Loading
AmeriCorps Montgomery

"locals serving locals for 23 years."

Posts by Paul Costello1

The young activists shaking up the kids’ online safety debate

September 11, 2023 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
Off

By Cristiano Lima

When lawmakers began investigating the impact of social media on kids in 2021, Zamaan Qureshi was enthralled.

Since middle school he’d watched his friends struggle with eating disorders, anxiety and depression, issues he said were “exacerbated” by platforms like Snapchat and Instagram.Tech is not your friend. We are. Sign up for The Tech Friend newsletter.

Qureshi’s longtime concerns were thrust into the national spotlight when Meta whistleblower Frances Haugen released documents linking Instagram to teen mental health problems. But as the revelations triggered a wave of bills to expand guardrails for children online, he grew frustrated at who appeared missing from the debate: young people, like himself, who’d experienced the technology from an early age.

“There was little to no conversation about young people and … what they thought should be done,” said Qureshi, 21, a rising senior at American University.

So last year, Qureshi and a coalition of students formed Design It For Us, an advocacy group intended to bring the perspectives of young people to the forefront of the debate about online safety.

They are part of a growing constellation of youth advocacy and activist organizations demanding a say as officials consider new rules to govern kids’ activity online.

The slew of federal and state proposals has served as a rallying cry to a cohort of activists looking to shape laws that may transform how their generation interacts with technology. As policymakers consider substantial shifts to the laws overseeing kids online, including measures at the federal and state level that ban children under 13 from accessing social media and require those younger than 18 to get parental consent to log on, the young advocates — some still in their teens — have been quick to engage.

Now, youth activists have become a formidable lobbying force in capitals across the nation. Youth groups are meeting with top decision-makers, garnering support from the White House and British royalty and affecting legislative proposals, including persuading federal lawmakers to scale back parental control measures in one major bill.

“The tides definitely are turning,” said Sneha Revanur, 18, another member of Design It For Us.

Yet this prominence doesn’t necessarily translate to influence. Many activists said their biggestchallenge is ensuring that policymakers take their input seriously.

“We want to be seen as meaningful collaborators, and not just a token seat at the table,” Qureshi said.

In Washington, D.C., Design It For Us has taken part in dozens of meetings with House and Senate leaders, White House officials and other advocates. In February, the group made its debut testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“We cannot wait another year, we cannot wait another month, another week or another day to begin to protect the next generation,” Emma Lembke, 20, who co-founded the organization with Qureshi, said in her testimony.

Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), who chairs the panel and met with the group again in July, said that Lembke “provided powerful testimony” and that their meetings were one of “many conversations that I’ve had with young folks demonstrating the next generation’s call for change.”

Revanur said policymakers often put too much stock in technical or political expertise and not enough in digital natives’ lifetime of experience and understanding of technology’s potential for harm.

“There’s so much emphasis on a specific set of credentials: having a PhD in computer science or having spent years working on the Hill,” said Revanur, a rising sophomore at Williams College. “It diminishes the importance of the credentials that youth have, which is the credential of lived experience.”

Revanur, who founded the youth-led group Encode Justice, which focuses on artificial intelligence, has met with officials at the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), urging them to factor in concerns about how AI could be used for school surveillance as they drafted a voluntary AI bill of rights.

The office’s former acting director, Alondra Nelson, who led the initiative, said Encode Justice brought policy issues “to life” by describing both real and imagined harms — from “facial recognition cameras in their school hallways [to] the very real anxiety that the prospect of persistent surveillance caused them.”

In July, Vice President Harris invited Revanur to speak at a roundtable on AI with civil rights and advocacy group leaders, a moment the youth activist called “a pretty significant turning point” in “increasing legitimization of youth voices in the space.”

An honor to join @VP (alongside @WHOSTP & @neeratanden) for an AI roundtable with civil society leaders. Never before has a young person had a voice in federal AI policy!

We discussed ChatGPT in the classroom, algorithms & youth mental health, risks from advanced AI, & more. pic.twitter.com/MI0KeONOHG— Sneha Revanur (@sneharevanur) July 18, 2023

There are already signs that those in power are heeding their calls.Share this articleShare

Sam Hiner, 20, started college during the covid-19 pandemic and said that social media hurt his productivity and ability to socialize on campus.

“It’s easier to scroll on your phone in your dorm than it is to go out because you get that guaranteed dopamine,” said Hiner, a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Hiner, who in high school co-founded a youth-oriented policy group, worked with lawmakers and children’s safety groups to introduce state legislation prohibiting platforms from using minors’ data to algorithmically target them with content.

He said he held more than 100 meetings with state legislators, advocates and industry leaders as he pushed for a bill to tackle the issue. The state bill, the Social Media Algorithmic Control in Information Technology Act, now has more than 60 sponsors.

Last month, Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, awarded Hiner’s group, Design It For Us and others grants ranging from $25,000 to $200,000 for their advocacy as part of the newly launched Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund. Hiner said he received a surprise call from the royals minutes after learning about the grant.

“As a young person who … has a bit of a chip on my shoulder from feeling excluded from the process traditionally, getting that … buy-in from some of the most influential people in the world was really cool,” he said.

Youth activists’ lobbying efforts are also bearing fruit in Washington.

This summer, Design It For Us led a week of action calling on senators to take up a bill to expand existing federal privacy protections for younger users, the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act, and another measure to create a legal obligation for tech platforms to prevent harms to kids, the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA).

Great to meet young activists with @DesignItForUs this afternoon.@JudiciaryDems are on a mission to protect kids online. These youth advocates have experienced the ills of social media firsthand.

I’m grateful for their efforts, turning their experience into change. pic.twitter.com/zfG2F4YN6P— Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) July 18, 2023

A Senate Democratic aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the negotiations, said the advocates played a key role in persuading lawmakers to exclude teens from a provision in KOSA requiring parental consent to access digital platforms. It now only covers those 12 and younger.

Dozens of digital rights groups have expressed concern that the legislation would require tech companies to collect even more data from kids and give parents too much control over their children’s online activity, which could disproportionately harm young LGBT users.

“We were focused on making sure that KOSA did not turn into a parental surveillance bill,” said Qureshi.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), the lead sponsor of the bill, said their mobilization “significantly changed my perspective,” calling their advocacy a “linchpin” to building support for the legislation.

Qureshi and other youth advocates attended a White House event in July at which President Biden surprised spectators by endorsing KOSA and the children’s privacy bill, his most direct remarks on the efforts to date. Days later, the bills advanced with bipartisan support out of the Senate Commerce Committee.

Hiner and other youth advocates said they have worked closely with prominent children’s online safety groups, including Fairplay. Revanur said her group Encode Justice receives funding from the Omidyar Network, an organizationestablished by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar that is a major force in fueling Big Tech antagonists in Washington. Qureshi declined to disclose any funding sources for Design It For Us, beyond its recent grant from the Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund.

Some young activists argue against such tough protections for kids online. The digital activist group Fight for the Future said it has been working with hundreds of young grass-roots activists who are rallying support against the bills, arguing that they would expand surveillance and hurt marginalized groups.

Sarah Philips, 25, an organizer for Fight for the Future, said young people’s views on the topic shouldn’t be treated as a “monolith,” and that the group has heard from an “onslaught” of younger users concerned that policymakers’ proposed restrictions could have a chilling effect on speech online.

“The youth that I work with tend to be queer, a lot of them are trans and a lot of them are young people of color, and their experience in all aspects of the world, including online, is different,” she said.

There are also lingering questions about the science underlying the children’s safety legislation.

