Mark Redmond: When It Comes to Education, Parents Matter ...

Much has been written lately about the achievement gap, which is the difference in school performance between one group of students and another, be that based on gender, race or socioeconomic status. The gap can be measured in a variety of ways, including standardized test scores, dropout rates and college-enrollment and completion rates.

The most recent reference to the achievement gap was in a series of recently-released reports indicating that while the educational achievement gap between black and white students has measurably decreased over the last few decades, it has during the same time increased between rich and poor students. In other words, how a child performs in school seems to be less correlated to skin color, and more correlated to the income of the family into which he or she is born. Sounds like a ?good news/bad news? story to me, with the bad being really bad. I say that because I have always thought of the American education system as the great leveler, in that it didn?t matter what a student?s household income was once they walked through the schoolhouse doors on the first day of kindergarten. From that point on, every child had a shot at creating a decent and productive life for him or herself, if only they applied themselves. This was certainly true for my family. My father grew up in the Great Depression, his father passed away suddenly when my dad was only eight years old, leaving my grandmother with five small children to care for. They struggled, but all of them made it through school and went on to very successful careers in a variety of fields. That was likely due to a number of things, including my grandmother?s ingenuity, strong work ethic, and faith in God, but I have to believe the American education system was central to this outcome as well.

So why are things heading in the right direction in terms of race and the achievement gap, but in the wrong direction in terms of family income? Reading various commentaries about the reports, many theories abound, but the one that struck me as most valid was from a Nobel Prize winner in Economics, Professor James Heckman of the University of Chicago. According to The New York Times, ?Heckman?argues that parenting matters as much as, if not more than, income in forming a child?s cognitive ability and personality?.?

I agree, and reading this reminded me of a different but related report which came out last November, published by the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which according to its website, is ?an international study which began in the year 2000. It aims to evaluate education systems worldwide by testing the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students in participating countries/economies.? The United States is one of the 70 countries participating.

In its November report, PISA?s main findings were that students whose parents often read books with them during their first year of primary school showed markedly higher scores at age 15 than students whose parents read with them infrequently or not at all, and this is regardless of the family?s socio-economic background. (emphasis mine) Further down in the report, it is stated, ?The good news coming from analyses of PISA data is that it does not require a PhD or unlimited hours for parents to make a difference. In fact, many child-parent activities that are associated with better reading performance among students involve relatively little time and no specialized knowledge. What these activities do demand, though, is genuine interest and active engagement.?

This tells me that while we are and should be spending a great deal of time, money and energy figuring out how to improve American schools and hire great teachers, a major part of the problem is not being addressed, i.e. asking that parents step up to the plate and do their part in their child?s education. In fact, more than one veteran teacher has told me that there is a definite trend of requiring schools to take on things that were traditionally the responsibility of the family. It was funny but sad when one teacher stated, ?I feel like the next thing we will be asked to do is formally adopt each student??

The report?s last paragraph concludes, ?The score point difference in reading that is associated with parental involvement is largest when parents read a book with their child, when they talk about things they have done during the day, and when they tell stories to their children.? If more parents do that, and put limits on access to X-Box, Wii, television, and Facebook, I am certain that the educational achievement gap as it pertains to socioeconomics will start heading in the right direction, and we will have the best of all worlds: success in school won?t be related to your skin color, and it won?t be related to household income. It will be related to how much work a student puts in, and to how much their parents care about them to do the same.

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Follow Mark Redmond on Twitter: www.twitter.com/markredmond1

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-redmond/when-it-comes-to-educatio_1_b_1302089.html

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electedgarvann.com? Blog Archive ? How Sales Training Programs ...

Individuals and businesses are able of picking from the range sales training courses accessible through the internet, or can be held at their area.

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On line sales management companies have an excellent fix for corporations to decrease their own sales training that can result in a lowering of total training prices.

By letting an experienced sales training agency to use their sales training needs, businesses could keep the requirements of sales training to expert services reaching better results.

With the simple option of the internet, finding a competent product sales government group with proper sales training is not hard any more? You?ll be able to simply seek out such sales organizations using any web internet search engine and make your choice after comparing the opinions obtained from tales have been presented by those.

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This can only be done following a extensive evaluation has taken place of the whole product sales procedure and staff sales activities.

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Source: http://electedgarvann.com/2012/how-sales-training-programs-can-enhance-your-online-revenue/

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How Obama Is Reviving L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa's Career (Time.com)

When he was a young man, Antonio Villaraigosa dropped out of school, was in numerous street fights and had a tattoo inked on his right arm that read: "Born to Raise Hell." In 2005 he became the first Latino mayor of Los Angeles since 1872. It was practically scripted: the inspirational tale of a troubled boy from the gang-infested Boyle Heights neighborhood of East L.A. who makes good, goes to city hall and turns Los Angeles into a "city of purpose."

