Friday, October 1, 2010

Department Awards More Than $141 Million to State Agencies to Improve College Access | U.S. Department of Education

Department Awards More Than $141 Million to State Agencies to Improve College Access

OCTOBER 1, 2010

Contact:

Press Office, (202) 401-1576 , press@ed.gov

The U.S. Department of Education today announced the award of more than $141 million from the College Access Challenge Grant Program to 50 states, five territories, the District of Columbia and the Republic of Palau. The program aims to increase college access for low-income students and help them complete their postsecondary education.

Grantees are authorized to implement an array of activities and services, such as:

Providing information to students and families on postsecondary education benefits, opportunities, planning and career preparation, financing options, financial literacy and debt management;
Implementing professional development for guidance counselors at middle and secondary schools, and financial aid administrators and college admissions counselors at institutions of higher education, to improve such individuals' capacity to assist students and parents; and
Offering need-based aid to students and repayment or cancellation of student loans, or lowering of interest rates for borrowers who are employed in a high-need geographical area or a high need profession.

Following is a list of FY 2010 grantees, including contact information award amounts:

ALABAMA ($2,052,910), Alabama Department of Education, Sherry Key, 334-242-9111.
ALASKA ($1,500,000), Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education, Laura Jergensen, 907-269-7591.
ARIZONA ($2,931,727), Office of the Governor, Debra Raeder-Gay, 602-771-1205.
ARKANSAS ($1,500,000), Department of Higher Education, Brooks Harrington, 501-371-2013.
CALIFORNIA ($15,038,830), Student Aid Commission, Janet McDuffie, 916-464-8040.
COLORADO ($1,651,716), Colorado Department of Higher Education, Cheryl Lovell, 303-866-8123.
CONNECTICUT ($1,500,000), Department of Higher Education, Mark French, 860-947-1856.
DELAWARE ($1,500,000), Department of Education, Susan Haberstroh, 302-735-4025.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ($1,500,000), Office of the State Superintendent of Education, Renee Faulkner, 202-724-7146.
FLORIDA ($6,391,555), Florida Department of Education, Levis Hughes, 850-410-6810.
GEORGIA ($4,170,570), Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, Patricia Paterson, 404-463-0105.
HAWAII ($1,500,000), Charter School Administrative Office, Roger McKeague, 808-586-3798.
IDAHO ($1,500,000), Idaho Board of Education, Dana Kelly, 208-334-2270.
ILLINOIS ($4,621,733), Illinois Student Assistance Commission, Jacqueline Moreno, 847-948-8500.
INDIANA ($2,440,928), Commission of Higher Education, Jason Bearce, 317-464-4400.
IOWA ($1,500,000), Iowa College Student Aid Commission, Michael Anderson, 515-725-3406.
KANSAS ($1,500,000), Kansas Board of Regents, Diane Lindeman, 785-296-4749.
KENTUCKY ($2,051,545), Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority, Susan Hopkins, 502-696-7379.
LOUISIANA ($2,221,573), Louisiana Board of Regents, Heather Poole, 318-484-2184.
MAINE ($1,500,000), Finance Authority of Maine, Angela Dostie, 207-623-3263.
MARYLAND ($1,500,000), Higher Education Commission, Melinda Vann, 410-260-4578.
MASSACHUSETTS ($1,703,211), Department of Higher Education, Aundrey Kelley, 617-994-6937.
MICHIGAN ($4,268,548), Department of Education, Mary Ann Chartrand, 517-373-4013.
MINNESOTA ($1,500,000), Minnesota Office of Higher Education, Nancy Walters, 651-259-3907.
MISSISSIPPI ($1,850,911), Institutions of Higher Learning, Marsha Watson, 601-432-617.
MISSOURI ($1,500,000), Missouri Department of Higher Education, Leroy Wade, 573-751-2361
MONTANA ($1,500,000), Department of Labor & Industry Workforce Services, Michael Cooney, 406-444-2648.
NEBRASKA ($1,500,000), Nebraska Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary, Katherine Green, 402-471-0026.
NEVADA ($1,500,000), Higher Education Policy Commission, Adam Green, 304-558-0655.
NEW HAMPSHIRE ($1,500,000), New Hampshire Postsecondary Education Commission, Kathryn Dodge, 603-271-2555.
NEW JERSEY ($2,191,189), State of New Jersey, Iris Duffield, 609-292-4310.
NEW MEXICO ($1,500,000), New Mexico Higher Education Department, Karen Kennedy, 505-476-8409.
NEW YORK ($7,601,629), Higher Education Services, Patricia Thompson, 518-473-0414.
NEW CAROLINA ($3,827,447), University of North Carolina General Administration, Bruce Mallette, 919-962-4907.
NORTH DAKOTA ($1,500,000), Bank of North Dakota, Wally Erhardt, 701-328-5654.
OHIO ($4,381,431), Board of Regents, Charles Shahid, 614-644-5959.
OKLAHOMA ($1,694,526), Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, Debra Stuart, 405-225-9168.
OREGON ($1,500,000), Oregon University System, Joseph Holiday, 541-346-5729.
PENNSYLVANIA ($4,167,672), Pennsylvania Department of Education, Sandra Edmunds, 717-787-5041.
SOUTH DAKOTA ($1,500,000), Department of Education, LuAnn Werdel, 605-773-3783.
TENNESSEE ($2,716,766), Higher Education Commission, Kathleen Tone, 615-741-7565.
TEXAS ($11,845,689), Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, Judith Loredo, 512-427-6545.
UTAH ($1,500,000), Utah State Board of Regents, Melissa Miller-Kincart, 801-366-8492.
VERMONT ($1,500,000), Vermont Student Assistance Corporation, Scott Giles, 802-654-3740.
VIRGINIA ($2,240,031), State Council of Higher Education, Joseph Defilippo, 804-225-2629.
WASHINGTON ($2,084,539), Higher Education Coordination Board, Weiya Liang, 360-753-7884
WEST VIRGINIA ($1,500,000), Higher Education Policy Commission, Adam Green, 304-558-0655.
WISCONSIN ($1,638,380), Department of Administration, Harald Jordahl, 608-261-7520.
WYOMING ($1,500,000), University of Wyoming, Becky Vinzant, 307-766-6440.
AMERICAN SAMOA ($1,169,126), American Samoa Community College, Kathleen Kolhoff, 684-699-2182.
GUAM ($1,500,000), Guam Community College, Joanne Ige, 671-735-5516.
NORTHERN MARIANAS ($1,500,000), Northern Marianas Community College, Leo Pangelinan, 670-234-5498.
Puerto Rico ($433,146), University of Puerto Rico, Dr. Ana Helvia Quintera, 787-765-9250.
VIRGIN ISLANDS ($1,500,000), University of Virgin Islands, Miriam Osborne Elliott, 340-692-4188.
PALAU ($1,500,000), Palau Ministry of Education, Masa-Aki Emeslochl, 680-488-2952.

