Great Public Schools: A Basic Right and Our Responsability

One thing almost all parents lack, is the great oportunity parents have to visit their son's schools and what a better opportunity to go and have meeting and chats with the teachers during the American Educacion Week scheduled to beging on November, 12th.

You should pay attention to this report: Childrens, Family, and Media: A Benchmark where the awarded Michael Cohen Group(Research & Consulting) arrive to interesting conclusions related to the Digital Divide in American Schools. A round of questions were answered during a chat-interview conducted by Janelle Callahan, associate of the EPE Research Center. What would it be you best answer for the following question:

Far too often teachers and school leaders assume that students have access to computers and the internet at home. Typically, homework and projects now require easy access to computers and the internet (even in the primary grades). Without it, low income students are "left behind." Not only do they earn poorer grades, they become "marginalized" early on...because they recognize that they are different. Can you suggest some realistic solutions, given the reality that income still dictates whether or not resources are available in homes and communities. -Annette Clayton, Lead School Social Worker, Newport News Public Schools

Everyone outside US thinks we here don't have poverty or social issues, that everything seen and taught in the American society should be imitated. Far from the real thing! The Cohen Group points: "this study serves as a benchmark, allowing us to measure change over time for years to come. Identifying change in dynamics such as media ownership, media use, and preferred content provides an invaluable tool for researchers, policy makers,educators, and others."

The results as they say, confirm mine/ours collective sense that media is increasingly integral to family and personal life. These are the five outstanding research conclusions:

1) A wide range of media and media technologies are owned and utilized by families
and young children.
2) Families and individuals at every economic level participate in media and
technology ownership and use.
3) There are differences in the incidence of ownership by income level for some
media, particularly in more expensive and emerging media technologies that are
less commonly found at lower income levels. Other technologies enjoy near
universal penetration.
4) Ownership and involvement in media and technology is about both affordability
and perceived value(s); not everyone necessarily wants all media.
5) The use of media—or the functions that media technologies serve—is similar
across the income spectrum. Once owned, there is little variation in how these
technologies are used.