergarteners are the graduating class of 2030, so it is appropriate to introduce them to these ideas as soon as possible.

The government has shown an interest in supporting this effort. But it will take more to get the job done 鈥� educational entrepreneurs, nonprofits and businessmen and women, working in partnerships and initiatives.

Working together, these resources can create an educational landscape that allows all high school students a choice of educational and career training options that will give them the skills they need and the experience they need to enter the job market of tomorrow on their own terms.

Create Increased Focus on Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

Educational technology is great. Kids get on mobile devices and have access to more digital information than ever before. But there is a downside. It dehumanizes the classroom 鈥� and the living room, and the dining room. Kids get so immersed that they ignore social interaction altogether.

And while academic learning is fundamental to their development, kids also need to establish additional mindsets, habits, skills, and attitudes to be successful in the long run, to be successful in life. There is a new federal education law (ESSA) that provides rules for expanding the measurement of school success .

Organizations such as聽聽(Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning) have been working in this area for years, but there still needs to be a consensus on which SEL skills are the most important.

SEL is not just one program. It is a process that is central to how schools, families, and communities place value and offer support to the social, emotional, and academic development of their children.

This collaborative effort will also help gifted and talented children be more socially welcomed into the school community and help other children understand their special gifts as well as unique challenges.

2018 holds great promise for education in America. We are learning more about technology in schools, and technology is helping us learn. In our concentrated efforts to keep the reins on it, we can鈥檛 forget about liberal arts, language, and person-to-person communications.

We have to support our universities but also provide other channels of career development. School choice doesn鈥檛 stop with the early grades. And we can鈥檛 forget about the edges of the school population where the gifted and talented students have the same need for social and emotional development as other students 鈥� they all can benefit from learning the life skills and behaviors that will make them successful long-term.

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How about his/her classroom? Is it vibrant? Is the teacher engaging, uplifting, and foster聽a love of learning聽in the classroom?聽Is there a variety of resources available? Does the school possess聽strong leadership and ?

How would you get answers to these questions? You could go to the school, walk the hallways, visit your child鈥檚 classroom, talk with teachers and administrators, see a lesson being given, talk with other parents, and lastly, maybe check the Internet.

Most parents don鈥檛 have the time or inclination to do this amount of research. Most of what parents learn about their child鈥檚 educational progress comes from standardized test scores.

Standardized聽Testing聽Doesn’t Measure Educational聽Quality

But notice there was no question above about how your child is doing on tests. That鈥檚 because new research is suggesting that standardized testing will measure maybe 20% of all the things that make school a great learning experience.

Testing tells you nothing about the values described above. It only tells you how well your child may have done on specific tests after specific test preparation by your child鈥檚 teacher.

And what happens if the test scores in your child鈥檚 school are low? Pressure gets applied to the school to raise the scores. This pressure gets passed on to the teachers, and they must now do a better job of preparing the children for the next round of tests.

This testing charade cycle could lead to what has been called a of the teaching process, a measurement event that does not measure real improvement for schools and does not improve teaching practices.

Standardized testing leads to repetitive, boring practice rounds and repetitive instruction. It鈥檚 a step backward in the creative process.

What has to happen in this case, and to solve low testing in any school, is to change the teaching practices. Real learning occurs slowly for most students, much slower than tests reveal. Improvement is traditionally inflated so school systems can show they are getting better and can keep their funding and accreditation.

What Standardized Tests Don’t Measure

Even if test scores were legitimately high, standardized tests would not reveal all the value the school provides, nor reflect everything聽the school does to effectively foster a healthy聽learning environment in .

Standardized test scores don鈥檛 tell you about school culture as a whole – the level of engagement, the resources, the citizenship, the teacher level of commitment and creativity, the level of care, the safety, the opportunities to explore interests, or the social and emotional health and support that’s an integral part聽of students’聽everyday learning environment.

And tests don鈥檛 tell you if your child is happy and confident.

Some new research shows that high standardized test score growth can actually be correlated with low levels of聽. Standardized tests tell us very little about what we actually value in schools.

A school may be good in one area or another, but it is not necessarily good in all areas. Those schools that are good in most of them 鈥� can be considered approaching the 鈥済reatness鈥� goal.

