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  • GreatSchools Cohosts Google+ Hangout on “Back to Happy”

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    Part of online series Emotional Smarts: Conversations on Parenting

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    In the third installment of our online series, Emotional Smarts: Conversations on Parenting, two experts share their secrets for banishing back-to-school blues — and setting your family up for a happy school year.

    Ah, the joys of summer: staying up late, sleeping in, staring at screens, eating sugar — and more sugar. After 12 weeks of so much free time, summer can feel like a long weekend gone bad.

    There’s good reason so many of us reach our wits’ end by the time school rolls around again. Sure, we all need a break from work and school, but experts say unlimited leisure time doesn’t make people happy. Setting goals, having structure, and working hard — these unlikely tasks actually instill a true sense of happiness.

    With this in mind, for back-to-school season we’re taking our cue from two happiness experts (both parents) on how to approach the school year with a renewed sense of purpose, a reduced level of stress, and an abundance of joy.

    Please join us for Back to Happy — our third Emotional Smarts: Conversations on Parenting Google+ Hangout — featuring two of the nation’s most seasoned happiness pros. They’ve delved into the research and discovered how to get organized for a more streamlined, less stress-filled school year. We are proud to host Christine Carter, sociologist and author of Raising Happiness, and Bruce Feiler, author of The Secrets of Happy Families.

    Carter and Feiler have made it their mission to unlock the secrets of happy families. They’ve been in the trenches, navigated their own parenting adventures, and taken their personal experiences and professional findings to make raising children a more satisfying, less stressful journey.

    Join us on Wednesday, August 27 — and jump in with your questions — for a discussion on how to make the shift from back-to-school dread to a back-to-happy outlook.

    Join us! Who, when, where details…

    Featuring
    Christine Carter, author of Raising Happiness
    Bruce Feiler, author of The Secrets of Happy Families
    Moderated by Carol Lloyd, Executive Editor at GreatSchools

    Wednesday, August 27, 11 am PST (2pm EST)

    RSVP to: http://bit.ly/back2happy
    Join our #emotionalsmarts live chat on Twitter.

    How does our Google+ Hangout work?

    Just sign up via http://bit.ly/back2happy and add your questions, then log on at 11 am PST Wednesday, August 27th to participate. In this unique forum, you’re invited to join the video conversation by contributing advance and real-time questions and comments via the Google+ Hangout page or via Twitter using the hashtag #emotionalsmarts. If you can’t make the live event, no problem, you can watch it later on GreatSchools or SocialMoms.

    About our Emotional Smarts series

    GreatSchools, SocialMoms, and social emotional learning consultant Jessica Berlinski created the Emotional Smarts series of Google+ Hangouts that bring together some of the most insightful voices in parenting, education, and other fields to talk about developing emotional intelligence in our kids — and ourselves.

    Our past hangouts have included a chat about dealing with anger in the family with America’s Supernanny Deborah Tillman and Marc Brackett from the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, and a discussion of the benefits of letting kids fail with former NBA star Adonal Foyle and NBC parenting expert Michele Borba. For each hangout, we pair experts with divergent views to explore a common parenting theme and offer practical wisdom and tactical advice.

    About the participants:

    Christine Carter, PhD is a sociologist and happiness expert at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center. She is the author of Raising Happiness: 10 Simple Steps for More Joyful Kids and Happier Parents and The Sweet Spot: How to Find Your Groove at Work and Home (January 2015). A sought-after motivational speaker on happiness, Carter draws on psychology, sociology, and neuroscience — and uses her own chaotic and often very funny real-world adventures — to demonstrate the do’s and don’ts in action. A popular blogger, speaker, and parent coach who offers online classes, she has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show and the Dr. Oz Show. She lives with her husband and four kids near San Francisco.

    Bruce Feiler is the author of six consecutive New York Times bestsellers, including The Council of Dads and Walking the Bible. For his most recent bestseller — The Secrets of Happy Families:  Improve Your Mornings, Rethink Family Dinner, Fight Smarter, Go Out and Play, and Much More — he goes on a three-year journey to find the smartest ideas, cutting-edge research, and novel solutions to make his family happier. He is also the writer and host of the PBS series Walking the Bible and Sacred Journeys with Bruce Feiler; he writes for numerous publications, including The New Yorker and The New York Times. Feiler is the father of identical twin daughters.

