St. Louis Front Page - Not Just For KIDS!

Not Just For Kids!
features news, fun activities and places to visit in the Metro St. Louis area for the entire family.

Volunteers needed for the St. Louis Science
Center's Run for the Stars
ST. LOUIS, MO (SLFP.com), 2005 - The Young Friends of the St. Louis Science Center, 5050 Oakland Ave., presents the Seventh Annual Run for the Stars, on Saturday, May 14, which raises money to support the Science Center's educational programming.

Run for the Stars is an event for all runners, from individuals to groups. Races include a 10K and 5K run/walk, a 5K-wheelchair race and a half-mile family fun run. There is also the Team Challenge for those wanting to race in corporate or school divisions. In addition to the races, there are also other fun and science-related activities as part of Family Science Day, such as a T-shirt design contest, the Packaged Egg Drop Competition, dance performances and exhibits by local community organizations.

For those not wanting to race, you can still take part by offering a supportive hand. Volunteers are needed to help staff Run for the Stars in a range of capacities that help kick off the event and ensure its success.

Volunteers are needed any time between 5 am and Noon. Volunteers help with the setup and cleanup of the event, as well as various aspects during the event such as greeting the participants and visitors and monitoring the food and water stations. Volunteers are also needed to assist with the Packaged Egg Drop Competition for middle school students.

And, who doesn't like free stuff? Each volunteer receives a free event T-shirt, breakfast, coffee and water.

For more information on volunteering for the event or to sign up, call Amber Dover at 314/286-4633. Please provide Amber with an approximate time frame of when you would like to volunteer and your T-shirt size.

For more information on Run for the Stars, call 314/289-4444, toll-free 800/456-SLSC.

Miriam Alizadeh (driver seat,) and Len Hunt (passenger seat), executive vice president, Volkswagen of America, Inc. are buckled up and ready to hit the road with their message of seat belt safety. (PRNewsFoto)

Volkswagen Challenges Teens to Generate a Positive Vibe for Seat Belt Use, Save Lives
AUBURN HILLS, MI, (PRNewswire), March 27, 2005 - Every year, over 5,000 teenagers die in automobile crashes. Nothing takes more young lives -- not drinking, not drugs, not suicide. Perhaps the greatest tragedy is that many of these deaths could be prevented; up to 57 percent of these teens are not wearing seat belts.

To increase safety belt use and reduce the number of auto-related teen deaths, Volkswagen of America, Inc. and Scholastic Marketing Partners, a division of Scholastic, announced today they are expanding their joint educational program, Fasten Your Seat Belt ... Go Far! Now in its third year, the project will expand from 10 to 20 major metropolitan markets across the country.

Fasten Your Seat Belt ... Go Far is an educational curriculum designed to provide high school students with the tools and means with which to influence their peers through positive peer pressure. As part of this curriculum, participating students create public service announcements that encourage other teens to wear safety belts. The peer-to-peer messages feature many different storylines and styles, but a singular message: buckling up is cool. An informal study conducted by Volkswagen in year one of the program revealed the top reason teens don't wear a safety belt is because they believe it is "uncool."

In mid-March, Volkswagen began distributing the curriculum kits to 14,000 teachers in 20 major metropolitan areas including: Atlanta; Boston; Chicago; Charlotte; Cincinnati; Cleveland; Dallas; Detroit; Hartford; Houston; Los Angeles; Miami; Milwaukee; Minneapolis; New York; Philadelphia; San Diego; Seattle; St. Louis; and San Francisco.

"We want to reach even more teens this year," said Len Hunt, executive vice president, Volkswagen of America. "Young people are the future and too many are losing their chance at that future -- their chance to go far in life. Our goal is to get teens telling other teens that buckling up really is the cool and safe thing to do."

"Inexperience behind the wheel, coupled with risk-taking behavior, often yields tragic results for our young people," said NHTSA administrator Jeffrey W. Runge, M.D. "We applaud Volkswagen and Scholastic for this important initiative."

Fasten Your Seat Belt ... Go Far! includes classroom materials that help teachers engage students in seat belt safety through a cross-curricular language arts program. The lesson plans help teens build language and literacy skills; practice oral and written communication skills; and use creative expression as a powerful tool to affect other teens.

"The Fasten Your Seat Belt ... Go Far! program offers an engaging way to infuse this critical topic in classroom discussions across the country," stated Shelley White, editorial director of Scholastic Marketing Partners. "The program not only teaches positive messages and important communication skills to teens, but ultimately can help save their lives."

Volkswagen will select three finalists, their PSAs will be broadcast nationally -- in previous years on MTV. A grand prize winner will also win a $10,000 U.S. Savings Bond; the second- and third-place winners will receive $3,000 and $1,000 savings bonds, respectively.

