This is where we will talk about improving Latino education, health, finance and so on.
March, 10 2010 The New York Times
Culminating a year’s work, a panel of educators convened by the nation’s governors and state school superintendents released a set of proposed common academic standards on Wednesday. The standards lay out the panel’s vision of what American public school students should learn in math and English, year by year, from kindergarten to high school graduation. Read More
10 de marzo de 2010 El Caribe
El titular de Educación destacó el trabajo que realiza la actual gestión en busca de mejorar la enseñanza y los aprendizajes de los estudiantes de todas las ofertas educativas.En ese sentido, el Ministerio de Educación, con el apoyo de los viceministros, docentes, padres, madres y amigos de la escuela buscan estrategias que les permitan alcanzar las metas propuestas por la entidad: formar jóvenes con los conocimientos que requieren estos tiempos modernos.Melanio Paredes sostuvo que este es un sistema grande que abarca la mayor nómina del Estado, y donde interactúan cerca de 80 mil personas entre docentes, administrativos y técnicos. Read More
March 10, 2010 Boston Globe
A looming budget deficit could lead to the closing of a significant number of Boston schools over the next two years and further reductions in staff, Superintendent Carol R. Johnson said yesterday.Johnson, who is still working through the numbers with her staff, said she is making every effort to avoid closing schools for this fall, but was unsure if she could prevent it.“We will have to look at every possible option,’’ Johnson said in an interview. “The thing I worry about most is that this news is coming to families at a time when it could be unsettling. . . . I don’t want families to panic, but we have a responsibility to present the economic situation to the community and the School Committee.’’Read More
09 marzo 2010 Univision
Geovanni dice que se debe hacer una reforma al sistema educativo, porque no da opciones a los jóvenes. Julio dejó la escuela para “ganar chavos” y mantener a su familia. Cynthia cayó en las drogas y un año después volvió a las aulas. Como ellos, millones de hispanos enfrentan la dura prueba de permanecer en la escuela, pero muy pocos logran graduarse. Read More
March 9, 2010 Boston Globe
SELMA, Ala. - Education Secretary Arne Duncan said yesterday the federal government will become more vigilant to make sure students have equal access and opportunity to everything ranging from college prep classes to science and engineering programs.“We’re going to reinvigorate civil rights enforcement,’’ Duncan said on a historic Selma bridge to commemorate the 45th anniversary of a bloody confrontation between voting rights activistsand state troopers.Read More
March 08, 2010 The New York Times
Seeking to step up enforcement of civil rights laws, the federal Department of Education says it will be sending letters in coming weeks to thousands of school districts and colleges, outlining their responsibilities on issues of fairness and equal opportunity. As part of that effort, the department intends to open investigations known as compliance reviews in about 32 school districts nationwide, seeking to verify that students of both sexes and all races are getting equal access to college preparatory curriculums and to advanced placement courses. The department plans to open similar civil rights investigations at half a dozen colleges. Read More
March 7, 2010 Boston Globe
WHEELOCK COLLEGE is without peer in diversity, with a tenured and tenure track faculty that is 23 percent black and Hispanic. A Globe survey found the percentage of such faculty to be between 3 and 8 percent at Harvard, MIT, Boston University, Boston College, Brandeis, Emerson, Northeastern, and Tufts. Not a single one of those private colleges and universities is even at the 9 percent national average for black and Hispanic faculty, in a nation that is 28 percent black and Hispanic.Read More
March 05, 2010 The New York Times
SACRAMENTO — Angered by increases in tuition and cuts in state financing, thousands of students, parents and faculty members protested across California on Thursday at colleges, universities and even elementary schools to plead for help with the state’s education crisis. Called a “strike and day of action to defend public education” by organizers, the demonstrations were boisterous and occasionally confrontational — campus and building entrances were blocked at several schools — but they were largely peaceful for most of the day.Read More
March 5, 2010 Boston Globe
Boston school officials announced yesterday that staff at six schools will have to reapply for their jobs and five principals will be replaced after the schools were listed among nearly three dozen statewide that will probably be declared “underperforming’’ and subject to drastic change.Overall, 12 Boston schools face being listed as underperforming, slightly more than a third of the 35 schools statewide. The list includes the Jeremiah E. Burke High School in Dorchester, long considered a barometer of Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s effectiveness in improving the city’s schools over the past 16 years.Read More
March, 4 2010 The New York Times
WASHINGTON — Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is presiding over the rollout of the largest competitive grant program in his department’s history, a vast expansion of the government’s direct loan program for college students and sweeping new expenditures on failing schools, teacher quality and other big initiatives.Read More
March 4, 2010 Boston Globe
CENTRAL FALLS, R.I. - Inside the front door to Central Falls High School, across the street from a boarded-up building, an archway is adorned with an unambiguous boast: “Through these halls pass the world’s best faculty and students.’’It is a motto that rings false for the local school board, which recently voted to fire all of the school’s staff in a stunning move that made Central Falls a lightning rod in the polarizing debate over improving the country’s education system.Read More
March 3, 2010 Boston Globe
The high school dropout rate in Massachusetts dipped below 3 percent last school year for the first time in a decade, according to a state report released yesterday.The rate of 2.9 percent was a half percentage point lower than the previous year. However, the rate still represents 8,585 students in grades 9-12 who decided to give up on school - a number that state and local educators say is still too high.Read More
March 2, 2010 The New York Times
On its Web site today, The Chronicle of Higher Education examines the concept of honors colleges, in which big public research universities set aside dedicated classroom and housing space within their walls for programs on the scale of small liberal arts colleges. The publication tallies more than 70 such programs, and focuses on one in particular, at the University of South Carolina. It describes the South Carolina Honors College as marketing itself to students as “a place where they could take classes with just 8 or 10 other students, and then join a crowd of 80,000 in the football stadium.”Read More
March 1, 2010 Boston Globe
