The Week in Review / Educational Policy Institute

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The Burdens We Place on the Unprepared

March 28, 2008

Alex Usher, Vice President, Educational Policy Institute

I spent a significant portion of yesterday watching interviews with young students on the subject of financial aid. I suspect that hanging out behind a two-way mirror isn`t everyone's idea of fun, but let me commend the idea to you. Listening to students is important. Some of what they have to say is pretty startling.

I don't mean that in some kind of tabloid fashion; it's not like they are cold-hearted killers or something. But what they are is terribly, terribly unsophisticated. And their words made me wonder about how we may simply be wasting hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars worth of student assistance. READ MORE...

Hello!! Salut!! Ahoj!! In 2004, about 1.3 billion students were enrolled in schools around the world. Of these students, 685 million were in elementary-level programs, 503 million were in secondary programs, and 132 million were in higher education programs.

Source: Digest of Education Statistics, 2007





	Kids’ board games help to build math skills, study finds Joe Smydo, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Beyond serving as a pleasant pastime, some children's board games may help raise the math skills of disadvantaged pre-kindergarten students, according to a study at Carnegie Mellon University. Study to probe effect of charter management models Scott J. Cech, Education Week Researchers hope to answer questions regarding the effectiveness of charter school networks in improving their students’ academic achievement, in what they believe is the first comprehensive study of the efficacy of charter-management organizations, or CMOs, which is scheduled to be launched later this year.	Math WASL will be history by 2014 Linda Shaw, Seattle Times Gov. Christine Gregoire has agreed to toss out the math section of the 10th-grade WASL, after years of low pass rates and debate over whether it's the best way to gauge students' abilities. School’s cruel cut for gifted pupils Yoav Gonen, New York Post Tens of thousands of smart kids have applied for placement in much-coveted “gifted” or accelerated programs in city elementary schools - the very programs that are now on the chopping block.


	State Department will sponsor global higher education development summit in april Beth McMurtrie, Chronicle of Higher Education The U.S. Department of State is convening a higher-education summit next month to discuss building partnerships among American colleges, the private sector, and universities in developing countries. Study finds record education earmarks Alan Finder, New York Times Congress set aside a record $2.3 billion in pet projects for colleges and universities last year for research on subjects like berries and reducing odors from swine and poultry, according to an analysis by The Chronicle of Higher Education.	States heeding call to strengthen STEM Sean Cavanagh, Education Week Unnerved by job losses, weak test scores, and competition from an increasingly skilled foreign workforce, state officials have launched a variety of efforts to improve mathematics, science, and technology education, in an attempt to gird against whatever economic challenges may come. Those initiatives are being filed under an increasingly recognizable identifier: STEM, or science, technology, engineering, and math education. The term has become popular shorthand among policymakers convinced that schools must do a better job preparing students for an economy that will require different and more technically sophisticated skills.


	Education not delivering ‘results’ Chen Jia, China Daily Four in 10 Chinese complain about the yawning gap between large investments in education and its returns, a recent nationwide survey has showed Schools discriminating on enrolment-Hanafin Paul Anderson, Irish Times (Ireland) Some schools are using “subtle practices” to prevent children such as those with special needs or from the Traveller community from enrolling, acknowledged Minister for Education Mary Hanafin.	Education ministry ditches Limor Livnat’s ‘100 Zionist concepts’ program Or Kashti, Haaretz (Israel) One of the curricular cornerstones of the previous minister of education, aimed at teaching Zionism, democracy and cultural heritage to the country's junior-high students, is to be scrapped from next year in favor of a program based on primary texts. TUI rejects need for cuts in education Belfast Telegraph (United Kingdom) The Teachers Union of Ireland says it does not accept that spending on education must be cut back due to the current economic downturn.


	Consider free tuition, NSCC boss urges N.S. Amy Smith, Chronicle Herald (Nova Scotia) The president of the Nova Scotia Community College says that’s a question people should be asking themselves because 89 per cent of jobs in the province will require a post-secondary education by 2011. Universities reel under crush of students seeking counselling Janice Tibbets, National Post Universities nationwide say there has been a dramatic increase in recent years in students showing up at campus health services suffering from depression, anxiety and other mental health problems.	McGuinty banks on education over tax cuts Elizabeth Church, Globe and Mail Dalton McGuinty has worked hard to cast himself as the education premier. Now, as his government is confronting grim economic forecasts, he once again is turning to education to keep the wheels on the country's largest province.


	Education of refugees key to white flight: MP Anna Patty, Sydney Morning Herald The NSW Department of Education needs to take more of a leading role in where it educates refugee children to contain the spread of “white flight” from schools across Sydney, says a senior Federal Government MP. Canberra students top the class ABC News Online (Australia) The ACT Government says new research shows Canberra students are outperforming their interstate counterparts in all key areas of study.	Alliance deal for top unis Milanda Rout, The Australian Australia’s top two universities have put aside their competitive differences to join forces in an agreement that will allow staff exchanges, joint research projects and students to study at both institutions. The University of Melbourne and the Australian National University announced Wednesday (032608) they had signed a memorandum of understanding to create a “formidable alliance”. School drug tests dismissed Gerard Noonan, Sydney Morning Herald Testing Australian schoolchildren for drugs would waste more than $350 million a year and unnecessarily set students against teachers, a year-long study has found.


	Digest of Education Statistics, 2007 United States Department of Education The U.S. Department of Education today released its– “Digest of Education Statistics: 2007” an annual round-up of data on colleges and public schools made public over the past year. For example, the digest includes projections released in December that show college enrollment nationwide will continue to climb between now and 2016 — even as the number of new high school graduates is expected to dip. The round-up also includes information on the workload of faculty members, expenditures on education, and the educational attainment of the overall population. View Report Here Knocking at the College Door: Projections of High School Graduates by State and Race/Ethnicity Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) WICHE has released the 7th edition of “Knocking at the College Door: Projections of High School Graduates by State and Race/Ethnicity”. It indicates that the current academic year will set the high water mark for the number of high school graduates in the nation, with a gradual decline stretching for several years beginning next year. The report also documents the rapid diversification of our public high school graduating classes, fueled mostly by explosive growth among Hispanic graduates and a steady decline among White non-Hispanic graduates.View Report Here


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.