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Saturday, August 28, 2010

Cover story - The Boston Globe

Cover story - The Boston Globe

In the beginning, before there was such a thing as a Gutenberg Bible, Johannes Gutenberg laid out his rows of metal type and brushed them with ink and, using the mechanism that would change the world, produced an ordinary little schoolbook. It was probably an edition of a fourth-century grammar text by Aelius Donatus, some 28 pages long. Only a few fragments of the printed sheets survive, because no one thought the book was worth keeping.

“Now had he kept to that, doing grammars...it probably would all have been well,” said Andrew Pettegree, a professor of modern history at the University of St. Andrews and author of “The Book in the Renaissance,” the story of the birth of print. Instead, Gutenberg was bent on making a grand statement, an edition of Scripture that would cost half as much as a house and would live through the ages. “And it was a towering success, as a cultural



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Back to school 2010: Shorter year, fewer teachers - News - The Orange County Register

Back to school 2010: Shorter year, fewer teachers - News - The Orange County Register

Back to school 2010: Shorter year, fewer teachers

By FERMIN LEAL and SCOTT MARTINDALE
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

For years, Orange County schools have been slicing and dicing to save money – decimating arts and sports, slashing teaching and counseling jobs, even closing some campuses for good.

This year, they're deploying a new strategy to conserve on cash – shortening the school year itself.

Article Tab : A student at Olive Elementary School in Orange makes his way to class on the first day of school Wednesday.
A student at Olive Elementary School in Orange makes his way to class on the first day of school Wednesday.
MICHAEL GOULDING, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
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As nearly half a million K-12 students across Orange County return to their classrooms in the next two weeks, most will have their instructional year lopped off by up to a week, shrinking the traditional 36-week school year to 35.

All but six of the county's 27 school districts are moving in this direction, although some are shaving as few as two school days.

The shorter instructional year will come on top of continued cuts to basic programs and services. The popular class-size reduction program that guaranteed a 20-to-1 pupil-teacher ratio in primary grades has been wiped out or scaled back at every O.C. district, except for one, Laguna Beach Unified.

Click here for a detailed look at the spending, furlough days and cuts made by the county's school districts.

At home, parents are also feeling the economic pinch. Many recession-hit families have less spending cash to dole out for supplies, uniforms and extracurricular activities even as some

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UCR Newsroom: Goldwater Institute Ranks UCR in Top 20

UCR Newsroom: Goldwater Institute Ranks UCR in Top 20

Goldwater Institute Ranks UCR in Top 20

The watchdog organization rates UCR as one of the nation’s best at controlling administrative costs.

(August 27, 2010)

NEWS MEDIA CONTACT

Name: Bettye Miller
Tel: (951) 827-7847
E-mail:
RIVERSIDE, Calif. – The University of California, Riverside is one of the best stewards of its financial resources among the nation’s leading universities, according to a report by a conservative government watchdog organization.

UCR was one of 20 leading public and private universities, out of 198 examined by the Phoenix, Ariz.-based Goldwater Institute, where the number of administrators per 100 students declined between 1993 and 2007. Nationally, the number of administrators increased 39.3 percent in that 14-year period. At UC Riverside, the ratio of administrators to students decreased by 2.5 percent.

At the same time, the ratio of full-time employees to students declined by 27.3 percent – a period when enrollment nearly doubled – the ratio of spending to enrollment decreased by 21 percent.

That these efficiencies were occurring before the California Legislature cut the University of California budget by $813 million in 2009-10 – a 20 percent reduction in spending systemwide that resulted in layoffs and furloughs – is further testament to UCR’s
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America's Most Wanted: Skilled Workers | Manufacturing Business Technology

America's Most Wanted: Skilled Workers | Manufacturing Business Technology
America's Most Wanted: Skilled Workers

The looming skilled worker shortage is an unwelcome threat to the nation’s manufacturing base that needs to be addressed at multiple levels, from better educating the next generation of factory workers to improving the public’s image of plant work.

by Gerald Shankel, President and CEO Fabricators & Manufacturers Association, International

Consider a manufacturing career amid media reports of shuttered factories, job losses, and the worst economy since the Depression? Although certainly counter-intuitive, the answer to that question is a resounding “Yes!” Despite the shaky economy, scores of American manufacturers are reporting a dire need for skilled labor.

