Welcome to Education This Week

The Educational Policy Institute is pleased to welcome you to the new Education This Week, our new weekly news and information service. We are also pleased to release our new Canadian edition today. New for EPi are guest commentaries from experts in education from the US, Canada, and the international community. Upcoming commentaries include Bill Tierney (USC), Don Heller (Penn State), Roseann Runte (President of Carleton University), and Ben Levin (University of Toronto), among others.

We hope you enjoy Education This Week and pass this on to your colleagues. Also feel free to read the Canadian verion by clicking the link above, and modify your membership to receive either commentary or both if you wish.

COMMENTARY

The Accountability Dilemma

WATSON SCOTT SWAIL, President & CEO, Educational Policy Institute

As I’ve often reported and discussed, the age of accountability has dawned in higher education. For literally centuries, higher education has been a self-audited society that has decided if it is good and accountable. But those days are gone. Stemming in part from the pressures from K-12’s No Child Left Behind legislation and part from the pressure from former commissions and blue ribbon panels on college costs, the public is more interested in ascertaining the “quality” of higher education than at any other time in our history. Why? In part, because we have so much information at our fingertips, because so much is measured, rated, and ranked, we expect to know what’s going on in higher education. We get it in elementary and secondary education (to a point), we get it in business and industry, and we also see it in government to a certain degree. Why not in higher education? Well, the train has left the station. READ MORE...

While Asian countries are sending more students to some of the world’s best colleges, the gap among developing nations is widening, and Latin American countries are lagging behind. The newly released 2009 Open Doors Report on International Education found the number of Mexican students at U.S colleges and universities stood still at 15,000. The total number of Asian students rose more than 9 percent, while the total number of Latin American students rose by 5 percent.
Source: Miami Herald

First Lady Promoted Exercise and Nutrition during Visit with Va. School Children
Michael Alison Chandler, Washington Post
As some schools trim or eliminate recess, others are extending the amount of time students spend outdoors. The First Lady visited Alexandria, VA on Wednesday to tour the school’s outdoor classrooms and promote the importance of nutrition and physical education in learning.

NJ School District Considering Fee for Detention
Philadelphia Inquirer
School board members in one New Jersey town want parents of high school students who are habitually sent to detention to pay. Two Nutley Board of Education members say the school district spends $10,000 per year in overtime and maintenance to run after-school detention. They say the students who are there all the time should help pay.

Lawsuit Seeks to Overhaul Florida Education Policies
Miami Herald
Low graduation rates, stagnant test scores, a persistent effort by lawmakers to shift education costs to school districts -- all of it shows Florida is not living up to a constitutional mandate to provide high quality schools, and a lawsuit is looking to have the state come up with a new education plan. Prepared by a team of lawyers that includes a former Democratic House speaker and a Republican Party patriarch, the suit takes aim at virtually every aspect of the sweeping education overhaul engineered by former Gov. Jeb Bush and kept largely intact by his successor, Gov. Charlie Crist.

Agriculture Chief Promises Better Food Alerts to Schools
Peter Eisler and Blake Morrison, USA Today
The federal government supplies 15%-20% of the food served in school lunches nationwide, but lack of communication prevents contamination warnings from reaching the USDA or school officials. Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vilsack said Tuesday the government will do a better job alerting schools on suspected contaminations.

Let's Face It: S.F. Has Good Public Schools
San Francisco Chronicle
After nearly 40 years of declining enrollment, the San Francisco Unified School District saw a boost in kindergarten applications the past two years. For the 2008-09 school year, applications were up by 308; for the 2009-10, they were up by an additional (and whopping) 500 from the past year. Believe it or not: Parents are sending kids to public schools in this city.

Finalists Named for Gates Teacher Grants
Stephen Sawchuk, Education Week
In a $500 million initiative to study, define, and promote effective teaching, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will issue awards to four finalists ranging from $40 million to $100. The awards will be disbursed over a period of six to seven years and will be used to reshape key aspects of teaching, including evaluation, compensation, and professional development.

