As unpopular as No Child Left Behind was by the time it was ushered off the stage in 2015, advocates for students with disabilities could always point to one aspect of the law that they liked: by requiring that test scores of different student groups be reported separately, the law exposed the low academic performance of students in special education and required schools to do something about it.
The replacement for NCLB, the Every Student Succeeds Act, still requires that the academic performance of students with disabilities be reported, along with other student subgroups.
But the law trades federal mandates for state flexibility on what should happen to a school whose students with disabilities are consistently lagging their peers.
States and some lawmakers have cheered the end of what they call federal overreach. But some advocates worry that the accountability goals states have set for themselves won’t move the needle for a group of students who have long struggled with low achievement. At worst, they worry, states can create rules that allow the performance of students with disabilities to again be obscured by the relatively higher test scores of the general student population.
Lower Goals
“A lot of the really crucial decisionmaking got left to the states,” said Ricki Sabia, the senior policy advisor at the National Down Syndrome Congress. “Our concern was with how they would use this discretion.”
Sabia and Candace Cortiella, the founder of the Advocacy Institute, examined drafts of the accountability roadmaps developed by 37 states. All of the states have submitted ESSA plans to the U.S. Department of Education for evaluation; the department has given its stamp of approval to 14 states and the District of Columbia.
A reading of the draft plans illustrates some of Sabia’s and Cortiella’s concerns. In New Mexico’s accountability blueprint, for example, it set a goal for itself to increase the high school graduation rate of students with disabilities to 79 percent in 2022, up from 62 percent in 2016.
At the same time, however, the plan sets a goal to have 50 percent of students with disabilities scoring proficient on the state’sEnglish/language arts and math assessments by 2022. That’s an ambitious goal—less than 7 percent of New Mexican special education students meet that bar now.
But “it is difficult to understand how [students with disabilities] can be expected to graduate at a rate of 79 percent in 4 years while just 50 percent are expected to be proficient in reading and math,” Sabia and Cortiella wrote in a letter intended to support local advocates.
Plan Omissions
Another concern is that the goals for students with disabilities are too low. New York, for example, is aiming for 63 percent of its students with disabilities to graduate with a standard diploma by 2022, up from 55 percent in 2016. New York notes that its end goal for all students, including students with disabilities, is a 95 percent graduation rate. But it also proposes resetting its goals each year.
Educators didn’t like the 100-percent proficiency goal that was embedded in the old law, Sabia said. “But how do you say that some students aren’t going to be proficient? How do you say it’s OK if 5 percent or 10 percent aren’t? That’s what some of these new plans do.”
The education nonprofit Achieve, in its analysis of state plans, found that 26 states and the District of Columbia set the same long-term graduation goal for all subgroups. Twenty-four states set different end point goals for students with disabilities and other subgroups.
Others have pointed not to what’s in the state plans, but what they believe has been left out. Laura Kaloi is a government relations policy consultant with the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, a group that represents children in special education and their families. COPAA was looking for states to offer specific plans about how to prevent bullying and harassment, discipline that removes children from the classroom, and “aversive behavioral interventions that compromise student health and safety.”
In an examination of the state plans that were submitted this spring, she said, those topics were not addressed.
“We know many, many school districts need work in this area,” Kaloi said.
The plans are light on some details because states were not required by the law to provide them. In March, the Senate overturned some accountability guidelines that were passed during the Obama administration, saying they were too prescriptive and not keeping in the spirit of the law and its focus on state-based accountability. For example, the law requires states to identify a minimum number of students in a particular subgroup that a school would have to enroll in order for that group to be counted in school accountability, known as the N-size. Under the ESSA accountability rules that the Senate threw out, states could select any N-size but had to offer a justification if they chose a number over 30. The Education Department does not require states to provide a justification for its N-size selection.
Some states, such as Ohio, have chosen to provide such justification, however, suggesting that in some cases states are committing to a more rigorous standard.
