Welcome to the spring 2010 edition of the Challenge Success newsletter. We are excited to bring you up to date on the progress we have made over the past several months as we continue to create a movement to champion a broader vision of success for youth.

In this issue:

Schools return to campus for spring conference

Challenge Success welcomed 12 member schools back to Stanford to reflect on what went well this year as they implemented their action plans. Schools worked in teams with their Challenge Success coaches to identify areas of substantial progress and to develop plans for the coming year. Students, parents, teachers and administrators from public and private schools joined together to celebrate success stories and to brainstorm strategies to overcome barriers toward effective school reform.  At the end of the day, the entire group came together to discuss best practices for creating a climate of care, fostering project-based learning and alternative assessment practices, developing healthy schedules for students, and implementing effective professional development and parent education programs.

We also conducted a special focus group with schools that have participated in the Challenge Success student experience survey, so that we can continue to improve our survey process and obtain more effective pre/post research.

Parent Education event in San Francisco draws large crowd

Challenge Success teamed with New York Times best-selling author Dan Pink and Stanford University Dean of Freshmen and Undergraduate Advising, and Associate Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Julie Lythcott-Haims to present our first parent education workshop in San Francisco. Nearly 300 parents and teachers joined us on Sunday May 2, 2010 for a 3 hour event at the Jewish Community Center. Dan Pink delivered a keynote on the premium skills needed for success in the global economy and how schools must change to prepare students accordingly, while Julie shared her insights on what does drive—and what should drive—college students today.  Denise Pope, Jim Lobdell and Madeline Levine engaged the group with hands-on exercises derived from our 6 week parent education course as well. Highlights of the event are posted on our website, www.challengesuccess.org. If you have suggestions for future parent education topics, we would love to hear from you. Please email us through our website.

Join us on Facebook! Read our Blog!

We are pleased to announce that we have a new blog.  Find it on our site at the Resources / Blog page.  Or go straight to the blog on blogspot at ChallengeSuccess.blogspot.com. We will be posting content from guest authors-educators, students and parents, as well as from the Challenge Success team on topics ranging from youth sports to parenting tips and stress-avoidance.  If there is a topic you would like to hear about, please let us know.

We also invite you to join our Challenge Success Facebook group and keep up to date on what is happening at Challenge Success.

Upcoming events and announcements

Be sure to mark your calendars for the Challenge Success fall conference at Stanford on October 15-16, 2010. The plenary session will be Friday night beginning at 7:30 p.m. Wendy Mogel, author of the upcoming book The Blessings of a B-, will be our keynote speaker and we will present some of our latest research. We look forward to seeing you for an exciting evening in October.

Challenge Success is looking for a part-time Schools Program Manager as well as an administrative assistant. If you are interested in learning more about these positions, please visit the Stanford jobs website at jobs.stanford.edu.

As always, thank you for your continued support of Challenge Success.

The Challenge Success team