The Week in Review / Educational Policy Institute

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I FACULTY

March 21, 2008

Watson Scott Swail, President & CEO, Educational Policy Institute

Yesterday we wrapped up the North American tour, so to speak, of our Student Success Workshop series, which was a great success in cities across the US and Canada. It was my pleasure to complete our tour with our largest event at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, BC. As expected, it was a spirited group, as Canadians usually are.

One of the things we clearly understand is that to improve graduation rates, the entire institution, from custodial staff to the President, must buy-in to the philosophy and strategies of serving students. Tinto, Clewell, Noel, and others have pointed to these issues for four decades: ownership matters. However, also understood is the disconnect between certain groups on campus. In particular, that of “faculty” versus “staff,” where faculty is defined as the individual, not the department, as it typically is in Canada. When student support and other staff at campuses are surveyed, they typically note that faculty have less buy-in than other employees at the institution. READ MORE

At the forefront...Do you know who this is?

Famous female physicist and chemist

(See the Bottom of Dr. Swail's Commentary for the answer)

Women earned more than half of all Bachelors degrees and Science & Engineering degrees in 2005, though major variations persist among fields: Women earned more than half of bachelor’s degrees in psychology (78%), agricultural sciences (51%), biological sciences (62%), chemistry (52%), and social sciences (54%). This is compared to men, who earned the majority of bachelor’s degrees awarded in engineering (80%), computer sciences (78%), and physics (79%).

Source: National Science Foundation





	New program to take early action to help those failing V. Dion Haynes, Washington Post Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s administration plans to introduce early intervention programs next month that extend beyond the classroom for students who display academic and behavior problems. The pilot program includes in-home substance-abuse counseling, solutions for public-aid problems and other programs for students' troubled families. Passing eighth grade gets a little harder Elissa Gootman, New York Times The Bloomberg administration won approval for a new eighth-grade promotion policy last night (031708) that requires next year’s eighth graders to pass classes in core subject areas and to score at a basic level on standardized English and math exams to be promoted. The Panel for Education Policy, which oversees the city schools, approved the policy by a vote of 11 to 1 it’s meeting at Tweed Courthouse, the Education Department’s headquarters.	Schools aim to keep disabled kids at home Emily Alpert, Voice of San Diego San Diego Unified is pushing to integrate schools in an effort to ensure that disabled children can attend their neighborhood schools. The shift will pull kids with special needs, sometimes shunted into separate classrooms far from home, back into nearby schools as the school district decentralizes its services for disabled students. Preschool funding lags behind access Mindy B. Hagen, Charleston Post and Courier South Carolina ranked among the top 10 states in the nation last year in providing publicly-funded preschool programs to 4-year-olds, but state funding has not achieved the same high rating. The National Institute for Early Education Research's annual report, released on March 19th, placed the state 7th in the nation for its preschool access for 4-year-olds during the 2006-07 school year, but South Carolina ranked only 38th in the amount of state spending funneled to the program.


	Ban on affirmative action is constitutional, judge rules David Ashenfelter, Detroit FreePress A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging the constitutionality of Proposal 2, the 2006 statewide referendum that banned race and gender affirmative action in public university admissions and government and public school hiring and contracting. Poll shows stress pains many in college Alan Fram & Trevor Tompson (Associated Press), USA Today Most students in U.S. colleges are just plain stressed out, from everyday worries about grades and relationships to darker thoughts of suicide, according to a poll of undergraduates from coast to coast. The survey was conducted for the Associated Press and mtvU, a television network available at many colleges and universities.	Overhaul of Higher Education Act is magnet for lobbying Libby George, CQ Politics House and Senate negotiators have pushed off completion of a Higher Education Act overhaul until after the March recess, but interest groups representing students, colleges and state officials aren’t just whiling the time away. They’re furiously lobbying over provisions that still hang in the balance. The stakes are considerable. It’s been 10 years since a full renewal of the nation’s primary higher education law (PL 105-244) — 10 years since interest groups have had the chance to change the massive law. And even though the current rewrite would technically expire in five years, most in the higher education world believe a bill cleared this year will end up being the law of the land for at least another decade.


