Rose Hills Foundation Gives HMC Grant for Science and Engineering Scholarships | The Student Life

Rose Hills Foundation Gives HMC Grant for Science and Engineering Scholarships | The Student Life

Rose Hills Foundation Gives HMC Grant for Science and Engineering Scholarships

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

( 0 Votes )

By Jessica Irvine | News | Mudd | April 24, 2010

Comments Harvey Mudd received a $1 million grant from the Los Angeles-based Rose Hills Foundation for Undergraduate Science and Engineering Scholarships. “The purpose of this program is to support science, mathematics and engineering education in California by providing scholarships for undergraduate students studying in those fields at selected colleges and universities in California,” said David J. Coons, Director of Foundation Relations at Harvey Mudd. The grant will fund scholarships for students over a four-year period. These scholarships are awarded based on merit; however, Coons said the scholarships are restricted to students from Southern California. Many colleges and universities throughout the state have been awarded this or similar grants by the Rose Hills Foundation, including Pomona College. However, Pomona’s scholarships are based on financial need as well as merit. “In essence, these are grants that are given to the college to help the college with its financial aid to students with financial need,” Coons said. Each college that receives the grant can select recipients of the scholarships however they choose, with the stipulations that recipients must be from Southern California and in science or engineering fields. Coons said the amount of grant money varies from college to college. The new grants will continue the Science and Engineering Scholarship Program that already

Youngstown News, Kent State Shootings - 40th Anniversary

Youngstown News, Kent State Shootings - 40th Anniversary

Kent State Shootings - 40th Anniversary

• Email
• Print
ShareThis

Published: Sun, April 25, 2010 @ 12:01 a.m.

The Vindicator spoke with a number of people who were Kent State University students on May 4, 1970, some of whom witnessed the shootings. They offered their recollections and reflections of the event.

Kent State May 4, 1970

• 'Four Dead in Ohio' — Kent State 40 years on
• A life cut short - Sandra Scheuer
• COLUMN: I regret the 27 years it took to do my homework
• Kent Audio Side One
• Kent Audio Side Two
• GALLERY: Kent State: Then and now
• VIGNETTES: Kent State Shootings - 40th Anniversary
• SLIDESHOW: May 4 in photos
• EVENTS: May 4 events
• VIDEO: Harvey Kayne
• VIDEO: Jane Doughton

Jane Doughton May 4, 1970

Jane Doughton of Liberty was a student at Kent State University on May 4, 1970.

Harvey Kayne May 4, 1970

Liberty resident Harvey Kayne was a graduate student at Kent State University on May 4, 1970 when 4 students were killed by National Guard gunfire.

JUNE DOUGHTON

“This has to be one of the saddest commentaries on our country. It’s hard to believe this ever happened,” Doughton said as she stood looking at a memorial to the four Kent State University students killed by the Ohio National Guard during an anti-war demonstration on campus May 4, 1970.

Doughton was a freshman journalism and English major from Liberty at that time and feature editor of the Daily Kent Stater, the campus newspaper. She still lives in Liberty and is now a nurse and seeking a master’s degree in divinity.

She saw the National Guard headed onto campus on Saturday, May 2, and soon learned many students didn’t like their presence.

“The kids were furious. This is like getting your home invaded,” she recalled, adding that she believed a number of outsiders arrived fomenting trouble.

She recalled seeing perhaps 1,000 protesters May 2 chanting, “National Guard-off campus.”

She didn’t witness the May 4 shootings because she was in her dorm studying for midterm tests.

The shootings led to an incredible conflict with her parents over who was right and who was wrong, and she left Kent after her second year, she said, enrolling at Youngstown State University instead.

“We were all really depressed. Everyone was looking at their own mortality. We were all disenchanted, completely disenchanted,” she said.

HARVEY KAYNE

Kayne, now semi-retired from psychology and counseling and living in Liberty, was a graduate student in the Department of Psychology in May 1970.

UCSD will face more financial hurdles - SignOnSanDiego.com

UCSD will face more financial hurdles - SignOnSanDiego.com

UCSD will face more financial hurdles

Teaching mission vulnerable to cuts

BY ELEANOR YANG SU, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

SUNDAY, APRIL 25, 2010 AT 2:24 A.M.