Jack Wilson, president of the University of Massachusetts, plans to announce today that he will leave the post in June 2011 after nearly eight years, a tenure in which he knit together the previously disparate five-campus system, fostered research collaboration among faculty from different schools, and oversaw the creation of the state’s first public law school.Read More
March 1, 2010 Boston Globe
WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama is offering $900 million in grants to states and school districts to turn around low-performing schools—but recipients would have to take drastic action, such as replacing principals, reopening schools as charter schools or closing them outright.Obama was to announce the plan Monday at an education event sponsored by the America’s Promise Alliance, the youth-oriented organization founded by former Secretary of State Colin Powell and his wife, Alma. Obama also planned to discuss ways to better prepare students for college and careers.Read More
February 28, 2010 Boston Globe
PROVIDENCE, R.I.—The Corporation of Brown University has approved a 4.5 percent increase in undergraduate tuition and fees.The vote Saturday at the annual meeting means Brown’s tuition will rise to $51,360. The corporation also approved a 6.5 percent increase in the undergraduate financial aid budget.Read More
February 28, 2010 The Chronicle of Higher Education
It’s 7 a.m. and the hiring hall here is buzzing. Day laborers file in, pick up a small numbered ball, and write their name and number on a large whiteboard. The ball then goes in a jug for the day’s job lottery.Soon about 40 men, mostly immigrants from Guatemala, crowd a large room at the job and social-services center, run by Neighbors Link, a local nonprofit group. The room doubles as a waiting room and classroom for the daily “Job English” class run by Westchester Community College.Read More
February 28, 2010 Boston Globe
Their resumes are impressive, showing broad experience in education, psychology, management, and politics.Their visions for Newton public schools are exciting, from holding afternoon teas with concerned parents to having vocational students build low-income homes.Yet none of the three finalists to lead one of the state’s highest-achieving school systems has taught in a Newton school or traveled up the administrative ladder.Read More
27 de Febrero de 2010 El Nuevo Dia
WASHINGTON - El autor principal del proyecto de ley a favor de que el inglés sea el idioma común de Estados Unidos tiene la certeza de que Puerto Rico deberá “funcionar en inglés” antes de aspirar a la estadidad.Steve King, congresista republicano por el distrito 5 de Iowa, insistió en que el proyecto 2499 sobre el futuro político de Puerto Rico está cargado a favor de la propuesta que busca convertir a la Isla en el estado 51 de Estados Unidos.La entrevista con King, que estaba originalmente programada para el miércoles, coincidió ayer con la publicación de un editorial en el periódico The Washington Times en el que también se rechazó el proyecto de status que promueve el Partido Nuevo Progresista.Read More
February 26, 2010 Boston Globe
Boston Latin School is dropping its honors courses next year, a move administrators say will prepare more students for Advanced Placement classes in their junior and senior years, though some parents fear the change will have a negative impact on their children’s college admission chances.The school, widely regarded as one of the best in the city, serves grades 7-12 and requires an entrance exam for enrollment. It currently offers honors math courses beginning in grade 8, as well as an honors English class for high school juniors and honors science and language classes for juniors and seniors.Read More
February 26, 2010 Boston Globe
PROVIDENCE - The entire staff of teachers fired in a radical attempt to improve one of the worst performing high schools in Rhode Island will appeal their dismissals to school authorities, the head of the teachers union said yesterday.The board of trustees overseeing the school system in Central Falls, one of the poorest communities in the state, voted Tuesday to fire 88 high school teachers and other support staff by the end of the year. Other administrators will also lose their jobs.Read More
February 25, 2010 Los Angeles Times
Concepciona Manuel-Flores couldn’t answer many of the questions on a standardized English test in December, even though she says she’s a straight-A student. “I had six or seven substitute teachers,” the Markham Middle School seventh-grader said. “All we did in English was silent reading or the same assignments, over and over.” Concepciona is one of the plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit filed Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court on behalf of students at three of the city’s worst-performing middle schools. The suit claims those students were denied their legal rights to an education and aims to prevent the Los Angeles Unified School District from laying off more teachers there. Read More
February 24, 2010 The New York Times
CENTRAL FALLS, R.I. — Like many other teenagers in this troubled city, Sheila Gomes said she found a surrogate family outside her home at Central Falls High School. But with the school board’s decision on Tuesday to dismiss the entire faculty as part of a turnaround plan for the chronically underperforming school, some say they are losing one of the few constants in the state’s poorest city, where 41 percent of children live in poverty and 63 percent of the high school’s students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Read More
February 24, 2010 Boston Globe
A state education commissioner abruptly withdrew his endorsement of a new charter school in Lynn yesterday after acknowledging that the proposal could violate Massachusetts law, raising fresh questions about the rigor of the state’s review process.Founders of the proposed Lynn Preparatory Charter School had told the state in their application last year that if they secured a license they would shut down a private school they founded in Swampscott, creating the possibility that they were converting a private school into a publicly funded institution.Read More
February 23, 2010 Boston Globe
PROVIDENCE, R.I.—Rhode Island Education Commissioner Deborah Gist has approved a school district’s plan to fire all its teachers.Central Falls Superintendent Fran Gallo has proposed laying off all teachers at Central Falls High School as part of a “turnaround” model for the school. That high school and five other schools in Providence have been identified by the state as chronically low-performing and must make major changes to avoid being closed.Read More
February 23, 2010 Tne New York Times
As Nicole and I walked down the long, narrow aisle of her high school auditorium one recent evening, she darted to sit with a friend while I went for a seat up close. It was College Night — a chance for all interested students and parents to get the lowdown directly from seven high school seniors — and I didn’t want to miss a word.Dressed in everything from sweatpants to skirts, the seniors dangled their Ugg- and Converse-clad feet over the edge of the wide stage. One by one, they passed a microphone down the line, openly sharing with the audience details of their personal college quests — how many colleges they’d each applied to, how they had come up with their lists, and where they stood in the admissions process. This would be one of the most informative nights of the year for juniors and their parents.Read More
