Thursday, March 18, 2010

Time for Teacher: Voluntary common state standards: An oxymoron? - The Advocate Weekly Online

Time for Teacher: Voluntary common state standards: An oxymoron?

By JUDITH FAIRWEATHER

Posted: 03/17/2010 01:18:02 PM EDT

While flipping through the Berkshire Eagle last week, I came across an Associated Press story about a project titled the Common Core State Standards Initiative. I was baffled. Common state standards? What could this be all about?

The story explained that the initiative is state-led and is being coordinated by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers. Currently, 48 states, two territories and the District of Columbia have joined the process, with Texas and Alaska refusing to participate. The idea is to create a common set of standards, initially just for English language arts and mathematics, that "seek to provide a clear and consistent framework to prepare our children for college and the workforce," according to corestandards.org, the initiative's Web site.

The project involved the creation of college- and career-readiness standards for English language arts and mathematics, which were released for public comment in September 2009.

Now the draft of the K-12 Common Core State Standards based on those readiness standards has been released. The public is invited to comment on them through Friday, April 2. (Visit the Web site to post a comment.)

I briefly viewed the document, but there was so much material it was impossible for me to figure it all out in the short time frame I had before my column deadline. What I did confirm, by visiting the mass.gov Web site, is

that Massachusetts is on board with the idea, although the state has not committed to adopting the final version of these new common standards.

As you may or may not know, Massachusetts already has its own set of standards, called the Massachusetts

Viewpoints: Don't let feds control local education - Sacramento Opinion - Sacramento Editorial | Sacramento Bee

Viewpoints: Don't let feds control local education

By Ben Boychuk
Special to The Bee

Published: Thursday, Mar. 18, 2010 - 12:00 am | Page 17A

A standardized national curriculum wouldn't make California's kids smarter or well equipped to compete in the global economy, or even better citizens. But a national, one-size-fits-all curriculum would be highly political, beset by special interest lobbying, and almost certainly diluted by teachers unions and education bureaucrats unaccountable to parents and voters.

Yet President Barack Obama, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, 48 governors – including Arnold Schwarzenegger – and a host of education "reform" groups are rushing headlong to embrace the Common Core State Standards Initiative. The coalition of state governors and state school superintendents last week released its draft reading and math standards for kindergarten through 12th grade.

The standards are billed as "voluntary," but that's a joke. The Obama administration has already announced plans to make $14 billion in federal Title I funds and another $15 billion in future Race to the Top grants contingent on states adopting the national standards. In short, the standards would be as "voluntary" as reporting personal income to theIRS, regulating the drinking age or

Husky Men's Basketball Blog | Report: UW low among tourney teams in graduation rates | Seattle Times Newspaper

Report: UW low among tourney teams in graduation rates

Posted by Percy Allen

According to a study released Monday, Washington ranks near the bottom of the teams in the NCAA tournament when it comes to graduation rates.

The annual report by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida ranked the schools in order and the five lowest graduation rates were Maryland (8 percent), California (20 percent),Washington (29 percent), Arkansas Pine Bluff (29 percent) and Tennessee (30 percent).

NCAA statistics were used in the study. The report measures six-year graduation rates for the freshman classes that entered college from the 1999-2000 through 2002-03 school years.

Marquette, UW's first-round opponent Thursday, was one of six schools with 100 percent graduation rates. The others were BYU, Notre Dame, Utah State, Wake Forest and Wofford.

Valley Star - Cash For College Still Available

Although the deadline for priority applications for financial aid passed March 2, financial aid is still available. Students can still receive financial help for school through state, federal, and college grants and scholarships but deadlines are quickly approaching.

The Los Angeles Valley College Foundation, the charitable non-profit organization of Valley since 1971 and that is considered one of the strongest foundations in the Los Angeles Community College District, is offering more than $120,000 through various scholarships that students can apply to if meet criteria. The deadline for most scholarships is Friday, March 19. There are scholarships based on a student’s major, military service, membership to clubs and organizations, jobs, volunteer work, and ethnicity, as well as general scholarships. Students can apply to more than one scholarship and can be awarded between $250-$1000. The LAVC Foundation office is located in the Adminstration Building, Room 100.

Students also can still complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid to be considered for federal and state grants and loans.

California residents enrolled in at least one unit are automatically considered for the Board of Governors Fee Waiver Program when they complete the FAFSA. This program, offered by the California Community Colleges, waives enrollment fees for students who qualify. If fees have been already been paid, applicants have until the end of the school year to request a refund at the Business Office.

