The New Journalism on Latino Children project  offers a fresh perspective on  reporting and research on Latino families and schools. It is a collaboration between the National Education Writers Association and the National Panel on Latino Children and Schooling, based at Berkeleyâ??s Institute of Human Development. This report focuses on Latino high school students.

Helps address middle and high school classroom teachersâ??, administratorsâ??, and parentsâ?? immediate need for basic information about how to build adolescentsâ?? reading and writing skills. This report summarizes some of the current literature on adolescent literacy research and practice, and suggests some methods of building adolescent reading and writing skills in the classroom; to the extent possible, recommendations are evidence-based.
Subject(s): Adolescents, Content area teaching, Educational Methods, Literacy, Reading instruction, Reports, Teaching methods
Audience(s): Administrators, High School Teachers, Middle School Teachers, Parents and Families, Policymakers, Researchers

The Depression in the Nation's Teen Labor Market and the 2009 Summer Job Outlook: The Case for A Massive New Youth Workforce Development Response in All Job Sectors,

The nation's teens (16-19) and young adults (20-29 years old) have borne the brunt of the employment losses in the current recession, and teens and many young adults (20-24) fared quite poorly in the labor market from 2001-2008 An unprecedented "age twist" in employment rates took place in the nation over the past 8 years with older workers (55+) improving their employment rates strongly while teens and 20-24 year old males reached new post-World War II lows.3 The substantial growth in the labor market problems of the nation's teens over the past nine years can be characterized as a "labor market depression" rather than simply as a recession. This research paper is designed to briefly illustrate the steep declines in teen employment rates over the 2000-2009 period, to highlight the severe deterioration in the summer job market for teens between 2000-2008, to project the employment outlook for teens this summer, including the potential impacts of the ARRA youth jobs stimulus program, and to lay out alternative employment scenarios for the nation's teens in the years ahead, the job creation that will be needed to achieve these alternative teen labor market outcomes, and the types of public policies that will be required to make these youth employment outcomes possible.

Andrew Sum, Joseph McLaughlin, Sheila Palma, Ishwar Khatiwada, Center for Labor Market Studies, Northeastern University Boston, Massachusetts - June 2009

The Collapse of the Nation's Male Teen and Young Adult Labor Market, 2000-2009: The Lost Generation of Young Male Workers, Andrew Sum, Joseph McLaughlin, Sheila Palma, Center for Labor Market Studies, Northeastern University.

The nationâ??s male teens (16-19) have experienced a massive depression in their labor market conditions since 2000. In the June 2009 Employment Situation, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the employment rate of the nationâ??s male teens had fallen to 27.6%, the lowest employment rate by far in the month of June at any time since 1948 (Chart 2). At no time in the countryâ??s post-World War II history had the June employment rate of male teens ever fallen below 30% and at no time prior to June 2002 had the June employment rate of male teens fallen below 40%. In June of 2000, 46% of the nationâ??s male teens were employed as were 50% of those near the peak of the cyclical boom in June 1989 and 54% of those in June 1978 when federal job creation programs for teens under the CETA legislation, the Youth Employment and Demonstration Projects Act of 1977, and CETA public service employment programs were at their peak enrollment levels.6 The employment rate of male teens in June 2009 was barely one half as high as it was in June 1978 and close to 20 percentage points below its value in June 2000. This truly constitutes a labor market depression for male teens in the U.S.

This brief illuminates key policy and practice implications of the middle grades playing a stronger role in achieving our national goal of graduating all students from high school prepared for college or career and civic life. The brief is based on more than a decade of research and development work at the Center for the Social Organization of Schools at Johns Hopkins University. It also draws on direct field experience in more than 30 middle schools implementing comprehensive reform and a longstanding collaboration with the Philadelphia Education Fund.

This report by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford University found that there is a wide variance in the quality of the nation's several thousand charter schools with, in the aggregate, students in charter schools not faring as well as students in traditional public schools. The report found that the academic success of students in charter schools was affected by the individual state policy environment. This report is the first detailed national assessment of charter school impacts since its longitudinal, student-level analysis covers more than 70 percent of the nation's students attending charter schools. The peer-reviewed analysis looks at student achievement growth on state achievement tests in both reading and math with controls for student demographics and eligibility for program support such as free or reduced-price lunch and special education. The analysis includes the most current student achievement data from 15 states (AR, AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, IL, LA, MN, MO, NC, NM, OH, TX) and the District of Columbia and gauges whether students who attend charter schools fare better than if they would have attended a traditional public school. This link enables access to the executive summary, full report, technical appendix and press release.

This report has documented a mix of hopeful views and challenging statistics concerning how, and how well, those on the front lines of America's schools -- teachers and principals -- understand the nation's high school dropout crisis. Teachers and administrators in public high schools recognize there is a dropout problem, know they are confronted with daunting challenges in classrooms and in schools, and express strong support for reforms to address high dropout rates. Yet, less than one-third of teachers believe that schools should expect all students to meet high academic standards, graduate with the skills to do college-level work, and provide extra support to struggling students to help them meet those standards.

As the focus on school improvement at a state education agency moves from mostly a compliance approach to playing a greater role in capacity building, the agency's leadership needs to rethink student and learning supports. That is the focus of this report. Given that almost half of the chief state school officers have assumed their position in the last three years, major changes are underway across the country. We hope the content of this report can help focus agency leadership on the importance of fashioning systemic changes that recognize the primary and essential role a system of learning supports can play in school improvement policy and practice. We begin with a look at how state education agencies currently conceive and organize efforts to guide and support district and school approaches to addressing external as well as internal barriers to learning. Then, we explore recommendations for state education agencies to expand school improvement policy, frame intervention, and rework operational infrastructure. We conclude by delineating specific implications for revising school improvement guidance.