But, until last week, the mayoral tale of Villaraigosa was starting to look like a box-office bomb. In 2007 came revelations of an extramarital affair with a Telemundo newscaster, which seriously hurt his popularity, particularly in the Latino community. His ambitious but ultimately misguided plan for a school-district takeover was defeated in court. A weakening economy and his unsystematic management style led to even more political stasis.

(MORE: Latino Voters by the Numbers)

Then last week, Villaraigosa's career got a resurrecting jolt when President Obama appointed him to be chairman of the September 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. The choice was a mild surprise, even though the Democrats are focused on preserving their hold on the Latino vote as the key to victory in November ? the subject of the latest cover story of TIME. Back in 2008, Villaraigosa had famously endorsed Hillary Clinton over then candidate Obama during the Democratic primaries. While the chairmanship might not hold much real authority, it has already renewed national interest in the mayor, who runs a city that is 48% Latino. And the broader spotlight has allowed him to refresh his local reputation in the City of Angels, a place that hasn't exactly been like heaven for many residents lately.

The mayor's biography ? despite its blemishes ? remains his strongest asset. Villaraigosa came from a broken home, in which his father, a Mexican immigrant welder, routinely beat his mother. His father left his family when Antonio was a young boy, and Villaraigosa spent his teenage years in and out of school, getting into scraps and trying to make ends meet with jobs that included shining shoes, selling the daily newspaper La Opini?n and working at a car wash.

(PHOTOS: Election 2012: Faces of the Latino Vote by Marco Grob)

During his junior year of high school, Villaraigosa dropped out but returned at the encouragement of Herman Katz, his English teacher. After graduating from Theodore Roosevelt High School, Villaraigosa attended UCLA, where he received a history degree. He became a union organizer and then president of the Southern California branch of the American Civil Liberties Union before getting elected to the California state assembly in 1994. He served as speaker of the assembly from 1998 to 2000, then ran for mayor, lost but was elected to the city council. When he was finally elected mayor seven years ago, the excitement and expectations in Los Angeles during his inauguration, especially among Latinos, were infectious, if unrealistic. The telegenic mayor created much of the excitement. He made numerous grandiose promises, but his lack of understanding of the nuances of city politics and managerial experience hobbled him from the outset. There was a sense that the mayor's office was unfocused and that Villaraigosa's true passion was having his image appear on the local TV news. Then came the revelation of the affair with Mirthala Salinas of Telemundo. The Latino electorate, he tells TIME, "felt let down, more than with somebody else, but I'm in a great place with my family now, and I am proud of that."

Villaraigosa, 59, knows how to adjust his image. He's been doing it for years. Remember that "Born to Raise Hell" tattoo? He had it removed 15 years ago. "Peace, not war," he likes to say now. While he warmly welcomed the Obama appointment, its focus on his Hispanic heritage has also made him slightly uncomfortable. After all, he is the mayor of a huge city that is 52% non-Latino. "I reach out to a broad number of people, I am not seen as ... just as a Latino politician," he says. While he will be trumpeted for his Latino roots in the coming months, he says the "Latino politician" tag frustrates him. He takes pride that he represents all Angelenos "even though half of the people hate me," he laughs. "I am a coalition builder. I think that's the best way to serve the President. Will I also talk to Latinos? Of course! I speak Spanish. But I am comfortable in any community." He looks at this reporter, an Anglo, in the eye, smiles and says, "I am comfortable with you, my brother."

MORE: Why the Latino Vote in Arizona Could Be Decisive in 2012

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untoldpages | Blog | Improving health with a multivitamin

