Economy, education will get a boost

Economy, education will get a boost
BANGALORE: The special status for six backward districts of Hyderabad-Karnatak region by the Centre under Article 371D will focus on industries and the human development index, besides education and employment. The regional tag for the six districts of …
Read more on Times of India

A fire broke out at Spring Hill School in early July and gutted this classroom
LIVE OAK. School to host National Night Out event. National Night Out celebration at Shoreline Middle School, at 855 17th Ave., will celebrate National Night Out from 6-9 p.m. Tuesday with free activities, music, entertainment and food for attendees.
Read more on San Jose Mercury News

Sell Donate Trade announces Summer fundraising boost for charities

(PRWEB UK) 16 July 2012

UK charities facing a lull in income over the Summer months now have the opportunity to raise an extra

Florida High School Valedictorian Creates Innovative Tech Program to Boost Math Grades

Coral Springs, FL (PRWEB) April 18, 2012

A 17-year-old high school senior has conducted an experiment utilizing research from a Harvard economist to discover that underperforming students can improve by at least one letter grade by using savvy technology with a little extra money in their pocket.

Rohit Bhandari, vice president of the senior class at JP Taravella High School in Coral Springs, paid 17 underperforming students $ 5 per day for 32 hour-long sessions over an eight-week period after school. The students, some of whom had learning disabilities, were asked to use various forms of powerful, technology based study aids to help improve in math. At the end of the term, 100 percent of the participants had improved by at least one letter grade, and in some cases, two or three letter grades.

For many students, it was the first time in their life that they had received an A in math, said Bhandari. One of our students would not have graduated if he failed in the fourth quarter, and he credits our program with helping him to graduate.

Now Bhandaris creation, the Financial Incentives and Technological Solutions Program (FITS), is spreading to three neighboring schools and he has been invited to speak to Floridas state legislature about its success.

Rohit started his math program with 17 students, some of which were my own students and as each day passed I saw more motivation and better test sores as a result, said Wendy Moskowitz, a Taravella High teacher.

FITS is based on the findings of a landmark study by Harvard economist Roland Fryer, Jr. widely reported in 2010 which found that paying students to study generated an improvement in test scores. Using private funds, Fryer paid 18,000 students from four different test cities a total of $ 6.3 million. The most significant results were seen in Dallas, where second graders were paid to read books. Fryer argued that paying students for grades produced a similar result to reducing class size, but at a fraction of the cost.

There is no better incentive for kids to learn than to actually pay them for doing well. I honesty do not believe my son would have passed Algebra 1 without having this extra help, said Taravella parent Shari Hain.

Bhandari says the pairing of intuitive technology with pay has the ability to boost test scores and grades even further than those in Fryers experiment. He raised $ 2,000 from local businesses, family and friends to launch the program at his school, where more than 300 students applied for the 17 spots. Participants improved their math scores by .79 standard deviations, four times the improvement found in the Harvard research and for just $ 200 per student. Rohit points out that cost is less than a tenth of the $ 2500 per student cost to reduce class size.

My program is a way to get students to spend a required amount of time investing in their education, but Im certain that once they do spend that time their motivation will come from the desire for continued success, not an external trigger such as money, said Bhandari.

Already, his theory is working. Two weeks ago, Bhandari launched the second segment of his program, this time with no money involved. The results thus far are promising and Bhandari believes he will be able to generate even larger improvements.

Bhandari is in the process of establishing a non-profit to promote his pilot program and hoping to create more cost effective ways to boost student success.

Find More Learning Disabilities Press Releases

Customized Online and In-Person Tutoring Services Help The Stimulus Effect Boost Achievement Levels by Over 11%

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) April 18, 2012

A once insecure 11-year-old, who was left back twice, now earns As and Bs in her classes. An MBA student who once struggled with dyslexia earned a 95 on his finance midterm. A professional who was nearly scared to death of math is on track to receive an A- in her statistics class. And, an adult student who thought his learning disabilities would stop him from even earning his BA is now poised to be accepted into a rigorous graduate program. These are just some of the clients that enabled The Stimulus Effect to increase its achievement scores by over 11% during the last year. To what can this success be attributed? The students hard work, motivation, and determination are of course instrumental factors. However, if you ask them, they would also add The Stimulus Effects engaging tutoring services and tailored exercises.

