What's News in Education

Press Release: U-M Experts: Gym Gone But Not Forgotten? Parents Want More Physical Activity at School for Kids

This press release begins with a lead telling how many children are overweight, how schools can help, and that recent budget cuts and academic concerns are leading schools to cut back on recess and gym class.  The story describes the results of a poll of parents of elementary level students about their views on physical activity in schools.  Many parents think there is not enough time or equipment for physical activity in schools. 

This press release was well written and effective.  The title describes the content well, and it has an effective lead that draws people’s attention.  The piece does not follow AP style when using numbers, and is inconsistent – some numerals, some written out.  The article only quotes one person, though she is an expert and the director of the poll the article reports on.  The article has a section at the end that provides resources for people seeking more information.  There is also a description of the institute that the information is from, the poll analyzed in the article, and the results of that poll.  This section explains the source of the article content, and establishes the credibility of the information. 

Multiple news sources used the press release as a story used the text verbatim, without correcting the AP style errors.  The American Banking and Marketing News website attributed the PR Newswire as where it got the story, while Yahoo News did not reference the PR Newswire but the original writers.

When they return to school next fall, Bowling Green State University students will have a new president.  Dr. Mary Ellen Mazey was chosen last week to be the BGSU’s 11^th president. 

Students say that being open to suggestions and opinions of university staff and students is a good quality for a leader to have.  According to a story on the BGSU website, after being chosen for the job, Mazey said, “the next few months will be a learning experience … the first thing that I’ll be doing is listening.”  Business major Nicole Neyer, 20, from Cincinnati, Ohio, said that by communicating with students and staff, Mazey will find out what the university needs, and be able to effectively make the university better.

Mazey has thirty years experience working in higher education, twenty-six of which were in Ohio.  Rachel Tobe, 20, a dietetics student from Fort Recovery, Ohio, said that because of her experience, Mazey “knows where education’s lacking, and knows the ultimate goals of education.”  She knows what it is like to run a university, and can find and fix faults in the system.  

In a Toledo Blade article, Mazey said she understands that one of her biggest challenges will be balancing the university’s budget.  She has experience dealing with cutbacks, including $100 million in cuts at her current institution.  At BGSU, one strategy Mazey will use is to find ways that BGSU can increase its own revenues.  “We’ll do everything we can to continue to build BGSU through these difficult times,” she said in the Blade article. “We can’t let [state cuts] stop us.”  Students said that this experience will help her to know what should or shouldn’t be cut.

Kaitlyn Pukansky, 18, an environmental science student from Colorado Springs, Colo., said if funding to student organizations is reduced, some groups will need to learn how to fundraise for themselves, but everyone will adapt to budget changes. 

Architecture major Elissa Barnes, 19, from Port Clinton, Ohio, says that even though everyone will not agree with Mazey’s decisions, she should do what she thinks is right, and be sure to listen to the other side’s opinions on budget issues. 

Several students were concerned that the budget reductions may lead to higher tuition rates.  One student said she wasn’t concerned about budget cuts “just as long as they don’t bother me.  And tuition doesn’t go up.”

Many parents are choosing to take their children out of public school and educate them at home.  According to a national survey and research, there are over 1.5 million home-schooled students, a 75 percent increase from the 850 thousand students being home-schooled ten years ago.

In a Yahoo article, home-schooling families give reasons such as concern about public school environments, strengthening family ties, and being able to provide more time for children’s interests by developing individualized curriculum.

Robert Kunzman, author of a book on homes-chooling, said “It’s the moral or ethical milieu, an emphasis or perceived over-emphasis on categorization and labeling of kids, violence and safety.”

In an article on the home-school trend , a couple who home-schools their children say they have nothing against the local school system, except that it cannot provide individualized, one-on-one instruction.  The mother also says, “We’re giving [our kids] a very strong foundation so that when they go out in the world they’re able to be a strong model in the face of negative influences rather than being influenced by those negative things.”

Home-schooling families have more resources and support systems than before, due to increased visibility and awareness, and the availability of resources through the Internet.  According to a Yahoo article, home-schooled students have opportunities to perform in concerts and theaters, special museum programs, and can take classes to earn college credits.  

The increased popularity of home-schooling shows that it can be beneficial and a positive experience for some children.  NHERI research shows that about three-quarters of a sample of home-educated adults are choosing to home-school their own children.

Copies of the U.S. Government budget for Fiscal Year 2012

The Obama administration this week released its spending proposal for the fiscal year of 2012, according to an article on EdWeek.  The administration is asking for $77.4 billion in education funding, a 4 percent increase from 2010 funding. 

The Obama administration proposal follows the Feb. 10^th proposal of House Republicans to cut education funding by $4.9 billion for 2011.  The Republican proposal would cut Title I funding by $693.5 million, and would cut special education funding by $557 million from its 2010 budget of $11.5 billion.  The Head Start program, which provides resources and education to disadvantaged pre-school children, would face the largest reduction, a cut of $1 billion.  The Republican proposal would also cut funding to many smaller literacy and education programs. 

President Obama recognizes the need to reduce federal spending, but said “education is an investment that we need to win the future.”  The proposal put forth by the Obama administration seeks to increase funding for Title I and special education, which affect school districts across the country.  The administration seeks an increase of $300 million for Title I, a reading program for disadvantaged students.  It also looks to increase special education funding by $200 million.  