You can find abstracts for all the FY 2010 grant awards on the CACG Web site,http://www.ed.gov/programs/cacg.

Education Crisis: Testing and Firing Teachers Doesn’t Work - The Daily Beast

Stop Trashing Teachers!

by Diane Ravitch

Obama’s misguided policies and the overhyped doc Waiting For "Superman" have turned America against its teachers. Education expert Diane Ravitch on why the vitriol is so dangerous.

For the past week, the national media has launched an attack on American public education that is unprecedented in our history. NBC devoted countless hours to panels stacked with "experts" who believe that public education is horrible because it has so many "bad" teachers and "bad" principals. The same "experts" appeared again and again to call for privatization, breaking teachers' unions, and mass firings of "bad" educators. Oprah devoted two shows to the same voices. The movie Waiting for "Superman", possibly the most ballyhooed documentary of all time, explains patiently that poor test scores are caused by bad teachers, that bad teachers are protected for life by their unions, and that the answer to our terrible test scores is privatization. If only we fire enough teachers every year, goes the oft-repeated claim, our

national test scores will soar to meet those of Finland, the highest scoring nation.

This narrative began with George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind

Gay Teen Suicide Sparks Debate Over Cyber Bullying | The Atlantic Wire

ASCD Inservice: In Case You Missed It

Fobia escolar, como solucionarla - Noticias - P�gina 2

NYC Public School Parents: 2010 forum: Public Education Under Attack!

2010 forum: Public Education Under Attack!

by Leonie Haimson

Check out the flyer for Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats for Sunday, Oct. 17 event by clicking on the image to the right.

Feel feel free to download the flyer, post and distribute in your schools.

LA teacher got good district review | Thoughts on Public Education

LA teacher got good district review

District issues statement on suicide

Posted on 10/01/10 • Categorized as Uncategorized

By John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

The Los Angeles Unified School District disclosed that the elementary school teacher who allegedly took his own life in response to the Los Angeles Times’ publication of an analysis critical of his teaching effectiveness, actually received a “great performance” evaluation by the district in July.

In a statement released Thursday, Deputy Superintendent John Deasy said, “In addition, his evaluation contained many compliments from his supervisors about his work as a teacher. “ The district, citing confidentiality of personnel files, did not release the evaluation.