Ohio is moving from an N-size of 30 down to 15 by the 2019-2020 school year, which means that more schools will potentially be subject to accountability measures. After the change, 86 percent of the state’s schools will have to report on the progress of the special education subgroup, compared to 58 percent that are required to do so now.
Melissa Turner, the senior manager for state policy for the National Center for Learning Disabilities, said her organization is also examining the state plans, with an eye to strong accountability for student subgroups, clearly defined policies that explain how states will help struggling groups of students, and greater use of accommodations and the appropriate use of “alternate assessments.”
ESSA places a 1 percent cap on the percentage of all students who can take alternate assessments. That equates to about 10 percent of students with disabilities. Such alternate assessments are intended for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities. Some groups, such as NCLD, have been concerned that schools have steered students to the alternate assessments in the past, instead of providing the teaching and support that would allow students to take the same tests as their peers in general education.
Positive Implications
Turner mentioned some plans that stand out as potentially positive for students with disabilities. Iowa, for example, has organized its ESSA accountability blueprint around “multitiered systems of support,” which are intended to provide research-backed instruction for all students in academics and in social-emotional development.
Turner also singled out New Hampshire for its plans for personalized learning. “That’s something that we applaud. We think that’s a strong opportunity for states to meet the needs of all kids,” she said.
The organization is concerned, as other groups are, about different goals for different student subgroups. If the overall graduation rate goal is 95 percent, it should be the same for students with disabilities, she said.
“We’re really hoping to see that gap narrow in the long-term goals,” she said.
York County is seeing more students who don’t speak English as a native language, but schools are finding fewer educators certified to teach them.
The number of students who are learning the English language has been growing, mostly in the York City School District but also in some suburban districts, at a smaller scale.
At the same time, there are fewer teachers obtaining the English as a second language, or ESL, certification, needed to provide additional services to those students. It’s one area of shortage the state is seeing as fewer people show interest in becoming educators.
“The need for (ESL) certified teachers is really … important, not only for urban school districts, but I think suburban districts are starting to see that as well,” said Debbie Hioutis, coordinator of special programs in the York City School District.
What’s offered for English learners
Students for whom English is not their native language are called English language learners, or ELL students. Schools are required to provide services to help those students achieve proficiency in the English language as well as meet traditional academic standards.
Those services might look different depending on the students’ level of proficiency in English.
On a recent day at Jackson K-8 School in York, ELL teachers Mary Lynn Hoffman and Lynne Lenker worked with students, who had been pulled from their regular classrooms, on their English. Older students practiced prefixes. Younger students worked on more basic words.
The teachers also work in the students’ classrooms, offering additional help for the English learners as they focus on the content their classmates are learning.
York City School District has far more ELL students than other local districts — about 26 percent this year, according to the district. Hanover has the next highest population, at about 7.5 percent, according to data from the state.
And while the population is low in most other districts around the county, several, particularly those around the city, said the group is growing…
More than 104,000 students were identified as homeless by NYS school districts and charter schools according to a report by New York State Technical and Education Assistance Center for Homeless Students.
The data come from the New York State Education Department’s Student Information Repository System. The new number represents a 6 percent increase from the 2015-2016 school year. Students in temporary housing now make up approximately 10 percent of the student population in NYC.
“One out of every 10 NYC students is homeless,” said Kim Sweet, AFC’s executive director. “The number of children and youth experiencing homelessness in NYC is twice the size of the entire Boston public school system.”
Sweet added that the city has taken some steps to help homeless students, including offering yellow bus service to kindergarten through sixth-grade students living in shelters and hiring more than 30 Department of Education social workers for schools.
Being homeless can have adverse effects on a child’s education. They experience twice the rate of learning disabilities, are four times more likely to show a developmental delay than middle-income children and have three times the rate of emotional-behavioral disorders than children who are housed.
It’s one of the most controversial questions about the Every Student Succeeds Act and accountability in general: How should schools be graded?