February 23, 2010 Boston Globe
A new state law that bolsters a superintendent’s ability to fire teachers at underperforming schools could be undermined in Boston because administrators routinely neglect a basic task: evaluating teachers.About half the city’s approximately 5,000 teachers have not received an evaluation in the past two years, and a quarter of the city’s 135 schools have not conducted evaluations during that period, according to a report commissioned by the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education that was provided to the Globe yesterday.Read More
February 21, 2010 The New York Times
After years of complaints from parents, the San Francisco Unified School District has just taken a serious step toward revamping its well-meaning but labyrinthine student-assignment system, which decides the educational homes for tens of thousands of children. The current system — designed to meet the terms of a settlement in a long-fought federal desegregation case — involves a complicated computer algorithm that creates student “profiles,” using various economic and educational factors, with the aim of sending students of different backgrounds to the same schools. Read More
February 20, 2010 Boston Globe
Fourteen-year-old Henry Santana initially balked at the idea of giving up a vacation to spend a week in school.Yet there he was Thursday morning with six other eighth-graders at the John Tobin K-8 School in Roxbury, going over strategies to answer questions about a reading passage.Henry decided that spending the week there to focus on English would be worthwhile after he learned that he had fallen one point short of scoring in the proficient category on last year’s MCAS, the second highest level, which shows a solid command of grade-level material.“I know I’m smart, but sometimes on standardized tests I don’t show my true potential,’’ Henry said. “I want to be a doctor, and I want to do my best so I can reach my goal.’’Read More
February 18, 2010 The New York Times
Ninety percent of parents believe it is likely that their children will attend college, and most of them believe that any student can get the loans or financial aid required. But a new survey, reported on by my colleague, Tamar Lewin, finds that parents don’t have a lot of confidence in the way colleges are managed.Increasingly, parents think colleges are too focused on their own finances, rather than the educational experience of students, the survey found.Read More
February 18, 2010 The New York Times
Dozens of public high schools in eight states will introduce a program next year allowing 10th graders who pass a battery of tests to get a diploma two years early and immediately enroll in community college.Students who pass but aspire to attend a selective college may continue with college preparatory courses in their junior and senior years, organizers of the new effort said. Students who fail the 10th-grade tests, known as board exams, can try again at the end of their 11th and 12th grades. The tests would cover not only English and math but also subjects like science and history.Read More
18 de Febrero de 2010 MBA Educacion Ejecutiva
El candidato ideal para cursar un MBA exhibe una variedad de habilidades, logros y temperamentos que potencian el liderazgo y la capacidad de prosperar en un ambiente riguroso”. Bajo esta premisa, la reconocida escuela de negocios estadounidense, Harvard Business School, selecciona a los alumnos que buscan realizar en sus aulas, una Maestría en Administración de Empresas. Al igual que Harvard, la mayoría de las universidades de Estados Unidos llevan a cabo un exhaustivo proceso de selección de alumnos para cada promoción de MBA. Formulario de admisión, examen de aplicación, certificación de dominio del inglés, presentación de curriculum, entrevista personal, y recomendaciones en línea, son sólo algunos de los requisitos básicos que las escuelas del país del norte piden a los profesionales interesados en cursar uno de sus posgrados en administración. Read More
February 17, 2010 Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Ramon C. Cortines on Tuesday accentuated the positive amid dire financial realities in his first “state of the district” address before students, parents, school officials and dignitaries at Belmont High.He chose the Belmont campus, west of downtown, because of the school’s steep rise in academic performance, but also spoke of the need to do better still, saying that only 52% of district students graduate in four years. Cortines cited a looming $640-million budget deficit as a prime reason that warring district factions must work together.Read More
February 17, 2010 The New York Times
As the article points out, “one percentage point above inflation might not seem like much to celebrate,” but it could be a first step toward reducing the rate of increase, which often exceeds the inflation rate by several percentage points. Last year, the article said, the average increase for private four-year colleges was 4.4 percent, while there was no inflation at all.Everyone complains about the steep and seemingly unending rise in tuition. Now, one college is responding — in a modest way.Middlebury College is expected to adopt a plan to limit increases in tuition to 1 percent above the Consumer Price Index, according to an article on the Web site Inside Higher Ed.Read More
February 16, 2010 Boston Globe
The lack of black and Hispanic professors, highlighted in two recent reports critical of the faculty makeup at MIT and Emerson College, is a problem shared by the most prominent universities in the Boston area, a Globe survey reveals.Among those struggling the most is the city’s largest school, Boston University, where blacks and Hispanics make up 3.4 percent of tenured and tenure-track faculty, a figure that has barely budged over the past decade. At BU, like the other schools, the percentage of minority faculty lags far behind the demographics of its student body.Read More
February 15, 2010 Los Angeles Times
It took months for her homesickness to ease and the benefits of life in a new city to become apparent. But Jeanny Fuentes said she now has few regrets about leaving Los Angeles and her close-knit family to attend college nearly 3,000 miles away.By enrolling at Boston College, the 18-year-old freshman became part of a national trend in which Latinos are increasingly attending colleges farther from home. Read More
February 11, 2010 Boston Globe
Anyone who has ever listened to the incessant tap-tap-tapping of a teenager texting on a cellphone knows that youths these days are wired. Whether by desktop, laptop, cellphone, or smart phone, many students spend their nights and weekends online and in touch.But much of that interactivity is frozen like a bad computer program the minute they walk into school. In many schools, if a student fires up a smart phone in the middle of class to check something on the Internet, they could be in troubleRead More.
