Monday, January 31, 2011

www.BestEssayHelp.com | State educators skeptical of report on learning

Some members of Washington's higher-education community are skeptical — and at times dismissive — of a new report that claims students don't learn enough in college.

The study of more than 2,300 undergraduates at four-year colleges and universities across the country showed "little if any growth" during their first two years in critical thinking, complex reasoning and written communication skills. A part of school is completing book reports, term papers for sale, essays, but sometimes, you would need to complete term papers for sale.

A main point of contention lies in the study's methodology. The authors, both professors of sociology, measured learning with data from the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA), a test initiated by a national nonprofit.

"The CLA is not a valid measure of college student learning," said Catharine Beyer, a research scientist in the University of Washington's office of education assessment.

The study, published Jan. 18 along with a book titled "Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses," by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa, focused on a performance task within the CLA that asks students to respond to a writing prompt involving a "real-world" scenario.

Beyer said that assessment is unacceptable because it's too generic and disregards a students' particular area of study.

Beyer, who directed a UW study of undergraduate learning that culminated in a 2007 book, "Inside the Undergraduate Experience," said the UW uses student learning assessments that vary within each department.

Michelle Janning, a sociology professor and assistant dean of the faculty at Whitman College, a private liberal-arts college in Walla Walla, also questioned the limitations of the CLA. She said Whitman gives seniors multiple exit surveys as an assessment of student learning, asking questions such as whether students participated in extracurricular activities and learned skills outside of the classroom (admission essay writing has to be original, unique and reveal student's abilities). Whitman also received a grant from the Teagle Foundation to look at students' senior years and assess where there is room for improvement.

Arum, a professor at New York University who co-wrote the book with Roksa, of the University of Virginia, acknowledged that the CLA is flawed. But he said that's no reason to disregard his findings — especially considering that other studies, such as the National Survey of Student Engagement, back up his own.

Arum argues that a survey he administered to the students in his study offers further proof of the report's validity. The short survey found that in a typical semester, 32 percent of students didn't take any courses with more than 40 pages of reading per week and 50 percent didn't take a course in which they wrote more than 20 pages per semester.

"Some students are doing quite fine, but there are large pockets of kids that are not being asked to do very much," Arum said.

A. G. Rud, dean of Washington State University's College of Education, said he thought the problem of limited learning in higher education may lie within the quality of teaching.

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"You can go into any college town ... and you can hear the faculty complain about how dumb college students are these days," Rud said. "You've got to ask yourself as a faculty member: How much are you complicit in that kind of atmosphere? "

Kevin Eggers, a senior and student-body president at Seattle University, a Jesuit Catholic university, said he actually owes his success to his professors but also to the extracurricular opportunities at school.

"I know at Seattle University everyone's in a club ... or helping out in the community," Eggers said. "That's a very large portion of the education that goes on."

But all students overestimate how much they've learned, Arum said. "If you don't know what you don't know, you can't answer a question on how much you think you learned," he said.

His study also found that oftentimes, extracurricular activities were not related to learning. That's not to say those activities don't teach valuable skills, Arum said, but schools shouldn't prioritize social development over academic development.

"If a large number of college students are graduating today and they are not developing higher-level skills, what does that mean for the possibility of a democratic society?" he said.

Source: The Seattle Times

Friday, January 28, 2011

www.BestEssayHelp.com | Officials were given advance warning on special-ed suspensions, memo shows

City officials got advance warning that schools were overusing student suspensions as a disciplinary tool, an internal city Education Department memo shows.

Before suspensions hit their highest level in the last decade, the memo written by a staffer at a Bronx suspension site documented that special education students were too often punished with removal from their schools.

Roughly 40% of the students at Bronx sites were special education students, according to the memo, and 60% of those kids had a mental illness. In fact, it is common for students to reach out for college essay help in that some are complicated and most students deal with time constraints.

"Suspension is not the answer in these cases and is indeed detrimental to their growth," the memo from November 2008 concludes.

In 2008-09, kids were punished with nearly 74,000 suspensions - up from 44,000 in the 1999-2000 school year.

The memo documented a high number of suspensions in some small schools. Principals, teachers and other staffers in those schools offered several excuses for suspending so many special education students, the memo reports, including teachers' inexperience. But there were also more troubling explanations:

- "We're not set up to deal with this population. We don't have (12 students for one teacher) classes or enough guidance and support. There are hundreds of online websites that promote these custom papers and there are hundreds of students seek the term paper help online."

- "It's either teaching the (regular education students) or bothering with (the special education students) at the expense of the general ed."

The report calls for "additional support and services" for the children at small schools, the memo states.

A report issued Thursday by the New York Civil Liberties Union echoed the internal memo, finding that special education students were four times more likely than their general education peers to serve a suspension.

"This memo should have been a wakeup call to the Department of Education to get its act together," said NYCLU advocacy director Udi Ofer. "We hope that our report today will be the final alarm that triggers a response."

City Education Department spokeswoman Natalie Ravitz said she could not locate the memo yesterday and declined to comment further.

Source: NY Daily News

Thursday, January 27, 2011

www.BestEssayHelp.com | Obama Urged To Support Regulations On For-Profit Colleges And Student Debt

As the Department of Education gets closer to finalizing regulations that would hold for-profit colleges accountable for saddling students with debts they cannot repay, a wide array of civil rights, student advocacy and consumer groups wrote a letter to President Barack Obama on Wednesday urging him to immediately move forward with the proposed rule.

The letter comes in the midst of an intense lobbying and advertising campaign run by the for-profit education sector, which is waging an assault on the so-called "gainful employment" regulations being considered by the federal government. The rules are proposed as a consumer protection measure, aimed at cracking down on schools that leave students unable to repay student loan debts given the low-wage jobs they tend to secure after graduation.

The for-profit sector includes a broad swath of schools, from University of Phoenix and DeVry University to more specialized schools such as Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts.