Since nearly all states have at least turned in their ESSA plans, and many ESSA plans have been approved, we now have a good idea of how states are answering those questions. Keep one thing in mind: ESSA requires certain low-performing schools to be identified as needing either targeted or comprehensive support. States have no wiggle room on that. But beyond that, states can assign things like A-F grades, stars, or points. Based on the states that have turned in their plans—and remember, not every state has—We did some good old-fashioned counting and came to the following conclusions, in chart form:
Here are a few notes about that chart.
1) Many states use some kind of points system only as a starting point, since they then use those systems to arrive at final grades or scores that are presented differently to the public…
Plan Emphasizes Fostering Equity in Education for All Students and Expands Measures for School Accountability & Student Success
Final Approval of the State’s ESSA Plan is Expected Early in 2018
September 11, 2017 — The Board of Regents today approved the New York Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) plan, which will be submitted to the United States Education Department (USDE) on September 18 for review and approval. It is anticipated that USDE will provide feedback to the Department in December 2017. Final approval of the state’s ESSA plan is expected early next year.
“Our ESSA plan is an action plan,” Board of Regents Chancellor Betty A. Rosa said. “The Regents and I are committed to ensuring that all students, regardless of background, zip code, first language or disability, get the help they need to succeed and thrive in school. Developing this plan has been an opportunity to incorporate the voices of communities, teachers and parents as we rethink how we look at accountability, equity and serving the whole child.”
“The ESSA plan we will now submit to USDE is responsive to the needs of students,” Commissioner MaryEllen Elia said. “This plan is the culmination of more than a year of collaboration with hundreds of stakeholders and members of the public who helped shape the plan throughout the process. And we’re not done. We will continue to engage with stakeholders to ensure everyone is given the opportunity to adjust to and feel comfortable with the new system as it’s implemented.”
The plan emphasizes fostering equity in education for New York’s students; expands measures for school support and accountability and student success; and requires school-level improvement plans for the lowest performing schools overall as well as schools with the lowest performance for certain student populations. The plan also includes strategies for supporting the professional growth of educators and ensuring that all students, including English language learners/Multilingual learners, immigrant students, migratory youth, homeless youth, and neglected and delinquent youth, have access to a well-rounded, culturally responsive education that supports their academic and social-emotional development.
The Department detailed highlights of the plan to the Board of Regents at its September meeting. Further, NYSED is developing summary documents for parents and teachers to explain the final ESSA plan, which is posted in full on the Department’s ESSA webpage.
Stakeholder Engagement
For the past year, NYSED has engaged diverse groups of stakeholders to solicit recommendations on how to craft an ESSA plan that best meets the needs of the state’s students, schools and communities. In support of these efforts, NYSED established an ESSA Think Tank with representatives from more than 100 organizations, including district leaders, teachers, parents, and community members. The Department also consulted with national education experts regarding ESSA, including Linda Darling-Hammond (Learning Policy Institute) and Scott F. Marion (National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment).
In addition, NYSED held more than 120 fall and winter regional in-person meetings across the state in coordination with the state’s 37 Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) and the superintendents of the state’s five largest City School Districts, which were attended by more than 4,000 students, parents, teachers, school and district leaders, school board members, and other stakeholders.
The Department received more than 800 written comments and 270 verbal comments at the meetings during public comment period. In addition to hosting 13 public hearings on the plan from May 11 through June 16, NYSED also held more than 120 stakeholder and public meetings between October 2016 and May 2017 to gather input to help inform the development of the draft plan.
Last month, NYSED released three ESSA waiver requests for public comment. The waivers, which will be submitted simultaneously with the draft ESSA plan, have been previously discussed with the Board of Regents and stakeholders. If approved these waivers will give New York additional flexibility in terms of the assessment of selected groups of middle level students who participate in Regents examinations, newly arrived ELLs/MLLs, and a small group of students with significant cognitive disabilities.
