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Google 20% Time

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Nat & Lo's 20% Project – Go Behind The Scenes At Google

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The electronic revolution must change the way we reach our students. Teachers are not center stage.  They are more like coaches.  Students can find what they need  and have information at their fingertips.  Students may not see
the value in remembering something that they can just look up. We read an article by Tim Elmore where we learned, the classroom involves experience and teachers must seek to connect with them and allow for creativity.

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For the many Georgians who can't find an inch of tire space on I-285 at rush hour or an open patch of sand on the beach at Tybee, one question likely keeps running through their minds:

Where did all these people come from?

The answer: Not all where you might think.

Georgia's population grew by nearly 116,000 people in 2017 - the sixth biggest jump among all states, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. But that's not because more babies were born here. For the third consecutive year, the total number of births in Georgia went down, according to a provisional report from the National Center for Health Statistics.

The drop is in keeping with the trend of declining birth totals nationwide. One major explanation, experts say, is younger women who are delaying or forgoing marriage and childbirth for educational and employment opportunities that may have been unavailable to earlier generations.

But in Georgia's case in particular, it also underscores how other factors besides birth and death drive population change.

"Population grows or declines in two basic ways, through in-migration or natural change," said Mike Carnathan, group manager for research and analytics at the Atlanta Regional Commission. "When the economy is going good, our population grows more through in-migration. When the economy is bad, it's more through natural increase."

"In-migration" refers to the number of people moving into an area. When more move in than move out, that's considered positive net migration. Across Georgia in 2017, net migration accounted for a larger share - 58 percent - of the population growth than did natural increase (the total number of births minus deaths statewide).

There were 129,210 live births in Georgia in 2017, according to the provisional birth data report from the NCHS. (The final version of the annual report, including more detailed state-by-state statistics, will be released near the end of this year or in early 2019.) That's down from 130,042 births in 2016 and 131,404 in 2015, and puts Georgia on the same footing as the rest of the country when it comes to declining birth numbers.

>>MORE: Georgia economy ranked ninth best

In 2017, the number of births in the United States was the lowest in 30 years, according to the NCHS. It was the third consecutive year that births declined nationwide. Teenagers and women in their 20s showed the biggest declines:

Nationally, the 2017 provisional birth rate (the number of births per 1,000 women in a specific age group) for teens ages 15-17 was 7.8, down from 8.8 in 2016. For teens ages 18-19, the provisional 2017 rate was 35.1, down from 37.5 in 2017. In Georgia, the birth rate for teens ages 15-17 was 10.2 in 2016 (the most recent year available), down from 11.4 in 2015, according to the NCHS reports. For Georgia teens ages 18-19, the birth rate was 44.4 in 2016, compared to 47.4 in 2015.

Birth rates also declined notably among women in their 20s, both nationally and in Georgia (see box).

"This definitely is what I'm seeing clinically," said Dr. Melissa Kottke, an associate professor in the department of gynecology and obstetrics at Emory University School of Medicine and medical director of the Grady Teen Clinic. Kottke described the ongoing decline in teen births in particular as "a success story."

Just as many women are choosing to marry later - the average age of first marriage was 27.4 years in 2017, up from 24 in 1990 - they're also waiting to have children to pursue their education or become more firmly established in jobs and careers.

"It's a fundamental shift in lifestyle having to do with women's role in the economy," said Carnathan of the Atlanta Regional Commission. "They are now full participants."

>>MORE: Atlanta ranks 10th in population increase, U.S. Census Bureau reports

But, declining birth rates or not, things aren't about to get any less crowded around here. Georgia's population is projected to keep right on growing at the expense of some other states. (At 10,429,379, according to the most recent Census Bureau estimates, Georgia is now the eighth most populous state.) A lot of that growth will come in the 20-county metro Atlanta area, which the ARC forecasts will have an additional 2.5 million residents by the year 2040. (The same area had 5,884,736 people as of July 2017 population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.)

Just don't expect the majority of them to be born here.

"A lot of (the population growth) will come from natural increase, but more than that is going to come from people moving here for jobs," said Carnathan. "You'd rather see your population increase more by in-migration. That means the economy is healthy, you're having a good job churn and people are able to move here and move around."

Except maybe on I-285 at rush hour.

BY THE NUMBERS

Birth rates among women in their 20s in the U.S. and Georgia, as reported by the National Center for Health Statistics.

Nationally, the 2017 provisional birth rate was 71.0 per 1,000 women ages 20-24, a decrease from 2016's rate of 73.8. For those ages 25-29, the 2017 provisional rate was 97.9, down from 102.1 in 2016.

In Georgia, the 2016 birth rate (latest year available) was 85.1 per 1,000 women ages 20-24, a decrease from 2015's rate of 88.8. For those ages 25-29, the 2016 birth rate was 103.9, down from 106.5 in 2015.

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Why Georgia keeps growing, despite decline in births

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For the many Georgians who can't find an inch of tire space on I-285 at rush hour or an open patch of sand on the beach at Tybee, one question likely keeps running through their minds: Where did all these people come from? The answer: Not all where you might think.

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Schools must adapt their curriculum to changes in society or continue to have problems in discipline and academic success.

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by Patrick Turner

Over the last 15 years, many colleges and universities have struggled with academically engaging students from the time they arrive on campus until the moment they graduate. The concerns surrounding student retention and graduation have become so critical that in 2009, President Obama created a 2020 College Completion Goal plan to increase Americans' graduation rate. As a result, colleges and universities (both two-year and four-year institutions) have focused their attention, efforts, and resources on increasing the rate of student retention, persistence, and graduation. Of course one of those focal points has been on creating ways to better engage students in the classroom, especially through the use of innovative teaching and learning practices.

In 2001, a new generation of students arrived on college campuses all over the U.S forever changing the manner in which higher education provides services, engages students, and develops classroom instruction. Millennials, those individuals born between 1982-2002, are the largest generation since the Baby Boomers. They are considered special, sheltered, confident, achievers, team-oriented, pressured and conventional. One of the greatest influences of this generation has been technology. Millennials are the only generation that has never lived without some type of technological gadget in their hands. These gadgets not only include the latest computers but also BlackBerrys, iPhones, iPads, PDAs, Xbox, Hover Boards, PlayStations, etc. On a daily basis, at least 6.5 hours a day, Millennials are engaged in some type of technological activity whether it's surfing the Internet; listening to music using a cellphone; or communicating with friends via Twitter, Facebook, instant messenger, Skype, Snapchat, FaceTime or WhatsApp. Yesterday, while eating at a restaurant, I observed a young couple dining out. What struck me as being odd was that for 5 minutes both of their heads were buried in their cell phones, texting while not speaking a word to each other. At the same time, a young woman sitting next to me at the bar was having a virtual FaceTime conversation with a friend on her phone. For Millennials technology is not considered an accessory to life but is viewed as a way of life.