School Quality Based on Academic Reputation

On a larger scale, one good school does not mean that all schools are good. We make that kind of assumption all the time. We say 鈥淚t鈥檚 a good school system.鈥� But that may not be the case. The policies may be similar, but the teachers are different, the children are different, the parents are different, and the administrators are different. All schools are not uniformly good or bad.

Discussions crop up throughout communities about which schools appear to be good. The talk about school quality can get distorted. Parents really don鈥檛 know enough about the schools and all they encompass to make valid judgments about value.

Parents also make judgments about where to live and what schools to send their children to. Schools with more affluent student families tend to produce higher test scores and are perceived as being 鈥済ood.鈥� Parents seek them out, choosing them over schools with more diverse student bodies.

Improved Framework for Measuring School聽Performance

The first thing for interested educators and concerned parents to do is to have a of what they want their schools to do. They should use the same clear language for articulating aims and more valid metrics for tracking progress.

A clear framework of educational and developmental goals would establish common ground for richer discussions and would recognize the multi-dimensionality of schools.

Once goals are established as to what鈥檚 important, then the instruments of measurement can be developed. The metrics should be aligned with the goals. These metrics should come from a variety of sources, like performance measurements embedded in the curriculum, from school districts that have more information than any one school, from surveys of students and teachers, and more.

The goals should be realistic and achievable and recognize that learning is a steady process. Unrealistically high goals lead to invalid testing to justify those goals.

Too-high goals also lead to what has been called 鈥済aming鈥� where educators try to cheat the system by short-changing students just to get those higher scores by spending an inordinate amount of time and effort on test preparation rather than on the process of learning.

What should be measured are the things that make schools great, the things that matter. One researcher suggests they should include student achievement (that goes far beyond what is measured by standardized tests), the quality of educators鈥� practices, and the school鈥檚 climate.

Tests should not be goals, and should not generate pressure to get better scores. They should be used wisely to improve educational practices.

Teachers should be given the support they need to change and improve teaching methods. Parents and administrators should not demand improvement without providing the necessary support as well as recognition of contributions.

Any new methods or strategies should be monitored, evaluated, and changed if needed, much like automotive or other product innovations are tested before being released to consumers. Fully tested practices should be released to all schools.

To make your child鈥檚 school great, get involved by talking with your child, with teachers and administrators about what you like and what you think can be improved. Be specific and carry examples of what you mean. Make constructive suggestions. Have . Join with other interested parents. You can play a large part in making your child鈥檚 school great.

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One problem here is that children, who soon become students, are becoming digitally proficient before they become emotionally mature and socially adjusted. That leads to problems in how they communicate with other students and to the inflicting of harm, intentional or not, to their peers.

聽is an important part of growing up. Children need to understand themselves before they can understand others. This self-awareness takes time, and unfortunately, it takes longer to develop than to grab a phone and start texting.

The influx of technical devices into schools and at home makes it very easy to express feelings to others, including harmful thoughts and comments, without too much notoriety or consequence.

That is why cyberbullying can occur so often. The published a report last year which said that 33.8 percent of students aged 12-17 have been victims of cyberbullying.

This disturbing trend has led to the rise of a countermovement with the focus on digital citizenship and a growing number of organizations sponsoring or conducting lessons as a critical component of digital education.

Fostering Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) in a Digital Ecosystem

Digital citizenship is the awareness that you are not communicating in a vacuum. There is areal person on the other end of the digital device you are using, a person with feelings and beliefs and cultural heritage just like you. Those feelings and beliefs may be different from yours, but they are equally important to the person you are talking to.

One program that is tackling the issue in partnership聽with the University of Michigan (U-M) and students of Scarlett Middle School in Ann Arbor, MI.

Student teachers from U-M visit with the middle school students to discuss many aspects of digital use and its effects, such as Internet privacy and security and even .

The teachers try to educate the students on how to treat each other online and what it means to be digitally civil and compassionate. They try to teach before the students get too involved with using their devices in school.

Teaching students to think how others may react to their messages is fundamental to citizenship programs. The students themselves are getting involved in the education process.

One student has designed a program that uses an algorithm to detect if a student is about to post something offensive and then presents a dialogue box asking the student if he or she is sure about wanting to post it.