JOHN GASTALDO / UNION-TRIBUNE

Jeff Skinner (left) and professor Bill Hodgkiss, both of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, discuss a project. Research often has sources other than the state for funding.

LA JOLLA — When UCSD leaders describe the effects of losing $85 million in state funding this year, they mention widespread furloughs, hundreds of layoffs and a freeze on faculty hiring.

What’s at stake is the university’s ability to continue providing a quality education and graduating enough students on time.

“The budget crisis has been very serious,” said Gary Matthews, vice chancellor for resource management and planning. “Forty years ago, we were getting close to 40 percent of our budget from the state. We’re now down to almost less than 10 percent.”

When viewed against the backdrop of the school’s total staffing and budget, though, the campus seems to have avoided significant downsizing.

The 310 laid-off employees represent about 1 percent of the work force at theUniversity of California San Diego. Many professors have used an infusion of more than $130 million in federal stimulus money — in the form of research grants — to buy out their furloughs. Overall, most of the state budget cut has been offset by an internal $43 million loan and a 32

Foreigners fill ranks of local charter- school chain

Foreigners fill ranks of local charter- school chain

Tucson's Sonoran Science Academy and its sister schools import an unusually large proportion of their staff from foreign countries, especially Turkey, in a practice that parallels the customs of an important Turkish religious-political movement.

The five Sonoran Science Academy charter schools and their parent company, Daisy Education Corp., received U.S. Labor Department certification to fill 39 teaching and administrative jobs with foreigners last year, federal data show. From 2002 through 2009, the schools have received certifications for 120 H-1B visas.

That's more certifications than any comparable school in Arizona received in that eight-year period - and more than the six biggest school districts in Southern Arizona combined.

Sonoran Science Academy schools and Daisy Education requested so many visas because they have been unable to find adequate math and science teachers in the United States, because Daisy Education is adding schools fast, and because, in some cases, multiple applications were filed for the same person or position, Superintendent Ozkur Yildiz said via e-mail.

Yildiz also noted the schools' high test scores and many awards, and that the Arizona Charter Schools

Public schools leaders, students walk a fine line on religion - Bakersfield.com

Public schools leaders, students walk a fine line on religion - Bakersfield.com

Public schools leaders, students walk a fine line on religion

During six recent school days, students at Liberty, Shafter and Bakersfield high schools gave out hundreds of Bibles to their peers on campus.

How did they manage that in a public high school? Very carefully.

The giveaways took place during rallies that had to be student-led and held when classes were not in session. They were in a spot on campus designated by the principal. To give out Bibles, students in Christian clubs could not approach their peers.

Public school students, administrators and teachers must follow specific rules designed to separate church and state, and at the same time acknowledge student rights. It can get tricky, however.

"We respect separation of church and state," said Jacob Stuebbe, a BHS economics teacher and Fist Pump 4 Jesus student club adviser. "At school, there's a fine line."

LAW AND RULES

Rules regarding religion in public schools have been well established for decades, said John Orr, a retired professor at the University of Southern California and an expert in religion and public education.

In essence, he said, students are free to express religious beliefs as long as they don't disrupt class and school-sponsored activities.

Schools and their employees cannot endorse student religious practices, nor inhibit them. Students can focus on

PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENTS' RELIGIOUS RIGHTS

They can:

* Engage in prayer and religious discussion

* Be excused from school for religious reasons

* Share religious literature

* Study about religion, including the Bible, for purposes of instruction or for an assignment

* Participate in See You at the Pole prayer event, and other events before and after school

Source: The American Center for Law and Justice

KERN HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT CLUB CODE

AR 6145.5(a)

* "No high school is permitted to endorse, or allow to exist, clubs of a limited membership character."

BP 6145(a)

* "... no district student's participation in extracurricular and co-curricular activities shall be required or refused based on the student's ... religion."

BP 5145.13

* "Religious activities, which promote the 'appearance' of school sponsorship, cannot be scheduled or conducted."