"Federal financial aid shouldn't go to career education programs that consistently leave students buried in debt they cannot repay," reads the letter, signed by 38 groups, including the National Consumer Law Center, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the National Council of La Raza.

The stakes for the for-profit colleges are huge: Many of the publicly-traded corporations that own such institutions derive more than 85 percent of their revenues from federal student aid dollars. By not meeting the criteria of the new rules, schools could be banned from tapping into federal student aid or be forced to disclose the high average debt burdens to prospective students.

The Coalition for Educational Success, an industry lobbying group, argued on Monday that the proposed rules were "onerous" and contrary to the president's pledge to a government-wide review of federal regulations.

Advertisements put out by the industry in recent months have suggested that the government is trying to prevent low-income students from getting an education.
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"The 'gainful employment' rule will deny over two million students the opportunity to go to college," declares one recent ad from the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities, another major industry lobbying group.

The for-profit sector has also argued that the rules will prevent access for minority and low-income students who they say are not well-served by traditional schools.

One of the groups signing the letter, the National Council of La Raza, a Latino civil rights organization, disputes the notion that the rules are in any way discriminatory.

"We do think that if these rules are approved by the administration, Latinos will have a place to go," said Raul Gonzalez, the group's legislative director. "One of the issues we're working on is just trying to reduce the amount of debt that Latinos have. There is evidence that some folks are leaving with a lot of debt, and without a marketable skill."

Other civil rights organizations, including the National Urban League, have come down on the side of the for-profit industry.

Supporters of the rule describe it as a rational and relatively lenient measure, after a Government Accountability Office investigation found that recruiters at some for-profit colleges were deceiving new students and overstating the benefits of their programs.

Students enrolled at for-profit colleges make up only 12 percent of college students nationwide, yet the sector takes in nearly a quarter of federal student aid dollars and accounts for 43 percent of student loan defaults, according to a recent analysis from the Education Trust, a student advocacy group. Students at for-profit colleges typically carry an average of $14,000 in debt--almost twice as much as students at non-profit colleges, according to the Department of Education.

Specifically, the proposed rules would hold for-profit schools (and some non-profit career schools of two years or less) accountable for two measures of debt: whether students are able to repay their loans on time, and whether students have an excessive burden of debt compared to their income after graduation.

There are several scenarios that would allow schools to remain fully eligible, meaning full access to federal student aid and no requirement to disclose student debt burdens.

To remain fully eligible for student aid dollars, schools would have to show that at least 35 percent of former students are paying down the principal on their student loans (meaning interest, plus at least $1 per billing cycle) or that student debt is less than 20 percent of a graduate's discretionary income.

In another scenario, a program could remain eligible if at least 45 percent of former students are paying down the principal on student loans, regardless of graduates' debt-to-income ratio.

In order to fully lose out on federal student aid, a program would need to have less than 35 percent of its students paying down student loans, and most graduates would need to be saddled with debt more than 12 percent of their total income and 30 percent of their discretionary income.

Schools would not be subject to penalties until the 2012-13 school year. The Department of Education is expected to finalize the regulations within the next few months. An exact date has not been determined.

Source: The Huffington Post

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

www.BestEssayHelp.com | NY kids lag in science

The state's fourth-graders scored slightly lower than the national average on the latest science assessments, while eighth-graders here scored on par with the rest of the nation, new data show.

Racial achievement gaps were evident in both grades in the state, and the gap among eighth-graders was significantly higher than the nation as a whole.

The results on the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress showed 30 percent of the state's fourth-graders scoring proficiently -- compared to 32 percent nationally -- and 31 percent of eighth-graders passing the proficiency mark.

The test, which is not comparable to past results because it has been revised since it was last administered in 2005, is considered the gold standard.

It sets a high bar for passing.

Among the state's differences with the nation, New York's black eighth-graders scored 41 points lower than white students -- on a 300-point scale -- compared to a gap of 36 points in the country overall.

White eighth-graders here scored 164 points on average on the exam.

The state's Hispanic eighth-graders scored 39 points lower than white students on average, whereas nationally, that difference was a narrower gap of 30 points.

In addition, the scores of high-poverty students in New York were 33 points lower than those of students whose families aren't considered low income -- a margin that was 5 points greater than the national average.

While those same gaps existed for New York's fourth-graders, they were not significantly different from the gaps seen in the nation as a whole.

Source: NY Post

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

www.BestEssayHelp.com | New Jersey should update charter school law, committee told

TRENTON - New Jersey's 15-year-old charter school law should be updated to improve accountability and transparency, according to many of those who testified before the Assembly Education Committee on Monday.

The afternoon hearing began what is likely to be months of discussion about charter schools after Gov. Christie this month called for broad changes to the state charter school law.

Christie, who also supports a bill that would allow what are essentially school vouchers, wants to increase the number of entities that would be allowed to authorize charter schools, encourage more and different kinds of charter schools, and allow the schools greater flexibility.

Among those who testified were charter school advocates, administrators from public school districts that argued they have been hurt by the outflow of students and funding to charter schools, parents of students who attend charter schools, a charter school authorizer in New York state, and public school board members.

Sharon Krengel, policy and outreach coordinator at the Education Law Center, which advocates for improving public education for disadvantaged children and children with disabilities and other special needs, argued in favor of improved transparency and accountability. She also expressed concerns about charter schools serving fewer low-income students, students learning English, and special-education students than their public school counterparts.

While the charter school law does require charter schools to seek a representative cross-section of the student population, Krengel said, charter schools whose populations do not reflect their districts should be required to come up with a plan to change that.

Assemblyman Joseph Malone (R., Burlington), a member of the Education Committee, said he was also concerned that charter schools could wind up with the students who were the most motivated, or had the most engaged families.

Krengel and Carlos Perez, chief executive officer of the New Jersey Charter Schools Association, were among those who argued that charter schools should receive as much per-pupil state funding as public schools. Charter schools currently receive 90 percent of the per-pupil state funding of public schools.

