The IDRA Newsletter is published 10 times a year. Each edition focuses on issues in education, striving to provide many different perspectives on the topics covered and to define its significance in the state and national dialogue. The IDRA Newsletter can only be mailed to U.S.addresses, but pdf and web copies are available online.
See PDF of this issue.
See IDRA Newsletter eLetter for this issue.
Sign up to receive the IDRA Newsletter eLetter.
June-July 2014 Issue ~ Articles
Current Issue: Focus ~ Actionable Knowledge See Archives Sign up to receive the newsletter by mail (free).
Newsletter Executive Editor María "Cuca" Robledo Montecel, Ph.D. ISSN 1069-5672
|
IDRA’s New CollegeLink App Connects Transition Counselors with New College Students as they Navigate Confusing College Systems
Armed with Data, PTA Comunitarios Work with Schools for College Preparation – An IDRA OurSchool Portal Story
IDRA’s OurSchool portal was designed to inform families, parents and educators about educational outcomes in Texas high schools. Parents visit the site to see how well students are prepared for college by looking at SAT and ACT scores, the numbers of students actually going to college, and the percentages of students having to take remedial courses. In this article, Hector Bojorquez and Aurelio M. Montemayor, M.Ed., discuss how the
See this video designed to help you – educators and community members – find out how well your high school campus is preparing and graduating students, what factors may be weakening school holding power, and what you can do together to address them. [02:16 min]
Teacher Leadership in Science in Schools with Diverse Students
Six Teens Win 2014 National Essay Contest Award
Coca-Cola Valued Youth Program Tutors Tell How the Program has Helped Them
Six students received prizes in a national competition among participants in the Coca-Cola Valued Youth Program, IDRA’s nationally-recognized cross-age tutoring program. Coca-Cola Valued Youth Program tutors wrote about how the program helped them do better in school and how they had helped their tutees to do better. “I never wanted to come to school, but those kids made me come to school every day. They are also the reason my grades are up, so that they can look up to me and say ‘He is really smart,’” wrote Nicholas Alderete.
See the full text of the winning essays
IDRA Research for Actionable Knowledge
As we continue yet another year of working to assure equal educational opportunities for every child, it is the “Research” in our name that we are purposefully and with profound intent spotlighting in the IDRA Newsletter. And we are doing so by increasing visibility and awareness of IDRA’s research and the impact it has had for children. Each newsletter this year will feature our research contributions to particular topic. This month, the spotlight is on IDRA’s research for actionable knowledge.
June-July 2014 Issue ~ Newsletter Plus
Engaging Parents through Powerful Coalition Building – October 11, 2011
Parents Using Data to Improve Schools – August 9, 2011
Tools for Building Quality Schools – December 9, 2010
What Parents Should Know about Their Schools – February 17, 2010
Communities Using Data to Improve their Schools – June 3, 2008
Video: Dropout Prevention that Works – See this quick overview of how the Coca-Cola Valued Youth Program impacts students and schools. [01:30 min]
See video interview on communities using data [06:02 min]. Aurelio M. Montemayor, M.Ed., tells the story of a group of low-income Spanish-speaking families and their high school children used data and surveys to collaborate with their school to improve math instruction.
How to Start a PTA Comunitario – Episode 131
Promotora Model for Family Leadership in Education – Episode 118
Community PTAs Growing in South Texas – Episode 99
Leading with iPads for Diverse Students – Episode 129
Teaching with iPads for Diverse Students – Episode 122
Learning with iPads for Diverse Students – Episode 114
IDRA’s Quality Schools Action Framework™
At a time when public education makes a world of difference to our students, communities and economic success, many are looking for strategies that will work for them and that will last. Courage to Connect: A Quality Schools Action Framework shows how communities and schools can work together to strengthen their capacity to be successful with all of their students.