February 12, 2010 The New York Times
I wanted to draw your attention to two articles on the Web site of The Chronicle of Higher Education that, collectively, further illuminate the financial squeeze on public universities and private colleges.One article, published today, argues that “states will have a harder time restoring spending on higher education after this downturn than they have in past recessions.” The article, citing an analysis by the State Higher Education Executive Officers association, ominously quotes the organization’s president, Paul E. Lingenfelter, as saying: “The big story is that the demand for higher education is outstripping the ability of states to finance it.”Read More
February 12, 2010 The New York Times
The College Board’s Advanced Placement program is expanding in American high schools, but as it moves from being a program primarily for elite students, the number of test-takers who fail A.P. exams is growing — although not as much as the number of those who pass. According to a College Board report, about 800,000 public high school seniors in last May’s graduating class, or 26.5 percent of the class, took an A.P. exam at some point in their high school career, almost twice as many as took A.P. exams in the class of 2001. Read More
February 10, 2010 Diverse
PHILADELPHIA — For some Hispanic students, navigating the college application process can be a double-whammy: Balancing high school coursework with essays and interviews, and then translating the whole system for their parents, who don’t speak English.Some venerable East Coast universities are trying to ease that burden—and tap the booming pool of Hispanic students—by offering Spanish translations of their admissions and financial aid material.Bryn Mawr College, an elite women’s liberal arts school near Philadelphia, recently launched a Spanish version of its Web site. And the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania has begun conducting some college admissions sessions in Spanish.Read More
February 10, 2010 The New York Times
The more I hear of surprising early decision and early action results, the more skeptical I get. One amazing kid after another has been rejected or deferred from a college that seemed like just the right fit.First, it was the stellar student and pianist who also co-authored a book. Then there was the senior class president with super science credentials, and scores and grades well within the target range. And next, the brilliant double legacy and “ideal” candidate whose rejection made no sense at all. So what, really, are these colleges looking for? Has admission become a complete crapshoot?Read More
February 10, 2010 The New York Times
WASHINGTON — The White House, led by Michelle Obama, announced a sweeping initiative on Tuesday aimed at revamping the way American children eat and play — reshaping school lunches, playgrounds and even medical checkups — with the goal of eliminating childhood obesity within a generation.The “Let’s Move” campaign, nearly a year in the making, is Mrs. Obama’s official debut in a high-profile policy role, and she has already lined up an array of partners in government, medicine, science, business, education and athletics who are pledging to work together to get children off their couches and consuming fresher, healthier food.Read More
February 9, 2010 Boston Globe
The scrawny kid with the squeaky voice and Harry Potter glasses, the jazz prodigy from Sudbury whose feet didn’t reach the piano pedals when he began performing and recording, the autistic grade-schooler who dazzled everybody from Dave Brubeck to David Letterman with his keyboard wizardry, is growing up.Last month, Matt Savage began his second semester at Berklee College of Music. Before setting foot on campus, Savage, who’ll turn 18 this spring, had already established himself as a rising star, having recorded eight CDs, the latest titled “Hot Ticket: Live in Boston,’’ and played the “Today’’ show, Birdland, Lincoln Center, and the New Orleans Jazz Festival.Read More
February 8, 2010 The New York Times
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration will begin a drive this week to expel Pepsi, French fries and Snickers bars from the nation’s schools in hopes of reducing the number of children who get fat during their school years. In legislation, soon to be introduced, candy and sugary beverages would be banned and many schools would be required to offer more nutritious fare.Read More
February 8, 2010 Boston Globe
MEDFORD - Tufts University president Lawrence S. Bacow plans to announce today that he will step down in June 2011, after a decadelong tenure that helped transform an underrated research university into a top draw for star faculty and high-achieving students.Despite significant financial challenges that bookend Bacow’s years at Tufts, the 58-year-old environmental economist has raised millions from previously unengaged alumni to boost the university’s academic ambitions. Read More
February 6, 2010 Boston Globe
WASHINGTON - Last fall, it appeared all but certain that the White House and Democrats in Congress would succeed in overhauling the student loan business and ending government subsidies to private lenders.President Obama called the idea a “no-brainer,’’ predicting it would take billions in dollars from the profits of private lenders and give them directly to students, and many colleges were already moving to get loans directly from the federal government in anticipation of the next move by Congress.Read More
February 5, 2010 The New York Times
Room for Debate, a Times forum that describes itself as “a running commentary on the news” has taken up a subject on which The Choice has focused all week: federal education aid for low-income college students and the potential impact of the Obama administration’s proposals on higher-education costs (as well as the ability of families to pay them). Among those engaged in this particular dialogue are Sandy Baum, an economist for the College Board, who says of the Pell Grant program that the president wishes to expand: “There is no doubt that many of these students would not be in school without this assistance and many others would leave school with much more debt if this program did not support them.” Read More
February 5, 2010 Boston Globe
Several local and national Latino organizations are urging US Education Secretary Arne Duncan to withhold potentially millions of dollars in aid from Boston schools until the district complies with federal and state laws for programs that teach students who speak limited English.In a letter sent Wednesday to Duncan, the organizations said Boston has done little over the last six years to remedy its lack of services and equal educational opportunities to thousands of the students.Read More
February 4, 2010 The New York Times
As I moderated comments Tuesday on a post about President Obama’s proposal to increase Pell Grant awards, one dispatch stopped my cursor cold. It read: “This is absolutely the right direction and in keeping with my grandfather’s original vision for the program.” It was signed, “Clay Pell.”The commenter is indeed Herbert Claiborne Pell IV, though he prefers Clay, one of five grandchildren of Senator Claiborne Pell, a Democrat who served six terms in the Senate representing Rhode Island; he died last January at age 90. He was the senator who put the “Pell” in Pell Grants, a program established by a bill he sponsored in the early 1970s. Hundreds of thousands of college graduates who have collectively received hundreds of millions of dollars in scholarships under the program — to say nothing of current and future students — are in Senator Pell’s debt.Read More
