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This article discusses the different types and the effectiveness of Credit Based Transition Programs or CBTPs. CBTPs are programs that allow high school students to take college level courses and earn college credit. Some of the programs even help the students apply and transition into college life. CBTPs are very widespread and common because in the "2002-2003 school year, 71% of public high schools reported students took courses for dual credit". The debate now, which the article focuses on, is whether or not to make CBTPs more accessible to middle and low achieving high schools. Since these programs have proved to be very beneficial and highly used, policy makers are currently discussing how to implement them in the majority of public high schools. Implementing CBTPs programs in middle and low achieving high schools would give more students the opportunity to go to and succeed in college.

A study finds that most students are scoring very low on their national standards testing, and a study concludes these students will be unprepared for college writing. Posting this so I can find it later.

This article by Dr. Janette Hughes talks about the import role poetry plays in literacy development and how multi-media uses of poetry in the classroom can further enhance and engage a students learning process. For the sake of how in depth both of these subjects are, I'm only going to discuss what Dr. Hughes says about poetry and literacy development in this article. "Paying attention to the language and rhythms of poetry helps build oral language skills…..Children with well-developed oral language skills are more likely to have higher achievement in reading and writing" (Hughes). Poetry has an elitist stereotype to it, and tends to be something kept out of middle school and high school classrooms for the most part. Some English classes may briefly touch on some of the cannons of poetry, but only focus on a traditional notion of reading the context and finding the one single meaning. As Hughes states, "The dominant model of poetry teaching, particularly for older students, has been to teach poetry through print text and to focus on finding one meaning to be dissected. In contrast, poets emphasize the importance of hearing the poem read aloud, engaging with it, and probing for deeper meaning through discussion with others" (Hughes). I feel that engagement in poetry provides tools applicable to understanding every type of text. The brevity in poetry forces your mind to work in more analytical ways, and a facilitation of this analysis with other students provides a type of engaging learning experience that can be applied to any type of text for any class. This article really fascinated me, and left me with many more questions and ideas I would like to explore regarding poetry in the classroom.