Boarding Schools for Girls

A March 20 article by Whittier Daily News staff writer Brian Charles reports that the desire to attend college is now more common among female student than among their male counterparts:

According to a study by the Center for Education Policy, 85 percent of girls in grades three through 12 said they planned to attend college, while 77 of boys planned to attend college.

Girl were also 13 percent more likely to see a four-year college in their future than boys, and 10 percent more likely to do more than the bare minimum amount of work to pass a class.

"We have closed the attitudinal gap between boys and girls," said Kathy Onoye, chief executive officer for elementary education at Pasadena Unified School District. "We were very aware 20 years ago about the gap in math, for instance, and we've closed that gap."

Labels: colleges, education, school

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It is okay to encourage students to go to college even if they don't show promise academically, according to a new study in the American Sociological Review. Children who do not get into college or complete their degrees do not suffer mental health damage if encouraged to do so.

• Professors John Reynolds and Charlie Baird found that the percentage of high school seniors who want to get college degrees had doubled compared to the percentage of people who had earned degrees between 1976 and 2000.
  
• This created an effect they called "ambition inflation."
  
• In order to study this effect, the researchers used data on 4300 participants in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, comparing symptoms of depression among those did and those who did not achieve their educational goals.
  
• There was little difference between the two groups.

However, students with lower levels of education showed depression relating to lower attainment, but not from feelings of failure. Many young people believe that they can go back and earn degrees in their 30's or even later.

"Aiming high and failing has consequences to mental health, while trying may lead to higher achievements and the mental and material benefits that go along with achievements," Dr. Reynolds said. "Young adults with college expectations may visualize having their entire lives to realize their educational plans."

Labels: colleges, education

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Sun-Life Financial has announced that it is launching a program call Sun Life Rising Star to help at-risk youth who are committed to furthering their education. The program will award over $1 million to organizations and students this year.

"The Sun-Life Rising Start Awards program is being launched initially as a pilot in six major U.S. cities: Detroit, San Diego, New York, Seattle, Miami/South Florida, and Boston.

In each city, up to three nonprofit organizations and three students will be awarded grants/scholarships, with the exception of Miami/South Florida, where four nonprofits and four students will be selected." [Source: Business Wire]

Nonprofits that are recognized for their commitment to supporting education among at-risk youth will receive $50,000 grants. Each of those organizations must then nominate a student who will receive a $5,000 scholarship.

Labels: education, at-risk youth, grants

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A Dec. 11 article on the website of Ghanian radio station Peace FM reported that girls in the Ghana's Nanumba District have organized in an effort to gain greater access to educational opportunities:

A girls club called the Nanumba Stop Violence Against Girls, has called for some interventions by government and stakeholders to overcome some of the challenges confronting girls in school.

This includes more female teachers in the Nunumba District to serve as role models and mentors to inspire them for more laurels in life. &

The girls said inadequate female teachers in schools affected their academic performances because they lacked role models and mentors to empower them.

They appealed to Teacher Training Colleges to consciously use favourable admission quota for prospective female students to increase the intake of female students.

The girls added that district assemblies should sponsor more girls into teacher training colleges.

The government and the Ghana Education Service (GES) should also provide enough resources and incentives in schools at all deprive areas to attract female teachers to accept postings to those areas.

Labels: education, international, ghana, girls

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During World War II, Rosie the Riveter was an iconic image that represented the strength and abilities of women who were supporting the war effort by working in previously male-dominated workplaces such as factories.

Sixty-five years later, Rosie is still serving as a symbol of female empowerment, this time as the inspiration for a charter school for girls in Southern California. Bob Pool of the Los Angeles Times described the innovative objective of Rosie the Riveter High in a Dec. 3 article:

The Long Beach charter school was created in 2007 to help prepare teenage girls for careers as welders, plumbers, carpenters, electricians and other trades.

Today, its 50-member student body includes girls and boys, but its organizers still attempt to break down barriers for women seeking careers in what largely remains a man's world.

"It's about trying to change the way society looks at women," said Lynn Shaw, who helped create Rosie the Riveter High. "We just feel that women should have an equal opportunity." ...

"The idea had been to call the school Youth Opportunity Charter High School or something like that," Shaw said. "But that sounded really boring."

The group's executive director, Alexandra Torres Galancid, suggested that they name it after Rosie instead.

Labels: education, charter school, career

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An Aug. 26 editorial in The Business Times argues that educating girls and women should be part of a global strategy to increase quality of life and decrease problems such as terrorism, human trafficking, and poverty:

The oppression of women is not just a women's issue; it's a stability issue, a security issue and an equity issue, says U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

It is also a human rights and economic issue, we might add. It has been observed by counter-terrorism experts that countries that nurture terrorist groups tend to be the same societies that marginalise women. So, helping to educate and raise the status of women in those societies would be of global security interest.

Meanwhile, women also represent the best hope for fighting global poverty. ... Larry Summers, when he was World Bank chief economist, wrote that "investment in girls' education may well be the highest-return investment available in the developing world."

A member of the Singapore Press Holdings group, The Business Times describes itself as "as South-east Asia's leading business daily, [which] brings to its readers each day a comprehensive and concise package of corporate, financial, economic and political news, analysis and commentary."

Labels: education, international, girls

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A decades-old Montana program that helps teen mothers complete their education may be forced to close due to financial difficulties that are affecting the county's public school system.

A June 3 article by Michael Moore of The Missoulian News Online reported on the dire straits facing Sentinel High School's "Young Family" program:

The program, which has been around since the early 1980s, is now threatened by the $1 million budget shortfall in the Missoula County Public Schools.

"We've been going for 25 years, and it would be a tragedy for the girls and their children if we lost it," said Lois Reimers, the Sentinel teacher who directs the program.

The program provides licensed day care for the children of teens, and that's a savior for young mothers, six of whom are now using the program. The children are on campus, so the moms can see them during the day without missing classes.

Amy Rober, who works for a service that provides home learning opportunities for pregnant teens and teen mothers, told The Missoulian that the dropout rate for pregnant high school students is about 80 percent.

Teen pregnancy remains a cause of great concern in the United States, with teen parents facing a number of daunting educational, financial, and developmental challenges.

Labels: education, pregnancy, teenagers

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MEI Futures Academy, a residential charter school for teenage mothers in Washington, D.C., has been ordered to close because of chronic truancy, curriculum problems, and questions about the quality of services that were provided for special education students.

The school, which had been in operation for the past two years, provided both boarding and day school services to young mothers (ages 14 to 21), as well as kindergarten and pre-K programs for students' children who were between the ages of three and five.

According to an April 21 article by Bill Turque on the Washington Post's "DC Wire" blog, the D.C. Public Charter School Board claimed that MEI Futures Academy was in "material violation" of its operating agreement:

MEI had struggled to establish an acceptable curriculum, officials said, adding that none of its high school students were on track for a diploma. Last year, not one of the 15 tenth graders who took the DC-CAS standardized test achieved proficiency levels in either reading or math. Enrollment has dwindled to just 31 students from 66 in fall 2007.

Chronic truancy was an especially serious issue. An unannounced audit earlier this year showed that 17 of the 31 students were not there.

Charter schools such as MEI are not the only option for teen mothers who are struggling to complete their education. For example, at Youth Care, Inc., a private therapeutic boarding school in Draper, Utah, students can enroll in a unique teen pregnancy program that features counseling, behavior therapy, academics, and parenting education.

Labels: education, pregnancy, parenting, teenagers, girls

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