Sacramento Head Start Alumni Association

Connect for Kids Weekly - August 11, 2003

Aug 12, 2003

We encourage distribution of this information! If reprinting in whole or part, please attribute it to Connect for Kids (www.connectforkids.org).

NEW ON CONNECTFORKIDS.ORG
**Caring for the Caseworkers Who Care for Kids
**A Toolkit for Funding
**YO! Pulling No Punches

TOUGH TIMES FOR FAMILIES
**Worst Recovery on Record In Terms of Job Growth
**Employment Alone is Not Enough
**Despair of the Jobless
**Tax Reform for Families: An Earned Income Child Credit

BETTER INFORMATION MEANS BETTER PROGRAMS
**After-School for All? Exploring Access and Equity in After-School Programs
**Data Systems to Enhance Teacher Quality
**Pre-primary Assessments -- What the Experts Think
**Eight Questions on Teacher Preparation -- What Does the Research Say?

NEW RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMMUNIZATIONS INITIATIVE
**Nation Needs New Strategy for Purchasing and Distributing Vaccines

IMPROVING SCHOOLS AND LEARNING
**An Impossible Job? The View From the Urban Superintendent's Chair
**Ed Week Finds "Approved" is a Relative Term for Education Departments

NEW ONLINE LEARNING RESOURCES
**Gus and Inky Help Kids Get Ready to Read
**Science News for Kids
**"Tell Me" Campaign for Girls

POLICIES AND PROGRAMS THAT SUPPORT WORKING FAMILIES
** Helping Low Income Students Succeed in Community College
**The Long Journey to Work: A Federal Transportation Policy for Working Families
**New Child Care Resources are Needed For Hundreds of Thousands of Children

REFORMING WELFARE: THE DEBATE OVER DIRECTION
**Work the Right Recipe for Welfare
** Welfare Reauthorization: Congressional Proposals Head Back to the Past

FOCUS ON THE STATES

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NEW ON CONNECTFORKIDS.ORG

**Caring for the Caseworkers Who Care for Kids
Five years after a massive reform effort began, there is good news from New York City's child welfare system. Caitlin Johnson looks at how they did it, and why the city's progress may be in jeopardy.
http://www.connectforkids.org/benton_topics1544/benton_topics_show.htm?doc_id=188830

**A Toolkit for Funding
Want to build a playground for your local school or maybe start an after-school program? Good ideas need funding to become reality. Connect for Kids has a toolkit to help you get started.
http://www.connectforkids.org/resources3139/resources_show.htm?doc_id=45947

**YO! Pulling No Punches
With in-your-face headlines like "County Budget Cuts Suck," this week's featured youth media site wears its convictions on its homepage. YO! Youth Outlook is a monthly journal featuring work by youth from ages 15 to 25 in the Bay Area of San Francisco. In "A Brother's Motivation" from June 1, Paul Billingsley writes about his path to college.
http://www.connectforkids.org/benton_topics1544/benton_topics_show.htm?doc_id=188833


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TOUGH TIMES FOR FAMILIES

**Worst Recovery on Record In Terms of Job Growth
The Economic Policy Institute reports the current economic recovery is too weak to boost jobs. Since the official end of the recession in November 2001, the number of jobs has declined by one million overall and by 1.2 million in the private sector, making this the first recovery in the post-WWII period in which the number of jobs in the private sector has actually fallen 20 months into the expansion.
http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/webfeatures_snapshots

**Employment Alone is Not Enough
Even with a job, many low-wage parents are out of official poverty, but not out of the woods. The National Center on Children in Poverty (NCCP) reports that 27 million children -- 40 percent of all U.S. kids -- live in families whose earnings, while above the official poverty rate, are not enough to cover family needs. These families often lose eligibility for health and child care benefits as they increase their earnings, but unlike their middle class counterparts, they won't be receiving tax cut checks in the mail this month. To help these families, NCCP recommends stronger public policies, like expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit, reducing the payroll tax burden for low-income households, providing health care coverage and helping with child care costs.
http://www.nccp.org/rel_3.html

**Despair of the Jobless
The Bush administration says prosperity is just around the corner, but in his August 7, 2003 op-ed, New York Times columnist Bob Herbert calls for better government planning and strategies to help "workaday Americans," not just corporate America, in the current unemployment crisis. (May require free registration.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/07/opinion/07HERB.html?ex=1061260939&ei=1&en=fcb1740f164f96d3

**Tax Reform for Families: An Earned Income Child Credit
Confused by the different rules for the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child Tax Credit, the Dependent Exemption and the Single Head of Household? You're not alone, according to this Brookings policy brief. Many families don't claim benefits they're eligible for, errors are common, and low-income filers often rely on paid tax preparation services for help. Integration of all four benefits won't happen in the short run--but the authors recommend an Earned Income Child Credit (EICC) that uses a single definition for "qualifying children," and for the income used to determine the credit?’s amount. These changes would also provide a greater share of benefits to low-income families, and index the value of the credit to inflation, so that those gains are locked in over time.
http://www.brookings.edu/es/research/projects/wrb/publications/pb/pb26.htm