Studies have documented that prolonged social media use can lead to increased anxiety and depression and that it can exacerbate body image and self-esteem issues among younger users. But the research on social media use is still evolving. Recent reports by the American Psychological Association and the U.S. Surgeon General painted a more complex picture of the dynamic and called for more research, finding that social media can also generate positive social experiences for young people.

“We don’t want to get rid of social media. That’s not a stance that most members of Gen Z, I think, would take,” said Qureshi. “We want to see reforms and policies in place that make our online world safer and allow us to foster those connections that have been positive.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/09/05/kosa-bill-2023-youth-activists-social-media/

Postgame melee in Bethesda has high school parents outraged

September 6, 2023 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
Off

Michigan State president: Post-game melee 'unacceptable' – WKBN.com

By Jack Stripling WP September 5th 2023

A spate of violent altercations in downtown Bethesda on Friday night, following a high school football game, has renewed concerns among students, parents and school administrators about the safety of such events.Fast, informative and written just for locals. Get The 7 DMV newsletter in your inbox every weekday morning.

After a game between rivals Bethesda-Chevy Chase and Walter Johnson high schools, a large group of students gathered near the Bethesda Metro station, where fighting ensued, resulting in “some serious student injuries,” principals of both schools said in a joint statement Saturday. At least one student was taken to a hospital for treatment, a district spokesperson told The Washington Post.

The incident comes nearly a year after Montgomery County Public Schools announced new safety protocols for athletics events, following an on-field brawl that broke out between Northwest and Gaithersburg high schools at a 2022 football game. Under the new restrictions, the audience of Friday’s game at Bethesda-Chevy Chase was limited to students of both schools, with other school-aged children requiring chaperones. But the violence that followed the game points toward the safety challenges that emerge beyond school property.

In their joint statement, Shelton Mooney, principal of Bethesda-Chevy Chase, and Jennifer Baker, principal of Walter Johnson, described the incidents as “dangerous, illegal and completely inappropriate.”

“This is completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated,” the principals said.

Montgomery County police spokeswoman Shiera Goff said officers responded to “several calls” Friday after the game. Extra officers had been assigned to the area, she said in a statement, and they responded to reports of “thefts, robbery and assaults” in Bethesda’s central business district.

A Walter Johnson student filed a report with police Friday night, saying “he was assaulted and had his shoes stolen,” according to the statement. “There are more juveniles coming forward this weekend, reporting that they had also been assaulted,” Goff added.

As of late Sunday afternoon, no arrests had been made, Goff told The Post.

Bethesda students have been texting one another videos of the violent melees that occurred after the game, one student told The Post. Some of the videos are circulating on social media. The Post has not independently verified the authenticity of the videos, which appear to capture short snippets of sometimes-brutal altercations between students.

Chris Cram, a spokesman for Montgomery County Public Schools, said school officials would work with police and Metro security to identify perpetrators.

“The idea of course is to get to the bottom of this,” Cram said. “People were harmed. That can’t happen in the future. This behavior is not to be tolerated.”

Students can be disciplined for violations of the student code of conduct off school property, according to the policy.

Kate Stewart, a Montgomery County Council member, happened to be on a ride-along with police Friday night in Bethesda. She did not directly observe any violence, she said, and was impressed with what she saw of how officers handled the postgame crowd. But Stewart said the school system needs to consider new approaches, which might include a decision to “take a pause from these two schools playing each other.” (Walter Johnson is in District 4, which Stewart represents.)

“What I’m hearing is a lot of shock at the violence that we all witnessed,” Stewart said, “and an insistence that we need to do better next time.”Share this articleShare

‘Everybody is outraged’

Leading up to Friday’s game, students, parents and community members were already bracing for the possibility of violence, several people told The Post. Among them was Lyric Winik, immediate past president of the Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School Parent Teacher Student Association.

This problem has been going on for years, Winik said. Last year, as president of the PTSA, Winik posted a message on the association’s email group about “an epidemic of street fighting in downtown Bethesda” after the school’s football game with Walter Johnson. Winik wrote that she was “frustrated, as a parent, that there hasn’t been much more open discussion in our school community of post-game fighting.” On Sunday, in a message to The Post, Winik expressed frustration that Montgomery County Public Schools do not take more responsibility for off-campus violence after school events.

“For the sake of the students and local residents, I hope MCPS will finally enact a comprehensive game-day safety plan,” she wrote in an email, “extending beyond the technical school borders. If Montgomery County wants community support of its schools, our schools need to commit to being good neighbors in the community.”

Other parents, while similarly disturbed by the violence, credited school administrators with doing their best to improve safety. Rex Garcia-Hidalgo, president of the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Sports Boosters Foundation, said there was a “huge” police presence at the game Friday, which he attended. To reduce the risk of postgame conflicts, Garcia-Hidalgo said B-CC students were instructed to stay in the stadium for about 15 minutes as Walter Johnson fans exited the stadium. (The Walter Johnson Wildcats won the game 21-14.)

“We had a show, and we were giving away free merch, to keep our fans in the stadium,” he said.

Garcia-Hidalgo said he was among the last to leave the game, by which time the crowd appeared to have peacefully dispersed. Then, “these videos started rolling in,” he said.

“And all the kids are in these chat groups — andIsaw it and I was outraged,” he said. “This was really bad. In years past it’s two kids going at it, or groups of one-on-one fights. But this was like a beatdown by a mob on like two or three or four kids — and girls also.”

Hearing from other parents, Garcia-Hidalgo said, “everybody is outraged.” And yet, there is concern that steps that might be taken to mitigate the problem — whether it’s pushing games to earlier in the day or limiting the number of spectators — will punish everyone for the actions of a relative few.

“It’s a very complicated situation,” he said. “I really don’t have a solution.”

Mary Bittle Koenick,president of theWalter Johnson High School All-School Booster Club, has two boys who play football at Walter Johnson. She said that MCPS “has done a good job with the things that are in their control.” Yet, Koenick found the videos from Friday “shocking.” She said she was saddened to think about “what generates this type of action — this type of anger — among the students.”

“I think this goes beyond a school rivalry,” Koenick said.

Christo Doyle, whose daughter is a junior at Bethesda-Chevy Chase, said he has advised her to steer clear of areas where students congregate after games.

“I would like it not to be such a spectacle,” said Doyle, a 1990 graduate of the school, who captained the football team. “I would like the student body of both schools to realize they shouldn’t go and give this fuel.”

Doyle said he hopes the students involved in the violence are held legally accountable. “I think a couple of kids being made examples of,” he said, “is unfortunately necessary.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/09/03/bethesda-chevy-chase-walter-johnson-high-school-football-violence/

In a crisis, schools are 100,000 mental health staff short

September 6, 2023 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
Off

By Donna St. George  WP September 5th 2023

A few years ago, Christopher Page Jr.’s Colorado high school was rocked by a spate of student deaths, including three by suicide. So the longtime principal was troubled when he couldn’t fill a school psychologist job for an entire year. Nobody had applied. This summer, he finally hired a budding social worker who was still finishing her last two classes.

He helped get her an emergency license, which was not hard, because there is an emergency.

In his area and elsewhere, the student mental health crisis is unfolding as the nation’s schools face a shortage of counselors, psychologists, social workers and therapists — each problem amplified by the other, and all of them worsening since the pandemic began. “There’s just such an influx of need,” Page said.

“Not only do we have shortages, but we have attrition from the mental health field,” said Sharon Hoover, a professor of child and adolescent psychiatry and co-director of the National Center for School Mental Health at the University of Maryland’s School of Medicine. “So as demand is going up, supply is going down.”

