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How an Unknown Reformer Rescued One of America's Most Troubled School Districts

Eliza Shapiro

June 30, 2018 |

Politico |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Camden, New Jersey

In his five years as superintendent of Camden public schools, Paymon Rouhanifard shepherded in a new era of increasing graduation and decreasing suspension rates. Rouhanifard "avoided the extremes of zigzagging educational trends" and combined his background as both a politician and an educator to offer up a long term path to improvement, one that took into consideration the fate of public and charter schools alike. As Rouhanifard moves on, he leaves a unique legacy, one he hopes will prove resistant to the whims of short-term education reform trends.

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Immigrant Farmers Revive Dormant Greenhouse to Grow Food From Home

Lornet Turnbull

June 29, 2018 |

Yes! Magazine |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Kent, Washington

In a small town south of Seattle an organization called Living Well Kent, made up of immigrants, refugees, and people of color who dominate the region, decided that the best way to promote health in their area would be to start a farmers' market. Now, immigrant farmers grow crops in previously abandoned greenhouses to supply the farmers market and support the local food bank.

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Using schools to bring a dying Rust Belt city back to life

Emmanuel Felton

June 26, 2018 |

The Hechinger Report |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, East St. Louis, Illinois

In East St. Louis, which is often known by outsiders for its 50 percent unemployment rate and status as the worst performing school district in the country, leaders are using a "collective impact" approach to improve test scores and social services. Officials and nonprofits have connected all community services "and use the school district, the entity that touches the lives of almost every kid in town, to help parents tap into that network." Longtime residents, who have seen many efforts flail over the years, offer mixed reviews of the newest initiative.

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Why Women From Asia Are Confronting U.S. Fracking: Oil Extraction Equals Plastic Production

Isabelle Morrison

June 25, 2018 |

Yes! Magazine |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

Manila Bay in the Philippines is covered in trash - more specifically discarded plastic waste that has been exported from the United States. Facing an imminent risk of the Bay (which many local fishers depend on) disappearing, two organizations partnered together to create the “Stopping Plastic Where It Starts Tour." Targeting specifically U.S. communities experiencing the harmful impacts of fracking, the tour aims to reduce plastic consumption and production through awareness.

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Ending the infection that scrapes eyes blind

Meera Senthilingam

June 20, 2018 |

CNN |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Ghana, Yendi

Trachoma is a debilitating disease in which the eyelids turn inwards, causing a person's eyelashes to repeatedly scrape and eventually scar their eyes causing excruciating pain and blindness. The World Health Organization has come up with a four step solution to the problem; surgery, antibiotics, facial cleanliness, and environmental improvement.

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Where Birth Control Is Scarce, Young Women Create Sex Education Outside the Classroom

Ivy Brashear

June 20, 2018 |

Yes! Magazine |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Kentucky

An internship program in rural Kentucky takes a bottom-up approach to reproductive health education. All Access EKY hires young female interns to create media and social media campaigns about teenage pregnancy and birth control. All Access Media Director Willa Johnson says, “We’re trying to build some of these bridges in our communities so it’s not just teenage girls on an island and health care providers on an island and educators on an island."

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What We Can Learn From Ghana's Obsession With Preschool

Nurith Aizenman Gregory Warner

June 19, 2018 |

NPR |

Radio |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: Ghana, Accra

When a group of preschool teachers in Ghana were taught about child-centered and open-ended learning as an alternative to a traditional rote memorization approach, they saw improvements in students' pre-literacy and pre-numeracy scores. The intervention served as a response to revelations of poor performance among early elementary school students. This despite the fact that 80 percent of 3 year olds in Accra, Ghana were enrolled in preschool. While some teachers have successfully rolled out the collaborative style in their classrooms, others have been met with significant cultural resistance.

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Young Nigerians choose to fight Boko Haram with books

Ryan Lenora Brown

June 19, 2018 |

The Christian Science Monitor |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Nigeria

Gathered in makeshift open-air learning spaces, teachers and students in Nigeria are resisting Boko Haram's reign of terror against education. “They don’t like education; they don’t want it,” one 19-year old student says. “So just by doing this, we are all fighting them." Working with UNICEF and other organizations, local educators are offering free education to students who have been forced to stay home for years.

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Solar Libre: Family Affair

Melanie La Rosa

June 19, 2018 |

Latino USA |

Video |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: Puerto Rico

Hurricane Maria left many properties and people in Puerto Rico completely devastated. One family decided to do what they could to begin the reconstruction process on their own by forming Solar Libre Puerto Rico - a volunteer organizing that brings emergency solar to the region.

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Youth prisons are standing empty, but are a huge opportunity

Eillie Anzilotti

June 19, 2018 |

FastCompany |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

Across the country municipalities are repurposing former juvenile detention centers as juvenile incarceration rates have declined and remaking them as places of healing. Each community is different in its approach, with some even knocking down the buildings to start anew, but the Urban Institute found that successful transitions had several core strategies in common, including seeking input from local community members and from those who had been incarcerated in the facilities.

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