Big Education Ape

Friday, January 29, 2010

Online Learning Gets High Praise From Bill Gates - US News and World Report

Online Learning Gets High Praise From Bill Gates - US News and World Report:

"In hiss 2010 annual letter, recently posted to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation website, Bill Gates makes a pretty strong case for incorporating different elements of the Internet—specifically, online video and interactive lessons—into both K-12 and higher education. 'A lot of people, including me, think this is the next place where the Internet will surprise people in how it can improve things,' he writes.

It is a fact that 'online learning,' 'educational technology,' and 'distance education' are buzzwords that are practically ubiquitous among today's teachers, education gurus, and even high-profile business executives. The buzz right now centers on the learning implications of Apple's new iPad tablet; last summer, former General Electric CEO Jack Welch made headlines when it was announced that he would be launching an M.B.A. program, the Jack Welch Management Institute, with classes being offered almost entirely online. 'Online education is going nowhere but up. It's for real,' he told BusinessWeek magazine. Using data collected from degree-granting online learning programs nationwide, U.S. News has found that the number of such programs increased by 75 percent between 2001 and 2008."

DISD's Hinojosa vows to fight transfers at 4 struggling high schools | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Latest News

DISD's Hinojosa vows to fight transfers at 4 struggling high schools | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News| Latest News

With four chronically failing high schools under threat of closure in Dallas, Superintendent Michael Hinojosa says he's prepared to go to court to block the state from forcing students to leave their schools.

I know a lot of good lawyers," Hinojosa told parents gathered this week at Seagoville High School, one of the four struggling schools. If the state requires at least 50 percent of students to transfer – a solution available under the law – "I'm gonna fight them on that," Hinojosa said. "We'll do what we gotta do."

Hinojosa's stance comes as pressure mounts over the fate of Seagoville, Kimball, Pinkston and Roosevelt high schools, all of which have repeatedly been labeled "academically unacceptable" by the state and face closure if they don't meet state standards this year.

A plan is due to the Texas Education Agency next month, outlining how the district plans to turn around the four high schools.

Community meetings across the district have revealed intense loyalty among parents who want their children to stay at the schools, whatever the problems.

Thursday, the Dallas Independent School District Board of Trustees unanimously approved a plan that involves creating magnet programs within each of the four schools, in hopes of drawing students who could help boost test scores and graduation rates.

The plan would place a magnet in science, math and engineering at Kimball; a law magnet at Pinkston; an education magnet at Seagoville; and a health and science magnet at Roosevelt.

Tom Luna proposes raid on reserves for Idaho schools | Local News | Idaho Statesman

Tom Luna proposes raid on reserves for Idaho schools | Local News | Idaho Statesman:

"State schools chief Tom Luna's plan to spare deep education cuts next year by tapping funds at the Land Board and in his own office feels like a 'Hail Mary,' said Rep. Maxine Bell, who co-chairs the powerful budget committee.

He tried, she said. But she expects 'he will be somewhat disappointed with the outcome.'

Luna said his plan was realistic.

'I can't imagine managing or building or forecasting how we are going to keep student achievementmoving forward on a 'Hail Mary,'' Luna said.

Luna proposed $83 million in new money and cuts Thursday to help close a $135 million gap between his plan for education spending and Gov. Butch Otter's proposal to"

Parents weigh in on Fayette County school redistricting - Local - Kentucky.com

Parents raised questions about the Fayette County Public Schools' new redistricting proposal Thursday night, but there was little in the way of heavy criticism.

Some parents said during a forum at Picadome Elementary School that proposed new attendance zones would continue to leave their children facing long bus rides in heavy traffic.

Superintendent Stu Silberman replied that the district would consider the points raised, but that some people probably will be disappointed in the end.

"There is no way to please everybody in this situation," he said. "We wish we could."

Thursday night's forum was the first chance for parents to directly comment on the redistricting proposal, which wouldn't take effect until the 2011-12 school year. It is intended to reduce overcrowding at several schools.

On the south side of Lexington, the district plans to build a new elementary school on Keithshire Way. That will mean changing existing attendance zones for nearby Picadome, as well as Stonewall and Garden Springs schools.

N.J. voters deny 7 of 9 school-construction questions | Philadelphia Inquirer | 01/28/2010

N.J. voters deny 7 of 9 school-construction questions | Philadelphia Inquirer | 01/28/2010:

"Voters in seven of nine school-district referendums around the state said no to new taxes Tuesday, rejecting 12 school construction and renovation proposals.

