In the News…

The importance of music on reading, speaking, and learning

July 31, 2011

In two Stanford University studies, researchers have demonstrated how important split-second processing of sounds is to speaking and reading. Researchers have learned that mastering a musical instrument improves the way the human brain processes parts of spoken language. Research findings indicate that:

People with musical experience found it easier than non-musicians to detect small differences in word syllables
They also noted that musical training helps the brain work more efficiently in distinguishing differences between rapidly changing sounds that are essential to processing language
Musical training increases perception of sound pitches and verbal memory

Potential applications of the research are:

Improving speech processing in children stuggling with language and reading skills
Assisting seniors experiencing a decline in speech perception and verbal memory skills
Assisting people learning a second language
Improving the acoustic and phonetic skills needed for learning language and reading

The National Association for Music Education notes a broad range of benefits to students who have access to music education:

Secondary students who participated in band or orchestra reported the lowest lifetime and current use of all substances (alcohol, tobacco, illicit drugs)
Many colleges view participation in the arts and music as a valuable experience that broadens students’ understanding and appreciation of the world around them
Schools with music programs have significantly higher graduation rates than do those without programs (90.2 percent as compared to 72.9 percent)
Students in high-quality school music programs score higher on standardized tests compared to students in schools with deficient music education programs
Students of music outperform non-arts students on the SAT
Nearly 100 percent of past winners in the prestigious Siemens Westinghouse Competition in Math, Science, and Technology (for high school students) play one or more musical instruments
Children in music training had significantly better verbal memory than students without such training
Young children who take music lessons show different brain development and improved memory over the course of a year
Playing a musical instrument significantly enhances the brainstem’s sensitivity to speech sounds

Read the report…

Unfortunately, current educational policy contributes to widening the achievement and college enrollment gaps between our children. Children from low-performing and low-income communities have less access to musical training, and instead attend schools oftentimes focused almost exclusively on raising test scores. In contrast, children from upper income communities, or who attend high-performing schools, are exposed to a broad range of vocal and instrumental music training. Subsequently, such children, through enhanced musical exposure, develop the cognitive, verbal, and memory skills that enable them to achieve higher test scores without having a specific focus on increasing test scores. Their resulting higher test scores, higher academic skills, and broader cultural and artistic exposure significantly expand their college and career options.

Our younger son has enjoyed learning to play the piano and guitar, although he did not begin formal lessons until the ninth grade for guitar and the tenth grade for piano. His tenth grade piano recital of Beethoven’s Sonata No. 17 in D minor Movement 3 “Tempest,” is a wonderful example of that adage, “It’s never too late.”

For those parents and students who find themselves stuck in low-performing schools or in schools with limited access to music programs, consider exploring opportunities through the music ministry at local faith organizations, after school programs, and summer camps.

Time to Take Charge!

July 29, 2011

Parents and students need to stop blindly going through K-12 education without doing the necessary research to identify the most appropriate colleges and careers. Whether or not students attend good high schools with well-informed counselors, the information is only a mouse click away:

The U.S. Department of Education’s College Affordability and Transparency Center serves as a valuable resource to compare tuition costs and the net prices of college
The U.S. Department of Education College Navigator provides detailed information on all U.S. colleges and universities (including admissions, costs, graduation rates, and student demographics)
The Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Handbook provides information on hundreds of types of jobs and the job markets in each State
The Federal Student Aid website provides links to a broad range of websites to assist students in preparing for their education

Get connected and get informed!

How to serve “disconnected” youth

July 29, 2011

The American Youth Policy Forum paper, “Key Considerations for Serving Disconnected Youth” outlines the type of strategies needed to reach youth who have become “disconnected” from both education and productive employment. The report indicates that in the U.S., 3 out of every 10 students fail to earn a high school diploma and that 5.3 million 15-24 year-olds (16.4 percent of all such youth) are disconnected from both education and the work place at any given point in time. For youth from low-income households, 56 percent are among disconnected youth.

The paper suggests three important strategic approaches:

Use data to better understand how to engage disconnected youth in matching educational outcomes and postsecondary plans to their needs
Ensure that educational pathways are relevant to career options, academically rigorous, and adaptive to student needs
Build cross-sector collaboration and partnerships to develop the services and support that such youth need

Our foundation, which has long recognized such needs and pursued such strategies, has learned that so many youth remain disconnected due to the refusal of schools and school districts to support such strategies.

Read the report…

When taking the right classes and having the highest GPA is not enough

July 29, 2011

Kymberly Wimberly, a teen mother and black student at Arkansas’ McGhee High School, had the highest overall GPA, after taking a rigorous course schedule, and was named her class valedictorian. In her complaint, Kymberly asserts that the school district denied her right to be the school’s lone valedictorian, as they had historically denied access to the type of classes that would qualify black students for such an honor. In a school that is 45 percent African-American, Kymberly recalls being the only African-American student in her AP literature class and only one of two in AP Calculus. However, a Washington Post article asserts that the school’s principal, Darrell Thompson, decided to name a white student with a lower GPA as the co-valedictorian. Superintendent of schools, Thomas Gathen, denies that the decision was racial motivated, however, the lawyer for Ms. Wimberly, alleges:

“[The] defendant’s actions were part of a pattern and practice of school administrators and personnel treating the African-American students less favorably than the Caucasian ones…Until Wimberly, the last African-American valedictorian in the McGeeHee school district was in 1989.”

The complaint also alleges:

“ ‘African-American students were not encouraged to take Honors or Advanced Placement classes,’ the complaint says. ‘Caucasian students had to almost opt out (of advanced classes).’”

Pay attention to your high school schedule!

