Southern Echo, Inc. is now accepting applications for our small grants program for mature grassroots community-based organizations engaged in community organizing work.

The primary purpose of this program is to strengthen low-income communities and neighborhoods by investing in the development of local leaders through the community organizing process.

Grants of up to $20,000 (note that the average grant size is $15,000.00) are awarded, supported by training and technical assistance, to strengthen community organizing groups and help them to connect to networks and coalitions.

Click HERE to access the cover sheet for the grant application. Click HERE to access the application and guidelines.

Southern Echo, Inc. is now accepting applications for our small grants program for mature grassroots community-based organizations engaged in community organizing work.

The primary purpose of this program is to strengthen low-income communities and neighborhoods by investing in the development of local leaders through the community organizing process.

Grants of up to $20,000 (note that the average grant size is $15,000.00) are awarded, supported by training and technical assistance, to strengthen community organizing groups and help them to connect to networks and coalitions.

Click HERE to access the cover sheet for the grant application. Click HERE to access the application and guidelines.

All applications must be postmarked by May 22, 2012.

Earlier this week, Southern Echo and the Mississippi Delta Catalyst Roundtable released critical analyses of the Mississippi Senate’s charter school bill to express opposition. Included in its analyses are crafted amendments to make the bill better in the event a bill should be passed. Click here to access the document.

Mississippi’s House of Representatives’ charter school bill was never put forward on the floor of House and has died. For more of Echo’s analyses and other resources on charter schools, click here.

Southern Echo and the MS Delta Catalyst Roundtable released the following position paper on charter schools. The paper highlights that most charter schools do not outperform traditional public schools; that massive amounts of state funding would be diverted from traditional public schools into privately-owned, privately-governed public-funded charter schools; and that MS proposed charter schools bills do not provide any meaningful parental engagement in the creation of the schools, the governance of the schools, policy formation and implementation in the schools, or meaningful participation in the development of the culture of the schools. The paper also highlights recommendations if authorizing charter schools cannot be avoided. You may access the paper by clicking here.

Southern Echo recently released a new batch of maps on Mississippi’s Education Accountability Model. These maps depict data provided by the MS Dept. of Education concerning the Education Accountability Model. These maps show the Accountability Status assigned to each school district, the Quality Distribution Index (QDI) score assigned to each district, whether each district met Growth Goals, district Graduation Rates, and proficiency in math and reading for high school, 8th grade, and 4th grade students.

You may access the maps by clicking here.

Southern Echo released a color coded map illustrating the changes by school district from the 2009-2010 school year to the 2010-2011 school year in the use of corporal punishment – i.e. the number of occasions on which teachers or administrators beat students with a hard instrument.

For each district that provided data to the MS Dept. of Education we have color-coded the data for 09-10 and 10-11 on the map. We have also shown on the map the difference in the number of student beatings from 09-10 to 10-11. Overall 67 districts reported a decrease in the number of student beatings from 09-10 to 10-11. Overall 33 districts reported an increase in the number of student beatings from 09-10 to 10-11.

MVSU’s Delta Research & Cultural Institute’s Ayers Distinguished Visiting Lecture Series for Spring 2012 will feature Mr. Leroy Johnson, Executive Director, Southern Echo, Inc.

The focus of the Spring 2012 Visiting Lecture Series is: The Political Economy of Public Education in the Mississippi Delta

The series begins this evening Tuesday evening (1/17/2012) at 6:00 p.m. in the presentation hall of DRCI, located in Administrative Annex I on the campus of MVSU. All lectures are free and open to both the campus community and the general public.

The respective dates and topics for Mr. Johnson’s lectures for this series are:

A. Tuesday, 1/17/2012: The Political History of Public Education in Mississippi: 1890 - 2011
B. Tuesday, 2/14/2012: Public Education Budgets as Public Education Policy (Supervisor’s Building, 115 Court Street, Lexington, MS 39095)
C. Tuesday, 2/28/2012: The Dilemma of Critical Teacher Shortages in the Delta: 1980 - 2011 (Indianola, MS)
D. Tuesday, 3/20/2012: MS Department of Education (MDE), School Take-overs, & School Rankings in the Delta GW Henderson Rec. Center, 1165 Abbay Drive, Tunica, MS 38676)
E. Tuesday, 4/24/2012: Where Do Go From Here? Developing a 1st Rate 21st Century Quality Education (Delta Research & Cultural Institute, Mississippi Valley State University, 14000 Highway 82 West, Itta Bena, MS 38941)

* Note: Plans are unfolding to confirm the locations of lectures B, C & D. We expect that these sessions will be held in selected communties around the Delta, thus allowing us to directly reach a public audience that is most impacted by rural public policies related to the education of youth across the region.

For more information, please contact DRCI at: 662-254-3794, or e-mail: gdbneal@mvsu.edu.

Southern Echo is releasing the first in a series of maps that makes visually accessible the complex 2011 data approved by the State Board of Education on Friday, September 16, 2011 regarding School District Accountability Rankings, Quality Distribution Index scores, Graduation rates, and other data.

The attached color-coded maps and tables illustrate the Rankings, QDI scores and Graduation Rate percentages; QDI scores for 2009-2011 with the 2011 accountability ranking; and Graduation Rate percentages for 2009-2001 with accountability rankings in each of the 152 school districts. We also show how many districts are included in each rank and the percentage of the whole that each rank represents.

Please Note: In January 2011, according to State Supt. of Education Tom Burnham, the State Board of Education voted to eliminate the “At Risk of Failing” ranking category for school districts and schools.

Therefore, the ranking system now includes from highest rank to lowest rank: Star, High Performing, Successful, Academic Watch, Low Performing and Failing.

Click here to access the webpage containing the maps and chart.

Southern Echo, Inc. is now accepting applications for our small grants program for mature grassroots community-based organizations engaged in community organizing work.

The primary purpose of this program is to strengthen low-income communities and neighborhoods by investing in the development of local leaders through the community organizing process.
Grants of up to $20,000 (note that the average grant size is $15,000.00) are awarded, supported by training and technical assistance, to strengthen community organizing groups and help them to connect to networks and coalitions.

Click HERE to access the cover sheet and grant application.