    Carol Lloyd, Executive Editor at GreatSchools, is an award-winning writer and editor whose work on education and family life has been published in New York Times Magazine, Salon, and other national outlets, as well as being featured on NPR’s Talk of the Nation, KQED’s Forum, and NBC’s Class Action.

    GreatSchools is a digital media nonprofit that helps millions of parents get a great education for their children, support their children’s learning, and find great schools. Every year, GreatSchools reaches more than half of all American families with school-age children, providing school information, educational activities, articles, and videos.

    SocialMoms is a digital media company with one of the world’s largest networks of women influencers — comprised of more than 45,000 bloggers, sites, and social media personalities with a combined social reach of more than 200 million. Founded in 2008 by Megan Calhoun, the company creates high-impact, custom media campaigns that shape perceptions and drive action.

    Jessica Berlinski works with educational organizations to build awareness and scale impact in social emotional learning (SEL). As co-founder of If You Can, she supported Electronic Arts’ founder in launching the first consumer video game designed to build emotional intelligence. She has a decade of experience leading organizations dedicated to supporting the “whole child” through academics and SEL.

    Continue reading →: GreatSchools Cohosts Google+ Hangout on “Back to Happy”

  • GreatSchools Upgrades School Scorecards for New Jersey Parents

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    July 28, 2014, Oakland, CA — GreatSchools.org has added significant new data about student progress and success to help parents in New Jersey find higher-performing K-12 schools that are a great fit for their children. In addition to results from state standardized tests, GreatSchools Ratings for schools in New Jersey now include measurements of:
    • whether or not students are making academic progress over time,
    • high school graduation rates, and
    • college readiness, including SAT performance and participation.

    “Test scores are valuable, but they’re only the beginning for parents who are looking at schools,” says GreatSchools Founder and CEO Bill Jackson. “Parents want more detailed school information, and the new data included in the GreatSchools Rating makes it a more balanced scorecard. More information will help parents find a great school that is a great fit for their families.”

    Last year, GreatSchools reached more than 52 million unique visitors, including more than half of U.S. families with school-aged children. The GreatSchools Rating helps parents compare the academic performance of all public and public charter schools (and private schools where data is available). GreatSchools also provides qualitative insights from people who know a school best – through community reviews by parents, teachers, and students, and official school profiles from principals.

    New Jersey is the latest state where the new data are included in the GreatSchools Ratings. In recent months, GreatSchools has added the new data for schools in Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan and Ohio, as well as Washington, D.C., and Milwaukee. The enhanced GreatSchools Rating now covers more than 16% of public and public charter schools nationwide. In other states, the GreatSchools Rating continues to be based on results from standardized tests, and new school data will be added as more states make the information available.

    Incorporating new data is one of several ways GreatSchools is working to bring rich school information and insights to parents. GreatSchools Local, for example, builds partnerships with city and state organizations to provide the most relevant and current local school information. GreatSchools also works with school leaders to highlight important aspects of a school, such as school climate and special programs.

    Founded in 1998, GreatSchools is a national nonprofit that helps millions of parents find great schools, support great learning, and guide their kids to great futures. Our Webby award-winning website, GreatSchools.org, is the nation’s leading guide to preK-12 schools, with profiles of 200,000 public, public charter and private schools and more than one million ratings and reviews by parents, teachers, and students. In addition, GreatSchools offers thousands of articles, videos, and worksheets to help parents support their children’s learning. Headquartered in Oakland, California, GreatSchools has local offices and programs in Indianapolis, Washington, D.C., and Milwaukee.

    Continue reading →: GreatSchools Upgrades School Scorecards for New Jersey Parents

  • GreatSchools Cohosts Hangout on “Letting Kids Fail & Grow”

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    Part of online series Emotional Smarts: Conversations on Parenting

    GreatSchools, SocialMoms, and social emotional gaming company If You Can will cohost “Letting Kids Fail & Grow” — an online parenting conversation with former NBA star and education advocate Adonal Foyle and Today Show parenting expert Michele Borba. The Google+ Hangout on Wednesday, June 4 at 2 pm EST (11 am PST) will be a wide-ranging discussion about teaching kids resilience in the face of obstacles. This is part of a new Emotional Smarts: Conversations on Parenting Google+ Hangout series.

    The speakers will use their divergent life experiences and expertise to offer ideas and tips on dealing with one of the most misunderstood areas of parenting: the balance between supporting a child’s self-esteem and letting them experience (and grow from) failure. GreatSchools Executive Editor Carol Lloyd will moderate and explore questions like:

    • When is it okay to let kids fail, and when is it better to protect them?
    • How do you teach kids to learn from their failures — and turn them into successes?

