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Take 5: “Overcoming Poverty’s Damage to Learning” and more…

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

  1. Amplify-New Profit Blog: America Forward: Statement Applauding Senate Committee Passage of the Every Child Achieves Act “Members of the America Forward Coalition applaud the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee for passing the bipartisan Every Child Achieves Act to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) earlier today by unanimous consent. America Forward supports a reauthorized ESEA that is designed to ensure that all children, whatever their background, receive a first-class education, one that leads to economic security and the chance for a successful life. The Every Child Achieves Act represents an important step forward toward a strong, bipartisan ESEA reauthorization.”

  2. The New York Times: Overcoming Poverty’s Damage to Learning “Turnaround focuses on an important terrain within the school reform movement: how to get a struggling school, in [Pamela] Cantor’s words, to ‘a place where they can make solid use of academic innovation.’ Her vision is not to spread the program far and wide, but to demonstrate that an intentional focus on the so-called ‘nonacademic’ skills is a prerequisite for success, rather than a frill. If successful, she hopes Turnaround’s principles and practices will spread through a variety of platforms and be adopted by districts so they can improve the ways they train and hire staff, as well as assess school and student success. ‘Development of nonacademic skills requires the same intentional and rigorous approach we take to any other instruction, like math or literacy,’ said Cantor. ‘Students need modeling, guidance, support and opportunities to apply these skills just as they do with academics. Children’s cognitive, social and emotional development is wired,’ she added. ‘If we set up environment to be rich in relationships it will allow that development to flourish — and with that the expression of the full potential in every child.'” New Profit is a proud funder and partner of Turnaround for Children.”

  3. TriplePundit: 5 Big Bets for Social Impact “I recently attended a meeting of social entrepreneurs and other leaders from business, government, philanthropy, academia and the nonprofit sector at an event called the Gathering of Leaders, hosted by New Profit, a Boston-based national venture philanthropy fund. New Profit’s mission is to harness America’s spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship to help solve our country’s most pressing social problems, and the Gathering’s goal was on point: to catalyze the development of new ideas, relationships and resources to scale social innovation and transform public problem-solving on a broad scale…One of my favorite discussions was called ‘Big Bets,’ featuring curated concepts from social entrepreneurs – ideas with the potential to make large-scale, transformative change in education, early childhood development, economic empowerment and public health. These ‘bets’ aim to provoke bold thinking and ultimately action to change the lives of millions of underserved individuals and families. I trust they will inspire you as they did me.”

  4. The Daily Show: Eric Greitens “U.S. Navy SEAL and author Eric Greitens [founder of the Mission Continues] describes his good friend’s struggles upon his return home from service in his book ‘Resilience.'” New Profit is a proud funder and partner of The Mission Continues.

  5. Education on Tap: One Goal: Reach Higher This is the seventeenth episode of Teach For America’s podcast, Education on Tap. “For years, the national conversation around education has focused largely on students graduating from high school. With the emergence of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Reach Higher initiative and organizations like OneGoal, more attention is being placed on providing the supports and policies to move our kids beyond the post-secondary world. Whether that’s receiving vocational training, an Associate’s, Bachelor’s, or beyond, life after 12th grade has become a prominent talking point in education circles across the country.” Teach For America is a past New Profit portfolio organization.
Previous Article America Forward’s Friday ESEA Update   April 17, 2015 < Next Article America Forward: Statement Applauding Introduction of the Evidence-Based Policymaking Commission Act April 17, 2015 >

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