Make Social Change A Reality

According to a 2002 study conducted in Texas, “having a high quality teacher throughout elementary school can substantially offset or even eliminate the disadvantage of low socio-economic background” (Rivkin, Hanushek and Kain, 2002). Parents, friends, and the community impact a student’s performance, but his or her teacher is directly connected to their achievement. That is why it is imperative that we work to ensure that students in poor and underserved communities have highly qualified and motivated teachers like their counterparts in more socially-economically advantaged communities. That is what I have been working to ensure for the past year. Many urban cities face teacher shortages every year. Schools are poorly funded and hard to staff. The students who attend these schools suffer the greatest. Alternative certification programs like the teaching fellows programs started by The New Teacher Project and Teach For America aim to fill those shortages with highly qualified an...

It seems that there is always a shortage of teachers in big cities across the United States. Additionally, there seems to be overcrowding schools in these same cities. One example that I know of is in New York. Every fall, the newspaper headlines focus on overcrowding schools in low-income communities and the shortage of teachers in those same schools. Ultimately what ends up happening is that the schools stay overcrowded, the teachers under populated, the problem moves out of the headlines and gone until the following fall, when the cycle repeats itself again. However, this year, things might be a little different. For the first time in maybe the history of New York and public education, the poorer communities are not the only ones struggling with this problem. Upper-class New Yorkers are finding themselves being turned away from their neighborhood schools or being put on a waiting list for schools that they are zoned for. It’s rare the problems that affect the poor also affect the r...

In 1964, then-President Lyndon Johnson authorized a preschool program as part of his Economic Opportunity Act. That program has evolved into today’s Head Start , which provides not only preschool education to children from low-income families, but also health and social services . Since 1965, the money invested in Head Start programs has been steadily increasing. President Obama allotted an additional $5 billion to the program under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in the hopes of reaching 150,000 more children . The idea is that when education and healthy living start early, children stay in school, stay employed, enrich society and save taxpayer dollars in reduced welfare later on in life. However, in 1997 the Government Accounting Office published a report entitled Head Start: Research Provides Little Information on Impact of Current Program . In response, Congress mandated the Head Start Impact Study . Under the Department of Health and Human Services, the resear...

This post was written by Matthew Reid , volunteer blogger with the Literacy ‘n’ Poverty Project. A native New Yorker, Matthew now lives in Boston and works for a math curriculum development company. I was a teacher for 5 years. Prior to teaching, I worked for a non-profit organization where we provided scholarships for students to attend college. And even before that position, after high school and through college, I was a summer camp counselor and volunteer/organizer for an after school tutoring program. I enjoy working with youth and feel that it is my responsibility to pass on knowledge that I have to others. Recently in the news, there have been many ideas floating around about how to “reform” the public education system and what is necessary. President Obama said education was going to be one of his top priorities to address and “fix” the problem of both teacher recruitment and student performance. Now as a former teacher, I support the need to recruit better teachers, obvious...

Bilaal Rajan, twelve year old author, fundraiser and UNICEF Children’s Ambassador is going barefoot for National Volunteer Week to raise awareness about global child poverty. What's his goal? “...to inspire one million children to take action and help create a more peaceful and caring world. I want kids to find their passion, get involved and make a difference in the lives of others.” Learn more about this inspiring twelve year old, the Barefoot Campaign, or purchase his manual , Making Change: Tips from an Underage Overachiever , at www.makingchangenow.com . You can also see a video on YouTube about this initiative from Rajan himself. Will you join Rajan and go barefoot this week to help raise awareness for less privileged children around the world? Have other plans to celebrate National Volunteer Week? Feel free to share stories about your National Volunteer Week celebrations in the comments. This post was written by Chanelle Carver , acting Editor for Make Social Change A Rea...

President Barack Obama spoke before the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce on March 10th , offering more details about his plans to improve education. In 2008, American students once again ranked below many of their international peers on standardized tests. The President built his campaign on the idea of change, and it is obvious that the archaic system of American education is in dire need of just that. The question is: what does good change look like? It starts with early childhood education. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act promises an addition $5 billion to Early Head Start and Head Start programs . While the money promised will help states fund new programs and improve those in existence, is it enough ? To make post-secondary education more affordable, President Obama has said he will increase the cap on Pell Grants by $500 . He has also briefly outlined a program that would do away with private lending for student loans, replacing it with a program run by the Educa...

I was a teacher for 5 years. Prior to that, I worked in different non-profit organizations where the focus of the organization was education or youth services. I still work in education, but not directly with youth, and I miss it! It’s just one of those things that happens, especially in the current economy, I moved, I found a job, and I kept it for fear of not being able to find another one quickly. However, with this new position, I have a lot of free time after work, time where I can go to the gym, watch TV, read a book, or, another option I recently discovered, mentoring. It wasn’t hard to find an organization looking for mentors and coaches. Especially because of the economy, there is a greater need for volunteers. Many are struggling since most of their funding comes from these companies that are crumbling in the recession. There are many students and young people that benefit from this relationship. Initially I was worried that I wouldn’t know how to relate to the student...

