California's Children

SFUSD: healthy food may have improved behavior by 50%

IMay 17, 2012: Susan Frey, a program associate at EdSource, has released an "occasional paper," outlining the efforts of the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) to provide kids with healthier food choices.

Interviewed for the paper,"San Francisco’s Long Campaign to Provide Healthier School Meals Yields Results," was Dana Woldrow, healthy school food advocate and volunteer chair of SFUSD's Student Nutrition and Physical Activity Committee (SNPAC). Woldrow describes the district's transformation from a two-tiered system--regular lunch and a la carte (potato chips, sodas and snack cakes, for those who can pay)--to the one today that has salad bars, has eliminated all trans fats (fried food), and offers a daily vegetarian entree in all district schools.

Patricia Gray, above, SFUSD assistant superintendent, thinks that eliminating the unhealthiest items and providing fresh fruit snacks contributed toward a reduction in referrals for discipline to her office by about half, particularly for “bad behavior after lunch.”

But it does so at a cost. In these tough budgetary times, the food service runs a deficit every year—more than $3 million last year. District children have healthy meals each day because the school board has decided to make it a priority, closing the deficit with monies from the district’s unrestricted general fund, which was more than $300 million in 2010–11.

The system is inherently flawed, Woldow points out, because the federal reimbursement for lunches is the same for all 48 contiguous states despite the differences in cost of living.

Eligibility for the free and reduced-price meals program...does not take into account the higher cost of living in California...Unlike many districts, San Francisco also does not charge students the 40 cents for reduced-price meals either.

In 2009, Ed Wilkins, SFUSD's director of Student Nutrition Services, decided to eliminate the a la carte menu and create a card system that all students could use...removing the [potential] stigma [of] ...participating in the ...subsidized program. The card program was implemented district-wide in 2010–11. Now the only items left on the a la carte menu are bottled water, 100% fruit juice, and low-fat, lower-sugar cookies.

The district [still] needs more federal, state, or local funds to make the costs of distributing food and buying it from local vendors sustainable, Wilkins said...adding that policymakers...need to understand that healthy food does not come cheaply.

EdSource, founded in 1977, is an independent, nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization whose mission is to clarify complex education issues and to promote thoughtful policy decisions about public school improvement. Louis Freedberg, founding director of California Watch, is executive director.

Written for California's Children by Elizabeth J Carlyle. 

Brain rewiring: we're not permanently defined by childhood memories

March 26, 2012: It’s not that caregiving changes genes; it influences how the genes express themselves as the child grows, explains science writer Diane Ackerman, at left,  in yesterday's New York Times. 

An excerpt:

A relatively new field, interpersonal neurobiology, draws its vigor from one of the great discoveries of our era: that the brain is constantly rewiring itself based on daily life. In the end, what we pay the most attention to defines us. How you choose to spend the irreplaceable hours of your life literally transforms you.

All relationships change the brain — but most important are the intimate bonds that foster or fail us, altering the delicate circuits that shape memories, emotions and that ultimate souvenir, the self.

....At birth, the brain starts blazing new neural pathways based on its odyssey in an alien world. An infant is steeped in bright, buzzing, bristling sensations... but most of all a powerfully magnetic primary caregiver whose wizardry astounds.

Brain scans show synchrony between the brains of mother and child; but what they can’t show is the internal bond that belongs to neither alone, a fusion in which the self feels so permeable it doesn’t matter whose body is whose. Wordlessly, relying on the heart’s semaphores, the mother says all an infant needs to hear, communicating through eyes, face and voice. Thanks to advances in neuroimaging, we now have evidence that a baby’s first attachments imprint its brain. The patterns of a lifetime’s behaviors, thoughts, self-regard and choice of sweethearts all begin in this crucible.

We used to think this was the end of the story: first heredity, then the brain’s engraving mental maps in childhood, after which you’re pretty much stuck with the final blueprint.

But as a wealth of imaging studies highlight, the neural alchemy continues throughout life as we mature and forge friendships, dabble in affairs, succumb to romantic love, choose a soul mate. The body remembers how that oneness with Mother felt, and longs for its adult equivalent.

As the most social apes, we inhabit a mirror-world in which every important relationship, whether with spouse, friend or child, shapes the brain, which in turn shapes our relationships. Daniel J. Siegel and Allan N. Schore, colleagues at the University of California, Los Angeles, recently discussed groundbreaking work in the field at a conference on the school’s campus. It’s not that caregiving changes genes; it influences how the genes express themselves as the child grows. Dr. Siegel, a neuropsychiatrist, refers to the indelible sense of “feeling felt” that we learn as infants and seek in romantic love, a reciprocity that remodels the brain’s architecture and functions....

Story tip from Giuliana Halasz.

A posse, not SAT score, is key to minority student college success

The stories of Brown and Rangel tell us not just that the SAT is an inadequate predictor of college success, but that it can be malignant. -- from an essay in the Opinionator, in today's New York Times, by Tina Rosenberg.