"Charter schools are public schools," Perez said. "They must have equal access to public funds, including operational, facility, and federal. We advocate charter school students receive their fair funding and equitable access to public school facilities."

On the other side of the debate, some public school administrators, parents, and a student argued that the creation of charter schools has hurt public districts, including, in some cases, high-achieving ones.

A deputy superintendent from East Brunswick said that after an $11 million cut in state aid, the district received a bill for $1.2 million to be taken away to fund a charter school.

Wendy Saiff, school board president in Highland Park, said the district was bleeding dollars to charter schools. She argued that the governor's agenda would result in a "feeding frenzy for educational dollars."

"If our state representatives do not act to stop the governor's plan regarding education, his characterization of New Jersey public schools as being abject failures will become reality," she said.


Source: Philly

Monday, January 24, 2011

www.BestEssayHelp.com | Public Universities Relying More on Tuition Than State Money

COLUMBIA, S.C. — For bargain-hunting families, state colleges and universities, supported by tax money, have long been a haven from the high cost of private education.

But tuition bargains are fading as the nation’s public universities undergo a profound shift, accelerated by the recession. In most states, it is now tuition payments, not state appropriations, that cover most of the budget.

The shift has been an unwelcome surprise to Ashley Murphy, a sophomore at the University of South Carolina. When she and her twin sister, Allison, picked their colleges two years ago, costs were definitely an issue, since they are putting themselves through college.

Ashley said she chose the state flagship both because she believed that public universities offered the best education and because she thought it would be cheaper than Allison’s choice, a small Baptist university where the published tuition is twice as much.

But thanks to generous financial aid, Allison is paying less. And even with a campus job and a $5,000 state scholarship, Ashley struggles to make ends meet, worries about her student loans and is increasingly nervous about tuition increases.

“The whole thing is kind of scary, for somebody like me who’s paying for college myself,” said Ms. Murphy, who plans to be a teacher. “I turn 20 tomorrow, I’m already in debt, and if tuition goes up again next year, I’ll be in an even worse position.”

According to the Delta Cost Project, most of the nation’s public research universities had more than half their costs paid by tuition in 2008, and other four-year public institutions were hovering near the 50 percent mark. With three more years of tuition increases, they, too, have probably passed it, said Jane V. Wellman, executive director of the project, leaving only community colleges as mostly state-financed.

And the increasing dependence on tuition has disturbing implications for access to higher education, she said.

“In the next three or four years, we’re going to have more students who are spilling out the bottom, priced out of the expensive institutions,” Ms. Wellman said. “We’re going to be rationing opportunity. We’re moving in that direction fairly rapidly.”

Given that states still provide some $80 billion for higher education, some education policy experts say it is wrong to think of public universities as privatized. But they acknowledge that a fundamental reordering is under way — and that the era of affordable four-year public universities, heavily subsidized by the state, may be over.

“Something important is happening here,” said Pat Callan, president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. “I wouldn’t call it privatization, a word often used by presidents of public institutions who want a blank check on raising tuition. But with the shift toward more student funding, you have to wonder who owns these places — the students, because they’re paying the majority, or the state, which has invested hundreds of years in the physical plant and the brand?”

The burden on students is likely to keep growing. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 30 states face shortfalls of at least 10 percent of their budgets next year. And given the difficulties of cutting costs for Medicaid or K-12 schools, which get the biggest chunk of state budgets, appropriations for higher education are likely to shrivel further, leaving public universities ever more dependent on tuition money.

The University of South Carolina has lost almost half of its state appropriations in the last three years, gets only about a quarter of its education budget from the state and is expecting another round of deep cuts next year.

“We still have our public mission, but at this point, we have more of a private funding model,” said Michael Amiridis, the provost.

More states may soon find themselves in a similar position. In California, where tuition has been raised by 30 percent in the last two years — and where out-of-state tuition now tops $50,000, about the same as an elite private university — the governor has proposed cutting state support for the University of California by $500 million for the next fiscal year.

“If approved, this budget will mean that for the first time in our long history, tuition paid by University of California students and their families will exceed the state’s contribution to the core fund,” Mark Yudof, the president of the University of California system, told the Board of Regents. “For those who believe what we provide is a public good, not a private one, this is a sad threshold to cross.”

In Texas, legislators have proposed closing four community colleges and ending financial aid for freshmen. In Georgia, the popular Hope scholarships are likely to be slashed. In Arizona, the governor has proposed cutting financing for community colleges by half, and for four-year universities by 20 percent.

In state after state, tuition and class size are rising, jobs are being eliminated, maintenance is being deferred and the number of nonresident students, who pay higher tuition, is increasing.