February 4, 2010 Boston Globe
Although many school districts in Massachusetts have rushed to take part in a federal program that offers new funds in exchange for cooperation on educational reforms, a number of others will have to sit on the sidelines because their teacher unions opted out.The unions say participation in the program, Race to the Top, would have unfairly tied their jobs to student test scores.School districts in Brockton, Marshfield, Plymouth, Randolph, and several other communities south of Boston are among the 256 statewide that can look forward to the prospect of funding for new educational services next year. Read More
February 4, 2010 Boston Globe
BOSTON—A bill to grant undocumented students in-state tuition rates in Massachusetts “isn’t going anywhere” and is likely dead this legislative session, Gov. Deval Patrick said Wednesday.Responding to an angry e-mail on his monthly radio show on WTKK-FM, Patrick told listeners that strong resistance from residents meant that lawmakers were probably not going to tackle the bill."It isn’t going anywhere so we’re having a totally hypothetical conversation,” Patrick said. “It’s not going to move in the Legislature. It seems like we (also) couldn’t do it administratively.”Read More
February 4, 2010 Boston Globe
Boston school Superintendent Carol R. Johnson will present a proposed budget to the School Committee tonight that is expected to call for tens of millions of dollars in spending cuts, as the city continues to confront revenue woes.The cuts, which amount to $57.7 million, follow two years of intense budget reductions, leaving little, if any, low-hanging fruit for the department to trim in next year’s financial blueprint, John McDonough, the department’s chief financial officer, said in an interview before the meeting.That landscape, McDonough said, will force the superintendent and the seven-member, mayoral-appointed School Committee to confront some tough decisions in the coming weeks about how to achieve those savings. Read More
February 3, 2010 Boston Globe
BRIDGEWATER - The state Board of Higher Education cleared the way yesterday for the University of Massachusetts to open the state’s first public law school, endorsing the idea of affordable law degrees and more students choosing public-service careers.UMass, which overcame an acrimonious challenge from three private law schools and Beacon Hill detractors, wasted no time launching a recruitment drive: signs advertising the new law school were hung, a website seeking applicants went up, and 100 blue-and-gold baseball caps emblazoned with the school’s name were distributed.Read More
February 2, 2010 The New York Times
Regular readers of The Choice know that we have been tracking efforts to streamline the Fafsa (or Free Application for Federal Student Aid), a form that has proved time-consuming and confusing to college applicants in years past. As families of this year’s high school seniors set about tackling the form in earnest, Mark Kantrowitz of finaid.org, spent a week last month dutifully answering a laundry list of questions from readers on our blog. For further assistance, we direct you to the new February Resource Center on the Web site of Sallie Mae, where there are instructional videos, links and information on a coming Q&A. Our sib-blog, Bucks, has more details here.Read More
January 31, 2010 The New York Times
The Obama administration is proposing a sweeping overhaul of President Bush’s signature education law, No Child Left Behind, and will call for broad changes in how schools are judged to be succeeding or failing, as well as for the elimination of the law’s 2014 deadline for bringing every American child to academic proficiency.Educators who have been briefed by administration officials said the proposals for changes in the main law governing the federal role in public schools would eliminate or rework many of the provisions that teachers’ unions, associations of principals, school boards and other groups have found most objectionable.Read More
January 30, 2010 The New York Times
Our colleagues at The Times’s Bay Area blog report that “for the first time in its history, the University of California is expected to institute waiting lists for incoming applicants, possibly starting this spring.” In the post, Rachel Gross writes that “more than 1,000 applicants may be affected.”Waiting lists are more typically associated with private colleges seeking to round out their freshman classes. But Nina Robinson, the university’s director of student policy and external affairs, tells Ms. Gross that such a list could help the California system “make sure campuses hit their enrollment targets” at a time when “it’s getting harder to predict what will happen.”Read More
January 30, 2010 The New York Times
Next year will be the biggest year of growth yet for New York’s charter schools, with 29 due to open in New York City alone. But Seth Andrew, the founder of Democracy Prep, a successful charter middle school in Harlem, is already starting to turn his focus to another state. The political environment in New York, he fears, is shifting.Read More
January 29, 2010 The Brown Daily Herald
The University’s U.S. Latino Studies program recently received a $125,000 endowment through the Rodriguez ’83 U.S. Latino Studies Challenge, spearheaded by Carmen Rodriguez ’83 and her husband as well as other alumni donors.
The challenge, which Rodriguez suggested to Boldly Brown’s Alumni of Color Initiative, encouraged donors to contribute to a new endowment, which will support faculty and students studying Latino culture and experience in the U.S. Read More
January 29, 2010 The New York Times
Midway through his State of the Union address Wednesday night, President Obama acknowledged those listeners and viewers whose student loan debt payments are so onerous as to exceed their income.“In the United States of America,” he said, “no one should go broke because they chose to go to college.”
That line, which received bipartisan applause from the House chamber, referred in part to a plan announced by the administration on Monday. It is intended to make it easier for college graduates in low-paying jobs to work off their debt. Read More
January 29, 2010 Boston Globe
WASHINGTON - Critics say it cannot be done. A lackluster law school plagued by dismal bar exam passing rates will not be able to attract students good enough to help it gain national accreditation. Add to that a commitment to educate the underprivileged, often students with less than stellar academic records, and it becomes mission impossible.But as the University of Massachusetts contemplates undertaking this very challenge, a public law school in Washington, D.C., provides the state with a blueprint for how a school in dire straits can, with years of careful attention, vastly improve its quality while maintaining its focus on the underserved.Read More
January 28, 2010 The New York Times
Reflecting the difficult financial environment for higher education, university endowments lost an average of 18.7 percent in the last fiscal year, the worst returns since the Great Depression, according to a study of hundreds of public and private institutions. The study, by the National Association of College and University Business Officers and Commonfund, a nonprofit organization that manages university investments, also found that in the last year, many endowment managers increased the move from traditional fixed-income instruments and stocks into alternative investments like private equity, hedge funds, venture capital and private-equity real estate — all of which perforRead Moremed badly in fiscal 2009.
