Articles

Many Colombian parents must choose between sending their children to school and keeping them home to help support the family coffee-growing business. Many decide that school is not worth the cost in time and money. A recent EDC forum brought together corporate, public, and private representatives who identified a variety of innovative solutions.

With its emphasis on academic rigor and building skills in critical thinking, communications, and teamwork, it is no wonder that EDC’s interdisciplinary Ford Partnership for Advanced Studies (Ford PAS) high school program has drawn praise from the nation’s educators, the media, and government officials.

Over the past 25 years, the number of school-age children in the U.S. who speak a language other than English at home has increased from 3.8 to 9.9 million. These students often lag behind their peers academically and schools are struggling to find ways to increase their level of achievement. The challenges in mathematics class are especially difficult.

Most of us can remember that one adult—a teacher, parent, or neighbor—who made our transition from adolescence into adulthood a little easier. But for young people in the juvenile justice or foster care system, finding adults who can provide ongoing support and understand the unique challenges these youth face can be a difficult and sometimes impossible task. And while numerous agencies help connect young people to mentors, very few are equipped to assist these at-risk youth, leaving many without the guidance they so desperately need.

From dropout to vagrant to teen mother, 19-year-old Manoucheka Lizaire’s life quickly unraveled as she followed a path familiar to girls living in poverty. In Haiti alone, thousands of teens are like Manoucheka—out of school and living on the streets, in domestic servitude, or with families too poor to provide them with an education.

Larry Lewis rarely appears in the limelight. Sometimes he gets written up in a local Michigan newspaper, but he certainly doesn’t seek it out. Ask him about his work, and he’ll tell you that the truly inspiring work is being done by his wife, who has been a clinician for as long as he’s been a community organizer. Try to steer him back to his work, and he names everyone on his team and describes them all as indispensable.

Keeping young people in school longer and improving teacher quality are two top challenges facing educators in Yemen today. Leaders from public and private sectors as well as members of the international donor community and the Ministry of Education met recently to focus on ways to propel Yemen’s education system forward through the use of information and communication technologies (ICT). The summit was convened by the Ministry and EDC.

A lush mangrove forest with its wealth of tropical plants, animals, and sea organisms, one of the most biodiverse wetland habitats on the planet, thrives just off the coast of Colombia. For children in a local neighborhood, the mangroves are a gateway to discovering ecology—and computer software.

This spring, Arab young people joined their contemporaries from around the world at a national service-learning conference held in New Mexico. At a panel called “Youth Leadership in the Arab World Post 9/11,” the participants countered negative stereotypes of Muslim youth today and shared their values, accomplishments, and aspirations for their region and the world. The conference drew nearly 3,000 participants.

Turning around “underperforming” schools or districts is difficult work. And it becomes more urgent every day as the number of schools earning this designation grows—and the consequences get tougher.

Seeking to improve mathematics education at the graduate level, EDC’s new Center for the Scholarship of School Mathematics is hosting a summer institute for university faculty. During the weeklong institute, faculty members will explore mathematics curricula at the K–12 level and then design similar experiences for their doctoral students.

EDC staff in Thailand enlisted the help of local university students to bring greater public attention to the scope of the HIV/AIDS crisis in that country. In partnership with film students from Chulalongkorn University (Chula), project staff researched, wrote, and produced three short documentary films that report on factors contributing to the epidemic, the plight of children orphaned by it, and promising new community-based responses.

EDC’s Adult Literacy Media Alliance (ALMA) has developed “Health Smarts While You Wait,” a volunteer-based health literacy program implemented in clinic and hospital waiting rooms to help patients improve their health literacy and manage their healthcare more effectively.

Many parents acknowledge that teenagers are drinking, but most believe that the drinkers are other people’s children. However, the numbers prove that that hope is likely to be false. In Revere, Massachusetts, for example, surveys found that more than half of middle school students were drinkers. In response, community members invited EDC to help parents and others understand and reduce underage drinking.