California Students Upset Over Proposed 32% Tuition Hike
Alan Duke, CNN
Hundreds of students marched and chanted outside the UCLA building yesterday where California university officials are expected to approve a 32 percent undergraduate tuition hike over the next two years. The first tuition hike, which takes effect in January, will cost undergraduate students an additional $585 a semester. The second hike kicks in next fall, raising tuition another $1,344.

Academic Researchers’ Conflicts of Interest Go Unreported
Gardiner Harris, New York Times
A report from the Department of Health and Human Services shows 90 percent of universities rely on researchers themselves to decide whether money made in consulting and other relationships with drug and device makers was relevant to their government-funded research. In addition 50 percent of universities don’t ask their faculty members to disclose the amount of money or stock made from drug and device makers, too.

Many Parents Inaccurately Claim College Tax Credit
Stephen Ohlemacher, Associated Press
The Hope Credit provides up to $1,650 a year to help students pay expenses for the first two years of college, but a report issued yesterday by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, found more than 314,000 taxpayers made inaccurate claims, getting $532M they weren’t entitled to receive. The taxpayers claimed the credit for the same student three consecutive years in a row, instead of two.

Athletes' Graduation Rates Hit Another High, NCAA Says
Libby Sander, Chronicle of Higher Ed
College athletes continue to graduate at the highest levels since the National Collegiate Athletic Association began calculating the rate eight years ago, according to data released Wednesday. NCAA officials call the graduation-success rate a "trailing indicator" and have emphasized in recent years that the figures do not yet reflect stricter academic requirements for athletes that the association put in place in 2004.

Universities 'Bail Out Students'
BBC News
Students of poorer families experiencing higher education for the first time are being particularly hard hit as aid to around 70,000 students in England is still caught in delays. Now, universities are being forced to absorb costs such as rent, food, and course materials for students still awaiting loan moneys. The Student Loan company has apologized for the problems.

School Students Warned Against Work Overload
ABC News- Australia
In Australia, it’s believed around 260,000 students combine work with high school study. This is a positive experience for most, but a Parliamentary report shows too many hours can affect students’ studying. Sharon Bird, committee chairwoman Labor MP says secondary students value the chance to earn their own money.

British Council Sets Up Fund for Partnerships with U.S. Colleges
Aisha Labi, Chronicle of Higher Education
The UK-US Higher Education New Partnership Fund was introduced Monday in an announcement coincided with International Education Week, a joint project of the U.S. Departments of State and Education that promotes international study and opportunity. The Fund will develop joint workshops to help overcome barriers to growing partnerships between American and British institutions.

College Resurrects Grave Digging
BBC News
Peterlee Town Council in England realized the number of their staff members retiring or moving on. The council now has a new need to skill their parks workforce in grave digging. The council contacted East Durham College, explaining the situation, and before too long, staff resurrected a grave digging course, dropped four years ago due to lack of interest. More institutions are beginning to adjust to the needs of changing environments.

Teachers Prepare Anti-Government Election Campaign
Ben Worsley, ABC News- Australia
The Foundation for Young Australians surveyed 900 students from high schools across Australia to try to quantify the problem of schoolyard racism. The survey found that 70 percent of students reported suffering some form of racist abuse. It also found that Africans, Afghanis, Indians, Pacific Islanders and indigenous Australians suffered the most and the worst-affected group is first-generation migrant females in years 11 and 12.

Bridging the Gaps to Success
Promising Practices for Promoting Transfer among Low-Income and First-Generation Students
This new report from The Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education examines successful transfer strategies at six Texas community colleges. The study highlights what is working to increase transfer rates for low-income and first-generation students at each institution (TCCD Southeast Campus, Trinity Valley Community College, Northeast Texas Community College, Laredo Community College, Victoria College, and Southwest Texas Junior College) while gleaning a set of promising practices common to each of the schools that can inform other community colleges on how to establish successful transfer cultures.