FSCA NEWS

New Bully Prevention Recommendations Released

By WINK News

Story Created: Jul 2, 2009 at 2:44 PM EDT

Story Updated: Jul 2, 2009 at 7:47 PM EDT

At a middle school in Wisconsin, students perform in front of a class - in what is called ‘social improvisation’. In the performance, one student is bullied, while others stand around and watch, or giggle…

http://www.winknews.com/features/education/49709687.html

The Board of Governors Office and the State University System (SUS) Admission Directors are pleased to announce that the annual SUS Admissions Tour will continue this year.  The tour will convene as follows:

FSU     Sept. 2           FIU      Sept. 8

UNF    Sept. 3           FAU    Sept. 9

UCF    Sept. 4           NCF    Sept. 10

USF     Sept. 11

At each workshop, school counselors will have an opportunity to received timely information needed to advise students on postsecondary options available to them.  School counselors will also be able to interact with the presenters and ask specific questions and gather information about admissions and other related postsecondary topics. Registration information and an agenda for each session will be available by August 1st at http://www.flbog.org/admissiontour.  If you have any questions or need additional information regarding the tour, please e-mail admissionstour@flbog.org

http://www.powertolearn.com/in_your_community/new_york_city/events.shtml?196

Florida schools experienced their most successful year to date according to the 2009 school grades results released. Driven by a significant increase in the number of “A” grades, more than three quarters of all public schools are considered to be high performing (receiving either an “A” or “B”), the largest number yet since the inception of school grades. The results also indicate that the number of schools earning an “F” decreased to its lowest point in three years.

Of Florida's 2,954 graded public schools earning "A" through "F" grades this year:

• 1,822 earned an "A" (62 percent), an increase of 237 schools compared to last year.
• 495 earned a "B" (17 percent), a decrease of 47 schools compared to last year.
• 420 earned a "C" (14 percent), a decrease of 145 schools compared to last year.
• 173 earned a "D" (6 percent), an increase of 18 schools compared to last year.
• 44 earned an "F" (1 percent), a decrease of 1 school compared to last year.

http://www.grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-07-180.html

School-Based Interventions to Prevent Obesity (R01) 2009 Submitted: 6/22/2009

National Institutes of Health – School-Based Interventions to Prevent Obesity (R01)

The National Institutes of Health offers funding for School-Based Interventions to Prevent Obesity to encourage the formation of partnerships between academic institutions and systems for the implementation of school-based interventions that reduce the prevalence of obesity.

Eligible applicants include public/state and private controlled institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations, Tribal Governments, or faith-based and community organizations.

Deadline: July 6, 2009

Please contact National Institutes of Health directly for more specific grant information and to apply: http://www.grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-07-180.html

The latest quick review from the WWC evaluates a study of the Student Mentoring Program (SMP), a federal grant program that matches participants with an adult or peer mentor to discuss academics, relationships, and future plans. The study, Impact Evaluation of the U.S. Department of Education’s Student Mentoring Program, examined the effects of the program on students’ interpersonal relationships, academic outcomes, and delinquent and risk behaviors. See how the WWC rated this study by visiting http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/publications/quickreviews/studentmentoring/index.asp. 

http://www.jamievollmer.com/nostesia.html

The report, “A Closer Look at the Principal-Counselor Relationship,” shares the findings of the survey, which showed a strong agreement among principals and counselors about the most important characteristics of these relationships — communicating openly, sharing ideas, sharing information, including school counselors on leadership teams, jointly setting goals, mutual trust, mutual respect, sharing a vision, sharing decision making and a collective commitment to equity and opportunity. Here are the survey’s key findings:

·        Principals and counselors both ranked communication and respect as the two most important elements in the principal-
counselor relationship.

·        Principals and counselors both saw time as being the biggest barrier to collaboration between them.

·        Principals had a better match between their perceptions of how important an element is to a successful principal-counselor relationship and the extent to which they saw that element as being present in the principal-counselor relationships within their own schools. When elements were rated as important, principals tended to rate them as being more present than did counselors.

·        When asked what one thing they would change that would lead to an improved principal-counselor relationship within their own schools, both principals and counselors most frequently mentioned communication, followed by respect/understanding.

·        Principals and counselors agreed that the most important activities for a counselor to engage in to improve student outcomes are helping to promote student personal growth and social development, and helping students with career planning.

·        While both principals and counselors agreed that supportive administrative tasks are less important for counselors to engage in to improve student outcomes, principals saw these tasks as taking up less of counselors’ time than counselors said they took.

·        Both principals and counselors saw state test scores as the area where gaps between subgroups most needed to be addressed in their schools.

·        When asked about the roles of principals and counselors in education reform efforts, both principals and counselors most often said that the role of the principal is to be a leader and the role of the counselor is to be an advocate.

 http://www.connection-collegeboard.com/09june/advocacy_8.html

Florida's approximately 20,000 documented migrant students face dual challenges to receiving high-school diplomas and continuing to college, The Tallahassee Democrat reports. The economic realities that push their parents to frequently move for work, combined with the English-only state assessment tests, make a hurdle many can't overcome. If they do graduate and pursue higher education, the financial strain often pulls a family downward, since additional part-time jobs or extra hours in fields at subsistence wages can't lift migrant families to financial stability. Though many migrant parents want to save their kids from the same life, they're stuck. Lori Rodriguez of the Florida Department of Education says most migrant children are first-generation English speakers, and usually their parents are illiterate in their native tongue. "These parents can't even read what's sent home to them [in Spanish]," she explains. "For those of us who are from educated families -- it's very difficult to understand." Rodriguez believes a first step is communication. States with large migrant communities must have better outreach, stressing the need to stay in one district for their children rather than bounce around to where work takes them.
Read more: http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20090612/BREAKINGNEWS/90611019/Money++policies+obstacles+for+migrant+students+in+Florida?s+education+system