Unfortunately, if you visit most colleges and universities in the U.S., their instructional methods and practices resemble that of a classroom from 100 years ago. Many instructors still cling to the "lecture" style of instruction maybe accompanied by the occasional PowerPoint presentation. Often they rely on the same teaching methods that were used during their schooling. This is particularly true for instructors from the Silent Generation or Baby Boomers who can be a little apprehensive, resistant, and sometimes fearful of embracing new teaching and learning technology. Are instructors using outdated teaching and learning methods to address a new population of students or using old solutions to address new challenges? Some consider the act of tailoring classroom instruction to students as a form of hand-holding or coddling, which is thought to send the wrong message. They take the "it worked for me" approach, which can be problematic when looking at how drastically different Millennials are from past generations. Additionally, a new generation of learners, Generation Z, is entering college and possesses some of the same characteristics of their predecessors. With the current state of the U.S. educational system, it's not a matter of if but when instruction strategies will adapt to a new generation of learners.

Ten key things to consider when developing teaching and learning for Millennials

Provide ongoing and frequent feedback on performance

Create a collaborative learning environment

Incorporate experiential and real-life learning opportunities

Becoming a facilitator of learning; Instead of acting as a sage on the stage, practice being a guide on the side

Include modern media in the classroom and work assignments

Include use of modern technology to increase learning

Outline and enforce course guidelines and expectations early on

Create a learning environment that encourages an open exchange of ideas

Create a social atmosphere though the use of peer to peer, team, and group assignments

Make your instruction student-and content-centered

Patrick Turner has more than 19 years' experience working in higher education specializing in the areas of budget management, fiscal accountability and academic services. Currently he serves as an instructor for Georgia State's First-Year Experience Program and as an academic specialist at the J. Mack Robinson College of Business. Turner holds a bachelor's degree in public administration, a master's degree in human resource development and a doctorate in educational leadership - curriculum and instruction. His qualitative research explores the challenges and assistors (enablers) millennial freshman students encounter during their first year of college. Patrick serves as a proposal reviewer for the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience & Students in Transition and the Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice.

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Teaching and engaging a new generation of learners - J. Mack Robinson College of Business

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by Patrick Turner Over the last 15 years, many colleges and universities have struggled with academically engaging students from the time they arrive on campus until the moment they graduate. The concerns surrounding student retention and graduation have become so critical that in 2009, President Obama created a 2020 College Completion Goal plan to increase Americans' graduation rate.

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As we view students as digital citizen, we have now shifted to placing a device into every students' hand, however we have not gone beyond substitution on the SAMR model. In order to appeal to our audience, we must move to redefining.

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Culture -
Bringing Cultural Context and Self Identify into Education: Brian Lozenski at TED
Effects of Teaching/Learning -

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1. Students are not bound by location yet instead are bound by interest, race, or club. Students are very closely tied to their direct group and want praise from their group. However, the desire to be unique also wars with these closely tied groups. Respect often is lost between these groups during culture wars. Students also have lost some communication in real-time due to electronic communication. Students feelings in schools are often due to separation from communities.
2. It affects being able to provide relevant material as location is not a common factor now. Students also tend to lack attention towards something different than their true group. Group work is more difficult due to new senses of community. Students refuse to work with children they do not desire to work with.
3. Students often refuse to do group work now in groups that are not their preference, at all grade levels. Students feel cultural differences may be to blame for penalty due to these different interest groups and priorities.

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#2 - Teaching and Learning: 20% time in education

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#2 - Teaching and Learning: 20% time in education

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The History of 20-Time:

3M started it in the 1950's with their 15% Project. The result? Post-its and masking tape. Google is credited for making the 20% Project what it is today. Google asks its employees to spend 20% of their time at Google to work on a pet project...a project that their job description doesn't cover. As a result of the 20% Project at Google, we now have Gmail, AdSense, Google News, and my favorite, the Google Teacher Academy. Using 20 Time in the workplace allows innovative ideas and projects to flourish and/or fail without the bureaucracy of committees and budgets.

What Are the Options?

20% Project: A lot of time has been spent with both success and failures to mold the 20% Project template series above. If you'd like a structured template for instituting 20-Time in your classroom, the 20% Project is for you. Check out the 20% Project writeup, the 20% Project Template Series, and the 20% Project Community. For an indepth guide on integrating 20-Time in your class- Kevin Brookhouser's 20Time Project is a must read.

Genius Hour: For those not ready for a commitment (teachers or students) try Genius Hour. Students search a different topic each week with a few informal presentations at the end of the hour.

Need One More Reason?

How about 10 Reasons? Check out AJ Juliani's post "10 Reasons to Try 20% Time in the Classroom."

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20-Time In Education Inspire. Create. Innovate.

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The History of 20-Time: 3M started it in the 1950's with their 15% Project. The result? Post-its and masking tape. Google is credited for making the 20% Project what it is today. Google asks its employees to spend 20% of their time at Google to work on a pet project...a project that their job description doesn't cover.

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Calhoun Online Learning Academy

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#1 Make schools divided based on economic or socioeconomic differences because parents are able to choose

#2 Control of money, positions, politics within school systems

#3 Opportunities are much different depending of the school district/area. Schools/teachers seemingly have to "tip-toe" around to please parents/students because of school choice

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As a customer service consultant, I find that any initiative to improve customer service in the public schools and public education, whether K12 or beyond, can benefit from first clarifying how educators are and aren't "in customer service" (in a way that is equivalent to how that term is used in a commercial organization).

So are educators (and educational administrators) actually "in customer service"? Well, yes, but there are differences. Being in education is different from being a barista or waiter or contact center rep. You have a deep and broad involvement in the subject, you've come into this field because it's a calling, and your relationship with the "customer" is more complex.

But the most important difference is this: You're not simply trying to "serve customers." You're trying to build your students into responsible scholars and citizens. Which is notably different from what a commercial enterprise aims to do. In a commercial enterprise, you strive to remain entirely nonjudgmental, nonprodding of your customers.

In fact, in a commercial setting you want customers to surrender responsibility to your company, to have your company take on burdens that traditionally belonged to the customer. (For example: it's advantageous to a bank if the customer stops balancing her checkbook and instead becomes dependent on the "low balance alerts" function of a mobile banking app, because this makes the bank a more indispensable service provider to the customer.)