Next Steps
It is anticipated that USDE will provide feedback to the Department in December 2017. Final approval of the state’s ESSA plan is expected early next year. After the plan is approved by the USDE, the Department will work with BOCES District superintendents, superintendents, the ESSA Think Tank and other stakeholder groups to develop and provide guidance on implementing the ESSA plan.
NY AMSTERDAM NEWS — In the months since President Donald Trump’s inauguration, activists and scholars have converged, condemning his violent and divisive racial rhetoric. In response to Trump’s rhetoric, leaders are working to build a resistance against an agenda that not only divides the country but also sets precedence for violent and discriminatory policies and actions.
The New School, known for its innovative work in areas of social change, has launched “Race in the U.S.,” a free and public lecture series on race relations in America. It features a dynamic lineup of conversations with community activists, scholars and policy changers.
As if it were planned for such a tense moment in our country, the lecture series was originally inspired by New School students’ desires to connect on the topic of race.
Michelle DePass, dean of the Milano School of International Affairs and one of the course organizers, said students were inspired by the work of the Black Lives Matter movement years ago and started galvanizing around race politics then. Now, with the launch of the lecture series, there is an opportunity to build a new program that integrates both an academic class of advocates and activists in the area of race.
“As we follow and work with our student body, we find that our students are very intersectional, and we realized that after this election, we cannot be in our silos anymore,” DePass said. “What this course is really doing is intersecting race with so many different aspects and elements of our society and lifting up the cover and saying that you really think you exist in this safe zone or this zone where the issues of the system have not touched you, but they actually have.”
What do we do in the toxic climate we have today? That is the question for which the lecture series hopes to stir up an answer. The New School social justice masterminds and scholars DePass, Maya Wiley and Darrick Hamilton joined forces to create this platform for impactful conversations with activists, organizers and scholars such as Shanelle Matthews of Black Lives Matter and Linda Saursour, a Muslim rights advocate and Women’s March organizer.
Wiley, fairly new to the New School staff, serves as the VP for social justice at the university. She previously served as a counsel to New York Mayor de Blasio, advising on legal matters. Now she is
working with the school to integrate social justice actions from the school community level to engaging students on social justice matters through curriculum.
This course, she says, is about engaging various groups within the community of social change both in academia and on the grass roots level.
“One of the things that we’ve always had at the New School is academics who are not just researching areas of injustice and inequalities, but are also thinking about how they get solved,” Wiley said. “So part of the ‘new’ in the New School is forms of pedagogy that work on and engage in real world solutions.”
Hamilton, who oversees the Ph.D. students within the Milano School and is an associate professor of economics and urban policy, is anticipating that the course will be a training ground for an “army of social justice warriors.”
Through public lectures like those offered in “Race in the U.S.,” students will be challenged by ideas and equipped with the tools they need to enact social change in strategic ways.
The organizers of the course believe that without properly understanding how to read and interpret data, activists cannot serve their causes, and it is in this way the worlds of academia and grass roots organizing converge.
“This course would have existed whether or not Donald Trump was president because we were talking about it well before the election was concluded,” Wiley stated. “But I do think it’s elevated the critical nature of the time we are in, that the discourse of what happened during the campaign has become the national discourse. I think about our students that are both active and horrified at the world they are inheriting and having some space not only about what it means, but how they can do something.”
The course will be held Mondays through Dec. 11, 2017 at the New School. It will also be available on Livestream. It is free and available to the public. For more information, visit https://courses.newschool.edu/courses/UTNS2000?sec=7497.
The New York State Board of Regents on Monday approved a plan laying out the state’s goals for its education system, as required by the sweeping federal education law signed by President Barack Obama in 2015 known as the Every Student Succeeds Act.
The Regents’ approval means the state can now submit its plan to the federal Department of Education for review and approval.
The plan details how the Regents will implement the federal law, including how individual schools will be evaluated and identified for what the law refers to as either comprehensive or targeted support and improvement.
Under the plan, elementary and middle schools would continue to be evaluated on English and math test scores and high schools on graduation rates. But the plan would also hold schools accountable for other measures, such as performance on science and social studies exams, the number of students making progress in achieving English language proficiency, college and career readiness, chronic absenteeism and, eventually, out-of-school suspensions.