Source: Kern High School District

California Dumbs Down Tests - Yahoo! News

California Dumbs Down Tests - Yahoo! News

California Dumbs Down Tests

Creators Syndicate – When it comes to education trends, as California goes, so goes the nation. Which is all the more reason to be concerned about the latest effort in California to dumb down standards. The University of California's Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools (BOARS) has launched another salvo in its long-running war against the SAT, the test used by many colleges and universities to assess academic achievement among high school seniors. This is only the latest in a series of moves by BOARS against the SAT, but this one may be a stalking horse to eliminate standardized tests in general, especially if they conflict with the goal of promoting racial and ethnic diversity.

BOARS has already eliminated a requirement that University of California applicants take at least two subject-matter tests in addition to the SAT Reasoning Test. Now BOARS is taking aim at the SAT directly. What makes the action more suspicious is that BOARS' own report notes that the SAT-R was developed specifically in response to testing principles it promulgated and that the new test "adds significant gains in predictive power of first year grades at UC." Nonetheless, BOARS is now recommending that students forgo the SAT in favor of the less-popular ACT.

Both tests have been accepted for more than 30 years and do a good job of predicting first-year grades. So why is BOARS now signaling preference for one test over another? After reading the report, it's hard to come away without feeling that the real target is standardized testing in general.

As numerous studies and the raw data on test scores have shown, performance on standardized tests varies not just between individuals but also between different racial and ethnic groups. In general, black and Latino

The huge cost of financial illiteracy - dailypress.com

The huge cost of financial illiteracy - dailypress.com

The huge cost of financial illiteracy

Literacy Month has drawn to a close, and Financial Literacy Month has begun. Time to put down your Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway, and pick up your credit card statements and mortgage balances. See if you can figure out where you stand fiscally. If you're an average American, odds are you have no idea.

The Obama administration seems to agree. Deputy Treasury Secretary Neil Wolin recently appeared before the Chamber of Commerce to pitch the administration's case for financial reform. Though I can't agree with everything Wolin said, one portion of his speech in particular rang true.

"In the years leading up to the crisis, millions of Americans and small businesses were sold products they didn't understand and couldn't afford," he said. "Plenty of households made irresponsible choices."

As the Center for Economic and Entrepreneurial Literacy (CEEL) has shown, the average person's ignorance of basic financial terms is shocking. This fundamental financial foolishness has helped bury the country in a mountain of money woes. The problem starts early. A 2009 CEEL survey showed that college kids have a better understanding of playing cards than credit cards. That can be the only explanation for 42 percent of college freshmen being credit-card dependent, racking up high-interest debt that will haunt them for years. Of course, they might not realize their folly since 44 percent of those surveyed don't even know their primary card's APR, or annual percentage rate.

Credit card debt isn't the only problem facing college students. More than half had overdrawn their bank account, while almost two-thirds don't know that bouncing a check — at an average overdraft fee of over $27, according to

Layoff reform ripped; teachers say bill lifts shield - DailyBulletin.com

Layoff reform ripped; teachers say bill lifts shield - DailyBulletin.com

Layoff reform ripped; teachers say bill lifts shield

James Rufus Koren, Staff Writer

Created: 04/24/2010 11:20:32 PM PDT

To Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and some education leaders, a bill by state Sen. Bob Huff, R-Walnut, is a common-sense measure aimed at helping school districts keep good teachers and more easily remove bad ones.

But teachers unions see the bill, which was approved this past week by the state Senate Education Committee, as an attack on the protections that shield teachers from age discrimination and retaliation.

"We see it as an attack on due process," said Tyra Weis, president of Associated Pomona Teachers.

"It takes objectivity out of the process," said Rebecca Harper, president of the San Bernardino Teachers Association.

The most contentious parts of Huff's bill, Senate Bill 955, would make it easier for districts to fire teachers and allow districts to consider teacher effectiveness and other factors when deciding which teachers to lay off during difficult times.

Under current state law, with a few exceptions, districts must hand out layoffs based solely on seniority - that is, the most recently hired teachers would be the first to be laid off.

"It's not a good way to make a decision about who is teaching our kids," Huff said.