Rigoberto Ruelas Jr., 39, was a popular fifth-grade teacher at Miramonte Elementary School. His family and co-workers said that he seemed subdued and distracted after the Los

Five-O Is a Lot of Blank Ballots | Intercepts

Five-O Is a Lot of Blank Ballots

by Mike Antonucci

Education issues are all the rage these days, but there’s a tendency to overestimate their effect on the electorate. The latest case in point comes courtesy of Hawaii, where seats on the State Board of Education were being contested as part of the primary election. Hawaii’s school system is run as a single district, so the SBOE races are the equivalent of school board races in a very large school district - say, Philadelphia.

Turnout was 43 percent, which historically wasn’t too bad, but 43 percent of those who voted didn’t bother to

Charter School Progress Report Redux, 2009-2010 | GothamSchools

Charter School Progress Report Redux, 2009-2010

by Kim Gittleson

Yesterday, the city released its annual Progress Reports. Mirroring the trend with test scores, charter school progress reports suffered more than their public school counterparts, receiving a higher proportion of C and D grades and an overall lower average Progress Report score. A full breakdown of charter school performance compared to last year’s Progress Reports can be found in the spreadsheet available here.

Dashboard 2

Some observations:

the university is a factory; lets treat it like one � occupy california

the university is a factory; lets treat it like one

by *

from thecommune:

Lecturers and students alike nowadays cynically describe university education as a ‘factory’. This is, of course, a term of abuse – just think of the disturbing image from Pink Floyd’s The Wall of a conveyor belt of comprehensive students dropping into the mincing machine and emerging as a string of sausages out the other side.

Pink Floyd’s The Wall presents education as a factory process as a dystopian nightmare, but does looking at it this way really need to be a problem?

The notion of the University as a mechanised profit machine is where the term derives its critical force. When the

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS: Harlem Success Academy charter schools

Harlem Success Academy charter schools

by The Perimeter Primate

LOCAL CHARTER SCHOOLS LIKE HARLEM SUCCESS IS BIG BUSINESS AS MILLIONS ARE POURED INTO MARKETING, October 1, 2010, NY Daily News

The image of hundreds of black and Latino parents packed in an auditorium desperately hoping their child would "win" the lottery and get into a local charter school has assumed mythic status in media reports on education reform.
Two new two documentaries, "The Lottery" and "Waiting for Superman," made such events the emotional climax of their narratives. The former centered on Harlem Success, the charter networkSchools Chancellor Joel Klein hails when he points to the demand for more charter schools.
But a Daily News review of Harlem Success financial reports suggests the network's huge backlog

Homeless student population in Clackamas County climbs by about 20 percent | OregonLive.com

Homeless student population in Clackamas County climbs by about 20 percent

Published: Friday, October 01, 2010, 7:00 AM

Nicole Dungca, The Oregonian
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Reflecting a statewide trend, the population of Clackamas County students identified as homeless rose by almost 20 percent during the 2009-10 school year.

Eight out of the 10 Clackamas County districts reported an increase in students without stable housing, according to statistics released by the Oregon Department of Education. The department said this year's statewide population is the highest count on record.

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Homeless students in Clackamas County

Canby: 353 students, 7.09 percent

Colton: 0.3 percent*

Estacada: 19 students, 0.66 percent

Gladstone: 46 students, 2.21 percent

Lake Oswego: 19 students, 0.28 percent

Molalla River: 139 students, 5 percent

North Clackamas:279 students, 1.59 percent

Oregon City: 224 students, 2.71 percent

Oregon Trail: 161 students, 3.94 percent

West Linn-Wilsonville: 41 students, 0.49 percent

* Exact number not released to avoid identifying students.

Source: Oregon Department of Education

Of the 1,238 Clackamas County students who were homeless during the2009-10 school year, 353 of those students attended school in the CanbySchool District. The district has the highest percentage of homelessstudents, 7 percent, in the county.

The Molalla River School District had the second-highest percentage,with 5 percent; its homeless population more than doubled, to 139 from61 students.

Cynthia Norberg, Molalla River's homeless liaison, said part of theincrease in Molalla can be attributed to an improvement in theidentification process. Federal law requires districts to employhomeless liaisons such as Norberg, who can provide students withclothing, school supplies, transportation and advice on socialservices.

The liaisons often rely on referrals from teachers, counselors,secretaries -- any employee who may notice that a student or astudent's family is struggling to find a safe and permanent livingsituation.

"It's an ongoing problem trying to educate everybody on how to identifythem," Norberg said, adding that many employees have become

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Friday, October 1, 2010