How Schools Recovered from Hurricane Sandy

Moving from middle to high school can be traumatic for some freshmen. The changes involved in that move can sometimes be overwhelming, whether social, academic, or physical. Suddenly, students who were guided through the academic process by parents and teachers are expected to perform much more independently than ever before. At the same time, high school is often a period where friendships change as students struggle to figure out where they belong. The good news is that there are plenty of ways parents can help their new high school students adjust to the transition.

Understand Potential Stressors

According to well-known pediatrician Dr. Paul, there are many factors that can cause stress at this time of life, including:

• Changes to school structure, including more teachers, larger school building, and a faster pace
• Changes to body image, as students begin attending school with others who are basically young adults
• Changes in friends, as students head to different schools and different classes than those they grew up with

With these changes comes the fear of not fitting in, not keeping up, and not meeting parental expectations. While many students may not voice these fears to their parents, that doesn’t mean the anxiety doesn’t exist. Parents need to tune into potential stressors in their child’s life during this time to help the child work through those anxieties and concerns proactively.

Provide Reassurance

Once parents understand the factors that contribute to the stress of the high school transition, they can provide reassurances to their child

As No Child Left Behind waivers are doled out to states nationwide, the next question becomes what will take the place of the federal mandate to assure parents that schools are up to par in meeting the academic needs of students. Each state is left to its own devices in this regard, creating a sort of scorecard – or report card, if you will – to assess each school's performance in a district. However, while report cards may work reasonably well for individual students, grading an entire school district with a single rating system is proving much more challenging.

Conflicts within the Grading System

New grading systems within school districts offer parents a more accurate glimpse into the individual performance of schools, much better than national test scores alone. In some states, these grades incorporate several factors, including standardized test scores, attendance, and graduation rates. Parents say grades are important in helping them choose the best schools for their children. Schools, on the other hand, are concerned that this information may not accurately reflect an individual school’s performance.

Another concern is that new grading systems had to be implemented much too quickly to provide a real snapshot of an individual school's performance. The fast deadlines and more rigorous standards may reflect an inaccurate assessment of the number of underperforming schools in any district. Some states also create new, statewide standardized tests; current scores will not reflect the new standards. Amid the debate, the students

A new trend appears to be sweeping some public school districts despite the alarm by a handful of parents. Yoga has recently been introduced into several school systems nationwide, allowing students to stretch, breathe, and focus their bodies and minds during a busy school day. While many tout the new program as a healthy way for students of all ages to gain additional fitness benefits, some are concerned that the religion attached to the movements violates the separation of church and state in public schools.

Introducing Yoga to California Students

One school district that has fully embraced the health benefits of yoga in public schools is Encinitas Union School District in North San Diego County, California. The North County Times reports that the yoga program has been going strong in some district schools over the past three years. Thanks to a $533,000 grant from the K.P. Jois USA Foundation this year, the program has expanded throughout the district.

The publication reports that approximately half the schools in Encinitas now offer yoga instruction for 30 to 40 minutes twice a week. Yoga joins other enrichment programs offered in the district, including music, reading, and gardening. The additional classes serve a dual purpose: instructing students in new subjects while freeing up teacher time for planning and other duties.

The schools, which claim to have removed all religious references from their yoga program, assert that the yoga sessions provide valuable physical fitness to students. Yoga is

In the efforts to ramp up the public education system in the United States, new national standards have been proposed to be the next logical step. In the past, standards were left up to individual states, which created huge variances in what and how children were taught. It also created disparities when it came to preparing students for higher education. Something had to be done, educators and lawmakers decided. Hence, common core standards were born.

What are Common Core Standards?

Common core standards were developed by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers. Standards were developed with input from educators and administrators from around the country. The standards focus on English Language Arts and Mathematics, but standards span across other core subjects taught in public schools from kindergarten to 12^th grade. Common core standards are now in place for pre-kindergarten instruction to ensure every student is fully prepared to enter public school.

According to the Common Core State Standards Initiative website, the standards are designed to provide students with the appropriate knowledge and skills throughout their K-12 education. Key features of the core standards initiative include:

• Easy to understand and consistent
• Build on current standards for individual states
• Are competitive with standards in other top-performing countries
• Line up with current expectations for college and the workforce
• Include rigorous content and knowledge application
• Are evidence-based for easy assessment

U.S. News and World Report states that these common