But building responsibility in students at times calls for a different, more tough-love, approach.

But only sometimes. Much of working in education is highly analogous to working with commercial customers. So I think the task here is to ensure that the truly customer-service (as opposed to educational and character-building) aspects of education are as good as they are in commercial enterprises (or at least as good as admittedly limited public resources are able to provide). Because inefficiency and rudeness and bureaucracy only get in the way of your real work of building scholars and citizens.

Here are nine suggestions for improving customer service in public schools. (I am here defining your "customer" as being the student, the student's family--to the extent that family supports the student's goals--and, to some extent, the community and taxpayers.)

1. Streamline. Customers today expect what I call "digital parity." They expect organizations in every arena to be as efficient, streamlined, and easy to use as the best of what those customers have experienced online. Schools and school systems don't get a pass on this. Today's customers expect self-service options, they don't expect to repeatedly fill out forms with information they've already provided elsewhere, and they actively rebel against org chart-mandated siloing ("I don't handle that, you'll have to go down the hall, or "you'll have to come back Thursdays, when Ms. ____ is in the office.")

2. Try it yourself. Are you easy to use? You won't know until you try. Try your own website without your auto-log in. Is it easy? Or a pain? Come in the front door of your building (rather than entering from the employee parking area) and see if the front door swings open easily, or whacks you on the shoulder. Fill out a "request information" form online and see if anyone-ever!-responds. You may be shocked at what you find out.

3. Do the hustle. Perfect customer service, delivered late, feels like a defect. And the timeline for what customers consider "late" is continually getting shorter. You're not being judged based on what's always been "fast enough for education"; you're being judged, implicitly and unconsciously, based on the speed of amazon, Uber, and Starbucks.

4. Benchmark outside of education. More and more, what your customers are expecting in customer service comes from great service they experience outside of education-and you, too, should look outside of education to great companies and organizations regardless of industry for inspiration that will improve your game at school. In timeliness as mentioned in point 3, and in quality, efficiency, and service style.

5. Learn to apologize. Things will go wrong. Prepare for this, emotionally as well as operationally. Note that sometimes-often-you're simply apologizing for the situation, not for something you did wrong. It doesn't matter; an apology is still of value.

6. Don't make customers ask simple questions that they should have been able to find online. Customers don't like to be burdened to contact you for items that could easily be provided for them on a self-service basis. Do your FAQ's actually include the questions that customers want the answers to? Or were they written six years ago by your web developer? Do they get an auto-confirmation when they submit a form, or do they need to call to ensure their query wasn't lost in the ether? And so on.

7. Get the "hello before the hello" right. Hellos and goodbyes are key moments in customer service, and what organizations often neglect to consider is what I call "the hello before the hello": If parking is hard to find, if disabled access is poor (or-just as common-confusing), if office hours are posted incorrectly online, then you're making a poor impression before your "customer" (here I'm mostly thinking of parents and prospective parents) even gets to your office.

8. Don't lose it on the handoff It's easy for an employee to promise something to a customer-and then send the customer elsewhere within your organization for actual results. Fair enough: but did the details of the customer's needs actually get fully conveyed to the person who was handed the ball? And, did the handoffee follow through on these instructions? Or did she hand off the responsibility again? (And, if so, was the customer support fumbled on that handoff?) Follow-through and follow-up are keys to a successful customer experience, and are often best accomplished by the person who first took the request. You may not be the person to do the technical work required to fulfill a customer need, but you can contribute by following through to ensure that technical work was done.

9. Build a culture of yes. A hallmark of a great organization is an attitude in every department, every corner, every hallway is as follows: "The answer is yes-now what was your question?"There's great power in getting everyone in your organization to share a goal of getting to a "yes" for every customer, rather than figuring out ways to say "no," "not my department," "it doesn't work that way around here," "sadly, we cannot accommodate that request," or "if you call back in the morning, perhaps we'll be able to help you." This should be self-evident, right? Yet, well-meaning employees can still find a dozen ways to say no to their customers. Which makes it incredibly important to set, and as often as necessary re-set, your cultural default to yes. You accomplish this by modeling a spirit of yes, hiring for a spirit of yes, rewarding a spirit of yes. (And there's one more thing: Sometimes in education, achieving a culture of "yes" requires rooting out or/and reforming "situational tyrants." Any institution can become a breeding ground for what I call "situational tyrants," people who have the power to say "no" within their tiny little fiefdom, and who exercise that power every chance they get. It is incredibly important to get these people to come over to your program of having "yes" as the goal: "Yes, we can assist you with this and would be happy to do so.")

I think you'll recognize that #9 brings us full circle to what is different about customer service in education. Because unlike in a commercial enterprise, you can't, and shouldn't, always say yes to a student, or to that student's parents. If that "yes" takes away responsibility-building opportunities for the student (acquiescing to grade-fudging, indefinite extensions and the like), if that "yes" is unfair to other students or to the community at large (graduating unprepared students). But you'll know the difference. Because you're a professional educator.
Micah Solomon is a customer service consultant, customer experience speaker and bestselling business author, most recently of High-Tech, High-Touch Customer Service

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Improving Customer Service In Public Schools And Public Education: 9 Expert Tips For K-12 And Beyond

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As a customer service consultant, I find that any initiative to improve customer service in the public schools and public education, whether K12 or beyond, can benefit from first clarifying how educators are and aren't "in customer service" (in a way that is equivalent to how that term is used in a [...]

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Lack of trust in schools, and increased parent dissatisfaction due to frequent policy changes, over-assessment and little confidence in the success of schools.

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1. We will better our society by holding everyone accountable without lowering out expectations, whether it be through a degree, a profession, or a trade/skill.
2. In teaching & learning, the shift would be that we need to rely on and hold our standards higher to meet their needs. Building relationships helps inform the students of the "why", and we can work together on solving the "how."
3. We need to challenge ourselves to think "outside of the box" to create pathways better aligned for all student success.

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New York Times - US Fertility Rate Fell to Record Low

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New York Times - US Fertility Rate Fell to Record Low

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For a variety of reasons, people are not having children. They are putting off having children or have other priorities than children. self-fulfillment is not necessarily tied to starting a family.

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Shannon Hettinger, 32, of Washington, D.C., said she definitely wanted children but for now was focused on her career. "Once I achieve a certain level of success," she said, "then I'll start thinking about a family." Credit Credit Erin Schaff for The New York Times

WASHINGTON - The fertility rate in the United States fell to a record low for a second straight year, federal officials reported Thursday, extending a deep decline that began in 2008 with the Great Recession.