Reviewing the concept and work of the Posse Foundation, Rosenberg writes:

Most Posse Scholars would not have qualified for their colleges by the normal criteria. Posse Scholars’ median combined SAT score is only 1056, while the median combined score at the colleges Posse students attend varies from 1210 to 1475. Nevertheless, they succeed. Ninety percent of Posse Scholars graduate — half of them on the dean’s list and a quarter with academic honors. A survey (pdf) of 20 years of alumni found that nearly 80 percent of the respondents said they had founded or led groups or clubs. There are only 40 Posse Scholars among Bryn Mawr’s 1,300 students, but a Posse student has won the school’s best all-around student award three times in the past seven years. Posse is changing the way universities look at qualifications for college, and what makes for college success.

In operation for 22 years, the Posse Foundation, according to its website:

... has identified, recruited and trained 4,223 public high school students with extraordinary academic and leadership potential to become Posse Scholars. These students—many of whom might have been overlooked by traditional college selection processes—receive four-year, full-tuition leadership scholarships from Posse's partner institutions of higher education... Posse Scholars graduate at a rate of 90 percent and make a visible difference on campus and throughout their professional careers.

Two years ago, the Posse Foundation received a $125,000 donation from President Obama -- about 10% of his monetary award for the Nobel Peace Prize (the Posse Foundation was one of 10 nonprofits chosen to receive the donated funds).

Posse was founded by Deborah Bial, above, who was, in 1988, a teacher in an after-school program. She has since been selected as a MacArthur Fellow (2007) and has received an Ed. D. from Harvard (2004).

It's official: $8 million in increased funding for CalWORKs Stage 3

Contractors, administrators and providers of CalWORKs Stage 3 (non-federally funded subsidized child care for the final stage of welfare-to-work) received the following notice yesterday from Camille Maben, at right, director of the Child Development Division (CDD) of the California Department of Education (CDE):

There have been reports in the field that a possible infusion of funding for Stage 3 could be imminent. We would like to confirm that $8 million in increased funding for Stage 3 is being identified as we speak, and the California Department of Education (CDE) will release details on this increase and the impact it will have on individual Stage 3 contractors as soon as possible. This funding will be a great assistance to those contractors experiencing disproportionate Stage 3 enrollment growth, and will hopefully allow advocacy for full funding of Stage 3 enrollment growth to continue.

 CDE staff are reviewing caseload and expenditure reports to quickly determine which Stage 3 agencies have the greatest need for additional funding. We are committed to providing information as soon as possible regarding the impact these additional funds could have to your contracts, and intend to inform agencies next week about what minimum amount they will be able to expect as an augmentation to their contracts. This augmentation should allow impacted agencies to adjust your disenrollment plans and keep more families in your programs.

 We are delighted to bring you this information, but are sure this also generates many questions. We will hold a conference call on Monday afternoon [January 30, 2012] at 3:00 p.m. to provide additional information and answer questions. If you have additional information to share about your agency’s Stage 3 shortfall, this issue will also be discussed Monday....

New taxes? Half of that $ is already being spent: Dan Walters

January 25, 2012: Dan Walters, at left, a 40-year veteran political journalist and columnist with the Sacramento Bee, wrote yesterday on the implications for K-12 with Governor Brown's impending tax initiative in the 2012-13 budget: if voters pass the temporary increase in sales and income taxes next fall,  K-12 spending would increase by $4.4 billion; if not, automatic cuts would likely be triggered to cover the shortfall.

[A poll released January 24, 2012, by the Public Policy Institute of California found 68 % of likely voters surveyed were in favor of Brown's tax increases (up from last month); 75% of likely voters oppose the proposed trigger cuts.]

Walters poses (and answers) this question:

Is Brown using schools as a pawn in the chess game over taxes, knowing that they are the most popular piece of the budget? Does the sun rise in the East?

At the very least, it forces local school officials to make difficult assumptions about whether the taxes will pass or fail and fashion their own 2012-13 budgets accordingly. It's a new version of the game that Brown and the Legislature played with the 2011-12 budget and its last-minute assumption that the state would get another $4 billion in revenue.

Educators don't even see much upside (to voters agreeing to the new taxes) because about half of the supposedly new school money would "pay down" aid deferrals – money that's already counted but doesn't actually show up until months later. They are already spending that money, using reserves or loans to cover cash delays.

Brown's plans also propose eliminating funding for some of the more narrowly focused "categorical programs" and instead giving districts more say in how they spend their money. Rather, the funding would be "weighted", allocated to districts based on concentrations of disadvantaged students (low-income, English language learners); more affluent districts will therefore receive less.

Brown would also like to eliminate much of the academic testing in the name of "accountability," and thereby, short-circuit the nascent effort to use academic tests for teacher evaluation.

In the words of Walters:

It's a tall order for a Capitol that measures change in education policy in micrometers and usually misses even that mark.

Written for California's Children by Elizabeth J Carlyle.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/01/24/4209665/dan-walters-jerry-browns-budget.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/01/24/4209665/dan-walters-jerry-browns-budget.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/01/24/4209665/dan-walters-jerry-browns-budget.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/01/24/4209665/dan-walters-jerry-browns-budget.html#storylink=cpy