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Teaching and Learning:

https://www.lowndes.k12.ga.us/departments/teaching_and_learning/prek_to_grade_5_curriculum "The purpose of the Lowndes County School System's Pre-Kindergarten - 12 curriculum is to ensure that all students have access to the same core of significant content at a specific instructional level, from teacher to teacher, and school to school."

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(Northeast Middle School)
Teachers have devoted many hours to developing, monitoring, and grading Unit Recovery and Unit Repair assignments to help students reach mastery of standards.   We need to think about why students are struggling. There are numerous outside influences impacting the child's attitude toward learning!  Teachers are having to take on full accountability to overcome those obstacles.

If students were truly buying into school, these things wouldn't even be necessary!

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Students in one parent households are more likely to be suspended or repeat grade levels.

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This article is part of a new Education Next series commemorating the 50th anniversary of James S. Coleman's groundbreaking report, "Equality of Educational Opportunity." The full series will appear in the Spring 2016 issue of Education Next.

On the weekend before the Fourth of July 1966, the U.S. Office of Education quietly released a 737-page report that summarized one of the most comprehensive studies of American education ever conducted. Encompassing some 3,000 schools, nearly 600,000 students, and thousands of teachers, and produced by a team led by Johns Hopkins University sociologist James S. Coleman, "Equality of Educational Opportunity" was met with a palpable silence. Indeed, the timing of the release relied on one of the oldest tricks in the public relations playbook-announcing unfavorable results on a major holiday, when neither the American public nor the news media are paying much attention.

To the dismay of federal officials, the Coleman Report had concluded that "schools are remarkably similar in the effect they have on the achievement of their pupils when the socio-economic background of the students is taken into account." Or, as one sociologist supposedly put it to the scholar-politician Daniel Patrick Moynihan, "Have you heard what Coleman is finding? It's all family."

The Coleman Report's conclusions concerning the influences of home and family were at odds with the paradigm of the day. The politically inconvenient conclusion that family background explained more about a child's achievement than did school resources ran contrary to contemporary priorities, which were focused on improving educational inputs such as school expenditure levels, class size, and teacher quality. Indeed, less than a year before the Coleman Report's release, President Lyndon Johnson had signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act into law, dedicating federal funds to disadvantaged students through a Title 1 program that still remains the single largest investment in K-12 education, currently reaching approximately 21 million students at an annual cost of about $14.4 billion.

So what exactly had Coleman uncovered? Differences among schools in their facilities and staffing "are so little related to achievement levels of students that, with few exceptions, their effect fails to appear even in a survey of this magnitude," the authors concluded.
Zeroing In on Family Background
Coleman's advisory panel refused to sign off on the report, citing "methodological concerns" that continue to reverberate. Subsequent research has corroborated the finding that family background is strongly correlated with student performance in school. A correlation between family background and educational and economic success, however, does not tell us whether the relationship between the two is independent of any school impacts. The associations between home life and school performance that Coleman documented may actually be driven by disparities in school or neighborhood quality rather than family influences. Often, families choose their children's schools by selecting their community or neighborhood, and children whose parents select good schools may benefit as a consequence. In the elusive quest to uncover the determinants of students' academic success, therefore, it is important to rely on experimental or quasi-experimental research that identifies effects of family background that operate separately and apart from any school effects.

In this essay I look at four family variables that may influence student achievement: family education, family income, parents' criminal activity, and family structure. I then consider the ways in which schools can offset the effects of these factors.

Parental Education. Better-educated parents are more likely to consider the quality of the local schools when selecting a neighborhood in which to live. Once their children enter a school, educated parents are also more likely to pay attention to the quality of their children's teachers and may attempt to ensure that their children are adequately served. By participating in parent-teacher conferences and volunteering at school, they may encourage staff to attend to their children's individual needs.

In addition, highly educated parents are more likely than their less-educated counterparts to read to their children. Educated parents enhance their children's development and human capital by drawing on their own advanced language skills in communicating with their children. They are more likely to pose questions instead of directives and employ a broader and more complex vocabulary. Estimates suggest that, by age 3, children whose parents receive public assistance hear less than a third of the words encountered by their higher-income peers. As a result, the children of highly educated parents are capable of more complex speech and have more extensive vocabularies before they even start school.

Highly educated parents can also use their social capital to promote their children's development. A cohesive social network of well-educated individuals socializes children to expect that they too will attain high levels of academic success. It can also transmit cultural capital by teaching children the specific behaviors, patterns of speech, and cultural references that are valued by the educational and professional elite.

In most studies, parental education has been identified as the single strongest correlate of children's success in school, the number of years they attend school, and their success later in life. Because parental education influences children's learning both directly and through the choice of a school, we do not know how much of the correlation can be attributed to direct impact and how much to school-related factors. Teasing out the distinct causal impact of parental education is tricky, but given the strong association between parental education and student achievement in every industrialized society, the direct impact is undoubtedly substantial. Furthermore, quasi-experimental strategies have found positive effects of parental education on children's outcomes. For instance, one study of Korean children adopted into American families shows that the adoptive mother's education level is significantly associated with the child's educational attainment.

Family Income. As with parental education, family income may have a direct impact on a child's academic outcomes, or variations in achievement could simply be a function of the school the child attends: parents with greater financial resources can identify communities with higher-quality schools and choose more-expensive neighborhoods-the very places where good schools are likely to be. More-affluent parents can also use their resources to ensure that their children have access to a full range of extracurricular activities at school and in the community.

But it's not hard to imagine direct effects of income on student achievement. Parents who are struggling economically simply don't have the time or the wherewithal to check homework, drive children to summer camp, organize museum trips, or help their kids plan for college. Working multiple jobs or inconvenient shifts makes it hard to dedicate time for family dinners, enforce a consistent bedtime, read to infants and toddlers, or invest in music lessons or sports clubs. Even small differences in access to the activities and experiences that are known to promote brain development can accumulate, resulting in a sizable gap between two groups of children defined by family circumstances.

It is challenging to find rigorous experimental or quasi-experimental evidence to disentangle the direct effects of home life from the effects of the school a family selects. While Coleman claimed that family and peers had an effect on student achievement that was distinct from the influence of schools or neighborhoods, his research design was inadequate to support this conclusion. All he was able to show was that family characteristics had a strong correlation with student achievement.

Separating out the independent effects of family education and family income is also difficult. We do not know if low income and financial instability alone can adversely affect children's behavior, emotional stability, and educational outcomes. Evidence from the negative-income-tax experiments carried out by the federal government between 1968 and 1982 showed only mixed effects of income on children's outcomes, and subsequent work by the University of Chicago's Susan Mayer cast doubt on any causal relationship between parental income and child well-being. However, a recent study by Gordon Dahl and Lance Lochner, exploiting quasi-experimental variation in the Earned Income Tax Credit, provides convincing evidence that increases in family income can lift the achievement levels of students raised in low-income working families, even holding other factors constant.

Parental Incarceration. The Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that 2.3 percent of U.S. children have a parent in federal or state prison. Black children are 7.5 times more likely and Hispanic children 2.5 times more likely than white children to have an incarcerated parent. Incarceration removes a wage earner from the home, lowering household income. One estimate suggests that two-thirds of incarcerated fathers had provided the primary source of family income before their imprisonment. As a result, children with a parent in prison are at greater risk of homelessness, which in turn can have grave consequences: the receipt of social and medical services and assignment to a traditional public school all require a stable home address. The emotional strain of a parent's incarceration can also take its toll on a child's achievement in school.

Quantifying the causal effects of parental incarceration has proven challenging, however. While correlational research finds that the odds of finishing high school are 50 percent lower for children with an incarcerated parent, parents who are in prison may have less education, lower income, more limited access to quality schools, and other attributes that adversely affect their children's success in school. A recent review of 22 studies of the effect of parental incarceration on child well-being concludes that, to date, no research in this area has been able to leverage a natural experiment to produce quasi-experimental estimates. Just how large a causal impact parental incarceration has on children remains an important but largely uncharted topic for future research.

Family Structure. While most American children still live with both of their biological or adoptive parents, family structures have become more diverse in recent years, and living arrangements have grown increasingly complex. In particular, the two-parent family is vanishing among the poor.

Approximately two-fifths of U.S. children experience dissolution in their parents' union by age 15, and two-thirds of this group will see their mother form a new union within six years. Many parents today choose cohabitation over marriage, but the instability of such partnerships is even higher. In the case of nonmarital births, estimates say that 56 percent of fathers will be living away from their child by his or her third birthday. These patterns can have serious implications for a child's well-being and school success (see Figure 1). Single parents have less time for the enriching activities that Robert Putnam, Harvard professor of public policy, has called "Goodnight Moon" time, after the celebrated bedtime storybook by Margaret Wise Brown. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that 1- to 2-year-olds who live with two married parents are read to, on average, 8.5 times per week. The corresponding statistic for their peers living with a single parent is 5.7 times. And it's likely that dual-parent families in general have many other attributes that affect their children's educational attainment, mental health, labor market performance, and family formation. More-rigorous quasi-experimental evidence also documents significant negative effects of a father's absence on children's educational attainment and social and emotional development, leading to increases in antisocial behavior. These effects are largest for boys.

Recent research by MIT economist David Autor and colleagues generates quasi-experimental estimates of family background by simultaneously accounting for the impact of neighborhood environment and school quality to investigate why boys fare worse than girls in disadvantaged families. Comparing boys to their sisters in a data set that includes more than 1 million children born in Florida between 1992 and 2002, the authors demonstrate a persistent gender gap in graduation and truancy rates, incidence of behavioral and cognitive disabilities, and standardized test scores.
Policies to Counter Family Disadvantage
Policymakers who are weighing competing approaches to countering the influence of family disadvantage face a tough choice: Should they try to improve schools (to overcome the effects of family background) or directly address the effects of family background?