The fertility rate fell to 60.2 births per 1,000 women of childbearing age, down 3 percent from 2016, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. It was the largest single-year decline since 2010, when families were still feeling the effects of a weak economy.

Fertility rates are essential measures of a society's demographic balance. If they are too high, that can strain resources like housing and education. If they are too low, a country can face challenges replacing its work force and supporting its older adults, like in Russia and Japan. In the United States, declines in rates have not led to drops in the population, in part because they have been largely offset by immigration.

The country has been living through one of the longest declines in fertility in decades and demographers are trying to figure out what is driving it. Rates tend to drop during difficult economic times as people put off having babies, and then rise once the economy rebounds. But the rate has not recovered since the Great Recession. A brief uptick in 2014 did not last. The number of births has also declined, and last year was its lowest level since 1987. The fertility rate is the number of births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44.

"Every year I look at data and expect it will be the year that birthrates start to tick up, and every year we hit another all-time low," said Kenneth M. Johnson, a demographer at the University of New Hampshire. "It's one of the big demographic mysteries of recent times."

He said it seemed to be inconsistent with the growing number of women of childbearing age: In 2017, women had nearly 500,000 fewer babies than in 2007, despite the fact that there were an estimated 7 percent more women in their prime childbearing years of 20 to 39.

Social forces are also at work. Women are postponing marriage, becoming more educated and are more likely to be the primary breadwinners for their households.

"It's hard to tell whether this is a dip that we periodically see in fertility or this is a long-term trend due to major social changes," said Donna Strobino, a demographer at the Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.

She noted that the numbers of births to 10- to 14-year-old girls, now only a few thousand, are down from over 6,000, 10 years ago. The reverse has happened with births to women in their late 40s, which were more than 9,000 last year. Nearly one in five births are now to women 35 or older, she said.

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Babies born to teen mothers napped at a day care center in 2004. The numbers of births to 10- to 14-year-old girls decreased in 2017. Credit Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times

It could be that the new generation of millennial women is delaying having children even longer than the women who came before them, as prime childbearing years are also critical years for advancing in a career. A recent study shows that the marital pay gap that springs up after a first child is born typically does not close if the birth happens between age 25 and 35.

Shannon Hettinger, a 32-year-old from Washington, D.C., said she definitely wanted children. She grew up in a large family in a small town in Pennsylvania and almost all her high school friends are married with children. But she moved to Washington, and spent her 20s deciding on a career. Now that she has one she loves - she works in residential real estate sales - she is not going to stop until she gets established. That means not having children for a while.

"I just want to build my book of business and see where I can go from here," she said. "My whole focus is career growth. That's my No. 1 priority."

"Once I achieve a certain level of success," she added, "then I'll start thinking about a family."

Ivy Gray-Klein, 26, who lives in Philadelphia and works at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design, said she was open to having children but cannot imagine doing so until she is 30 or 35. She wants to feel settled in her own life first. Now she has three roommates, is paying down her student loans and is working to build a little bit of savings.

"I'm just really trying to get myself to a place that is solid," she said by phone. "Having a child right now would be so destabilizing. Children just seem like such an enormous financial undertaking."

The country has had declines before. The longest period of continuous decline on record was from 1958 to 1968, according to Brady E. Hamilton, a statistician and demographer with the National Center for Health Statistics. The United States has been tracking the number of births and birthrates since about 1910.

The most recent decline has been deepest for minorities. The fertility rate among Hispanic women dropped more than 27 percent between 2007 and 2016, the most recent year of data by race. The rate for whites has dropped about 4 percent, for blacks about 11 percent and for Asians about 5 percent.

The biggest falls have been among younger women, but last year the birthrate even declined for women in their 30s, an unusual development, demographers said. The rate had been rising for that group, as more women delayed childbearing.

"I was surprised to see that reversal," said Gretchen M. Livingston, a demographer at the Pew Research Center. She cautioned into reading too much into one year.

A bright spot was the rate of births to teenagers, which has dropped 55 percent since 2007 - nearly 8 percent a year - a decline Dr. Hamilton called "phenomenal." The teenage birthrate is down 70 percent since its peak in 1991, he said.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A11 of the New York edition with the headline: Fertility Rate Again Falls to a Record Low, Confounding Demographers. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

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U.S. Fertility Rate Fell to a Record Low, for a Second Straight Year

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WASHINGTON - The fertility rate in the United States fell to a record low for a second straight year, federal officials reported Thursday, extending a deep decline that began in 2008 with the Great Recession. The fertility rate fell to 60.2 births per 1,000 women of childbearing age, down 3 percent from 2016, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

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Appalachia Intermediate Unit 8, working in a partnership with The Pennsylvania Leadership Development Center, created the Pennsylvania Mass Customized Learning Consortium last year.The consortium is open to all organizations involved in learning throughout Pennsylvania and surrounding states.Membership consists of those education leaders who will work to transform learning in their organizations to assure students (learners) receive learning at their learning level every day.The concept of "Mass Customized Learning" was made popular through the work of Chuck Schwahn and Bea McGarvey in their book Inevitible: Mass Customized Learning: Learning in the Age of Empowerment.Nationally, there are schools all over the United States implementing ideas of customized learning into their system; most notably in Lindsay Unified School District in California.As the Pennsylvania consortium grows from our current 24 learning organizations, there is usually one basic question that leaders have as they contemplate joining with the consortium.

Question#1: "We already personalize and differentiate our instruction so we are already "customizing" education in our schools so why should we join with the consortium?"

Answer: Mass Customized Learning is much more than "personalization", differentiation" or "performance based".MCL has two premises:

Dislodge the industrial age model of schooling.

Become radically learner centered.

Think about the examples of customization in our world today.If you use Facebook, Twitter or Amazon your interactive experience is customized to your likes and dislikes.In our area of Pennsylvania you can have your coffee and sandwich selections customized to your exact taste at a Sheetz.Technology has progressed to the point where learning leaders can now leverage the technological tools to create a customized learning environment for our students (learners).

Mass Customized Learning advocates do not believe that we can "tinker toward utopia" (to borrow Larry Cuban's term) anymore. Rather, we must work to create a new learning ecosystem that goes beyond the current educational system and allows learners and their families to customize their learning experience. Creating a learning ecosystem without barriers of time, space or place is essential for our learners and our society. We now live in a time and place where we can create a learning experience for all of our children that is not time based.By "time based" I mean that students move from one grade to the next and from one concept to the next often without regard to actual learning.It seems obvious that we should not accept an educational system that "teaches" students in "batches" based on their date of birth.Rather, let's create a learning ecosystem that meets every student at their level (academic, learning, social, etc) every second of every day. This is what we discuss and implement as members of the Pennsylvania mass Customized Learning Consortium.To get a better understanding of the industrial age model of schooling, please watch the video below.