    The Google+ Hangout is free and open to the public. Parents and others can sign up and suggest questions, then log on at 2:00 pm EST (11:00 am PST) on June 4 to join the discussion. Participants may contribute questions and comments in advance or live via the Google+ Hangout page or on Twitter by using the hashtag #emotionalsmarts. Anyone who misses the live chat can also watch the entire conversation later.

    About the participants:

    Adonal Foyle is a retired professional basketball player who founded Kerosene Lamp Foundation and Democracy Matters. He is the author of a children’s book, Too-Tall Foyle Finds His Game (the first in a series based on his rise to success) and the forthcoming book, Why Players Go Broke. Foyle grew up in the tiny nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. His quest for a college education ultimately led him to the U.S. — an inspirational story of ambition, hard work, and a little bit of luck. Despite being recruited by top basketball colleges, Foyle made the unorthodox decision to attend Colgate University to focus on his education. He graduated magna cum laude from Colgate and has a Masters in Sport Psychology from John F. Kennedy University.

    Michele Borba, Ed.D. is an educator and author recognized for her solution-based strategies to strengthen children’s behavior and character, build strong families, and reduce peer cruelty. A sought-after motivational speaker, she has presented workshops and keynote addresses throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and the South Pacific and has served as a consultant to hundreds of schools and corporations including work on U.S. Army bases in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. Her proposal: “Ending School Violence and Bullying” (SB1667) was signed into California law in 2002.

    Carol Lloyd, Executive Editor at GreatSchools, is an award-winning writer and editor whose work on education and family life has been widely published, including in The New York Times Magazine and “This American Life” as well as being featured on NPR’s “Talk of the Nation”, KQED’s “Forum” and NBC’s Class Action, among others.

    About the Emotional Smarts series

    GreatSchools, SocialMoms, and If You Can created the Emotional Smarts Google+ Hangout series to bring insightful voices in parenting, education, and other relevant fields together to talk about developing emotional intelligence in our kids — and ourselves.

    In the first Emotional Smarts hangout, ivory tower met reality TV when Marc Brackett, director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, spoke with TV’s America’s Supernanny Deborah Tillman. Over the next few months, the Emotional Smarts series will pair experts with divergent views to explore parenting themes and offer practical wisdom and tactical advice.

    GreatSchools is a digital media nonprofit that helps millions of parents get a great education for their children, support their children’s learning, and find great schools. Every year, GreatSchools reaches more than half of all American families with school-age children, bringing them school information, educational activities, articles, and videos.

    SocialMoms is a digital media company with one of the world’s largest networks of women influencers — comprised of more than 45,000 bloggers, sites, and social media personalities with a combined social reach of more than 200 million. Founded in 2008 by Megan Calhoun, the company creates high-impact, custom media campaigns that shape perceptions and drive action.

    If You Can is a new gaming company founded by Trip Hawkins, Jessica Berlinski, Stewart Bonn, and Ben Geliher. The company is dedicated to supporting and empowering children and parents to value and understand themselves and others. Its first game IF…, a social-emotional learning game for children, is now available in the Apple App Store.

    Continue reading →: GreatSchools Cohosts Hangout on “Letting Kids Fail & Grow”

  • GreatSchools Wins 2014 MAGGIE Award for Best Web Article

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    Oakland, CA, May 20, 2014 — GreatSchools.org won a 2014 MAGGIE Award for Bipolar at 5? — a mother’s story about learning her young daughter’s diagnosis of early onset bipolar disorder and the challenges their family faced together. The article won for best web, e-newsletter or digital edition article in the trade and consumer category.

    Bipolar at 5? is part of a three-part series that includes two videos. In Sadie’s Story, the daughter, now 11 years old, tells her own story;  Raising Sadie features interviews with both the mother and Sadie’s psychologist. (Please note: Sadie’s name was changed to protect her identity.)

    “We’re honored to receive a MAGGIE Award for this piece. We’re encouraged by the response; it’s one of our most popular articles,” said GreatSchools Executive Editor Carol Lloyd. “GreatSchools is committed to sharing real stories of parents, children, and schools. Our parenting dilemmas articles, like this one, offer insight and inspiration to help parents make the best decisions when they face tough choices for their kids.”