Source: New York Times

Friday, January 21, 2011

www.BestEssayHelp.com | Dept. of Education makes it easier to complete FAFSA

In an effort to further simplify the college application process, the U.S. Department of Education has released a new version of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to ease the financial aid application for students and their families.
The changes, which include shorter questions and a color-coding system to help applicants stay organized, are an annual occurrence, said director of financial aid Mary Morrison.(ANASTASIA YEE/The Stanford Daily)
“The idea in the government is to make it so simple that low-income families wouldn’t be afraid,” she added.
Results from a study conducted by Stanford’s School of Education in 2009 in collaboration with Harvard, the University of Toronto and the National Bureau of Economic Research showed that making it easier for parents to fill out the FAFSA form, even if just with the help of their children, boosted college enrollment rates by 30 percent.
Efforts to drastically change the FAFSA began two years ago, with a 25 percent reduction in questions, according to a briefing from Education Secretary Arne Duncan. However, a national study from Gallup and Sallie Mae, the nation’s only financial services company that specializes in education, showed that 50 percent of college-bound families did not fully complete the FAFSA before sending it in and 28 percent of families did not submit the form at all.
Families said that “they did not complete the form because they were not aware or did not think they would qualify for aid,” wrote Sallie Mae spokeswoman Erica Eriksdotter in an e-mail to The Daily.
In order to facilitate applying for student aid through the FAFSA, from which students can receive grants of up to $5,000, both Sallie Mae and the FAFSA website offer tips and how-to videos. The former will host an online chat forum on Jan. 27, where parents and students can receive live help from certified financial planners on how to fill out the forms and how best to save money on higher education costs.
However, outside help is not necessary to facilitate applying for financial aid at all schools, Morrison said. In fact, the numbers of financial aid applicants continue to increase for Stanford, where the FAFSA is required for entering students along with the CSS Profile and parents’ W2 tax forms.
“At a place like Stanford, federal aid is wonderful, but it isn’t what pays most [of the costs],” Morrison said. “FAFSA really only deals with federal grants, which are not anywhere near enough to pay for coming to Stanford. We have to supplement with our own endowment and our own scholarship funds.”
Morrison explained that even for state schools and community colleges, a shorter FAFSA might not do the trick. Plenty of students are still unaware that when they apply there are actually possibilities of getting aid.
“Many schools use their own form or say they don’t have any money,” she said, adding, “There are good stats out there that you can find that show families just don’t think there’s any money out there.”
As a result, Stanford has taken matters into its own hands. The University’s financial aid officers themselves often visit or get invited to high schools “so parents better get familiar with the forms.”
But families need more than just an easier form.
“Since it costs at least $25,000 to go to a state school, having someone pay $5,000 doesn’t exactly solve the problem,” said Morrison. “We’re going to need more information to help people.”

Source: The Stanford Daily

Thursday, January 20, 2011

www.BestEssayHelp.com | CREW claims manipulation of education regulations by Wall Street investors

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a non-profit watchdog, has claimed that they have uncovered documents that reveal association of Wall Street investors with high-ranking Education officials to craft regulations, allowing them access to net millions of dollars through the short sale of for-profit college stocks.

A press release by the organization indicates that high-level Education officials with no policy expertise are involved in the scam.

In the last couple of months, for-profit organizations have faced close scrutiny for their questionable recruiting tactics, low placement rates, low pass-out rates and high loan-default rates. This has attracted considerable attention from the government as these colleges are bringing in high amounts of federal-aid money.

Due to government investigations, these colleges have suffered in terms of revenue due to low student enrollment.

In fact, a law was proposed wherein education companies receiving over 90 percent of their revenue from the Education Department's student grants and loans for two consecutive years will lose eligibility for the money.

Being the biggest source of revenue, the colleges urged the U.S. Congress to reconsider the law that threatened their access to millions of dollars.

As per the press release, CREW states that the rules are a ploy to lower the stock value of the publicly-traded companies that operate for-profit colleges so that savvy short sellers can cash in.

The Washington-based advocacy unit asked Education Secretary Arne Duncan to investigate the improper role hedge fund managers and outside interest groups played in Education's formulation of highly contentious regulations governing the for-profit education industry.

"Education officials allowed Wall Street investors to insinuate themselves into the regulatory process knowing full well their main goal was to manipulate stock prices to make money," said CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan.

Tipped off by well-known short-seller Steven Eisman's testimony regarding for-profit colleges last June before a Senate committee, CREW sought emails and other records regarding interactions between Education officials and Wall Street investors, including Mr. Eisman.

Cornered, the Education department finally had to provide pages of material revealing the depth of involvement of Wall Street investors in crafting regulations.

The Huffington Post was quoted saying that a Department of Education spokesman dismissed the allegations as "patently ridiculous," adding that officials gather information from a wide range of sources in drafting all regulations, including members of the for-profit sector.

All the allegations have not been substantiated as of now, and much depends on further investigations.

Source: International Business Times

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

www.BestEssayHelp.com | In search of common ground on education spending

he comments under this paper’s story last week about the governor calling for teachers to accept a pay cut — while sometimes grammatically and syntactically challenging — were gratifying in their way. Fewer people than I expected barked the usual noise about pampered teachers needing to take a hit like everyone else.

Sure, several of the positive commenters were no doubt teachers, some were merely agitators, and a few were, I hope, the product of a school system other than ours. But there also seemed to be a dawning recognition that cutting into an already distressed system isn’t, in fact, the best way to make it work better.

Small reassurance, I know. But for those of us concerned about shoring up education, tiny handholds of optimism are all we have to cling to right now.

These are odd and frustrating times in education. The call to do more with less — not, in itself, a bad sentiment — becomes, in successive years, an ongoing mandate to do even more with even less. When I hear that Dwight Jones, the new superintendent of the Clark County School District, wants to commission a privately funded study of the district’s $2 billion budget to analyze “our return on investment,” I can both applaud his due diligence and rue the application of a business-model mind-set (“return on investment”) to an institution that we all should consider more of a public trust.

So, to be clear, I’m progressive on education. I think we need to pump money in, not suck it out, and if we have to, for example, rob the mining industry to do so, oh well.

Nonetheless, although I am (full disclosure) married to an educator, and (additional disclosure) know some educators, and (I’m on a roll here!) have been somewhat educated, I’ve never been an actual, sneakers-on-the-ground educator. There are limits to my practical knowledge. Which means, if I’m being fair-minded, there are times when I should yield the floor to someone who’s been there.

Enter “L.” That’s how I’m identifying a local teacher who recently left the profession after 26 years. She doesn’t want to publicly jump into the fray, but after one of my recent columns — I was berating Gov. Brian Sandoval for underfunding schools — she thought there were a few things I should know. So she sent me a passionate 1,704-word e-mail titled “Waste at CCSD?”

That’s a common theme among the School District’s harshest critics, that it’s heavy with trimmable fat, but L’s note was more rueful than scathing. She’s saddened by what she perceives as questionable decision-making, squandered materials and bureaucratic blind spots that are bogging down education.