BEACON – The Howland Public Library is all a buzz with excitement. The library’s teen Battle of the Books team, The Beacon Buzzers, took home first place in the Mid-Hudson Library System’s 2nd Annual High School Battle of the Books. The regional literary contest took place at Poughkeepsie Day School, on August 19th. Congratulations to Beekman Public Library’s team “Where’s Ralph” second place winners and Kingston Public Library’s “Hardcore Hardcovers T2” who came in third.
This year, eleven public libraries in the Mid-Hudson Library System’s five counties (Putnam, Dutchess, Columbia, Ulster and Greene) competed in this nationally recognized literature contest in which teens answer trivia questions based on books they all read this summer.
Individual library teams worked all summer with their coaches to prepare for this final regional battle. Mini-battles were played throughout the summer to practice for the big event. Over 60 students in grades 9-12 participated as coaches, family, and friends cheered on. The teams all proved to be winners when it came to knowledge, team spirit, and good sportsmanship.
A big thank you to the host venue, Poughkeepsie Day School, all of the volunteers and families who came out to support the teams, and the coaches and librarians who worked so hard throughout the year to make this special event possible. Much appreciated sponsors include The Allstate Foundation through the Sorrentino Agency in the Town of Newburgh and donations from many library Friends Groups. The Howland Public Library team would like to give a special shout out to the The Friends of the Howland Public Library who generously sponsor the Beacon team every year and Pleasant Ridge Pizza for keeping the team’s hungry minds fed all summer. The Howland Public Library is all a buzz with excitement. The library’s teen Battle of the Books team, The Beacon Buzzers, took home first place in the Mid-Hudson Library System’s 2nd Annual High School Battle of the Books. The regional literary contest took place at Poughkeepsie Day School, on August 19th. Congratulations to Beekman Public Library’s team “Where’s Ralph” second place winners and Kingston Public Library’s “Hardcore Hardcovers T2” who came in third.
This year, eleven public libraries in the Mid-Hudson Library System’s five counties (Putnam, Dutchess, Columbia, Ulster and Greene) competed in this nationally recognized literature contest in which teens answer trivia questions based on books they all read this summer.
Individual library teams worked all summer with their coaches to prepare for this final regional battle. Mini-battles were played throughout the summer to practice for the big event. Over 60 students in grades 9-12 participated as coaches, family, and friends cheered on. The teams all proved to be winners when it came to knowledge, team spirit, and good sportsmanship.
A big thank you to the host venue, Poughkeepsie Day School, all of the volunteers and families who came out to support the teams, and the coaches.
(CNN Money) — Florence Yu can’t believe her luck. She’s starting college the same year New York made tuition free for middle-class students like her.
New York’s Excelsior Scholarship is the first of its kind. It covers the cost of tuition for qualifying students who are enrolled in a two- or four-year degree program at any of the state’s 88 public colleges and university campuses.
Plans for the scholarship were announced by Governor Andrew Cuomo in January. At first, students planning to attend college this fall didn’t know whether it would become reality in time. It was officially approved by the legislature in April.
“I called my Dad at work, and I’m like ‘oh my God, Dad, I could get free tuition.’ It was so exciting and I remember it so vividly because it was so life changing,” Yu said.
She’s now a freshman at Stony Brook University double majoring in business and health science.
Like other students, Yu had to apply for the scholarship and didn’t find out until August whether she qualified. The good news finally came, just before it was time to pay the bill. Her parents, immigrants from Myanmar, always wanted her and her brother to go to college, but were worried about finances.
“I’ve never seen my Dad so happy. He knows I really wanted to go to Stony Brook and he was really stressed about paying. Now he’s able to, so it really changed a lot,” Yu said.
A ‘life changing’ option
When Governor Cuomo announced the program he said that college, like high school, “should always be an option even if you can’t afford it.”