January 28, 2010 Boston Globe
Brockton School Superintendent Matthew Malone wrapped up a four-month “listening tour’’ last week by laying out an ambitious three-year plan to elevate the city’s schools to best-in-the-state status.Universal free preschool for 4-year-olds, an incentive system for schools that do well, and a total revamp of the budget process are among his proposals.Malone, riding high from recent state pronouncements that Brockton is the best-performing urban district on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System tests for English and math, said he also intends to upgrade student performance gaps and improve services so that more high school graduates head to college.Read More
January 27, 2010 Boston Globe
MALDEN - The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted unanimously yesterday to close a Springfield charter school, two months after a state investigation revealed widespread cheating among administrators and staff on the MCAS exams last year.“The kids and the parents are the victims,’’ Thomas Fortmann, a state board member from Lexington, said before the vote, which was held at a senior citizen center near the state’s education headquarters. The state has shut down five charter schools over the years for poor academic performance or other reasons.Read More
January 26, 2010 The New York Times
RICHMOND, Va. — Over the last few years, the tiny College of Saint Rose in Albany has seen applications increase at least 25 percent annually, minority admissions rise and its standing in the U.S. News and World Report rankings climb more than 20 rungs.Its secret? Lifting a page from the marketing playbook of credit card companies.Last fall the college sent out 30,000 bright red “Exclusive Scholar Applications” to high school seniors that promised to waive the $40 application fee, invited them to skip the dreaded essay and assured a decision in three weeks. Because the application arrived with the students’ names and other information already filled in, applying required little more than a signature.Read More
January 26, 2010 Boston Globe
PLYMOUTH - Though he’d always considered military service, Patrick Logan firmly believed a bachelor’s degree was his ticket to middle-class success. A friend enlisted in the Army after high school, Logan said, “because he felt like he didn’t have anything else to do.’’ Logan was determined to create a better choice for himself.Then the economy collapsed in 2008, just months after Logan got his degree in criminal justice from Westfield State College.Read More
January 26, 2010 The New York Times
Q.You indicated that financial aid is based on your last year’s income. I
work on a commission basis. My income last year was atypical - almost 50 percent higher than the previous two years. I expect my income to fall back to more historical levels in the future.Can I get colleges to consider my last three years of income to get a more accurate picture of my earning capacity when computing the financial aid award?Read More
January 23, 2010 The New York Times
Q.Why is the financial aid system so reliant on the CSS under the College Board? The cost per school is not insignificant for those who truly need aid. We have paid to have SAT I and II test results sent. AP tests are costly. And here we are again, having to pay the College Board, a private company, to help decide whether or not we qualify for need based aid. If we are pretty sure we won’t qualify for aid but need the loans, will we still need to fill out the CSS and pay the College Board?
A.Fewer that 250 private colleges currently require the CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE form. All public colleges and most private colleges do not use this form and instead rely on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (Fafsa). Read More
January 22, 2010 The New York Times
Q.Are there any guidelines regarding income and assets in order to generally qualify for financial aid? While I realize that the amount of aid a student receives depends on a number of factors and that there is no set income cutoff beyond which students are eligible for aid,general guidance would be helpful in planning and knowing what to expect.
A.Financial aid eligibility is based on a complicated interplay of multiple factors. There are no explicit cutoffs based on income or assets. However, 96 percent of Pell Grant recipients in 2007-8 had an adjusted gross income (AGI) of $50,000 or less. But the number of children in college can have a big impact on aid eligibility.Read More
January 22, 2010 The New York Times
ALBANY — When Gov. David A. Paterson proposed this week cutting more than $1 billion in school aid to help address the state’s financial crisis, the critics quickly pounced. Mr. Paterson’s cuts would cripple New York’s schools, they charged, hurt children and undermine the state’s economic recovery.“The governor’s proposal in essence pries open our schoolhouse doors and extracts every dollar from children’s education that Albany can put its hands on,” Billy Easton, the executive director for the Alliance for Quality Education, said in one widely quoted statement.Read More
January 21, 2010 The New York Times
What’s an acceptable amount of debt for a student to take out?A.Students should borrow only as much as they can afford to repay after they graduate. If you borrow more than $25,000 for an associate’s degree or $45,000 for a bachelor’s degree, you are probably overborrowing. Of course, a lot depends on your field of study. College graduates with degrees in computer science or nursing earn more than graduates with degrees in art or history. A good rule of thumb is to borrow no more for your entire education than your expected starting salary after you graduate. If you borrow more than this, you will be forced to use extended repayment or income-based repayment to repay your loans. If you borrow more than twice your expected starting salary, you will be at high risk of defaulting on the debt. Since cumulative debt at graduation correlates strongly with college costs, a good way of limiting your debt is to enroll at a less expensive college.Read More
January 21, 2010 The New York Times
Q.If my wife and I were to get divorced (we’re happily married) shortly before our son applied to college, could he be eligible for more student aid?A.In your case, your son would probably not qualify for more financial aid if you were to get divorced. This is not necessarily the same as the parent who has custody of the child. Instead, it is the parent with whom the child lived the most during the 12 months ending on the Fafsa application date. If the child lived equally with both parents, as would be the case in a recent divorce, the custodial parent is the parent who provided more support to the child. This is usually the parent with the greater income. Any support provided by the noncustodial parent to the child is included in total income. Read More
January 21, 2010 The New York Times
The recession hit this year’s college freshmen hard, affecting how they chose a school as well as their ability to pay for it, according to an annual nationwide survey released Thursday.Over all, students were more likely than previous freshmen to have a parent who was unemployed and less likely to have found a job that might help pay for college.About two-thirds of incoming students said they had “some” or “major” concern about their ability to pay for their education. The percentage of those with “some” concern — 55.4 — was at its highest level since 1971.Read More
January 20, 2010 The New York Times