Increasing health and fitness using a multivitamin
?An apple a day keeps the medical professional absent.? But then you definitely also require a banana, an orange, a pear, a handful of carrots, some avocado, a head of lettuce, tomatoes ? the list goes on. In the event you make reference to your 5 to 9 servings of vegetables and fruits get nowadays? Like it had been yesterday and also the day previously? Probabilities are, whether or not you happen to be essentially the most diligent of dietary demons, you nonetheless don?t have your each day need of minerals and vitamins.
Right now, it is actually nearly extremely hard for that required stage of vitamins and minerals within our diet plan by yourself. discover the mineral subject material of our soils reduced over the years because of to greater pollution and pesticides, and hormones inside our meat and poultry supply decreased the general value of the food nourishment. Specifically a century in the past, our diet plan includes many of the nutrients our system requires to complete at the best possible amount. But today, it?s not a fact. Today it has become vital to fully evaluate your eating plan by using a multivitamin.
The recommended every day intake (RDI) of vitamins founded during the First World War, when food items supplies were limited and concerns about vitamin deficiency diseases were high. RDI has been established to ensure that Americans have received minimum required vitamins to ward off diseases such as scurvy. Right now, these diseases are relatively unknown, and medical researchers have begun to draw attention to the roles that nutritional vitamins play in developing the prevention of degenerative diseases.
Cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes are serious diseases that thrive on the poor of our country?s eating habits and physical inactivity. A lack of vitamins and minerals needed triggers a cascade of events in the entire body, which eventually led to this degenerative disease. But by using a multivitamin, your overall body with the required weapons needed to fight against deadly diseases prepared.
Reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease, test your blood for homocysteine ??and C-reactive protein can give your current overall health status. Increasing concentrations of the two is a red flag that something is right in your body. Homocysteine ??may change too in the DNA from the blood that can fuel the progression of heart disease, accelerated aging and improved risk of developing cancer. Two studies recently reported in The New England Journal of Medicine that taking a multivitamin with folic acid and B nutritional vitamins can decrease homocysteine ??levels.
C-reactive protein (CRP) is produced in the liver and helps the entire body heal wounds and fight infection. The presence of CRP in blood is an indication of infection or underlying inflammation. Chronic inflammation is associated by using a variety of diseases, including cardiovascular disease and stroke. -Rates of CRP can rise for several decades in advance of a coronary event and may be a significant predictor of new coronary events in apparently be men and women healthy. Studies show that the higher the CRP, the higher the risk of developing a heart attack. High levels of CRP in the blood after a stroke or heart attack may be found a reference to an event which has a repeated coronary lessen survival rate.
A study in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) in 2003, printed in that multivitamins can significantly reduce CRP levels, with an average decline of 14 percent observed.
In fact, these authors of a similar study in JAMA reported that just might take a multivitamin, ?tens of thousands to prevent cases of cardiovascular disease each year to a very low cost and with little (if any) adverse effects. ?found
Reduce your risk of cancerA study published in 2003 in the Journal of Epidemiology that people who took a multivitamin regularly for 10 ages a 30 percent risk about low of colon and rectum had. Multivitamins contain vitamin D, which was found to keep cancer cells from multiplying and dividing in laboratory studies. Similarly, brought vitamins D, E and folic acid to a reduce risk of colon and two breast cancer has been associated.
Multivitamins, many antioxidants, including vitamin C, vitamin E and beta carotene, which the defense potentially dangerous molecules in the physique of free radicals are used. Free radicals are unstable molecules that the overall body looking for a healthy molecule, they are complete. When a free radical molecule responds to health and fitness requires the right amount of sound the molecule to stabilize the molecule that previously healthy damaged. Free radicals, they leave a trace of oxidation destruction, alteration and DNA in the system from the inside out. Toll-measures against the free radicals can cause cancer and heart disease and other degenerative diseases. Uncover free radicals antioxidants to neutralize them, to stop them just before they damage leads to a fatal outcome.
Reduce your risk of diabetes is insulin resistance, a precursor of type 2 diabetes. Normally, insulin levels are normal to escort glucose into cells. With insulin resistance, your insulin cell receptors recognize hormone and deny him access to store the glucose. With nowhere to go for glucose, the sugar begins to accumulate in your blood. Your pancreas, unaware of the insulin resistance, enhanced insulin production pumping in an effort to remove enough of the hormone in order to create relief. Overproduction of insulin floods into the bloodstream. Chromium found in multivitamins may help the system maintain normal blood sugar levels and may be an important measure for prevention of type 2 diabetes to enter. Multivitamins
to create equal conditions for good well being. A food-based multivitamin consists of all of the vitamins and minerals that should be part of your normal diet plan and fill the gaps where your eating habits is inadequate. Multivitamins do not replace a healthy diet plan, but they complete an already healthy diet plan. In fact, the overall health of your eating plan is the best of your multivitamin will work for you.
Dr. Connealy, MD, MPH, began private practice in 1986. In 1992, she founded South Coast Medical Center for New Medicine, where she serves as medical director. Her practice is firmly in the belief that the treatment of health and fitness problems strictly tend not to help with medications, based on the primary cause of your disease. Dr. Connealy writes monthly columns for Coast and OC Health and fitness magazines, and is a biweekly guest on Frank Jordan radio show ?healthy?. She teaches and educates the public on routine matters of health and fitness.

Source: http://untoldpages.com/health/improving-health-with-a-multivitamin/

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NARM to Honor RIAA with Presidential Award at Music Biz 2012 ...

February 28, 2012 ??NARM, the music business association, will present its prestigious Presidential Award for Sustained Industry Achievement to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) during the Music Biz 2012 Opening Session on Wednesday, May 9, at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.