Not all of her complaints sound compelling — show me a sizable operation that doesn’t waste copy paper or fritter away valuable time in meetings for meetings’ sake. Nor is it surprising that there’s some unwieldy bureaucracy. Anytime two or more people work together, the first thing they do is generate reams of paperwork covering their own asses. Given that this is the nation’s fifth-largest school district, there’s going to be red tape.

But she makes some good points, too, some small and specific (why ferry a couple of special ed students to school in full-size buses instead of a properly equipped van?) and others that highlight avoidable inefficiencies. Textbooks that didn’t get used; pricey science kits for grades in which science isn’t regularly taught; school-rehab projects in which fairly new materials get replaced with brand new. “A 1-year-old, perfect chalkboard, recently installed in my room — thrown in a Dumpster.”

Then, of course, there’s the testing, testing, testing.

“My friends tell me the greatest waste in their schools today is the endless red tape, documenting and testing which goes on daily,” she writes. “When I came to the district in 1981, teachers were constantly being cautioned not to ‘teach to the test.’ In today’s schools, there is no time for creativity because, if those endless tests aren’t passed, schools will lose federal funds. Well, guess what the teachers are doing to pass those tests?!”

Teaching to it, of course.

What a waste.

Point taken, L. For me, her e-mail was a nice reminder that somewhere between Sandoval (“Cut!”) and Dickensheets (“Spend!”) there ought to be a reasonable middle ground: Think of it as doing more with not quite so much less.

Here’s hoping Sandoval, the test-happy feds and the rest of us eventually decide to seek it.


Source: Las Vegas Sun

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

www.BestEssayHelp.com | McDonnell taking strides toward improved higher education funding

Gov. Bob McDonnell gave his State of the Commonwealth address last week. Along with giving a summary of the governor’s job during his first year in office, the speech brought renewed attention to many of the governor’s proposals.

In my opinion, McDonnell had a very good first year. While the nation’s economy has continued to struggle, individual states have met their own struggles with things like unemployment and state budgets. As McDonnell was talking about these issues he said, “Virginia has done better than most.”

Since February of last year, Virginia has added a net total of 67,900 jobs, which is third-best in the country. In 2009, Virginia ranked only 35th in this category. Also since February, the state’s unemployment rate has fallen from 7.2 percent to 6.8 percent, which is the ninth-lowest in the country.

Finally, current spending has been rolled back to 2006 levels, and a $1.8 billion budget shortfall for the fiscal year 2010 budget was turned into a $403 million surplus without raising taxes on Virginians.

As we Republicans said during the 2009 campaign: Go Bob, go. While these numbers and statistics are great to hear, we college students still want to hear more on education. We all remember the tuition increases from last year. McDonnell caught a lot of scrutiny, both from Republicans and Democrats, over funding cuts for education.

People ask me about the cuts and I can’t easily defend them. McDonnell ran on balancing the budget. I personally never saw the entire budget. I don’t know what every cent was cut from. I just had faith in my governor that the right decisions were made, however tough they may have been to make. Also, to be fair, education cuts and tuition increases in Virginia are not a new trend, as tuition in Virginia has nearly doubled over the past decade.

I do wish budget cuts for education never had to be made in the first place. Luckily, McDonnell is moving toward improving education funding. He mentioned his top four priorities for the current legislative session, and one of them was establishing “major reforms and more accountability in higher education to make college more affordable and accessible for our students.”

McDonnell has unveiled a plan that would allow Virginia’s public colleges and universities to apply for $50 million for items such as increasing enrollment and boosting financial aid. Out of that money, schools can apply for $13 million to increase undergraduate financial aid. Other money will help increase things like enrollment and retention of students.

The governor has also proposed other items in the budget that could increase funding to help universities commercialize their research, and add money to the state’s Tuition Assistance Grant Program.

The year 2011 will not magically address every higher education need. However, McDonnell is making an effort. This is definitely a start.

He is still working toward the campaign promises he made for education, but these things do take time. The fact is, we are still in tough economic times and states just don’t have the money they used to. Still, Virginians can be thankful we have a governor who is working to keep a balanced budget. After all, you can’t spend money you don’t have.

Source: Collegiate Times

Monday, January 17, 2011

www.BestEssayHelp.com | California Gov. Jerry Brown's 'parent trigger' trap

Without question, Gov. Jerry Brown has the right to make his own appointments and craft his own policies. But his picks for California's powerful Board of Education could jeopardize one of the most innovative and empowering — if controversial — education reforms to come along in years: the so-called parent trigger that gives parents a strong say in the education of their children.

After just one day back on the job as governor, Brown named seven new members to the 11-member state school board. The new majority, The Times reported, "will dramatically alter the panel's makeup in age, geography and educational resume, shifting it from a board containing vocal advocates for a reform agenda … to one that is more closely aligned with traditional" education policies.

Gone from the board, for example, are Ben Austin, executive director of Parent Revolution and an architect of the parent trigger, and Ted Mitchell, the former Occidental College president who championed parents' involvement, charter schools and teacher evaluations. In contrast, according to The Times, the new appointees "thrilled" David Sanchez, head of the California Teachers Assn., the powerful union that supported Brown in the governor's race and has been outspoken in opposition to charters, the trigger and other reforms.

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The parent trigger is a simple law. If half the parents whose children attend a failing public school sign a petition demanding change at the school, the district must either shut it down, allow it to become a charter school or adopt one of two other federally prescribed "turnaround" models. Parents at Compton's McKinley Elementary School gained national attention last month when they became the first to use the parent trigger, petitioning the Compton Unified School District to convert their failing public school into an independent charter.

The parent trigger is so simple, in fact, that the statute contains few nitty-gritty details about how the law should work. The Legislature left it up to the Board of Education to spell out the particulars, such as how petitions must be formatted, who's qualified to sign, how quickly a school district must act on a valid petition and how parents may appeal hostile district decisions, among other things.