Information on how to enter the contest is also available online at: www.scholastic.com/fastenyourseatbelt . All entries must be postmarked by May 3, 2005.

Teachers of the three finalists will receive an Apple G5 computer with a flat screen monitor, Final Cut Express(TM) software for classroom use and a $100 Scholastic gift certificate.

High-Stakes Tests for Students Often Fail to Make the Grade
EAST LANSING, MI, (PRNewswire), March 20, 2005 - America's public schools are setting goals and making harmful, irreversible decisions based on test results that in an increasing number of cases can't be trusted, said an independent study from the Education Policy Research Unit at Arizona State University.

The report, made possible by a grant from the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice, determined that the pressure of high-stakes tests is forcing school districts to take shortcuts to avoid being labeled as failing for not meeting certain benchmarks. As a result, their scores are subject to corruption.

"Policy makers have oversold the public on the notion that high-stakes test scores are the best way to hold schools accountable," said Teri Moblo, director of the Great Lakes Center. "Because of No Child Left Behind and other measures, school districts know that the results of one or two tests determine if they are considered successful. This creates enormous pressure on educators and their students, because long-term decisions are being made based on scores that can't be trusted."

David Berliner and Sharon Nichols, co-authors of the report, The Inevitable Corruption of Indicators and Educators Through High-Stakes Testing, point to examples of how unbridled pressure to reach unrealistic goals, whether in the boardroom, on the playing field or in our own government, can inevitably lead to a "beat-the-system" mentality.

"Now we see this kind of mentality seeping into our schools, where future generations are training merely to beat the system," Berliner said. "Learning subject matter in depth is no longer the goal of schools in high-stakes states. We are witnessing proof of a well-known social science law, which basically says the greater the pressure to perform at a certain level, the more likely people will find a way to distort and corrupt the system to achieve favorable results."

Dr. Berliner suggests scrapping high-stakes tests and building an accountability system that is less inviting to cheating and distortions, and better measures student's and school's achievement. A second report on high- stakes testing commissioned by the Great Lakes Center due out in the coming weeks will look at the relationship between the pressure to succeed on high- stakes tests in a particular state, and whether that pressure actually does improve student learning.

In this study, however, the researchers looked at other effects that high- stakes tests have on our nation's school systems. Hundreds of news articles about high-stakes testing were examined. "Because it would be impossible to comprehensively catalogue every incident where high-stakes testing led to serious problems, our survey seems only to have uncovered the tip of the iceberg," said Berliner.

Some of the findings included:

Teachers' and administrators' inability to be flexible about test administration meant a 14-year-old student whose brother was recently murdered was not allowed to be excused from a test;
Eighty percent of North Carolina's elementary school teachers report they spent more than 20 percent of their total teaching time practicing for high-stakes tests;
In New York, city school officials were accused of pushing thousands of students out of high school and into high school equivalency programs. Students who enrolled in such programs did not count as dropouts and didn't have to pass the Regents' exams necessary for a high school diploma; and
A Georgia science teacher estimated 10 percent of the questions on the science section lacked a "best" answer because of errors in the information provided to students. State administrators acknowledged the errors even as some students failed to receive a high school diploma because they didn't pass the tests.

"Teachers are desperate to help their students and schools succeed. We found example after example where teachers worked very hard to help students from challenged schools raise their scores, but in the end they were still labeled as failing," said Berliner.

Drs. Berliner and Nichols identified 10 trends that outline the consequences of high-stakes testing, which ultimately all negatively impact the quality of education for our nation's children. The trends are:

* Administrator and Teacher Cheating;
* Student Cheating;
* Exclusion of Low-Performance Students from Testing;
* Misrepresentation of Student Dropouts;
* Teaching to the Test;
* Narrowing the Curriculum;
* Conflicting Accountability Ratings;
* Questions about the Meaning of Proficiency;
* Declining Teacher Morale; and
* Score Reporting Errors.

Archived Not Just For Kids Page:

High-Stakes Tests for Students Often Fail to Make the Grade

Kids' Bedrooms Have Become Multi-Media Centers

Safe Surfin' Foundation Drafts NBA All-Star Shaquille O'Neal

Kansas City Schools Accentuate the Positive: Stop Name-Calling

Educators Say It's Important To Help Children When They Get a Low Grade

Students Are Encouraged to Apply Early for Student Financial Assistance

12th Annual Paper Airplane Flyoff at the Public Library

St. Louis Science Center Takes Education to the Classroom and Beyond

What Parents Should Know About Financing College

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