?The RIAA is celebrating 60 years of tireless advocacy on behalf of the music industry, and its work is ever more important in this fast moving digital era,? said Jim Donio, President of NARM. ?New products and services are forever altering the way we all discover, experience and purchase music, while significant new entrants to the marketplace are literally changing the game with their innovative strategies. It is certainly an exciting time that just underscores the RIAA?s valuable role and its unparalleled efforts to ensure respect for creators and copyright holders throughout the country.?

?We are honored to receive NARM?s prestigious Presidential Award,? said Cary Sherman, Chairman and CEO of the RIAA. ?As we celebrate our 60th anniversary as an organization, we look back on music?s extraordinary evolution. From vinyl and cassette tapes to downloads and access models, it?s been a hell of a ride. I?ve often joked that the music community is like a dysfunctional family ? we fight from time to time, but in the end we all recognize that we need each other. And when we stand together, we are a powerful voice for all music creators. It has been a privilege to serve this great community. We thank Jim and our friends at NARM for this award, and we look forward to 60 more years of service.?

NARM has honored a wide range of industry leaders and organizations with the Presidential Award, including: John Marmaduke, President and CEO of Hastings Entertainment; Jim Urie, CEO of Universal Music Group Distribution; Robert Higgins, Chairman and CEO of Trans World Entertainment Corp.; Clive Davis, J Records; Jack Eugster, former Chairman, CEO and President of Musicland; Eric Paulson, founder and former executive chairman of Navarre Corp.; Don Cornelius, host creator of ?Soul Train;? Russ Solomon, founder of Tower Records; Paul Smith, former chairman of Sony Music Distribution; Henry Droz, former president and chairman of Universal Music & Video Distribution; Ahmet & Nesuhi Ertegun, Atlantic Records; and Dick Clark, chairman and CEO of Dick Clark Productions; as well as the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS) and the Country Music Association (CMA), among others.

The RIAA was formed in 1952 to support and promote the creative and financial vitality of the major music companies. Its members, which include the top record labels and distributors in the U.S., account for approximately 85% of all legitimate recorded music produced and sold in the country. Since its inception, the RIAA has carried out a variety of diverse tasks, from ensuring that vinyl records conformed to the same recording standard to participating in collective rights management. In 1958, the organization began its Gold & Platinum certification program, which continues to be the high standard for recognizing extraordinary musical achievement through its Gold, Platinum, Multi-Platinum, and Diamond awards. It also introduced the Parental Advisory Logo in 1985 to help inform consumers about their music choices, which it continues to administer today.

The organization works to protect the intellectual property and First Amendment rights of artists and music labels; conducts consumer, industry, and technical research; and monitors and reviews state and federal laws, regulations, and policies. It has won major anti-piracy victories over peer-to-peer applications Napster, Grokster, and LimeWire, and continues to nurture a vibrant legal marketplace for musicians.

About NARM
Established in 1958, NARM (National Association of Recording Merchandisers) is the trade association for the business of music, providing the central platform for the discussion of industry?wide concerns, spearheading the implementation of initiatives to promote music commerce, and advocating for common interests. Members include companies and individuals from all aspects of music distribution, including physical, digital, and mobile outlets as well as gaming, applications, merchandise, video and more. NARM members have access to a variety of conferences, virtual seminars, networking opportunities, information and education resources. NARM is a nonprofit organization based in Marlton, New Jersey. Visit us at www.narm.com.

NARM and digitalmusic.org?s Music Biz 2012, one of the most important events in the industry?s calendar, will be May 7-10 at the Los Angeles Hyatt Regency Century Plaza.

About digitalmusic.org
digitalmusic.org (DMO) is the home for the digital initiatives of NARM, the National Association of Recording Merchandisers, the trade association for the business of music. NARM provides the central platform for the discussion of industry?wide concerns and spearheading the implementation of initiatives to advance the business. While primarily focused on physical formats for much of its history, NARM has expanded its mission in the past ten years to include all facets of music commerce. This includes physical, digital, and mobile commerce partners as well as gaming, applications, and other emerging revenue models. DMO is governed under the by?laws of NARM, by NARM President Jim Donio, the NARM Board Of Directors, and directly by digitalmusic.org Co?chairs Christina Calio (Microsoft Entrainment), David Levin (Sony Music Entertainment) and Bill Wilson, NARM VP of Digital Strategy & Business Development. Topics and actions for each individual work groups are determined by the individual work group leaders.

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Media Contacts
Laurie Jakobsen, Jaybird Communications ? laurie@jaybirdcom.com, 646.484.6764
Nicole Hennessey, NARM ? hennessey@narm.com, 856.596.1803

Source: http://www.narm.com/news/narm-to-honor-riaa-with-presidential-award-at-music-biz-2012/

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