Many fans of Disney’s “High School Musical” franchise are now old enough to apply to college, so it was probably inevitable that an admissions office would try to reach them by turning an otherwise staid group information session into a peppy music video.As if on cue, enter Yale University. Andrew Johnson, a graduate of the class of 2006 who now works in the Yale admissions office, approached the dean, Jeffrey Brenzel, with a concern that “our admissions video was getting tired” and that ” ‘the genre’ tends to look the same and say the same things at dozens of colleges,” Mr. Brenzel recalled. Mr. Johnson then proposed “that he script, score and produce with his undergraduate friends something completely different.” Mr. Brenzel said he figured the worst case result would be “a low-cost ‘nice try.’ ”Read More
January 19, 2010 The New York Times
Q.My daughter will be a college freshman this fall. I am sure she will not be eligible for any need-based financial aid. However, depending on which college she goes to and the tuition, we may want her to be responsible for some of the cost. Will she be able to get any kind of student loan, even if we don’t fill out the Fafsa?Read More
January 19, 2010 Boston Globe
Sitting on a child’s stool at the Children’s Museum, Governor Deval Patrick signed a sweeping education bill yesterday that will greatly increase the number of charter schools, grant superintendents the power to overhaul failing districts, and make the state eligible for up to $250 million in federal stimulus money.“We are standing up for children,’’ Patrick said before an upbeat gathering of educators, politicians, pupils, and parents. “We are showing those hungry minds in our classrooms that we believe in them.’’Read More
January 19, 2010 Boston Globe
University of Massachusetts president Jack Wilson’s compensation did not crack the top echelons of public university leaders’ pay packages last year. But in a financially challenging year when many of his counterparts took pay cuts to help offset tuition increases, Wilson’s pay grew by 15 percent in 2008-09, according to a survey released yesterday by the Chronicle of Higher Education.Read More
January 18, 2010 Boston Globe
When a child gets a report card besmirched with lousy grades, no caring parent would ever dream of bellowing, “You’re a dummy!’’So in a world of super-sized temptation, similar sensitivity will be warranted as every public school in Massachusetts during the next 18 months evaluates whether students weigh too much or too little. It is not, specialists pleaded, a matter of a child passing or failing the fat test.Read More
January 18 2010 Boston Globe
NEW YORK - The recession has reached the executive suites of the nation’s public universities and colleges, halting a string of large annual pay increases for school presidents.A survey released today by the Chronicle of Higher Education showed compensation packages of chief executives at public schools leveling off in 2008-2009, rising a relatively modest 2.3 percent. One in 10 saw their pay decline.Read More
January 17, 2010 The New York Times
For many high school seniors and their parents, this is the season for tackling the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, a notoriously cumbersome process that the government is attempting to streamline this year.
Q.I just submitted our Fafsa information (based on last year’s gross income) and was wondering what next steps are now that I’m unemployed. I was laid off a few months ago and not sure how to readdress this substantial decline in income. Read More
January 15, 2010 The New York Times
In late December, readers of The Choice and The Times learned that the dean of admissions at the University of Chicago, James G. Nondorf, had sent a copy of a recent applicant’s essay to thousands of other applicants, to lighten their mood as the Jan. 2 application deadline loomed. My colleague Tamar Lewin reported that the subject matter — in which the university was compared to an elusive lover — “has upset some people.”And yet, it now seems clear, the dean’s gesture hardly deterred would-be suitors. The university reported Thursday morning that it received 19,306 applications for the class of 2014, an increase of nearly 6,000, or 42 percent, compared to this year’s freshman class.Read More
January 15, 2010 Boston Globe
Governor Deval Patrick predicted last night that the Legislature’s approval of a sweeping education bill would bring to an end a chronic achievement gap between students of different socioeconomic backgrounds and would probably enhance the state’s chances of receiving $250 million in new federal stimulus money.Read More
January 14, 2010 Boston Globe
Although the Boston School Committee recently gave a favorable review to Superintendent Carol R. Johnson, the committee has decided to honor her wish to skip a pay raise and bonus because of tight finances, the School Department said yesterday.The decision marks the second year in a row that Johnson has forgone a pay increase because of bleak city finances. She also took a pay cut last year when the mayor imposed a 3 percent reduction on department heads, bringing her salary to $266,750.Read More
January 14, 2010 Boston Globe
AUSTIN, Texas - Students, parents, and lawmakers lobbied yesterday for more diversity in Texas’s social studies curriculum, before the state Board Of Education adopts new classroom standards that will determine how history is taught for the next decade.In more than six hours of public testimony, dozens of people took their chance to help shape the way millions of Texas schoolchildren learn topics from the Roman Empire to the entrepreneurial success of billionaire Bill Gates.Read More
January 13, 2010 Boston Globe
School administrators across the state are crafting bleak budgets for the next school year and warning of steep cutbacks, including teacher layoffs, to cope with a probable sharp drop in funding from Beacon Hill and dwindling federal stimulus money.Though schools grappled with thinned-down budgets last year, they got relief from a massive infusion of federal education dollars that is now all but spent, and officials are bracing for cuts that go deep into the classroom.Read More
Jan. 12, 2010 Houston Chronicle
Un estudiante la insultó, otro le robó en el aula y, encima de eso, la mayoría de sus alumnos de octavo grado estaban leyendo lecturas propias de chicos de primaria.Cheryl Contreras, una maestra de inglés con experiencia, se está esforzando mucho en su nuevo empleo en la escuela intermedia Fondren, que se encuentra en el suroeste de Houston y tiene el peor índice de rendimiento académico en el estado.Contreras era una maestra de mucho éxito, a la cual el Distrito Escolar Independiente de Houston (HISD, por sus siglas en inglés) le ofreció un bono de 20,000 dólares para que se transfiriera a la escuela Fondren por dos años. Este acuerdo es parte de un estudio nacional creado para atraer a maestros con talento a las escuelas con problemas académicos.Read More
January 12, 2010 Boston Globe
Filling out the form for federal college aid used to be regarded as the equivalent of a root canal. Thanks to some much-needed simplification, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid is a bit less grueling for online applicants this year.The FAFSA remains an essential step toward getting help paying for college. It is commonly used by colleges and states to set grant and loan amounts. Submit it as early in the year as possible.Read More
January 11, 2010 Boston Globe
