It has been an exciting week for Citizen Schools! Following the Google grant announcement on Wednesday, Citizen Schools was mentioned in many different news articles and blogs. This post marks the first weekly roundup of Citizen Schools news and educations stories. Below you will find this week’s Citizen Schools news coverage,  including two videos,  as well as a couple education stories. Look for the education news weekly roundup every Friday for Citizen Schools news and education related articles! Citizen Schools news:

• The New York Times, The Opinion Pages – 12/11/2011 – The Unaddressed Link Between Poverty and Education – This opinion piece is written by Edward Fiske, who is on the board of Citizen Schools New Jersey, and his wife Helen Ladd. The op-ed mentions Citizen Schools and looks at the disadvantages students in impoverished areas face and discusses how policy leaders are currently dealing with the issue in education reform.
• Boston Magazine Blog, Boston Daily – 12/12/2011 – Students Take on Celtics Management - This blog post looks at the “Managing the Celtics” apprenticeship that students at Orchard Gardens took part in this fall semester.
• Forbes – 12/12/2011 – Do Americans Have 21^st Century Jobs Skills? – This article by Howard Elias, President and COO of EMC, explores why so many jobs in the technology field are left unfilled despite the growing number of positions available. Citizen Schools is mentioned as an organization that creates a passion for STEM among students.
• The Boston Herald – 12/14/2011 – Google Gives $3M for Hub Nonprofit’s Afterschool Efforts – This article focuses specifically on the grant that Google awarded Citizen Schools.
• The Boston Globe – 12/14/2011- Google to Give $6M to Local Groups – The article mentions Citizen Schools as an organization that Google singled out “for its work in exposing students to science, technology, engineering, and math education, and for expanding the “horizons of underprivileged youngsters.’’
• Mass High Tech – 12/14/2011 – Google to Give $6M in STEM Grants to Boston Groups – An article announcing the grant mentions Citizen Schools.
• The Herald Sun – 12/14/2011- Citizen Schools Wraps Up First Semester at Neal - A great reflection on the successful first semester at Neal in Durham, NC.
• Mass High Tech, Blog – 12/14/2011 – STEM Needs to Branch Out – This article is written by Rodney Brown who was a “celebrity” judge at the Boston Building & Innovation WOW! The piece discusses Brown’s positive experience at the WOW! and praises the work Citizen Schools is doing to improve STEM education.
• Boston.com - 12/14/2011 – Google to Give $6M to Local Groups as Part of Effort to Help Education and Tech Nonprofits – This article announces the grants made by Google and specifically highlights the grant made to Citizen Schools.
• Boston Business Journal – 12/14/2011- Google Grants $6M to 3 Boston Nonprofits – A brief announcement of the Google grants that mentions Citizen Schools.
• Network World, Open Source Matters – 12/14/2011 – Google’s Impressive Year of Philanthropy – An announcement of the Google grants that specifically mentions Citizen Schools.
• Skoll Foundation – 12/14/2011 – Google Supports Five Skoll Awardees – An article that announces the Google grants and highlights Citizen Schools.
• The Boston Globe – 12/14/2011- Let Students Stay Near Homes – But Offer Choice As Needed – Article discusses the zoning rules in Boston that prevent kids from attending some schools. Citizen Schools is mentioned as “a highly-quality nonprofit provider” that provides three hours of after-school mentoring at $1,500 per student, the same amount that it costs to bus students across the city.

A few additional blogs also posted about Citizen Schools this week:

• Moxie Q – 12/13/2011 – Shien-Ru Tsao Pulls Herself and Others Up By the Bootstraps – Shein-Ru Tsao runs a social philanthropy organization, Project 116, that is partnered with Citizen Schools. The article features the work she has done this year with students through her entrepreneurship and product design apprenticeship.
• Nonprofit-force.org – 12/13/2011 – How Citizen Schools has Deployed Salesforce Chatter -  An article that looks at how Citizen Schools uses Chatter.
• The Official Google Blog – 12/14/2011 – Giving Back in 2011 – A post on Google’s official blog that features the grant given to Citizen Schools at the top of the page among other STEM organizations that received grants.
• Students for Ed Reform – 12/14/2011 – How Students Should Guide Policy – An article written by Allie Kimmel, a senior at Harvard who is also a student teacher in Boston, that looks at the experiences her students have had so far this semester. Kimmel mentions Citizen Schools as a program that one of her students could benefit from because the program would “introduce him to the working world [and] emphasize the importance of securing a high school diploma.”

Two great videos were also posted this week on Youtube featuring Citizen Schools students, Teaching Fellows, and Google Citizen Teachers:

• 12/13/2011 – Dear Mr. Rohit… - Students at Elmhurst Community Prepatory School in Oakland, CA made a video showing all of the things that their teacher Mr. Rohit taught them this semester. It looks like the students had a successful fall!
• 12/13/2011 – Google Citizen Schools Video – Google volunteers share their apprenticeship experiences and challenge people to “Step Up for Citizen Schools” and volunteer as a Citizen Teacher.

Education articles:

• The New York Times – 12/15/2011 – Failure Rate of Schools Overstated, Study Says -  An article that discusses the new failure rate of all of the nation’s public schools reported by a new study, which is up to 48% from 39% in 2010.
• Education Week – 12/16/2011 – 9 States Win Race to Top Early Learning Grants – A piece discussing the nine states, California, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Washington, that received Race to the Top early learning grants.

The Education News Weekly Roundup is brought to you by Holly Trippett, the Public Relations Intern at Citizen Schools and a senior at Emerson College studying Marketing Communications.