51����

Children are often caught in the crossfire of a divorce, and separation results can wreak havoc on a child’s academic performance and behavior at school. In fact, as expert counselor asserts, “Children exposed to divorce are twice as likely to repeat a grade and five times likelier to be expelled or suspended from school.”

Researchers have found that many children experience behavioral changes in the immediate months after a divorce. Subsequently, divorcing parents can help their children maintain their performance in public schools by understanding these issues.

This video explains how divorce impacts children's mental health.

What Happens to Children after a Divorce

In the months following a divorce, children tend to demonstrate more disobedient, less affectionate, and more demanding behaviors. As children carry their personal problems from home into their school atmosphere, some of the changes seen in their school behavior include:

• Withdrawal
• Dependency
• Inattention
• Unhappiness
• Reduced work ethic and effort
• Increased acts of violence
• Physical boundary problems

Due to the dramatic upheaval in a child’s environment, divorce can impact students in an array of grade levels and at various ages.

Preventing Long-Term Problems: 51���� Resources for Family Support

Studies show that over half of the reported divorces in the United States involve children and/or teens. Subsequently, Early School Years argues, “It is important to remember that divorce does affect children, and it’s

Police officers are commonly seen in high schools and many middle schools, but is the trend now spreading to our public elementary schools? Indeed, some school and police leaders are working to increase the number of officer positions in public schools—regardless of the age range of the school’s students.

Increasing Police Presence in 51����s

While the title “school resource officer” may sound unfamiliar to those who graduated from high school more than 10 years ago, positions for police officers in schools are quite commonplace today. As explains, School Resource Officers (SROs) have been appearing in schools across the country at steadily rising rates in recent years.

Ideally, the SROs are available to help provide leadership examples for all students on campus; however, their influence in the schools can certainly have an impact that extends beyond these intentions. SROs are usually hired and paid by the local police force (not by the local schools), and subsequently, many believe that “The presence of these officers shapes the school social climate and students’ legal socialization.”

Interestingly, however, some high schools have reported an increase in student misbehaviors after officers have been assigned to the campus. Subsequently, many elementary school leaders are experimenting with SROs in the hopes that “legal socialization” at an early age can help prevent behavior problems in the middle and high school years. These proponents believe that teaching elementary students the benefits of law enforcement professionals will translate into

Did you know that student dropout rates are still continuing to rise in some of the United States' most populated areas? According to , America's Promise Alliance reveals that in many urban areas, approximately half of public school students do not earn their high school diplomas. This report further found that 17 of the nation's 50 largest cities have graduation rates below 50 percent. Among the lowest cities are Detroit, Indianapolis, and Cleveland. In examining this crisis on a larger spectrum, only 70 percent of the United States' high school students graduate on schedule each year, and 1.2 million students opt to drop out of school each year. Although the current dropout epidemic is bleak, some school leaders have fortunately found programs to help transform their negative graduation rates.

This video reports on America's dropout epidemic.

Solving the Country's Educational Crisis

In response to the grim dropout statistics, the United States former Secretary of State Colin Powell stated “When more than 1 million students a year drop out of high school, it's more than a problem, it's a catastrophe.” Powell's wife, Alma Powell, further elaborated on the importance of high school education – arguing that public schools prepare individuals for higher education, new challenges, and issues that extend far beyond a classroom.

To address the many problems associated with this crisis, Colin and Alma Powell have created the Chair

As school leaders experiment with modern educational strategies, one of the most promising programs centers on a concept known as “collaborative reasoning.” Far evolved from the archaic preconceptions of a classroom from the past, collaborative reasoning programs strive to make students active leaders in their learning communities.

Instead of having teachers solely speak and lecture, collaborative reasoning focuses on allowing children to explore using different learning and cognitive development elements. Specifically, as the explores, classrooms centered on collaborative reasoning enable teachers to act as facilitators of small student group discussions and investigations: “Collaborative reasoning discussions are intended to create a forum for children to listen to one another think out loud as they learn to engage in reasoned argumentation.”

Collaborative reasoning is designed to encourage independent critical thinking and question fellow peers and sources. Through this type of proactive learning, experts anticipate that cooperative learning can jumpstart student progress into modernity.

Traditional Learning vs. Collaborative Learning

Hoping to overcome the passive and dull methodologies of inactive classrooms, public schools across the country are embracing efforts to teach students using collaborative reasoning. Examining the need for this reform, argues, “The least effective mode of teaching and learning is still the most popular at all levels of instruction: teaching by telling, learning by parroting...When you tell it back to me the way I told it to you, I assume you have knowledge.”

Instead of demanding children to listen, memorize, and

When President Obama’s national address to students approached in September, many parents expressed concerns over the potential of politically charged messages. Before his speech notes were revealed, school communities feared that Obama would try to sway students towards his political viewpoints by subtly mentioning key national issues, such as healthcare reform and economic stimulus plans. Although the speech was surrounded in controversy, in post-speech reviews, bipartisan parties generally agreed that President Obama’s lecture was non-biased and inoffensive.

Regardless, the heated debates leading to the president’s speech forced many parents and leaders to pose the question: do parents have the right to deny or allow public speakers at their child’s school?

51���� Speakers: Who Chooses Them?

While public schools across the country frequently invite speakers to their campuses, some parents argue that booking these speakers without parental consent could be harmful for students. For example, many conservatives, as well as individuals who oppose some of President Obama’s key political philosophies, feared that allowing their children to listen to the president’s national address in the public school setting was a violation of their parental and personal rights. Wanting to protect their children from opposing viewpoints, many parents were outraged over Obama’s public school speech, which was aired and widely viewed by public school students during regular school hours.

In examining this controversy, the reported that “Districts across the country (were) inundated with phone calls