Studies show obese children face risks to their emotional and social well-being that can harm their academic performance.
Weight of the Nation, a 4 part series on HBO, dedicated an entire hour to childhood obesity. All four parts can be viewed on YouTube.
Here is the link to Weight of the Nation: Children in Crisis…it’s worth watching.
Location, location, location…where students live is a determining factor in education success. A recent report from 24/7 Wall St. analyzed Census data from 2006 through 2010 for each of the more than 10,000 unified school districts in the U.S. and found that wealth appears to have an out-sized effect on education at a local level.
Read more about the findings and see a list of the 10 riches and poorest school districts here.
Other Leagues are blogging too! The Junior League in Washington D.C. is an issue based league and is tackling Literacy. They update their blog daily with mind blowing facts on Literacy and other contributing factors.
Childhood obesity is now an epidemic. If the problem isn’t solved, a third of all children (that’s 1 in 3) born in 2000 or later will suffer from diabetes and many will encounter other chronic diseases at some pint in their lives. (Source: www.LetsMove.gov)
The U.S. House of Representatives is considering – this week – a budget that ends dedicated funding for the Women Infant and Children (WIC) breastfeeding peer counselor program.
Take a moment to educate yourself about the program and the proposed cuts and concact you Representative is you see fit. For more information check out MomsRising.org
The achievement gap is defined as the observed disparity on a number of educational measures between the performance of groups of students, especially groups defined by gender, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Measures include standardized test scores, grade point average, dropout rates and college enrollment and completion rates.
Research into the causes of gaps in student achievement between low-income minority students and middle-income white students has been ongoing since the publication of the report, “Equality of Educational Opportunity” (more widely known as the Coleman Report), commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education in 1966. That research suggests that both in-school factors and home/community factors impact the academic achievement of students and contribute to the gap.
Minnesota’s achievement gap among the demographic groups described above is one of the largest in the nation– Minneapolis’ achievement gap is the largest in the state.
The National Assessment of Academic Progress (NAEP) scores, released November 1, 2011, show that little progress is being made in closing Minnesota’s gap. Additional data can be found at http://nces.ed.gov/
Under the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, many Minnesota schools have been mislabeled as failures – even schools that perform at high levels.
Minnesota created an accountability system allowing us to be one of 10 states to be granted the waiver from NCLB. The system has set the goal to reduce the achievement gap by 50% in the next 6 years.
The Minnesota Department of Education explains the Waiver Request.
Junior League of Minneapolis 