Schwarzenegger has touted the bill, saying current law "takes away the flexibility that school districts have" and "tells them that even if a teacher is effective and even if a teacher is fantastic ... none of that matters when it

Upending a Seniority System: Senate bill could create more problems than it resolves - The Reporter

Upending a Seniority System: Senate bill could create more problems than it resolves - The Reporter

Upending a Seniority System: Senate bill could create more problems than it resolves

PUBLISHED BY THE REPORTER

Posted: 04/25/2010 01:03:00 AM PDT

A proposal backed by the governor that would change how public schools handle teacher layoffs -- including ending the practice of last-hired, first-fired -- cleared a legislative hurdle last week and appears headed for the state Senate floor.
But Senate Bill 955 isn't ready to become law. As it stands now, the bill would upend an admittedly imperfect system and replace it with one that has not been well thought out.
That said, there is at least one piece of the bill, by Republican state Sen. Bob Huff of Walnut, that could and should be implemented quickly. It would eliminate the requirement that school districts issue preliminary layoff notices to teachers by March 15.
In the days before computer job postings became standard, it might have made sense to give teachers an early warning that their positions were in peril. But no longer. Now all the March notices do is to upset a lot of people, often needlessly, since few school districts have a clear picture of finances for the coming school year that early. That forces them to issue more notices than they usually end up implementing.
At least by May 15, when final layoff notices are due, districts have more accurate information to work with. And that still gives teachers plenty of time to secure another job -- not that California has a lot of them available right now. Statewide, some 30,000 preliminary layoff notices were issued last month.
SB 955's other provisions are more troubling, not because they
are bad ideas, but because they are badly thought out.
Gov. Schwarzenegger promoted the bill last week, saying schools should be allowed to retain effective teachers, rather than being forced to let them go because someone else has more seniority. He gave his backing to the bill while attending a press conference at a low-income and low-performing Los Angeles middle school, which lost

K-12 State Testing Resources (2009-2010)

K-12 State Testing Resources (2009-2010)

What better way to prepare for your own state exam than to practice one or more tests from another state!

Most states in the US are currently developing and implementing K-12 tests which are designed to test student proficiency in their state frameworks and curriculum. In most states, promotion will be linked to performance on these test. To access your states curriculum use the Edinformatics curriculum page

STATE TEST PAGES MAY CONTAIN SAMPLE OR RELEASED QUESTIONS. IN SOME CASES A FULL TEST IS RELEASED.

Last Updated April 15, 2010

EDinformatics Select New York State --- The Grades 3 - 8 Mathematics and English Tests from 2009 are now available for downloading. Massachusetts releases 2009 Test Items

Politics - Community College Tax on Ballot in San Mateo - NYTimes.com

Politics - Community College Tax on Ballot in San Mateo - NYTimes.com

Community College Tax on Ballot in San Mateo

By DANIEL WEINTRAUB

Published: April 23, 2010

San Mateo County voters could soon become the first in California to approve a special parcel tax on property to help pay for community college education in the county.

A June 8 vote on the issue is being closely watched in the Bay Area and across the state by other community college districts and by anti-tax groups. Both sides say the concept could become a model for districts struggling with their finances amid cuts in state spending brought about by the recession.

The tax would cost the owners of each parcel of property $34 per year and raise an estimated $6 million to boost the district’s $80 million budget.

“We’re doing something that would be the first of its kind,” said Ron Galatolo, chancellor for the three-campus system that serves 40,000 students. “Just because someone has not done it before does not mean we shouldn’t try it.”

Mr. Galatolo said none of the money raised by the tax would go toward administration. The proceeds would be placed in a separate fund and used to restore some of the part-time faculty, whose jobs the district cut to cope with a $24 million reduction in its budget.

“I am going to bring those faculty back and put them into the classroom,” Mr. Galatolo said. “We had 14,000 students on our waiting list last fall. There is a huge demand out there for our services. We’re not providing the academic support they need because we

SB City Unified's number of poor kids ranks at top - ContraCostaTimes.com

SB City Unified's number of poor kids ranks at top - ContraCostaTimes.com

SB City Unified's number of poor kids ranks at top 

SAN BERNARDINO - The school district has more poor students than any other large school district in California, a fact that academics and district leaders say is at least partly responsible for the district's chronic low performance.

But with existing resources, it's not clear what more the San Bernardino City Unified School District can do to ease the problems poverty creates, raise student test scores and put poor students on an even playing field with their more affluent peers.