While similar programs in other states have made tuition free for community college students, the Excelsior Scholarship is the first to include those pursuing a four-year degree.
The scholarship could save students as much as $27,000 over four years by cutting out tuition costs. The award doesn’t cover fees charged by the school, or room and board. Students must also agree to live in state after college for the same number of years they received the scholarship, or it will be converted to a loan.
Bonnie Tang, another Stony Brook freshman, is commuting from her home in Brooklyn, saving her about $13,000 in room and board costs. She’ll have to buy a monthly train pass. And she’ll still pay about $2,560 in fees this year. But everything else is free.
“My tuition is paid for and that saves me a lot of money,” she said.
Tyler Mendoza, also a freshman at Stony Brook, and James Martello, a freshman at the University at Albany, both say they probably would have gone to a community college instead if they hadn’t received the Excelsior Scholarship.
Gianluca Russo transferred to the University at Albany this year after finishing his associate’s degree from Schenectady County Community College. The scholarship, he said, convinced him to stay in state to pursue a bachelor’s in journalism.
Many won’t qualify
An estimated 75,000 people applied for the scholarship this year, but an initial projection from the governor’s office said only about 23,000 would receive it. An official number has yet to be released as summer course credits are counted and community college students continue to enroll for the fall semester.
Officials from several schools said the biggest reason why students were disqualified was because they receive other need-based grants that already cover the full cost of tuition. The Excelsior Scholarship doesn’t offer additional funds to help with other expenses.
Other students are disqualified because their family income is too high. This year, the scholarship is offered to those who earn up to $100,000 a year. The limit will rise to $110,000 next year, and then up to $125,000 for the 2019-20 school year and thereafter.
Some critics say the Excelsior Scholarship may spend too many taxpayer dollars subsidizing the cost of tuition for students who would be enrolling anyway, and still leaves students from the lowest-income families behind. The program is expected to cost $87 million this year, and $163 million annually once fully implemented.
The scholarship is designed to help those students whose families previously earned a little too much to qualify for financial aid.
“While many students with the greatest financial aid have always attended CUNY tuition-free, far too many families just above the income eligibility — which means most middle class families — received little or no state or federal aid,” said CUNY Chancellor James B. Milliken in a statement emailed to CNNMoney.
The Excelsior Scholarship will “help remedy this problem,” he said.
Income isn’t the only eligibility requirement. Students must be a state resident and they must maintain a full time schedule. That disqualifies many community college students going to school while working. It also makes it tough for adults wanting to return to school to finish a degree they started years ago.
Ahmad James, 35, is one of those students. He has stopped and started college twice. Once because two deaths in the family required him to help out at home, and once because of Hurricane Sandy, which forced him out of his apartment. He found a new place in Long Island, but it extended his commute to work and didn’t leave time for class.
But after he applied for the Excelsior Scholarship, he was told he was ineligible because he “did not earn a sufficient number of credits in each year” he was previously enrolled. The program requires you to take an average of 30 credits a year.
He’s working on finding other ways to help pay for college so he can advance his career in social services.
“I have the experience, but I need the piece of paper to do exactly what I want to do with my life,” James said.
A ‘positive buzz’ on campus
It’s too early to tell the impact the scholarship will have on New York’s college campuses.
Many incoming freshmen had to enroll before officially being awarded the scholarship. Transfer students, though, were more likely to find out about the scholarship before making their decision. The University at Albany saw an 11% jump in applications from transfer students this year, which officials attribute at least in part to the Excelsior Scholarship.
More students are certainly expected to receive the scholarship in the future, as the income cap rises and awareness grows.
“It’s creating a very positive buzz about public higher ed,” said Stony Brook President Samuel Stanley.
“If you go around the country the story has generally been states pulling back on support of higher education, putting more of the burden on students and their families. So this is really changing that narrative in a very dramatic way,” he said.