The question is critical. If family background is decisive regardless of the quality of the school, then the road to equal opportunity will be long and hard. Increasing the level of parental education is a multigenerational challenge, while reducing the rising disparities in family income would require massive changes in public policy, and reversing the growth in the prevalence of single-parent families would also prove challenging. And, while efforts to reduce incarceration rates are afoot, U.S. crime rates remain among the highest in the world. Given these obstacles, if schools themselves can offset differences in family background, the chances of achieving a more egalitarian society greatly improve.

For these reasons, scholars need to continue to tackle the causality question raised by Coleman's pathbreaking study. Although the obstacles to causal inference are steep, education researchers should focus on quasi-experimental approaches relying on sibling comparisons, changes in state laws over time, or policy quirks-such as policy implementation timelines that vary across municipalities-that facilitate research opportunities.

Given what is currently known, a holistic approach that simultaneously attempts to strengthen both home and school influences in disadvantaged communities is worthy of further exploration. A number of contemporary and past initiatives point to the potential of this comprehensive approach.
Promise Neighborhoods
"Promise Neighborhoods," which are funded by a grant program of the U.S. Department of Education, serve distressed communities by delivering a continuum of services through multiple government agencies, nonprofit organizations, churches, and agencies of civil society. These neighborhood initiatives use "wraparound" programs that take a holistic approach to improving the educational achievement of low-income students. The template for the approach is the Harlem Children's Zone (HCZ), a 97-block neighborhood in New York City that combines charter schooling with a full package of social, medical, and community support services. The programs and resources are available to the families at no cost.

Services available in the HCZ include a Baby College, where expectant parents can learn about child development and gain parenting skills; two charter schools and a college success office, which provides individualized counseling and guidance to graduates on university campuses across the country; free legal services, tax preparation, and financial counseling; employment workshops and job fairs; a 50,000-square-foot facility that offers recreational and nutrition classes; and a food services team that provides breakfast, lunch, and a snack every school day to more than 2,000 students.

Research by Will Dobbie and Roland Fryer demonstrates that the impact of attending an HCZ charter middle school on students' test scores is comparable to the impressive effects seen at high-performing charter schools such as the Knowledge Is Power Program (known as KIPP schools). Students who win admission by lottery and attend an HCZ school also have higher on-time graduation rates than their peers and are less likely to become teen parents or land in prison. Although some community services are available to HCZ residents only, results show that students who live outside the HCZ experience similar benefits simply from attending the Promise Academy. That is, Dobbie and Fryer do not find any additional benefits associated with the resident-only supplementary services that distinguish the Promise Neighborhoods approach. (In many instances, the mean scores for children who live within the zone are higher than those for nonresidents, but these differences are not statistically significant.)

There are two caveats to keep in mind in regard to this finding that support the case for continued experimentation with and evaluation of Promise Neighborhoods. First, many of the wraparound services offered in the HCZ are provided through the school and are thus available to HCZ residents and nonresidents alike. For instance, all Promise Academy students receive free nutritious meals; medical, dental, and mental health services; and food baskets for their parents. The services that nonresidents cannot access are things such as tax preparation and financial advising, parenting classes through the Baby College, and job fairs. It may be that both groups of students are accessing the most beneficial supplementary services.

The second caveat is that the HCZ is a "pipeline" model that aims to transform an entire community by targeting services across many different domains. Therefore, we may have to wait until a cohort of students has progressed through that pipeline before we can get a full picture of how these comprehensive services have benefited them. The first cohort to complete the entire HCZ program is expected to graduate from high school in 2020.

The main drawback of the Promise Neighborhoods model is its high cost. To cover the expenses of running the Promise Academy Charter School and the afterschool and wraparound programs, the HCZ spends about $19,272 per pupil. While this price tag is about $3,100 higher than the median per-pupil cost in New York State, it is still about $14,000 lower than what is spent by a district at the 95th percentile. If future research can demonstrate that the HCZ positively influences longer-term outcomes such as college graduation rates, income, and mortality, the model will hold tremendous potential that may well justify its costs.
Early Childhood Education
Early childhood programs can provide a source of enrichment for needy children, ensuring them a solid start in a world where those with inadequate education are increasingly marginalized. Neuroscientists estimate that about 90 percent of the brain develops between birth and age 5, supporting the case for expanded access to early childhood programs. While the United States spends abundantly on elementary and secondary schoolchildren ($12,401 per student per year in 2013-14 dollars), it devotes dramatically less than other wealthy countries to children in their first few years of life.

Four years before James Coleman released his report, a group of underprivileged, at-risk toddlers at the Perry Preschool in Ypsilanti, Michigan, were randomly selected for a preschool intervention that consisted of daily coaching from highly trained teachers as well as visits to their homes. After just one year, those in the experimental treatment group were registering IQ scores 10 points higher than their peers in the control group. The test-score effects had disappeared by age 10, but follow-up analyses of the Perry Preschool treatment group revealed impressive longer-term outcomes that included a significant increase in their high-school graduation rate and the probability of earning at least $20,000 a year as adults, as well as a 19 percent decrease in their probability of being arrested five or more times. Similar small-scale, "hothouse" preschool experiments in Chicago, upstate New York, and North Carolina have all shown comparable benefits.

Unfortunately, attempts to scale up such programs have proved challenging. Studies of the Head Start program, for instance, have uncovered mixed evidence of its effectiveness. Modest impacts on students' cognitive skills mostly fade out by the end of 1st grade. Such results have led many to question whether quality can be consistently maintained when a program such as Head Start is implemented broadly. Indeed, recent research has revealed considerable differences in Head Start's effectiveness from site to site. Variation in inputs and practices among Head Start centers explains about a third of these differences, a finding that may offer clues as to the contextual factors that influence the program's varying levels of success.

Although the policymaker's challenge is to figure out how to expand access to such programs while preserving quality, evidence suggests that investment in early childhood education has the potential to significantly address disparities that arise from family disadvantage.
Small Schools of Choice
Traditional public schools assign a child to a given school based exclusively on his family's place of residence. As Coleman pointed out, residential assignment promotes stratification between schools by family background, because it creates incentives for families of means to move to the "good" school districts. Under this system, schools cannot serve as the equal-opportunity engines of our society. Instead, residential assignment often replicates within the school system the same family advantages and disadvantages that exist in the community.

The most promising social policy for combating the effects of family background, then, could well be the expansion of programs that allow families to choose schools without regard to their neighborhood of residence. An analysis of more than 100 small schools of choice in New York City between 2002 and 2008 revealed a 9.5 percent increase in the graduation rate of a group of educationally and economically disadvantaged students, at no extra cost to the city. Positive results have also been observed with respect to student test scores for charter schools in New York City, Boston, Los Angeles, and New Orleans.

Small schools of choice might also build the social capital that Coleman considered crucial for student success. First, small schools are well positioned to build a strong sense of community through the development of robust student-teacher, parent-teacher, and student-student relationships. Helping students to cultivate dense networks of social relationships better equips them to handle life's challenges and is particularly vital given the disintegration of many social structures today. While schools may not be able to compensate fully for the disruptive effects of a dysfunctional or unstable family, a robust school culture can transform the "social ecology" of a disadvantaged child.

A small school of choice also engenders a voluntary community that comes together over strong ties and shared values. Typically, schools of choice feature a clearly defined mission and set of core values, which may derive from religious traditions and beliefs. The Notre Dame ACE Academy schools, for instance, strive for the twin goals of preparing students for college and for heaven. By explicitly defining their mission, schools can appeal to families who share their values and are eager to contribute to the growth of the community. A focused mission also helps school administrators attract like-minded teachers and thus promotes staff collegiality. A warm and cohesive teaching staff can be particularly beneficial for children from unstable homes, whose parents may not regularly express emotional closeness or who fail to communicate effectively. Exposure to well-functioning adult role models at school might compensate for such deficits, promoting well-being and positive emotional development.
Implications for Policy
Determining the causal relationships between family background and child well-being has posed a daunting challenge. Family characteristics are often tightly correlated with features of the neighborhood environment, making it difficult to determine the independent influences of each. But getting a solid understanding of causality is critical to the debate over whether to intervene inside or outside of school.

The results of quasi-experimental research, as well as common sense, tell us that children who grow up in stable, well-resourced families have significant advantages over their peers who do not-including access to better schools and other educational services. Policies that place schools at center stage have the potential to disrupt the cycle of economic disadvantage to ensure that children born into poverty aren't excluded from the American dream.

In opening our eyes to the role of family background in the creation of inequality, Coleman wasn't suggesting that we shrug our shoulders and learn to live with it. But in attacking the achievement gap, as his research would imply, we need to mobilize not only our schools but also other institutions. Promise Neighborhoods offer cradle-to-career supports to help children successfully navigate the challenges of growing up. Early childhood programs provide intervention at a critical time, when children's brains take huge leaps in development. Finally, small schools of choice can help to build a strong sense of community, which could particularly benefit inner-city neighborhoods where traditional institutions have been disintegrating.

Schools alone can't level the vast inequalities that students bring to the schoolhouse door, but a combination of school programs, social services, community organizations, and civil society could make a major difference. Ensuring that all kids, regardless of family background, have a decent chance of doing better than their parents is an important societal and policy goal. Innovative approaches such as those outlined here could help us achieve it.
Anna J. Egalite is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership, Policy, and Human Development at the College of Education, North Carolina State University.

