Principals' Office

Ten-year-old Raises Awareness of Homeless Children

As most of us were recovering from our Thanksgiving weekends on Monday morning, Zach Bonner completed his 280 mile journey from Tampa to Tallahassee to raise awareness and support for the estimated 20,000-40,000 homeless children in Florida.

According to the National Center on Family Homelessness, more than 1.35 million children are homeless during a year’s time. Every state is required to have a state coordinator for homeless education, who ensures the understanding of and compliance with the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act in public schools throughout the state. The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act is the federal law that entitles children who are homeless to a free, appropriate public education and requires schools to remove barriers to their enrollment, attendance, and success in school. 

The National Center for Homeless Education, which provides research, resources, and information enabling communities to address the educational needs of children and youth experiencing homelessness, also offers best practices and model programs for after-school programs, community collaboration, early childhood, identification, and unaccompanied youth.

Bringing Ideas to Life

Every year, NAESP publishes the latest edition of Ideas that Work, a collection of ideas that shares some of the best practices and tips from the current year’s National Distinguished Principals. Their ideas for staff motivation, student recognition, curriculum innovations, school climate, and parent involvement will help you set up new programs in your school without having to reinvent the wheel. 

In the December 2007 issue of Communicator, NAESP Executive Director Gail Connelly writes, “As leaders we have to sift, sort, coach, and create a process to determine which ideas get the time, attention, and funding needed to bring them to full life and make them fly.” What are some of your own ideas that that have proved successful over the years? Which ideas from the Ideas that Work series stand out the most for you?

Reading Gains at the Elementary Level

Reading scores among elementary-level students have been increasing while scores for middle school and high school students have stayed the same or declined, according to a new study released by the National Endowment for the Arts. “To Read or Not To Read: A Question of National Consequence” finds that Americans are spending less time reading; reading comprehension skills are eroding; and these declines have serious civic, social, cultural, and economic implications. The study also finds that reading for pleasure, which is increasing at the elementary level, decreases in late adolescence.

Read “Best Practices for Achieving High, Rapid Reading Gains” from the November/December issue of Principal magazine to learn about how to increase the percentage of proficient readers at your school.

Principals Promote Reading

What do a wide-mouthed frog, a friendly fish, a kid who loves sweets, Farmer Brown, and Dogzilla have in common? They are characters in the five books that are finalists for the 2008 NAESP Principal’s Read Aloud Award.

Read the five nominated books out loud to your students and vote for the one you think should be honored with the award. The National Principals Resource Center offers all five titles at reasonable rates—buy them for your school library if you don’t already have them. 

Once you’ve read each book, go to http://vovici.com/wsb.dll/s/4282g2d84e to vote. There will be a presentation to the winning author in April 2008 during NAESP’s Annual Convention and Exposition in Nashville.

NAESP is also taking nominations for the 2009 award. If you have a book you have enjoyed reading to children, submit your name and the title, author/illustrator, and publisher of a book currently in print and readily available to childrensbookaward@naesp.org.

Principals Are on YouTube

School principals are in the blogosphere, they’re podcasting, and now they’re on YouTube. Four NAESP members are featured on YouTube in a 60-second public service announcement discussing the future of schools and the Vision 2021 initiative. You can access the video on the YouTube Web site by typing “NAESP” into the search engine.

YouTube is just two years old but continues to be a favorite site for sharing and viewing short video clips and has even made a mark in the political arena. Earlier this year, CNN aired a presidential debate and candidates answered questions submitted by YouTube users.

According to Nielsen/NetRatings, nearly 100 million video clips are viewed daily on YouTube and the site averages nearly 20 million visitors per month. Now we can add school principals to the list!

A Slam Dunk for D.C.-area Schools

NBA star Gilbert Arenas of the Washington Wizards has selected 82 schools from the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area to be participants in his Scores for Schools program. Each of the schools will be assigned to one of the Wizards’ 82 games during the 2007-2008 season and will receive $100 for every point Arenas scores during that game. Last season, Arenas averaged 28.4 points per game, which added up to about $3,000 for each selected school.

Arenas will foot the bill for each of the 41 home games, while Wizards owner Abe Pollin will put up his own money for the 41 away games the team will play. Last year, Pollin and Arenas donated almost $215,000 to D.C.-area schools.

With much of the negative press that professional athletes get these days, it’s nice to know that some of them are doing good things in the community and looking out for their young fans—and the schools they attend. Thanks, Gilbert and Abe!