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Mass Customized Learning: A Quick Definition and Guide

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Appalachia Intermediate Unit 8, working in a partnership with The Pennsylvania Leadership Development Center, created the Pennsylvania Mass Customized Learning Consortium last year.The consortium is open to all organizations involved in learning throughout Pennsylvania and surrounding states.Membership consists of those education leaders who will work to transform learning in their

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#1Culturally their lives revolve around social media, and when they aren't interested or engaged they check out.

# 2 This affects the teaching and learning because we have to constantly compete with the most popular thing in their current world. However, this can be positive because it forces teachers to make things more relevant for their students which in turn forces teachers to create meaningful relationships in order to know what is the next big things for our students.

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1)Technology has decreased the sense of community. There has been a loss of communicating among each other and instead there has been an emphasis on communicating through technology.
2) There is an importance now for teachers to foster a climate as a "group".  We also believe it has made it harder to group students due to their "group" associations.
3) We believe that parents can sometimes be the same way. It is important that both parents and students learn to engage with people different from them.

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Many of my friends and I have millennial children. We have pondered and discussed their futures (that is, "When will they get married?"; "When will they have babies?") even though we realize that they are leading their lives on different timetables than we did.

Because journalist Cristina Schreil is a millennial, I asked her to provide some insights into the millennial perspective and the pressures she and her peers face in terms of marriage and having children.
Guest Post by Cristina Schreil:
You've probably heard that millennials are childish and immature-late bloomers. This strikes me as true whenever I volley laundry into my parents ' washing machine, or when I almost walk into a tree while playing Pokémon Go.

Being a late bloomer seems to have more credence than other millennial clichés. After all, by the time my mother was my age (29), she had what many of my contemporary counterparts do not: a spouse, two children under five, a home with a mortgage, and a career. Looking back a generation further does not help alleviate my millennial guilt. By the time my maternal grandmother was 20, she was married with two children; my paternal grandmother had two children by 31.

Granted, many in my generation are among the first to have parents (notably, mothers) who had children when "older" (that is, 35 and up, into their forties). Yet many of my fellow millennials have parents and grandparents who at young ages reached milestones that today's millennials as a group don't prioritize.
Millennials do things "later"
A Pew Research Center report found that millennials "are more than three times as likely to have never married" as their counterparts in the Silent generation, although 65% of never-married millennials reported that they would like to be married one day. Researchers note these changes impact society overall. "In 1965, the typical American woman first married at age 21 and the typical man wed at 23. By 2017, those figures climbed to 27 for women and 29.5 for men...When asked the reasons they have not gotten married, 29% say they are not financially prepared, while 26% say they have not found someone who has the qualities they are looking for; an additional 26% say they are too young and not ready to settle down."

On being "too young" is interesting, especially considering how previous generations clearly didn't find this age premature. Things are indeed shifting older. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Pew Research Center, late-twenty-something women had the highest birth rates until only 2016. Now, for the first time, women in their early 30s are giving birth at higher rates than women in their twenties and teens. A study by The Urban Institute reporting on the millennial generation during the years between 2007 and 2012 points out that "birth rates among twenty-something women declined more than 15 percent."
Gap in societal attitudes
Although getting married and having babies in one's thirties and forties is more common, many people still equate the twenties with these specific milestones. Despite evidence that the average age of first-time mothers is older, societal attitudes haven't completely caught up. It's still normal for twenty-somethings to be questioned, "When are you going to get married and having kids?"

A 2012 study surveying approximately 1,200 American women of "reproductive age with no children" found that they feel social pressures even though women who choose to be child-free face fewer stressors than those who are childless due to circumstances out of their control. There's much anecdotal evidence supporting this finding.

One 29-year-old from Washington, DC recently told me, "Honestly I have no idea if I'll ever get married. The pressure certainly feels to be mounting at this point in life."

A 28-year-old woman living in New York City says: "I feel general pressure because of the obvious reasons: I am in my late twenties and marriage/having a family was always something I'd been ingrained to think (whether by society, pop culture or otherwise) would happen by thirty."

Another woman, an Armenian-American 25-year-old from Los Angeles, shared that despite understanding that education and career-establishment are more of a priority for her generation, her future is still on her family's mind. "There is also the cultural component present in my life that adds pressure to have kids earlier. My culture defines success for women as those who can secure a marriage and have kids, usually by the age of 24 to 25," she says. "I remember growing up and getting asked about whether or not I was in a relationship, probably from the age of 18 or 19."

Even at a recent funeral, relatives pulled away from their grief to inquire on the readiness of my womb, as if I were a first-aid disaster kit at the start of hurricane season. "It's your turn," an aunt told me, implying that a "new life" would help offset the sadness of several recent deaths. Worded slightly differently, other relatives have asked, "When are you going to settle down, get married and have babies?"
Not doomed, just different
Several studies argue that millennials aren't that different from previous generations, but are just taking longer to catch up. For many of us that's because, in large part, our priorities are higher education and career success.

Bruce Tulgan, author of the report "The Great Generational Shift: Update 2018," wrote, "Workers of all ages today are under more pressure than ever as work becomes more demanding for everyone. In every industry, in nearly every organization, individuals are working harder and facing increasing pressure to work longer, smarter, faster, and better." And that is one reason millennials are not rushing to have babies.

Another Pew article says: In 2014, about half (49%) of women in their early 40s with a bachelor's degree had given birth by age 29, compared with 60% of their counterparts in 1994." Things change at age 34, however: "Women who are at the end of their childbearing years had 'caught up' to their predecessors: 72% of each group had become mothers by that age."

While the mid and late twenties have long been associated with the time many women "settle down," it's clear millennials have created a major shift in marriage and family planning, perhaps a long-term one. When will prevailing attitudes shift as well?

Also of interest: Living with Parents: Stunted Development or Opportunity?

Copyright @2018 by Cristina Schreil

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Should We Worry About Millennials Not Having Babies?

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Many of my friends and I have millennial children. We have pondered and discussed their futures (that is, "When will they get married?"; "When will they have babies?") even though we realize that they are leading their lives on different timetables than we did.