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How Family Background Influences Student Achievement

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This article is part of a new Education Next series commemorating the 50th anniversary of James S. Coleman's groundbreaking report, "Equality of Educational Opportunity." The full series will appear in the Spring 2016 issue of Education Next. On the weekend before the Fourth of July 1966, the U.S.

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Competition in education provides parents with options as to where to send their children to school.  The hope is that competition will improve public education; however, one problem with the voucher system is that tax dollars are diverted from public education.
https://www.publicschoolreview.com/blog/the-ongoing-debate-over-school-choice

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The school is no longer the hub of the community. This has resulted in a lack of involvement. Our district has noticed a lack of participation with multiple activities and programs. We had a difficult time starting our PTO just last year.

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As school choice increases due to failing schools or reform schools in some areas, public shool districts receive less funding as a result of students  attending charter schools and other competition.

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AASA | American Association of School Administrators

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Shift from standardization to customization.  There is confusion in what should be standardized and what should be customized. Most can agree that while we focus on standardized testing and scores we lack how to truly customize a student's unique learning goals. For example, students with IEP's require customized learning approach but are not tested in the same manner. Another example we can provide is the shift to Stem approach that allows an individual approach. Also, differentiation must be done to genuinely meet the needs of our children not just for the sake of implementing the idea of differentiation. Student based learning is key based on their learning goals rather than teacher based learning. This is the best description of Mass Customization.

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Project-Based Learning opportunities such as STEM activities give students opportunities to explore their individual interests and learn standards hands on.

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Table 15 - Effect on the Cultural Society 

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Table 15 - Effect on the Cultural Society 

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"The U.S. population is currently projected to reach “majority minority” status (the point at which less than 50 percent of the population is non-Hispanic white) in 2042. However, a sustained drop in immigration levels and fertility rates would slow the pace of minority population growth. It’s too soon to tell whether these are short-term trends resulting from the U.S. economic downturn, or whether they will continue in the future. But either way, these current trends represent a significant departure from developments over the past decade."

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Between 2010 and 2011, the U.S. population increased by 0.7 percent, after averaging 0.9 percent growth each year from 2000 through 2010. ¹ The United States added just 2.3 million people from 2010 to 2011, compared with 2.9 million from 2005 to 2006, just five years earlier. The decline in U.S. population growth is likely due to a confluence of factors: lower levels of immigration, population aging, and declining fertility rates.
A drop in net immigration to the United States is a key factor in the country's declining population growth rate. Around the turn of the millennium, the Census Bureau was estimating net international migration at about 1.4 million per year. By late in the decade, that annual number had been adjusted downward to less than 900,000. Between 2010 and 2011, net migration was estimated at around 700,000. The drop in immigration levels means that a smaller share of U.S. population growth is directly attributable to immigration, as opposed to natural increase (the excess of births over deaths). In the early 2000s, immigration accounted for roughly 40 percent of U.S. population growth, leaving 60 percent from natural increase. ² During the past few years, however, net international migration is estimated to have accounted for only 30 percent of the annual population growth.
The decline in immigration has been linked to job losses in construction, manufacturing, and other occupations that are often filled by recent immigrants, as well as stricter enforcement of immigration laws. Net immigration levels from Mexico are estimated to have reached zero in recent years as an equal number of people entering the United States from Mexico are now returning to their home country. ³

Slower Latino and Asian Population Growth

Because most immigrants to the United States arrive from Latin America or Asia, the decline in net international immigration has contributed to slower growth in the Latino and Asian American populations. Latinos and Asians remain the country's two fastest-growing minority groups, but their growth rates have dropped below the peaks reported just a few years ago.

Population growth for Latinos averaged 3.6 percent per year during the previous decade, but fell to just 2.5 percent between 2010 and 2011 (see Figure 1). There was a similar drop for Asian Americans during the same period, from 3.6 percent to 2.2 percent. ⁴ Although the rate of change fell for both groups, the number of Asians and Latinos is still increasing. And both groups are still growing faster than African Americans (1 percent) and non-Hispanic whites (0.1 percent).
Percent Annual Change in U.S. Population, by Racial/Ethnic Group
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, population estimates.

Population Aging

The recent decline in immigration has also accelerated population aging in the United States. Most immigrants are working-age adults, and many start families after they arrive in the U.S., creating an immigrant youth bulge. ⁵ Less immigration therefore reduces the potential number of young people in the population. But even if immigrant levels had held steady during the recession, the U.S. population would still be growing older as the large cohort of baby boomers starts to reach retirement age.

A decade ago, children under age 18 made up a significant component of annual population growth and exceeded the growth of those ages 65 and older (see Figure 2). But by 2011, these patterns had reversed: The number of people under age 18 declined by 190,000 between 2010 and 2011, while the number of elderly increased by 917,000. Growth in the number of working-age adults, including those in prime childbearing ages, is also down sharply.
Annual Change in U.S. Population, by Age Group
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, population estimates.

Because of its relatively young age structure, the United States still has a great deal of population momentum compared to many other developed countries. ⁶ But as more baby boomers enter retirement and there are fewer people of reproductive age, we could see further declines in the number of births, and the age structure of the United States could start to resemble that of Europe.

Declining Fertility Rates

U.S. fertility rates have also declined in recent years, reducing levels of natural increase in the population. There were an estimated 4 million births between 2010 and 2011, down from 4.2 million at the recent peak of U.S. population growth between 2005 and 2006. The total fertility rate (TFR) stood at 2.0 births per woman in 2009-down from 2.1 a few years ago-but preliminary data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) suggest that the TFR could drop below 2 births per woman in 2010.

Latinos currently account for more than one-fourth of all births in the United States. Yet the Latina general fertility rate (births per 1,000 Latinas ages 15 to 44) dropped from 102 in 2007 to 80 in 2010, according to preliminary NCHS estimates. This represents a significant decline for a group with historically high fertility rates-approaching 3 births per woman just a few years ago. If current trends continue, the Latina TFR could drop below 2.5 in the near future.

The U.S. population is currently projected to reach "majority minority" status (the point at which less than 50 percent of the population is non-Hispanic white) in 2042. However, a sustained drop in immigration levels and fertility rates would slow the pace of minority population growth. It's too soon to tell whether these are short-term trends resulting from the U.S. economic downturn, or whether they will continue in the future. But either way, these current trends represent a significant departure from developments over the past decade.

References

1. Population estimates are from the U.S. Census Bureau and are reported as of July 1 of each year.

2. Mary M. Kent and Mark Mather, "What Drives U.S. Population Growth?" Population Bulletin 57, no. 4 (2002), accessed on May 17, 2012.

3. Jeffrey Passel, D'Vera Cohn, and Ana Gonzalez-Barrera, "Net Migration from Mexico Falls to Zero-and Perhaps Less" (May 3, 2012), accessed on May 17, 2012.

4. Data are shown for the Asian alone population.

5. Mark Mather, "Children in Immigrant Families Chart New Path," PRB Reports on America (Washington, DC: Population Reference Bureau, 2009), accessed on May 17, 2012.

6. Mark Mather, Kelvin Pollard, and Linda A. Jacobsen, "First Results from the 2010 Census," PRB Reports on America (Washington DC: Population Reference Bureau, 2011), accessed on May 17, 2012.

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What's Driving the Decline in U.S. Population Growth?

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Between 2010 and 2011, the U.S. population increased by 0.7 percent, after averaging 0.9 percent growth each year from 2000 through 2010. 1 The United States added just 2.3 million people from 2010 to 2011, compared with 2.9 million from 2005 to 2006, just five years earlier. The decline in U.S.

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The Effect of Teaching and Learning
Students must be taught grade level standards regardless of ability levels. In order to aid teacher(s) with documentation of interventions and support, there is a process in place. See our link below:   https://sites.google.com/lowndes.k12.ga.us/onelowndes/rti-resources?authuser=0

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Per the U.S. Census Bureau between the years 2012-2016, the number of households in Crisp County is 8.509 and the number of people living in each household averages to 2.66 people

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U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Crisp County, Georgia

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Frequently requested statistics for: Crisp County, Georgia

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Table 9: Effect on Teaching and Learning

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Table 9: Effect on Teaching and Learning

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(Northeast Middle School, Tifton)
Teachers feel overwhelmed because they are having to do so many extra things (in addition to GOOD teaching) to try to get students to meet standards.  Students often are "disengaged" because they are being required to take specific courses for graduation, but they have no interest in the courses and see no purpose in them. Teachers seem to be worker harder and harder, whereas students seem to be working less.

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The Changing Role of Government and Education.

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Since about 1990 the assumption that the public sector should be responsible for all aspects of education has been increasingly questioned, in both developed and developing countries, for four main reasons. First, there have been doubts about the effectiveness and efficiency of public education. Second, there are doubts about the equity and accountability of public education, which particularly affect the poor. Third, there is an increasing awareness of initiatives by educational entrepreneurs, and evidence to suggest that competitive pressures can lead to significant educational improvements. Fourth, there has been a need to restrain public expenditure in order to reduce budget deficits and external debts, and, consequently, a need to find alternative sources of educational funding.

About the fourth reason little more can be said, apart from the fact that this has motivated governments and international agencies to look to the possibility of an increasing private sector role. But potentially countering each of the other three reasons is the notion that education is a public good, and hence requires government intervention for its provision. Before reviewing relevant arguments, it is important to stress that the whole issue is controversial. Consequently, it is worth noting at the outset some recent overviews of the whole debate.