From the companys clients, it seems that a nurturing approach, and offering students opportunities to challenge themselves, serve as keys to progress. The tutors really try to craft the concepts to your understanding during the sessions, says Delia, an MBA student in Austin, TX. The Stimulus Effect seems not only to want their students to do well on tests, but also to really know the material.

In elementary school, it was a struggle just to write a paragraph. But, its now easy to write quality, academic papers that are worthy of the graduate levelhonestly, most of that progress came within the last year. My tutor had so much to do with that, says Demia, a Ph.D. candidate in Jersey City, NJ who has also benefitted from the firms services.

For the first time, I know I can make it. There were a lot of hard exercises to do (even sometimes on vacations and weekends), but it was so worth it. School is fun now, says Ikia, an elementary student in New York, NY.

I think if you look at the companys successes, it really comes down to giving students an environment to safely expand expectations and redefine possibilities, says Arziki Phenyo, The Stimulus Effects founder.

Whether a student has failed a number of times before, has struggled with learning disabilities, or has even lost his or her motivation to do well, the firms committed to rekindling that passion for achievement. And, The Stimulus Effects success is evident from the numbers. In the spring of 2011 median test scores were 80, 81, and 83 for elementary, secondary, and post-secondary students; now, median scores are 88, 89, and 94 for each academic level. The company seems poised for even stronger growth in the future.

So, how will The Stimulus Effect ensure that its students progress even more? The goal is for all median scores to be at least at the A level. To do that, we will begin creating customized learning agreements in the summer of 2012 that allow tutors and clients to work collaboratively on practicalbut challenginggoals that motivate progress. In addition, we will further tailor our follow-up exercises to feature enriched and advanced problems that provide acceleration beyond the current levels of content in their classes. The idea is for students not only to be able to excel in their current classes, but to have the tools to thrive at the highest levels. From the successes over the past year, it is evident that The Stimulus Effect holds their clientsand just as importantly themselvesto a higher standard.

Related Learning Disabilities Press Releases

Health & Disability Advocates Lauds New Labor Dept. Proposal to Boost Federal Contractor Hiring of Qualified Workers with Disabilities

Chicago, Illinois (PRWEB) February 22, 2012

Health & Disability Advocates, the parent organization of Think Beyond the Label, a public-private partnership that connects businesses to jobs for people with disabilities across the U.S., strongly supports a proposed Department of Labor rule to require federal contractors and subcontractors to set a goal for hiring qualified people with disabilities to 7 percent of their workforce.

For far too long, businesses have publicly stated their interest in hiring people with disabilities, but for a variety of reasons they have not acted on that interest, says Barbara Otto, CEO of Health & Disability Advocates. The proposed rule will provide further incentives for businesses to hire, and with proper guidance and enforcement, will facilitate the increased employment of qualified workers with disabilities.

Such a move would amend regulations of Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act to bring employment of people with disabilities in line with federal contractors other obligations, which include hiring women and minorities.

While Otto lauds the proposal as a step in the right direction, she says more work needs to be done to improve the hiring practices of federal contractors to reflect the growing number of Americans with disabilities, who represent nearly 20 percent of the U.S. population. “We believe the Labor Department should raise the hiring goal for qualified workers with disabilities to 10 percent, given that the 7 percent goal is based on the 2009 American Community Survey and captures a considerably narrower set of people with disabilities than is covered by Section 503 and the Americans with Disabilities Act,” she says.

“Raising the hiring target should also come with more options for businesses to meet that goal, ensuring their ability to succeed,” Otto adds, such as a phased-in hiring approach based on the number of employees and the size of the federal contract.

Think Beyond the Label says businesses can readily meet their workplace diversity goals through a mix of disability-friendly outreach, recruitment strategies and workplace initiatives. Otto provides the following tips to employers: