9-year-old girl outruns the boys, takes hits, and shines in football reel

I don’t love football, but I do love this football video!

Even next to her adorably pee-wee-sized opponents, Samantha “Sweet Feet” Gordon looks faster than a speeding bullet. Cute! Then, you see her take a couple hits. Bam! Ooh. Ouch.

Samantha Gordon of Utah also plays soccer, but she decided to try out for her brother’s football team after acing a few speed drills. Then, her dad put her reel up on YouTube… and the rest is cyber history in the making. Wheaties honored her with a cereal box (not for sale, sadly, at least not yet!) – and she’s the first female football star to earn this honor. Check out her adorable response on ESPN’s Sports Center. 

She’s now also my favorite football star – ever. (Joe M., I trust you’ll understand.)

Proof of impact

 By Vidya Sundaram, VP of Business Insights

A Stanford study finds that GreatSchools Local has a real impact on how parents of elementary age kids choose schools

For the past five years, GreatSchools has been operating local programs in select cities to help parents who might not otherwise have access to resources and knowhow find the right schools for their children. As we have collected feedback that parents appreciate and use our services, our local offices have expanded and evolved. Milwaukee's office opened in November 2007 followed by ones in Washington, DC in 2009 and Indianapolis in 2011. All three communities have open enrollment, abundant charter options, and voucher programs for low-income families. We reach predominantly low-income families. In 2011-12, 60% of families we served in Washington, DC and 70% in Milwaukee, WI were eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.

Yet without a well-designed rigorous study conducted by a neutral party, it's been difficult to measure the impact of our programs. This fall, with the preliminary release of findings from a randomized control trial (RCT) conducted through Stanford University's Center for Education Policy Analysis (CEPA), we can finally point to strong evidence that GreatSchools Local is influencing parents to choose higher performing schools.

Conducted by Susanna Loeb and Jon Valant, the study focused on GreatSchools Local programs in Milwaukee, WI and Washington, DC.  The researchers examined the effects of providing printed booklets with detailed school choice information and personal coaching support provided by GreatSchools staff. Preliminary results found that families with students in their final year of elementary school randomly selected to receive services in Washington, DC, chose higher performing middle schools (approximately 0.21 more stars on a five-star scale) than parents in the control group.

Although the same effects were not seen in Milwaukee, the likely cause is that several parents and schools in the Milwaukee control group, who had in previous years received GreatSchools information and services, requested the information (it was our policy to not deny any requests for print guides and/or services). In other words, in Milwaukee, our presence is now so strong that it was difficult to get a "clean" control group.  In Washington, DC, the study began during the program's first year, allowing for clean differences between the treatment and control groups.

CEPA will continue to report on findings from this study, including the impact of GreatSchools Local programs on high school selection, as well as the impact on student academic performance one year after enrollment. These results are expected to be peer-reviewed and presented in 2013.

Meanwhile, our in-house research team has also gathered information about who we serve locally, how parents value our services, and the nature of their school choice behavior. In June 2012, GreatSchools conducted an internal phone survey of more than 500 families served through our local programs, measuring program satisfaction and school choice behaviors. In Milwaukee, we found that 62% of families served visited two or more schools, and 95% applied to one or more of the higher performing schools in the city, up 20% from the year before.* In DC, we found that 65% of families visited two or more schools (up 11 percentage points over 2011) and 75% applied to one or more higher performing schools in the city.* Most parents reported that the school their child will be attending in 2012-2013 meets their top criteria and is a good fit for their needs. Very high program satisfaction rates -- 93% in Milwaukee, 98% in DC, and 92% in Indianapolis -- reflect the high value families find in our school information.

We're gearing up to build on this research in 2013 to better understand the impact of our digital programs nationally and locally on families and on schools systems. The quest for evidence continues!

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*Schools in Milwaukee were designated as higher performing if their GreatSchools Rating was 5 or higher, or the school met Adequate Yearly Progress in all objectives. Schools in DC were designated as higher performing if their GreatSchools Rating was 7 or higher, or their published DC School Chooser guide rating was 4 stars or higher.

New study finds unexpected key to helping bullied girls

By Jessica Kelmon, Associate Editor

One of the many heartbreaking moments in the documentary Bully was when Alex – after enduring endless torment on the bus and in the halls at school – comes home to his parents (who I’m sure wanted to help but didn’t know how) almost mocking him for being bullied.

Middle childhood (think 10 years old) is a critical stage in a child’s identity development. On the downside, mental disorders and psychological issues often emerge around this age. On the upside, research has identified “protective factors” that can boost a 10-year-old's emotional well-being and healthy development – including your child’s relationship with… you!

So reports a new study published this month in the Journal of Happiness Studies. Researchers set out to better understand the effects of bullying in 10-year-olds. Building on previous research that shows bullying can lead to increased anxiety and symptoms of depression, this study found a four-way interaction between bullying, gender (girls), relationships with adults, and friendship with peers: “victimization [is] particularly strongly associated with low life satisfaction, low self-esteem, and high depressive symptoms for girls with low self-reports of peer and adult connectedness,” write the five co-authors of the article “A Population Study of Victimization, Relationships, and Well-Being in Middle Childhood.”

Bullying rates among 10-year-olds

The researchers found that about half the kids reported at least one instance of bullying in the past year. About 1 in 7 girls and about 1 in 6 boys – all 10-year-olds – report being bullied several times per week. For girls, bullying primarily took the form of social victimization, followed closely by verbal abuse, then physical abuse, with far fewer instances of cyberbullying. For boys, social and verbal victimization were the most prevalent, followed by physical abuse, with far fewer reports of cyberbullying. These findings are concerning for many reasons – not the least of which is the association between being bullied and developing low self-esteem, anxiety, depression, and low levels of life satisfaction.

However, this study – featured in a journal devoted to Happiness Studies – breaks ground by finding an association between “protective factors” and mitigating the effects of bullying. “Some of the most powerful factors are of social nature:  Positive social relationships with adults and peers are strongly associated with children’s resilience, well-being, health, and competence,” the researchers write. They warn that protective factors don’t necessarily counteract the negative effects of being bullied, but the evidence shows that – especially for girls – social support from adults and peers may buffer them. Unfortunately, this moderating effect wasn’t found for boys, so further research is needed to determine what may have a buffering affect for boys.

How you can buffer the effects of bullying

So what’s in this secret sauce to create a connection between you and your 10-year-old? Among the questions the 10-year-olds answered: “Does a parent or some other grown-up at home listen when you have something to say?” “Does a parent or some other grown-up at home believe that you can do a good job?” “Does a parent or some other grown-up at home want you to do your best?” Even if the study doesn’t prove these parental efforts are equally effective for boys, I can’t help but think that Alex would have benefitted, in a large or small way, if he'd been able to answer, Yes, Yes, and Yes. 

GreatSchools Takes Silver at Gates-Facebook Hackathon

By Karissa Sparks, VP of Marketing 

 

 

GreatSchools recently participated in and won 2nd place at HackEd, an inspiring 1-day education "hackathon" sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation at Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park, CA.  College Summit and King Center Charter School co-sponsored the event.

The goal of the hackathon was to encourage developers, education experts, and nonprofits to prototype Facebook apps that help low-income and first-generation students get into and graduate from college.  HackEd was also the official kickoff for the College Knowledge Challenge, a broader challenge issued by the Gates Foundation with 30 more prizes totaling $2.5M.

More than 150 people attended HackEd, including representatives from organizations such as iMentor, 4.0 Schools, EverFi,  Mytonomy, Unigo, and more.

I represented GreatSchools, along with Gretchen Anderson, our VP of Product. We joined forces with Ben Rabidou and Marco Morales from Alleyoop.com to form the "College Dream Board" team, one of approximately twenty-two teams in all.

(From left to right: Ben Rabidou, Marco Morales, Karissa Sparks, Gretchen Anderson)

To get started, we were instructed to focus on one of these three challenges:

1. Pathways: Help students build, test, and implement personal academic pathways that grow out of college-career aspirations and are supported by informed decision-making.
2. Building Peer Groups: Help students build social capital and a college-going peer group.
3. College Admissions, Selection and Aid: Tackle information asymmetries in the college admissions, financial aid, and college selection processes that disadvantage low-income and first-generation students.

Our team addressed challenge #1.  In six short hours, we prototyped an app called the "College Dream Board." 

Designed for teens aged 13-17, the app offers a fun, highly visual, social way for youth to envision themselves as college-going students. Once a teen has the app, she is prompted to add milestones in three areas:  Passions, Strengths, and Skills.  She can also invite her close friends, family, and alumni from her high school or colleges of interest into her personal "Dream Team," a circle of supporters who provide information and encouragement as she builds her Dream Board - the collection of all her milestones. It's like Pinterest, but it exists within the Facebook environment and focuses specifically on the student's individual education journey.

HackEd was a great experience, and in my opinion, we were all winners.  We learned a lot from one another and were spurred on by wall-sized banners featuring  mantras like "Focus" and "Move Fast and Break Things." Here are three lessons our team took away from the event:     

1. Focus. The best ideas were the ones that focused on a single value proposition or killer feature and then drove it home. Apps that weren't well-defined or tried to do too much were less memorable -- and less successful.   
2. Be bold.  The smartest thing our team did was to step outside our comfort zone and risk rejection early by sharing our idea with a pitch coach first thing in the morning.  He helped us hone our idea by asking some hard questions, and we incorporated his feedback.  We also  talked to high school students who were there  to provide  real-time feedback (they were tougher than the judges!), and we listened to what they had to say.  Rule #1 in designing great products: talk to your "customers" early and often. We pitched something that was unexpected, and we were willing to make quick adjustments on the fly if necessary.
3. Done is better than perfect.  Several teams had interesting ideas, but didn't leave time to design their prototypes. Others had too much to say and were unable to get to the end of their pitches in the allotted 3 minutes.  If there is one thing we know from building digital media solutions—and HackEd was a great reminder of this—it's that we can’t let perfect be the enemy of good. The 6-hour time constraint forced us to get to the heart of the matter quickly and to create a finished product – minor flaws and all.

So what's next?  Now that we've had a taste of hackathons—HackEd was our first ever—we're converts. Next up: GreatSchools will be participating in the Shared Learning Collaborative (SLC) Camp in California this December.  Read more about it here.  After that, who knows? We might just issue our own hackathon challenge in 2013. Stay tuned!

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Related News Coverage:

Gates Foundation to award $100,000 grants for college apps [CNN Money]

Tech powerhouses hold hackathon for students [ABC 7 KGO-TV Bay Area]

Inside the Facebook Hackathon: What's Next? [NBC Bay Area]

Electioneering at your kitchen table: what are you teaching the kids?

By Jessica Kelmon, Associate Editor

Raise your hand if you can explain the electoral college to your curious 7-year-old.

We tried this at our GreatSchools laboratory (aka on our own children at home) and quickly figured out how tough it was.  

How do you teach your kids about something you don’t understand all that well yourself? That’s where we aimed to help. Keeping in mind that we want kids to be engaged, not glazed, we envision great fun and election education all wrapped up in a series of activities that would work for a range of kids (and might even teach us grown ups a thing or two.)

A virtual scavenger hunt!

Back at the drawing board, we mapped a plan to create something fun and useful.  Entertaining and educational.

Here’s what we did:

• Because kids think paperwork is fascinating and fun, we let them register to vote.
• Because there really are words your child needs to learn, we made a fill-in-the-blanks story.
• Because we think all kids should think about being president if that’s their dream, we have silly speech-writing, creative poster-making, and inspirational White House design activities.

And because the best way to understand something is to do it yourself, we include a ballot so your child can vote.

How you use these materials is up to you. But try the activities with your child, share them with your child’s teacher, and tell us whether you think we helped turn your curious grade schooler into a well-informed, thoughtful, future voter. 

Download the election booklet here or see it here.

Eat your &@%$#! lunch!

Connie Matthiessen, Associate Editor

It turns out that some kids are angry about the new school lunch policy, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010  — promoted by Michelle Obama — which mandates more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains,  and limits total calories in school lunches.

Check out the popular new YouTube video, "We are Hungry" (below), which shows teens (and teachers) fainting in class, athletes sprawling flat in the gym, and young kids crawling home from school — ostensibly because they didn't get enough lunch.

The video, which was created by a teacher, is comical but the intent is serious — it's a direct attack on the new lunch guidelines (in the video, kids burn copies of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act).  Meanwhile, students around the country are protesting the new lunch policy, and some Republicans in Congress have introduced the No Hungry Kids Act, which would limit the calorie restrictions imposed by the new lunch guidelines. 

The childhood obesity epidemic

If kids don't like the new, healthier school lunches, what's the answer? Should we go back to unhealthy, high-calorie school meals (which, incidentally, kids complained about, too)?

Hello — we're in the middle of a full-throttle health crisis in this country: more than a third of U.S. adults are obese, one in three children in the U.S. is overweight or obese, and obese children are more likely to become obese adults. Obesity condemns people to shorter life spans and expensive, debilitating health problems including diabetes, stroke and heart disease. 

Even as kids complain that the new lunches are leaving them hungry, according to an ABC news report, students are throwing out twice as much cafeteria food as they did last year.  

There's something wrong with this picture: kids are complaining about being hungry — and throwing away more food than ever before. I'm sorry, kids, but it's time to stop complaining — and eat your lunch!

More on the school lunch debates from Jon Stewart.

She was picked as a joke – but the joke’s on them

Photo by Robynlou8

By Jessica Kelmon, Associate Editor

No matter how (un)popular you were in high school, Whitney Kropp’s story hits home.

Imagine this: she’s sitting in math class as the homecoming court is announced over the PA system. She’s surprised – and thrilled - when she hears her name in the homecoming line up.

"She's just sweet. She doesn't have a mean bone in her body," Whitney’s mom, Bernice Kropp, told The Detroit News (as reported in a wonderful article, “Town turns tables on school prank”).

But the surprise quickly turned into a nightmare: it turns out that Whitney was picked as a joke. The 16-year-old found out, via Facebook and word of mouth, that “popular” kids put her name in the running as a prank. Hysterical:  an unpopular girl in the homecoming court! Right?

Wrong. But what makes this act of bullying different is that it wasn’t hushed up or ignored. Covering up incidents of bullying ostensibly protects the victim, but it can also send the message that the bullying target is somehow at fault; it also lets the bullies off the hook.  But that’s not what happened in this case. Instead, Whitney’s sister told her friends, who told their parents, who told their friends, The Detroit News reported.

Word spread and people rallied around Whitney in support. Someone created a Facebook page in support of Whitney, and it has more likes than the rural Michigan town has residents. Local business owners are donating their specialties so Whitney will have her hair and nails done, new shoes and a gown, a nice dinner, and even a tiara to wear. But it doesn’t stop there: Friday night’s game promises to be packed with residents wearing orange “Team Whitney” t-shirts.

The overwhelming support is heartwarming, and the outright rejection of 1980s John Hughes-esque high school meanness is inspiring. I love how this town has turned the tables on these small-minded bullies; this kind of community support is what could finally put an end to bullying once and for all.

Do you think this could happen in your town?

Read the article here and support Whitney on Facebook here.

Want more tools to combat bullying? Read our articles:

• 12 bullying myths 
• Signs your child is being bullied (video) 
• Two moms fight back 

Study maybe?

By Jessica Kelmon, Associate Editor

Okay, okay, maybe you’re a little sick of “Call Me Maybe” parodies. After all, everyone from President Obama (disclosure: the President did not make this video) to the U.S. Olympic Swim Team and the Harvard baseball team have entertaining takes on Carly Rae Jepson’s hit. But I love this version, called “Study Maybe,” by teachers at a Florida high school taking a break as they ramp up for the new school year. Here are three reasons why it’s so great:

1)      These teachers really parodied the song (trust teachers to stay true to the definition of parody) – adding their own revised lyrics. The new chorus is, “But I’m your teacher, so study maybe,” followed by gems such as “When I push you, you may hate me,” and “It’s hard to pass class when you’re lazy.”

2)      Studying is a tough topic. It’s boring and, as parents know too well, it’s hard to talk about without nagging or lecturing, much less sing about. This video takes a fresh look at the topic and makes it funny (Just look at those teachers dance!) and catchy; it provides an entrée into a conversation that parents need to have with their kids now and all year long. If you can make this conversation fun now, maybe you can change your household’s tune about studying throughout the school year.

3)      Seriously, the teachers sing and dance!

See what you think…

Can’t see the video? You can also watch it on YouTube.

Confession of a crammer

By Jessica Kelmon, Associate Editor

Cramming was the secret to my school success, the bread and butter of my academic career, one of the few things I did really well from a young age. I would study and do my homework, of course, but the lion’s share of my effort was always the night before. Was sleep sacrificed? Oh, yes. But I was a firm believer in the power of sleep banking: I always made up for my lost zzz’s on the weekends.

So there's a bit of payback in the news released by my alma mater this week: research findings that show my study methods were total hooey based on rationalization, not reason. In fact, if I’m anything like the kids in a new study called “To Study or to Sleep? The Academic Costs of Extra Studying at the Expense of Sleep” by UCLA researchers (published in Child Development), then my last minute, stay-up-all-night approach to studying probably created more academic problems than it solved.

