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EDC Update Spring 2008

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EDC Update Spring 2008 (pdf, 3.9 MB)
  • Beyond Bedside Manner

    During times of illness, patients and families count on open and caring communication with their doctors. Two EDC programs explore ways to open those lines of communication.

  • The Rewards of Listening

    From a very early age, children learn about language by listening to adults, and seeing and hearing them read books and newspapers. These first experiences with literacy help prepare youngsters to become readers. But how can parents who themselves have low-literacy skills support their children’s early reading efforts?

  • Transatlantic Lessons

    Changes in a student’s routine, such as the journey from primary to secondary school, can be rocky. For students with disabilities and for English language learners, these transitions can mean the difference between success and failure. This was just one topic discussed during a recent study tour at EDC involving education policymakers and practitioners from both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

  • Overcoming the School-Fee Hurdle

    In communities around the world, school fees can be so prohibitive for families that many students enroll late, drop out, or fail to attend at all. And when, as in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the government is not able to support the schools, communities and families must resort to creative ways of generating income so that children can attend school.

  • Reading the Signs

    With school shootings, prescription drug abuse, childhood depression, and other signs of youth distress making headlines, schools are grappling with mental health issues in ways they never have before. As director of the National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention at EDC, Deborah Haber helps districts across the country develop effective health programs and policies.

  • Islamic Schools Boost Programs

    Many Islamic schools in Ghana lag behind the formal education system. “They are resource-lean operations,” says EDC’s Helen Boyle. USAID Ghana and the Ghanaian government are drawing on Boyle’s expertise in Islamic education as they improve education across the country.

  • Taking Aim at Dropping Out

    Students who live in low-income, urban communities face a heightened risk of dropping out of school. Without a diploma, job opportunities are scarce. Lower literacy, poorer health, and reduced income all create more problems.

  • Beyond the Basics with Math

    Chicago Public Schools—the third largest school district in the United States—is embarking on a comprehensive high school reform effort and has turned to EDC. A mathematics program developed by EDC will be a central part of the 100-high-school reform effort.

  • Logging on to Learning

    EDC researchers are analyzing what works in online professional development programs by studying Teachers’ Domain, a program for high school science teachers. Offered by PBS TeacherLine, the program uses science materials and multimedia resources to deepen teachers’ knowledge of science content and enhance their teaching skills.

  • Teaching 2.0

    Blogs, wikis, social networking sites—these and other online tools are rapidly becoming as familiar to students as pens and pencils. Now, a new EDC Web workshop is helping teachers keep up by enabling them to learn more about safe and effective use of these tools in the classroom.

  • Hope on Wheels

    In the Umkhanyakude district of South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province, learning conditions are bare bones. As many as 100 students cram into a classroom in schools that have little water or electricity. Noises distract, from the wooden chairs against cement floors to rain hammering on the corrugated roof.

  • Girls Flip for Science and Engineering

    An EDC-sponsored after-school project where girls produce videos about careers in science and engineering recently received a donation of “flip cameras.” The cameras will enable the girls to produce Web-based personal vignettes in which they explore their dream careers.

  • Off the Beaten Path

    Oceans may separate two communities in Jamaica and India that exist in the shadows of popular tourist destinations, but these communities are joined by the challenges they face in providing educational and economic opportunities for their youth.

  • An Ancient Land Goes Green

    More than 80 primary schools and communities in Egypt are taking part in this two-year environmental education initiative. Known as the Egyptian Environmental Education and Outreach Program (E3OP), the initiative engages schools and communities in exploring environmental issues and introduces experiential, active-learning methods into Egyptian classrooms.

  • Just Back: Jeremy Groce

    The director of EDC’s Sudan Radio Service, which broadcasts to that country from Nairobi, Groce had been on the scene during the election as part of a Sudanese voting observation team that included other journalists and government officials. With Sudan’s first national election scheduled for 2009, the team hoped to learn from Kenya’s experience. In February, Groce reflected on the election and its troubled aftermath.