"Poverty is at least one of the components that affects how well students do in school," said Superintendent Arturo Delgado. "But that's not an indicator that kids can't learn."

Last school year, more than 45,000 students - nearly 83percent of the district's 54,727 total students - qualified for free or reduced-price lunches. The statistic is commonly used by public schools to measure poverty.

That percentage puts San Bernardino City Unified, the eighth largest school district in the state, above any other district in the Top 10, including the Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Ana and Fresno districts.

At the same time, San Bernardino City Unified also has more students attending low-performing schools than any of those districts. More than 1-in-4 San Bernardino City Unified students attends one of what the California Department of Education has ranked as the lowest-performing 188 schools in California.

Delgado said he believes those two facts are related

and that San Bernardino City Unified's poverty is partly behind its troubles.

But poverty, Delgado and others said, is a predictor of more than just financial problems.

"The poverty in the home oftentimes determines how much support a student will get at home," Delgado said. "Are there books in the home? What kind of experiences do children have in their off-time? ... The lack of resources makes a big difference."

Poor students are more likely to do poorly on standardized tests and more likely to start school with fewer skills

The Associated Press: Chinese gov't school grant divides SoCal community

The Associated Press: Chinese gov't school grant divides SoCal community

Chinese gov't school grant divides SoCal community

By JACOB ADELMAN (AP) – 19 hours ago

HACIENDA HEIGHTS, Calif. — Bobby Fraker is taking a stand against what she perceives to be a sinister threat from across the Pacific, right here in her suburban Southern California community of tree-lined streets and stucco homes.

At a recent school-board meeting, Fraker and a dozen or more older, mostly white opponents of a Chinese government program that will fund a middle-school language class delivered fist-shaking denunciations.

"These children have young brains that are very malleable and they can be indoctrinated with things that America would not like," Fraker, a diminutive woman with tight auburn curls, implored board members, who approved the plan in January.

Communities across the United States, from Smithfield, R.I., to Medford, Ore., have welcomed with open palms the so-called Confucius Classroom grants from the Chinese government, like the one proposed here for Cedarlane Middle School.

But Confucius is not going down smoothly in Hacienda Heights, a middle-class town about 16 miles east of downtown Los Angeles with a history of racial tensions between longtime residents and relatively recent Chinese newcomers. Ethnic Chinese comprise the majority of the school board.

The Cedarlane student body, meanwhile, is overwhelmingly Hispanic, with three out of every five students at the school qualifying for free or reduced-price meals, a poverty indicator, according to state data.

The dustup may portend trouble for China's efforts to expand its cultural clout by bankrolling language programs in primary and secondary schools across the United States.

"I'm sure this will become a standard dispute," said University of Southern California public policy professor Nicholas Cull, who tracks China's efforts to shape its image abroad through

Budget woes hit schools hard and harder | Philadelphia Inquirer | 04/25/2010

Budget woes hit schools hard and harder | Philadelphia Inquirer | 04/25/2010

Budget woes hit schools hard and harder

By Rita Giordano and Edward Colimore

Inquirer Staff Writers

The New Jersey taxpayer revolt that led to the defeat of almost 59 percent of the school district budgets before voters attracted nationwide attention last week.
In most states, including Pennsylvania, school budgets are not put to a popular vote. But the fiscal tsunami that has swamped New Jersey - state-aid cuts, a bad economy, the end of federal stimulus aid - has rocked districts, threatening greater education cutbacks and job losses than most have ever seen.
Less than a week before residents here went to the polls, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan warned Congress of a "catastrophe unfolding across this country" in the form of stripped-down state budgets that imperil 100,000 to 300,000 education jobs.
Locally, as municipal boards take up the task of reopening district spending plans in search of more possible cuts, school officials have expressed fear of program eliminations, growing class sizes, and further teacher layoffs.
Nationally, "literally tens of millions of students will experience these budget cuts in one way or another," Duncan testified. "Schools, districts, and states that are working so hard to improve will see their reforms undermined by these budget problems."
Even in districts where state funding has not been cut, the effects of local economic ills and the end of jobs-sparing stimulus money are being felt.
Duncan urged Congress to consider another round of funding as "emergency support for America's schools."
Sen. Tom Harkin (D., Iowa) - and 20 cosponsors, including New Jersey Democratic Sens. Robert Menendez and Frank Lautenberg and Sen. Arlen Specter (D., Pa.) - recently introduced the Keep Our Educators Working Act. It calls for creating a $23 billion Education Jobs Fund that could bring about $600 million to New Jersey and $900 million to Pennsylvania, according to a National Education Association analysis.
The money would spare or create more than 256,000 teaching positions in kindergarten through Grade 12 and