July 29, 2011

A recent Birmingham News article, “Third of college-bound graduates in Alabama need remedial classes,” notes that over 50 percent of graduating seniors from 223 or Alabama’s 357 high schools needed to take remedial college classes in math or English. These results are consistent with Alabama’s 2010 ACT results, which indicated that the following percentage of Alabama’s high school seniors failed to demonstrate college readiness:

34 percent failed to demonstrate college readiness in English
69 percent failed to demonstrate college readiness in Math
53 percent failed to demonstrate college readiness in Reading
77 percent failed to demonstrate college readiness in Science

Parents must realize that they have an important role in ensuring that their children are taking the appropriate high school classes. Nationally, there are huge differences in the college readiness of students based on their high school course taking.

Only 7 percent of students who take less than the their high school core classes in math are college ready
Only 13 percent of students who take their high school core classes in math are college ready, and
55 percent of students who take math classes beyond their high school core classes in math are college ready

A longstanding popular myth among high school students and their parents is the importance of focusing on GPAs as opposed to focusing on course taking—i.e., taking easier classes to get high grades as opposed to risking lower grades in more rigorous classes. Clearly, it is a case of, “Pay me know or pay me later.” Failure to enroll in rigorous high school classes can cost students thousands of dollars in tuition for remedial college classes, limit a student’s college options, significantly reduce a student’s access to college scholarship opportunities, result in lower SAT and ACT scores, and substantially reduce the likelihood of a student graduating from college.

Pay attention to your high school schedule!

Call Me MISTER

July 29, 2011

TheCall Me MISTER program (Mentors Instructing Students Toward Effective Role Models), founded and hosted at Clemson University, is a national teacher leadership program whose purpose is to prepare students for careers as elementary school teachers. Cultivating servant leaders is a primary goal of the program and increasing the number of African-American male teachers is an important initiative of the program. Graduates are expected to have an impact by returning to critical need schools and communities to pursue their professional careers. It is expected that students who complete their program of study will become certified to teach and will assume a teaching position in a public school and teach one year for each year they received financial support from the Call Me MISTER program.

The projects provides:

Scholarships
Book allowances
Tuition assistance through loan forgiveness ($5,000 – $7,00 annually)
Academic support
Social and cultural support

Partner schools are located in South Carolina, Kentucky, Florida, Missouri, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. They include major universities, HBCUs, liberal arts colleges, and community colleges.

Anderson University • Benedict College • Claflin University • Clemson University • College of Charleston • Coastal Carolina University • Greenville Technical College • Midlands Technical College • Morris College • South Carolina State University • Tri-County Technical College • Trident Technical College • University of South Carolina – Beaufort • The North East Florida Educational Consortium – NEFEC • Eastern Kentucky University • Metropolitan Community College • Cheyney University • Longwood University

Contact any of the partner schools to learn more about admission requirements, scholarships, book allowances, loan forgiveness, and how your education can make a difference in the educational journeys of others.

Kentucky Attorney General Sues Daymar College

July 28, 2011

In a previous post, I wrote about the financial risks of choosing the wrong college. I noted recent research that shed light on the low graduation rates and huge loan debt that students risk when attending for-profit colleges. Attorney General Jack Conway of Kentucky has initiated a lawsuit against for-profit college, Daymar College, alleging that the school overcharged students for textbooks and mislead students about financial aid and credit hours. There are seven for-profit colleges under investigation for aggressive recruiting, high tuition, low rates of job placement, and misleading students about financial aid.

The suit further alleges that students were misled regarding their ability to transfer credits to other colleges and Daymar enrolled students who failed to meet its own admissions standards. Enrolling students is big business for for-profit colleges. During the 2009/10 school year, Daymar received over $11 million in federal Pell Grants, while having the second highest student default rate among Kentucky-based schools.

The real costs of attending college

July 28, 2011

As difficult as it is for parents and students to identify the “real costs” of a college education, colleges are using fees to tack on even more costs. Some of these fees can be a significant add-on. Add on $100 here, $50 there, and perhaps toss in another $1,088 there! While schools may publicize no, or only, a small increase in tuition, the same schools may have a huge increase in an assortment of student fees. The USA Today article notes that Georgia’s public universities publicized a 3 percent increase in tuition, however, add in the increased fees, the real costs increased by 9 percent.

Knowledge@Wharton High School Program

July 27, 2011

The University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business offers the Knowledge@Wharton High School website for high school students. The site offers articles, podcasts, and video to help improve business literacy of teenagers.

First-grade math foundation key to later success

July 27, 2011

In U.S. Department of Education research, the level of math and science that a student completes in high school is the clearest predictor of a student’s success in college. 2010 ACT results indicate that all college-bound high school seniors had their lowest scores in math and science. A recent University of Missouri study notes, “beginning first-graders that understand numbers, the quantities those numbers represent, and low-level arithmetic will have better success in learning mathematics through the end of fifth-grade, and other studies suggest throughout the rest of their lives.”

Lead researcher, professor David Geary, also notes, “This study reinforces the idea that math knowledge is incremental, and without a good foundation, a student won’t do well because the math gets more complex.” The paper, “Cognitive Predictors of Achievement Growth in Mathematics: A Five Year Longitudinal Study,” will be published in the journal Developmental Psychology.

Parents should be particularly concerned with the 2009 NAEP Results (National Assessment of Education Progress), which indicate that most U.S. 4^th– and 8^th-graders are not proficient in math.

4^th-grade performance by racial group:

50 percent of White students are below proficiency
79 percent of Hispanic students are below proficiency
85 percent of Black students are below proficiency

8^th-grade performance by racial group:

57 percent of White students are below proficiency
83 percent of Hispanic students are below proficiency
88 percent of Black students are below proficiency

Download 2009 NAEP Math Results