Renewing a long-simmering dispute, Boston officials are accusing Northeastern University of reneging on commitments to limit its undergraduate enrollment to 15,000 and move more students out of city neighborhoods.In a letter to the Boston Redevelopment Authority Friday, Michael Ross, president of the Boston City Council, cited Northeastern figures showing that enrollment now stands at 15,585, with 7,800 of those students, or 50 percent, living in off-campus housing.Read More
January 10, 2010 Boston Globe
Stephen Balzac got his undergraduate degree the old-fashioned way at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but when his career focus shifted from software engineering to management and, eventually to psychology, he joined the tens of thousands of people who are earning advanced degrees online.“Personally, I hate sitting in lectures, so I really liked the opportunity to arrange my time as I saw fit,’’ said Balzac, who earned a master’s degree in organizational psychology from Capella University and now serves as president of 7 Steps Ahead LLC, a consulting company in Stow.Read More
January 10, 2010 Boston Globe
NOW IS the winter of high school seniors’ discontent. But then every winter is one of discontent as seniors file their college applications with a mix of dread and hope - mainly dread. Those applying to the most selective schools have the odds stacked against them no matter how sterling their high school records, though college admissions officers typically offer the cold comfort that rejection is not equivalent to failure and that, as one Yale admissions officer put it, “It matters far less which strong college admits you than it matters what you do with your opportunities once you are there.’’ To which most high school seniors would say, “Hogwash.’’Read More
January 9, 2010 Boston Globe
WASHINGTON - Eight years after President George W. Bush signed the bill that branded an era of school reform, the education world is wondering when President Obama will seek to rewrite the No Child Left Behind law.Obama officials, who for months have been on a “listening and learning’’ tour, are expected at some point to propose a framework for the successor to a law that is two years overdue for reauthorization.Read More
January 9, 2010 Boston Globe
Controversy over whether state education officials destroyed key documents about a charter school proposal in Gloucester intensified yesterday.Officials at the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education are so confident that their record-keeping practices comply with state law that they formally asked the secretary of state’s office, which oversees the state’s public records law, to review their procedures and practices.Read More
Enero 9 , 2010 El Mercurio Thomas College, una escuela de artes liberales en Maine, se publicita como la ¡Casa del Empleo Garantizado! Los estudiantes que no puedan encontrar trabajo en sus campos a los seis meses de la graduación pueden volver para seguir con clases gratuitas, o hacer que el college pague los créditos universitarios por un año.
La Universidad de Louisiana, Lafayette, está eliminando filosofía, mientras que la Universidad del Estado de Michigan está suprimiendo los estudios americanos y clásicos, después de años en que las matrículas cayeron en esas especialidades. Read More
January 8, 2010 Boston Globe
Superintendents would gain broad new powers to make dramatic changes at the state’s worst schools, including the removal of ineffective teachers, under the education bill approved by the House early yesterday.The bill, which must now be reconciled with a version approved by the Senate late last year, would also give Boston the right to open and control four charter schools without union approval.Read More
January 7, 2010 Boston Globe
As an American student at Babson College, I was flabbergasted by Kara Miller’s opinion piece, “My Lazy American Students,’’ published Dec. 21 on the Boston Globe’s op-ed page.Initially I responded with anger as I viewed the article as a personal insult, and an undoubted detriment to Babson’s reputation. With time, I recognized this article to be an opportunity to share my experience as an American student at Babson and, ultimately, to research the assertions made regarding the differences between international and American students in an academic setting.Read More
Jan. 7, 2010 Houston Chronicle
El presidente Barack Obama anunció el miércoles una iniciativa de entrenamiento a maestros de matemáticas y ciencias a un costo de 250 millones de dólares para ayudar a los escolares a ubicarse al más alto nivel en esas materias.Obama también entregó premios de excelencia en enseñanza y en asesoramiento a más de 100 educadores, y broméo con ellos sobre darles más trabajo."Creo tanto en la labor que ustedes realizan”, destacó Obama en una ceremonia en la Casa Blanca."Y como les mencioné a algunos de ustedes, ya que tengo dos niñas en el piso de arriba que pronto presentarán exámenes de matemáticas, creo que nunca está demás que reciban un poco de ayuda adicional del mejor nivel”.Read More
January 7, 2010 Boston Globe
The state House of Representatives passed a sweeping education bill just after midnight that aims to overhaul the state’s worst schools and expand charter schools, capping off a marathon session that began early yesterday afternoon.The approval came swiftly in a roll call vote, after members plowed through about 150 amendments to the bill. The vote was 119 to 35.Read More
January 6, 2010 Boston Globe
State education officials have either destroyed or refused to turn over key documents related to the evaluation of a controversial charter school proposal in Gloucester, in violation of the state public records law, according to a report released yesterday by the state inspector general’s office.The report provides further ammunition to critics who have questioned the legitimacy of the review process and could complicate an already politically charged charter school debate scheduled to begin on Beacon Hill today as part of a sweeping education bill.Read More
January 5, 2010 The New York Times
I wanted to make sure that those of you catching up on your newspaper reading after the holidays saw an article by my colleague Winnie Hu on the proliferation of high school honor societies. As you’ll see below, we’re hoping this article will jump-start a comment thread on the issue on The Choice.The article, which appeared on the front page of The Times on Friday, is set at Commack High School on Long Island, where Ms. Hu reports “there have been so many honor societies created” that “some students ended up in six or seven of them.” She adds that nearly a third of the 1,200 juniors and seniors at the school belong to honor societies, with the average student claiming membership in three. This has prompted a sharp reaction.Read More
January 4, 2010 Boston Globe
WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama is recognizing teachers from across the country for excellence in math and science.The White House says Obama more than 80 teachers are expected to attend Wednesday’s event, where the president will announce new partnerships to help achieve his goal of moving U.S. students to the top of the pack in science and math achievement over the next deRead Morecade.
January 4, 2010 Boston Globe
WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama is recognizing teachers from across the country for excellence in math and science.The White House says Obama more than 80 teachers are expected to attend Wednesday’s event, where the president will announce new partnerships to help achieve his goal of moving U.S. students to the top of the pack in science and math achievement over the next deRead Morecade.