And that's where matters could get ugly. The temporary, "emergency" regulations the state board passed last summer offered a clear road map for parents to use the law. The new board, however, could very easily turn that road map into a labyrinth of red tape.

Simpler is better. The law should make it easy for parents to pull the trigger and force school districts to undertake dramatic changes that education bureaucracies would otherwise thwart. Compton Unified, for example, has a reputation for rejecting charter school applications.

The parent trigger also makes for a fairer balance of power, giving parents crucial leverage against well-entrenched teacher and administrator interests. Parents generally demand the best possible education for their children. The education bureaucracy has many interests that sometimes conflict; it serves parents and children while mollifying teacher unions, political overseers and career bureaucrats.

In Compton, the use of the parent trigger has been controversial. Parents on both sides of the issue say they've met with threats and intimidation. The petition's supporters freely admit they worked "under the radar" to collect signatures from 62% of McKinley Elementary parents. That has led opponents of the trigger to demand that the Board of Education impose regulations requiring more "transparency" in the petition process. But those who favor change at the school say the hostile reaction to the Compton petition shows that mandated open meetings, for example, might scare away parents from signing petitions.

Of course, it's likely that most parents will not avail themselves of any reform mechanism. Polls show that although parents think the education system is a mess, most believe their school isn't too bad. However, for those who are willing to push for change, and who find that their school administration resists it, the parent trigger is a godsend.

Parents need clarity, and the law needs time to work. Eleventh-hour attempts to impose "transparency" or other new regulations on the parent trigger should not be used to put parents at a disadvantage. That is exactly what the state board tried to avoid with its current set of regulations.

The governor has acknowledged from time to time that Californians are overburdened with rules. As Brown shapes his education agenda, he should make clear that regulation should empower parents to use the parent trigger law effectively, not protect the status quo.

Source: Los Angeles Times

Friday, January 14, 2011

www.BestEssayHelp.com |Maryland Montgomery misses out on federal education funds

ANNAPOLIS -- Montgomery County is missing out on millions of dollars in federal Race to the Top funding for its public schools, while the rest of the state and Baltimore City share a $125 million cash infusion.

Neighboring Prince George's County soon will be rolling in $23.4 million in federal cash, Baltimore City will take in $52.8 million and Baltimore County will get $17.4 million. Anne Arundel County will receive $6.9 million.

The Maryland State Department of Education released the funding distributions at a Senate education committee meeting on Thursday, as the state prepares to implement reforms that must accompany the funding.

The education agency is funneling half of the $250 million grant to participating counties and Baltimore and keeping the remaining money.

Montgomery stood to receive at least $12 million from the Race to the Top pot. But the county, with Frederick, declined to participate in the program citing concerns about changing its teacher evaluation system and standardized testing procedures.

State Superintendent Nancy Grasmick says the agency's share will fund statewide programs, such as teacher training seminars, and provide extra padding to counties that have additional needs.

The Race to the Top program ties teacher pay to student test scores, and requires teachers to work three years -- rather than the current two years -- to achieve tenure. In Maryland, reforms will require schools to ramp up data collection on students.

All local school systems will be required to collect a minimum level of data on students, Assistant State Superintendent Leslie Wilson told lawmakers on Thursday. She said the education agency will need more staffers to help develop the data system, and more money to sustain it. The agency has received roughly 700 applications for 70 new positions that will last just four years -- as long as the

grant is in place.

Grasmick said the program will be highly scrutinized.

"There are only 12 states that received this in the nation and so people are very, very interested or angry -- angry that they didn't get it or interested in what are the lessons learned from this," she said, "so they are expecting us to do this with a lot of fidelity."



Source: The Examiner

Thursday, January 13, 2011

www.BestEssayHelp.com | William Lockridge, veteran D.C. community and education activist, dies at 63

Veteran D.C. community and education activist William Lockridge, known for his determination and chronic impatience to get things done, died Jan. 12 of respiratory failure at George Washington University Hospital.

The 63-year-old had been hospitalized since suffering a stroke at his home in Southeast Washington last week.

Mr. Lockridge spent more than 25 years in public and community service in wards 7 and 8, the areas of Northeast and Southeast Washington predominantly east of the Anacostia River. He represented Ward 8 on the D.C. State Board of Education.

"For decades he showed that he cared deeply for the District of Columbia and particularly for our children," said Mayor Vincent C. Gray in a statement.

A longtime resident of the area, Mr. Lockridge prided himself on meeting often with community residents and liked to say, "I listen, and I am accessible."

He was also seen as a man of contradictions, described in a 1988 Washington Post story as "an avenging angel to some, an unrepentant mischief-maker to others; one minute ready to slug a colleague, the next minute opening his home and his checkbook to a needy student."

"William Lockridge was an ordinary guy who did extraordinary things," said D.C. Council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8). "He fought for the children, the least, the last and the lost, and he would take on anybody, including myself, because he was a fighter."

Mr. Lockridge grew up in Chicago, graduated from Tennessee State University with a bachelor's degree in education and returned to Illinois, where he became a successful pharmaceutical salesman and entrepreneur. In 1968, he gave up the business world and joined the Free Chicago Movement, a black empowerment group.

In 1979, Mr. Lockridge moved to Washington, where he took on numerous public service roles, among them PTA president, advisory neighborhood commissioner, president of the Ward 8 Democrats and president of the Alabama Avenue Task Force.

He worked for D.C. public schools for more than 15 years as a teacher, teacher coordinator, wrestling coach, and issues and policies researcher before beginning a 10-year stint on the D.C. Board of Education in 1998. He served as vice president of that panel and as chairman of the finance and facilities committee.

He remained on the board after it was stripped of much of its power in 2007 and became the D.C. State Board of Education. He was serving as the Ward 8 representative at the time of his death.