State superintendent race tests education reforms, union power - SGVTribune.com

State superintendent race tests education reforms, union power - SGVTribune.com

State superintendent race tests education reforms, union power

By Rebecca Kimitch, Staff Writer

Posted: 04/24/2010 07:14:52 AM PDT

California residents looking for their chance to sound off on charter schools, open enrollment between districts, and other major education reforms will find an opportunity on the June ballot.

The race for the state's highest elected education official, Superintendent of Public Instruction, is shaping up to be a referendum on much-debated school reforms, as well as a test of the enduring power of California's teachers unions.

The race pits reform-minded Democrat Sen. Gloria Romero, who has long represented parts of the San Gabriel Valley, against her Democratic colleague, union-backed Assemblyman Tom Torlakson, who represents a district in the Bay Area.

"This is an early and significant test case of a Latino

Tom Torlakson (Courtesy Photo)

Democrat willing to take on the unions versus a traditional Democrat backed by the unions," said Bruce Fuller, a University of California at Berkeley professor of education and public policy.

Romero, who heads the Senate Education Committee, has been one of the biggest advocates of controversial education reforms backed by President Barack Obama, including increasing the number of charter schools and linking teacher evaluations to student performance.

She has also pushed legislation to allow parents to pull their children out of failing school districts and enroll them in other districts. And last week, over the objections of some of her Democratic colleagues, Romero helped advance a measure that would allow districts to

lay off teachers based on effectiveness, instead of just seniority, as currently allowed.

The state's teachers unions have objected, to varying degrees, to these reforms. As has Torlakson, winning him the endorsements of the California Teachers Association, California Federation of Teachers, and California School Employees Association.

"He is in line with our philosophy of providing additional resources to the most struggling schools. In contrast, Romero has bought into outcome-based competition for schools, where you have schools competing. And if they perform better, they get rewarded, which takes resources away from the schools that need it most," CTA spokesman Frank Wells said.

Though Wells called Romero's relationship with the education community "adversarial," she isn't going at it alone. Romero has the support of EdVoice, a reform advocacy group with deep pockets - backed by reform-minded philanthropists as well as various Latino activists.

Romero also has significant name recognition, after having served as Senate Majority Leader, and a long history of support among Latino voters.

This gives her an edge, despite the lack of union support, according to University of Southern California

Long Beach teacher running for state's top education post - Press-Telegram

Long Beach teacher running for state's top education post - Press-Telegram

Long Beach teacher running for state's top education post

By Douglas Morino Staff Writer

Posted: 04/24/2010 08:17:38 PM PDT

Lydia Gutierrez has logged hundreds of miles traveling across the state and spent thousands of her own money campaigning.

She has given speeches on the steps of the state Capitol in Sacramento, shaken hands at Tea Party protests in San Francisco and spoken at candidate forums closer to home.

She may not have the name recognition of her competitors in the race for state superintendent of public instruction, but Gutierrez, 52, believes she has what it takes to overhaul the state's education system.

The San Pedro resident and elementary schoolteacher in the Long Beach Unified School District is among 12 candidates vying to become California's top elected leader of K-12 instruction.

The winner of the nonpartisan race will replace current state superintendent of school Jack O'Connell, who is termed out. If no candidate wins more than half the votes in the June 8 primary, the top two vote-getters will face each other in the Nov. 2 general election.

Gutierrez's platform is vast. She has addressed topics from charter schools and teachers unions to nutrition issues and vocational training. She said her main focus, if elected, would be trimming California's education hierarchy to restore school funding.

"Streamlining bureaucracy would be a step in the right direction," she said on a rec