Media Monday: Writers explore the transformation of America’s public schools

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We’re always so pleased when we can highlight a public school with an alt ed soul. Last week Dawn Johnson wrote about Cunningham Elementary as a visionary public school in South Austin on our blog, and it’s a terrific, inspiring read. Recognizing that public schools across the country are in a period of new challenges and changes, Slate magazine is featuring a five-part series, “Tomorrow’s Test,” right now that’s also a must-read. The series is produced in cooperation with the Columbia Journalism School’s Teacher Project.



The focus of the series is one that’s not news to anyone interested in education in Texas, California, or other parts of the country that have seen many new immigrants in the past couple of decades. Changing demographics have a wide range of consequences for our public schools. As writer Sarah Carr explains in the series introduction:

Over the last 20 years, the number of Hispanic public schoolchildren has more than doubled, and the number of Asians has swelled by 56 percent. The number of black students and American Indians grew far more modestly—but the number of white students fell by about 15 percent.
The majority-minority milestone has arrived in our public schools early—a consequence of white children’s overrepresentation in private schools and the relative youth of America’s black and Hispanic populations. It is not a fluke. It is a preview of a transforming country. 

One of the things Carr points out that we may not think much about is the lack of diversity among our public school teachers and how that can sometimes affect their ability to connect with and mentor students of color and students from less affluent backgrounds. At a time when half our public school students are students of color, more than half are low-income, and almost a quarter are foreign-born or have a foreign-born parent, about 80 percent of our teachers are white.

This week, the Tomorrow’s Test series will visit 11 schools across the country, starting in Alaska and New Orleans. The articles will look at questions of diversity, immigration, segregation, and poverty, and will chronicle kids, families, and schools all looking for better education alternatives in this time of change.

Let us know if you’re reading the series and what you find inspiring, surprising, and relevant to our schools in Austin.


Shelley Sperry

Anxious minds: Teens and mental health

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In recognition of rising rates of anxiety disorders and depression among our teens and May as Mental Health Awareness Month, Alt Ed Austin is launching a two-part blog series by staff writer Shelley Sperry. We’ll also highlight some helpful mental health resources for parents, kids, and educators on our Facebook and Twitter feeds.

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The umbrella term “mental health” covers a vast array of issues, and of course, we can’t be comprehensive in a few blog posts, so we’ll narrow the focus to what’s going on in schools and in our community to help kids with anxiety and depression. We want to help open up the conversation about all mental health issues, so please let us know via comments, here or on Facebook, if you have suggestions for resources or topics we should highlight in the future.

In this opening blog post, I’d like to just offer an overview and suggest a few options for anyone who wants to investigate further. Here are a few statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and National Institute of Mental Health:

  • About 8 percent of kids 12 to 17 report two weeks or more of mentally unhealthy days in the past month.

  • In 2014, an estimated 2.8 million adolescents aged 12 to 17 in the United States had at least one major depressive episode in the past year. This number represented 11.4 percent of the U.S. population aged 12 to 17.

  • Fully 25 percent of teens have experienced some form of anxiety disorder and for about 6 percent, this has caused “severe impairment.”

  • Depression affects about 10 percent of adolescents.

A 2015 Pew Research study based on parent surveys found that parents are most concerned about bullying and anxiety and depression among their kids. But often anxiety and depression are not as easy for teachers or parents to identify as behavioral problems. Students may want to hide their symptoms and may outwardly seem to be “good kids” and perfectionists, masking their challenges.

Because kids spend at least half—and sometimes more—of their waking hours at school, it’s essential that teachers, counselors, and school administrators be alert to signs of stress and distress among students. Yet despite the size of the problem, in most communities, schools suffer from a lack of mental health specialists. For example, in Wisconsin a major investigation determined that schools need twice as many psychologists and six times as many social workers as they have.

In the coming weeks, I look forward to looking at what’s happening in Austin’s schools to help teens cope with anxiety and depression, and offering some perspectives from educators, therapists, and social workers in the field.