The product is called , and according to the research quoted on its website, when adolescents are alerted to rethink their decisions, they change their minds 93 percent of the time.

滨厂罢贰听厂迟补苍诲补谤诲蝉聽Supports聽Digital Citizenship to Empower Students

罢丑别听聽is a nonprofit organization that supports educators interested in making technology serve education. It serves more than 100,000 education stakeholders throughout the world and provides technology resources to support professional learning for educators.

ISTE believes that the first step to cybersecurity and the stop of cyberbullying is instilling a sense of digital citizenship.

滨厂罢贰鈥檚听鈥溾�澛爄ncludes their definition of digital citizenship,聽 describing those students as the ones who 鈥渞ecognize the rights, responsibilities and opportunities of living, learning and working in an interconnected digital world, and they act and model in ways that are safe, legal, and ethical.鈥�

Skype聽Being Utilized to Teach, Embrace Cultural Empathy

As an education tool,聽Skype聽and other videoconferencing platforms can be used to teach students how to communicate with others around the world.

Meeting with people from other countries can develop empathy for their culture and show that students share the same problems worldwide. Students learn that there are other students just like them, no matter where they live or study.

Students love to share ideas, feelings, artwork and songs and develop a camaraderie that endears them to each other. This is what digital citizenship is about.

Facebook聽Awards Digital Citizenship Research Grants

Facebook鈥檚 goal is to make the world a more open and connected community where people can have a more positive impact on each other, changing the way we share, discover and learn.

Recognizing the importance of citizenship in a world of social media and technology, Facebook unveiled its 聽program where it gave $200,000 in grants to deserving organizations.

Facebook evaluated nearly 100 applications from 10 countries and based its awards on several criteria including Submissions were evaluated based on several criteriaincluding the global application, novelty of research topic, previous experience in conducting world-class research, and extent to which the research is open-sourced and broadly-shared.

Awards were granted to four recipients including the , the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education (SITE), Define The Line, McGill University, and European Schoolnet (EUN).

All four winners are doing research focused on the interlocking roles of teens, parents, educators, and companies working together to support and encourage digital citizenship, to use social media productively, and to reduce bullying.

Digital Citizenship Institute聽Teaches Online Ethics

The 聽is a consortium of educators working together to help students, educators, administrators and parents to navigate the digital world and to improve everyone鈥檚 understanding of it. Their goal is simply to help people use digital technology appropriately.

The Institute sponsors nine elements of citizenship including digital literacy, digital etiquette, digital law, digital rights and responsibilities, digital health and wellness, and digital security.

The nine elements are organized under three principles: respect, educate and protect. The Institute teaches users to be responsible for their owndigital experience and at the same time be responsible for the rights of others.

Comparing the use of digital technology to staying physically fit, the Institute encourages repetitions of practice exercises to maintain a healthy routine of digital access and use. It outlines digital exercise programs to be used at different grade levels.

Digital citizenship is everyone鈥檚 right and responsibility. Educators and students alike are starting to realize the importance of spreading the word and putting these words into actions.

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As towns got larger, the schools got bigger, but the concept remained the same. All grades were still contained in the same school building. The schools became known as K-8 as there were eight levels in the school.

This is the way it stayed until the middle of the twentieth century when educators tried a new approach by separating out students in the middle grades to better group them by social and emotional levels with the hope of better preparing them for high school.

Grades 6 to 8 were grouped into , and grades 7-9 were grouped into junior high schools. And that鈥檚 the way it has remained, with 90 percent of students today enrolled in either middle school or junior high school.

Has this move been successful? It depends on what you measure, and it depends on how what you consider to be education.

Education can be looked at as the process of teaching students to master certain subjects. It can be looked at as teaching students to think for themselves and learn how to learn. It can also be looked at in a more general way to help students mature, learn about themselves, and learn to cope in a world of constantly increasing complexity and pressures.

In addition to test performance, measures of educational effectiveness can include students鈥� perceptions about themselves 鈥� their confidence levels, their self-image, their feelings about how they will succeed or fail in today鈥檚 society as they move forward.

A suggests that the old way, the one schoolhouse, the K-8 school may still be the best in providing the confidence needed for a healthy student self-image and positive outlook toward educational development.

Comparing Achievement Between K鈥�8 a苍诲听Middle Schools

The study was conducted by the NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. It compared middle school students with those in K-8 schools on their perception of their own reading skills.

The study has been published online in the Journal of Early Adolescence. It attempted to compare the academic and psychosocial outcomes for the students in these different academic environments.

Author Elise Cappella, associate professor at the Steinhardt School, stressed the importance of the middle years for student biological, psychological, and social changes. Student self-perceptions of their own academic competence are critical at this time in their lives. They are learning who they are and how to engage with the learning process and school.

Middle Schools Growing More Competitive

Compared with , middle schools often have more students per grade as well as less positive teacher-student relationships, according to the research. This leads to a more competitive student environment with less student autonomy and less student cooperation.

Research has shown a mix of academic results from these different environments, with some studies showing better results for K-8 schools.

Teachers in middle schools and junior high schools may not have the same knowledge as their K-8 counterparts of the developmental process of the whole child. They may not be as responsive to student social or emotional needs.

Combining less teacher sensitivity with a more competitive environment could make students more anxious and more isolated and lead to lower self-esteem.

Significance聽of Student’ Beliefs

The and her associates measured student beliefs about their own academic competence. They found that middle school students were more likely to have a negative view of their reading skills and interest levels. They also found that teacher views of student reading and writing abilities were more negative.

One of the conclusions of the study was that the middle school environment could be improved to better serve the social and emotional needs of the early adolescent. Strengthening the middle school can change the perceptions of both teachers and students and improve the chances of developing positive self-images and higher confidence levels for academic achievement.

Resurgence of the K-8 School Model

There seems to be a resurgence of K-8 schools. In North Carolina, Charlotte Mecklenburg schools some elementary schools to K-8 schools with positive results in both academic and behavioral areas.

The feeling is that students better collaborated across grade levels, helping younger students learn cooperation and older students feeling rewarded for taking leadership roles.

A similar result was found in research by , associate professor of education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Guido Schwerdt, a postdoctoral fellow at the Program on Education Policy and Governance at Harvard.

Their study showed better performance聽of the K-8 students, and benefits to both younger and older students.

Orange County, FL,is renewing its educational landscape, with three K-8 schools now in place and five more on the way. Paige Tracy is a long-time principal at Arbor Ridge, a K-8 school in Orlando and considered one of the top schools in the state. She believes in the over the middle school model. She sees fewer discipline problems and a more dynamic relationship among students, younger and older.

Older students serve as tutors for younger students on Wednesdays. Second and seventh-graders read back and forth with each other, and both groups enjoy it.

Mayhem in the Middle

A New York school research study authored by and Benjamin Lockwood of Columbia University concluded that students who enter stand-alone middle schools experience significant drops in their math and English scores on standardized tests compared with their K-8 counterparts.

Rockoff and Lockwood wrote an article, , for Education Next, in which they discussed the differences between the school types including the higher absentee rates for middle school students.

Citing their evidence on the gap between the schools, they further concluded that 鈥渕iddle schools are not the best way to educate students, at least in places like New York City. It raises the question鈥攕hould we eliminate stand-alone middle schools altogether?鈥�

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If the , or is special in some way, there are more educational decisions to be made and more plans to be prepared. Independent educational programs might be needed or special services provided.

While a child might not be aware of all the support he needs in school, he can talk to his parents about his feelings, and the parents can explain the educational plan and any service program that might accompany it.

As any child begins the education process, and begins to formulate a better understanding of her own interests, strengths and educational needs, her parents can start to ask about goals and share hopes and expectations for educational attainment.

In almost any aspect of educational development, a child should feel empowered to participate in the decisions that will affect his ability to learn and grow and thrive in a competitive world. Parents should be aware of this natural desire for self-determination and encourage the child鈥檚 involvement in decision-making.

Sharing goals about future education

Parents have expectations for their children. They may expect their children to finish high school and attend a college or vocational school to fulfill their children鈥檚 dreams.

this expectation and discussing the power of education can be a stimulant to achieving it. Parents can start early with their children, even at the kindergarten level, to talk about the importance of learning and the value of education.

Parents and children can discuss thoughts on hopes and dreams and what will happen after high school. What kind of future does the child anticipate? Will she want a career in some profession or will he want vocational training?

Ongoing discussions about school subjects and topics and how they relate to current events or parent experiences, child hobbies or outside interests, can keep education relevant and the child motivated to keep learning.

Parents can share on study habits and times including increased reading time and decreased electronic screen time. Children can share decisions on home responsibilities or outside jobs. They can decide on spending extra time in school to get more help.

Parents can discuss day to day study routines and remind their children from time to time on the big picture, the ultimate goals the children are striving for.

Friendships and support structures can be shared because they have an impact on educational and social development. Choosing good friends who share some of the same aspirations is an important decision throughout school life.

School organizations are realizing more and more that decisions affecting a child鈥檚 education should be a affair. Teachers collaborate with parents and students to affect a unified program of learning. Schools often provide role playing activities to give students experience in what parents are thinking and how to interact on school discussions.

Making shared decisions about current educational programs

After the child begins school, there are a number of situations and factors which may suggest that the current course of action in school may not be the right one, or that there appears to be some interference with the child鈥檚 ability to grow and prosper. This is a signal for needed parent and child discussion.

The child may or may not be happy at school. He or she may be successful or may be having problems that interfere with the child鈥檚 ability to study and learn or with social acceptance. This school for your child.

What does the child think about his or her school experience? Is some kind of change warranted? The only way to know for sure how a child feels about school is to ask her. And if a decision has to be made regarding some aspect of the education environment, the child should be part of the decision-making process.

Signs that discussions are needed

There are many that would indicate a change is needed in your child鈥檚 current school system. If your child says he hates school, you need to find out why. If she associates with only a few friends, discuss why she can鈥檛 relate to a broader audience. Can she effectively relate to adults or is that a problem?

Does your child feel frustrated on how he is being treated, either by teachers or other students? Does he feel that his problems are being dealt with fairly? Are school resolutions explained to him? If he is a gifted child, does the school offer the opportunities he needs without adverse peer reactions?

If your child comes home from school tired and disinterested? This could mean she is exhausted from an emotional day or has not been getting the kind of instruction that energizes and builds on curiosity.

Children who love music or art often feel frustrated because the school system does not offer these programs or minimizes them. If your child is wishing he could play an instrument or learn how to use oil paints, perhaps you should discuss alternate forms of education or a different school.

If your child does not feel challenged and is just going through the motions on mundane classwork and homework, you may want to probe further to find out why there is no consideration for the furthering of individual interests and talents.

Gifted children, especially, need to pursue their own obsessions and delve deeply into the areas that stimulate their curiosity. They want as much information as possible from as many sources as are available to satisfy their hunger for details and explanations.

And speaking of giftedness, if your child is special in some way, has autism or ADHD, how is she being managed at school? If the school nurse or psychologist reacts to hyperactivity and 鈥渁cting out鈥� by prescribing a drug like Ritalin, you should definitely have a discussion with both your child and the school administration. The behavior issues should be for a doctor to prescribe a treatment.

Empowerment and decision-making ability

Asking your child to participate in educational decisions assumes that the child is capable of making a decision of this importance. Good school systems teach students how to make . But schools alone can鈥檛 to the job.

Has the child been trained at home on how to make decisions? 聽 your child is a process that starts early with activities that teach right from wrong and involve responsibility and accountability.

Empowerment includes having the right to fail. Failure and how to respond to it are valuable teaching experiences. Raising good is important, not just for education, for success in life.

Teaching your child to make appropriate will help him develop confidence, organization and prioritizing skills. It will help prevent problems frim wrong choices or indecisiveness.

Children learn to make decisions by watching their parents and talking with their parents. First of all, you need to learn to be a good . You also need to make good decisions yourself. 聽If you can then raise your children to be effective and confident decision-makers, then you should definitely involve them in their own educational future and make family discussions a basic principle in your home.

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These smart children become labeled by parents and teachers as聽high achievers or gifted students. But is there a difference between these types and labels? Or should we just lump them together as being 鈥渄ifferent鈥� or 鈥渟pecial?鈥�

Actually, the two types of students are very different in many ways, from learning styles to handling emotions to language and study habits.

Some differences are obvious and are part of the category definitions for each 鈥渓abel.鈥� Other characteristics are similar and make it a little more difficult to discern one from the other.

