November 12, 2015
By Stacy M. Brown
Special to the NNPA News Wire from the Washington Informer
For what is known, the numbers are staggering.
In statistics revealed last year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 29.1 million individuals in the United States have diabetes.
That’s 9.3 percent of the country’s population, and it doesn’t consider the estimated 8.1 million – or 27.8 percent – of those who have the disease, but don’t yet know it.
The unknown is all the more astonishing considering that an estimated 86 million Americans age 20 or older have a condition where an individual’s blood sugar or glucose level is higher than it should be but not in the diabetes range.
“The key is to first get screened and tested. If you have a family history, you will have increased your risk of developing diabetes and the test is just a simple finger prick from your primary care doctor or health care provider,” said Angela Ginn-Meadow, a certified diabetes educator at the University of Maryland Center for Diabetes and Endocrinology at the school’s midtown campus.
“If a person is diagnosed, it’s okay, it only means that you can do something about it,” Ginn-Meadow said. “People often walk around for 10 years without knowing they have developed diabetes.”
Some of the symptoms include extreme tiredness and sores and wounds that don’t heal well. People who are overweight, over 45, or do not exercise regularly are at higher risk, Ginn-Meadow said. A woman has given birth to a baby over 9 pounds or anyone who has a family history of diabetes should be sure to get tested, she said.
Ginn-Meadow and others at the University of Maryland Medical Center Midtown Campus is kicking off National Diabetes Awareness Month by sponsoring a 16-week lifestyle change and prevention program designed to help reduce the risk of diabetes.
The program, which advocates that participants take charge of their health, will meet twice weekly for four months and then once a month for six months to help individuals maintain healthy lifestyle changes.
“There have been other programs, but this prevention program was recognized by the CDC, and it’s part of a statewide initiative,” Ginn-Meadow said.
“It really is for people who either have prediabetes or have actually completed a risk assessment that puts an individual at a high risk of having diabetes.”
The start date for the program is still being worked out but will begin either the first or second week in November, Ginn-Meadow said.
During each session, lifestyle coaches will teach lessons and lead group discussions on various topics such as eating healthily, adding physical activity, managing stress and ways to stay on track when eating out.
The coaches will also assist in setting goals, building relationships, working as a team and helping to keep individuals motivated, Ginn-Meadow said.
“Those in the class who have stayed active and gone beyond 150 minutes of activity each week have the biggest outcome,” she said.
“You can cut years off of developing diabetes if you have prediabetes but your lifestyle really is the key. Education is very important for prevention, for management and treatment and a diabetes education can help people manage living with diabetes.”
Registration for the class is free and open to those at risk or those with prediabetes and other lifestyle challenges. To register, call 410-328-8402.
November 05, 2015
By JESSE J. HOLLAND
Associated Press
Long before the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Freddie Gray, more than half of African-American millennials indicated they, or someone they knew, had been victimized by violence or harassment from law enforcement, a new report says.
The information, from the “Black Millennials in America” report issued by the Black Youth Project at the Study of Race, Politics and Culture at the University of Chicago, reflects starkly different attitudes among black, Latino, Asian and white millennials when it comes to policing, guns and the legal system in the United States.
Researchers, who have surveyed millennials several times during the past decade, point out that the disparities existed well before the “Black Lives Matter” movement began.
In the 2009 Mobilization and Change Survey, 54.4 percent of Black millennials answered yes to the question “Have you or anyone you know experienced harassment or violence at the hands of the police?” Almost one-third of whites, 1 in 4 Latinos and 28 percent of Asian-Americans surveyed said yes to the same question.
The study, released to The Associated Press this week, comes as the United States grapples with concerns over policing in minority communities following the deaths of Martin, 17, in Florida three years ago, Brown, 18, in Ferguson, Missouri, last year and Gray, 25, in Baltimore earlier this year. Their deaths, as well as those of other Black men and women, have inspired nationwide protests under the “Black Lives Matter” and “Say Her Name” monikers.
