A week ago or so I had the privilege of hearing Alama Powell speak at the ASCD conference in New Orleans.
She leads the America’s Promise Alliance, which is built on the research-supported premise that 5 things in kids lives make the difference between successful transition to adulthood, and various forms of failure. Those 5 things are:
- Caring adults
- Safe places
- A healthy start
- Effective education
- Opportunities to help others
She listed some startling statistics:
- there are 7000 kids dropping out of school each day in the US
- there are 9 million kids without health insurance
- kids who lack 3 of the 5 promises have twice the poverty rate and 8 times the incarceration rate versus kids who have all 5
She was a great speaker, and is a passionate woman – it was very enjoyable to hear her. She also happens to be the wife of Colin Powell
hey John,
Thanks for posting on your ASCD Annual Con. experiences. We blogged the con, over at ASCD’s blog Inservice, and Alma Powell’s presentation caused quite a discussion–thought you might be interested–here’s the link.