Largely unsympathetic to an increasing role for the private sector are philosopher Harry Brighouse, sociologists such as Stephen Ball, the Karl Mannheim professor of sociology of education at the University of London, and the journalist Alex Molnar. Brighouse, who is affiliated with both the American and the British reform movements, presents philosophical arguments against extending educational choice, particularly stressing how they will promote inequity. He is, however, sympathetic to some arguments about the way private sector could raise standards and be more efficient. Ball and his colleagues have explored the way market reforms have occurred in to England, and they suggest the evidence points to a deleterious impact on equality of opportunity. Finally, Molnar has explored the increasing commercialization of American schools, and he argues that the profit motive and education should not be allowed to mix.

For the alternative perspective, a good place to start is with the economic historian Edwin G. West's seminal work Education and the State (1994), followed by the work of Andrew Coulson and James Tooley. West suggests that before the government got involved in education in England and Wales and the United States, there was widespread private provision of education, which was crowded out by the intervening state. Coulson takes up the historical case in ancient Greece (among other places), and providing detailed economic and conceptual arguments to support the case for markets in education, and he challenges the idea that public education can promote social cohesion and equality of opportunity. Tooley takes up similar themes, conducting a thought experiment to explore historical, philosophical, and economic arguments that suggest the desirability for an increased role for the private sector in educationincluding addressing the objections to for-profit education.

Playwright George Bernard Shaw once quipped that the Americans and the British are divided by a common language. Nowhere is this more obvious than when we speak of the role of government in education. The British, for reasons buried in historical time, call their most elite private schools public schools, and other countries such as India followed this usage. To avoid confusion, this article will follow the more logical American usage, where public schools are those funded by government, and private schools are those that are not.

Education As a Public Good

It is often argued that education is a public good, and that this implies a particular role for government. Economists define a public good as satisfying up to three conditions: (1) indivisibility, (2) nonrivalry, and (3) nonexcludability. Indivisibility can be illustrated by the example of a bridge over a river, which can be used by anyone without extra costs being incurred. Nonrivalry is virtually the same, except that it is the benefits available to every member of the public that are not reduced, rather than the amount of the good. For example, the good of hiking in the Grand Canyon could be, to a large extent, indivisible, in that many millions of people could do it without thereby hindering others also doing it. However, the greater the number of people who hike, the lower the enjoyment of those who wish to be in an empty wildernessin which case the good is not nonrival. Finally, nonexcludability pertains when it is not feasible to exclude any individual members of the group from consuming the good. The classic economic example is of a lighthouse.

It would seem that education satisfies none of these conditions. It is clearly not nonexcludable, for a particular child can be excluded from a classroom or any other educational opportunity. The situation is similar for nonrivalry and indivisibility, for it is the case that if some children have the attention of an excellent teacher, then that teacher has less time for others, who therefore can obtain less benefit from the teacher. Indeed, it seems likely that it was precisely because of this nonrivalry or indivisibility that reformers wanted government to intervene in educationto alleviate this inequality of access.

However, if it is not a public good in this sense, education does seem likely to have neighborhood effects, or externalities defined by economists as when an activity undertaken by one party directly effects another party's utility. That is, there are likely to be benefits to the community or society at large (if there are educational opportunities available) in terms of equality of opportunity, social cohesion, democratic benefits, law and order, economic growth, and so on. Crucially, these externalities are likely to exhibit a large degree of nonexclusion (it is costly to exclude people from these benefits or costs) and there are usually considerations relating to nonrivalry or indivisibility (the external benefits or costs are likely to be available to all with near zero marginal costs). For example, a society lacking in equality of opportunity could be a dissatisfied, lawless society. One could exclude oneself from the problems of such a society, but only at the expense of burglar alarms, bodyguards, high fences, or by restricting one's movements. It is in this sense that education could be referred to as a public good; and it is in this sense that it could legitimately be argued that education needs government intervention to ensure its provision and obtain these externalities.

From these considerations, the discussion would need to focus on the perceived effectiveness, efficiency, and equity of public education, and the presence, or lack, of private initiatives. These concerns bring us squarely back to the major reasons adduced earlier for questioning the role of government in education. So, what of these reasons?

Standards and Efficiency

As far as the first reason is concerned, while doubts have arisen in many countries about standards in public schools, it is not until comparisons are made with private schools in the same countries that the role of government is significantly questioned. This comparative approach started with an 1982 American study by James Coleman, Thomas Hoffer, and Sally Kilgore, which predicted the score on a standardized test for an average public school student if he or she were to attend a private school. The study found that private schools were more effective at developing the cognitive abilities of students. After responding to criticisms that innate ability had not been controlled for, a follow-up study substantially confirmed the results.

Numerous studies since then have been carried out across a wide range of middle-and lower-income countries, all of which have found that private schools not only are more effective educationally (when controlled for socioeconomic factors), but are also more efficient. For instance, studies from the World Bank began by looking at achievement in verbal ability in Thailand, following up with studies of achievement in language and mathematics in Colombia, the Dominican Republic, the Philippines, Tanzania, and Thailand again. The studies explored the proportional gain in achievement score if a randomly selected student, with the characteristics of an average public school student, were to attend a private rather than a public school, holding constant the student's socioeconomic background. While there was a large range, the studies all showed the superiority of private education in terms of raising these cognitive abilities. In Colombia the results showed that private schools were 1.13 times more effective than public schools, averaging for verbal and mathematical achievement. In the Dominican Republic private schools were about one-and-a-half times more effective in raising achievement in mathematics; and in Thailand, again for mathematics, private schools were 2.63 times more effective than the public schools.

One obvious objection was that private schools can succeed where public schools cannot because of increased resources. However, when the same researchers probed this issue, they found the opposite to be the case. Comparing the cost per student in a private and a public school gave results ranging from a low of 39 percent in Thailand to a high of 83 percent in the Philippines. Combining these two sources of information, the researchers were then able to gain an answer to the question: "For the same per-pupil cost, how much more achievement would one get in private than in public schools?" The answer ranged from 1.2 times (Philippines) to a massive 6.74 times more achievement (Thailand) in the private than in the public schools.

Finally, Geeta Kingdon's evidence from India reveals similar findings. Kingdon controlled for twenty-one potentially confounding variablesincluding parental and family income, number of years of mother's education, number of books in the home, and student aptitudefor her study of a stratified random sample of schools in urban Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. She found that the (unaided) private schools were 27 percent more effective at teaching mathematics, and slightly more effective at teaching language, than the public schools. But when per-pupil costs are brought into the equation, the results become quite striking. In the (unaided) private schools the per-pupil cost was less than half that in the public schools (38 rupees compared to 80 rupees).

Equity and Accountability

Doubts about public education that inform the debate about the role of government in education also focus on the fairness of public provision, although this is countered by doubts that privatization could be more equitable. In many countries, however, it has been observed that, despite public expansion of funding and provision, the expansion has not reached all members of society equally. Particularly acute is the wide gap in terms of educational provision offered to urban and rural populations. In Indonesia, for instance, only 3 percent of urban children of primary school age did not receive any schooling; while in the rural areas this figure rises to 10 percent. These comparison figures also obscure the fact that gender disparities in rural areas are even more severe. In Pakistan, for instance, while 73 percent of urban females age seven to fourteen have ever attended school, this figure plunges to 40 percent for rural females in the same age group.

In the poorest countries, it might be thought that spending on basic education would be a government priority, since these have yet to achieve universal primary-school enrolment. However, this often does not happen. In Africa, for instance, per-student spending on higher education is about forty-four times higher than on primary education. In most African nations, the poorest 20 percent of the population get significantly less than 20 percent of public education subsidy, while the richest 20 percent receive significantly greater than 20 percent. Most dramatically, in Nepal, the richest quintile gets almost half of total public spending on education.

Some of the most dramatic evidence of the inequity of public provision, which also raises the issue of accountability, comes from India. The PROBE Team's Public Report on Basic Education in India (1999) looked at primary education in four states, where it surveyed a random sample of villages in which there were a total of 195 government and 41 private schools. The report outlines some of the "malfunctioning" that is taking place in government schools for the poor in these four states. The schools suffer from poor physical facilities and high pupil-teacher ratios, but what is most disturbing is the low level of teaching activity taking place in them. When researchers called unannounced, only in 53 percent of the schools was there any teaching activity going on. In fully 33 percent, the head teacher was absent. The PROBE survey reported many instances of "plain negligence," including "irresponsible teachers keeping a school closed or non-functional for months at a time" and a school where "only one-sixth of the children enrolled were present" (p. 63). Significantly, the low level of teaching activity occurred even in those schools with relatively good infrastructure, teaching aids, and pupil-teacher ratios. Even in such schools, "teaching activity has been reduced to a minimum, in terms of both time and effort. And this pattern is not confined to a minority of irresponsible teachersit has become a way of life in the profession" (p. 63).

These problems highlight the "deep lack of accountability" in the public schools, for these problems were not found in the private schools. The PROBE Team found a considerably higher level of teaching activity taking place in the private schools, even though the work environment is not better in these schools. For the researchers, this "brings out the key role of accountability in the schooling system. In a private school, the teachers are accountable to the manager (who can fire them), and, through him or her, to the parents (who can withdraw their children). In a government school, the chain of accountability is much weaker, as teachers have a permanent job with salaries and promotions unrelated to performance. This contrast is perceived with crystal clarity by the vast majority of parents" (p. 64).

All of this evidence is leading some governments and international agencies to wonder whether or not public education can reach the poorest in society, or whether some form of public-private partnershipperhaps with publicly funded vouchers being available for use at any school, public or privatewould be a better role for government to play if reaching the poor is its aim.

