Nate’s the mastermind…
I’ve received lots of nice compliments about this website — all credit goes to Nate Wills who designed the whole thing. He does remarkable work! Thanks, Nate!
trends continue
From Chicago to California, student homelessness — and its increasing array of dilemmas — is growing….
http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/rising-homeless-student-population-struggles-school-11588
http://www.chicagonewscoop.org/advocates-claim-back-to-school-push-missing-key-piece/
weather problems
The hot summer months are among the toughest for homeless families and youth. Many residential facilities and services are full and folks have few options for gaining comfort and safety. Our public spaces that provide daytime respite for many adults — libraries, community centers, etc.– are altogether insufficient for moms with young kids and others whose mobility is challenged by an array of factors. Please keep them close in mind during this sweltering spell — and be conscious of ways you can contribute to their safety and well-being.
check this guy out…
My friend and colleague Martin Scanlan is doing great work in social justice-oriented educational leadership at Marquette: http://www.marquette.edu/education/faculty_staff/martin_scanlan.shtml
Neighborhood and Community Effects
Contributing to the “community effects” research, scholars such as Anyon, Berliner, and Noguera have described how school-centric foci on urban improvement – when contextualized within status quo-maintaining social policies and structures – are too narrowly framed to enact meaningful change in many students’ and families’ lives. They suggest that the development of truly equitable opportunities is necessarily rooted in multi-level social-systemic considerations.
dilemmas of doubled-up homelessness
Much has been written about the school-related struggles of sheltered homeless families and students, but those who are in doubled-up conditions are also of great concern. Doubled-up settings provide families with few cues about how to access or mobilize educational resources (such as those afforded by the McKinney-Vento Act) and, by nature of their out-of-the-system statuses, can complicate schools’ efforts to identify and serve them. This is especially relevant considering Lin’s (2000) finding that women, African Americans, and those who are poor—all of whom are significantly overrepresented among the homeless—are most likely to have networks that are “resource-poor” and devoid of institutional support. They need connections to school resources and relationships and often do not receive them in doubled-up settings.
Info on student homelessness
NAEHCY and NCHE both offer some really helpful information on student homelessness:
http://center.serve.org/nche/index.php
Also, an interesting article recently in the NYT on the mayor cutting a housing program for the homeless:
considering a homeless education research agenda…
Studies that employ longitudinal, mixed-method designs have particular promise for cultivating deep and authentic understandings of students’ experiences before and after periods of homelessness. Most empirical studies in the field to date have used quantitative measures to learn about issues such as student achievement, psychosocial perceptions, and physical/emotional health at specific points in time and, while such work is highly relevant and should continue to be pursued, it can be accompanied by qualitative efforts. Specifically of note would be designs that incorporate multi-site (shelters, agencies, schools, neighborhoods, etc.) ethnographic inquiry that tracks students’ and families’ school-related experiences for extended periods of time—including phases of transition from homelessness into permanent housing. Given the relative paucity of rigorous qualitative research into issues of education in contexts of homelessness and the general lack of understanding about “post-homelessness” effects and experiences, such efforts applied over extended periods of time could engender increased comfort and trust among researchers and participants and could advance the field significantly.
Considering Education Action Zones
As we consider the development of Promise Neighborhoods and other “place-based” reform initiatives, I think there are valuable lessons to be gleaned from the international context. Refer, for example, to Power, et al.’s (2004) examination of “Education Action Zones” in England: (“Paving a third way? A policy trajectory analysis of education action zones”)
