May 2012
E-Newsletter
Welcome to the Southeastern North Carolina Dropout Prevention monthly Newsletter. We will
be highlighting dropout prevention activities and accomplishments in the region. So please send
us your stories, highlights, accomplishments and upcoming events. Additionally, we will give
you some notice to local and national events, resources, funding and research.
MAY 2012
May 22: Advisory Board Meeting
June 18: WSE Junior Seahawk
Academy Summer Program
Local Events Update
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Effective Strategies for Helping African American
Males to Succeed: K-12 Presenter: Carlton Ashby.
Southeast Education Alliance /UNCW Watson
School of Education Outreach Alliance This
conference was held on March 23 at Landfall Country
Club in Wilmington. Over 100 teachers, administrators
and school board members attended the conference on
strategies to use in teaching black males.
Dr. Kenneth Teitelbaum, Dean of Watson School of
Education, UNCW, provided moving opening remarks
about what we as educators can do to make a difference
in race relations.
Carlton Ashby gave inspirational and practical
suggestions about improving relationships with African
American students. He stated that the key is to make
connections through relationships. He gave specific
examples of how to improve relationships with students,
their families, and the community. Some of his work is
showcased at Education World:
http://www.educationworld.com/a_admin/columnists
/ashby/index.shtml
Upcoming Advisory Board meeting May 22 at
UNCW Watson School of Education
3:00 - 4:30p. Room 387
Board members will receive more details soon!
Local Events Update
1
Regional Success Stories
3
Regional Resources
3
Dropout Prevention Info
3
National Interest
3
Funding Sources
4
It takes a village to raise a child…
African proverb
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Assessing and Building Resilience: The
Key to Improving Academic
Performance and Graduation Rates.
Presenter: Melissa Schlinger
This April 11 presentation was attended by
individuals from area school districts to
learn about how academic resiliency is an
important variable in dropout prevention.
These academic reliance skills can be taught
and research has shown that students can
improve in school once they learn these
skills
 Understanding of the relevance of
education to achieving their life goals
 Academic confidence
 Connectedness to educators
 Stress management skills
 Balanced sense of well being
 Intrinsic motivation
http://www.scholarcentric.com/
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May 2012
Local Events Update Continued
 Chick-fil-A Leadercast
The Leadercast was a one-day leadership event
broadcast LIVE from Atlanta on May 4. Renowned
leaders Tim Tebow, Roland Fryer, John D. Maxwell,
Andy Stanley and Soledad O’Brien spoke on leadership
issues. The Dropout Prevention Coalition and Warner
Temple A. M. E. Zion Church joined local leaders, and
125,000 leaders from around the world at the 12th annual
Leadercast event here in Wilmington. Over 60
individuals from the community attended to hear several
inspirational speakers. Dr. Roland Fryer, an economist,
Harvard University professor and CEO of the Education
Innovation Laboratory, in particular provided good
guidance for school success. He made the statement, “We
know what to do, do we have the leadership courage to
get it done?”
Save the Date
Watson School of Education
Junior Seahawk Academy Summer Program
Monday-Thursday 8:30am-12:30pm; Friday 8:30am-1:00pm
(Closing Ceremony/Student Showcase, Friday, June 22th
11:00am-12:30pm)
Location: Education Building
Your support is needed this year!
Become an active volunteer or provide a donation to
sponsor a child to attend the program. We have students
from our partnership school districts that need sponsorship
to attend the program this summer. The registration fee is
$60 per child and lunch is provided.
Come out anytime during the week of the camp to lend a
hand and encourage students. We invite you all to come
and support the students during the Showcase on Friday. It
is expected that students’ motivation and enthusiasm about
considering college as a career choice will be impacted by
being exposed to the UNCW campus and college culture.
Showcase Ceremony on Friday, June 22th 11:00am12:30 pm.
Check out the Junior Seahawk Academy website:
http://www.uncw.edu/ed/jrseahawk
Notes From Dr. Roland Fryer
Dr. Fryer provided some hard-hitting quotes, for
example, "30% of US high school students can't pass
the test to get into the armed services".
He also had great answers to questions from Soledad
O'Brien. When she asked how to get past the fights
(pro-charter/anti-charter... pro-union/anti-union) he said,
"We need to elevate the dialogue and serve a higher
purpose."
When Dr. Fryer was asked about a focus on EOG test
scores and criticisms that schools "teach to the test" he
said, effectively, that one-size-fits-all solutions don't
work and offered an opinion that there's too much
testing of top-tier students, and too little testing for the
lower tiers. (He said in public schools teachers teach
then test once in April/May. When kids fail they say,
oh well, it's summer... He said it would be far more
effective to test these kids every four weeks or so then
adjust curriculum so they learn the material.)
Here are some of his suggestions:
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Spend more time in school
Select the teachers carefully
Use data to alter the pace of instruction
Work more in small groups, smaller class size
Have high expectations of students building a
culture of no excuses.
"Kids will live down or up to your expectations."
Dr.Fryer
More on Roland Fryer: http://www.macfound.org/fellows/3/
Upcoming Events from our Members!

