Education Articles:

Help for students ending their school year behind in reading
Mass Communication Systems for Schools Becoming More Popular
Getting Involved
Recognize Your Child’s Learning Style

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Help for students ending their school year behind in reading scores

Innovative vision program helps children with reading problems

Kansas students preparing to enroll in special summer reading classes may be eligible for a state-funded program developed to increase reading performance.

The Kansas Optometric Association (KOA) and Kansas Legislature are continuing the Vision and Learning Research Project, which began in 1998. This State of Kansas-funded program identifies second, third and fourth grade students who are behind in reading skills and who have specific visual skills deficits. These students then participate in 25 weeks of vision therapy exercises to remediate the visual skills, and the reading skills are again tested for improvement. With the positive results from the past years, the Legislature has funded the project for another year.

The KOA will approve the project applicants. The Vision and Learning Research Project requirements are as follows:

1. Students eligible for free or reduced lunch.
2. Students at least one year behind grade level in reading.
3. Students in Second, Third or Fourth Grade, with preference given to Third Graders.
4. Verification by an optometrist that the student has at least one of the listed conditions affecting reading and learning.
5. There is no cost to the family, but the 25 vision therapy sessions MUST be completed.

Research shows a positive impact on reading and math performance. Optometrists across the State of Kansas are accepting students into this innovative program. Dr. John Metzger at VisionTherapyKC is helping students in his Lenexa and Hiawatha, Kansas offices overcome their vision-related learning problems.

CONTACT: Caroline Johnson 913-469-8686 or caroline@visiontherapykc.com

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Mass Communication Systems for Schools
Becoming More Popular

Today’s school systems face a daunting task of communicating with their students, staff and parents. Remember when schools simply sent a note home with children when they needed to communicate with parents? How about the note stuffed in a cubbyhole to pass information to the teachers? Forget about it!

The days of having only a home and work phone have advanced to the point that a typical person has up to 7 different contact paths including home, work, and cell phones, pagers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), Instant Messaging (IM), fax machines, and email. Adding to the problem is our busy and mobile society; with most families having both parents working, and more divorces and blended families exponentially increasing the number of communication targets and paths for each student! It can take 4-6 hours for an average sized school to attempt to contact every parent, and some parents will never be tracked down!

A poll conducted by the National Center for Disaster Preparedness and The Children’s Health Fund indicated that more than 40% of the parents had no idea how they would be contacted by their child’s school in the event of an emergency. The same poll cited “Communication” as the number one thing parents want from their child’s school during an emergency or disaster.

While the technology revolution may have created this communication problem, it has now provided a solution with the advent of new Mass Communication systems. Mass Communication systems are typically web-based communication platforms designed to locate communication targets in just seconds - whether at work, home or elsewhere, via all major communication devices. The system automatically disperses communication to ten or 10,000 in just minutes and continues to attempt contact until a confirmation receipt is sent back to school administrators.

Because they are web-based, there is no hardware or software to purchase, install, or maintain, making the systems cost-effective, simple to implement, and very easy to use. Some systems even offer school specific features including parent-guardian-child relationships, call-in notifications (Message Boards), polling and quota communications, message confirmation reports, and multilingual options.

While “emergency” events such as school cancellations, early dismissals, late starts, utility failures, amber alerts and campus violence tend to be the primary impetus behind implementing a mass communication program, they are a dynamic tool for everyday use. Truancy control, parent teacher conference scheduling, staffing, grade card announcements, policy reminders, association and club notices and scheduling/rescheduling meetings or events are all much more efficiently performed using the mass notification tools available today.

One thing is certain, mass communication systems are here to stay with over 400 school systems in the Midwest currently utilizing some type of mass communication system.

To request a FREE Mass Communication Planning and Implementation Kit contact: gdavenport@sns-online.com
or call: Gaylen Davenport 816-506-4855

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Getting Involved

You may have heard it before, but it’s important enough to state again: When parents get involved in their children’s education, the children do better in school, are better behaved, have more positive attitudes toward school, and grow up to be more successful in life.

Whether you have an infant or a teen or any age child in between, there's something below for you! You can find early education options, preschools, private and public schools, homeschooling information, and continuing education options.

If your child will be transferring to a new school or starting school for the first time, you need to begin the school selection process as soon as possible. Find out about the deadlines for applying to the school(s) you are considering. Some schools require applications much earlier than others. Keep these four simple steps in mind: (1) Consider your child’s and family’s needs; (2) Gather information about the schools you are interested in pursuing; (3) Visit and observe those schools; (4) Apply to the school(s) you choose.

Here are ten things to look for when choosing a school:
• high expectations
• busy students
• great teachers/principal
• vibrant parent-teacher organization
• children are neither invisible nor scared to be at school
• gut reaction that this is the school for your child
• rigorous curriculum
• families like yours are welcome and their concerns are acknowledged
• and you’re satisfied with the school’s standardized tests results and school report cards. (Source: U.S. Dept. of Ed.)

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Recognize Your Child’s Learning Style
by Pam Calalay

In the Myers-Briggs Personality Indicator, there are sixteen deeply ingrained Learning Styles, that are not easily changed, with four main parts. They are:

Extraversion/Introversion • Sensing/Intuition • Thinking/Feeling • Judgment/Perception