Adults who grew up during the Great Depression have been shown to be more well-adjusted, stable, and successful in later life than more recent generations. Theories are that during times of collective “deprivation,” children must learn to adapt to frequent change, consequently facing situations which require problem resolution behaviors at a young age. The children of the Depression developed a “ what you see is what you get ” attitude as personal strengths and weaknesses were discovered early and had plenty of time to be further tested and fortified as they grew into adulthood. One of the major reasons why so many children growing in poverty were able to embody such solid characters as adults was the undiscriminating nature of the crisis- they were all in the same boat.” It was not an anomaly to have your neighbor stop by your door asking for money or food, the entire American consciousness was looking through the same lens. This collectivity unified them in their struggle a...

On September 25th, the United Nations met in New York City to evaluate progress on the eight Millennium Development Goals . More than two months later, it’s still hard to dig through news about GM’s failures, Obama’s picks, natural disasters, and terrorist attacks to really assess the situation. The press briefing from the Summit offers critique, but also hope for the future. Norway’s Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and United Kingdom Prime Minister Gordon Brown have gathered a team and formulated a plan to achieve the three MDGs for Health : reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; and combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases. The team also includes World Bank President Robert Zoellick, Director-General of the World Health Organization Margaret Chan, and Bill Gates of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Thus far progress has been slow and not steady. At the current rate of reduction, the UN’s efforts will see child mortality drop by only one-third instead of two. D...

What does a second grade teacher and a GED tutor have in common? They both deal with people whose cognitive and psychological needs and capacities are so different yet in need of the same thing: to be guided through life. It’s fascinating how much of an impact can our teachers have in our lives. I will never forget my first teacher, Mrs. Helen from 1st through 4th grade, who convinced herself that I was a lost case when it came to math. To this day, I remember myself, an 8 year old, thinking that I didn’t have the talent or skill to do math and plus I really didn’t like math! My new 5th grade teacher was so dedicated (not to mention strict) and actually got me to change my mind about math and end up getting straight A's until I finished elementary school. Fascinating times! I started junior high school with my confidence boosted and real high objectives. That teacher will always be remembered, because he didn’t settle with the conventional methods of education. The determinant that...

Save the Children’s mission is simple enough: to meet both the immediate and long-term needs of children struggling to overcome poverty. Poverty is a challenge that both the US and the world have yet to overcome. According to the 2007 US Census Bureau, poverty in that year stood at 12.5 percent. Meanwhile, the World Bank’s latest figures show that in 2005, 1.4 billion people in developing countries were living in extreme poverty. Save the Children has tirelessly worked to reach out to those children who live in such conditions, and to their credit, they have met with some success, as it claims to have reached a staggering 41 million girls and boys the world over. One of the areas the organization works in is education, an area at the core of the Literacy ‘n’ Poverty Project’s mission. While Save the Children and the Literacy ‘n’ Poverty Project target different audiences, both organizations believe that education is an extremely important factor for poverty alleviation. An example o...

Rounding out the last of the Millennium Development Goals are goals seven and eight, Environmental Stability and Global Partnership . Both of these goals are so much more specific than the previous six, Goal 7 including four targets and Goal 8 including five, that it would be impossible to examine them exhaustively in such a short space. Therefore, let’s examine one target per goal. For a more detailed look at these aims, please visit the website for the United Nations, www.un.org. To ensure environment sustainability, target three aims to, “halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. “ One Step Forward: Thirst Relief International is an international nonprofit organization that works with local groups to implement safe, potable water facilities in communities all over the globe. With projects in the Congo, Amazon, Kenya, and many more countries, Thirst Relief provides funding and serves as project mana...

Last week we took a brief glance at MDGs one and two. This week we’ll take a closer look at the third and fourth goals, as well as see how dedicated groups of individuals are doing their part to make dreams a reality. The third Millennium Development goal is to promote gender equality and empower women . Once again, we see the problem of vague language noted last week in Goal 1. As it is hard to fathom the UN promoting gender inequality, the goal itself, while altruistic and admirable, is quite obvious. Without any set benchmarks or method with which to measure successes, the pledge to “empower women” sounds weak and insincere. One Step Forward: Women for Women International is a nonprofit organization working worldwide in areas recovering from recent conflict. While no one will debate the negative impacts of war on local citizens, Women for Women also sees these disaster zones as clean slates. Local women complete a three-step program. While at the beginning stages participant...