Among those defeated was a $34.7 million proposal in Pennsauken to replace 85-year-old Central Elementary School, closed because of mold and air-quality problems and leaks, with an energy-efficient facility for 600 students.

The plan also would have closed Longfellow Elementary, which district officials say is obsolete and will require substantial repairs in coming years.

It was the second time Pennsauken voters rejected the proposal, which was eligible for $2.4 million in state aid.

Superintendent James Chapman said district officials believed the project would have been good for the community and the students, but 'we understand these are difficult times.'"

San Francisco school truancy program gets grant

San Francisco school truancy program gets grant:

"A day after San Francisco school officials outlined a desperate plan to cut costs that included boosting class sizes and cutting summer school, city leaders on Wednesday countered with an announcement of new federal funds to help chronically truant students get back on track."

The news was some relief for a school system facing a $113 million budget shortfall over two years and the elimination of programs aimed at helping struggling students.

The federal two-year, $238,000 grant might sound like a drop in the bucket by comparison, but it will give 30 more chronically truant high school students at a time the chance to catch up in academic credits through the Center of Academic Re-entry and Empowerment housed in the Bayview Hunters Point YMCA. Enrollment is currently limited to about 23 students.
The 2-year-old program has served 124 formerly truant teens - some of whom hadn't seen the inside of a school for more than a year. So far, 68 percent have finished the nine-week program and re-enrolled in a city high school. Six students have graduated.

The U.S. Department of Children, Youth and Families pays the $250,000 annual costs.

AP Exclusive: States struggle to keep top teachers | National news | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

AP Exclusive: States struggle to keep top teachers | National news | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle:

"ATLANTA — Most states are holding tight to policies that protect incompetent teachers and poor training programs, shortchanging educators and their students before new teachers even step into the classroom, according to a new national report card.

The study from the National Council on Teacher Quality — which will be released Friday — paints a grim picture of how states handle everything from pay to discipline for public school teachers. States are using 'broken, outdated and inflexible' policies that ultimately hurt how children learn, according to the report.

In fact, even the top scoring state, Florida, received a C, with most states getting Ds or Fs. A handful of states — including Georgia, Texas and Louisiana — got a C-minus.
'We think it's really a blueprint for reform,' council vice president Sandi Jacobs said about the report, called the State Policy Teacher Yearbook. 'Each goal is something we think states could and should be doing to reform teacher quality.'

The National Council on Teacher Quality is a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that focuses on teacher policies at the federal, state and local level."

School system in Va. won't teach version of Anne Frank book - washingtonpost.com

School system in Va. won't teach version of Anne Frank book - washingtonpost.com:

"Culpeper County public school officials have decided to stop assigning a version of Anne Frank's diary, one of the most enduring symbols of the atrocities of the Nazi regime, after a parent complained that the book includes sexually explicit material and homosexual themes.

'The Diary of a Young Girl: the Definitive Edition,' which was published on the 50th anniversary of Frank's death in a concentration camp, will not be used in the future, said James Allen, director of instruction for the 7,600-student system. The school system did not follow its own policy for handling complaints about instructional materials, Allen said."

The Educated Guess � Obama: Cut banks out of college loans

Toddlers of America are counting on U.S. senators to take a cue from the president – and the rest of pissed-off America — and stick it to bankers. They’re hoping that Congress restructures the federal college student loan program.
Here’s why: President Obama has asked Congress to end the Federal Family Education Loan program, in which the government has subsidized banks’ loans to college students. Instead, Obama wants the U.S. Treasury to issue the loans directly.
The federal government has been underwriting loans for 45 years in order to encourage banks to make loans they’d consider risky. But the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the federal government could save $87 billion over a decade if it took over the program. Other experts say that’s too high while acknowledging there would be some savings.
Last September, the House pass the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act along party lines. But, not surprisingly, banks and the student loan industry have lobbied mightily against the change, and the bill has been stalled in the Senate.

Teachers fume over Mayor Bloomberg's push to chop pay hikes and cut staffs

Teachers feel pitted against their students and parents after the mayor announced Thursday they could get lower raises or face staff cuts.

"He puts us on the chopping block and then we look bad to parents if we fight," said Tricia Gomes, a teacher at Public School 178 in Queens. "They should tighten Tweed's belts. Why tighten the middle-class' belts?"

