Council for American Private Education (CAPE) is a coalition of national associations serving private schools K-12. "Outlook" is published monthly by CAPE. This issue contains the following articles: (1) Off-Year Elections Signal Hope for School Choice; (2) Schools Lend Helping Hand to Haiti; (3) Obama's State of the Union (SOTU) address; and (4)…

Hurricane Katrina inflicted traumatic experiences on many children in New Orleans and the surrounding area. The literature has shown a significant relationship between Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms and lowered academic achievement in children. This longitudinal study investigated the relationships between attendance, academic…

As a teaching artist in public schools, the author is paired with classroom teachers to teach poetry and to give students an opportunity to experience their academic curriculum through the arts. At the beginning of the school year, she gave her students the on-going, yearlong assignment to watch the news, to pay attention. Knowing many of them…

The present study examined the roles of loss and disruption, major life events, and social support in the relationship between exposure and PTSD symptoms in a group of children 33 months after Hurricane Katrina. One hundred fifty-six 4th, 5th, and 6th graders were surveyed in the New Orleans area. Results indicated that 46% of the children…

The following study examined the reactions of university students to Hurricane Katrina. A group of 68 New Orleans area students who were displaced from their home universities as a result of the hurricane were matched on race, gender, and age to a sample of 68 students who had been enrolled at Louisiana State University (LSU) prior to the…

Geographic information systems (GIS) are a major component of the geospatial sciences, which are also composed of geostatistical analysis, remote sensing, and global positional satellite systems. These systems can be integrated into GIS for georeferencing, pattern analysis, visualization, and understanding spatial concepts that transcend…

As an art teacher, it's easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of objectives, lesson plans, grading, paperwork, setup, art shows and getting "that project" done within a certain time frame. Sometimes art teachers can miss out on a teachable moment not just for the students, but for themselves, as well. The author came upon…

The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program is designed to train Americans to safely help themselves and their community in the event of a widespread disaster. This program is designed for adults. Despite youth increasingly becoming recognized as valuable resources, able to equally partner with adults in leadership and decision-making…

As mobile phones reach the remote corners of the world, they bring with them a sense of great optimism. Hailed as a technology that "can transform the lives of the people who are able to access them," mobile phones have the potential to play a positive role in the lives of many of the world's poor. Such claims are often reported…

Individuals who are indirectly exposed to disasters may be affected psychologically. The impact of the 2010 Haiti earthquake reverberated throughout the Haitian American community in Miami, Florida. Many within the community held strong transnational family and friendship bonds to their homeland. We examined associations between indicators of…

Resilience, the ability to spring back from adversity and successfully adapt to it, is becoming an increasingly popular focus in research on the intervention and prevention of mental breakdown. This article aims to assess the resilience of adults exposed to the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake 1 year after the occurrence of the earthquake, to explore the…

More than 1,500 students who were driven off their island campus in Galveston, Texas, by Hurricane Ike resumed classes last week 150 miles inland, on the main campus of Texas A&M University at College Station. The students, who are enrolled at Texas A&M's marine-oriented branch campus, in Galveston, were hurriedly moved into spare rooms…

In August and September 2005, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated large portions of the U.S. Gulf Coast, resulting in nearly 2,000 deaths and severe damage to 305,000 houses and apartments. Thousands of families relocated to communities throughout the United States and enrolled their children in local public or private schools. Some families…

The purpose of this study was to examine how five African American middle school students, who were displaced by Hurricane Katrina represent their literacy experiences before, during, and after their displacement. Specifically, the two research questions were: (a) What are the stories that these middle school students tell about their lives,…

The present study explored how seventh graders develop their understanding of climate change issues. Particularly, I focused on identifying students' ways of reasoning in evaluating and generating arguments. I also investigated whether students reason differently about climate change issues depending on the relevance of the issues to their daily…