READ PINELLAS, INC.
CLEARWATER, FLORIDA

here at Read Pinellas. If yes, contact me at stefonthenet AT gmail DOT com with your RSS or Atom feed URL and the shortcode or widget params you want to use it with; if not, contact the feed URL provider. 1986 READ Pinellas has been providing literacy services to adults in Pinellas County. READ Pinellas promotes a world in which everyone can pursue a quality education, reach their full potential and contribute to our community and the globe. We work in collaboration with individuals and organizations across Pinellas County to develop literacy programs and a habit of reading among all ages to help them achieve the life skills they’ll need to succeed in school and beyond. The mission of READ Pinellas, Inc. is to increase adult literacy in Pinellas County by coordinating resources, increasing awareness and involving the community in this effort. The READ Pinellas board is made up of passionate individuals with a breadth of experience that ranges from classroom education to leading nonprofit organizations. We have a strong foundation that combines business principles from the private sector with best practices and ethics from the educational and non-profit sectors. WE NEED YOUR HELP Literacy can transform a life. Thanks to the generous support of corporations, foundations, community organizations, and thousands of individuals across Pinellas County just like you, we are helping to enable such transformations every day. Membership allows us to fulfill our mission and put everyone on the path to discovering the inspiring array of people, places, and ideas that await them inside the world of reading. Read Pinellas wants to congratulate all the recent and up coming graduates. Thank you for all your hard work. , to learn more about our services and how we are striving to increase literacy in our community . Read Pinellas promotes a rich and thriving learning experience. Here are some quick statistics and student numbers: In its April 2 report, the Center for American Progress analyzed how states' requirements for a standard diploma match up with the admissions criteria at their respective state universities. The think tank found that in most states, in at least one subject area, students must exceed their state's high school graduation requirements in order to cross the threshold of the public four-year institutions in their state. • Don't meet admissions criteria for the state's public universities. Noted by other researchers as well, this "preparation gap" can form a barrier to college when students find that the diploma requirements they completed fall short of the ones their state colleges and universities expect for admission. In that subject, 47 states' requirements meet or exceed those of their universities. But in math, only 40 states require the courses that state universities demand for admission. The misalignment is most pronounced in foreign language. Huge student-counselor ratios also tend to be worse in high-poverty schools. That increases the risk that students who need the most help figuring out the gaps between high school and college requirements might not be able to get it. Diploma requirements that fall short of public universities' admissions requirements are just one sign that fundamental changes are needed in high school, said Laura Jimenez, who co-authored the report with Scott Sargrad. Irving Breyer was prominent enough in the city that on Aug. 16, 1938, the Chronicle ran a short item reporting the birth the previous day of "a 6-pound-12-and-a-half-ounce son" to "Mrs. Irving Breyer." Irving Breyer quipped to the paper that the birth of his first son, Stephen, was well-timed. "This shows I'm doing right by my job," the new father said. "School starts today, you know." In his 40 years as legal counsel, Irving Breyer helped steer the system through the mundane and the unusual. Some of his actions reflect the work of a government lawyer seeking to guide his client on thorny issues, some that were reflective of their era. In the 1960s, Irving Breyer helped advise the San Francisco system and others around the state, through the California School Boards Association, in an era when teachers asserted and won their right to bargain collectively with their employers. Throughout the 1960s, civil rights groups pressed the school system to address widespread de facto segregation of black students. San Francisco school administrators, and sometimes special commissions, conducted studies and proposed various remedies. But it took a lawsuit and a At the heart of the debate over the guidance is why those differing discipline rates occur and the role of the federal government in addressing them. Also at issue: whether schools' efforts to limit expulsions and suspensions have helped students feel more supported or have too severely limited teacher discretion in discipline. DeVos has not committed to a time frame for making a final decision on the guidance. That decision is also on the agenda of a school safety task force DeVos chairs that was assembled by the White House after a Feb. 14 school shooting in Parkland, Fla. Critics, who included teachers and representatives from the National School Boards Association and AASA, the School Superintendents Association, say the document has had a chilling effect on local decisionmaking. "We are not modeling as a system what consequences look like in the real world," she said. Supporters of the guidance say it has been instrumental in protecting the civil rights of students who are often overlooked. And the directive has motivated states and districts to re-examine their disciplinary practices, making changes that have benefited all students, they said. Many problems that have been attributed to the guidance are actually problems with how districts have implemented their own policies, they said. Teachers need training and resources to support their students, and schools shouldn't remove the ability to suspend students for some offenses without helping teachers with alternative discipline practices, they said.