The mayor wants to give educators a 2% raise this year on their first $70,000 of salary, instead of the 4% hike he'd scheduled. Otherwise, he said, he'd cut 2,500 teachers.

Union groups were outraged.

"This is a false choice, we're at the beginning of a budget process," said teachers union boss Michael Mulgrew.

Peter McNally of the principals union accused the mayor of "trying to negotiate our contract at a press conference."

Possible New York Teacher Layoffs Would Have Big Impact - NYTimes.com

For more than three decades, New York City schools have soldiered on through turmoil, politics, recessions, budget crises and a changing cast of mayors and chancellors. But since 1976, the system has never carried out significant layoffs of teachers.
That may soon change. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has said that if the city does not wring pay concessions from the teachers’ union and all of Gov. David A. Paterson’s proposed budget cuts are approved — a worst case — the city may have to get rid of 11,000 of its 79,000 teachers. Last year, about 3,800 were lost through attrition, mostly retirement, so if similar numbers are recorded this year, several thousand could receive pink slips.
Layoffs would hurt schools by increasing class sizes, which have already been inching up. They would also upset parents and students. And they would force the schools chancellor,Joel I. Klein, to retreat from some of his fundamental strategies, including giving principals the prerogative to hire any candidate they wish.

Rush to create charter high schools in New York City is recipe for cash scams

Hours after rebuffing parents and voting to shut 19 public schools, education officials announced plans to end most programs at Alfred E. Smith High in the Bronx and replace them with a charter school.

That charter school, however, has its own troubled history.

It's called the New York City Charter High School for Architecture, Engineering and Construction Industries (AECI), and it has been in operation fewer than two years.

Last June, a Manhattan federal grand jury charged its founder and chairman, Richard Izquierdo Arroyo, with stealing more than $200,000 from a nonprofit South Bronx housing organization.

Prosecutors say Izquierdo spent the money on designer clothes, fancy restaurants and trips to the Caribbean for his grandmother, state Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo, and his aunt, City Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo.

Another board member of the school, Margarita Villegas, an employee of the housing group, was indicted with Izquierdo. Both have pleaded not guilty. They immediately resigned from AECI's board and from the board of the South Bronx Charter School, where Izquierdo was chairman.

Virtually all the teachers who began at AECI when it opened its doors in September 2008 resigned within the first year.

This month, 17 of the 19 new staff members at the school filed a state labor petition to have the United Federation of Teachersrepresent them.

State Education Department eyes closure of Newtown High School

More Queens high schools are facing the axe - this time, wielded by the state.

But, students, alumni and community members vowed on Wednesday to fight the possible closure of Newtown High School in Elmhurst - one of 10 Queens high schools the state Education Department has deemed "persistently lowest achieving."

"This is not a done deal," vowed state Sen. Hiram Monserrate (D-East Elmhurst), who rallied the crowd at an impassioned meeting in the 113-year-old school's auditorium.

Those on the state's hit list of 34 schools citywide have four options: They can be turned around by replacing the principal and half of the staff; transformed by rewarding staff who boost student achievement; become charter schools or simply shut down.

"We identified those schools whose performance in English, language arts and mathematics were the lowest in the state and failed to show progress or schools who have had graduation rates below 60%," said Ira Schwartz, the state Education Department's assistant commissioner for accountability.

City school kids are drinking more of the healthier milk variety and cutting down on calories and fat intake - NYPOST.com

City school kids are drinking more of the healthier milk variety and cutting down on calories and fat intake - NYPOST.com:

"Don't cry over skimmed milk.

City public-school students were spared 4.6 billion calories and 422 grams of fat last year by the replacement of whole milk with lower-fat options on school lunch menus, a new study has found.

This means that kids were offered 25 percent fewer calories and 81 percent less fat through school milk in 2009 compared with 2004, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The study also put to rest fears that kids would simply drink less milk if they lacked the yummier whole-milk option.

Milk consumption per student rose 1.3 percent in the period."

Experts Say a Rewrite of Nation’s Main Education Law Will Be Hard This Year - News Analysis - NYTimes.com

Experts Say a Rewrite of Nation’s Main Education Law Will Be Hard This Year - News Analysis - NYTimes.com:

"In his State of the Union address, President Obama held out the hope of overhauling the main law outlining the federal role in public schools, a sprawling 45-year-old statute that dates to the Johnson administration."

