YouthWorker Journal - March/April 2009 - (Page 11) There are still problem spots. Graduation rates for students involved in the NCAA’s highest profile sports, football and men’s basketball, aren’t nearly as rosy. The average four-year graduation rate in Division I men’s basketball was only 62 percent (a fourth of the NCAA’s 300 teams graduated less than half of their participants), and only 67 percent of Division I football players managed to exchange their pigskin for a sheepskin. Fresno State was particularly dismal: Only 48 percent of its football players graduate, 48 percent of its baseball players and a depressing 7 percent of its men’s basketball players. (USA Today) Well, Princeton’s new library still has books, only they’re squirreled away in the basement, far away from the building’s regular traffic. Most of the information these students need is online, anyway. Why risk a paper cut? “Libraries are becoming more a space where people come to access data and also more of a study space, research space and to some extent, a social space,” said the library’s designer, Craig Webb of Gehry Partners. He hopes the building will help inspire new ideas, not just store old ones. (Bloomberg) FAMILY Children Less Likely To Graduate than Their Parents Kids are less likely to earn a high school diploma than their parents were, according to a report issued by the Education Trust Advocacy Group. Experts say the United States is the world’s only industrialized country where this generational flip-flop is occurring. “The U.S. is stagnating while other industrialized countries are surpassing us,” says Anna Habash, the report’s author. “That is going to have a dramatic impact on our ability to compete.” About a fourth of all U.S. kids drop out of high school. Even with schools being pushed to boost their students’ standardized test scores, more than half of states don’t require schools to improve their graduation rates. Those that do sometimes just require a 0.1percent improvement each year. That means it’ll take nearly a century for North Carolina—now awarding diplomas to 72 percent of its students— to reach its goal of an 80 percent graduation rate. (Associated Press) Electives Returning Reading, writing and ‘rithmatic are great and all; but some schools are adding electives to their repertoires. Kids in some schools can take classes in jewelry making, 3-D animation and the history of rock and roll. A school in Pelham, N.Y., is offering a popular course in military history. “With some classes, such as history, you don’t like the subject that much,” said senior Greg Bratone, who wrote about his passion for military history on his college applications. “But now that it’s military history, I’m all ears.” The reasons for this surge in electives are twofold. For one, many school officials believe offering electives helps give their students a breather from honors and AP courses. Two, electives may help boost enrollment. (New York Times) Turning the Page The new $74 million Peter B. Lewis Science Library at Princeton University has computers, study areas, meeting rooms … everything one might expect from a shiny new library. Everything, that is, except books. Internet Boosts Bonds with Friends, Family About a third of Internet users say the Internet has boosted their social connections “a lot,” according to a recent study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, and 23 percent say it’s helped their intrafamily communication. The Web’s biggest proponents, of course, are youth between the ages of 18-29. Nearly half said the Internet had boosted their personal connections a lot. (InformationWeek) SnapStats FAVORITE WEB SITES FOR … Boys, ages 13-17 1. YouTube (41%) 2. Facebook (34%) 3. Google (30%) 4. Yahoo! (23%) 5. ESPN (22%) Girls, ages 13-17 1. Facebook (47%) 2. Google (33%) 3. YouTube (27%) 4. MySpace (21%) 5. Yahoo! (19%) College students (men), ages 18-24 1. Facebook (56%) 2. ESPN (33%) 3. Google (26%) 4. CNN (18%) 5. YouTube (14%) College students (women), ages 18-24 1. Facebook (77%) 2. Google (23%) 3. Yahoo! (17%) 4. PerezHilton.com (15%) 5. MySpace (12%) (Respondents were asked to name their three favorite Web sites.) HEALTH Do Bullies Bully Because They Like It? We’ve heard kids become bullies for a variety of reasons. Maybe they’re having trouble at home; maybe they’ve been bullied themselves. A group of researchers say some bullies may hurt 11 Source: emarketer YouthWorkerJournal.com | March/April 2009 http://www.PerezHilton.com http://www.YouthWorkerJournal.com
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