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COMMENTARY
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Success at Every Step
April 9, 2010
By Sarah Hooker, Program Associate, American Youth Policy Forum
Ensuring youth success in postsecondary education requires intentional and comprehensive programs and policies at every level of the educational ladder. In a recent publication entitled Success at Every Step: How 23 Programs Support Youth on the Path to College and Beyond, the American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF) profiles programs that have been proven to help young people prepare for college, careers, and civic life, based on the results of recent, high-quality evaluations.
The included programs span the fields of comprehensive school reform, career and technical education, expanded learning opportunities, college access, dual enrollment, and postsecondary education. This publication is designed to help policymakers and practitioners learn about initiatives that have been effective in helping youth become ready for college and careers and analyze their implications for policy. READ MORE...
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| STATISTIC OF THE WEEK |
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According to new 2006 Census maps, over 13 million adults aged 15 and over had a PSE credential in 2006, up 32% from 2001. The census found that the majority of university graduates lived in urban areas, and a higher proportion of the population had trades certificates in rural areas than in urban. Most Canadians completed their PSE in their home province. The higher the level of education, the more likely an individual was to have earned their highest PSE credential outside of Canada. The most common country of study outside Canada was the US, followed by the UK, India, the Philippines, and China.
Source: Stats Can
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THE NEWS
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| ACADEMIC PREPARATION |
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No school closures, but 190 jobs on the line as Vancouver district wrestles with budget shortfall
By Janet Steffenhagen, Vancouver Sun
Vancouver won't close any schools immediately, but district officials are proposing a wide range of spending cuts for 2010-11 that include the elimination of 113 teaching positions in areas such as special education, band and strings, ESL and school libraries. Preliminary proposals to trim $18 million in spending, released Wednesday, also recommend chopping 10 days from the school calendar; reducing support staff, multicultural workers and administrators; trimming adult education, summer school and bus services and suspending all interior painting for one year. Overall, 190 full-time positions would be lost, representing a 3.4-per-cent staff cut.
Why school boards should follow Edmonton's lead
By Michael Zwaagstra, Toronton’s Globe and Mail
Like many other urban school divisions, the Toronto District School Board continues to struggle with declining enrolment due to private school competition and parents who move to the suburbs. But a plan for the development of specialty schools could be just the thing needed to rejuvenate Toronto's stagnated public school system – provided it does it right. According to education director Chris Spence, the Toronto board plans to allow four specialized elementary schools to open in September of 2011 – a school for boys, a school for girls, a choir school and a sports academy. They will operate within the public system and have an open enrolment policy. No tuition fees will be charged.
Students honoured for making a difference
By Trevor Suffield, Winnipeg Free Press
Judy Leung is not your typical high school student. The Elmwood High School Grade 12 student maintains a demanding schedule that includes regular school, Chinese school, and volunteering seven days a week. Leung’s efforts haven’t gone unnoticed. She was one of six students from across the province who were recently awarded Student Citizenship Awards by the Manitoba School Boards Association. The awards were given in recognition of the positive efforts of students to make their communities better. Students were nominated for the awards by their local school boards.
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| POST-SECONDARY ACCESS AND SUCCESS |
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University pays off for native women
By Norma Greeaway, Canwest News Service
A university degree is proving to be the ticket for aboriginal women in Canada to earn higher incomes than their non-aboriginal counterparts with equivalent education, says a groundbreaking report expected to be released today. The study says an analysis of 2006 census information uncovers the "truly remarkable fact" that income inequity between aboriginals and non-aboriginals is entirely eliminated for women with university degrees. The report, sponsored by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, said aboriginal women with a bachelor's degree earned $2,471 more in 2006 than their non-aboriginal counterparts, a spread that grew to $4,521 for aboriginal women with a master's degree.
Most tuition hikes rejected
By Elise Stolte, Edmonton
Advanced Education Minister Doug Horner agreed to tuition hikes in four University of Alberta programs and two at the University of Calgary, but rejected the majority of requests from post-secondary institutions to raise fees, he announced Wednesday. None of the increases will affect students currently in school or starting this September; their tuition will be grandfathered. The first students to pay the increased rates will be those who start in September 2011.
U of C cutting medical spaces
By Eva Ferguson, Calgary Herald
Enrolments at the University of Calgary's medical school are expected to be cut by as many as 40 students this fall despite an earlier provincial vow to graduate more health professionals. Cuts to the number of students entering nursing and the Haskayne School of Business are also expected. A funding freeze to postsecondary institutes will ensure the U of C's faculty of medicine 2010 class of first year students will be significantly smaller than last year's group of 180. While administration wouldn't confirm the exact number, students and other sources say about 40 fewer positions will be available.
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| INTERNATIONAL NEWS |
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Foreign-student applications rise 7% at American graduate schools
By Karin Fischer, The Chronicle of Higher Education
Applications by international students to American graduate schools are up 7 percent over last year, reversing a three-year trend of slowing growth in overseas applicants, according to a report released on Tuesday by the Council of Graduate Schools. The admissions data in the report are welcome news after first-time enrollments of foreign students were flat last fall, raising questions about the reliance of American universities on international talent at the graduate level. But while the report's author calls the figures "an encouraging sign," he cautioned that admissions data often are not a strong indicator of enrollment trends.
All together now
By Melanie Newman, The Times Higher Education
A university has issued guidance advising academics on how to tailor courses to engage students regardless of class, disability, gender or race. Lancaster University’s guide, drawn up as part of a Higher Education Academy project, “Designing an Inclusive Curriculum in Higher Education”, will be published later this year and will include advice on how to use course content to “address gendered, social class, race or disability perspectives”. In one example cited, female engineering students are asked to write a paper on why women are under-represented in the subject.
Rudd government’s ‘lack of interest’ caused schools fiasco
By Michael Owen, The Australian
Co-ordinator-General Rod Hook, appointed by the Rann government 15 months ago to deliver South Australia's $1.37bn slice of Building the Education Revolution projects, said the other states had ignored his wealth of experience in government procurement and major infrastructure project management. Rather than adopt South Australia's sound model, the other states had appointed unnecessary middlemen to deliver BER projects and mired the program in controversy over cost blowouts, price gouging and wastage.
Back to school among the bulldozers
By Clement Sabourin, AFP
Children in pink and white uniforms ignore the bulldozer leveling the schoolyard as they line up excitedly for class yesterday, almost three months after Haiti's devastating earthquake. Before the Jan. 12 disaster, the Institution Sacre-Coeur used to teach 1,500 children ranging from 3 to 18 years old. Hundreds are now returning for the first time since the quake for lessons under hastily erected tents. The school's theatre, chapel and all the classrooms have been badly damaged and like many Port-au-Prince buildings find themselves "red-zoned" on a demolition waiting list. Only the roof of the gymnasium remains intact. The Haitian government has launched a tentative return-to-class campaign and encouraged schools in the capital to start welcoming students again.
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