Blog

Here’s five social innovation links we are clicking on today:

1. Amplify-New Profit Blog: America Forward Builds Momentum for Education, Pay for Success “It has been a busy couple of weeks for New Profit’s policy arm, America Forward, which advocates for innovative public policy that leads to better outcomes and more efficient use of resources.” Read more about their amazing work here!

2. Mind/Shift: The Benefits of Helping Preschoolers Understand and Discuss Their Emotions “Terrible Twos. Threenagers. Fearsome Fours. These are years marked by tantrums and meltdowns — palpable reminders that young children haven’t yet learned how to regulate their emotions. But rather than wait for them to outgrow this phase, caregivers can use this window to teach emotional literacy skills that will yield immediate and long-term benefits.”

3. The Hill: Time to Upgrade from the Walkman in Education “This fall, the class of 2028 will start kindergarten. Last week the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee unanimously passed the Every Child Achieves Act, the long overdue overhaul of the Early and Secondary Education Act, which hasn’t been reauthorized since NCLB passed in 2001. And this actually could be the year that Congress finally passes legislation, with bipartisan support, to update our most important education law. While this new promise of change is too late for the class of 2015, it could be great news for the class of 2028 – but only if Congress passes a bill this time that fully enables schools to innovate on a broad scale as new and better approaches are invented and tested, as they inevitably will be…Let’s do better for the class of 2028 than we did for the class of 2015 by meeting that challenge.”

4. Getting Smart: Helping Students Cope With The Trauma Associated With Poverty “The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study confirms what teachers have long suspected–that children with adverse childhood experiences have lower rates of school engagement and higher rates of chronic disease.” Turnaround for Children works to counteract these adverse effects by “demonstrat[ing] that an intentional focus on ‘nonacademic’ skills is a prerequisite for success. ‘Development of nonacademic skills requires the same intentional and rigorous approach we take to any other instruction, like math or literacy,’ said Cantor. ‘Students need modeling, guidance, support and opportunities to apply these skills just as they do with academics.'” New Profit is a proud funder and partner of Turnaround for Children.

5. The Huffington Post: This May Be The Most Effective Anti-Poverty Program In America “These are the sorts of situations that scholars agree put young children at grave risk of trouble later in life. Raised in environments full of economic, emotional and psychological turmoil, these kids are less likely to succeed in school or at the workplace, and are more likely to run afoul of the law or experience a variety of mental and physical health problems. But Luisa didn’t give up. Acting on advice she got from her sister, she instead reached out to Child First — a Connecticut-based organization that seeks to help distressed families, particularly those in low-income communities.”