As young people transition through childhood to adolescence, they often face developmental challenges that can impede their quest to become flourishing, healthy adults. While both males and females experience difficulties, there are certain risk factors to which males are more susceptible. Compared with females, males tend to be more likely to drop out of school, engage in delinquency, use alcohol, smoke cigarettes, and act out. They are also less likely than females to go to college. While a number of evidence-based programs have been found to be effective at reducing risk factors for children and adolescents, many programs have differential impacts for females and males. Understanding  what works for male children adolescent is critical to improving outcomes for youth. This Fact Sheet and its companion Fact Sheet, focused on female children and adolescents, examine programs and strategies that work, as well as those that don't work.  

This literature review synthesizes findings from 115 random assignment intent-to-treat evaluations of interventions that targeted male children and adolescents, or coed interventions that provide impact data specifically for male children and adolescents. Interventions were excluded from the review if they did not include at least 100 males in the evaluation sample.  Complete report.

Unite Against Bullying School Planning Guide - FREE  

Need help planning a student-led bullying prevention event? PACER has formed a partnership with Facebook to create a practical Student Event Toolkit that will make it easier to hold events in your school or community. This step-by-step guide will help you plan, promote, and execute a variety of events throughout the year using Facebook tools.  Free Guide.   

After working with more than 100 students over the past 15 years, you might think Roberta Thomas, LCSW, would be a bit tired of being a field instructor.  Not a chance.

"Even after 15 years, I find that [field instruction] is my passion," says Thomas, supervising children's social worker at the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services. "The students help me excel in areas I never thought I'd excel in. You get reenergized about being a social worker by seeing the world through their eyes."

The potential for a similar experience draws many social workers to field instruction; there's the chance to give back to the profession, shape the development of new social workers, and build supervisory skills. But field instruction is not for everyone, and a social worker's failure to seriously self-assess his or her abilities and limitations as a field instructor can lead to bad experiences for students. Learn the tips for success.

Why Leaders Lose Their Way  

A new study by the University of Chicago Crime Lab, in partnership with the Chicago Public Schools and local nonprofits Youth Guidance and World Sport Chicago, provides rigorous scientific evidence that a violence reduction program succeeded in creating a sizable decline in violent crime arrests among youth who participated in group counseling and mentoring.

The Crime Lab study-by far the largest of its kind ever conducted-is unique in that it was structured like a randomized clinical trial of the sort regularly used to generate "gold standard" evidence in the medical area. Such controlled studies remain rare in the area of crime prevention, and in social policy more broadly. Detailed findings were presented at a news conference.  Read more.  

Study: Children with ADHD Find Medication Frees Them to Choose Between Right and Wrong    

Children living with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder tend to feel that they benefit from medication to treat the condition and do not feel that the medication turns them into "robots," according to a report. In fact, they report feeling that medication helps them to control their behavior and make better decisions. The study, which gives a voice to the children themselves, provides valuable insights into their experiences and the stigma they face.  Read more.      

The divide between U.S. society and the American military reveals itself in strange places - children's classrooms, for example. More than 1 million military kids face unusual challenges: they haven't been in a specific school long enough to play sports, for example, or their constant moves - many attend nine different schools before college - cause them to lag behind their classmates. That's why the

American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education, the Military Child Educational Coalition and Joining Forces, a campaign to help veterans and their families started by First Lady Michele Obama and Jill Biden, have partnered to create Operation Educate the Educators.  The group has signed up more than 100 university schools of education to include materials about military families in their teacher training and internship programs.  Read full TIME article.  

Social Media Helps Student with Autism Find His Voice  

Sometimes a picture can be worth a thousand followers too.

That's what happened to Henry Frost after he posted a photo to Facebook.  The photo shows 13-year-old Frost sitting on the steps outside a downtown Tampa building with his service dog Denzel. Not shown are the thousands of Republicans who had gathered nearby for the week-long Republican National Convention.  Frost holds a sign. It reads:  "The Civil Rights Act of 1964 granted equal rights to all people. I am a person. I want these rights."

Frost has autism and a list of related physical problems which have so far eluded a tidy diagnosis. He communicates using an iPad app that speaks what he types.  The right Frost is seeking is the ability to attend Wilson Middle School in his South Tampa neighborhood.  Complete article.  

Studies have shown that some students learn better in a single-gender environment, particularly in math and science. But federal regulations used to prevent public schools from offering that option. So in 2001 we joined with then-Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Susan Collins to author legislation that allowed public schools to offer single-sex education. It was an epic bipartisan battle against entrenched bureaucracy, but well worth the fight. . .

To be clear: The 2001 law did not require that children be educated in single-gender programs or schools. It simply allowed schools and districts to offer the choice of single-sex schools or classrooms, as long as opportunities were equally available to boys and girls. In the vast and growing realm of education research, one central tenet has been confirmed repeatedly: Children learn in different ways. For some, single-sex classrooms make all the difference.   Full article.

The biennial Nestlé Very Best in Youth program was created to spotlight the best in youth leadership by identifying and honoring teenagers in the United States whose community service efforts are making a profound difference in the lives of others.  Nestlé seeks to help young people who want to make a difference realize their dreams by donating $1,000 in the name of each winner to the charity of his or her choice. Nestlé also awards the winner a trip to Los Angeles, California, for the Very Best in Youth awards ceremony. More. 

NEA Foundation-Nickelodean Big Help Grant