Over the years, he helped develop the Master Facilities Plan, a guide for building new schools and renovating existing facilities, and helped lead the effort to secure $2.5 billion from the D.C. Council to fully fund the plan.

His public service tenure was marked by some controversy; he was years ago accused by administrators of Ballou High School of trying to micromanage them, and he once threatened to sue the school board because he said it had improperly hired a superintendent he opposed.

Mr. Lockridge was a member of the NAACP, the National School Boards Association, the Council of Urban Boards of Education and the Council of Black School Administrators. And he had completed coursework toward a real estate appraiser's license.

Mr. Lockridge was a member of Allen Chapel AME Church in Southeast Washington.

R. Calvin Lockridge, Mr. Lockridge's uncle, had also served on the D.C. school board.

Besides his uncle, survivors include his wife, Wanda Lockridge of Washington; two children, Joy and Stefan Lockridge; his mother, Pearl Chambers; a sister, Joy Majied; and four grandchildren.


Source: The Washington Post

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

www.BestEssayHelp.com | Means of Composing a Successful Persuasive Essay with an Outline

A persuasive essay involves writing in such a manner that you convince the reader to accept the point of view that you are putting forward. It is also known as argumentative essay. This type of essay uses facts and well elaborated examples to convince the reader to accept ones point of view. If you want to complete a good persuasive essay, it is essential that you consider certain persuasive essay writing key points. It is indeed important before beginning to write to ensure that you read the given instructions and understand them clearly. This helps the individual when it comes to writing the topic of the essay and the examples that he/she will give. Once you understand the instructions, the next most important thing is deciding on the topic of the essay.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

www.BestEssayHelp.com | Writing an Outstanding Personal Experience Essay

Personal essay writing is an easy assignment if all the specific aspects that interest the instructor are met. It is important to lay out an outline to guide you in the process of writing your personal essay. This is simply a listing containing all the important points that is arranged in a manner that is logical to cover all relevant information. Prior preparation before writing the essay makes it fun and the writer is able to proof to the instructor or professor that he/she is on the right track of one’s personal experience essay writing. The best results in personal essay writing are achieved when the writer is casual and expresses deep feelings. This will make the writer passionate in evoking the emotions of the readers and making them involved and intrigued.

Monday, January 10, 2011

www.BestEssayHelp.com | Narrative Essay Example Writing: Five Simple Steps

Narrative essay is a type of essay which tells a story in a sequence of events. To produce the best narrative essay, a little bit of heart and soul has to be put into the writing. Construction of a narrative essay is one of the easiest and the most entertaining things to occur. This type of essay helps the writer to reflect on a variety of events and experiences. It gives the writer freedom to include own ideas and remarks regarding own observations.

Choosing Your Narrative Essay Topic
The first and foremost thing to be kept in mind by the writer of the narrative essay is that the topic of the paper should be clearly identified. The writing should be presented in such a way that it enlightens the reader and triggers the desire to continue reading. It is important to point out that the language should be kept simple, which does not at all mean that parts of the information can be omitted. The essay should be based on a variety of relevant facts regarding the discussed topic with all irrelevant resources being avoided.

www.BestEssayHelp.com | Classification Essay Example Writing - Something You Don’t Know

Classification essays are basically aimed at placing the object into consideration into the appropriate category. In essence the objective of classification is always unique to project but the method always remains the same. This piece of academic writing requires the same effort to be put in just as any other writing work regardless of the fact that it may seem easier. Classification is also viewed as a simplification and organizing tool as complex notions are being broken down into straightforward and uncomplicated grouping. There are various reasons why one may need to classify subject or objects according to particular attributes as discussed below.

Choosing An Appropriate Classification Essay Principle
First of all, classification can be applied as a unifying standard as every idea, object or subject is comprised of a multitude of attributes and can be classified in a variety of ways. This can cause a lot of confusion to the writer and reader if the writer does not come in terms with the whole process. In order to avoid this undesirable complication, the writer should set the reader with a unifying principle such as a thesis statement. Such kind of approach ensures that you as a writer are geared toward a particular point and will help to avoid common classification essay mistakes.

www.BestEssayHelp.com | Composing a Successful Cause and Effect Essay

Cause and effect essay has a name that speaks for itself - this type of academic assignment covers both the cause behind an event or action as well as its associated effect. This type of essay permits the writer to infer a certain happening by means of explaining why it happened and what it might bring about. Cause and effect essay is a common assignment given to students as a way of assessing their creative and critical thinking abilities along with their analytical skills. There is a variety of ways to complete your cause and effect essay: on the one hand, you can choose a straightforward writing principle, which follows the common essay paper layout and lists the causes followed by their effects, or, on the other hand, you can choose an indirect approach, noting down the effects while conveying a unique logic of exigency to the people reading your paper, getting them involved and trigged. It is advisable to avoid a linear writing method for this type of written assignment as it can get the reader bored and uninterested.

www.BestEssayHelp.com | Essay Introduction Example Writing: Tips and Suggestions

In order to be successful in developing great essay introduction, be sure to understand what you are writing about. Keep your thesis in mind, building up your introduction paragraph around it; in a way preparing the readers to be presented with your core idea. To make your introduction attention catching and intriguing, try employing some of the useful essay introduction writing tips below:

  • Consider using an analogy or metaphor. Developing analogies requires much creativity from you as a writer, therefore, make sure that your analogy is relevant to the main idea as well as clear enough for the readers to catch the hint at the spur of the moment while reading your essay introduction;
  • Try telling an anecdote. One can create an engaging essay introduction by telling a short story that illustrates a point. Be sure your story is short, to the point, and relevant to your topic. This can be a very effective opener for your college essay, however, keep in mind to use it carefully;

Friday, January 7, 2011

www.BestEssayHelp.com | Tensions persist over Pacific Collegiate School diversity

SANTA CRUZ - Tension surfaced Thursday as the County Board of Education began a review of a memorandum of understanding between the board and high-achieving Pacific Collegiate School.