Some helpful resources:

National Institute of Mental Health: part of the National Institutes for Health, NIMH is the lead federal agency for research on mental disorders.

Mental Health America: a nonprofit founded in 1909 and dedicated to helping people live mentally healthier lives. It has more than 300 affiliates across the country and does educational work in communities as well as advocating for legislation.

Anxiety and Depression Association of America: a nonprofit organization founded in 1980 and dedicated to educating the public and professionals about phobias and anxiety disorders and their treatment, as well as assisting people in locating treatment in their area. Despite its name, depression is not a major focus.

Texas System of Care Data Dashboard: a downloadable PDF report on child and adolescent mental health and wellness in Texas.

“Recent Advances in Anxiety Disorders and Coping Skills”: a presentation available on YouTube by Dr. Erin Berman, National Institute of Mental Health

Centers for Disease Control, Mental Health Surveillance Among Children in the United States, 2005–2011: the first comprehensive report on children’s mental health in the country.

Caring for Every Child’s Mental Health, a part of the federal government’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA): this site offers a variety of resources for parents and young people.

“Finding Help, Finding Hope”: a forum available from SAMHSA on YouTube about what to do if you think your child may have a mental health problem.

“A Blueprint When Feeling Blue: How a Mental Health Diagnosis Can Be Empowering”: A personal essay, backed up with relevant research, by social worker and mental health expert Ashley Santangelo.

Free Mental Health and Addiction Resources, compiled by RehabCenter.net.
 

Shelley Sperry

Media Monday: Guns on campus

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A few years ago, we would not have predicted that parents and kids would be spending some of their 2016 college prep time studying rules about concealed weapons on campuses. But given that the clock is ticking on legislation on the governor of Georgia’s desk right now, and the controversy is intense and immediate in Texas, we thought it might be helpful to have a few resources available, if it’s something you’re thinking about related to your own college-bound teens.

Surveys show that a majority of faculty, students, and administrators oppose weapons on campus, yet many gun rights advocates insist that campuses will be safer with more weapons in more hands, pockets, and backpacks. After eighteen-year-old Haruka Weiser was killed on the UT campus last week, Students for Concealed Carry argued that her death might have been prevented by more weapons on campus and criticized UT’s policies that would not allow rounds in firearm chambers on campus. UT President Gregory Fenves said he will continue to put the new campus carry policies in place with the goal of creating “a safe campus for everyone.”
 


As a recent article by Ian Bogost in The Atlantic noted, eight states currently allow gun possession on college campuses, with Texas being the latest to adopt such a law. The Texas law will take effect August 1 this year. Nineteen states currently ban concealed weapons on campus, and twenty-three allow each campus to decide.

Bogost takes a look at the larger world today’s college students live in and concludes:

The great tragedy and sorrow of the push to extend gun rights to every nook and cranny of American life is not that firearms make people feel greater power and greater control in those contexts. It’s that they are so stripped of that power and control that they should need to seek solace in guns in the first place.


Recent news stories on struggles over guns on campus:


Organizations that oppose guns on campuses:


Organizations that favor guns on campuses:


Shelley Sperry
 

Countdown to blastoff at Maker Faire Austin!

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The songwriters are strumming, the fire dancers are flaming, and the robots are . . . gardening? Maker Faire Austin is back, and this year it’s filling the entire Palmer Events Center with amazing demonstrations, performances, and workshops that are the very definition of “family friendly.”

Read on (or scroll down, if you can’t resist) to enter our drawing for a free family pack of Maker Faire Austin passes!

The Maker Faire happens Saturday and Sunday, May 7–8, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. This year more than 200 creative engineers, artists, crafters, and builders from all over Texas will meet up to share their passions. A blacksmith will make swords on site and explain how it’s done. You can paint with LED light on a 30-foot wall, and then watch a robot drumline!

Kami Wilt, the Faire’s producer and chief evangelist, says she is expecting more than 12,000 visitors to the Faire in May. “I’m especially excited that for the first time we have a huge darkened hall as part of the venue. There we’ll have lots of interactive light exhibits. We’re really blowing the roof off the place this year. We’re not a ‘mini’ Faire anymore!”

