National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention

On October 4, 2010 the President, Department of Justice and Department of Education met with various state representatives to discuss the National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention. In short, this forum was created to establish new policies and strategies to prevent youth in certain violence-plagued cities from succumbing to the pressures of gang life and violence in schools.

Teams from Boston, California, Chicago, Detroit, and Tennessee got together with these federal agencies to work out these proposed strategies and plans, to find out what will work.

Courtesy of Google Images

What they hope will work, is combining the efforts of local law enforcement, educators, health providers, organizations in the communities, and families to work off of each other and stand together in the fight against violence. Arne Duncan says the administration will have to work with communities and schoolteachers to reach a conclusion about the reasons why kids get sucked into crime and gang life, and then find ways to prevent it.

Many news sources provided humbling testimony on the forum and proposed legislation. Many have high hopes for the plans, and are optimistic about it’s future success.

The Boston Globe’s online edition, Boston.com covers this topic and presents it to the public in an unbiased manner, detailing the facts as they unfold. They used quotes from both the Attorney General and the Secretary of Education, which is important because the forum involves the Department of Justice and the Department of Education. Providing a short testimony from officials on the inside presents the issue as more human. A reader being able to hear quotes directly from the source adds to the forum’s credibility and depicts it as an open, translucent proposal, instead of being private and shut off to the public.

Taking a less open stance however, is Dr. Jeffrey Butts, staff to John Jay College of Criminal Justice. In Butts’ blog, there is the basic factual expression of the intention of the forum, with no commentary on the predicted outcome. Dr. Butts and a team will be working to assess the development of the National Forum and also analyze the effects of the participating states and communities involved.

Elementary and Secondary Education Act 2010 Reauthorization

In March 2010, the Obama administration issued the reauthorization to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, also currently known as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.  This Act was up for reauthorization in 2007.

What this reauthorization will do, is improve the workings of our school systems by improving qualities of teachers and principles; helping families become more participative in their children’s education; preparing students for college and jobs by creating better assessments and standards; and providing a more well-rounded education to improve student learning and achievement.

This is a huge step in the process of bettering our nation’s competitiveness in education, and it did not go unheard in the media.

President Obama has a posted video on the White House Blog where he discusses the blueprint of the updated ESEA. In this video, Obama addresses the audience, talking into the camera and making it known that the audience is in fact citizens, not other politicians. This is a tactical move by Obama to help non-political people understand the logistics behind the act, which allows the Act to have more relevance to citizens.
click here for the video

The Alliance for Excellent Education created a webinar to further explain the president’s blueprint for success of the reauthorization. This blueprint, which can be found on the Dept. of Education’s website, is a lengthy report detailing every aspect of the reauthorization using political jargon and terms that may not be easily digestable by the common citizen’s vernacular.  Former Governer Wise (WVa) uses this webinar to answer questions about the report, such as why a reauthorization is necessary, and why now.

click here for the video