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Giving up the power a teacher has so that students are able to explore, research, access creative minds, in order to learn through writing.  (Skerrett, 2012)

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Giving up the power a teacher has so that students are able to explore, research, access creative minds, in order to learn through writing.  (Skerrett, 2012)

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The Eclipse of the Traditional Family Room#2 Table#6

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The Eclipse of the Traditional Family Room#2 Table#6

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1.  Effect on Cultural Society
What we consider "traditional families" has changed.  The amount of single parent, non traditional, and blended families has increased.
2. As educators we need to be prepared to adapt to the changing families.

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When Alexis de Tocqueville visited America in 1831, he identified the reason for American exceptionalism: Communities were structured from the bottom up. Now that's changing, writes Brown University research fellow Marc Dunkelman in his book "The Vanishing Neighbor: The Transformation of American Community." Communities have been replaced with networks in which you keep in touch with only your closest friends and family; gone is the age of the township. Dunkelman recently spoke with U.S. News about the nation's out-of-date foundation and the challenges of the next century. Excerpts:

How has the country changed since World War II?

For the whole of America's history, its core social building block, what I call the township, [evolved] from the colonial village to the frontier town to the urban tenements to the first ring suburb. Americans, even if they didn't like their neighbors, they understood them. There are a whole variety of reasons that people believe American politics is polarized at the moment. I think voters, because they haven't interacted as much with people who are different, through those relationships, they're less willing to [look for] compromise.

What did you mean when you wrote "our social safety net is structured to serve a set of alien demands"?

People who can't help themselves need a whole range of care. The social safety net that we've built over the course of the last century is one which assumes that a lot of the things that someone requires will be provided by the community or by family. And so when those elements are not provided, or it's too taxing on the family to take care of someone with a chronic condition, the hospitals and nursing homes and Medicare and Medicaid programs are being asked to step in. And so the question now is, as chronic disease grows, as Americans are living much longer, how are we going to provide that care? Now that the community isn't available to provide it and there's so much more demand, we need to think up a new arrangement.

Can the U.S. find solutions to these problems now that it has moved away from traditional communities to the information age?

It may be that it all works out organically. Around the turn of the 20th century, we moved from farm to factory and there was a lot of concern at that time that the American community was coming apart. Yet, in fact, the core building block of the American community was the township, which was remade in America's urban neighborhoods and then in its suburbs. So, as we move from the industrial age to the information era, that doesn't mean that things won't reform themselves.

You've noted that as the old township disappears, we need to find new ways to associate with people who are different from us. How do we do this?

First, there are ways to provide Americans of a whole variety of backgrounds with opportunities to meet people from other pockets of society, like AmeriCorps, the national service [program that] gives [participants] a little more exposure to what people from an unfamiliar background think. The second [way], however, is more about what our individual character propels us to do. There are ways to [encourage] people to have the grit or the self-control to withstand the impulse to run away from someone who doesn't agree with them.

Do you have any advice to offer policymakers in Washington?

I think that the broader advice is to appreciate that we've got a series of institutions - in government, in our private lives, in our schools, in our hospitals - all designed to address the challenges of the 20th century. So, for instance, we assumed that hospitals would provide medical care in times of acute need but the bulk of the care itself would be provided by the community. The question now moving forward for policymakers is, in the absence of all of those benefits of township communities, are there ways to take advantage of the network community? Meaning are there ways to make it so that connecting, for example, Meals On Wheels, the local bank, a social worker, a nurse and a doctor, the local public transportation system and the local library using social networking technology that will allow us to take people who normally would have had to be placed in nursing homes and keep them comfortably and safely at home in a more affordable way than we would have been able to 30 years ago?

So, I think that for policymakers there were advantages to the old system that have been lost. But there are advantages that we've gained in the new reality that are a blessing, and the challenge is taking institutions that are grounded in the old township communal society of the 20th and 19th centuries and update them and face them towards the networked community that we have now.

Naomi LaChance, Staff Writer

Naomi LaChance is an opinion intern with U.S. News & World Report. Email her at nlachance@usnew...Naomi LaChance is an opinion intern with U.S. News & World Report. Email her at nlachance@usnews.com and follow her on Twitter at Read more@lachancenaomi.

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When Alexis de Tocqueville visited America in 1831, he identified the reason for American exceptionalism: Communities were structured from the bottom up. Now that's changing, writes Brown University research fellow Marc Dunkelman in his book "The Vanishing Neighbor: The Transformation of American Community."

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Shift #3
Students are impacted by all 3 entities of Culture, Teaching and Learning, and District input.
This can have both positive and negative impact.
https://www.inc.com/paul-grossinge/suprising-reasons-millennials-are-failing

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Teachers are no longer viewed with the respect as they once were. Parents are often trying to be best friends with their children and will take the child's word over the teachers. This has lead to a shift where we now have cameras in our classroom. (The tail wags the dog) meaning the children are telling their parents how they should be raised. Children are not raised with the traditional values that were once taught. "Traditional" has changed yet school tradition has typically stayed the same.

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The Eclipse of the Traditional Articles (Effect on Society and Culture) 

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The Eclipse of the Traditional Articles (Effect on Society and Culture) 

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by Tracey Burns and Roxanne Kovacs
Directorate for Education and Skills. Sciences Po, Paris

In an article published in 1993, David Popenoe argued that the middle of the 20th century was the heyday of the traditional nuclear family. This family consisted of "a heterosexual, monogamous, life-long marriage in which there is a sharp division of labour, with the female as full-time housewife and the male as primary provider and ultimate authority". Popenoe argued that the decline of the traditional family was detrimental not just for families, but for society as a whole.

He was correct on at least one level: families have changed. The majority of families of the 21st century are much more diverse: Marriage rates have been declining while divorce rates are rising. Couples are choosing to have their children later in life, and more people are having children without getting married at all. In fact, the average age of first marriage (30 years) has now risen above the average age of first childbirth (28 years). Modern families come in many shapes and sizes, including reconstituted families, single parents, multi-racial and same-sex families.

In addition, the role of women has changed. In 2013, 63% of women participated in the labour force on average across the OECD. Women no longer need to make a strict choice between having a family and having a career in most countries across the OECD. In fact, higher fertility rates are positively related to greater female labour force participation on average. The "decline" of the traditional family has thus benefitted our economies, as well as reported well-being.

Do our education systems offer the necessary support for children growing up in modern families? To what extent should schools be responsible for what have traditionally been thought of as "family matters"? And does family composition have any effect on education performance? A recently released Trends Shaping Education Spotlight looks at what education providers can do to support modern families and how new family structures have changed demands for learning and care.

First, it is clear that in many countries children from non-traditional families might need support at school. In PISA 2012, students from single-parent families performed, on average, 4.5 points below students from other types of families, even after controlling for socio-economic differences. Raising awareness of achievement gaps, providing hands-on support, establishing a good relationship with the student and his/her parent(s) or helping with homework and academic difficulties are just a few ways in which educators can help make a difference.

