Melissa Mitchell Named Executive Director of the Federation

Prior to joining the Federation in 2007, Melissa was a resource coordinator with Youth Guidance at the South Loop Elementary School. She holds a Bachelors degree in Psychology from Dartmouth College and a Masters in Education from DePaul University. She looks forward to working together with all of the Federation's members and stakeholders to continue to build and sustain strong, impactful community schools, and to advance community schools across the state. Her contact information remains melissa@ilcommunityschools.org or (312) 629-4992.

LSNA Featured on NBC's Education Nation

Congratulations to our partners at Logan Square Neighborhood Association (LSNA) on being featured yesterday morning on NBC's Education Nation.  LSNA was recognized as one of ten organizations in the U.S. that are doing things right in schools.  Faced with the challenge of working in schools with parents who have limited resources, limited English language skills, and limited comfort being involved in their children's schools, LSNA implements a parent mentor program that unites homes and schools and puts parents in the classroom to support student learning. 

In addition to featuring LSNA, Education Nation also recognized Cincinnati's Community Learning Centers, which make up the city's highly-successful community school initiative, and took an in-depth look at how community partners and wraparound support have helped children thrive throughout the district.

Common Core and Out-of-School Time

There is growing momentum around the idea of expanded learning opportunities and the recognition that learning can occur anywhere, anytime has heightened that interest. The Common Core State Standards are emerging amid these growing calls for expanded learning opportunities and collective action among schools and community partners. This gives the out-of-school time (OST) field a window to assert itself as a necessary part of children's development and education. The goal of OST providers need not be to replicate the core work of schools, but rather to complement, support and expand it.

With that in mind, the Forum for Youth Investment partnered with Youth Development Executives of King County to develop a brief about what the Common Core means for the youth development and OST field, and whether and how they can support schools and districts in implementing the standards.

This brief will provide you with an overview of the standards, examples of OST systems responding to the standards, and opportunities facing the OST field.

A recent edition of Public Radio International's acclaimed show This American Life explores our education system and "traditional ways we measure ability and intelligence in American schools."  Through conversations with Paul Tough, author of How Children Succeed and University of Chicago Economics Professor James Heckman host Ira Glass attempts to answer a fundamental question about education: What should children be learning?  This seemingly direct question leads to an exploration of the importance of so-called 'non-cognitive' skills as well as the ways in which the experiences children have outside of the classroom have serious implications on classroom learning.  This thoughtful episode of This American Life makes a strong case for the critical work community schools do to develop and nurture children's non-cognitive skills.