Private Sector Alternatives

The existence of private schools for the poor in India might come as a surprise. In fact, this is a growing phenomenon throughout the developing world, and relates to the third major reason for the growing questioning of the role of government in education, the emergence of apparently viable private-sector alternatives. Schools for the poor are commonplace across a range of countries, including in India, where recent research has revealed a whole range of schools charging about $10 to $20 per year for each student, run on commercial principles and not dependent on any government subsidy or philanthropy. These fees are affordable by families headed by rickshaw pullers and market-stall traders. Even so, many of these schools also offer significant number of free places (up to 20 percent) for even poorer students, allocated on the basis of claims of need checked informally in the community. Similar schools have been reported in many African countries as well.

The emergence of private education alternatives is not only about the poor, of course. Recent research has uncovered a whole range of interesting examples of educational entrepreneurs who are creating innovative and effective private alternatives. The International Finance Corporation found for-profit education companies in developing countries that had created chains of schools and colleges, often operated on a franchise basis, with strict quality control procedures in place (including using the international standards of ISO 9000 series). These companies invest in research and development to explore new ideas in pedagogy and curriculum. Examples include Objetivo/UNIP in Brazil, which has over half a million students from kindergarten to university level across its 500 campuses around Brazil; and NIIT, based in New Delhi, which offers computer education and training in its forty owned centers in the metropolitan areas, and about 1,000 franchised centers across India. It also has a global reach, with centers in the United States, Europe, Japan, Central Asia, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region.

Notably, private entrepreneurs have harnessed information technology to the learning process. There has been a rapid growth of for-profit private-sector providers in education at all levels, creating elearning opportunities in developing as well as developed countries. Many of these are in direct competition with traditional public-sector providers, such as the University of Phoenix, with 90,000 students across thirty-two campuses and seventy-one learning centers. However, many traditional universities have also responded to the challenge by either creating for-profit subsidiaries themselves New York University, for instance, set up its NYOnline arm, and Columbia University created a for-profit arm, Fathom Knowledge Network Inc., in partnership with Cambridge University Press, the New York Public Library, and the University of Chicago. Other for-profit companies are emerging to provide elearning for the K12 market, including the appropriately named k12.com, led by William J. Bennett, the secretary of state for education during the Reagan administration.

The emergence and strength of these private-sector alternatives has impressed many governments looking to improve the quality and efficiency of public schooling. The British government is currently engaged in a process of contracting out failing schools and local education authorities to the private sector, trying to find best-value service wherever it can be found. But this process is not confined to developed countries. One notable example comes from India, where the Tamil Nadu state government wanted computer education in all high schools. Significantly, although allocating extra funds to this endeavorabout U.S. $22 million over five yearsit didn't look to the public sector to provide this, but instead developed a model to contract out the delivery to private companies, who provide the software and hardware, while the government provides an electricity supply and the classroom. Significantly, companies that have won these contracts, such as NIIT, can also use the classroom as a franchised center, open to the school children and teachers during the day and open to the general public in the evenings and on weekends. The contracting out of curriculum areas such as this represents an important step forward in relationships between the public and private sectors, and provides an interesting model worth watching and emulating.

Conclusion

The debate will continue about the changing role of government in education, but there is considerable practical innovation and experimentation taking place globally that points to an acceptance of the changing role for government in educational delivery. Three types of reform can usefully be distinguished.

The first is the contracting out model, in which a state school has some or all of its educational functions contracted out to the private sector under accountability guidelines established by the local and/or central government. Education management companies such as Edison Schools in the United States and 3Es in England fit into this model, where all of the educational functionspedagogy, curriculum, school management and improvementare taken over by the private company.

Second, there is the demand-side financing model, which allows students to exit state schoolsoften when these are failingand move to private schools through state-funded vouchers. Such schemes are found all around the world, including in the United States, Chile, Colombia, and the Ivory Coast, to name a few.

Third, there is the state-funded private school model, where either private schools are allowed to opt-in to state funding (as in Denmark and Holland), or new independent schools are specially created under government regulations to receive state funding, (as with charter schools in America, Canada, and China, and City Academies in England and Wales).

In Denmark for instance, the first private schools gained state subsidies in 1899. Now, any group of parents can claim the right to create a private school. Once established and running, the state guarantees to provide 80 to 85 percent of expenditures in the school. Some of these free schools are religious schools, but the majority are not: instead they are Rudolf Steiner schools, German minority schools, or simply independent academicallyminded schools. Such private schools are becoming increasingly attractive to parents, with enrollments rising from 8 percent in 1982 to 12 percent in 1998.

See also: Education Development Projects; Federal Educational Activities; Federal Funds for Higher Education; Federal Interagency Committee on Education; States and Education.

bibliography

Bray, Mark. 1996. Privatisation of Secondary Education: Issues and Policy Implications. Paris: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Brighouse, Harry. 2000. School Choice and Social Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Coleman, James; Hoffer, Thomas; and Kilgore, Sally. 1982. "Cognitive Outcomes in Public and Private Schools." Sociology of Education 55:6576.

Coleman, James, and Hoffer, Thomas 1987. Public and Private High Schools: The Impact of Communities. New York: Basic Books.

Commonwealth of Learning. 1999. The Development of Virtual Education: A Global Perspective. London: Commonwealth of Learning.

Coulson, Andrew. 1999. Market Education: The Unknown History. London: Transaction Publishers.

Gewirtz, Sharon; Ball, Stephen J.; and Bowe, Richard. 1995. Markets, Choice and Equity in Education. Buckingham, Eng.: Open University Press.

Jimenez, Emmanuel; Lockheed, Marlaine E.; and Paqueo, Vicente. 1991. "The Relative Efficiency of Private and Public Schools in Developing Countries." World Bank Research Observer 6 (2):205218.

Kitaev, Igor. 1999. Private Education in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Re-examination of Theories and Concepts Related to Its Development and Finance. Paris: International Institute for Educational Planning/ United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Molnar, Alex. 1996. Giving Kids the Business: The Commercialization of America's Schools. Boulder, CO: Westview.

Patrinos, Harry Anthony, and Lakshmanan Ariasingam. 1997. Decentralization of Education: Demand Side Financing. Washington, DC: World Bank.

PROBE Team. 1999. Public Report on Basic Education in India. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Tilak, Jandhyala. 1997. "Lessons from Cost-Recovery in Education." In Marketising Education and Health in Developing Countries- Miracle or Mirage, ed. Christopher Colclough. London: Cassell.

Tooley, James. 2000. Reclaiming Education. London: Cassell.

Tooley, James. 2001. The Global Education Industry, 2nd edition. London: Institute of Economic Affairs.

Weisbrod, B. A. 1962. External Benefits of Public Education Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

West, Edwin G. 1994. Education and the State, 3rd edition. Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund

World Bank. 1995. Priorities and Strategies for Education. A World Bank Review. Washington, DC: World Bank.

James Tooley

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the changing role of

since about 1990 the assumption that the public sector should be responsible for all aspects of education has been increasingly questioned

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in both developed and developing countries

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there have been doubts about the effectiveness and efficiency of public education. second

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there are doubts about the equity and accountability of public education

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Government and Education, The Changing Role of | Encyclopedia.com

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GOVERNMENT AND EDUCATION, THE CHANGING ROLE OF Since about 1990 the assumption that the public sector should be responsible for all aspects of education has been increasingly questioned, in both developed and developing countries, for four main reasons. First, there have been doubts about the effectiveness and efficiency of public education.

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"Not all online learning curricula are created equal. Here are some pros and cons to keep in mind when assessing whether online learning is right for your child:"
The article discusses pros such as flexibility and personalized learning.
The cons discussed are student engagement, motivation, and social and emotional growth. Also, online schools require parental commitment

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How to make sure your child doesn't crash

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State Testing Program
https://www.lowndes.k12.ga.us/departments/teaching_and_learning/state_testing_program

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Due to the lost sense of community parents seem less engaged and involved in their child's education. Rather than looking at education as a partnership, parents have begun to place more responsibility on teachers. There also seems to be a shift towards involvement in online communities which negatively impacts personal connections to the real world.

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Omega Elementary - We have noticed we have a large number of young parents and a large number of students who are being raised by grandparents. It is important for us as a school to find the middle ground and help both groups of parents help their students succeed.

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http://www.readingrockets.org/article/getting-parents-involved-schools
**This article mentions the disconnect between the school and parent. **

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-High accountability to the state encourages teachers to place more emphasis on rankings and test scores from students rather than focusing on the needs of the whole child and their family.
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ898886.pdf
This article shows evidence of how accountability leads to teacher burnout.

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(Northeast Middle School, Tifton)
In today's society, "Professional" Families are expected to raise "professional children".  Children who don't go to college are looked down upon.  Many of us went to school when there was a college prep tract and a vocational tract.  In today's society, many of those who pursue careers in a trade make more many than their college graduate counterparts. What would we have done without our electrical lineman after Hurricane Michael?

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If you want a reason to panic, other than global warming or unisex bathrooms, let me give you something that will, without a doubt, affect each and every person out there in the next decade.

There is a great shortage coming, not of .22 ammo, though that was terrible and luckily is over, but of something that each of us may need at one time or another in our lives.

Tradespeople. Yes, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, truck drivers. The days of apprentices and summer jobs that would lead to a life time career seem to be dwindling. When was the last time you saw a plumber with a young person that was learning how to do the job? When was the last time you tried to find someone to do a job, even a simple addition or adding an outlet, and were told, "Sorry, we are booked up right now."