Kami recommends taking a look at each day’s options on the website and planning so that everyone in the family can spend time doing what they love. “But also leave some time to just wander and explore,” she says. “Don’t over-prepare. You’ll walk in and be swept away by the sea of exciting stuff to see and do.” Families can buy passes for one or both days, which will allow them to go in and out at their own pace.

The best thing about the Maker Faire experience, Kami explains, is that it gives parents and kids a chance to get caught up and involved in the same activities and sense of wonder. “We see whole families intensely engaged—and parents rarely want to sit on the sidelines.”

This video will give you a little preview of what’s in store.

If you’re interested in volunteering to help with the Faire, there are slots available. Your volunteer job comes with a free t-shirt and admission. And if you’re a maker, there’s still time to sign up to show your stuff! The maker application deadline has been extended through April 7.

Please join us to share the maker experience, and set your imagination free.

Lots more information is available on the website. Or you can follow the happenings on Facebook: Maker Faire Austin; Instagram: @makerfaireaustin; and Twitter: @atxmakerfaire.

And here's your chance to win free tickets! We're giving away a family pack that includes two adult passes and two child passes, good for either day of the Faire. Enter our random drawing below, using the method(s) of your choice. And if you are not the lucky winner, you can buy advance tickets right here. Good luck!

UPDATE (4/5/2016): Congratulations to Sara, who won our family passes to Maker Faire Austin! And thanks to everyone who entered. We hope you’ll still be able to make it to the Faire. We can’t wait!

Shelley Sperry, staff writer
 

Media Monday: Where do the presidential candidates stand on education?

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The 74 Million’s presidential election coverage includes news, analysis, and opinion on the education policies of candidates from both major parties.

The 74 Million’s presidential election coverage includes news, analysis, and opinion on the education policies of candidates from both major parties.

We’ve noticed over the past few weeks that education policy is not getting much coverage by traditional media sources in the noise of the presidential campaign, so we went looking for some solid information comparing the candidates’ positions on a range of education issues, from pre-k to college. Here’s what we found. Please let us know if there are other sources you recommend!

One of the most interesting sites we discovered is called The 74 Million, named for the number of school-age kids in the country whose needs ought to be on our minds as we vote this year. It covers a broad spectrum of education issues, looks fresh, is easy to navigate, and adds new content regularly. There are opinion pieces from a variety of viewpoints as well as features on school-related topics, including reporting on SWSXedu here in Austin. But for our purposes, the section on Election 2016 is of interest for its coverage of what the candidates are saying and not saying about education. For a quick hit of information, the Election Scorecard details candidates’ stands on six key issues.

A “just the facts” site, Ballotpedia.org’s education page does a good job of rounding up presidential hopefuls’ statements on a broad range of topics and laying them out in one handy, clickable spot to make them easy to compare and contrast.

And if it’s higher education policy that’s of interest to you, take a look at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators explanations of that hot election-year issue.

Shelley Sperry

 

Media Monday: Teaching “no to violence”

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For Media Monday this week, we’re looking beyond borders and joining the international community in saluting a great teacher who works in some of the most difficult circumstances imaginable.

Some children may not directly experience things like arrests, or assault, checkpoints, and all the violence in our country, however they see it on the screens and in social media and that will affect them. . . . When I say no to violence, I pass it on to the students without them noticing it, through behaviors and ethics that I teach the students through playing games.

—Hanan Al Hroub, Global Teacher of the Year, 2016

In case you missed it, an innovative Palestinian teacher from Bethlehem who grew up in a refugee camp and now teaches refugee kids, was selected as Global Teacher of the Year yesterday. None other than Pope Francis announced the honor for Hanan al-Hroub, who believes in nonviolence and the power of play. Al Hroub explains her philosophy and her battle against violence in a YouTube video that’s a must-see:
 

 Shelley Sperry