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BETTER INFORMATION MEANS BETTER PROGRAMS

**After-School for All? Exploring Access and Equity in After-School Programs
Evidence suggests that after-school programs serve only about a third of the school age kids who need them, raising the critical question: which third? In these tough budgetary times, the pressure is on to show the best outcomes for the least investment -- leading programs to likely target those who are easiest to reach and easiest to teach. This commentary urges advocates to pay attention to issues of access, equity and quality for youth in under-served rural communities and under-resourced urban neighborhoods. Failing to honestly address issues of effectiveness will weaken efforts to improve programs through better staff training, better data and flexible approaches, targeted allocation of resources.
http://www.forumforyouthinvestment.org

**Data Systems to Enhance Teacher Quality
Getting better data on the teaching profession is critical to helping states improve policies for developing a qualified teaching workforce -- but measuring the qualifications, preparation, and career paths of potential teachers, and identifying turnover and recruitment patterns and the supply and demand of teacher talent is difficult to do. This monograph from the State Higher Education Executive Officers examines data systems in 14 states to help policy makers identify the information they need to improve teacher quality, and how they can get it.
http://www.sheeo.org/quality/data%20sys.pdf

**Pre-primary Assessments -- What the Experts Think
The growing focus on early childhood education has focused attention on what makes for good child assessment and program evaluation at the pre-primary level. This Erikson Institute report finds that early childhood experts generally agree on the usefulness of informal, non-intrusive assessments, such as portfolios, teacher observations and parent evaluations. According to the experts, screening for disabilities and developmental delays should be conducted annually and supplemented by ongoing teacher observations. Experts agree that standardized tests should not be used with preschoolers, except for program evaluation purposes. A second survey explores what state-funded pre-kindergarten programs across the country are doing to assess children.
http://www.erikson.edu/files/nonimages/horton-bowman.pdf

**Eight Questions on Teacher Preparation -- What Does the Research Say?
What's the best way to prepare teachers? Findings tend to be inconclusive or limited in scope, according to this Education Commission of the States review of the research. In many areas the findings are too scant to guide policy, suggesting the key questions should be viewed as a roadmap for further research instead.
http://www.ecs.org/ecsmain.asp?page=/html/educationIssues/teachingquality/tpreport/index.asp


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NEW RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMMUNIZATIONS INITIATIVE

**Nation Needs New Strategy for Purchasing and Distributing Vaccines
Ever since the distribution of the polio vaccine in the 1950s, the Uncle Sam has played a major role in buying and distributing vaccines. Government purchases of childhood vaccines currently top $1 billion annually, and account for half the vaccines on the market. Although many young children are immunized, significant gaps persist across geographic and demographic populations -- and the fragmented public/private health care system leaves 10.5 percent of children without immunization insurance coverage. Concerned about these gaps and unprecedented shortages of vaccines in recent years, the Institute of Medicine urges the government to expand its role to help all kids get access to vaccines and recommends an insurance mandate combined with a government subsidy and voucher plan to administer vaccines.
http://www4.nationalacademies.org/news.nsf/isbn/0309089794?OpenDocument


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IMPROVING SCHOOLS AND LEARNING

**An Impossible Job? The View From the Urban Superintendent's Chair
Veteran superintendents report that the gap between the expectations and their resources and authority render their job "undoable," according to the Center on Reinventing Public Education. In particular, superintendents say that they lack the authority necessary to control their school reform agenda, and face barriers to school reform too numerous to overcome with just new and better leadership. Also, while some districts are making progress in improving minority student performance, closing this achievement gap remains a challenge.
http://www.crpe.org/pubs/introImpossibleJob.shtml

**Ed Week Finds "Approved" is a Relative Term for Education Departments
Under the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act, states must set annual achievement goals for schools--known as adequate yearly progress--so that all students rate as proficient on state tests in reading and mathematics by 2013-14. In June, President Bush announced that every state had a federally approved accountability plan, but Education Week finds that only a handful of states have actually had their plans approved, and many are still trying to put their assessment plans in place. States risk losing federal dollars if they do not identify failing schools by 2004. Most states have not yet released those lists; many are expected to do so this August.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=43account.h22


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NEW ONLINE LEARNING RESOURCES

**Gus and Inky Help Kids Get Ready to Read
The National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) has a new online interactive reading game! "Gus and Inky?’s Underwater Adventures" features Gus the Bunny from "Between the Lions" and is designed to help kids develop the literacy skills they need to become successful readers. NCLD reports that when reading problems aren't identified until second or third grade, valuable time for learning critical skills is lost. Games for 4-year-olds can help parents and caregivers chart kids' basic literacy progress. (See also the Get Ready to Read! Screening tool at http://www.familyeducation.com/article/0,1120,63-25466,00.html)
http://www.GetReadytoRead.org

**Science News for Kids
Get the latest science news in easy-to-understand language on this new site from Science News and its publisher Science Service. Aimed at middle-schoolers but accessible to others, the site includes information on science fairs and opportunities to solve puzzles, answer polls and do experiments.
http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org