But even while being the wellspring of those movements, a clear majority of Black millennials — 71 percent — said in that same survey they believe police in their neighborhood were “there to protect you.” Eighty-five percent of whites, 76 percent of Hispanics and 89 percent of Asians also said police were in their neighborhood to protect them.
“We know that young Blacks are more likely to be harassed by the police. We know that they are more likely to mistrust their encounters with the police,” said Cathy Cohen, chair of the political science department at the University of Chicago and leader of the Black Youth Project. “But we also know from actually collecting data that a majority of them believe that police in their neighborhood are actually there to protect them, so I think it provides us with more complexity.”
Another survey done by the project in 2013, the Black Youth Project Quarterly Survey, showed that the percentage of Blacks and Latinos who said they knew people who carried guns had declined, but more of them knew someone who was the victim of gun violence. Twenty-four percent of blacks and 22 percent of Latino millennials said they or someone they knew “carried a gun in the last month.” Almost half of white millennials — 46 percent — said they knew of someone who carried a gun.
However, 22 percent of Black millennials and 14 percent of Latino millennials said they or someone they knew were the victim of gun violence in the last year, compared with 8 percent of white millennials.
It’s not surprising that young Blacks and whites feel differently on these issues, given the different experiences the groups are reporting, said Jon Rogowski, an assistant political science professor at Washington University in St. Louis. For example, white millennials don’t report having to explain themselves to police, while millennials of color report that officers stopped them simply to question them about what they were up to, he said.
“We see story after story about how this leads into a more combative situation which has escalated and led to, in some instances, tragic outcomes,” said Rogowski, who co-authored the Black Millennials In America report. “So the experiences that these different communities have had based on where they live and the kinds of policing procedures that are in place there, we would argue, lead to these different patterns.”
After arrest, Black millennials also don’t believe everyone gets fair treatment from the legal system in the United States. They’re not alone in this feeling, with only 38 percent of all millennials agreeing with the statement that “the American legal system treats all groups fairly” in the 2014 Black Youth Project survey.
The 2009 survey was taken between October and November 2008, May and July 2009 and November and January 2010 and included 4,345 people 18 years old and older. The 2014 Black Youth Project Survey consisted of four surveys conducted between 2012 and 2014 and included 6,118 people.
The surveys were done by GfK Knowledge Network using GfK’s probability-based KnowledgePanel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.
October 29, 2015
By JENNIFER C. KERR
Associated Press
Results from national math and reading tests show slipping or stagnant scores for the nation’s school kids.
Math scores were down for fourth and eighth graders over the last two years. And reading grades were not much better: flat for fourth graders and lower for eighth graders, according to 2015 results released Wednesday for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) exam.
The falling mathematics scores for fourth and eighth graders mark the first declines in math since 1990.
The results suggest students have a ways to go to demonstrate a solid grasp or mastery in reading and math.
Only about a third of the nation’s eighth-graders were at proficient or above in math and reading. Among fourth graders, the results were slightly better in reading and in math, about two in five scored proficient or above.
The report also found a continuing achievement gap between white and black students.
There were a few bright spots: the District of Columbia and Mississippi both saw substantial reading and math gains.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan urged parents, teachers, and others not to panic about the scores as states embrace higher academic standards, such as Common Core.
“We should expect scores in this period to bounce around some, and I think that ‘implementation dip’ is part of what we’re seeing here,” Duncan said in a phone call with reporters. “I would caution everyone to be careful about drawing conclusions.”
Chris Minnich, executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers, echoed Duncan.
“One year does not make a trend,” Minnich said at a panel discussion Wednesday. “We set this new goal for the country of college and career readiness for all kids. Clearly, these results today show we’re not quite there yet and we have some work to do.”
The Common Core standards were developed by the states with the support of the administration. They spell out what students should know in English and math at each grade level, with a focus on critical thinking and less of an emphasis on memorization. But they have become a rallying point for critics who want a smaller federal role in education and some parents confounded by some of the new concepts being taught.
The NAEP tests, also known as the “nation’s report card,” don’t align completely with Common Core, but NAEP officials said there was “quite a bit” of overlap between the tests and the college-ready standards.