For the study, researchers asked 9th, 10th, and 12th graders to complete daily diaries for two weeks documenting their study time, sleep time, and academic functioning, and the results were clear: sacrificing sleep for study time takes a toll on learning and academic performance.

But if you’re raising a hard-working, college-bound student, it can be hard to get her to close the books and go to sleep. (Just ask my mom.) The struggle over sleep goes on in households across America – and a new school year is the perfect time to instill new habits. So here’s a little wisdom to back you up next time you want your tween or teen to turn out the lights (all quotes are from the UCLA study).

Study time is likely controlling your child’s sleep time

“Study time is one of the most significant determinants of high school students’ sleep time, more so than time spent with friends or family or time spent using media.” Sharing this info may backfire when you’re trying to limit screen time, but I’ll bet this nugget sticks with your child.

Staying up to study may be hurting, not helping

“Thus, our results suggest that regardless of whether or not students had a test, study time became increasingly associated with academic problems such that, by 10th grade, nights with longer than average study times tended to be followed by days with more academic problems.”

The 8 hour a night myth (Hint: 8 hours isn't enough)

“In high school, sacrificing sleep to study may be especially problematic because, in general, high school age adolescents are chronically sleep deprived… the vast majority of high school students (62%) get insufficient sleep… In 9th grade, the average adolescent sleeps for 7.6 hr per night, and this time decreases to 7.3 hr in 10th grade, 7.0 hr in 11th grade, and 6.9 hr in 12th grade” So it’s building over time – and wreaking havoc on your child’s learning abilities. Part of the problem is the amount of sleep kids need is constantly misstated (check out the chart below). According to the National Sleep Foundation, 8 hours may not even be enough for adults – and it’s definitely not enough for a school-aged child.

As for my sleep banking theory, the researchers make it clear that it doesn't work:, “other studies have demonstrated that even beyond total amounts of sleep, irregular sleep schedules are associated with lower academic performance.”

Time management to the rescue

So what’s the answer?  If there are too many demands on your high schoolers' time, don’t let it affect their sleep, researchers say. Instead, encourage your child find ways to use school time more effectively, watch less TV, and take a hard look at extracurriculars.

And when it comes to studying for a test, students should do a consistent, manageable amount of studying every night and then go to bed at a reasonable hour. “In and of itself, this is a generally effective study strategy—experimental research has demonstrated that spacing study time evenly across a number of days results in better academic performance than studying in one massed session, even if the total amount of study time is the same.”  

In other words: no cramming!

Giving parents more and better information about schools

Reaching nearly half of all American K-12 households, GreatSchools is the leading source of information about schools for parents nationally. For more than a decade, we’ve published data to help families understand how schools are performing academically and we’ve coupled that with an unparalleled collection of community ratings and reviews – more than one million at last count.
 
While our ratings and reviews are one of the best ways to learn about a school, we know that parents must also look beyond the numbers in order to fairly assess whether a particular school will be a good fit for their child and family. They need reliable information about a school's programs, culture, and unique features - information that is hard to come by at scale.

Enter the new GreatSchools Official School Profile. This is where principals, admissions officers, and other authorized school staff can provide helpful information about their school's singular qualities, including the instructional model, programs, extracurricular activities, and admissions information. They can also post photos and videos that will help families "peek inside" to get a realistic sense of what a school looks and feels like.

Since we launched the Official School Profile, thousands of schools nationwide have already signed up and filled theirs out. School officials can register for free at http://www.greatschools.org/osp, where they're able to provide the information that will power their school's enhanced page on our website.  Over the course of the coming few months, we will unveil a new school profile design that truly showcases Official School Profile information. This, along with other major enhancements on the horizon, will allow parents to gain a much deeper understanding of schools they are considering.

Meanwhile, you can already see some of the pictures that schools have provided via our new tool:

• P.S. 10 Magnet School for Math, Science & Design Technology in New York
• The Cloverleaf School in Georgia
• Deer Valley High School in Arizona

I love how the photos provide a glimpse into the school community and what it values.

Please spread the word — encourage schools in your community to tell their full story. Ask principals to go to http://www.greatschools.org/osp or download and share this flyer with other school officials.

The Official School Profile represents a major step forward on GreatSchools' journey to serve parents, students, and schools. We'll keep you informed as we roll out more elements of this program in the coming months.