**"Tell Me" Campaign for Girls
This summer, Girls Inc., is launching a new public education campaign exploring what girls want to hear from adults as they face daily challenges. The "Tell Me" campaign will include an online component for adults and the girls in their lives, but first they are asking girls to contribute their ideas.
http://www.girlsinc.org


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POLICIES AND PROGRAMS THAT SUPPORT WORKING FAMILIES

** Helping Low Income Students Succeed in Community College
Community colleges can help low-wage workers earn skills and credentials for educational and career advancement, but time constraints and basic skill deficiencies often get in the way. This Jobs for the Future review looks at innovative ways that community colleges have redesigned their programs to help working adults advance out of low-wage work. Promising approaches include teaching basic skills in the context of meaningful academic and occupational content, partnerships with employers to create links to job advancement, distance learning, and integrating English as a Second Language and basic skills instruction with occupational certificate programs.
http://www.mdrc.org/publications/349/full.pdf

**The Long Journey to Work: A Federal Transportation Policy for Working Families
For many parents, traveling to jobs is frequently easier said than done. This Brookings brief examines the serious transportation challenges facing low-income workers and provides a full menu of practical policy options, including automobile access programs, improved fixed-route transit services, and expanded paratransit and other door-to-door transit services.
http://www.brookings.edu/es/urban/publications/20030801_waller.htm

**New Child Care Resources are Needed For Hundreds of Thousands of Children
The TANF reauthorization legislation will establish mandatory federal child care funding levels for the next five years -- money that is predominantly used to provide child care assistance to working families not receiving TANF cash assistance. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports that without increased child care funding, hundreds of thousands of children in working families stand to lose access to child care assistance.
http://www.cbpp.org/7-15-03tanf.htm


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REFORMING WELFARE: THE DEBATE OVER DIRECTION

**Work the Right Recipe for Welfare
In an August 5, 2003 Washington Post op ed, "Work, The Key to Welfare," Heritage Foundation writers Brian Riedl and Robert Rector argue that increasing mandated work requirements and participation rates for welfare-to-work families, at the expense of education and training opportunities, is the right way to go to improve welfare reform.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19328-2003Aug4.html

** Welfare Reauthorization: Congressional Proposals Head Back to the Past
Addressing TANF and state administrators, Brookings visiting scholar Margy Waller argues that the research shows that the success of TANF the families would be seriously undermined "if Congress passes something like the administration's proposal for reauthorization, or proposals under consideration in Congress today."
http://www.brookings.edu/es/urban/speeches/20030721_waller.htm


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FOCUS ON THE STATES

**State-by-State News

California
The Public Policy Institute of California's "California's Children: How Are They Faring?" finds that most children in California are doing fine, but a substantial minority, especially poor children, lag behind in key areas of child development. Children in California are doing slightly worse than children in the rest of the nation on a number of indicators of their well-being, from physical health to truancy.
http://www.ppic.org/main/publication.asp?i=313

Florida
Nearly 90 percent of Florida's public schools failed to meet reading and math standards this year under the new federal No Child Left Behind law, reports the Miami Herald.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/6484226.htm

Illinois
The Education Commission of the States reports that a new Illinois law will freeze in-state public university tuition for students at the level they pay when they enter as freshmen.
http://www.legis.state.il.us/legislation/publicacts/fulltext.asp?Name=093-0228

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that an estimated 250,000 students could be vying for only 5,000 seats under tough new federal standards designed to free students from failing schools.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-transfer07.html

Kansas
"Counting Kids: Growing Up Poor in Kansas" -- fourth in a series analyzing data from the 2000 Census by Kansas Action for Children -- indicates that nearly one-third of Kansas children are living in poverty, near-poverty or in low-income households. The series is intended to provide policymakers with key data that will enable them to think beyond the present and plan for long-term needs.
http://www.kac.org/subpages/Publications/KAC%20Census%20Report%204.pdf

Kentucky
Education officials say they will keep both the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System and a second rating system to meet the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. That means that, beginning in the 2005-06 school year, a Kentucky school could receive financial rewards for scoring well on state tests at the same time that it's considered failing under the federal mandates.
http://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2003/08/07ky/wir-front-dual0807-7613.html

New Mexico
Governor Bill Richardson has kicked off his campaign to win voter support for constitutional amendments to create a cabinet-level Secretary of Education and increase the money distributed annually to public schools and other institutions from the land-grant permanent fund. The state Republican Party has pledged to campaign against increased distributions from the permanent fund.
http://www.santafenewmexican.com/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=7&ArticleID=30956

Washington
What happens when children's parents are arrested, especially in the middle of the night, and the children have nowhere to stay? In a program that may be the first of its kind in the nation, the Bellingham Police Department is recruiting officers to fill the shortage of temporary foster parents. The unique program requires interested officers to take a training course, and prohibits their involvement in the arrests of the children's parents.
http://www.thesunlink.com/redesign/2003-06-08/local/170489.shtml