Printer-friendly versionSome of the News Fit to Print
COMMUNITY COLLEGES BUILD PROGRAMS THAT FIT IMMIGRANTS’ NEEDS
The United States is home to more than 38 million people who were born in other countries, according to the Census Bureau. That's more than three times the total four decades ago. Today one of every eight people in the nation is an immigrant—and one in four community-college students is an immigrant or the child of an immigrant. The article is in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
SAVING THE LIFE OF THE MIND
The distress signals are sounding for the liberal arts. Again. Enrollment statistics show that more than half of all undergraduates now choose majors in business, engineering, or nursing. On some campuses, budget pressures are squeezing disciplines like German and philosophy into exile or extinction. And all but the wealthiest of liberal-arts colleges are questioning how long they can stay true to their missions. But there's another side to this picture. Welcome to the new liberal arts. At the very time America may most need the liberal-arts traditions of robust inquiry, curricular breadth, and a focus on critical thinking, that genre of education is struggling against a tide of waning student interest and unprecedented financial duress. The article is in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
PROTESTORS RECEIVE COY EMBRACE
The tricky thing about viruses is that it’s impossible to know where they might spread next or what damage they might do if they mutate. The same could be said of “viral” protest movements like the one that started in California months ago. Talk of a series of March 4 demonstrations across California began in October, and since that time a loosely connected cyber network of angered faculty and students have planned their own protests across the country. What has emerged is the promise of the collective angst of cash-strapped public education -- from K-12 through the college sector -- bubbling over in hot spots from sea to shining sea. The article is in Inside Higher Ed.
CRITICS PAN OBAMA PLAN TO TIE TITLE I TO STANDARDS
The Obama administration’s proposal to make federal funding for disadvantaged students contingent on states’ adoption of reading and math standards that prepare students for college or a career has drawn sharp criticism from groups representing grassroots educators and state lawmakers, even as some governors and members of Congress appear open to the idea. The proposal, which would be rolled into the administration’s still-emerging plan for reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, would for the first time link the law’s flagship Title I program to a push for higher academic standards that has gained new national momentum. This premium article is compliment of Education Week and Education Commission of the States.
CHARTING COURSE TO COLLEGE AND BEYOND
Public schools have long offered their students the same basic academic program, with little real choice aside from foreign languages or an occasional elective in what was a one-size-fits-all approach that drove many families to seek private and charter schools. But this year, all 428 sixth graders at Linwood Middle School in North Brunswick, N.J., are charting their own academic path with personalized student learning plans — electronic portfolios containing information about their learning styles, interests, skills, career goals and extracurricular activities. These new learning plans will follow each sixth grader through high school, and are intended to help the students assess their own strengths and weaknesses as well as provide their parents and teachers with a more complete profile beyond grades and test scores. The article is in The New York Times.
PROTESTS AND PROMISES OF SCHOOL IMPROVEMENTS
As the Chicago public schools system entered its annual process of selecting schools for closing or turnarounds, parents, teachers and community groups leveled criticism at school officials for the lack of communication with the communities involved and questioned data from the central office that does not match the reality in the schools. Some also pleaded for the district to delay any action until the corrective measures taken at the lowest-performing schools — the wholesale turnover of administrators and teachers — could be better evaluated and a comprehensive plan for school facilities could be developed by a new task force. The debate is drawing attention because a national program to restructure the worst-performing schools encourages states to use the same strategies that Arne Duncan, the federal education secretary, introduced as chief executive of the Chicago Public Schools. The article is in The New York Times.
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