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Family News News, Voices, Trends. By OC FamilyPublished: July, 2007

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FAMILY NEWS NEWS, VOICES, TRENDS $1.5 trillion What's the cost to really do schools right? A compilation of studies, which was fodder for the broad public schools release of "Getting Down to Facts," focuses on the changes needed to prepare California students for the 21st century. By one estimation, it could cost as much as $1.5 trillion to get it absolutely right. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell, who released the "facts" last month along with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and others, did not put a dollar figure on improvement. Among the suggestions: improve ways to attract teachers, lessen the inefficiencies, and provide better support for low-income students. "The range of estimates researchers have given for what it will take to reach that magic word, 'adequacy,' is so broad it may cause some to throw up their hands and say, 'impossible,'" O'Connell said in a release. "I urge us not to do that. Let's not yet argue over specific dollar figures, or use the most sensationally high-cost estimates to torpedo efforts at real reform." No doubt, he was referring to the trillion-dollar figure. Some 20 studies were winnowed down. Three questions were addressed: "What do school finance and governance systems look like?" "How can we use the resources we have more effectively to improve student outcomes?" And, "To what extent are additional resources needed?" OC students shine The Irvine Co. chooses 32 for annual award. F our high school seniors who live on the Irvine Ranch have been awarded $10,000 each in scholarship funds in The Irvine Co.'s annual Investing in Education Student Leadership Awards Program. Some 32 high school seniors were honored recently; the awards program hands out $120,000 in scholarship money. The students go through a rigorous program in which they have to demonstrate future leadership skills by planning to build a community from scratch. This year's four finalists are: Patrick Baker, Foothill High School; Emma Bindloss, Northwood High School; Daniel Herrador, Villa Park High School; and Sam Trusley, Laguna Beach High School. To be eligible for the awards, the students were required to have a cumulative gpa of at least 3.0 and be a college-bound senior from one of the 16 participating high schools. "The Student Leadership Awards program is an effort to identify and encourage future leaders who will make a real difference in their communities," says Robin Leftwich, vice president of community affairs for The Irvine Co. The students are: Caitlin Adams, Corona del Mar High; Juan Arellano, Costa Mesa High; Patrick Baker, Foothill High; Bryan Beard, Irvine High; Emma Bindloss, Northwood High; Jonathan Bjorndahl, Beckman High; Anjun Bokhari, Tustin High; Rachel Cane, Foothill High; Michael Chen, Northwood High; Cameron Cler, Laguna Beach High; Megan Cunningham, Canyon High; Daniel Herrador, Villa Park High; Linh Hoang, Costa Mesa High; Rosa Hong, University High; Thomas Hutchinson, Corona del Mar High; Raymond Lapena, El Modena High; Andrew Le, Canyon High; Arielle Little, Newport Harbor High; Taylor McClanahan, Estancia High; Aseem Mulji, Tustin High; Shannon Parsons, Estancia High; Paul Pham, Orange High; Annette Rice, Villa Park High; Crystal Saucedo, El Modena High; Joshua Smith, Newport Harbor High; Mai Khanh Tran, Orange High; Sam Trusley, Laguna Beach High; Carol Tsai, Beckman High; Ketki Warudkar, Irvine High; Josh Wasbin, Woodbridge High; Wesley Yu, University High; and Anna Zhou, Woodbridge High. Controversy Is day care to blame for tantrums? The report from the largest and longest-running study of American child care has found that keeping a preschooler in a day care center for a year or more increased the likelihood that the child would become disruptive in class - and that the effect persisted through the sixth grade. This was recently reported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), which has been studying child care since 1991. "A study like this creates concern, but the reality is that for many families where both parents - or the single parent - need to work, childcare is simply a necessity," according to Artie Wu, founder of MamaSource.com, an online community resource for mothers. In a study like this, it is important to note that every family is different. Also found in this update is that children with high-quality day care in preschool have better vocabulary scores in the fifth grade than those who had a subpar child care experience. And the HICHD carefully couched its release on this portion of the study (nichd.nih.gov/news/releases/child_care_linked_to_vocabulary_032607.cfm): "The researchers cautioned that the increase in vocabulary and problem behaviors was small, and that parenting quality was a much more important predictor of child development than was type, quantity, or quality, of child care."

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