Earlier this fall, 18 of Milledgeville's most promising young men and women were officially commissioned into the Mayor's Commission on Youth Leadership, a program that aims to develop the knowledge, skills and values that are needed to be effective active citizens. Students in the commission serve as representatives for after-school and school programs including the High Achievers Program, the Boys & Girls Club, 100 Black Men of Oconee, Georgia College Early College, Georgia Military College, Baldwin High School, 21st CCLC's Yes Program, GCSU's Academic Initiative for Males, Vaughn Chapel and Baldwin County Parks and Recreation. Each youth was chosen because of their demonstrated leadership potential. "I think it was a great success for the first night," said Mayor Richard Bentley. "I was really impressed with them."

The commission will meet a couple of times every month - once a month with Mayor Richard Bentley and once a month with GCSU professor Dr. Doreen Sams of GCSU's J. Whitney Bunting School of business. At each meeting with Mayor Bentley, the students will have the opportunity to hear from people in different leadership positions in the community and discuss issues that affect youth. The students will be working with Dr. Sams to create public relations materials to advocate issues that concern the community.

"It's an opportunity for young people learn about issues that affect the community and at the end of the day know that they can make a difference in this community," said High Achievers Program Coordinator Bibole Ngalamulume. "We want our young people to be able to create change and take action." This youth initiative was made possible because of a contract with the Georgia Department of Human Resources that will be used to support the High Achievers Program and serve additional youth in the community.

Exciting things are happening in afterschool in White County. GAIC would like to recognize the White County School System 21st CCLC program sites that have been apart of 21st CCLC grant for the past 3 years. They serve 100 students ages eight to fourteen, 125 days during the school year and 3 weeks during the summer. The two sites focus on Math and English as well as provide enrichment activities including gardening and landscaping, community banking, and life skills and etiquette. Over the last three years, the program sites have developed partnerships with Unicoi State Park and a local recreation center. These partnerships have assisted the program in sustaining student motivation and increasing family involvement. Congratulations on your continuous commitment to serving the children and youth of White County! The Georgia Department of Education administers the federally funded 21st Century Community Learning Center afterschool program. This past year, nearly $30 million was provided to afterschool and summer programs serving K-12 throughout the state.

The Georgia Afterschool Investment Council believes Georgia's children and youth deserve more targeted and deeper efforts to raise the level of quality in the thousands of programs that serve kids before school, after school, and in the summers. With the help of a strong team of experts in Georgia, GAIC has re- focused its' goals on afterschool professional development for the next several years to include: 1) building the leadership capacity of afterschool professionals in the state, 2) connecting professional development work at the local and regional level to the quality and policy work being done at the state level, 3) facilitating the dissemination of national expertise and research to ensure Georgia is on the cutting edge of quality initiatives and afterschool professional development.

Leaders in government, business, and higher education are calling for today's students to show a mastery of broader and more sophisticated skills like evaluating and analyzing information and thinking creatively about how to solve real-world problems. But standing in the way of incorporating such skills into teaching and learning are widespread concerns about whether or not they can be measured.

In a new report, Measuring Skills for the 21st Century, Education Sector Senior Policy Analyst Elena Silva demonstrates that these skills can be measured accurately and serve as common metrics of student achievement. The report examines a number of new assessment models that do this and that demonstrate the potential to measure complex thinking skills at the same time that a student's mastery of basic skills and knowledge are measured. These emergent models, the report concludes, are critical to meeting educational goals-to ensure that teachers and students can monitor and improve the learning process-and accountability goals-to ensure that schools are giving all students what they need to succeed.

The Goldman Sachs Foundation and Asia Society are seeking applications for the 2008 Goldman Sachs Foundation Prizes for Excellence in International Education. The prize program was created in 2003 to raise awareness of the growing importance of international knowledge and skills for U.S. students and annually awards prizes totaling $150,000 in five different categories.

Please note the following correction from the GAIC Fall newsletter: 10-year old Cortney Cooley was the Step Up for Kids contest winner from Cartersville Elementary School. Our sincere apologies for the spelling error. Congratulations again, Cortney!