The Week in Review / Educational Policy Institute

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They're From the Government, and They're Here to Help!

May 23, 2008

Alex Usher, Vice President, Educational Policy Institute

Sometimes, I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry at governments and their efforts to “help” parents and students. We’ve all hears the mantras from government – education is expensive, it’s so important to plan for education, etc. Heck, up here the government has managed to even get Education Savings brochures into hospitals so that parents can think about setting up savings plans for their wee ones while they’re in the post-natal recovery room.

As our minister for Human Resources said on Wednesday, "Families and students need straightforward solutions that they can count on from the time they start planning for post-secondary education to the time it is completed." True enough, Mr. Solberg. But the problem is that good planning requires good information. And the flow of good information coming from government is pretty small. The flow of bad and untimely information is, unfortunately, pretty high. READ MORE...

Big District, little district

The average school district in the United States and jurisdictions had 5.6 schools; in comparison, the 100 largest school districts averaged 163.3 schools per district.

Source: Characteristics of the 100 Largest Public Elementary and Secondary School Districts





	Great education debate: Reforming the grade system Steve Friess, USA Today In most math problems, zero would never be confused with 50, but a handful of schools nationwide have set off an emotional academic debate by giving minimum scores of 50 for students who fail. Their argument: Other letter grades — A, B, C and D — are broken down in increments of 10 from 60 to 100, but there is a 59-point spread between D and F, a gap that can often make it mathematically impossible for some failing students to ever catch up. Girls’ gains have not cost boys, report says Tamar Lewin, New York Times Echoing research released two years ago by the American Council on Education and other groups, a report published by the American Association of University Women says that while girls have for years graduated from high school and college at a higher rate than boys, the largest disparities in educational achievement are not between boys and girls, but between those of different races, ethnicities and income levels.	Courses give some a college try Ericka Mellon, Houston Chronicle Thanks to a recent statewide push, tens of thousands of students across Texas are taking these dual-credit courses, meant to bring more rigorous instruction to high school. The classes give students such as Furman, whose parents lack college degrees, a taste of higher education, while potentially saving on tuition down the road. Though research is limited, studies so far have shown that students who take dual-credit courses perform better in college than those who did not take the courses in high school. But as enrollment grows, educators, researchers and college officials are debating whether dual-credit classes are as challenging as the better known Advanced Placement courses and the more selective International Baccalaureate program.


	Administration unveils plan to protect student lenders David S. Hilzenrath, Washington Post On Wednesday (052108) the government outlined a financial rescue plan for student loan companies, offering to buy federally subsidized loans that lenders such as industry giant Sallie Mae said had become unprofitable. In a letter that detailed the plan, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings stated that the action is intended to protect lenders from losses over the next year and make sure that students have uninterrupted access to loans. Pa. education board to allow appointment of student members Associated Press, Pennsylvania Live Pennsylvania's high school and college students now have an opportunity to serve on the State Board of Education. The board voted unanimously Thursday to include current students or recent graduates as members for the first time in its 45-year history.	Major expansion of veterans’ tuition aid clears big hurdle Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Education Despite a veto threat from President Bush and with the presumptive Republican candidate to replace him in absentia, the U.S. Senate on Thursday approved legislation that would dramatically enhance educational benefits for veterans of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. And it did so, supporters of the measure were quick to note, by a margin (75-22) that could comfortably override the president’s veto. The legislation will now go back to the House, which passed a parallel bill last month but failed to muster a similar veto-proof margin.


	Number of over 30-s in third level education is soaring John Walshe, The Independent (Northern Ireland) The number of adults leaving work and going back to study full-time in college is rocketing. New figures show that there are now 10,500 full-time students in Ireland aged 30 and over in universities, institutes of technology and other higher education institutions. Testing the teachers: An attempt to tame the teachers union The Economist (Mexico City) It is perhaps the hardest reform of all. Pension systems or energy shortages can be fixed by cutting entitlements or spending more. But no amount of money can in itself make a million qualified teachers materialise in less than a generation. That is the aim of the “Alliance for Educational Quality” launched by Felipe Calderón, Mexico's president, this month.	Omnibus reforms to education system urgently needed—Roxas Inquirer (Philippines) Senator Mar Roxas warned that Filipino children are not getting enough education to succeed in their future careers. The Liberal Party president stressed that education is a “building blocks system” that will fall apart if the basic foundations are not learned by the students in their early years: whatever gaps there are in elementary or high school would no longer be bridged in college.


	Room for improvement in Ontario schools: Report David Psutka, Globe and Mail Ontario public schools have seen overall improvements in programs and resources, but they are not prepared for declining enrolment and lack a vision for education, according to a report by People for Education, a Toronto-based group. The report emphasizes Ontario schools' reluctance to implement recommendations while other provinces have been dynamic in modifying their education systems to reflect changing needs. Funding shortfall impacts adult ed Lorne Stelmach, Morden Times The Morden adult education centre is cost cutting to make up for a funding shortfall from the province. The centre had to take action after learning it would only receive a 1.7 per cent increase in funding for the 2008-09 school year. In a report to Western School Division trustees, director Ron Lyman said the funding of $348,500 was “far short of what is needed to maintain our current levels of programs.”	Opportunity fund gives students chance to ‘earn & learn’ University of Winnipeg With generous support from the federal and provincial governments and the private sector, The University of Winnipeg today launched the Opportunity Fund – an innovative student support program aimed at closing the “graduation gap” for hundreds of students traditionally under-represented at university.The “earn as you learn” approach is unique for a university in Canada, designed to assist Aboriginal children, young people from war-affected nations and refugee populations, and students from inner-city neighbourhoods – obtain financial help and encouragement to be successful in school. The Opportunity Fund is a comprehensive, three-part program, including fast-track bursaries, micro-financing, and tuition credits, that assists children as early as Grade 4 and extends all the way to adult learners.


	Hard lessons Jane Cafarella, The Age Limited work options, low and restricted welfare payments, HECS debts, rising food and petrol prices, soaring rents - all have made students living away from home, in particular, some of the poorest people in Melbourne. A Universities Australia report released last year, based on a national survey of students in Australia's 37 public universities, showed that, on balance, students are worse off today financially than they were in 2000. Elite schools given pledge on funding Anna Patty, Sydney Morning Herald Close to a third of private schools in NSW have become wealthier under the Federal Government's funding test, but the Minister for Education, Julia Gillard, has assured them they will not lose a cent in Commonwealth grants.	Few make big money Jill Rowbotham, The Australian Aspiring high-flyers should weigh carefully whether they want to risk a general staff position at an Australian university: the average across the three salary bands into which most people fall is $45,000. But there are a handful of fortunate individuals who are doing much better, according to Ian Dobson, a research fellow at Monash University's Centre for Population and Urban Research. Dr Dobson's work, published initially in Australian Universities Review, is derived from data provided to the former Department of Education, Science and Training, and includes only higher education staff, classified as non-academic, occupying a full-time or fractional full-time position and not working in independent operations, TAFE or co-operative research centres.


	Where the Girls Are: The Facts About Gender Equity in Education American Association of University Women “Where the Girls Are: The Facts About Gender Equity in Education” presents a comprehensive look at girls’ educational achievement during the past 35 years, paying special attention to the relationship between girls’ and boys’ progress. Analyses of results from national standardized tests, such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and the SAT and ACT college entrance examinations, as well as other measures of educational achievement, provide an overall picture of trends in gender equity from elementary school to college and beyond.


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.