Education Needs

IMPROVE EDUCATIONAL SUCCESS INDICATORS

Neighborhoods composed of residents who have a high level of academic achievement have lower rates of crime, health, and employment issues.  

The goal of the neighborhood leaders and residents should be to facilitate the work of non-profits with neighborhood youth and families to improve their academic skills through coordinating resources and programs (click a link below) that include:

1) Building Personal Assets Training

2) Education Assistance and Training

3) Leadership Training Classes

AIMS Testing - Arizona’s Instrument to Measure Standards. Students must “meet the standard (score 3 or better) to pass. (Source: Arizona Department of Education)

Aggravated Assault-Domestic Violence - An unlawful attack by one person upon another for the purpose of inflicting severe or aggravated bodily injury. This type of assault usually is accompanied by the use of a weapon or by means likely to produce death or great bodily harm. Simple assaults are excluded. (Source: TPD)

Advocates for battered women have long been aware of the ways in which batterers may attempt to sabotage their partners’ attempt to become self-sufficient through education, job training, or employment. Children residing in shelters were found to show significantly lower verbal and quantitative skills when compared to a national sample. Lloyd (1997) found that low-income women who experienced domestic violence in their adult relationships were more likely to have experienced unemployment and to have had more job turnover than those who had not been victims. Children’s exposure to adult domestic violence was also significantly associated with greater immaturity and inadequacy among both boys and girls (as cited in Edleson, 1999).

Absent Rate - Percent of students who did not attend school during the first 100 days. (Source:Arizona Department of Education)

Research has shown that missing just 30 hours of instruction negatively affects a student’s academic performance. As a result, adults who have not received adequate education are two and-a-half times more likely to be on welfare, almost twice as likely to be unemployed, and will earn much lower wages than adults who graduate (McCray, 2006).

Enrollment - School age population that is not currently enrolled in school. (Source: Census 2000)

Educational Attainment - Persons aged 25 years and over who have completed less than 4 years of high school and lack a degree. (Source: Census 2000)

Educational attainment is a critical factor in economic well-being and in the successful transition to adult roles and responsibilities. Family background characteristics, including parents’ own educational attainment, consistently have been found to predict children’s subsequent school performance and educational attainment. These linkages often are explained in terms of social advantages such as educational opportunity, economic advantage, and family structure (Pettit, 2009).

Offenses Against Family and Children-Neglect - Unlawful nonviolent acts by a family member (or legal guardian) that threaten the physical, mental, or economic well-being or morals of another family member and that are not classifiable as other offenses, such as Assault or Sex Offenses. Attempts are included .If injury is serious is categorized as aggravated assault. (Sources: TPD)

Intervening to change parenting practices may, however, be important in its treatment. Parenting programs are focused, short-term interventions aimed at improving parenting practices in addition to other outcomes (many of which are risk factors for child abuse e.g. parental psychopathology, and parenting attitudes and practices), and may therefore be useful in the treatment of physically abusive or neglectful parents (Barlow J., 2006).

Non-promotional Rate - Amount of students who did not promote to the next grade. (Source: Arizona Department of Education)

Early school dropout was defined as failure to complete the 11th grade. Findings indicate that the school dropout rate among at-risk students was markedly lower for students who had earlier participated in extracurricular activities compared with those who did not participate (Mahoney, 1986).

Unemployment - All civilians 16 years and older are classified as unemployed if they were not at work yet actively seeking a job. Actions of seeking a job include: Registering at employment offices, meeting with prospective employers, writing letters of application, placing or answering advertisements, being on a union or public register, or investigating possibilities for opening a business or starting a professional practice. (Source: Census 2000)

For people whose income often comes in uncertain spurts, the logic goes - assets provide a potential stock of wealth to see them through hard times. Building assets can help turn individuals who may have borrowed all their lives and struggled with constant debt into investors who receive income from an initial investment. Income-maintenance subsidies and menial work do not necessarily empower people or give them a sense of control over their lives. The most effective programs develop relationships with the employers but also have an interest in job tenure and helping workers hone and acquire skills beyond the terms of the contractual obligations to employers (Weber, 2003).

Uninsured <18 - Amount of under 18 years olds uninsured in 2008. (Source: Pima County Health Department)

Children aged 15-17 years were more likely to be uninsured than children 1-4 years old. Children without health insurance coverage were less likely to use health care services, and when they did their rates of utilization and expenditures were lower than insured children (A. Elixhauser 2002).