Proposed Project Ideas

[CBNO/MAC-Education]

Please post a reply with your suggested ideas for our group project!

[Pam]

My idea: To create a educational or internship program (similar to
dual enrollment) where students who attend community college and 4
year universities can learn technical skills on how to meet future job
demands and community service.

On Oct 5, 10:05 am, "CBNO/MAC-Education" <cbnomac-

[gina swanson]

Not a new idea but, I was thinking of a book drive/ library rebuilding project..

 

Project:

Each of us would commit to gathering 5-10 age-appropriate books (either from your personal library, you can purchase them or--for you real go-getters you can solicit books from bookstores/neighbors...) to help rebuild/fortify a public school library.

 

School selection:

 

There are two ways to go about this.

 

We could identify a school with the most need where the library is extremely limited and kids don't really have a chance to check out books  to be beneficiary. Being a pragmatist however, I am also not sure if this would be a school where kids would be the most excited about the new books...

 

or

 

We could identify a school that has had some academic success/growth but still has a crappy library. This may be a place where the kids are more likely to check out books and the donation perhaps would be put to better use

 

or

 

We could split the donation and do both--i guess that's three ways to go about this

 

 

My thought is that with so many of us in the group this could amount to a substantial donation to help encourage wonders of reading.

 

Extra credit:

 

If we wanted to take this a step further...we could also have "donation day" be a storytime event and read to the kids...  

 

g

[Angela Daliet, SOSNOLA]

Here's my idea though it isn't completely defined because I believe
the project should develop around a goal then expand organically from
a solid collaboration of participants.

THE PROBLEM being addressed to improve educational outcomes for public
school students in New Orleans:
*LACK OF PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT (with "parent" broadly defined)

THE SOLUTION:
*Work with a school's or set of schools' (like UNO's Charter Network
for example) administration, parents, teachers and students (if
applicable for older children) to design and implement a "MODEL
PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT POLICY" based on best practices with community
and others' input.

THE REASON to address this particular problem:
*Decades of research show when parents are involved in their child's
education, students have generally have higher grades, test scores,
and graduation rates; increased self-esteem, motivation and school
attendance rates; lower rates of suspension; decreased use of drugs
and alcohol; and fewer instances of violent behavior.
*Public schools in New Orleans have the lowest rates of parental
involvement in the state which ranks quite low nationally already
*Proliferation of charter schools within their infancy (which have
more autonomy and control over policies and practices of their own
school); the lack of central district supports; budget constraints;
and overwhelming level of urgent school needs upon its governing
entities has proven to be quite preventative for local schools to
focus on establishing a successful model to reverse these trends.
*Adding to this, there is some distrust and lack of resources that
often serves as a barrier to many parents' participation in their
children's schooling (not to mention the fact that our city has failed
to educate generations of New Orleanians which also serve as such
barriers).

WHAT THIS PROJECT WOULD HELP RESOLVE:
*Increase student academic achievement as described above that
research has proven.
*Overcome the barriers discussed above by increasing parents' feelings
of ownership in their school resulting in increased support of
school and improving parents' deep-seated desire to help their
children succeed academically, regardless of their differences in
socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, and cultural background.

****************
Here are my $0.02 about working on a project with a student, set of
students, school, or set of schools that may or may not improve the
academic success of a few. That type of project, with such a
significant group of leaders, both quantitatively and qualitatively,
that doesn't address sustainability or attempt to help resolve some
issues systemically, would be remiss of our group.

Also, I am very familiar with New Orleans Outreach & the Executive
Director, Claudia Barker, and for that matter, there are several other
such programs as this like Communities In Schools NOLA, Start The
Adventure In Reading (STAIR), LEH Prime Time Tutoring, etc. These are
GREAT, HIGH-QUALITY programs and I strongly suggest that everyone get
involved individually with their work and tell some friends, however,
I don't feel like we are being very innovative or strategic in
positively affecting public schools in New Orleans for the long term.

I am very teamwork oriented and will go with what the team designs.

In partnership,
Angela



*On Oct 5, 10:05 am, "CBNO/MAC-Education" <cbnomac-