But experts say it would be a heavy lift for the administration to get the job done this year because the law has produced so much discord, there is so little time and there are so many competing priorities.
In 2001, when Congress completed the law’s most recent rewrite, the effort took a full year, and the bipartisan consensus that made that possible has long since shattered. Today there is wide agreement that the law needs an overhaul, but not on how to fix its flaws.
Since it was recast into its current form by the second Bush administration — and renamed No Child Left Behind — it has generated frequent, divisive debate, partly because it requires schools to administer far more standardized tests and because it labels schools that fail to make progress fast enough each year as “needing improvement.” That category that draws penalties and has grown to include more than 30,000 schools.

Haiti Takes the Measure of the Task of Rebuilding - NYTimes.com

Haiti Takes the Measure of the Task of Rebuilding - NYTimes.com:

"PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — More than two weeks after the earthquake that devastated much of this country’s southern half, the capital remains a city of teetering walls, dangling electrical wires and precariously balanced heaps of jagged cinder block and wrought iron, all rattled daily by aftershocks."

Bulldozers and excavators are few and far between. Even as tent cities here swell, aid groups say an estimated 10 percent of the city’s residents (a number that may be vastly understated) are camping in yards and streets next to their homes, marking off what they hope is a safe distance in case the structures fall in the next aftershock. Others trek by daily to see if their houses are still standing and wonder if they will ever be able to move back in.
“It’s dangerous, but what can we do?” Orpha Brinach, 38, said after a night on a mattress in a narrow street lined by damaged homes. “We can’t go to the tent cities because robbers will steal everything we have.”

Oakland School Budget Cuts Pit Primary Vs. Adult Education. Category: News from The Berkeley Daily Planet - Thursday January 28, 2010

Rigoberto Alvarado says he’s living the American Dream. He came to the United States with very little money and no knowledge of English and worked his way up to a manager position at Oakland’s Waterfront Hotel.

Alvarado says he owes his ascent to Oakland’s adult education program. However, due to budget cuts, the next immigrant seeking to obtain job skills might not be so fortunate.

The Governing Board of the Oakland Unified School District was expected to approve a $4.5 million cut to the funding of adult education in their annual budget at Wednesday night’s regular meeting. The cuts are part of an effort to absorb a $27 million shortfall in this year’s budget without significantly impacting primary education. While adult education might be the only educational program that faces dramatic cuts this year, the impact could be detrimental for a large segment of the city’s population.

“Nobody gets involved in education to make cuts,” said Superintendent Tony Smith as he presented his budget recommendations at the school board’s Dec. 16 meeting. “Our primary goal is to protect K–12 education.”

The cuts are the most recent in a series of hits to Oakland’s adult education program that will see its budget reduced by 50 percent since the 2008–09 school year.

Obama Gets Rare Praise From GOP On Education Policy

Obama Gets Rare Praise From GOP On Education Policy:

"WASHINGTON, D.C. (Jan. 28) -- For all of the partisan rancor surrounding President Barack Obama's State of the Union address, there was one domestic area where the president could claim legitimate bipartisan achievement: education.

During his first year in office, Obama has drawn praise from conservatives like former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush for his approach to improving the nation's schools. The administration's centerpiece initiative, a program called Race to the Top, has been lauded by some reform activists for injecting competition into the federal grant process. It also has been credited with nudging states to adopt higher standards and more accountability for schools.
Read the whole story: AOL News"

'Too White' Berkeley Science Labs May Be Cut - HUMAN EVENTS

'Too White' Berkeley Science Labs May Be Cut - HUMAN EVENTS:

"The Berkeley (CA) Board of Education will consider, at its February 3 meeting, whether or not to cancel before and after school Science Labs for Advanced Placement Science classes at Berkeley High School because the classes are attended largely by white students. The proposal is aimed at addressing 'Berkeley's dismal racial achievement gap'

According to published reports, the proposal to cancel the science labs and re-allocate the money for five teaching positions to an unspecified program of 'equity grants' to help struggling 'minority' students comes from Berkeley High School Principal Jim Slemp and the school's Governance Council."

Supermajority's not-so-golden rule - Sherry Bebitch Jeffe - POLITICO.com

Supermajority's not-so-golden rule - Sherry Bebitch Jeffe - POLITICO.com:

"Congratulations, Sen.-elect Scott Brown. Welcome to Sacramento on the Potomac.

Californians have lived through years of government gridlocked by rules that require a supermajority to pass bills in a Legislature ripped by partisanship.