Among the findings:
—36 percent of fourth graders were at or above the proficient level in reading, about the same as 2013. Only 34 percent of eighth-grade students were proficient or better in reading, a two-point drop. Both measures were sharply higher than 1990 results.
—40 percent of fourth-grade students were at or above proficiency in math this year. That’s down two points from 2013, and marks the first decline for that measure since 1990. For eighth graders, only 33 percent of students were proficient or better in math, also a two-point decline.
—Fourth-grade math scores were higher in the District of Columbia and Mississippi — up three points for each. In 16 states, scores dropped. They were flat in the rest. In eighth-grade math, there were no gains across the states, and 22 states had lower scores than in 2013.
—For reading, scores were higher for fourth-graders in 13 states and jurisdictions, including the District of Columbia — up seven points. Mississippi and Louisiana were also higher, both states up six points. At the eighth-grade level, reading improved only in West Virginia, up three points.
—There were no significant changes in the achievement gap for reading between white students and their black and Hispanic peers. But for math, there was a small narrowing in the gap between white fourth graders and their black peers. The average score for white students was 24 points higher, slightly smaller than the 26-point gap in 2013.
PHOTO: NU-MathReadingScores-SCROLL.jpg
Graphic shows proficiency levels of 4th and 8th graders.
October 22, 2015
By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA
Associated Press
Tear gas billowed and stun grenades exploded Wednesday as South African police pushed back students who had massed near the steps of parliament to protest university tuition hikes amid some of the biggest student demonstrations since white minority rule ended in 1994.
The violence in Cape Town erupted after students shoved their way through a parliament gate and scuffled with riot police, tossing water bottles and pushing up against the plastic shields of officers. Earlier, security guards inside parliament forcibly removed a group of opposition lawmakers from the floor after the legislators, who are sympathetic to the students, disrupted debate by chanting: “Fees must fall!”
Student protests against apartheid were much bigger and were sometimes met with deadly force by the government, notably in the bloody crackdown on a 1976 uprising started by thousands of high school students in the Soweto area of Johannesburg. Yet the spectacle of furious students sparring with police in democratic South Africa was bound to sharpen tensions between a growing national student movement on the one hand, and university administrations and the African National Congress-led government on the other.
The protest at parliament was part of a wave of nationwide demonstrations Wednesday at South African universities, whose managers say they are struggling with higher operational costs as well as inadequate state subsidies.
Police also used stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse demonstrating students at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in the city of Port Elizabeth, as well as the University of Limpopo in Polokwane, South African media reported.
News channel eNCA posted video on its website that showed police clearing a road blocked by students in Port Elizabeth. Protesters in Polokwane forced some students to stop taking exams, reported News24, a South African news outlet.
Students also marched in Pretoria, Johannesburg and other cities.
The protests began last week at the University of the Witwatersrand, also known as Wits, in Johannesburg. After several days of demonstrations, it dropped plans for a proposed 10.5 percent tuition hike next year, and has suspended activities for the rest of this week because of the disruption. Other universities, including the University of Cape Town, have also stopped operations as exams loom for many students.
Blade Nzimande, the higher education minister, this week proposed a 6 percent limit on tuition fee increases next year, but student leaders rejected the proposal and said they would continue protests.
Some South African leaders have said the country’s education system is still trying to overcome the legacy of a system of racist rule that favored the white minority while denying basic rights and opportunities for the black majority. However, critics also allege the government is not doing enough to subsidize the university education of its youth, many of whom struggle to pay for school.
“Student fees need to be affordable to allow for greater access to the poor, poor working class and even middle class families,” Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa said at an education forum last week.
The average tuition fee for a first-year undergraduate student studying humanities at Wits, a top South African university, is between $2,200 and $3,200 this year, according to the university. Students who register for the first time also make a onetime payment of $730. The cost of text books and accommodation adds to the financial burden of university enrollment. These fees are difficult for many students and their families to meet.
“The government must do something to help us deal with this,” a student protester told eNCA outside parliament.