Communities in Schools of Cape Fear:
Healthy Start Breakfast!
Come have breakfast and hear about CIS Cape
Fear and from Principal Todd Finn, New
Hanover High School. Free event.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012 7:30 a.m.
1939 Independence Boulevard, Wilmington, NC
RSVP louise@ciscapefear.org
 Communities in school of North Carolina:
Free Service Learning Summit!
First-ever statewide conference specifically
designed to promote, develop and support high
quality service-learning in K-20 student
experiences. May 12, 2012 Greensboro, NC
http://www.cisnc.org/whats_happening/view
/north_carolina_service_learning_summit
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May 2012
Regional Success Stories
Congratulations go to Chandra Roughton, a graduate
assistant at the Watson School of Education. Her team
received a MAD award on their dropout prevention program
research poster. The MAD award is“Making a Difference” in
North Carolina. Keep up the wonderful work!
Regional Resources

We have a new Website! Please check it out at:
http://uncw.edu/ed/Dropout/

We have a new mentoring committee. If you would like to
join please contact Claudia Buer at : buerbabe1@yahoo.com

Would you like to be a graduation project judge?
- New Hanover High School needs senior project
judges:
May 22, 2012 4:30-7:00pm
Contact Kim Rushton: Kimberly.Rushton@nhcs.net
- Mosley PLC also needs senior project judges:
May 17, 2012, 4:00-6:00pm
Contact Jill Larson: Jill.Larson@nhcs.net
Dropout Prevention Information
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Check out a school that is trying out a new approach to
school discipline. Their suspensions drop 85%!
http://acestoohigh.com/2012/04/23/lincoln-high-school-inwalla-walla-wa-tries-new-approach-to-school-disciplineexpulsions-drop-85/
Finland has a very successful school reform model. Can we
learn from it?
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/education/fromfinland-an-intriguing-school-reformmodel.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
Top Stories
From across the
Nation
The 2012 report update of
Building a Grad Nation:
Progress and Challenge in
Ending the High School
Dropout Epidemic, by the
Alliance for Excellent
Education, America’s
Promise Alliance, Civic
Enterprises, and the
Everyone Graduates
Center at Johns Hopkins
University, shows high
school graduation rates
continue to improve
nationally.
Afterschool Programs That
Follow Evidence-Based
Practices to Promote
Social and Emotional
Development Are Effective,
by Joseph Durlak and
Roger P. Weissberg,
reviewed 68 studies on the
effects of afterschool
programs and found
significantly higher
outcomes among students
who attended programs
that emphasize active
forms of learning; focus
time and attention on skill
development; and are
explicit in defining the skills
they’re attempting to
promote.
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May 2012
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Libri Foundation: Books for Children Grants – May 15
Aetna’s Grant Programs – May 15
SparkOpportunity Challenge - May 15
100 Best Communities for Young People – May 17
MetLife Foundation: Partners in Arts Education Program - May 17
Captain Planet Environment Grants – May 31
Special Olympics Project Unify Grants – Rolling through May 31
PTO Today: Parent Group of the Year Contest – May 31
Institute of International Education: WISE Awards - May 31
Evaluation of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention FY 2010 Second Chance
Act Juvenile Offender Reentry Demonstration Projects - May 14
The Gerber Foundation – June 1
NSTA: New Science Teacher Academy - July 1
LEGO: Children's Fund Grants – July 15, Oct. 15
Build-A-Bear’s Grants for Special Needs’ Children's Health and others – Rolling to Aug. 1
Stonyfield Farm’s Profits for the Planet – Aug. 1
Nathan Cummings Foundation – Aug. 15
Major League Baseball & Baseball Players Association’s Baseball Tomorrow Fund – Oct. 1
Verizon Foundation – through Oct. 16
CVS/Caremark: Community Grants – Oct. 31
Mickelson/ExxonMobil: 2013 Teachers Academy Oct. 31
Humane Society of the United States: Education Mini-grant – Nov. 30
Taken from : http://www.dropoutprevention.org/grant-resources/fundingsources/by-date
Upcoming Events . . .
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There is a Dropout Prevention symposium in the planning stages for the Fall.
There is discussion about an upcoming Education Alliance Summit.
We were asked to cosponsor the At-Risk Forum with the National Dropout Prevention
Center again for next year in February, 2013.
We were asked to co-sponsor the Leadercast event again next year in May, 2013.
Note: Please send any items you would like to see in upcoming newsletters to Dr.
Janna Robertson at robertsonj@uncw.edu
We want to share your news! Please send it as soon as you can get it to us!
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