This is not going to end. This in time to panic people - this is time to reach down deep and contact everyone you know and beg that those high school kids start to pay attention and to learn, not just computer skills, but real life skills. What if your pipes bust from the cold? What happens when your outlet stops working and you can't charge your smart phone? The time to panic is now.

Now on a different note, I plead with you young people, please don't waste four years or more of your lives on a college career that won't really take you anywhere. Is this harsh? Sure, but so is $100,000 college debt you will be trying to pay back while working as a cashier.

How about learning a trade first, then you can go to school to live out your dream as a British Lit major, plus you can make money to travel the world to understand what all those authors were writing about.

How will this great shortage affect you? Easy. In your pocket. If there are only three electricians instead of 20 you will pay higher prices - plain and simple. Supply and demand. If the framers hired to build your home learned from a u-tube video, you might want to buy a level.

We are a society of instant gratification and if people are no longer around to make sure the simple things, like cold air, hot water and toilets that flush, we are really going to be in a jam.

Remember knowledge is power, a tradesperson can't be replaced by a phone app, and it's time to worry or time to learn, it's your choice.

Dorothy Royal is the owner of Surf City Guns and Ammo, mother of two wonderful children, ringmaster of a herd of miniature ponies and an avid member of the Surf City Writers Group and Topsail Book Club.

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Dorothy Royal Special to the Topsail Advertiser

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Shortage of tradespeople will affect all

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If you want a reason to panic, other than global warming or unisex bathrooms, let me give you something that will, without a doubt, affect each and every person out there in the next decade.There is a great shortage coming, not of .22 ammo, though that was terrible and luckily is over, but of something that each of us may need at one time or another in our lives.Tradespeople.

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District wide book study of Teaching in the Fast Lane (Principals, Assistant Principals, and Instructional Coaches)  Will move to include the entire design team .

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- It's not a one size fits all educational system.
- Rise of Charter schools that are competing with public school system.
- CCRPI  does reflect a custom education. We must reach sub groups and individual student growth.

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Report Roundup

"Estimated Charter Public School Enrollment, 2016-17"

For the first time, the number of students enrolled in charter schools has surpassed 3 million nationwide, finds the latest annual report from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

The group, which advocates for charter schools at the federal and state levels, finds there are now more than 6,900 charter schools nationally, with around 3.1 million students attending them. That would mean that charter enrollment has nearly tripled in the last 10 years. However, it still makes up a small fraction of overall K-12 public school enrollment nationally-around 5 percent.

The report comes as the U.S. Senate has confirmed as Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, a strong supporter of expanding charter schools. As part of its report, the charter group surveyed a national sample of 1,000 parents of school-age children. It found 78 percent of parents with charter schools in their community and 73 percent of parents without charter schools favor opening one in their community. One in 10 of the parents said a charter would be their first choice of school.

Although more than 300 new charter schools opened in the fall of 2016, there were also 211 closures. The report says schools were closed for a number of reasons, including low enrollment, financial issues, and low academic performance.

So far this year, the states with the most charter school closures were California and Texas at 30, followed by Florida with 25, Ohio at 22, and Georgia with 17. Texas, California, and Florida also saw the most openings.

Published in Print: February 15, 2017, as Growth in Charter School Population

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For the first time, the number of students enrolled in charter schools has surpassed 3 million nationwide, finds the latest annual report from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

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Table 2: Effects on Teaching and Learning

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Table 2: Effects on Teaching and Learning

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The Most Important Benefits Of eLearning For Students

Today's learners want relevant, mobile, self-paced, and personalized content. This need is fulfilled with the online mode of learning; here, students can learn at their own comfort and requirement. Let's have an analytical look at the advantages of online learning.

1. Online Learning Accommodates Everyone's Needs

The online method of learning is best suited for everyone. This digital revolution has led to remarkable changes in how the content is accessed, consumed, discussed, and shared. Online educational courses can be taken up by office goers and housewives too, at the time that suits them. Depending on their availability and comfort, many people choose to learn at weekends or evenings.

2. Lectures Can Be Taken Any Number Of Times

Unlike classroom teaching, with online learning you can access the content an unlimited number of times. This is especially required at the time of revision when preparing for an exam. In traditional form of learning, if you can not attend the lecture, then you have to prepare for that topic on your own; in eLearning, you can attend the lectures whenever you want with ease.

3. Offers Access To Updated Content

A prime benefit of learning online is that it makes sure that you are in synchronization with modern learners. This enables the learner to access updated content whenever they want it.

4. Quick Delivery Of Lessons

eLearning is a way to provide quick delivery of lessons. As compared to traditional classroom teaching method, this mode has relatively quick delivery cycles. This indicates that the time required to learn is reduced to 25%-60% of what is required in traditional learning. There are some of the reasons why the learning time is reduced by eLearning:

Lessons starts quickly and also wrapped up in a single learning session. This enables training programs to easily roll out within a few weeks, or sometime even days.

Learners can define their own speed of learning instead of following the speed of the whole group.

Saves time as a student does not need to travel to the training venue. You can learn at the comfort of your own place.

Students can choose to study specific and relevant areas of the learning material without focusing on each and every area. For example, they can skip certain areas they do not want to learn.

5. Scalability

eLearning helps in creating and communicating new training, policies, concepts, and ideas. Whether it is for formal education or entertainment, eLearning is very quick way of learning!

6. Consistency

eLearning enables educators to get a higher degree of coverage to communicate the message in a consistent way for their target audience. This ensures that all learners receive the same type of training with this learning mode.

7. Reduced Costs

eLearning is cost effective as compared to traditional forms of learning. The reason for this price reduction is because learning through this mode happens quickly and easily. A lot of training time is reduced with respect to trainers, travel, course materials, and accommodation.

This cost effectiveness also helps in enhancing the profitability of an organization. Also, when you are studying at your own place, you are relieved from paying for travel expenses (e.g. accommodation) when training happens in another city/state and/or external learning materials.

8. Effectiveness

eLearning has a positive influence on an organization's profitability. It makes it easy to grasp the content and digest it:

It results in improved scores on certifications, tests, or other types of evaluation.

Higher number of students who achieve 'pass' or mastery' level.

Enhanced ability to learn and implement the new processes or knowledge at the workplace.

Help in retaining information for a longer time.

9. Less Impact On Environment

As eLearning is a paperless way of learning, it protects the environment to a lot of extent. As per a study done on eLearning courses, it has been found that distance-based learning programs consumed around 90% less power and generated 85% less amount of CO2 emissions as compared to traditional campus-based educational courses. With eLearning, there is no need to cut trees for obtaining paper. Thus, eLearning is a highly eco-friendly way of learning.

Conclusion

Due to the wide set of benefits it gives to students, eLearning has become quite popular and appreciated among students all over the world.

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Want to know about the advantages of taking an online course instead of following traditional learning methods? Check 9 Benefits Of eLearning For Students.

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Omega Elementary - The age difference in parents being older and wanting more for their children is causing a different parent style to emerge where parents bargain and negotiate to get their children to comply with their request. This rolls over to the the classroom and effects how teachers manage the climate of their classroom.

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For modern families, the adage "food is love" might well be more true put another way: food is power. Not long ago, Dr. Leonard Sax was at a restaurant and overheard a father say to his daughter, "Honey, could you please do me a favour? Could you please just try one bite of your green peas?" To many people, this would have sounded like decent or maybe even sophisticated parenting-gentle coaxing formed as a question to get the child to co-operate without threatening her autonomy or creating a scene.

To Sax, a Pennsylvania family physician and psychologist famous for writing about children's development, the situation epitomized something much worse: the recent collapse of parenting, which he says is at least partly to blame for kids becoming overweight, overmedicated, anxious and disrespectful of themselves and those around them.

FOR THE RECORD: Dr. Leonard Sax on the collapse of parenting.
You put your questions to the expert.

The restaurant scene is a prime example of how all too often adults defer to kids because they have relinquished parental authority and lost confidence in themselves. They're motivated by a desire to raise their children thoughtfully and respectfully. In theory, their intentions are good and their efforts impressive-moms and dads today are trying to build up their kids by giving them influence; they also want to please them and avoid conflict. In reality, parents are at risk of losing primacy over their children.

The dinner table is ground zero. "When parents begin to cede control to their kids, food choices are often the first thing to slide," Sax writes in his new book, The Collapse of Parenting: How We Hurt Our Kids When We Treat Them Like Grown-Ups. A rule such as "No dessert until you eat your broccoli" has recently morphed into "How about three bites of broccoli, and then you can have dessert?" The command has become a question capped with a bribe, as Sax puts it. Dinner at home requires polling kids on what they're willing to eat; the options might include roast chicken and potatoes or chicken fingers and fries. You can bet which they choose. So parents renegotiate: How about sweet potato fries?

MORE ON PARENTING: Gluten-free baby: When parents ignore science

Parents in North America have become prone to asking their children rather than telling them. "It's natural," says Gordon Neufeld, a prominent Vancouver psychologist cited in Sax's book. "Intuitively, we know that if we're coercive, we're going to get resistance." For trivial choices such as which colour of pants to wear, this approach is fine, he says. But "when we consult our children about issues that symbolize nurturance like food, we put them in the lead." That triggers an innate psychological response, and their survival instincts activate: "They don't feel taken care of and they start taking the alpha role."

So if the girl served green peas does eat one bite as her dad asked, Sax says, "she is likely to believe that she has done her father a favour and that now he owes her a favour in return." Food may be the first manifestation of the collapse of parenting, but many of the problems within families are a result of this type of role confusion. In this way, what happens over a meal is a metaphor for how uncomfortable parents have become in their position as the "alpha" or "pack leader" or "decider" of the family-the boss, the person in charge. The grown-up.

