Friday, June 18, 2010

N.J. officials cut $140M in additional funds from school budgets-superintendent calls for end of D-grade | NJ.com

N.J. officials cut $140M in additional funds from school budgets | NJ.com

N.J. officials cut $140M in additional funds from school budgets

Published: Thursday, June 17, 2010, 9:45 PM Updated: Friday, June 18, 2010, 5:20 AM

Claire Heininger/Statehouse Bureau
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AP Photo | KAREN MANCINELLINew Jersey Gov. Chris Christie answers questions posed April 6 by fourth-graders at John Hill School in Boonton, N.J.

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TRENTON — After New Jersey voters rejected a record number of school budgets this spring, local officials ordered more than $140 million in additional cuts, the state announced today.

Statewide, the reductions brought the school tax levy increase to 3.65 percent from the proposed 4.77 percent, officials said. But the overall cuts made by towns where school budgets were defeated totaled just 1.9 percent of the more than $7 billion those districts proposed to voters.

In 29 districts, the budgets were left intact, according to data released by the state Department of Education.

Schools were sent scrambling this spring after Gov. Chris Christie slashed state aid by $820 million — meaning hundreds of districts lost most or all of their state aid. Voters then shot down more than 58 percent of the school budgets, the highest failure rate ever.

Christie has said he was "outraged" that in the aftermath, "so many municipal bodies did nothing or near nothing in response to a clear repudiation of the school board’s budget by the voters."

His spokesman, Michael Drewniak, today said the governor also recognizes towns that "made a mark."

"Overall, it’s a good start," Drewniak said. "There were plenty of school districts which essentially disavowed their voters, and we think that sends the wrong message."

Mount Olive schools superintendent calls for end of D-grade

by Dan Goldberg/For The Star-Ledger

Star-Ledger fileLarrie Reynolds, Mount Olive schools superintendent, in a 2000 file photo. MOUNT OLIVE — The grade of D on a report card is admittedly lousy, but it’s still passing and better than an F. If Mount Olive schools superintendent...

More M.B.A. Graduates Will Get Jobs in 2010 - US News and World Report

More M.B.A. Graduates Will Get Jobs in 2010

While it still isn't easy for M.B.A.'s to land a job, the hiring climate has improved from 2009.

By Brian Burnsed

Posted June 18, 2010

Before M.B.A. student Ryan Utsumi received his diploma from the University of California—San Diegothis month, he already had a job offer in hand. He was relaxed when he graduated, but the process of landing that job had tested his nerves. Utsumi spent the better part of 2010 searching for work at finance firms and startups. He had little luck, sending numerous applications and getting just a smattering of interviews. He'd heard the job search horror stories from 2009 M.B.A. graduates, Utsumi says, and, like many of his classmates, began to sweat when the calendar turned to March and he was still jobless.

Fortunately, Utsumi got a call from Charles Schwab—the firm he'd interned with during the previous summer and stayed in touch with intermittently through the academic year—and was offered a management position in the firm's strategy group. He starts at the end of the month, and he says that he's glad that, though they had to sweat, he and his classmates had better luck finding a job in the ravaged economy than their predecessors. "The job market is a little bit better [for me] than my classmates who graduated in 2009, but it still seemed to be very competitive and it was very difficult to get my foot in the door," he says. "Ideally, I would've had something wrapped up earlier on."

[Read about improvements in the job market for all college graduates.]

While Utsumi's job search was anything but brief, his reward was a full-time position. That, experts say, is something 2010 M.B.A. graduates should expect as they wade into the employment pool. While graduates may not find their ideal job or find a position as quickly as they'd hoped, there are more jobs to be had than in 2009, which was a dismal year for M.B.A. hiring. "This time last year, I had to check to see if my phone was still plugged into the wall," says Lynne Sarikas, director of the M.B.A. career

News: Striving for Educational Equity - Inside Higher Ed

Striving for Educational Equity

June 18, 2010

WASHINGTON -- Six years after they were first published, the data that Anthony Carnevale and Stephen J. Rose produced showing that students from the lowest socioeconomic quartile of Americans were 25 times less likely than wealthy Americans to enroll in the most selective colleges have helped to reshape public policy around higher education. In addition to building the case for more federal and state financial support for students from low-income backgrounds, the numbers also helped prompt a group of highly selective public and private institutions to alter their admissions and financial aid policies and practices to focus more on low-income students.

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One of those programs, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Carolina Covenant program, was celebrated Thursday at an event here at which the Century Foundation released a followup to the 2004 book -- America's Untapped Resource: Low-Income Students in Higher Education -- in which Carnevale's and Rose's original analysis appeared.

The new book, Rewarding Strivers: Helping Low-Income Students Succeed in College, includes one chapter on the Carolina Covenant, describing the progress that one highly selective university has made in transforming itself. As described by Edward B. Fiske, the program's initial results, in terms of low-income students' access to and success at North Carolina, are promising.

But that upbeat assessment is more or less overwhelmed by the book's new analysis from Carnevale, this time co-written with Jeff Strohl, who works with the economist at Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce. Their contribution to the volume edited by Century's Richard D. Kahlenberg argues that social, racial and ethnic stratification in higher education has actually increased in recent years, despite the fledgling efforts by the most elite colleges.

That's in large part because in the last decade and a half, more

Laptop Requirements and the Downside of Choice Joshua Kim

U. of Illinois Abandons Plan for $100,000 Statue of President Stanley Ikenberry, who returned to his old job as president of the University of Illinois when when institution found itself between presidents due to a scandal over politically influenced admissions decisions, has called off a plan by the university ...