Another important way in which education can assist modern families is by providing high quality Early Childhood Education and Care ( ECEC). Women are still the main providers of childhood care in all OECD countries and do, on average, 60% of all caring work in the household. Not only can the provision of subsidised ECEC facilitate women's participation in the labour force, it can also have a positive effect on their children's educational performance. In fact, 15-year olds who attended one year of pre-primary school performed, on average, 30 points better in PISA, even after taking socio-economic differences into account.

In addition to being influenced by education, modern families have also changed education themselves. For example, parents have become much more active and powerful, making their voices heard by participating in school boards, parent-teacher associations and extra-curricular activities. If they are unhappy with their children's school, in many countries they can transfer them to another institution. In doing so, they are holding schools accountable and becoming more involved in the governance and delivery of education. This is important for a number of reasons: improving local accountability and responsiveness to the community, engaging new actors in the system that might have hitherto been silent or excluded, and working to increase ownership and trust in the system.

However, not all parents are actively involved in their children's schools. Parents with lower income tend to be less active, and there are increasing reports of parents from all socio-economic strata refusing to accept criticisms of their children, or expecting teachers to handle all education matters without their support. Teachers increasingly report being expected to play the role of the parent as well as the educator, adding extra time and tasks to their already busy workday.

Successful modern schools must make an effort be open and responsive to the needs of modern families. At the same time, modern families must also accept their responsibility in ensuring the well-being of their children - and that includes taking part in their education. Without this partnership and trust, our schools and communities are less successful - and it is the children who pay the price.

Link:
Trends Shaping Education 2013
OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers
PISA 2009 Results: Overcoming Social Background: Equity in Learning Opportunities and Outcomes.
PISA 2012 Findings
OECD, Doing Better for Families
OECD, A Quality Toolbox for Early Childhood Education and Care

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by Tracey Burns and Roxanne KovacsDirectorate for Education and Skills. Sciences Po, Paris In an article published in 1993, David Popenoe argued that the middle of the 20th century was the heyday of the traditional nuclear family.

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Technology creates a barrier between effective interpersonal communication. The increased use of technology has undoubtedly decreased the face to face communication between people. Communal reliance is becoming a thing of the past, while isolated individuals are on the rise. The communal mindset for survival and life in general is falling to the wayside.

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Nowhere is the impact of popular culture and technology on children's relationships more noticeable than in families. Both influences have contributed to a growing divide between the traditional roles that children and their parents play while, at the same time, blurring those same lines between parents and children. Over the past two decades, children who, for example, watch television, have received messages from popular culture telling them that parents are selfish, immature, incompetent, and generally clueless, for example, from Malcolm in the Middle, Tool Time, Family Guy, Two and a Half Men, and I Hate My Teenage Daughter, not to mention reality TV shows such as SuperNanny and the Housewives franchise.

This divide has grown due to the increased use of technology among children in several ways. First, children's absorption in technology, from texting to playing video games, does by their very nature limit their availability to communicate with their parents. One study found that when the working parent arrived home after work, his or her children were so immersed in technology that the parent was greeted only 30 percent of the time and was totally ignored 50 percent of the time. Another study reported that family time was not affected when technology was used for school, but did hurt family communications when used for social reasons. Interestingly, children who spent considerable time on a popular social networking site indicated that they felt less supported by their parents.

Second, as digital immigrants, parents can struggle to gain proficiency and comfort with the new technology that their digital-native children have already mastered. This divergence in competence in such an important area of children's lives makes it more difficult for parents to assume the role of teacher and guide in their children's use of technology. Because of the lack of technological acumen on the part of many parents, they lack the authority, at least in the eyes of their children, to regulate its use. Due to parents' anxiety or apprehension about the use of technology, they may be unwilling to assert themselves in their children's technological lives. Because of their children's sense of superiority and lack of respect for parents' authority in these matters, children may be unwilling to listen to their parents' attempts to guide or limit their use of technology.

Third, computer and mobile technology have provided children with an independence in their communications with friends and others. Consider this. In previous generations, if children wanted to be in touch with a friend, they had to call them on the home phone which might be answered by a parent. Thus, parents had the opportunity to monitor and act as gatekeepers for their children's social lives.

Times have changed. New technology offers children independence from their parents' involvement in their social lives, with the use of mobile phones, instant messaging, and social networking sites. Of course, children see this technological divide between themselves and their parents as freedom from over-involvement and intrusion on the part of their parents in their lives. Parents, in turn, see it as a loss of connection to their children and an inability to maintain reasonable oversight, for the sake of safety and over-all health, of their children's lives. At the same time, perhaps a bit cynically, children's time-consuming immersion in technology may also mean that parents don't have to bother with entertaining their children, leaving them more time to themselves.

There is little doubt that technology is affecting family relationships on a day-to-day level. Children are instant messaging constantly, checking their social media, listening to music, surfing their favorite web sites, and watching television or movies. Because of the emergence of mobile technology, these practices are no longer limited to the home, but rather can occur in cars, at restaurants, in fact, anywhere there's a mobile phone signal.

It's not only the children who are responsible for the growing divide between parents and their offspring. Parents can be equally guilty of contributing to the distance that appears to be increasing in families. They are often wrapped up in their own technology, for example, talking on their mobile phones, checking email, or watching TV, when they could be talking to, playing with, or generally connecting with their children.

Interestingly, parents have attempted to counteract this growing divide not with actual face-to-face communication with their children, but by joining their children in cyberspace. A phenomenon that has caused considerable debate involves parents "friending" their children on Facebook (about 50 percent). Some parents use Facebook to keep track of their children's coming and goings. Other parents friend their children as a means of feeling closer to them. So what is their children's reaction to being "friends" with their parents? An informal survey I conducted of dozens of teenagers found that the dominant reaction can best be characterized as "EEEWWW!" Most children don't want their parents to be their "friends" or their friends, for that matter.

The fact is that family life has changed in the last generation quite apart from the rise of technology. The size of homes has grown by 50 percent, meaning family members can retreat to their own corners of the house, so there's less chance that parents and children will see each other. Because everyone is so busy with work, school, and extracurricular activities, there's less time for families to spend together. At technology to the mix and it only gets worse. It's gotten to the point where it seems like parents and children are emailing and texting each other more than they're talking-even when they're at home together!