In a moment that seems to plead for creativity, educators are finding new ways to bring support into schools. Some universities are expanding counseling programs, hoping to produce more graduates. Schools are hiring interns and trainees. Some states, including California, are offering scholarships to lure students into mental health professions, while researchers are going back to the basics, rethinking what it means to be a mental-health-care provider.

But the need is immediate and widespread, and services often are not. It would take 77,000 more school counselors, 63,000 more school psychologists and probably tens of thousands of school social workers to reach levels recommended by professional groups before the pandemic hit, those organizations say. Typically, the jobs require a master’s degree, meaning six or seven years of higher education. The pipeline does not flow rapidly.

One school’s solution to the mental health crisis: Try everything

John R. Weisz, a professor at Harvard University who studies youth mental health, recalled visiting a school with 600 students at which the principal was the lone person working with pupils in distress. Weisz said he’s come across therapy waitlists of five to 10 months in community clinics in the Boston area and elsewhere; some queues were closed because waits exceeded a year.

Even so, the situation is uneven. “There are very rich school districts where there areno problems, and there are a lot of school districts where there’s not even one counselor in a school,” Weisz said.

New options are in the works. At the University of Oregon, a well-regarded psychologist is leading a bachelor’s degree program that creates a new profession — child behavioral health specialist. In California, the state’s plans include hiring wellness coaches and peer support specialists, as part of a multibillion-dollar initiative. In Chicago, the nation’s third-largest school district provided mental health training to 300 school nurses, adding to efforts that include school-based behavioral health teams.

The school mental health workforce needs to be built out, Hoover said. Instead of relying only on clinicians with advanced degrees, the system needs a more expansive approach that uses the skills and training of a wide range of people, she said. “There needs to be something in the middle.”

A 2018 research overview of that idea — often called “task-shifting” — points to challenges in implementation but is positive about the potential. It concludes that the great need and clinician shortage mean that using “nontraditional providers may be the only solution in both low- and high-resource settings, at least in the short term.”

Some question whether mental health issues are too sensitive to be handled by those with less expertise. They worry that those with bachelor’s degrees, or less, may not have adequate training and supervision, or that their well-meaning guidance could be off the mark. “With the crisis that our students are facing, I don’t know if bachelor’s-level individuals have adequate preparation to help students and their families navigate these situations,” said Blaire Cholewa, an associate professor in the counselor education program at the University of Virginia. Others also worry that over time, schools could prefer to hire lesser-trained employees because they do not have to be paid as much.

In Colorado, Page, the principal of Highlands Ranch High, was not left entirely in the lurch when he couldn’t fill the psychologist job: He had other clinicians. His school of 1,500 students already had two social workers, a psychologist and seven counselors.

Still, Page found an outside mental health provider who came one day a week — and was always booked. The school also relied on a national suicide prevention program, Sources of Strength. After the traumatic year of fall 2019 to fall 2020 — when, Page said, the school lost three students to suicide, one student to homicide, and three students to accidents or illnesses — its students began organizing a mental health week every spring.

“We’re definitely supporting more kids in more ways than maybe we could have or would have in the past,” said Page. “That’s always good. I’m glad. But is that enough? No. We always want to do more to be better by kids.”

‘A third of the workforce we need’

Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy recently called the youth mental health crisis “the defining public health issue of our time,” saying that it threatens “the foundation for health and well-being for millions of our children.”

Seventy percent of schools have reported an uptick in students asking for mental health services since the pandemic started. Teenage girls reported record levels of sadness and hopelessness in the most recent surveys conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly 1 in 3 girls reported in 2021 that they seriously considered suicide — up almost 60 percent from a decade ago. Boys are suffering too. Federal data shows a rising rate of suicide from 2020 to 2021 for males, highest among those ages 15 to 24.

The isolation and disruption of the pandemic left many students unmoored, as have repeated incidents of racialized violence, a lengthy string of mass shootings and legislation that restricts the rights of LGBTQ+ students. Adding to that is a wave of parent protests about what children learn and read in school, plus the effects of social media.

But counselors and psychologists are in short supply in some schools. The recommended ratio of no more than 250 students per school counselor is often a distant goal, with the national average 1 for 408 students. Similarly, the standard of 500 students per school psychologist is frequently aspirational. The national average: 1 for 1,127.

With roughly 35,000 psychologists in schools across the nation, “we have about a third of the workforce that we need,” said Kelly Vaillancourt Strobach, director of policy and advocacy at the National Association of School Psychologists.

For child and adolescent psychiatrists, the numbers are worse still, with roughly 10,600 in practice across the country. More than 85 percent of counties in America do not have even one, according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

“As a result of the workforce shortage, pediatricians have become the default mental health provider,” said Sandy Chung, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics. In Virginia, two-thirds of mental health claims in 2019 were made by primary-care clinicians, she said.

Schools turn to telehealth as mental health crisis persists

A bright spot on the landscape is the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which committed $500 million over five years to ramp up the pipeline for school psychologists, counselors and social workers. That money is coupled with a second $500 million for efforts to recruit, retain and train staff for those positions.

The same law steers another$1 billion for school districts to promote safe and healthy learning environments, prevent and respond to bullying, and combat violence and hate. More than 30 states have distributed their money to school districts.Share this articleShare

All told, it’s a historic investment in school mental health, and yet the pipeline moves slowly.

Many school districts steered some of their federal pandemic-relief money to mental health, and that money is drying up over the next year. A number of superintendents who were surveyed said they will need to reduce school specialist staff, which can include those involved in mental health, said Sasha Pudelski, advocacy director of the AASA, the School Superintendents Association.

“I’m really worried about what’s going to happen when government funding runs out after this year because that’s kind of the first thing that gets cut,” said Brett Zyromski, an associate professor and head of the school counselor education program at Ohio State University.

Others vow to keep it going.

The Desert Sands School District in California, for instance, used the money to hire 20 school-based mental health therapists — one for every middle and high school, and some at elementary schools. The district will keep the therapists on its payroll after federal funds are gone, said Laura Fisher, assistant superintendent of student support services.

Still, as school started, four of its 20 positions were open. Hiring remains competitive, Fisher said. “Everyone is looking for them, whether it’s private or public,” she said.

At the district’s Indio High School, Principal Derrick Lawson said group therapy has been critical, bringing together four to 10 teenagers at a time who need help getting through their grief, for instance, or pent-up anger. Last year, as many as 14 groups were going at various times. This year, he expects the same.

“The need is not diminishing,” he said.

Many districts pair up with community mental health providers, who often set up an office at school. Students can get help during the school day, sparing families from transportation glitches and schedule conflicts. Costs are mainly covered by private or government-funded insurance. In a similar way, more schools have also turned to mental health care by telehealth.

To boost the school pipeline, a $5.5 million federal-grant-funded program at the University of Maryland at Baltimore School of Social Work’s Center for Restorative Change will support the recruitment, training and development of 105 social workers a year, particularly those who are African American or Hispanic. Students of color have often lacked resources for higher education, and school social workers have been predominantly White. The program, which also involves Coppin State University and the University of Maryland Baltimore County, aims to produce social workers who will be hired in its partner schools.

Russell Sabella, a professor at Florida Gulf Coast University who heads the school counseling program, said he and others redesigned their master’s degree program. It’s now virtual, with synchronous instruction, an in-person internship and a two-year time frame, rather than three. This year’s class is 25 students, three times as many as last year. “We’ve got students coming in from all over the state, and even those who are local don’t have to worry about things like gas and trying to get off work early,” he said.

