“Pursuing a Culture of Calm”

Chicago Public Radio, October 14, 2009

Youth violence in Chicago has grabbed local and national headlines the past several weeks, following the beating death of 16-year-old Derrion Albert. None of the Chicago Public Schools students killed last year or this year died IN school. But CEO Ron Huberman is spending $30 million in education stimulus funds to tackle youth violence. Part of his plan calls for creating a "culture of calm" inside 38 high schools.

 October 14, 2009, PRNewswire

NEW YORK and MENLO PARK, Calif., Oct. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Low-income children were better prepared for success in kindergarten when their preschool teachers incorporated educational video and games from public media, according to a new study. The study, conducted by Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) and SRI International, was commissioned by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to evaluate video and interactive games from the Ready to Learn initiative, which creates educational programming and outreach activities for local public television stations and their communities.

By Sam Dillon, New York Times, October 14, 2009

Scores on the most important nationwide math test increased only marginally for eighth graders and not at all for fourth graders, continuing a six-year trend of sluggish results that suggest the nation will not come close to bringing all children to proficiency by 2014, a central goal of the Bush-era federal education law, No Child Left Behind.

By Warren Buckleitner, New York Times, October 7, 2009

If you still need convincing that the digital future has arrived, consider this: By the time you finish this article, at least 10 more hours of new video will be uploaded to YouTube. Combine this with a young child’s curiosity and pocket-size video players, and you get the perfect recipe for parental distress. After all, what youngster would not want a million channels of TV?