Washington could now mirror the Golden State’s breathtaking dysfunction.

Look what California’s supermajority rules, coupled with ideological rigidity, have led to. Last year’s state budget had to cut roughly 30 percent of the General Fund, slashing health, welfare, education, transit and more. California’s once-unparalleled system of “free” higher education had to hike student fees (32 percent at the University of California) and force faculty layoffs. The state’s celebrated roadways are ranked second-worst in the nation. Its credit rating tanked."

How legislative 'reforms' undermined Sacramento

How legislative 'reforms' undermined Sacramento:

"Sacramento suffers from a disease called hardening of the categories. What are the causes and effects of the gridlock affecting the California Legislature and what can be done about it? Start with just one effect: a 30,000 percent increase in some education fees at the University of California. In the 1950s and 1960s, fees (no tuition) averaged about $100 per year for all programs; room and board ran about $125 per month. Fifty years later, undergraduate tuition is now $10,000 and some graduate programs total $30,000-plus per year - a 10,000 percent and 30,000 percent increase, respectively, dictated by the state.

This is a parent tax, a massive, progressive tax on middle-class parents whose students do not qualify for university aid. Don't blame the regents; the tax is really imposed by the Legislature."

An Act of Democracy for the State - The Daily Californian

An Act of Democracy for the State - The Daily Californian:

"The California Democracy Act, a non-partisan constitutional amendment authored by UC Berkeley Professor George Lakoff, consists in its entirety of a mere 14 words:

'All legislative actions on revenue and budget must be determined by a majority vote.'

California is one of the only states in the nation to constitutionally give a 34 percent minority of its state representatives direct control over all such legislation-thereby ensuring the budget and revenue gridlock we are experiencing.

California is in the middle of an unprecedented economic crisis requiring fundamental new approaches for resolution. Creativity is essential as we are currently unable to implement more obvious solutions to resolving the crisis. For example, we are also one of the only significant oil producing states that fails to charge oil companies an extraction tax on the oil they pump-even Governor Sarah Palin prided herself on taxing Alaska's oil profiteers."

Bob Samuels: How America's Universities Became Hedge Funds

Bob Samuels: How America's Universities Became Hedge Funds:

"In August 2009, just one month after the state of California cut over a billion dollars from its higher education budget, the University of California (UC) turned around and lent the state $200 million. When journalists asked the UC president, Mark Yudof, how the university could lend millions of dollars to the state, while the school was raising student fees (tuition), furloughing employees, canceling classes, and laying off teachers, Yudof responded that when the university lends money to the state, it turns a profit, but when it spends money on salaries for teachers, the money is lost."

Race to the Top: Unions Asked to Play Ball for Education Dollars | Labor Notes

Race to the Top: Unions Asked to Play Ball for Education Dollars | Labor Notes:

"With all eyes on Obama’s fraught health care push, his plans to overhaul public education have sped along with relative ease. The first leg of the federal 'Race to the Top' competition finished January 19 when 40 states sent applications for a piece of the $4.35 billion in stimulus funds.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan stands ready to dole the cash out to states that most closely model his prescriptions: seeding new charter schools, opening up to alternative certification programs like Teach for America, tying teacher evaluations more closely to student test scores, and instituting merit pay provisions. States and local districts also score points in Duncan’s book by outlining plans to close or hand over schools with low test-score performance to charter operators—forcing entire teaching staffs to re-apply for their jobs in the process.

The contest, says Obama, puts education funding “in competition,” and will award 15 states in April. Round two of the contest will begin in June."

Study Shows Public Funding Contributes to Family Success - PR.com

Chatsworth, CA, January 29, 2010 --(PR.com)-- A new study released by the Child Care Resource Center (CCRC) examines the vital importance of child care subsidies for families and their communities. The report, funded by the California Department of Education, illustrates that publicly funded programs allow lower income parents to work and contribute to the economic stability of their family and community while fostering important child outcomes such as school readiness.

This supports President Obama's proposal to nearly double the child care tax credit for families earning less than $85,000 - a proposal that would lower taxes families owe to the government. This is good news for California's working families who often struggle to afford safe housing, quality child care and nutritious meals.