At Marquette University in Wisconsin, Alan Burkard’s program is expanding, thanks to a $2.8 million federal grant aimed at preparing students of color to become school counselors — a profession that is overwhelmingly White. Fifty-five students are slated to earn master’s degrees over five years, with the help of tuition assistance and while doing supervised work in Milwaukee-area schools.

Schools sue social media companies over youth mental health crisis

Necessity mothers invention

Beyond the traditional programs, less-conventional approaches to the shortage are gaining traction.

One is the Oregon program, where Katie McLaughlin, until recently a psychology professor at Harvard, took the helm. The initiative is part of the Ballmer Institute for Children’s Behavioral Health, funded with a $425 million gift by Connie and Steve Ballmer. Steve Ballmer, now a philanthropist, is a former chief executive of Microsoft.

McLaughlin said a few dozen students are already enrolled — to become “child behavioral health specialists” — and will ultimately work under supervision in Portland public schools and other locations, accumulating more than 700 hours over the course of two years.

Ideally, she said, the new specialists will help identify students who struggle sooner and then intervene — reducing the number who require more intensive support later. If fewer children are in need, then existing mental health professionals — psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers — will be better able to meet the demand.

“Our hope is that this is a workforce solution to meet the enormous unmet need for mental health support among children and adolescents,” she said.

Ernesto Leyva, a rising sophomore, was interested fairly quickly, saying the pandemic deepened his interest in mental health. He started college as a psychology major and likes the idea of working in schools. “I wish I had somebody I could talk to when I was younger,” Leyva said.

“If thatprogram is replicated in other universities and becomes popular nationwide, that could create a real revolution in mental health,” Weisz said.

Other efforts could also change the landscape. In California, state officials are creating “wellness coaches” to support students in school and in the community, one part of a more than $4.4 billion effort to “transform” the system of care for children and youth. Wellness coaches will focus on education, individual check-ins, care coordination, crisis referrals and small group sessions.

California is also offering scholarships to students who agree to become school counselors, psychologists or social workers.

And Tony Thurmond, California’s state superintendent of public instruction, said in an interview that his department is assisting in a state effort to hire 10,000 mental health clinicians to support students. He said it was just beginning but has been funded. He did not specify a timeline.

“We’re in a kind of triage moment,” he said. “We know that the counselors aren’t there, but the need is there.”

Alex Briscoe, principal of the California Children’s Trust, said what is happening with children’s mental health care in his state is akin to what happened with physical medicine many years ago,when that workforce expanded to include roles such as nurse practitioner and physician’s assistant.

Mental health care for children and adolescents can take many forms and often is not suited to a standard 50-minute therapy session, Briscoe said. Instead, interventions might look different — for instance, shorter interventions about how to manage anger or frustration, or focusing on relationships or handling the stress of not understanding school work.

Looking at the shortage from another angle, a program from Harvard researchers would give digital mental health training to counselors and others who may not have trained for today’s level of mental-health-care needs, said Weisz, a co-principal investigator. The idea is to bolster resources inside school buildings. But the project — part of a broader program called Empower — won’t be done for another 18 months, he said, and will then require testing.

“The challenge is that the need is immediate, but the process of developing things that are well-tested and known to be effective takes longer than we’d like,” Weisz said.

If you or someone you know needs help, visit 988lifeline.org or call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/08/31/mental-health-crisis-students-have-third-therapists-they-need/

How to raise superpowered tweens in turbulent times

September 6, 2023 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
Off

By Phyllis Fagell

In the movie “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” Miles Morales is 13 when he gets bitten by a radioactive spider. Overnight, his pants are too short, he sweats profusely when he talks to a girl at school, and he’s acutely aware that people are whispering about him in the hallway. As he tries to make sense of his disconcerting new reality, he concludes that “it must be puberty.”

Who could blame the kid for mistaking supernatural superpowers for puberty? In fact, superheroes and tweens have a lot in common. Both begin their journeys feeling like strangers to themselves, and both must learn – through trial and error – how to activate their superpowers.

Combine the turbulence of middle school with the turbulence in the outside world, and it’s no wonder that tweens need superhuman strength to navigate the tougher moments. Here are ways caregivers can help their kids acquire four superpowers that they need to embrace their transformation and recover from any setback.

Super Belonging: The power to find your place and make strong connections

When a well-liked seventh-grade girl told me that she felt too awkward to talk to anyone during recess, I wasn’t surprised. While it may be counterintuitive to kids, even the most popular middle-schooler experiences insecurity. To the girl’s relief, an extroverted classmate offered to act as her “wing girl” and find ways to pull her into conversations.

Research shows that friendships play a powerful role in decreasing middle-schoolers’ stress and improving their health, but connecting with peers is easier for some than for others. To help all kids feel more comfortable in social situations, arm them with concrete strategies.

“Some kids think joining a conversation is just being present, standing next to someone, rather than actually contributing to the conversation, even if it’s only three words,” said psychologist Mary Alvord, author of “The Action Mindset Workbook for Teens.” “Or they may not know what to say.”

Explain that if a peer is talking about sports, for instance, they can ask them about their favorite sport. Alvord teaches kids the “one-minute rule” to help them understand pacing. “You watch and listen to what someone is saying for a minute, then interject with a comment on the same topic,” she explained. Boost their sense of belonging by sharing other practical tips, too, such as making eye contact and listening without interrupting.

If your child tells you they’re lonely, try to determine the root cause. Do they have friends but feel like they’re on the edge of a group — the proverbial third wheel? Are they only lonely at travel baseball practices because they have little in common with teammates who attend a different school? Do they have no one to eat with at lunch? Once you pinpoint the problem, you can help them come up with potential solutions.

Super Security: The power to take pride in your identity

Developmentally, middle-schoolers are tasked with figuring out who they are and whether they’re good enough. That’s exponentially more difficult for today’s tweens, who not only are getting pummeled with unrealistic images and messages, but also growing up in a time of deep division when differences can be dangerous.

To increase the odds that your child will talk to you about their fears and insecurities, be clear that you don’t expect perfection and convey your openness to discussing sensitive topics. “If they don’t want to disappoint you, or they sense that you’re not comfortable having the conversation, they won’t bring it up and may make assumptions about your expectations,” said Erlanger Turner, associate professor of psychology at Pepperdine University in Los Angeles.

You might ask, “What are these expectations you have of yourself, or expectations others have that shape the way you feel about yourself?” Turner said, adding that he sometimes has kids write down the negative thoughts they’re having about themselves. “Then we can challenge them and ask questions like, ‘Has this happened before? What evidence supports these views you have of yourself?’”

Some middle-schoolers are more vulnerable than others, including those who are part of a marginalized group. Research shows that LGBTQ+ teens, for instance, are more than four times as likely as their peers to attempt suicide — not because of their sexual orientation or gender identity but because of how they’re treated and stigmatized in society.

Parents can be a protective buffer. According to the Trevor Project, kids who had “high social support” from their families reported attempting suicide at less than half the rate of those who felt low or moderate social support.

As Turner pointed out, “respecting the individuality of your child is always important for the development of their self-esteem, and acceptance is especially important for [LGBTQ+] teens because they may not be getting that from other places.”Share this articleShare

Super Bounce: The power to learn and recover from missteps

A small setback can stop even the most confident tween in their tracks. To help them work through self-doubt and persist toward a personal goal, teach them to speak to themselves in the second- or third-person, said Jason Moser, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Michigan State University who studies how distance self-talk facilitates emotion regulation.

You also can help them gain psychological distance by seeking inspiration from a personal hero. Say, “Can you turn to another individual you look up to who acts in a way that’s brave and could make you feel like you can do something?” Moser said.

For instance, a child might ask themselves, “What would LeBron James do if he failed once and had a terrible game and was worried what other people think of him?” Moser said, adding that parents can show kids video clips of athletes talking about what they do when they get stuck in negativity. As he noted, “the athletes talk about banking the past; about putting that thing behind them and focusing on preparing for the next thing.”

Super Balance: The power to set a reasonable pace

In middle school, the pressure ratchets up. Some kids react by being hard on themselves and exhibiting perfectionist tendencies, while others feel weighed down by external expectations.

“Parents, teachers and schools can put pressure on kids to be as perfect as possible academically and athletically, and maybe act in ways that are counter to who they are,” said Robyn Silverman, a child and teen development specialist and author of “How to Talk to Kids About Anything.”

As a result, a middle-schooler might devote so much time to schoolwork and extracurricular activities that they sacrifice sleep. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children ages 6 to 12 should sleep 9 to 12 hours a night, and children ages 13 to 18 should sleep 8 to 10 hours a night. Yet, in middle schools in every state, the majority of students reported getting less than the recommended amount of sleep.

Why teens need more sleep and how we can help them get it

Despite the fact that friendship is everything to kids in this age group, they also might sacrifice spending time with peers. In a 2018 Pew Research Center Survey of 13- to 17-year-olds, roughly 40 percent of teens cited “too many obligations” as a reason that they don’t spend time with friends.

Parents can help create healthy boundaries, said Jennifer Breheny Wallace, author of the book “Never Enough: When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic — and What We Can Do About It.” In her home, the internet goes off at 11 p.m. “If my kids are not done with the assignment, they know it goes back on at 6:30 a.m.,” she said, adding that she wants her kids to understand that “they’re human, they have limits, and they’re worthy of protection and rest.”

“We sometimes think our job as a parent is to support our kids’ ambition, to be there and drive them to all the places,” Wallace added, “but in a hypercompetitive culture sometimes our kids need the opposite — for us to limit them, even hold them back, to prevent them burning out.”

Every middle-schooler is going to struggle at times to find their place, cope with insecurity, bounce back from disappointment and maintain balance, but that’s what makes it the perfect time to help them hone their superpowers and learn to leverage any setback — from the personal to the global — into resilience.

Phyllis L. Fagell is a school counselor, a clinical professional counselor at the Chrysalis Group, and the author of “Middle School Superpowers: Raising Resilient Tweens in Turbulent Times” and “Middle School Matters.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/parenting/2023/08/14/how-raise-superpowered-tweens-turbulent-times/

Teens are crumbling under extreme pressure. Parents need to change.

September 6, 2023 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
Off

By Amy Joyce  WP August 28th 2023

Several years ago, Jennifer Breheny Wallace noticed research was emerging that showed children who attended “high-achieving schools” were experiencing higher rates of behavioral and mental health challenges. It was so stark that youths in these schools were added to a list of “at-risk” groups, right along with kids living in poverty and foster care, recent immigrants and those with incarcerated parents.

Wallace wrote about this for The Washington Post. But the findings continued to vex her and coincided with the “Varsity Blues” scandal. Parents, she realized, were putting an inordinate amount of pressure on their children to achieve, to take all the AP classes, join all the activities, essentially do whatever it took to get ahead. The results of this are devastating. “How did we get to the point where parents were going to jail?” she wondered, because they were so desperate to get their children into high-end colleges.

At the same time, Wallace’s oldest of three was about to go to high school. “I came to the realization that I had four more years with him at home,” she said. “I wanted to know what I could do … to buffer against it.”

Her new book, “Never Enough: When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic — and What We Can Do About It,” is the result of Wallace’s reporting on the topic. She talks to The Post about what she discovered and how she is trying to fight against the dangers of pushing our children to achieve.

The following answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Q: Along with the research you were seeing, the scandal, and your own family, what did you do to determine this warranted delving deeper?

A: I wanted to make sure this wasn’t just an East Coast-West Coast problem. I worked with a researcher at the Harvard School of Education and developed a survey because I wanted to know if it was everywhere, and what was the hidden landscape parents were feeling, and I was certainly feeling it in my own home. Over 6,500 parents filled it out. I asked parents if they’d be willing to be interviewed, and hundreds reached out.

Q: So you were feeling the toxic achievement culture creeping into your own home?

A: Over the years, I had been noticing and so curious as to why my children’s childhood was so different than my own. Our lives felt so much busier. The weekends felt so much more fractured. Homework was much more intense. The pressure I felt for their success, it felt like it was my responsibility to help them be successful. While my parents encouraged my achievement, it wasn’t front and center in the house. So I interviewed historians, economists, sociologists. Parents are parenting today in a very different economic climate than I grew up in, being raised in the late ’70s and early ’80s. Life was generally more affordable then. Over the past decades, we have seen this ushering in of extreme inequality, a crush of the middle class. It’s been the job of the parent to help our kids thrive when we’re not around, and it’s so much more fraught now. Those pressures we’re feeling, we’re absorbing those fears.

We feel caught. We want to set our children up for success. But parents feel their communities are judging them. But they also just want to be parents and enjoy their kids and enjoy that connection. It’s hard.

Q: Is it impossible for parents to step back and step away from adding to the pressure?

A: Not at all. I wanted to find “healthy achievers,” and I wanted to know if they had anything in common. I found these healthy strivers had a lot in common: It all boils down to this idea psychologists call “mattering.” It’s a psychological construct that’s been around since the 1980s. Kids who felt a healthy level of self-esteem felt like they mattered to their parents, that they felt important and significant. Over the past few decades, researchers have found kids who felt valued for who they were at their core, by their family and friends and communities. These kids were relied on to add meaningful value back; those kids had a high level of mattering that acted like a protective shield. It worked like a buoy that lifted them up and helped them be resilient. Mattering has really changed my parenting and my life.Share this articleShare

Q: How?

A: I used to solve for happiness. I now solve for mattering. If one of my children is acting “off,” I wonder if they’re not feeling valued by me, by friends, by the school community. Or am I not relying or depending on them at home? My son, coming out of covid, wasn’t feeling as connected to his friends as before covid. He was just a little lonelier. Then a few of his friends asked him to join the baseball team. They were short one player, and if he didn’t play, they wouldn’t have a team. The cons were it’s two hours after school every day. He said it would take away from his schoolwork. But he said if he didn’t do it, his friends wouldn’t be able to play. So he did it. Before mattering, I would have maybe said school is the most important thing; baseball would interfere with grades. Instead, I realized we needed to bolster his mattering with friends. Not only did it make him feel valued by his friends, but it also started an upward spiral. He had a deep sense of belonging, and he really mattered.

Q: What other ways has the reporting on the book changed the way you parent?

A: His junior year — he’s now a senior — I made our home a haven from pressure. It was the place to recover. We made a pact that we’d only talk about college stuff once a week on the weekend at a time when he wanted to do it. We’d block out an hour, but we’d usually be done in 15 minutes. So I could just enjoy him in the last two years of him being home. I also prioritized affection. Our teenagers don’t necessarily want us hugging them all the time, but I’d find times when I’d massage his back or just pat his arm.

Q: How are parents doing today?

A: Parents are really anxious. Research tells you that a child’s resilience rests fundamentally in their caregiver’s resilience. That primary caregiver, well-being has to be intact. And adult well-being isn’t what’s being marketed to us. It won’t give us the resilience we need to be first responders to our children. What will is our relationships. The communities I visited, they didn’t have the time and bandwidth to develop friends to be true sources of support, people they could be vulnerable with. We’re told as parents to put our oxygen masks on first. Really what these relationships are is having someone in your life who sees you struggling for breath, and puts that mask on for you.

