Home  About  Chapters  Policy  Publications  Join  Jobs  Donate  Blog  Each year, the incoming leaders of Roosevelt Institution chapters gather at the FDR Estate in Hyde Park, New York. Photos by Nick Bradley. News from the National Office Post-Election Center TI Launched Roosevelt LiveBlogs the Presidential Debate On Campus Midwest Regional Fall Policy Workshop Blum speaks at Vermont Campus Compact conference Coverage of the Johns Hopkins Chapter Launch > More "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." — Franklin Roosevelt    Making K-12 education work for at-risk students > Roosevelt Home > Roosevelt Challenges > Making K-12 education work for at-risk students Your name: Your email: Recipient's name: Recipient's email: Message: To prevent spam, please enter the first letter of the recipient's email and the first letter of the recipient's name in the box below (for example, if the name is "John Doe" and the email is "bigjohn@johndoe.com", you would enter "jb"): By Kai H Stinchcombe Categories: Education The Challenge: Roosevelt must develop policies to make K-12 education work for at-risk students How the proposed Challenge meets the challenge criteria: Applicable throughout the geographic United States Approachable at local, state, and national levels of government Approachable from a variety of academic disciplines and specialties 1. There are kids everywhere. 2. Challenges are different everywhere -- english language abilities may be the dominant problem in one place and street gangs another. 3. Public health, developmental psychology, education, crime, racism, etc. Why Roosevelt should take on this Challenge over others: Education is the key to success in our economy, and that's never been more true -- but our education system is not working for everyone. Roosevelt has two unique advantages. First, we're all recently out of high school and have some unique insights about the system and can attract attention in taking it on. Second, most state and national education policies add up to just messing around with layers of bureaucracy. We're local enough that we can develop policies at the school district, school, and classroom level, see what's working and what isn't, and create innovative pilot programs to spread around our country. Comments Naamah B Paley, Wed 28 Jun 4:48 pm PST: Definitely feasible and crucial, especially for my chapter with Detroit, the home of some of the worst public schools in the country, so nearby. Many of our Roosevelt members also volunteer, tutor, and mentor at-risk students, as I'm sure is true at other chapters. I think that as students it is our duty to develop policy that will help other students who aren't receiving the necessary opportunities. Kai H Stinchcombe, Sat 8 Jul 11:35 am PST: See also : http://rooseveltinstitution.org/challenges/21_support_disadvantaged_st/ I think the two proposals are pretty similar. Joshua D Murphy, Sat 15 Jul 11:23 pm PST: Here in Las Vegas we have some of the same problems with At Risk schools. We have the 5th largest school district and we are one of the fastest growing districts on top of that. With that we build schools at an astronomical speed, which can outpace our funding for those school and teachers. This can leave out the funding for programs that help underprivileged children and renovating the schools that need it. I also think that while we need to improve math and sciences in education for children, I think that teaching At Risk students’ political science can be beneficial. By demonstrating to students at all grade levels that all they need is their opinions and passions to help spur social change, we can help them organize to rebuild their neighborhoods and schools. While we are helping to develop policies to improve education, we are instilling the same ideologies that we follow in the Roosevelt Institution.   The Roosevelt Institution is a nonpartisan, nonprofit national think tank devoted to bringing students' policy ideas to the policy process. The opinions expressed on this site are exclusively those of its members. DC Headquarters: Roosevelt Institution / 2100 M St NW Suite 610 / Washington, DC 20037 || (202) 833-1359