Industry surveys reinforce this claim. According to the 2009 Manpower Talent Shortage Survey, among the most difficult jobs to fill in North

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Barack Obama's $4.35 Billion "Race to the Trough": School year 2010-2011

Barack Obama's $4.35 Billion "Race to the Trough": School year 2010-2011
Barack Obama's $4.35 Billion "Race to the Trough": School year 2010-2011| Print | E-mail
WRITTEN BY BEVERLY K. EAKMAN
FRIDAY, 27 AUGUST 2010 15:00

California may be broke, and politicians in the nation’s capital may be drowning in trillion-dollar deficits, but none of that has turned off the spending spigot in every level of government: county, city, state and federal.

Los Angeles just unveiled the "costliest school in the nation" at $578 million — the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools — a K-12 mega-complex, referred to as "the crème de la crème of Taj Mahal schools," in a piece by Associated Press reporter Christina Hoag. The Los Angeles Unified School District, never exactly a model of academic superiority with its 50-percent dropout rate, nevertheless intends for the pretentious palace to serve as a "showpiece for the community." Too bad the pupils who populate the classrooms won’t

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08.27.2010 - Chancellor 'cautiously optimistic' about the year ahead

08.27.2010 - Chancellor 'cautiously optimistic' about the year ahead
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Chancellor 'cautiously optimistic' about the year ahead

At back-to-school press briefing, Birgeneau says campus is 'turning a corner' on financial crisis

By Barry Bergman, NewsCenter | 27 August 2010

BERKELEY — The setting for Chancellor Robert Birgeneau's back-to-school press briefing Thursday was similar to last year's event: the chancellor, flanked by senior campus officials, speaking across a boardroom table to an assemblage of reporters wielding notebooks, cameras and microphones.

Chancellor Birgeneau speaks to reporters. (Video by Roxanne Makasdjian / Media Relations)

The difference in tone, though, was striking. In contrast to fall 2009, when the campus was reeling from severe cuts in state funding, the mood was notably sunnier at California Hall. Sunnier, at least, in the Berkeley sense of the word — it's not yet time to mothball those raincoats and windbreakers.

"I'm cautiously optimistic that we're turning a corner," said Birgeneau, who expressed pride at how, "over the past year, we dealt with probably the most dire economic situation that Berkeley has faced in its modern history."

"Everyone contributed," he said, noting that "faculty, administrators and staff" took furloughs that saved the positions of more than 450 staff who would otherwise have been laid off. Birgeneau also cited higher student fees — "which we regret, but were necessary" — as a significant factor in the campus's brightening budget picture.

And he credited donors and alumni with "stepping up in a time of extreme economic hardship for everyone." The campus, he said, collected $313 million in donations during the last fiscal year, an improvement of $7 million over the

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'Off the 99' podcast: Education reform in Merced - Local - MercedSun-Star.com

'Off the 99' podcast: Education reform in Merced - Local - MercedSun-Star.com

'Off the 99' podcast: Education reform in Merced

By JAMIE OPPENHEIM
joppenheim@mercedsun-star.com

Education reform has been in the news a lot.

First, the Los Angeles Times ran a story connecting individual teachers with student test scores.

On Aug 24, the U.S. Department of Education announced that California won't get Race To The Top funding, Obama's second competitive round of education stimulus funding.



Download the audio file.

    It's been almost 10 years since the Bush administration enacted No Child Left Behind, and the Obama Administration is furthering those mandates with more ideas focused on accountability, such as merit pay for teachers.

    This week, "Off the 99" decided to look into the past, present and future of education reform, to see what the initiatives have brought to the classroom.

    We spoke with Diane Ravitch, a longtime education historian and author of a new book called "The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education," about her thoughts on the administration continuing to push the mandates of No Child Left Behind.

    The Sun-Star also spoke with two local high



    Read more: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2010/08/27/1546876/off-the-99-podcast-education-reform.html#ixzz0xupFqrGl
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    Begging for an education - latimes.com

    Begging for an education - latimes.com

    Begging for an education

    By Sandy Banks

    In another year of budget cuts, Cal State students are left to plead, strategize and guilt their way into critical courses

    UC, CSU, community college chiefs plead for quick budget passage

    By Larry Gordon, Los Angeles Times

    Chancellors say that without a state budget, 'We are operating with a blindfold on.' The delay has already forced campuses to borrow money and threatened some students' enrollment and financial aid.

    USC beats UCLA in U.S. News & World Report rankings

    By Larry Gordon, Los Angeles Times

    After a long and steady climb, it's the first time the Trojans' campus has bested its Westwood rival in the annual listing.

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