Blog

Take 5: “Beyond Education Wars” and more…

Screen Shot 2015-04-23 at 2.38.23 PM

Here’s five social innovation links we are clicking on today:

  1. Amplify-New Profit Blog: America Forward: Top Five ESEA Highlights “Last Thursday, April 16th, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approved the Every Child Achieves Act, a bill to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The Every Child Achieves Act represents an important step forward toward a strong, bipartisan ESEA reauthorization. Here are our five biggest highlights from the Senate’s bill.”

  2. The New York Times: Beyond Education Wars “K-12 education is an exhausted, bloodsoaked battlefield. It’s Agincourt, the day after. So a suggestion: Refocus some reformist passions on early childhood… Even within early education, there will be battles. Some advocates emphasize the first three years of life, while others focus on 4-year-olds. Some seek to target the most at-risk children, while others emphasize universal programs. But early childhood is not a toxic space, the way K-12 education is now. So let’s redeploy some of our education passions, on all sides, to an area where we just may be able to find common ground: providing a foundation for young children aged 0 to 5.”

  3. The Huffington Post: Can New York City Actually End Veteran Homelessness This Year? “New York City is on track to reach its goal of ending veteran homelessness by the end of 2015, according to numbers from Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office, a potentially remarkable achievement for a city with one of the largest homeless populations in the country.”

  4. Mashable: Leading Nonprofits Are Raising More Money Online Than Ever Before “Finding success in the nonprofit space often depends on an organization’s digital savviness. Especially when trying to reach a demographic that advocates for good causes with their dollars (hint, hint: millennials), navigating online donations and marketing tactics is essential. Luckily, it seems leading nonprofits are wising up, according to a new report. The 2015 M+R Benchmarks Study, which will be released in full on Wednesday, analyzed how 84 charitable organizations performed online last year. It found that nonprofits raised nearly $413 million online in 2014, with related revenue increasing 13% year-over-year.”

  5. NPR: To Get More Students Through College, Give Them Fewer Choices “How many different flavors of jam do you need to be happy? In 2000, a famous experiment showed that when people were presented with a supermarket sampler of 24 exotic fruit flavors, they were more attracted to the display. But, when the sample included only six flavors, they were 10 times more likely to actually buy. This experiment contributed to the literature of what’s known as ‘the paradox of choice.’ Too many choices can lead to feelings of frustration, dissatisfaction and paralysis, which is especially bad in cases where not making a choice is the worst one of all. College is no different from jam, according to a surprising new book, Redesigning America’s Community Colleges. The authors, three Columbia University education researchers, argue that the best way to help the largest number of students get through college is to give them fewer pathways than they have now.”
Previous Article America Forward: Top Five ESEA Highlights April 23, 2015 < Next Article America Forward: Statement Applauding Introduction of the Social Impact Partnership Act April 23, 2015 >

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.