That discomfort comes from a loving place, of course. Many parents strive to raise their kids differently from how they grew up. They say, "I can't do the stuff I was raised with, it doesn't feel right. I don't want to yell, I don't want to spank," says Andrea Nair, a psychotherapist and parenting educator in London, Ont. "There's a massive parenting shift between our generation and the one before. We've come a long way from when you called your dad 'sir' and when he walked in the house you would jump out of 'his' chair."

The evolution hasn't been easy, though. "We're trying to pull off the emotion coaching but we haven't received the training," says Nair. "It's like teaching your kids to speak French while you're learning it in the textbook." Parents have made it a top priority that their kids feel heard and respected from a young age. They want to be emotionally available to them, and for their children to be able to express their own emotions. "Kids have permission to have tantrums now because [they're] learning how to manage feelings," says Nair. "Someone said to me, 'Are we seeing more tantrums now than we used to?' And I wonder."

Related video: Justin Trudeau on family time

Parents also want a democratic household where each family member has a say about what happens- Should we go outside now? Are we ready to have a bath? Would you like to have the party here? -and they cultivate independence and freedom of thought in their children. Strict obedience used to be praised; now it is seen as outdated and potentially dangerous. Compliance might mean your kid is a pushover, which no parent wants, especially as bullying has spread from the schoolyard to cyberspace.

There are broader influences shifting the parent-child dynamic as well. Over the past half-century or more, the public has come to scorn power imbalances based on gender, race, religion and sexual orientation, and historic gains have been achieved in the pursuit of equality. Even corporations are now replacing pyramidal management with "flat organization." In Western society, where equality for everyone has become a cultural objective and a constitutional right, children are treated like they are one more minority group to honour and empower. "Empower has come to seem virtuous," Sax says. "Empower everyone, why not?"

But many kids are actually overpowering their parents. That's the problem, say those working in child development. A functional family unit hinges on the one social construct that contemporary society has been working hard to dismantle: hierarchy. "You need a strong alpha presentation to inspire a child to trust you and depend upon you," says Neufeld of parents. "If we don't have enough natural power then we're hard-pressed to [make] the demand or [set] the limit" for children. "The parent always has to be honoured as the ultimate person," he continues. "We need to put parents back in the driver's seat."

Related: There's no such thing as a naturally picky eater

If not, the consequences can be far-reaching, starting with children's eating habits, which might contribute to them becoming overweight and obese. Like the father in the restaurant, many parents can't convince their kids to eat well. It doesn't help that junk food is sometimes a reward for acing a test or scoring a goal. The message: healthy food is for losers. On-demand snacking-in the car, at the mall, while out for a walk-appears to disrupt metabolism and circadian rhythms, as well as hormonal balance. That many parents carry with them a canteen of water and a stash of goodies wherever their kids go is further proof of how much they want to satisfy their children, literally and figuratively. "I don't want them to get hypoglycemic," one mom told Sax while lugging a cooler of snacks to her car for a 30-minute drive.

Contributing to the extraordinary weight gain among North American children in recent years is a dramatic decline in fitness. There is even a medical term for it, "deconditioning," which is described in the Collapse of Parenting as a euphemism for "out of shape." It has landed kids as young as 11 and 12 in the cardiologist's office complaining of heart-disease symptoms including chest tightness and shortness of breath. In fact, some hospitals in the U.S. have even opened pediatric preventive cardiology clinics.

While children are less active than ever, they do not, ironically, get enough rest. A common question Sax asks students is, "What's your favourite thing to do in your spare time, when you are by yourself with no one watching?" The most common answer in recent years: sleep. That's because children are too busy with school assignments and extracurricular activities to go to bed at a good hour, or because when they get to bed, they are on their cellphone or computer, or playing video games.
Related: Are we the worst generation of parents?
This chronic fatigue may be associated with the rise of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and prescription drug use among children. "Sleep deprivation mimics ADHD almost perfectly," writes Sax. In his experience as a doctor, insufficient sleep is one reason why kids are more likely to be diagnosed with the disorder. In general, "It is now easier to administer a pill prescribed by a board-certified physician, than to firmly instruct a child and impose consequences for bad behaviour." Stephen Camarata, a professor of hearing and speech sciences and psychiatry at Vanderbilt University in Nashville echoes that point: "Parents say, 'My child can't do this particular exercise, they're not paying attention,' therefore I have to identify them as having a clinical condition." A medical diagnosis might negate parental shortcomings or a child's misbehaviour. "It displaces that failure," he says.

Camarata worries that parents are asking too much of kids too soon, as he outlines in his latest book, The Intuitive Parent: Why the Best Thing For Your Child Is You. He points to the surge of books, toys and software marketed to parents of young children promising to accelerate learning. The ubiquitous metaphor that kids are information sponges has parents saturating them with educational exercises. "We're treating them like little hard drives," says Camarata, but "this idea of pushing children to the absolute max of their developmental norm doesn't give them time to reason and problem-solve. It actually undermines both self-confidence and fluid reasoning, or the ability to think."

Schools, too, have been focusing more on academic achievement than socialization. Sax documents how, 30 years ago, American students in kindergarten and Grade 1 learned "Fulghum's rules," which include tenets such as "Don't take things that aren't yours" and "Clean up your own mess" as well as "Share everything" and "Don't hit people." But since the 1980s, as other nations pulled ahead of the U.S. in scholastic performance, the primary objective of educators has become literacy and numeracy. In Canada too, says Neufeld, "we have lost our culture. Our society is far more concerned that you perform. Schools will always drift to outcome-based things."
Related reading: Inside your teenager's scary brain
That's partly why a "culture of disrespect" has sprouted in North America. As kids have become less attached to and influenced by the adults in their lives, same-age peers have come to matter more to them. It's a theme in Neufeld's book, Hold On to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers, co-authored by Dr. Gabor Maté. Young children "are not rational beings," says Neufeld. Part of growing up is testing boundaries; little ones, by their very nature, can't be relied on to hold each other accountable-nor should they.

"Kids are not born knowing right from wrong," says Sax, pointing to longitudinal studies showing that children who are left to discover right from wrong on their own are more likely to have negative outcomes in the future: "That child in their late 20s is much more likely to be anxious, depressed, less likely to be gainfully employed, less likely to be healthy, more likely to be addicted to drugs or alcohol. We now know this," he says. "Parents who are authoritative have better outcomes, and it's a larger effect than the effect of race, ethnicity, household income or IQ."

With stakes so high, authoritative parenting would seem imperative. But there is a psychological hurdle that people will have to overcome first, says Nair: "How to respect their child but also be the decider" of the family. Part of the challenge lies in the fact that parents don't want to fail-at nurturing and governing simultaneously -and they certainly don't want their children to fail in their personal development, in school and at social networking. These worries feed off each other in the minds of parents; that's why parents second-guess the way they speak to their kids, what they feed them, how they discipline them and what activities they permit.

This is all the more true for the growing number of parents who delayed having children until they were "ready" with a secure job, a good home and a dependable partner. "People purposely wait so they can nail it," says Bria Shantz, a 35-year-old mother of two in Vancouver. "That creates even more pressure. They want to get this perfect." Shantz is, in fact, the daughter of Neufeld, and she has called upon him for advice or reassurance. That Shantz, who has a leading child psychologist in her family, one who helped raise her, can still occasionally succumb to parental insecurity, says everything about its potency: "There's this slight panic. You want to do everything right," she says. "Nothing prepares you for how much you want it to go well."

Cathy Gulli gives voice to critics of a story gone viral:

So as soon as parents conceive, they begin amassing a library of books on how to deal with the fantastic chaos about to enter their lives in the form of a baby; the collection grows with each developmental stage. They subscribe to online newsletters and smartphone apps that alert them on milestones their children should reach by a certain age. From the outset, parents are tracking how quickly their child is growing, how much they are achieving. For every expert a parent consults by phone or in person, they're also checking in with the virtual wise man, Google. That almost never helps.

There is no parental concern too obscure not to have an online group devoted to it. Shantz is part of one focused on "baby-wearing" because she's trying to decide whether a "wrap" or a "ring sling" would be better for her nine-month-old. "It's the weirdest site to be on. You see posts and you feel guilty because [parents] are carrying their babies everywhere, doing all these things, having this connection." And yet Shantz hasn't been able to delete herself from the group, even though she keeps meaning to; nor has she been able to pick between a wrap or sling.

That pull and push moms and dads feel-between caring about how other parents are raising their kids while rejecting the constant comparisons-defines this generation of parents for better and worse. Katie Hurley, a psychotherapist in Los Angeles and author of The Happy Kid Handbook: How to Raise Joyful Children in a Stressful World, says, "We've been conditioned to question ourselves-to constantly look for information to make sure we're doing it right. Because of that, parents are in a state of learned helplessness."

So what are people supposed to do? The answer is so basic that at first it might seem unsatisfying: For starters, says Hurley, realize that "nobody knows what they're doing when they leave the hospital with an infant. Every parent learns by trial and error"-every year of their child's life, and with every child they raise. That's as true today as it ever was, and parents who recognize this will shed some guilt and anxiety. Building on this idea, Nair says that parents must "have a higher tolerance for things not going well." How they recover from their own occasional mistake, outburst, loss of patience or bad call may say more to a child than how they are in happy times. "We're missing that opportunity, which is how learning works," she says. "That's how we become more confident."