Q: What can we do?

A: Make home a mattering haven. Let our children know their worth is not contingent on performance. Be careful about criticism; be careful about praise. Get a PhD in your child: What is it uniquely that makes your child tick? Their humor? How collaborative they are? Make that be what you talk about at home.

Parents need to prioritize relationships outside of the home for the benefit of people inside the home. You only need an hour a week of intentional connection with a friend or two for you to get that resilience you need. You need people to see you and love you unconditionally, like you do with your own kids.

Q: What can communities do?

A: Communities can really try to focus on helping kids know they’re needed, that the community depends on them. Ask them to pitch in. Thank them. If you have a neighbor whose son is great with tech, ask them for help. Give kids in your community opportunities to be depended on and relied on.

Q: How can parents ratchet it down if they feel as if they are the only ones in their cohort not pushing for high achievement?

A: There is a silent majority; don’t feel like you’re the only one. Find one or two friends who share your values. That’s all you need. Then you can turn to them when you’re feeling the contagion of stress all around you. Parents see this isn’t working. They want solutions, and I found them in the families I visited around the country.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/parenting/2023/08/28/teens-achievement-pressure-parents/

Where Are the Students?

September 5, 2023 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
Off

A school classroom with empty desks. In the background educational poster line the wall.

By David Leonhardt

If you’re a child — or a former child — you know how hard it can be to summon the energy to leave the house each day for school. It’s early in the morning, and you are tired. Maybe you have a test or a social situation that’s making you anxious. Staying in bed often seems easier.

For as long as schools have existed, so have these morning struggles. Nonetheless, children overcame them almost every day, sometimes with a strong nudge from parents. Going to school was the normal thing to do.

Then, suddenly, it wasn’t.

The long school closures during the Covid pandemic were the biggest disruption in the history of modern American education. And those closures changed the way many students and parents think about school. Attendance, in short, has come to feel more optional than it once did, and absenteeism has soared, remaining high even as Covid has stopped dominating everyday life.

On an average day last year — the 2022-23 school year — close to 10 percent of K-12 students were not there, preliminary state data suggests. About one quarter of U.S. students qualified as chronically absent, meaning that they missed at least 10 percent of school days (or about three and a half weeks). That’s a vastly higher share than before Covid.

Credit…Thomas Dee

“I’m just stunned by the magnitude,” said Thomas Dee, a Stanford economist who has conducted the most comprehensive study on the issue.

This surge of absenteeism is one more problem confronting schools as they reopen for a new academic year. Students still have not made up the ground they lost during the pandemic, and it’s much harder for them to do so if they are missing from the classroom.

In Dee’s study, he looked for explanations for the trend, and the obvious suspects didn’t explain it. Places with a greater Covid spread did not have higher lingering levels of absenteeism, for instance. The biggest reason for the rise seems to be simply that students have fallen out of the habit of going to school every day.

Consistent with this theory is the fact that absenteeism has risen more in states where schools remained closed for longer during the pandemic, like California and New Mexico (and in Washington, D.C.). The chart below shows the correlation between Dee’s state data on chronic absenteeism and data from Thomas Kane, a Harvard economist, on the share of students in each state who in 2020-21 were enrolled in districts where most students were remote:

Credit…Thomas Dee (absenteeism); Thomas Kane (virtual schooling)

“For almost two years, we told families that school can look different and that schoolwork could be accomplished in times outside of the traditional 8-to-3 day,” Elmer Roldan, who runs a dropout prevention group, told The Los Angeles Times. “Families got used to that.”

Lisa Damour, a psychologist and the author of “The Emotional Lives of Teenagers,” points out that parents think they are doing the right thing when they allow an anxious child to skip a day of school. She has deep empathy for these parents, she said. Doing so often makes the child feel better in the moment. But there are costs.

“The most fundamental thing for adults to understand is that avoidance feeds anxiety,” Damour told me. “When any of us are fearful, our instinct is to avoid. But the problem with giving in to that anxiety is that avoidance is highly reinforcing.” The more often students skip school, the harder it becomes to get back in the habit of going.

I know that some readers will wonder whether families are making a rational choice by keeping their children home, given all the problems with schools today: the unhealthily early start times for many high schools; the political fights over curriculum; the bullying and the vaping; the inequalities that afflict so many areas of American life.

And the rise in chronic absenteeism is indeed a sign that schools need help. One promising step would be to make teaching a more appealing job, Damour notes, in order to attract more great teachers.

Still, it’s worth remembering that the rise of absenteeism isn’t solving these larger problems. It is adding to those problems.

Classrooms are more chaotic places when many students are there one day and missing the next. Educational inequality increases too, because absenteeism has risen more among disadvantaged students, including students with disabilities and those from lower-income households. “Studies show that even after adjusting for poverty levels and race, children who skip more school get significantly worse grades,” The Economist explained recently.

As Hedy Chang, who runs Attendance Works, a nonprofit group focused on the problem, told The Associated Press, “The long-term consequences of disengaging from school are devastating.”

Many schools are now trying to reduce absenteeism by reaching out to families. Some school officials are visiting homes in person, while others are sending texts to parents. (This Times story goes into more detail.)

It will be a hard problem to solve. Dee’s study focused on 2021-22 — which was two years ago, and the first year after the extended Covid closures — but he notes that absenteeism appears to have fallen only slightly last year. In Connecticut, which has some of the best data (and lower absentee rates than most states), 7.8 percent of students missed school on an average day two years ago, a far higher level than before the pandemic. Last year, the rate dipped only to 7.6 percent.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/05/briefing/covid-school-absence.html

Team Documentaries 2022-23

August 24, 2023 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
Off

Documentary Now! - Rotten Tomatoes
Member Documentaries “Advocating for Others” Salena Geahwie
Member Documentaries- “Change is an opportunity to grow’ Michelle Haughton
Member Documentaries “Grateful to God” Marinobi Medrano
Member Documentaries “From Struggling to Thriving” Lucresse Gouayou
Member Documentaries -“Giving Back to MCPS” Liam Jaehnigen
Member Documentaries – “Native Washingtonian” Kelly Palmer
Member Documentaries- “I am many things.” Jakobe Cotton
Member Documentaries – “Seeing a Different View- Hannah Norman
Member Documentaries “Beyond Beautiful” Lalebela Moore

Training Calendar 2023-4

August 24, 2023 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
Off

Calendar 2023-2024 DRAFT August  24th    2023  

All members MUST attend 90% of skills trainings to fulfil their contract

Friday programs usually go from 9-30am to 2pm

Mondy-Friday August 28-September 2nd   MyScore Immersion Training
Friday Sep 8th Member Orientation-the Story Begins
Friday, September 15th Professionalism – Funa
Friday, September 22nd Storytelling through the Camera -Ahmed
Friday, September 29th   Observation of Learning-
Friday, September 29th Peer to Peer Coaching – Lynne Feingold
Friday, October 6th   No Meeting today
Friday, October 13th Grant Writing- Alanna Taylor
Friday, October 20th to Sunday  22nd Retreat at Sandy Cove  MD
Friday October 27th Financial Literacy- Maria McIlhenny
Friday November 3rd Improv in Class- Jean Freedman
Friday, November 10th Supervisors Meeting
Friday, November 17th MyScore Review Scores  (Skills Success)
Friday, December 1st MD Programs Meet Up – Storytelling Festival
Friday, December 8th Mary Fowler- Developing Compassion
Friday December 15th Harriet Tubman Tour – All Day
Friday, January 5th MyScore Intervention Training
Monday, January 15th MLK Birthday Day of Service
Friday, January 19th One on One Member Check-Ins with Director
Friday, January 26th Mapping the Half Way Mark
Friday, February 2nd Snow Tubing Excursion at Liberty
Friday February 16th Supervisors Meeting 10am- Mediation Workshop
Friday, March 1st “MyScore Data Review-Strategies 4 Intervention” C&K

