2010 Urban Issues Forum a HUGE SUCCESS!

highly successful 2010 Urban Issues Forum that held at the CT State Legislative Office Building. We are pleased to report that citizens from 26 Connecticut cities participated. was successfully sponsored by 14 CT Organizations and State Agencies.

This historic state-wide non-partisan forum was a collaborative event that offered U.S. Congressional Elected Officials, CT State Constitutional Elected Officials, CT State Elected Officials, CT State Candidates running for office, Urban Issues Experts and State Agency Leaders the platform and opportunity to meet “face to face” with concerned citizens for a series of “interactive dialogue sessions”. Discussions that focused on Educational, Health, Social Justice and Political / Electoral Process issues that impact on communities throughout CT were key themes at the forum.

Click here to view 2010 Urban Issues Booklet with Photo Collection and Survey Result.

We were pleased to have both Dr. David Martin present on the Feuerstein Instrumental Enrichment Program as an effective initiative to Close the Educational Achievement Gap and Edwin Vargas to participate as an a candidate for the CT State Senate. (Check out Ed on Page 25 of the attached booklet or in the online link above. Dr. Martin is located on page 9).

An Important Report on IE

Dear Friends,

The linked document represents a unique, important, and explicit illustration of a cognitive education program for parents and teachers in progress.

The first document was written by the individual who implemented this program in San Jose, CA., Dr. David S. Martin. The second and third were unsolicited reports by parents who were full participants in the program and have leadership within the organization that sponsored and partially funded this program SVDSN (Silicon Valley Down’s Syndrome Network) in collaboration with the Valley Medical Center Foundation, San Jose, CA. Also included are research reports by IRI in Alaska (preschool progress report on IE Basic) and a summary of an international research study on the effects of Instrumental Enrichment (IE) on children with
developmental disabilities. The IE Basic and IE Standard Programs could be the basis for true educational change. The IE programs also promote improved social interaction between participants and others.

This information is being forwarded to a diverse constituency of parents, educators, and non-educators, etc.

We invite your response.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

As a new feature of this Blog, we will from time to time be posting questions for discussion, related to cognitive education within the general American educational context. We invite you to ponder these questions and to post a Comment on them; in this way, we can have an exchanges of ideas in a Forum context. Everyone will be able to see all comments and respond. Let’s think together!

QUESTION —We now seem to see a growing movement to change the atmosphere in American education of test-test-test, through possible revision of the No Child Left Behind law. However, until some change happens, we are still bound by numerous mandated tests throughout the public school years. Teachers who are interested in teaching higher-order thinking strategies through such programs as Instrumental Enrichment are faced with a dilemma—how to incorporate thinking strategies when the pressure of preparing for mandated tests is so severe? How should teachers cope with this situation, or how can they integrate thinking strategies in this atmosphere? How have you managed to do it?

Please Comment—thank you!

VIDEO OVERVIEW OF I.E. BASIC

Dr. Jeanne Zehr of East Allen County (IN) Public Schools, recently offered an overview of Instrumental Enrichment Basic - for younger children - as part of an all-day conference on dealing with the cognitive effects of lead-poisoning in urban children, held in Hartford, Connecticut. I.E. is considered to be an appropriate intervention for children with these challenges. We hope to post the particular excerpt of her presentation on this blog, in the mean time you may access video of the whole conference by clicking here
Once there you need to click on Watch Video to open & load, then move the purple dot below televised image to fast forward to Jeanne Zehr's presentation (the counter in the lower left will read 1:32:45 when the moderator introduces her, and her part concludes at 1:54:37, so it's a 22- minute presentation).

NEW RESEARCH ON I.E.BASIC SHOWS POSITIVE RESULTS

A newly published research study in the journal Research in Development Disabilities reports that Instrumental Enrichment Basic produced significant improvement in a variety of children with special needs. Children who had intellectual impairments based on genetics, ADHD, autism, and developmental disabilities showed big gains in similarities, picture completion, piecture arrangement, and pattern determination after 30-45 weeks of work with I.E. They were compared with children who only had general occupational therapy and sensori-motor therapy. Greater gains were noted in children who had the program where teachers were fully committed to mediated learning. Click here to access the full article.