A Professor's Push for 'Slow Reading' An Associated Press article explores how one professor at the University of New Hampshire is encouraging the "slow reading" movement -- which argues that the Internet has encouraged everyone to read everything too quickly. The movement uses such ...

World Refugee Day Is On June 20th | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

World Refugee Day Is On June 20th Here are the newest additions to The Best Sites For Learning About World Refugee Day: The Guardian has a graphic on refugees in the world. ABC News also has many refugee-related videos. Uzbeks flee ethnic clashes in Kyrgyzstan is a series of photos ...

Father’s Day Here are the newest additions to The Best Father’s Day Sites: What Does Father’s Day Mean to You? is an ABC video. 100 years of Father’s Day marks evolution of Dad is a short MSNBC article. Father’s Day Dates Around The World is an interactive map.

“How The World Spends Its Time Online” “How The World Spends Its Time Online” is an accessible infographic with some interesting data. I’m adding it to The Best Sites To Learn About The Internet.

LA discrimination probe widens to include black students | California Watch

LA discrimination probe widens to include black students

June 18, 2010 | Corey G. Johnson

A U.S. Department of Education investigation into the treatment of non-English speaking students at the Los Angeles Unified School District will also look at possible systemic discrimination against black youth.

The new inquiry will examine the performance and treatment of blacks at five largely black elementary schools in Carson, View Park and Hawthorne with five primarily white elementary schools in Bel-Air, Tarzana, Studio City and Encino. If federal officials find evidence of discrimination, whether intentional or unintentional, they can impose sanctions and suggest remedies.

According to the LA Times, several civil rights leaders received letters from federal authorities confirming the expanded probe after complaining that black concerns were being overlooked.

In March, the DOJ publically revealed it was investigating allegations of discrimination against English learners at LAUSD as part of a nationwide examination of the treatment of non-

Students Gain After Strike at University of Puerto Rico - NYTimes.com

Students Gain After Strike in Puerto Rico

By DAMIEN CAVE

Thousands of students who went on strike two months ago to oppose severe budget cuts declared victory after reaching an agreement with administrators.

Deal to Save Student Transit Discounts Is Near

By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM

Under the plan, the state would provide $25 million to keep the free or cheaper fares.

PLAYGROUP Margaret Guest, center, in striped shirt, often has groups of friends at her home in Dunwoody, Ga.

A Best Friend? You Must Be Kidding

By HILARY STOUT

School officials intent on discouraging anything that hints of exclusivity seek to sever traditional best-friend bonds.

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Abner Alcontin, Keith Mailahn and Robert Pennington were honored at graduation for enlisting. Mr. Mailahn said, “When we’re signing those papers, we’re putting our lives on the line.”

Salutes for Graduates Who’ll Be Saluting Soon

By WINNIE HU

At high school graduation ceremonies across the country, soon-to-be soldiers are being recognized alongside the academic stars of their classes.

NATIONAL BRIEFING | EDUCATION

Freshman Enrollment Climbed in 2008

By SAM DILLON

Freshman enrollment at the nation’s colleges and trade schools set records in 2008, the first year of the recession, according to a Pew Research Center report released Wednesday.

NorthJersey.com: Hat banned over toy soldiers

Hat banned over toy soldiers

Friday, June 18, 2010

BY MICHELLE R. SMITH

WIRE SERVICE

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Christan Morales said her son just wanted to honor American troops when he wore a hat to school decorated with an American flag and small plastic Army figures.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Second-grader David Morales wearing a cap he decorated to honor U.S. troops.

But the school banned the hat because it ran afoul of the district's zero-tolerance weapons policy. Why? The toy soldiers were carrying tiny guns.
"His teacher called and said it wasn't appropriate," Morales said.
Morales' 8-year-old son, David, had been assigned to make a hat for the day when his second-grade class would meet their pen pals from another school.
She and her son came up with an idea to add patriotic decorations to a camouflage hat.
Earlier this week, after the hat was banned, the principal at the Tiogue School in Coventry told the family that the hat would be fine if David replaced the Army men holding weapons with ones that didn't have any, according to Superintendent Kenneth R. Di Pietro.

11 Phila. schools granted new charters | Philadelphia Inquirer | 06/17/2010

EDUCATION

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A test-score milestone for Phila. schools

Philadelphia public schools reached a new milestone this year - the majority of city students met state standards in reading and math for the first time since 2002, when Pennsylvania began administering tests under the No Child Left Behind law.

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Report Card on the Schools

The Inquirer's annual survey of education in the region, with a searchable database of school and district information, and multimedia profiles of area students and high schools.

A Doorway Back

With the dropout problem in Philadelphia at crisis proportions, a chance-of-a-lifetime program offers 40 select students a shot at breaking the cycle of failure. But can they take advantage?

11 Phila. schools granted new charters: The Philadelphia School Reform Commission said Wednesday that 11 charter schools would receive new, five-year operating charters once they met a series of conditions.
More N.J. seniors expected to get diplomas than thought: More New Jersey high schoolers will get their diplomas this month than seemed likely a couple of weeks ago, but the number who fall short will rise significantly from last year, a state education official said Wednesday.
Philadelphia's top teacher again from Bodine High School: Call it the Triple Crown, an unlikely trifecta from a Philadelphia magnet school that's quietly built a reputation for top-notch education.

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Friday, June 18, 2010