The memorandum follows the September renewal of the Westside school's charter for another five years, a process that included controversy surrounding the charter school's lack of diversity and other issues.

The 30-page memorandum covers specifics about how the school should be run and overseen by the county that are not in the charter. Examples include what should be posted on the school's website, a requirement for Brown Act Training by school board members, required teacher qualifications, educational performance standards and funding issues. It states the school can be charged up to 1 percent of its categorical block grant revenue for administrative costs incurred by the county.

But some specifics anticipated by Santa Cruz City Schools trustees were not in the draft considered Thursday by the board's Ad Hoc Charter School Committee meeting, comprised of Trustees Arnie Levine, Bud Winslow and Gina Locatelli.

Santa Cruz Trustees Rachel Dewey Thorsett and Cynthia Hawthorne said it was promised during the charter approval process that a plan to increase the school's diversity would be outlined in the memorandum.

"We did not challenge the charter, even though we believe it is in conflict with the ed code," Hawthorne said. "Our expectation is that the MOU does
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address it."

The memorandum is a binding legal document, and city schools trustees see it as their last chance to get the school to commit to specific ways to increase diversity.

But county education officials seem to have a different understanding.

Theresa Rouse, associate superintendent with the County Office of Education, said she has not yet met with Pacific Collegiate School representatives about the memorandum but could not promise it will include a provision about diversity.

"The MOU would only include whether they are implementing the charter as described in the petition," she said. "The Diversity Plan is on their website and are they implementing it? Yes. Are they getting the results everyone thinks they should? I can't answer that."

In the charter petition, the school outlines steps it has taken to increase diversity and vows to continue those efforts, including starting a new "lottery pilot" to gain students who would be the first in their families to attend college.

The Board of Education determined the school's efforts and plans to increase diversity met state requirements.

Thursday, seven people attended the informal meeting. All but one were school board members or school administrators.

After noting the public interest, Watkins said he would recommend to the seven-member County Board of Education at the Jan. 20 meeting that the document not be finalized this month as planned. He said it must be done by June.

"We will extend it for adequate public input, though in my opinion, it's been an extremely transparent process," he said.

But some in the audience disagreed, including George Wylie, a trustee with the San Lorenzo Valley Unified School District. Wylie said he attended the meeting because he was concerned about the transparency of the proceedings.

"Ad Hoc is supposed to be for one purpose," he said. "Charters schools are ongoing, so it should be a standing committee."

Levine answered that he was willing to make it one.

"We always observe the Brown Act," Levine said, referring to the state's open-meeting law.

Rouse said she expected a revised draft of the memorandum would be completed before the Feb. 17 board meeting.

There is a history of tension between the Santa Cruz City Schools district and the school that exists within its boundaries, due in part to concerns that the school skims the district's top students. The tension improved in September, after the sides met face to face.

Pacific Collegiate School is open to all county residents. About 60 percent of its students live within the Santa Cruz City Schools boundaries.

Admission is granted via a lottery after preference is given to siblings of students and children of staff, board members and former board members. The school consistently ranks in the top 10 among the nation's public high schools.


Source: Mercury News

Thursday, January 6, 2011

www.BestEssayHelp.com | Governor Takes On Higher Education Struggles

Newly elected California governor Jerry Brown was inaugurated this week, ready to tackle the $82 billion in debt accumulated over the past year alone — but is skeptical about how much he will be able to take on in the face of the statewide budget crisis.

This debt figure has already begun plaguing talks about reform as the state’s fiscal situation takes the front seat, leaving topics like higher education in the dust. But the governor will still try to address those problems according to his inaugural speech.

The governor’s plan for higher education was clear during campaign season, but whether he can keep his promises during one of the worst economic times in history remains to be seen.

“Recent state budgets have raised tuition drastically, reduced the number of new students … cut class sections so that students cannot get basic classes they need, and driven good professors to other states,” Brown said on his campaign website. “This situation calls for a major overhaul of many components of the postsecondary system.”

Brown plans to stage this overhaul by creating a new state “master plan,” meant to provide better college access and success for the long-term, he said. He also aims to introduce more online learning and “extended university programs.”

“Technology can increase educational productivity, expand access to higher learning, and reduce costs,” Brown said on his website.

UCSC will begin to implement online courses in March of this year, along with all of the other UCs in California.

Politics professor Daniel Wirls is skeptical of UCSC’s initiatives to create online courses.

“Such courses are best for a limited number of subjects taught in a fairly particular fashion, such as mathematics with machine-graded exams,” Wirls and in an e-mail. “So far the primary purpose seems to be revenue-generation rather than cutting costs or increasing affordability. Greater revenue does not necessarily translate into greater affordability for most students.”

Donna Blitzer, director of government relations, said in an e-mail that she is looking forward to working with Brown on the subject of higher education. She said he is well informed and qualified on the topic.

“We understand he is intending to confront a serious state budget challenge,” Blitzer said, “and we hope to work with him cooperatively on that in a way that preserves the important contributions the UC makes to California.”

Another way Brown hopes to help higher education in California’s current state of crisis is by stopping state transfer of monetary support from those institutions to pay for prisons. He called prison expansion “unnecessarily expensive” and said it would add “substantially to our state’s deficit.”

“We can do this without sacrificing public safety,” Brown said. “By relentlessly pursuing similar cost savings, we can channel needed funds to our higher education system.”

Brown has yet to speak as governor on the higher education issue, but it will not be what all Californians may hope for in the face of the state’s financial crisis, he said.

“The budget I present next week will be painful, but it will be an honest budget,” Brown said in his inaugural speech Monday. “Choices have to be made and difficult decisions taken. Our budget problem is dire, but after years of cutbacks, I am determined to enhance our public schools so that our citizens of the future have the skills, the zest and the character to keep California up among the best.”

Source: City On A Hill