Senator Lightford, Senator Collins and Illinois Black Caucus Fightfor Just Budget; Mass Black Male Graduation Huge Success; NonacademicSkills Are Key to Success;

Join Illinois Legislative Black Caucus Mass Black Male Graduation 20th Anniversary of Million Man March Nonacademic Skills Are Key to Success Scholarship for Athletes with Asthma Links: The Black Star Project's website: blackstarproject.org Black Star Journal: blackstarjournal.org Become a Member: Click Here Make a donation: Like us on Facebook: Follow us on Twitter: Senator Kimberly Lightford and the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus Need Your Help Join them on Thursday, July 25, 2015 at 5071 W. Congress Parkway Chicago, Illinois 11:30 am to 1:30 pm Senator Jacqueline Collins and the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus Need Your HelpJoin them on Thursday, July 25, 2015 at Chicago State University 9501 South King Drive Chicago, Illinois 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm The Mass Black Male Graduation Ceremony 2015 June 20, 2015 Performers in front, elders in middle, graduates in back at Metropolitan Apostolic Church Black male elementary, high school and college graduates watch African drummers invoke the spirit of past elders into the ceremony. Black male graduates listen closely for advice and tips to success at Metropolitan Apostolic Church. Graduates were from elementary, high schools, and colleges throughout Chicago. Elder Attorney Keynote Speaker James Montgomery extends a hand of help and hope to the young graduates. Young Warrior Speaker Jasiri X, Hip Hop Artist and Activist from Pittsburgh, inspires graduates to work for change. These are some of the top Black male readers in the country (Reading Warriors) who were awarded large cash prizes for reading well--not basketball, not sports, not dancing or rapping. First place was $250.00. Nine large cash awards were presented to readers. There was no news coverage of this event even though we sent five media advisories to every television station, many radio stations, and all the major newspapers in Chicago. If one of our boys had started shooting in the church, we would have led on the 10:00 pm national news! But because we were celebrating the kind of achievement that can turn around the violence, poor education and economic despair in the Black community, it seemed that no one was interested. Even Black people were not interested. Two day earlier, 2 million people turned out to cheer on the Black Hawks. We seem to have our priorities straight! - Phillip Jackson, The Black Star Project (All photos by Billy Montgomery and Catherine Jackson) 20th Anniversary Million Man March 2015 10.10.2015 Washington, D.C. Nonacademic Skills Are Key To Success. But What Should We Call Them? Anya Kamenetz May 28, 2015 More and more people in education agree on the importance of learning stuff other than academics. But no one agrees on what to call that "stuff". There are least seven major overlapping terms in play. New ones are being coined all the time. This bagginess bugs me, as a member of the education media. It bugs researchers and policymakers too. "Basically we're trying to explain student success educationally or in the labor market with skills not directly measured by standardized tests," says Martin West, at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. "The problem is, you go to meetings and everyone spends the first two hours complaining and arguing about semantics." West studies what he calls "non-cognitive skills." Although he's not completely happy with that term. The problem isn't just semantic, argues Laura Bornfreund, deputy director of the education policy program at the New America Foundation. She wrote a paper on what she called "Skills for Success," since she didn't like any of these other terms. "There's a lot of different terms floating around but also a lack of agreement on what really is most important to students." As Noah Webster, the great American lexicographer and educator, put it back in 1788,"The virtues of men are of more consequence to society than their abilities; and for this reason, the heart should be cultivated with more assiduity than the head." Yet he didn't come up with a good name, either. So, in Webster's tradition, here's a short glossary of terms that are being used for that cultivation of the heart. Vote for your favorite in the comments - or propose a new one. Click Here to read Full Story For the Poor, the Graduation Gap Is Even Wider Than the Enrollment Gap Susan Dynarski June 2, 2015 Rich and poor students don't merely enroll in college at different rates; they also complete it at different rates. The graduation gap is even wider than the enrollment gap. In 2002, researchers with the National Center for Education Statistics started tracking a cohort of 15,000 high school sophomores. The project, called the Education Longitudinal Study, recorded information about the students' academic achievement, college entry, work history and college graduation. A recent publication examines the completed education of these young people, who are now in their late 20s. The study divided students into four equally sized groups, or quartiles, depending on their parents' education, income and occupation. The students in the lowest quartile had parents with the lowest income and education, more likely to work in unskilled jobs. Those in the highest quartile had parents with the highest income and education, those more likely to be professionals or managers. In both groups, most of the teenagers had high hopes for college. Over all, more than 70 percent of sophomores planned to earn a bachelor's degree. In the top quartile, 87 percent expected to get at least a bachelor's, with 24 percent aiming for an advanced degree. In the bottom quartile, 58 percent of students expected to get at least a bachelor's degree and 12 percent to go on to graduate school. Thirteen years later, we can see who achieved their goals. Among the participants from the most disadvantaged families, just 14 percent had earned a bachelor's degree. That is, one out of four of the disadvantaged students who had hoped to get a bachelor's had done so. Among those from the most advantaged families, 60 percent had earned a bachelor's, about two-thirds of those who had planned to. Seeing these numbers, some readers may wonder whether the poor children were simply overconfident, with aspirations outstripping their academic skills. Maybe the low-income children weren't completing college because they were not able. Click Here to Read Full Article Scholarship for Athletes with Asthma

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