The quasi-experimental study was conducted by examining two groups - those waiting to receive help paying for child care and those already receiving financial assistance. Sample group participants represent families in Northern Los Angeles County and the study results indicate statistically significant differences between the two groups. Dr. Susan Savage, Director of Research for the Child Care Resource Center, says, "Positive impacts are seen in economic and social stability, as well as child development outcomes. This confirms what we have always believed - subsidized child care programs provide opportunities for families that would not otherwise have been possible."

Although still low income, having their child care paid for allows families to find and retain employment, be the

www.sfgate.com Fixing our failing schools

Fixing our failing schools:

"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently signed legislation to make California eligible for President Obama's 'Race to the Top' funding. The president's plan rewards states that have 'innovative' educational programs with funding for schools."

California's bill places parents in the driver's seat in terms of where their child attends school, focuses on the creation of charter schools and gives parents greater say in the hiring and retention of school staff.
Herein lies one of the principal reasons why California's educational programs have gone from No. 1 in the nation to 48th in the past four decades. Those who are the furthest removed from the classroom are the ones who create laws that impact our children's learning. Think tanks, special interest groups and politicians are the ones who have created one failed program after another over the past 40 years.
"Scientific research" and "education experts" have served to justify the "new math" of the 1960s, the "relevant education" of the 1970s, the "whole language" approach to reading of the 1980s, and the experiments with "higher learning expectations for children," charter schools, "high stakes testing," and small schools since the 1990s.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/28/ED4C1BP3TJ.DTL#ixzz0e0TofrUy

Gov. Schwarzenegger plugs Abel Maldonado on brink of his California lieutenant governor confirmation - San Jose Mercury News

Gov. Schwarzenegger plugs Abel Maldonado on brink of his California lieutenant governor confirmation - San Jose Mercury News:

"SAN JOSE — State Sen. Abel Maldonado, who is bidding to become California's lieutenant governor, got another blessing from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday at a gathering of top Silicon Valley business leaders.

'I love this guy,' said the governor, casting his fellow Republican as a pragmatic, middle-of-the-road lawmaker who can help steer the state through its financial straits. 'He is a great, great leader... He only works for what's best for the people of California, not for his party.'"

Poll: Should California's inmates be shipped to Mexico? | inmates, prisons, mexico - News - The Orange County Register

The state's prison officials are mulling over the idea of possibly shipping some inmates to Mexico after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger suggested the idea earlier this week.

"We can do so much better, in the prison system alone, if we can go and take inmates – for instance, the 20,000 inmates that are illegal immigrants that are here – and get them to Mexico," Schwarzenegger said,according to the Sacramento Bee.

"We pay them to build a prison down in Mexico and then we have those undocumented immigrants be down there in the prison," he added. "Half the cost to build the prisons and half the cost to run the prisons. That is money, again, a billion dollars right there that can go into higher education. That is an example of one of the things we do that is unnecessary spending."

Just to be clear, there are no such plans in the works now, state prison officials said.

However, the governor had said the state could save money by working with the Mexican government to create and operate prisons for some California inmates.

Study accuses California's higher education systems of poor coordination | L.A. NOW | Los Angeles Times

Study accuses California's higher education systems of poor coordination | L.A. NOW | Los Angeles Times:

"California’s three systems of public higher education need to coordinate better, eliminate duplicate programs and make it easier for students to transfer from community colleges to Cal State or University of California campuses, according to a report released today by the state Legislative Analyst's Office.

The study suggested more statewide oversight to ensure that UC, Cal State and community colleges don’t take steps that harm the other systems. For example, the report says that Cal State’s recent move to cancel spring admissions is causing a backlog of students needlessly staying at community colleges and that the upcoming UC changes in admissions standards may cut into Cal State’s enrollment."

Inventors Digest - The Invention Magazine for Idea People

2010 Hydrogen Student Design Contest

There’s still time to register for the 2010 Hydrogen Student Design contest.

Organized by the theHydrogen Education Foundation, this year’s Contest challenges university-level students to plan and design the basic elements of a hydrogen community in Santa Monica, CA. Students will design the major components of one scalable hydrogen fueling station, identify renewable hydrogen sources in the community, and identify customers for early market hydrogen applications.
Grand Prize
This year, the Grand Prize winning team will be invited to present its design in a general session of the National Hydrogen Association’s Hydrogen Conference and Expo in Long Beach, California (May 3-6, 2010) and in a session of the World Hydrogen Energy Conference in Essen, Germany (May 17-18, 2010). A stipend of up to $12,500 will be provided for travel to both events.
Register/More Information

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