Some children exhibit the characteristics of both kinds and can be both gifted and high achieving. It is worthwhile to look at the two types of students to see what is important to each and to become more knowledgeable in helping them.

The gifted student: innate abilities

students have higher IQs than other students with and potential for demonstrating exceptional levels of proficiency in one or more areas of endeavor. That includes areas like math, science, language, music, art, communication, or almost any area of high interest.

Researchers have established ranges for giftedness, from 鈥淢ildly Gifted鈥� with IQs of 115-129 to 鈥淧rofoundly Gifted鈥� with IQs of 160+. 聽The IQ levels are identified by tests and subtests to assess various cognitive abilities and are given by registered clinical psychologists

grasp information so quickly and remember it so well that they don鈥檛 really have to study hard. They don鈥檛 need to acquire organizational skills or other higher-order intellectual disciplines to guide them.

Gifted students can fly through elementary and secondary schools and get to the college or university level with ease. But as more and more demands get placed on them, they can be overwhelmed and become frustrated.

These students can benefit from academic counselors who will show them how to organize material, plan their homework and study schedules, and develop good study habits.

At the elementary level, these students need an individualized education plan (IEP) which addresses both their strengths and weaknesses. These plans look at what the children are good at (speaking, drawing, telling stories, interact with people, etc.).

The plans also look at disabilities and where the students need assistance. Sometimes the student creates a portfolio that shows personal strengths and helps understand him or her better.

Recommendations might be working with a peer student or in groups, or practice speaking, or other projects to encourage skill development and the feelings of success. The plan helps the student establish and work toward specific goals.

Gifted students strive for perfection. They want to master everything they try. This sometimes leads to failure and frustration. Gifted students have trouble coping with failure. Teachers and parents need to help these students learn to handle failure and provide the emotional support they need.

Emotional balance is very important for gifted students. They feel things very intently and can become obsessed over their particular interests. They have and different views of the world and delve deeper into subjects than other students. They can react unexpectedly in almost any situation.

The high achievers: earned abilities

Smart students are easy to recognize. They always have their hands up to answer questions. They volunteer for projects. They are joiners and leaders.

know how to study. They have good study habits and spend a lot of time on homework and getting ready for tests. They are .

Enrichment for high achievers can include special projects, field trips, leading group activities, advanced programs, or outside events and activities that they pursue on their own.

These students can also act as tutors for other students if they are asked to do so 鈥� and agree as a personal choice. Achievers can share their own personal ways of looking at problems and reveal their insights that can help their peers.

Just like gifted students, achievers do not like failure, either. But the difference is that achievers get over it quickly. It is not the emotional burden it is for gifted students.

High achievers know they work hard and are generally happy with their work ethic and results. Conversely, gifted students are highly self-critical and always feel they could have done more.

High achievers ask that typically have answers. On the other hand, gifted students as hypothetical questions and abstract questions that are more difficult to answer and may in fact have more than one answer. They think in abstracts.

Sense of fairness is another differentiator. High achievers understand fairness as it applies to them in various situations. Gifted students, however, are very concerned about fairness not only regarding themselves and peers but also on a much larger scale.

High achievers prefer to learn in a sequential manner and typically need 6-8 repetitions to learn material. Gifted students like complexity and need only 1-2 exposures to material to learn it.

This has far-reaching implications for teaching and learning environments. Repetition is a traditional educational philosophy in most public schools. This approach favors high achievers but hurts gifted students.

Private and specialized programs for gifted students in public schools minimize repetition and focus on enrichment, faster pace, multitude of media, and independent study.

Both types face problems

Both gifted and achievers have problems, whether academic, emotional or social. Many gifted students can lack motivation, be misunderstood in school, fail, underachieve, and even drop out of school. Giftedness is often associated with learning disorders.

Some gifted children are 鈥溾�� or 鈥渢wice blessed鈥� and have Autism Spectrum disorder, Attention Deficit Disorder, Asperger鈥檚, physical disabilities or other challenges. In cases like these, obviously medical, psychological and social professionals should become involved.

So it is important to really understand the nature of your child鈥檚 intelligence. In addition to educational concerns there can be emotional, social and medical issues that are of equal or even greater importance that need to be addressed.

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