Sept 25 07

What Makes a Difference in the Education of Latino U.S. Students: Learning from the Experience of 13 ENLACE Partnerships (W. K. Kellogg Foundation) summarizes lessons learned from the ENLACE initiative, which the Kellogg Foundation established in 1997 to boost academic achievement, college admissions, and graduation rates among the nation's fast-growing Latino population.

The Earthday Network (http://www.earthday.net/) has redesigned its Educators' Network pages.  They’ve created discussion boards to facilitate communication and collaboration between environmental educators and restructured the organization of curricula and activities that are both theme and discipline-specific.

Partners for Education about the Environment are working on a new goal to provide techniques for creating and effectively using outdoor classrooms.  Here are a few resources to get us started:

• Karyn L. Johnson, Community Based Instructor at the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension, is working on initiatives to incorporate school gardens as a way to increase student interest in science and math, while providing some alternatives to the abstract sort of learning environment that students who live in apartments are getting these days.  She can come into the school and share topics on everything from insects to earthworms, soil and plants (both native and edible). Food for Thoughts Flyer (PDF) --- Food for Thoughts Brochure (PDF)

• The California School Garden network (http://www.csgn.org/) has created a fairly comprehensive web-based set of resources, including publications, curricula, and a network of community partners.