Debra's Tutoring And Home School Support

I was recently asked to sign a petition to better fund early childhood education. There is a lot of research about early childhood education, but it depends on what you mean by "early childhood education" and the types of programs that determine whether it makes a positive or negative long term impact on learning. You can read more at www.debrastutoringblogspot.com

I am a member of the Roadmap to cut Bay Area Poverty. Last Monday, "Close the Word Gap" work group met for the first time. I have been charged with doing research for the group and will post interesting information I learn. There is lots of research about how important it is to read, talk and sing to infants. To be a successful reader, a child needs to know from 10,000 to 20,000 words the experts say. Children from affluent homes show up at kindergarten knowing about 20,000 ...words. Middle-class 5-year-olds know about 12,000 words. Children from low-income families arrive the first day of school with fewer than 2,000 words. Furthermore, children who don't learn to read by the 3rd grade are eight times more likely to drop out of high school, 40% more likely to become a teen parent and 70% more likely to be arrested for a violent crime. 70% of prisons inmates are either illiterate or can't read or write well. In 2012, 53% of children born in California were born to low-income mothers. That means, that over half the babies born in California are born in poverty! It has always been known that the less educated and poor are the ones that end up in prison but if we want our tax dollars to go into something else (like education and job creation) we need to close this word gap now. Everyone, parents, caregivers, aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc. can read, sing and talk to babies. Research supports not "talking down" or using "baby talk" and it is good for children to hear language that's above their above their abilities. All it requires is a one-on-one connection, which can be done in the language the adult feels more comfortable in. As a matter of fact, if the adult is more proficient in their native language that's the language they should use...based on my research on 2nd language acquisition, but beyond the scope of this post. I will keep you updated about what the "Close the Word Gap" work group is doing and let you know about things you can do to help close the word gap as well as volunteer opportunities. See more

50th Place California's ranking in per-pupil funding among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, based on 2010-2011 school data and adjusted for cost-of-living factors. Reported in the January, Education Week "Quality Counts" study, which also said California is $3,523 below the national average in education spending per student.

Dear Readers, I recently talked to my old professor and mentor Art Pearl. Art has been a political activists, writer and teacher, focusing on issues of democratic education for more than four decades. Now in his 80's, he is still teaching, writing and acting on his beliefs, He talked to me about the attack on public schools, on unions, and the need for democratic education. In my post (today) I am going to use our discussion as a springboard for expanding my ideas about the current attack on public education, unions, and unions representing teachers. You can read my column, "Taking The Public Out of Public Education" at [email protected]

The California Educator always has interesting articles. This is from a column called, "Did you know? More and more college admissions officers "Google" an applicant (29%) or visit an applicant's Facebook or other social networking page to learn more about them (31%). The percentages are at their highest levels yet, according to Kaplan Test Prep's 2013 survey of college admissions officers. When Kaplan first began tracking this issue in 2008, barely 10% of admissions officers... reported checking a Facebook page. Despite the growth in online checking, however, there's been a dip - to 30% in 2013 from 35% in Kaplan's 2012 survey - in the number of admissions officers reporting that they're finding something that negatively impacted an applicant's admissions chances. In a separate survey of college bound students, more that three-quarters said they would not be concerned if an admissions officer Googled them." See more

Oops!!! Does anyone know how to go back and edit to correct typo's? Nothing I try works!

Fulfilling The Dream...If I Were In Charge (part two) at www.debrastutoring@blogspot,.com

My Dreams For A Better School System...If I Were In Charge (part one) at [email protected]

Round, Square or Curly: Important Symbols in Mathematics that you can read at [email protected]

Dear readers. My latest post is about education and poverty at [email protected]

Do you set goals? How do you set goals and what is the difference between long and short term goals? On Friday you can read my article about the importance of goal setting, how to successfully reach your goal(s) and the difference between long and short term goals at www.debrastutoringblogspot.com.

Oops ... forgot to mention that my blog articles are posted every Friday at www.debrastutoringblogspot.com

Happy New Year! May this upcoming year be everything you wish for. 2014 is not a leap year which means it will have 364 days and may each one of those days bring you health and happiness. I am back to my routine and will be posting on Facebook Mondays and Wednesdays and my usual blog post with new articles about educational issues and ideas about how to learn and understand academic concepts.