The Week in Review / Educational Policy Institute

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Research is King

April 25, 2008

Alex Usher, Vice President, Educational Policy Institute

A minor talking point up in Canada this week is the fact that British Columbia got three new universities this week: University of the Fraser Valley, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, and Vancouver Island University. Except that it didn't; the former University College of the Fraser Valley, Kwantlen University College, and Malaspina University College are still the same old places, and in practical terms, few students will have noticed the difference between this week and next.

Over forty years ago, BC made a conscious decision to go big on 2-year colleges and stick to just three 4-year colleges (the University of British Columbia, the University of Victoria and Simon Fraser University). The concession was that these 2-year institutions would be tightly-integrated with the 4-years from a curriculum point of view, so that laddering between the two was easy.

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TEACHING IS AN EXPENSIVE BUSINESS...

In FY 06, $274.2 billion was spent on instruction. This includes spending on salaries and benefits for teachers and teacher aids, classroom supplies and services, and extracurricular and cocurricular activities.

Source: National Center for Education Statistics





	Education Secretary offers changes to ‘No Child’ Law Sam Dillon, New York Times Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings used her executive powers on Tuesday (042208) to propose a series of ninth-inning regulatory fixes to President Bush’s signature education law, No Child Left Behind, including requiring states to use a single federal formula to calculate and report high school graduation rates. Testing the teachers Kathleen A. Madigan, Boston Globe Teacher testing is the latest reform to come under fire. A bill that overwhelmingly passed the Senate and seems to have the Patrick administration's backing would allow some aspiring teachers in Massachusetts to be licensed even if they fail a licensure test three times. The administration says it's trying to develop alternate criteria for those whose scores are just shy of passing.	For children, a Better Beginning Donna St. George, Washington Post In a wide-ranging look at how children have fared in their first decade of life, a study to be released by the Foundation for Child Development offers a promising picture of American childhood: Sixth-graders feel safer at school. Reading and math scores are up for 9-year-olds. More preschoolers are vaccinated. Fewer are poisoned by lead. Cut off school-to-prison pipeline Veronica Garcia, Houston Chronicle The Texas Education Agency reports that statewide at every single grade level African-American students are overrepresented in the number of students who public schools suspend to disciplinary alternative education programs (DAEP). Latinos are overrepresented in 6th through 11th grades.


	Fixing the state's colleges Allison Sherry, Denver Post Those studying the future of college enrollment in Colorado focus much of their attention on demographic changes, particularly the fast growth in the state's Latino population, a group that as a whole is less apt to complete a college education than other ethnicities. 21st Century Teaching and Learning Ruth Reynard, T. H.E. Journal In recent years higher education has been challenged increasingly to provide good teaching and even institutions that previously had the luxury of mainly focusing on literary disciplines and research are being challenged to provide good teaching expertise through their faculty.	New report trumpets value of advanced degrees Richard Byrne, Chronicle of Higher Education A new report released today by the Council of Graduate Schools argues that those advanced degrees not only make a tangible difference in people’s lives, but provide American society with a vital knowledge base, economic capital, and social cohesion. The report, “Graduate Education and the Public Good,” cites knock-on effects from graduate education that extend past technological advances in medicine and other disciplines to include higher average salaries (which yield greater tax revenue) and replenishment of the nation’s teaching corps. Writing test found to be better predictor of college success than other parts of SAT Elizabeth F. Farrell,, Chronicle of Higher Education Math and critical reading may be important, but according to two recent studies, the writing portion of the SAT test is a better predictor of first-year college grades than the other sections.