A significant portion of Sax's book is devoted to the importance of parents modelling traits they want to encourage in their children. Chief among them, he says, should be humility and conscientiousness-which run counter to inflating a child's self-esteem and sense of entitlement. To that end, he encourages parents to fortify their adult relationships so they are not overly concerned with pleasing their kids as a way of satisfying their own need for affection. Neufeld also urges parents, including his own adult children, to establish a network of surrogate caregivers-relatives, neighbours, daycare workers-who will not undermine their authority but back them up when they need help.

And invariably, they will. "Parenting is awfully frustrating and often a lonely place," says Neufeld, especially when a child misbehaves. In those moments, he recommends parents reassure kids that their relationship isn't broken. "When parents realize that they are their children's best bet, it challenges them to their own maturity." It gives them the confidence that they know what's good for their kids, and that they should stand up to them-this is, in fact, an act of love required of parents. They become, in effect, the grown-ups their children need.

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The collapse of parenting: Why it's time for parents to grow up

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For modern families, the adage "food is love" might well be more true put another way: food is power. Not long ago, Dr. Leonard Sax was at a restaurant and overheard a father say to his daughter, "Honey, could you please do me a favour?

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Table 3- Effects on YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT

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Table 3- Effects on YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT

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As a district, we have used the 4 guiding questions to drive the discussion in PLCs. The discussion in PLCs about the students affect the types of professional learning that is provided to teachers based on what the students need.
The ways that funds are used at the district level (i.e. EIP teachers, adding a teacher and/or paraprofessional, Special Education) is based on the students and their levels.

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Impact/Affect on District-
Pine Grove Middle (Lowndes)
1)Parents not living in the student's household, but still maintain parental rights have access to grades, attendance, connecting with teachers, paying school/meal fees, etc via web-based databases like Infinite Campus.
https://pgm.lowndes.k12.ga.us/families
https://www.lowndes.k12.ga.us/for_families
2) The Rise of Single Parent Households: Effects, Risks, & Available Assistance https://online.aurora.edu/single-parent-households/
3) Our school is also impacted by military families where one or more caregivers may be deployed:
http://valdostatoday.com/news-2/local/2018/10/military-mom-comes-home-surprises-son-at-school/

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Table 3- Effects on TEACHING AND LEARNING

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Table 3- Effects on TEACHING AND LEARNING

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In teaching and learning, we notice an increase flexible seating, giving students more choice and designing work based on their motives and modalities, more self directed choice, an increase in data driven instruction and an increase in discussing each child individually in PLCS to extend and remediate.

On the state level decisions are made that allow every student to have a choice of what type of high school diploma they are interested in attaining. Students no longer have to get a traditional "one size fits all" high school diploma. They are able to choose their track and choose path.

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1. The effect on society and culture conditions individuals to be the most connected in a virtual world, but the least connected in the real world. We do not have true relationships and close bonds with our neighbors and communities.

2. The effect on teaching and learning includes teachers trying to implement lessons using technology, but students begin to lose interest because of over-saturation in technology. Students are too attached to their cell phones and find it difficult to disconnect from their social world and focus on lessons.

3. The example within our district involves high school age students prefer technology use to be interactive and competitive among peers versus isolated practice.

An Epidemic of Loneliness:
https://goo.gl/s4gY5A

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With the advent of the information age vs the industrial age, we are seeing a devaluation in the importance of community. No longer are the schools considered to be the hub of our communities and no longer are face to face interactions considered to be relevant or important.

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When I was growing up, I lived on a street where we knew all the neighbors. I played with all the kids, and the adults would socialize with each other. It was normal. We'd have pool parties with them and we would look out for each other's houses or get their mail if they went on vacation.

But the neighborhood I live in now is nothing like that. I know some of my neighbors, but I was really only good friends with one of them. And unfortunately, they moved to North Carolina a couple of years ago. I did have another next door neighbor that I would socialize with, but he also moved.

Granted, I live by an Air Force base, so that doesn't help. We constantly have families coming and going throughout our neighborhood. And I really feel bad for my kids, especially my oldest, because so many of his friends are military kids and end up moving away. I know it's difficult for him.

But even though my neighborhood maybe be the extreme, I know there are other neighborhoods out there where the people are very friendly and all know each other, which would be the other extreme. I think most people's communities are somewhere in the middle.

For example, one of my sisters has lived in the same house for 14 years. And until about 8 years ago, she didn't really talk to any of her neighbors either. But when their next door neighbors moved in, they did become friends. My point here is that her neighborhood isn't transitory like mine - it's actually a highly desirable school system and people move in and never leave. So it's interesting that even on her street, not many people socialize with each other.

I can't speak for all neighborhoods, and I might be wrong, but it sometimes seems like we're losing our sense of community. I mean, when was the last time you went to bring cookies and introduce yourself to the new neighbor who just moved in? Or went to ask to borrow a cup of sugar instead of running out to the grocery store instead? I'm sure people still do it, but I feel like that doesn't happen much anymore.

A long time ago, people were tribal. As the saying goes, "it takes a tribe to raise a child." There was some real truth to that. It means that people needed to band together and help each other (and I believe we still do). We need to have connection, not isolation. And while most people don't live in tribes any more (at least not in this part of the world), I think our basic human need for connection and community hasn't gone away. It's just not being satisfied as well anymore.

And it goes beyond just physical neighborhoods. While I think technology has enhanced our lives in many ways, I think that in other ways, it has made it worse. Yes, Facebook connects us to our long-lost friends from grade school. But does it disconnect us from the people we actually have in our everyday life? Do you tend to text or write on your sibling's Facebook wall instead of calling or getting together in person? I know a lot of people who do that.

And if you know a teenager, you've probably witnessed a time (or many times) where they sit around with a group of friends and just look at their phones. I don't let my kids do this, because why bother getting together with a friend if you're not going to actually interact with them?

And then you have families who go out to eat at restaurants, but they are all looking into their phones (or iPads for smaller children) and not talking to each other. If you haven't noticed this, take a look around the next time you go out to eat somewhere.

These days, it seems like we're moving farther and farther away from each other in an emotional way. Instead of loving your neighbor just because they are your neighbor, I've even read some things about how some people judge their neighbors based on how well they keep up their house or even if they " go green" or not. Why do we care what our neighbors do as long as they are nice and supportive?

I'm not trying to bash technology. Because that's not the problem. The problem is how humans use technology. Just because you have your phone with you doesn't mean that you have to look at it when you are with your family, friends, or neighbors. I think when people do that, it breaks down that connection that is being lost.

So I encourage you to look at your habits. Try to go out of your way to go introduce yourself to a neighbor you don't know yet. Set limits for your family for their technology usage. Be self-aware. Understand that your actions can have negative consequences to your relationships if you're not careful.

I have faith that we can all stay connected as human beings. We just need to hold ourselves accountable and do the right thing so we don't lose our sense of community.

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The Value Of Community: Are We Losing It?

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When I was growing up, I lived on a street where we knew all the neighbors. I played with all the kids, and the adults would socialize with each other. It was normal. We'd have pool parties with them and we would look out for each other's houses or get their mail if they went on vacation.

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Mass customization can be seen in society with the idea that everyone wants to be an individual. For example, you can't just buy Nikes anymore, you must customize your own to be cool or trendy. When it comes to fashion, everyone wants to look different than everyone else.

As it pertains to schools, there are a lot more choices. Having the power to choose between charter schools, magnet school, Christian schools, and having the power to choose between them based on what YOU SPECIFICALLY WANT has become the status quo. These schools have a "thing" to market, and a way to make you feel like you need it because it was designed just for you.

In the job field, the cool thing is to do a job that no one else exactly does. You can do "a little bit of this, a little bit of that." ex. content developer/editor There is a shift away from standardized work. Even in the work force, everyone wants to be an individual.

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District:Lowndes County Mission,, Vision, Values, and Guiding Principles
https://www.lowndes.k12.ga.us/system_information/mission__vision__values__and_guiding_principles
"The purpose of the school is to ensure that each student develops the capacity to think, reason, and use one's mind well. Each student must develop those understandings, skills, and habits of the mind which make it possible to participate fully in the life of a perse society operating in the context of an information-based global economy. "

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Table 16- Effect of Teaching and Learning

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Table 16- Effect of Teaching and Learning

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http://www.gpee.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/GPEE_Top_Ten_Issues_2018_R3.pdf

This link addresses 10 major education issues that Georgia faces in 2018. For each issue, the authors present action steps for Georgia.
The government  on a level can come in and provide assistance for struggling schools.   Schools also have to report to the state in a variety of ways.  For example, the link states, Georgia’s ESSA plan is built around cultivating the whole child. Some reporting includes accounting for attendance, school climate, and investing in Positive Behavior Interventions, and it also requires supports within each district and every school.  These are just a few examples listed in the article. These interventions on state level have positive and negative affects on student learning. It provides accountability for educators, but it also causes our focus to shift to worrying about our scores. We should be focusing on teaching our students and fostering a love for learning.

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Tift County , G.O. Bailey & J.T. Reddick Elementary School

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Table 2- Social Culture
https://ed.lehigh.edu/theory-to-practice/2017/educational-competition

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Tift County, Northside Elementary

1. Effect on Culture- The "Traditional " Family has been redefined.

2. Effect on Teaching and Learning- Single parent households have a increased poverty rate and decreased student achievement. At this point, teachers must increase their involvement in the role as a parent.  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4508674/

3. District example- Tift County Schools are fortunate to participate in a Parent Involvement Program which houses a parent resource center and a parent liaison at each primary school.  Liaisons play a major part in our support system for parents and bridge the gap between the home and school environment.

https://www.tiftschools.com/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=245308&type=d&pREC_ID=585393