I have read the dates and commit to my attendance at all trainings

Name ………………………………………………..Date…………………………………………

Friday, March 15th Financial Literacy Day with Sligo School Students
Friday March 22nd Meet our Congress Members-Capitol Hill
Friday, April 12th Civil Rights Tour Silver Spring
Friday, April 26th Getting ready for the final MYSCORE
Friday, May 3rd   Life after AmeriCorps – Judy Lapping & Alumni
Monday, May 6th GBTLA Golf Tournament- Volunteers
Friday May 18-19th Overnight Trip to Balimore and Tour
Friday, May 24th Recruiting & SEGAL award- Kiersten- Alanna Digital Toolkit
Friday, May 31st How a successful Non-Profit operates- Jan Peters
Friday June 7th Summing up Service in a story- jean Freedman
Sunday, June 9th Graduation Event – AFI
Friday July 19th    Reunion Luncheon

I have read the dates and commit to my attendance at all trainings

Name ………………………………………………..Date…………………………………………

New to Baltimore? Check out these books.

August 24, 2023 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
Off

Illustration of a woman standing in front of rowhouses that look like books.

Krishna Sharma

Every newcomer to Baltimore hears these five words before they arrive: “Have you watched ‘The Wire’?”

Even two decades later, the city’s reputation is inextricably linked to the HBO show. But one soon-to-be Baltimorean was looking for more and reached out to ask which books we would recommend to someone who’s about to move here — books that go beyond the version of Baltimore “The Wire” presents.

So we turned to the experts: Readers!

  • An intern’s favorite bookstores of the summer

We posted the question and 63 responded, recommending 55 books and three sweeping suggestions: Anything by Anne Tyler, Anything by Laura Lippman and Anything by Lawrence T. Brown.

Top picks:

‘Not in My Neighborhood: How Bigotry Shaped a Great American City’

By Antero Pietila

Charm City was unfortunately one of the first in the country to use private covenants to bar people from housing based on their ethnicity. Antero Pietila, a former Baltimore Sun reporter, takes a deep dive into this history of redlining and racial segregation.

No fewer than 16 readers recommended it. Here are a couple of reviews:

“Not in my Neighborhood by Antero Pietila does a really great job of giving you a sense of where you are and how where you are got to be how it is. Spoilers: it’s racism.” — Daniel Shiffner

“This book helped me understand how housing discrimination has shaped and continues to shape Baltimore. Pietila does a great job explaining how societal beliefs, like eugenics, influenced the laws around housing.” — Julie Spokus

‘The Black Butterfly: The Harmful Politics of Race and Space in America’

Lawrence T. BrownSign Up for AlertsGet notified of need-to-know
info from The Banner

The second-most-recommended book shows how the roots of redlining encase modern Baltimore, quietly reinforcing the racial and economic trenches separating our neighborhoods.

Reader reviews: “I moved to Baltimore two years ago, and reading about the history of red lining and discrimination against the Black community has been really helpful to understand dynamics at play in the city and in the country.” — Guillaume Foutry

“An analysis of the structural issues and policy-level decisions at the root of racialized inequality in the city, with some radical ideas on how to how to address it.” — Linda Shopes

‘Baltimore Blues’ ; ‘Charm City’ ; ‘What The Dead Know’

Laura Lippman

(HarperCollins)

At least four different people submitted the exact same response: “Anything by Laura Lippman”, the prolific Baltimore author who is still publishing new works.

One reader recommends starting with her 1997 classic “Baltimore Blues.”

Reader review: “Laura Lippman’s book gives a great feel for the city as her characters go up and down the streets of downtown, Federal Hill and more as she weaves a fine crime novel.” — Jack Amdryszak

Any book by Anne Tyler

Anne Tyler has been rooted in Baltimore while writing prolifically for over half a century, and her novels show it. She’s won numerous accolades, including the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and three readers recommend her works.

Reader Review: “The majority of her books are set in Baltimore and she beautifully captures the quirkiness of this city and its residents.” — Lucy Strausbaugh

Diving Deeper

‘The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America’ by Richard Rothstein

Reader review: “You will have countless recommendations for Lippman, Tyler, Waters, Poe (rightfully). Actually wanna know “why Bmore has this rep”? You must understand racial housing laws & how that meant American cities could develop. Don’t wanna know? Then don’t live here.” – Chrissy Kidd (This reader also recommended “Not in My Neighborhood” by Antero Pietila.)

‘We Speak for Ourselves’ and ‘The Cook Up’ by D. Watkins

D. Watkins is an East Baltimore-born author, editor, professor and writer for HBO’s “We Own This City” who depicts an honest image of what it’s like to live in East Baltimore.

‘The Tell Tale Heart’ by Edgar Allan Poe

Didn’t realize Poe has history in Baltimore? Check out the Poe Museum — and his grave — after reading!

‘Homicide: A Year on the Killing streets’ by David Simon

As the creator of HBO’s “The Wire,” David Simon is a well-known name in Baltimore. His novel “Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets” was adapted into an NBC show, “Homicide: Life on the Street” in the ‘90s.

Reader review: “I moved here in 1991. I hunted high and low for books about Baltimore. They were mostly tangential to understanding the city. A friend gave me David Simon’s ‘Homicide.’ It was eye opening and mesmerizing. A seminal work for understanding Baltimore in the 1990s. I still think about it today.” — Mary Roberts

‘If You Love Baltimore, It Will Love You Back: 171 Short, But True Stories’ by Ron Cassie

This collection of vignettes by nationally acclaimed Baltimore magazine editor Ron Cassie uses the everyday experiences of residents to paint an intricate mosaic of Charm City.

Reader review: “It’s 171 short but true stories that shows the quirkiness and flavor of Baltimore, and its inhabitants. It also showcases the neighborhoods we were famous for & the diversity of them. — Jacqueline Victoria Capel

‘Chesapeake’ by James Michener

This sprawling novel depicts coastal Maryland’s history by following several generations of three different families, all the way from the late 1500s to the Watergate Scandal of the 1970s.

Reader review: “James Michener’s ‘Chesapeake’ is still one of the most revealing and informative narratives for any one new to this region. As a very well regarded historical fiction novel, it provides a very colorful and for the most part, accurate accounting of the basis for the cultural of our community.” — Jim Burdick

‘111 Places in Baltimore That You Must Not Miss’ by Allison Robicelli

Want to visit a fudge shop with ties to four legendary R&B artists, drink in Edgar Allan Poe’s memory or visit one of the oldest blacksmith shops in the country that’s still operating? This book is full of quirky, fascinating and thoroughly explained recommendations for eating, drinking, visiting historic spots and much more.

Reader review: “I have visited almost every location listed in this book — I love it. I have found everything from my favorite chocolates to talented Greektown glassblowers. Even ‘Baltimore Licks!’ ” — Yvette Wheeler

‘Baltimore: A Political History’ by Matthew Crenson

Written by a professor emeritus at the Johns Hopkins University, this book explores how Baltimore became Baltimore. Starting with the city’s founding in 1729, Crenson navigates the politics of the region and how issues such as the Revolutionary War, slavery and industrialization molded Charm City.

