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In The News …

S&P’s Credit Downgrade for the U.S: Its Significance to Nonprofits and Communities (The Nonprofit Quarterly): “… its downgrading of the credit rating of the U.S. is, nevertheless, a powerful, serious and very conscious act, albeit mostly symbolic. But symbols are powerful [... And] if you listen to the television pundits, they seem to be floundering about how important the credit downgrading is, how the markets will react, and whether the solution is raising more revenues, cutting deeper into spending, reworking entitlements, or all of the above.” The NPQ points out that the nonprofit sector has not yet weighed in on the downgrade and what it could portend, and points to several areas of the S&P report that hold particular significance to that sector; but the article also adds that those points are, for the most part, old news. Do you agree or disagree? Let them know! Continue reading

In The News …

Welcome to Wednesday, folks! A handful of non-profit news to follow …

Revamping the Teaching Profession: Investing in teachers from the very beginningThe Center for High Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania has an extensive post on the “the importance of investing in high-quality teachers from the very beginning of their careers [...] Investing in the early preparation and support of high-quality teaching candidates [...] is an area where individual philanthropic capital can play a critical role.” Among the results of several such support models? “The retention rates for the three founding programs represent an improvement of 66% to 84% over the national five-year retention rate of 50%.”

Re-envisioning No Child Left Behind, and What It Means for Arts Education — Over at Createquity, Jennifer Kessler provides a detailed analysis of what President Obama’s ‘Blueprint for Reform: the Re-authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and what it all could signify for the future of arts education in public schools. She explains that “the biggest shift presented by Obama’s proposal is that … the government offers incentives in the form of grants to people doing the best work” and will encourage “a new investment in improving teaching and learning in all content areas.” But are all “content areas” given equal resources?

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