	5,000 schools will be hit as teachers stage 24-hour strike over pay Sarah Harris & Ben Clerkin, Daily Mail (United Kingdom) A quarter of schools will close or cancel classes when the first national teacher’ strike in 21 years brings chaos this week. Exam trauma extra marks ‘unfair’ BBC News The National Union of Teachers wants stricter guidelines to stop parents exploiting a system giving children more time and extra marks in exams.	China launches renewed “Patriotic Education” Campaign across all sections in Tibet Phayul, Tibet The Chinese authorities in the “Tibet Autonomous Region” ('TAR') and other Tibetan areas in neighboring provinces have launched a two-months renewed "Patriotic Education" campaign covering almost every sections of society beginning primarily with the monastic institutions, party cadres, security forces and government employees, farmers and private entrepreneurs, educational institutions and common people, to denounce the Dalai Lama and the “splittist forces” in the coming two months.


	Where are the women? The IT boom is back, but no one is paying attention, especially women Stephanie Whittaker, Montreal Gazette Educators in the information technology sector are puzzled. They can't figure out why women are not enrolling in programs that lead to jobs in the high-tech field. Ominous outlook prompts penny pinching Richard Blackwell, Globe and Mail A new survey conducted by Gandalf Group for the Toronto advertising agency Bensimon Byrne shows that concerns about economic trends have many consumers planning to hang on to their cash.	Should three-year-olds be in school all day? Pieta Woolley, Straight.com (Vancouver) Within four years, B.C. may have full-day kindergartens for all three-, four-, and five-year-olds—not just the “needy” ones. In a four-sentence blip in the middle of the provincial throne speech on February 12, Lt.-Gov. Stephen Point announced that the government is establishing a new Early Childhood Learning Agency. Testing times? All too easy Amy Smith, Chronicle Herald (Nova Scotia) Nova Scotia’s elementary school students get mostly high marks for reading and writing, according to results of provincial literary assessments released Monday (042108). The results say 92 per cent of Grade 6 students met expectations for writing in the 2007-08 elementary literacy assessment, up from 88 per cent in the previous year.


	Academics, unis drive summit goals Jill Rowbotham, The Australian Universities were barely mentioned as a sector at the 2020 Summit in Canberra last weekend, although academics attended in force, contributed many of the ideas and will be crucial in their eventual implementation. But they can still take heart from its deliberations, according to sector lobby groups and associations. Public schools ‘risk being safety net’ The Age A leading education academic says Australia's public schools are at risk of becoming a residual system catering only to those who can't afford private fees.	Teacher reform won’t impact incentives Sydney Morning Herald A controversial new scheme allowing principals to directly hire staff will not undermine the current teacher transfer system, the NSW government says. Education cuts on the agenda Clinton Porteous & Melanie Christiansen, Courier Mail Summer school for teachers will be axed in next month’s federal Budget and a student voucher scheme for “catch-up classes” will end two years early. The Rudd Labor Government will use the May 13 Budget to sweep aside education programs of the former Howard government and put in places it’s own schemes.


	Parent Expectations and Planning for College Institute of Education Sciences, National Institute of Education Statistics This new report from the US Department of Education finds parents' expectations of their children to pursue PSE vary based on socioeconomic factors. The study shows Asian-American and foreign-born parents were more likely to expect their kids to obtain a bachelor's degree, while white parents knew more about education costs and would chip in for tuition. Single-parent families were less likely to expect their children to go to college, as were families of home-schooled children. Keeping Track: National Disability Status and Program Performance Indicators National Council on Disability The National Council on Disability (NCD) has released Keeping Track: National Disability Status and Program performance Indicators, calling on the Federal Government to do more now to improve federal data describing the status of Americans with disabilities. This report is the result of a year-long effort. It describes what is known about the status of people with disabilities in the United States, and examines current data to assess the extent to which they meaningfully measure the well-being of people with disabilities. The report includes a set of statistical social indicators that NCD believes are currently able to measure the progress of people with disabilities in important areas of their life, over time. The report includes 18 indicators determined by stakeholders to measure “quality of life” using both objective and subjective measures. The indicators span a variety of life domains, including employment, education, health status and health care, financial status and security, leisure and recreation, personal relationships, and crime and safety. Collectively they will create a holistic representation of the lives of people with disabilities.


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.