Reader reviews: “This book explains how Baltimore was created; the factors that accounted for its growth; the development of its major industries, such as the railroads; its long history of governmental dysfunctionality and civil disorder (e.g., riots); and the factors that led to its decline after World War II.” — Jefferson M. Gray

“Provides a really interesting historical perspective on how Baltimore has been intentionally shut out of state power from its founding, among other things.” — Mobtowne

‘The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass’ by Frederick Douglass

This memoir recounts Frederick Douglass’ life, including his experiences while enslaved in Baltimore and Maryland. After escaping slavery, he fled north and became one of the most influential abolitionist movement leaders of the 19th century.

Reader review: “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass should be a must read for Baltimoreans and Marylanders. An icon of American history, telling a vital story of our past, the story of slavery in Baltimore and on the Eastern Shore. It should be part of the DNA of everyone in Baltimore.” — Amanda McGuire

‘Shelter: A Black Tale of Homeland, Baltimore’ by Lawrence Jackson

Lawrence Jackson, who grew up in West Baltimore, is now a professor at Johns Hopkins, an institution that has a complex and often tense relationship with many of the city’s neighborhoods. In this memoir, the author uses his own life as lens to understand the many nuances of the city.

Reader review: “Read this wonderful work with a map of Baltimore neighborhoods in hand or, better yet, on a walking tour of the city.” — Clarissa Howison

‘The Amiable Baltimoreans’ by Francis F. Beirne

Legend has it that the first umbrella in America was opened in Baltimore. This book explores the history of Baltimore with many such anecdotes and fun facts — though they might be somewhat dated for the modern reader.

Reader review: “ ‘The Amiable Baltimoreans’ was written in the early 1950s by Francis Beirne — a former editor at the Sunpapers. It is a bit of a throwback, but a solid read for those looking to learn about our city’s unique people, history, and culture.” — Tyler Crowe

‘What’s Not to Like?: Words and Pictures of a Charmed Life’ by Jim Burger

A former photographer at The Baltimore Sun recounts his life through words and images. “I was walking around the building one day and I was just taking pictures just to show what it looked like and how a newspaper was made. And now it’s a historical document. Nothing, literally nothing in those photos exists!” the author told WYPR.

Reader review: “He’s lived in Baltimore a long time, worked for The Baltimore Sun, and has some great stories to tell. — Kristen Held

‘We Are Satellites’ by Sarah Pinsker

A story about how technology can divide families, written by an award-winning science fiction author based in Baltimore.

Reader review: “I recommend We are Satellites by local Sarah Pinsker. The book is set in the near future, but interwoven in the story are the locations like the aquarium.” — Emanuel

‘Crowning the Gravelly Hill: A History of the Roland Park-Guilford-Homeland District’ by James Waesche

A look into the neighborhoods infamously built on private racial covenants.

Reader review: “It’s a fascinating look at the Roland Park Company’s development of Roland Park, Guilford, Homeland, and Northwood, still popular neighborhoods, more than 100 years on.” — Kathleen Truelove

‘Beautiful Swimmers’ by William W. Warner

You can’t talk about Baltimore without blue crabs being part of the conversation. Their genus, Callinectes, is Greek for “beautiful swimmer,” hence the name of this 1977 Pulitzer Prize-winning nonfiction book.

Reader review: “A book about crabs from start to finish. Great read.” — Dave Majchrzak

https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/culture/books/baltimore-reading-list-books-GCEKS72ZKZFMLBNWNLACSJYKBA/?schk=&rchk=&utm_source=The+Baltimore+Banner&utm_campaign=5f3f093b34-NL_BKRM_20230824_1400&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-5f3f093b34-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D&mc_cid=5f3f093b34&mc_eid=fe12c291d2

Maryland students fall short of pre-pandemic levels in math

August 24, 2023 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized
Off

By Nicole AsburyAugust 22, 2023 at 6:20 p.m. EDT Washington Post

A majority of Maryland students’ test scores improved for the second yearin English language arts, but students are still academically behind in mathematics because of the impact of the pandemic, according to results from state assessments released Tuesday.F

Students showed some gains in mathematics compared with 2022, but the number who tested as proficient fell short of 2019 levels — before schools closed to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus. Overall, a majority of students improved from a shortened assessment taken in the fall of 2021 that showed test scores plummeted. The fall 2021 assessment was taken just as schools were reopening for in-person instruction.

For example, 30 percent of sixth-graders scored as proficient in math in 2019, but results from the 2023 assessment show that only 19 percent of students received the same score. Twenty-seven percent of students tested proficient in Algebra I in 2019, but only 17 percent met the standard last school year.

The state defines proficient learners as students who are “prepared for the next grade level or course and are on track for college and career readiness.”

Maryland test results show ‘widened’ achievement gaps, especially in math

The results mirror national trends showing that students have regained traction in English but are struggling in math. On the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) that was released in October, the portion of eighth-graders rated proficient or better in math fell to 27 percent, from 34 percent in 2019. Average math scoresfor the eighth grade fell by eight points, from 282 in 2019 to 274, on a 500-point scale, and in fourth grade by five points — the steepest declines recorded in more than a half-century of testing. Reading scores also fell, dropping among both fourth- and eighth-graders, but the declines were not as steep as they were in math.

Last year, Maryland State Superintendent of Schools Mohammed Choudhury warned state board members that virtual learning took a large toll on mathematics and that the state’s students would have “a long load of recovery.” His agency is investing up to $10 million to establish a permanent statewide tutoring corps that will target students who are not proficient in mathematics. The state is also focusing on improvements to math instruction through the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, a landmark statewide education plan that invests billions in public schools over a 10-year span.

Choudhury said during a state board meeting Tuesday that “the money needs to land in the right places” to see statewide assessment improvements, especially for students who are underserved. “We need the boats that have historic inequities and other challenges to rise faster,” Choudhury said.

In English language arts, most students showed improvement compared with 2019. Forty-eight percent of third-graders scored proficient last school year; that was more than the 41 percent who hit the mark in 2019, as well as a small increase from 2022, when 46 percent of third-graders scored proficient. Also in 2023, 54 percent of 10th-graders scored proficient, compared with 43 percent in 2019.

All Maryland student demographic groups showed improvements, but there were still achievement gaps. A majority of low-income students and students of color were behind their wealthier and White peers. Roughly 11 percent of students who are “economically disadvantaged” in grades three through eight received a proficient score in mathematics. (The state considers a student to be economically disadvantaged if they meet one of several criteria, including participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and foster status.) Meanwhile, about 34 percent of students in grades three through eight whom the state did not designate as economically disadvantaged obtained a proficient result.

Maryland assessments show students are falling behind in mathematics

Most Maryland state board members celebrated the improvements in English language arts, though some were concerned about the minimal progress among English learners and students with disabilities. Twelve percent of students with disabilities in grades three through eight were proficient in English language arts on the 2023 assessment, an increase of one percentage point compared with last year. Twelve percent of English learners in grades three through eight were proficient in English language arts in 2023, down one percentage point from last year.

“We need to do something different,” said Joan Mele-McCarthy, a state board member who represents Calvert County and who emphasized that she was not celebrating the results. “I hate to sound this way, but I’m a little frustrated.”Share this articleNo subscription required to readShare

“You’re not going to hear any debate on that,” Choudhury replied at the board meeting. “You’re only as strong as your most struggling student. We need to up our game.”

He added that he believes that for students who are English learners and who have disabilities, there are “low expectations” that are “playing out every day in the classroom.”

“We need to challenge that premise,” he said.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/08/22/maryland-test-assessment-scores/