The ramifications of this distancing are profound. Less connection-the real kind-means that families aren't able to build relationships as strong as they could be nor are they able to maintain them as well. As a result, children will feel less familiarity, comfort, trust, security, and, most importantly, love from their parents. There is also less sharing which means that parents know less about what is going on in their children's lives and, consequently, have less ability to exert influence over them. Parents are also less able to not only offer appropriate supervision and guidance, but, at a more basic level, they are less able to model healthy behavior, share positive values, and send good messages to their children.

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There is little doubt that technology is affecting family relationships on a day-to-day level. Children are instant messaging, checking their social media, listening to music, surfing the Web, and playing video games. Parents can be equally guilty, often wrapped up in their own technology, for example, talking on their mobile phones, checking email, or watching TV.

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The Eclipse of the Traditional Articles (Early Childhood Teaching and Learning) 

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The Eclipse of the Traditional Articles (Early Childhood Teaching and Learning) 

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higher lexile levels, assessment scores, school climate - star rating, parent involvement (PTO, PTA), Booster clubs

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#1 Society Culture
More grandparents are raising grandchildren.  Lower number of married couples raising children.

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CHICAGO - When Debra Aldridge became her grandson's primary caregiver, she was making $7.50 per hour as a cook. The alternative for the newborn, she was told, was to put him up for adoption.

"I took one look at the little fella, and that was it," said Aldridge, now 62. "I couldn't let go."

For more than 11 years, Aldridge, who is divorced and lives in Chicago, has struggled to feed, house and clothe her "baby," Mario. As she ages, Aldridge sinks deeper into poverty.

Nationwide, 2.7 million grandparents are raising grandchildren, and about one-fifth of those have incomes that fall below the poverty line, according to census figures.

Their ranks are increasing. The number of grandparents raising grandchildren is up 7 percent from 2009. Experts say the trend is likely to continue as the nation responds to the opiate epidemic. Military deployment and a growth in the number of women incarcerated are other factors forcing grandparents to step into parental roles.

Already, child welfare agencies are reporting an increase in the number of children, especially infants, taken from parents battling drug addictions and mental health issues. After years of declines, children in foster care rose by nearly 1 percent in 2013 and by 3.5 percent in 2014 to more than 415,000.

The increase comes as states are placing more foster children with relatives in response to research showing that children fare better with family rather than in foster care.

There is an economic incentive, too. Generations United, a nonprofit that advocates for "kinship families," says taxpayers would see significant savings by keeping children out of foster care and placing them with relatives.

But at the same time, the group says there is no comprehensive framework to keep these kinship families stable. Crucial programs, such as legal services and support groups, "exist only in small pockets of the country," it said.

Those support services are something many grandparents raising grandchildren need. Many are living on fixed incomes and managing chronic illnesses. About a quarter of grandparents raising grandchildren have a disability.

"People who step forward, step forward because there is a crisis in their family and apparently don't take into account their own limitations," said Esme Fuller-Thomson, a professor of social work at the University of Toronto, who has researched grandparent caregiving in the United States.

Maria Nanos, executive director of the Center for Law and Social Work in Chicago, said that when the state is involved, grandparents receive free legal help from the center, but informal caregivers navigate guardianship on their own. The center usually receives funds from the state's Department of Aging to help those grandparents. But Illinois has operated without a budget since July, so the center has not received the money this fiscal year.

"We have to turn people down," Nanos said.

Some states offer financial aid for informal kinship families.

In Georgia, grandparents older than 55 can get a $100 monthly subsidy per grandchild. They also have access to grants and could qualify for subsidies similar to those of foster parents (between $14.60 and $18.80 per day). But access to the assistance, which is often housed in different agencies, can be tricky, if not impossible.

To help relatives navigate the complex web of services, some states have created kinship navigators.

Lynn Urvina, is one of about a dozen kinship navigators in Washington state. She said grandparents call her seeking information about support groups, obtaining guardianship and financial help to pay bills. Every year, her case files grow.

"In our area, methamphetamines have had a huge impact," said Urvina, who is raising, along with her husband, a 12-year-old granddaughter.

Navigators in Washington serve 30 of 39 counties, with multiple counties overseen by one person. Some counties include rural communities where grandparents have little access to services, Urvina said.

"If all grandparents walked away and say, 'we can't do it,' there would be no homes for these kids," Urvina said.

To boost assistance to kinship families, Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., are working on a bipartisan bill that would reimburse states for a portion of money spent on such services as substance abuse prevention and kinship navigators.

As her grandson enters his teens, Aldridge, the Chicago grandmother, said she knows she'll need more resources to clothe, feed and keep him out of trouble.

To help make ends meet, she stands in food lines, taking two buses to reach the food depository. But she won't give up on Mario.

"He needs me," Aldridge said.
Alejandra Cancino is studying health care and long-term care issues as part of a 10-month fellowship at the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, which joins NORC's independent research and AP journalism. The fellowship is funded by The SCAN Foundation.

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More grandparents raising their grandchildren

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CHICAGO - When Debra Aldridge became her grandson's primary caregiver, she was making $7.50 per hour as a cook. The alternative for the newborn, she was told, was to put him up for adoption. "I took one look at the little fella, and that was it," said Aldridge, now 62.

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The government school movement overemphasized assessment and accountability at the expense of teacher/student relationships, creativity in lessons, and the overall health and welfare of those in education.

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An aging population may fight school districts over the percentage of their property taxes go to pay for public schools.  In my county, a group of senior citizens started a ballot initiative to expand the current senior citizen exemption.  This would have impacted the funds available for our district.  They do not have kids or grandkids in schools, therefore do not understand the impact of quality public schools on factors such as property values and quality of life.  The school district  had to expend effort and resources to counter the initiative.

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Strategic Resources & Digital Publications

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Teaching Excellence at Yale, previously distributed to all faculty during the academic year, highlighted teaching practices of individual faculty members from across departments and schools, supplemented with relevant research and resources that are available to instructors through the Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning.

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It is more difficult to recruit and retain teachers. Also impacts course offerings, which should take into consideration the population of the district and the industries that are part of the local economies.

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Their priorities are higher education and career success, not starting a family.

#2 Teaching and Learning

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https://www.msd.govt.nz/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-resources/journals-and-magazines/social-policy-journal/spj24/24-impact-of-family-structure-and-family-change-on-child-outcome-p111-133.html

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Due to the fact more grandparents are raising children there is a lack of consistency in behavior management. Kids are unsure of the rules and social norms.

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Central York High School: Mass Customized Learning  

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Central York High School: Mass Customized Learning  

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y84zeAV6_3M

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It devalues the formal education of our students. It also changes how one another exchange ideas. Teachers have to be more creative to gain their attention.