By completing the FAFSA, students can also qualify for the Federal Pell Grant, Federal Supplemental Education

Lobbyists Are in High Gear as Final Outline of Student-Loan Bill Takes Shape - Government - The Chronicle of Higher Education

Lobbyists Are in High Gear as Final Outline of Student-Loan Bill Takes Shape

By Paul Basken and Libby Nelson

Washington

Congressional Democrats, amid negotiations overshadowed by the nation's prolonged health-care debate, appear to have reached agreement on student-loan legislation championed by President Obama that would pump billions of dollars into higher-education programs.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan and the chairmen of the two education committees in Congress, Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa and Rep. George Miller of California, have made plans to publicly outline the agreement on Thursday, aides said Wednesday.

Their announcement would cap one final week in which college lobbying groups that support the measure have been urging their members to phone wavering lawmakers, and loan companies opposed to the bill have kept reminding the lawmakers of alternatives that the companies contend would save jobs and preserve competition in the system.

Democrats have been working for the past year to pass the measure, which would end the bank-based system of distributing federally subsidized student loans and channel the savings into Pell Grants and other education priorities.

The House of Representatives passed its version of the bill last September, but the initiative has been held up in the Senate by the recognition that it could win approval only under special rules for "budget reconciliation" measures. Under that process, a measure that reduces total federal spending can pass the Senate with a simple majority of 51 votes rather than the 60 votes needed

Community college students miss out on grants

Jill Tucker, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, March 18, 2010

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Suzuki, Lea / The Chronicle

Students pour out of classes at City College of San Francisco, above. Many California community college students eligible for Pell Grants don't apply for them.

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MORE EDUCATION

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California community college students are leaving up to $500 million in federal financial aid on the table, money that could help cover books, transportation, fees, food and housing at a time when the cost of education is going up dramatically, according to a report released Wednesday.
The students just haven't applied for it.
Given the increased costs placed on California college students because of state budget cuts and a corresponding drop in funding for financial aid, it's frustrating that there's a big pile of untapped cash, said officials from the nonprofit Institute for College Access and Success in Berkeley.
"These are grants that enable students to take more classes, to become full-time students," said the institute's program director, Debbie Cochrane. "We're talking about students who ... don't really understand the ins and outs of entering the college bureaucracy."

BeyondChron: San Francisco's Alternative Online Daily News � School Beat: SFUSD’s New Student Assignment Plan and New Budget Realities

School Beat: SFUSD’s New Student Assignment Plan and New Budget Realities
by Lisa Schiff‚ Mar. 18‚ 2010
Review it on NewsTrust

After more years and community advisory committees than anyone would like to remember, San Francisco finally has anew policy for how students are assigned to its public schools. Last week the Board of Education (BOE) of the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD)unanimously adopted the new strategy. Designed to support a set of ten important but challenging goals from increasing diversity, to expanding access to academic opportunities, to being simple, transparent, predictable and supporting choice, only time will tell how well the plan will encourage progress towards meeting these aims.

Some aspects of the new plan are very similar to the old plan. At all levels – elementary, middle and high school – families will have an opportunity to submit a list of schools ordered by preference; at the high school level, this will be required. The choice option also brings along with it a lottery process, given that at many schools there will continue to be greater demand than capacity. Finally, there will continue to be a set of schools and programs considered “city-wide,” (newcomer, language immersion, K-8, Lowell, and School of the Arts/SOTA), meaning that assignment to those schools or programs will have no attendance area preference and in the case of Lowell and SOTA, will continue to require a separate application.

That is where the similarities end. The differences are many. Most significantly are the introduction of and greater reliance on new attendance areas, a drastic simplification of the socio-economic criteria used in lottery process and the assignment of students requiring special education services within the Individual Education Plan (IEP) process.

New attendance areas will be drawn that associate families with a particular

AllGov - News - Office of Postsecondary Education: Who is Eduardo Ochoa?

Office of Postsecondary Education: Who is Eduardo Ochoa?
Thursday, March 18, 2010

Eduardo M. Ochoa, a top administrator at Sonoma State University in California, was selected on February 23, 2010, by President Barack Obama to run the Department of Education’sOffice of Postsecondary Education, which administers most of the federal government’s programs for colleges and college students.

Born on November 18, 1950, in Argentina, Ochoa moved with his family to Portland, Oregon, when he was 14 years old. He received his bachelor’s degree in physics and philosophy in 1973 from Reed College in Portland. He and his wife, Holly, made an extended visit to Argentina, but then returned to the United States and he earned a master’s degree in nuclear science and engineering from Columbia University in 1976.

Although Ochoa had originally intended to go back to Argentina and work as an engineer, he did not want to work for the military dictatorship that had taken charge there, so he chose to stay in the U.S.

Ochoa worked from 1976-1977 as an assistant engineer in the Radiation Safety Group at Gibbs & Hill in New York, studying the thickness of walls at nuclear power plants. This was followed by work as an associate engineer in the Applied Physics Group for Ebasco Services from 1977 to 1979.

He returned to academia, but switched to the field of economics. His first teaching opportunity came in 1980 at the SUNY College at Old Westbury as an instructor in the politics, economics, and society program. The following year he relocated to California State

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Thursday, March 18, 2010