    The MAGGIEs are awarded by the Western Publishing Association, which honors excellence and writing in consumer and trade magazines and websites published in the western states. Bipolar at 5? is featured on GreatSchools.org and was distributed through the e-newsletter, which provides parents with articles, videos, worksheets, and school information that help parents stay connected to their children and schools. In a recent survey, 86% of e-newsletter subscribers said they were extremely satisfied with GreatSchools.org.

    Founded in 1998, GreatSchools is a national nonprofit that helps millions of parents find great schools and guide their kids to great futures. Our award-winning website offers thousands of articles, videos, and worksheets to help parents support their children’s learning. GreatSchools.org is also the nation’s leading guide to preK-12 schools, with profiles of about 200,000 public, public charter, and private schools and more than one million ratings and reviews by parents, teachers, and students. Headquartered in Oakland, California, GreatSchools has local offices and programs in Detroit, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, and Washington, D.C.

    Continue reading →: GreatSchools Wins 2014 MAGGIE Award for Best Web Article

  • GreatSchoolsDetroit.org Helps Detroit Parents with Better School Information

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    New Partnership Combines Local and National Resources

    DETROIT (Mar. 25, 2014) — Navigating the education landscape in Detroit is a complex endeavor as parents and caregivers have hundreds of school options to consider in trying to find the best fit for their child’s education needs. GreatSchoolsDetroit.org, produced by Excellent Schools Detroit in partnership with GreatSchools, gives Detroit families the tools they need to make a quality school choice.

    “The GreatSchoolsDetroit.org website is a collaboration of Excellent Schools Detroit’s localized Scorecard data and GreatSchools national ratings,” said Dan Varner, chief executive officer, Excellent Schools Detroit. “Not only will parents have the apples-to-apples comparison across a multitude of measures in our Scorecard, but they’ll also see how the local schools rate on a national scale through GreatSchools’ score.”

    When visiting GreatSchoolsDetroit.org, users can view in-depth school profiles, read and write reviews of schools, compare schools across a multitude of measures and criteria and find schools near their community. The innovative site contains data from hundreds of Detroit schools, ranging from early childhood learning centers to public, public charter, and private elementary and high schools.

    “Excellent Schools Detroit’s in-depth knowledge of and data on Detroit education environments and their deep connections with schools, community groups and parent organizations provides the localized insights that parents need,” said Bill Jackson, chief executive officer, GreatSchools. “Excellent Schools Detroit is the ideal partner for GreatSchools, because both organizations are committed to bringing parents the robust information they need to make great school choices.”

    Excellent Schools Detroit re-launched its Scorecard in August 2013 with in-depth, side-by-side comparison of Detroit schools along a multitude of measures, including academic performance, academic progress and school climate. The organization recommends parents and students select schools graded C+ or better because these schools will generally prepare students for success in college, career and community.

    In 2013, GreatSchools began building partnerships with local community organizations and city groups to bring the best school information and tools to families. These partnerships combine the local knowledge and relationships of community partners with the national media and technology platform of GreatSchools. GreatSchools Detroit is the first new partnership to launch.

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    About Excellent Schools Detroit
    Excellent Schools Detroit was formed in 2010 by a coalition of philanthropic, education, community and civic leaders with an important mission: an excellent education for every Detroit child, from cradle to career, by 2020. To that end, Excellent Schools Detroit produces an annual Scorecard, which grades schools across a multitude of excellence measures, to help Detroit parents and community make an informed school choice. The organization convenes individuals and organizations across multiple sectors as the Detroit community collectively works to achieve excellence in education.

    About GreatSchools
    Founded in 1998, GreatSchools is a national nonpartisan nonprofit that helps millions of parents find great schools, support great learning, and guide their kids to great futures. The Webby award-winning website, GreatSchools.org, is the nation’s leading guide to preK-12 schools, with profiles of about 200,000 public, public charter, and private schools and more than one million ratings and reviews by parents, teachers, and students. In addition, GreatSchools offers thousands of articles, videos, and worksheets to help parents support their children’s learning. Last year, GreatSchools had 52 million unique visitors, including more than half of all U.S. families with school-age children. Headquartered in Oakland, California, GreatSchools has local programs and offices in Indianapolis, Milwaukee, and Washington, DC.

    Continue reading →: GreatSchoolsDetroit.org Helps Detroit Parents with Better School Information

Media inquiries

Megan Walcek
Senior Director,
Marketing & Communications
pr@greatschools.org

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