Multigenerational Programs Aim to Break Poverty Cycle (Education Week - August 5, 2014) EXCERPT: Seven years of Ms. Goodman working part-time as a secretary for her church while juggling care of her four children wasn’t enough to keep her family financially afloat—especially after her husband had to take a job out of his own field of training. That’s why she’s become one of more than 200 parents in CareerAdvance Tulsa, an initiative of Community Action Project of Tulsa County, or CAP Tulsa, connected with the city’s Head Start and state early-child-care systems that is intended to help parents improve their own educations while also supporting their children’s. It’s part of rising national interest in multigenerational approaches to reduce poverty and improve student achievement, based on mounting evidence that parents’ and children’s educational and life trajectories are inextricably linked. More than 60 percent of American children live in families whose highest educational degree is a high school diploma or less, according to a new report by the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation. While that is an improvement over 2008 levels, parents are often not advancing their education fast enough to keep up with rapidly growing job requirements. “When we can educate mothers, you get double and triple benefit from that,” said Gail O. Mellow, the president of LaGuardia Community College in New York. “As we get serious about the relationship between education and societal well-being, we need to change our thinking about education in all of its forms.”
Posted on: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 00:15:20 +0000
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