“Discipline yourself so you never get mad you get smart.” -Andrew Young
The Upward Bound students of Buffalo State College were treated to life lessons by former United Nations ambassador and civil rights activist Andrew Young at its summer program awards banquet.
Young, who served as the UN ambassador during the Carter administration, received the 2017 Hal D. Payne Educational Opportunity Lifetime Service Award during the banquet. He also served as the event’s keynote speaker. The former mayor of Atlanta, brought a message that gave both a history tutorial and a guide to navigate through today’s political turbulent time. It was also a navigation through the rough waters of life. “You should never turn your back on any human being,” Young stated. “It doesn’t matter what color, or age, or what culture, in each and every human being is the same thing that is in you.
That is the spirit of the living God” Don Patterson, the director of the Upward Bound program at Buffalo State, believed that having one of the foremost civil rights and global leaders as the keynote speaker at the event was invaluable for his students. “His message to the students was extremely timely,” Patterson said. “When he told them to believe in yourselves, don’t be afraid to make mistakes and grow from those mistakes.” “He emphasized history and the knowledge of it. He wanted the young people to realize that you must know your history during this turbulent time. His message was one of growth for these young minds.”
During the banquet, the students were treated to a video retrospective of Young’s multitude of service. The video showed the former congressman’s early life as a television personality in the 50’s, a civil rights leader next to Martin Luther King in the 60’s, the UN ambassador in the 70’s, and Mayor of Atlanta in the 80’s. His life was a road map for community service. He related his early life as a civil rights activist. He spoke of Former UN Ambassador Andrew Young Deltas To Host Jabberwock Info Session Addresses Buffalo State Upward Bound Students how he marched shoulder to shoulder with Dr. King in an attempt to gain equality for all races, colors and creeds.
Upward Bound students, like high school freshman Jhayla Chinn, were unaware of Young’s life experience. “His speech was very powerful,” Chinn said. “I had not heard of Mr. Young but after he spoke I wanted to learn more about him.” “I don’t know if I could do some of the things he did with Martin Luther King,” Chinn continued. “It was very brave and I learned a lot.” Ambassador Young also gave some insight to the current political climate. He made a compelling argument on why the presidential election turned out in favor of Donald Trump. “Many Americans in rural and poorer parts of the country wanted a simple answer for their plight,” Young explained. “The world is very complex and the answers are not very simple but people want plain answers.”
“Donald Trump gave a simple answer to many Americans that are feeling pain economically,” he continued. quiries. The President of DST Buffalo Alumnae Chapter is Dr. Mattie L. Rhodes, and the Jabberwock Chairpersons are Trina Burruss and JoAnna Johnson. “He spoke in a way that made sense to many of those people. Unfortunately, the country and the world does not work that way.”
Patterson gave an impassioned soliloquy, during the banquet, on why he wanted Ambassador Young to speak to his students. “We are moving towards the right thing. We are moving towards good. We are moving towards positive outcomes. (Everyone) Keep pushing. Everyone here is a part of it,” Patterson exclaimed. “ His (Young’s) life is an example of it. His life is an example of what you can do if all of us, not just one person, moving in one direction can achieve.”
After the event, Young took time to take pictures with many of the young people. He also continued to drop pearls of wisdom to the Upward Bound participants. Young also sat and had a discussion with long time local politician and community leader Arthur O. Eve. The meeting was a chance for the students to witness over a century of community service experience in one place.
More than 104,000 students were identified as homeless by NYS school districts and charter schools according to a report by New York State Technical and Education Assistance Center for Homeless Students.
BEACON – The Howland Public Library is all a buzz with excitement. The library’s teen Battle of the Books team, The Beacon Buzzers, took home first place in the Mid-Hudson Library System’s 2nd Annual High School Battle of the Books. The regional literary contest took place at Poughkeepsie Day School, on August 19th. Congratulations to Beekman Public Library’s team “Where’s Ralph” second place winners and Kingston Public Library’s “Hardcore Hardcovers T2” who came in third.
“Discipline yourself so you never get mad you get smart.” -Andrew Young