	Essay auctions ‘harder to catch’ BBC News Universities warn that students who cheat by commissioning essays from other students are proving harder to catch than other types of plagiarism. Students are using websites to outsource their essays- inviting other students to put forward their most competitive bids for the work. New education system revealed Cayman NetNews (Cayman Islands) The transformation of the Cayman Islands’ education system emanating from the National Consensus on Education Conference in 2005 continues with the introduction of a more personalised approach to secondary education, entitled “Better Pathways, Brighter Future.”	Pupils to start school day with Nintendo Lucinda Cameron, The Herald Primary pupils are to start the school day with a dose of Nintendo gaming to boost their learning ability, it was revealed yesterday. The children will play “brain training” exercises on the DS game console before going into their normal lessons. The scheme is to be used in 16 schools following a successful pilot in Dundee. English Teachers go through quality training Kang Shin-who, Korea Times The government plans to strengthen the existing training of Korean teachers of English at primary and secondary schools as part of its plan to upgrade the nation's English education. Teachers will get more opportunities to study teaching methodologies during overseas training programs under the project drawn up by the Lee Myung-bak administration.


	School division receives funding support for autism training Jennifer Nichols, Meadow Lake Progress (New Foundland) Ever since she got support from the Government of Newfoundland for autism funding and training, Carolyn Forsey has wanted to do the same for Saskatchewan, which currently has no form of training for parents, educators and sufferers of autism. Teachers vote to campaign for education Janet Steffenhagen, The Vancouver Sun Teachers began preparing Sunday for the 2009 provincial election, endorsing a political action plan intended to make public education a key campaign issue.	Canadians like RESP tax break Norma Greenaway, Regina Leader-Post A solid majority of Canadians say they support Liberal-initiated legislation that would provide tax deductions for contributions to Registered Education Savings Plans but few want to go to the polls over the issue, according to an Ipsos-Reid poll.


	You’re out: long suspensions from school rise Anna Patty, Sydney Morning Herald NSW Department of Education figures to be published today show the number of long suspensions has increased by more than 2000 in the past three years. Last year there were 13,406 suspensions for at least five days, compared with 12,326 in 2006. School heads want education funding overhaul ABC News Online (Australia) The Australian School Principals Association (APPA) will present a submission to the Federal Government today outlining the case for an urgent overhaul of education funding. The report will address the funding needs of all Australian primary schools over the next four years.	Teachers give up free days in 4% pay deal David Killick, Mercury, The Voice of Tasmania The state's public school teachers have agreed to a pay and conditions deal which will see them get a 4 per cent pay rise this year. Teachers and the Australian Education Union executive voted to accept the deal after stalled negotiations with the Government brought them to the brink of a strike in October. A less bookish approach Elisabeth Tarica, The Age International Baccalaureate educationists are talking to Australian schools about the best way to introduce a “career-related” certificate using aspects of the diploma offered at years 11 and 12, which is recognised by 3700 universities, as the program moves to attract wider groups of students.


	From High School to the Future: Potholes on the Road to College Consortium on Chicago School Research (CCSR) at the University of Chicago Since 2004, the Consortium has tracked the postsecondary experiences of successive cohorts of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) graduates and examined the relationship among high school preparation, support, college choice, and postsecondary outcomes. The goal of this research is to help CPS, other urban districts and national policy makers understand what it takes to improve the college outcomes for urban and other at-risk students who now overwhelmingly aspire to college. This second postsecondary report looks beyond qualifications to examine where students encounter potholes on the road to college. DOWNLOAD AND VIEW REPORT HERE English-Taught Programmes in European Higher Education. The Picture in 2007. The Academic Cooperation Association (ACA) International students have long favoured Anglophone countries as study destinations. And it goes without saying that the role of English as the lingua franca has been instrumental in attracting foreign students. In the last years of the past century, continental European higher education institutions started to teach in English, too, seeking to overcome their linguistic drawback. In 2002, the Academic Cooperation Association (ACA) produced the first ever overview and analysis of the phenomenon. This second report provides a follow-up as to how English-taught programmes in European higher education have developed since then. The study is based on surveys of all recognized higher education institutions (about 2,200) in 27 European countries in which English is not the domestic language. ACCESS ACA WEBSITE FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT THIS PUBLICATION


The Educational Policy Institute is an international non-profit think tank dedicated to the study of educational opportunity. The Week in Review is a weekly publication that highlights the top news stories, reports and statistics related to academic preparation and access and success in the US, Canada, and beyond. The publication also features a commentary written by either President Watson Scott Swail, EdD or Vice-President Alex Usher. To submit comments, news releases, or submissions, please email Dr. Watson Scott Swail at wswail@educationalpolicy.org or call (757) 430-2200.