The administration repeats a previous proposal   “asking Congress to combine 38 programs into 11 broader funding streams.”  For example, several smaller programs for improving teacher quality would be combined into a single program.  The Obama administration is also asking for funding to continue President Obama’s Race To The Top program, which according to the official website,  the US Department of Education is using to “incentivize states to produce measurable student gains,” rewarding schools with funding to implement their plans.

The U.S. News & World Report is planning on assessing more than 1,000 teachers colleges, grading them A through F.  Many deans and schools are protesting this plan, saying that their methods are flawed and the scoring criteria is not clear.  The project, which will be completed next year, will cost $3.6 million and is being supported by education foundations such as the Carnegie Corporation and the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation.

An editor of U.S. News, Brian Kelly, said “This is coming at a time when you have this tremendous national push for improvements in teacher quality: Who’s teaching the teachers?”  The National Council of Teacher Quality is in charge of this proposed grading of education colleges, and the main purpose of which is to “provide school districts and other education consumers with more information about the training teacher-candidates receive.”  As described on edweek.org , the council will rate teacher education programs on an A-F scale on up to 17 standards.  These include whether teacher candidates are well trained in the areas of teaching and math, the length and quality of their field experiences, and whether the program includes training on how to work with English-language learners.  In response to the criticisms, the council has put its scoring criteria on its website to be publicly accessible. 

According to another article from edweek.org  and NY Times, when the council first sent requests to education schools in January, at least two groups of deans objected with letters to U.S. News.  One dean wrote, “The data-collection process must itself be transparent and clear, the assessments must be reliable, and the presentation of findings must be honest and fair. Without these characteristics, the rating will be meaningless.”  The dean of the Steinhardt School of Education at New York University said, “Nobody’s against rankings, nobody’s against evaluation, nobody’s even against high-stakes evaluations. But if the methodology is flawed, how does that serve the public?”

In order to arrive at its ratings, the council will ask schools for detailed information about courses, textbooks, and admissions criteria.  Some objections follow that the review is too focused on teacher preparation programs, with not enough focus on measuring what graduating teacher candidates have learned and can do effectively in the classroom.   A representative group for the education schools made a statement that grading schools based on  course descriptions and textbooks  is like  “evaluating the quality of restaurants by only requesting that menus be mailed to the evaluator — without sampling the food or visiting the site.”

President of the council Kate Walsh said that “short of sitting in on a college’s classes for a year,” her evaluation methods are sound.  She explained “we’re asking folks to put that to the side and recognize what we all recognize, that there are many institutions in the U.S. not preparing teachers adequately, in addition to many doing a great job.”  She also said that rating education schools will provide valuable for  public schools for teacher recruitment. 

The Dean  of the education school at Rutgers University in New Jersey is still considering whether to take part in the review.   “It’s unfortunate that this can be painted as shying away from evaluation,” he said. “But that’s not what it’s really about. You have to have judgment criteria that are clear and evidence everyone can see.”

President Obama’s State of the Union speech on January 25 addressed many topics, including education.  Before and after the President’s speech, transcripts were made available to the public and news media, including the Huffington Post. 

President Obama stated that if we want to “win the future,” then we have to “win the race to educate our kids.”  He reminded listeners that the U.S. is falling behind other nations in math and science proficiency.  He challenged citizens and parents, asking if they were “willing to do what’s necessary to give every child a chance to succeed.”  He reminded parents and families of their role in education, and of “instill(ing) the love of learning in a child.”  The President referred to a program called Race to the Top, which he said “should be the approach we follow … as we replace No Child Left Behind with a law that is more flexible and focused on what’s best for our kids.”

President Obama continued his speech to promote the need for good teachers.  We need to reward good teachers, he said, and stop making excuses for bad teachers.  The President spoke to young people contemplating their future careers, “If you want to make a difference in the life of our nation; if you want to make a difference in the life of a child — become a teacher.”  He concluded that if we raise expectations and support childrens’ education, the country could reach a goal he set in 2009; that “by the end of the decade, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.” 

An article on  ABC News further explains the Race to the Top program, which President Obama established in early 2009.  “The $4.3 billion program was part of the Recovery Act and is designed to reward states that are “implementing significant education reforms.””  This is less than 1 percent of what the U.S spends on education.  Schools that have good plans to reform education are being financially rewarded.  ABC News further explains that this competition has led to 35 states adopting “rigorous common academic standards in reading and math,” and changing laws and policies to improve education.  Some critics question the possibility of some schools being left behind in the competition, or doubt the long-term effectiveness of the plan.

A student at the University of Colorado decided to make a point about how expensive college is by paying his $14,000 tuition in cash.  According to a story on  Salon.com,   after going to six banks, Nic Ramos walked in to pay his tuition with a 33 pound bag full of one dollar bills. He joked, “It’s not often you get to walk out of a bank with a suitcase full of cash.”  The university staff, who had to count the money, saw the humor in the end but asked him not pay in cash again. 

In an interview with CBS news, UC Regent Michael Carrigan said, “We know that tuition is expensive, but it’s an investment in one’s future.”  He explained that while tuition is expensive, the burden of the cost actually falls on the state.  The school has made extensive cuts, $50 million in the past few years.  Even so, the school had to raise tuition 5 percent last year, and predicts an increase of up to 9 percent this coming year.  “The state of Colorado needs to step up, because we are now 49^th in the nation for funding higher education” Carrigan continued.  “The more the legislature cuts, the more we have to turn to students and their families.” 

The student, Nic Ramos, explains more in his Skype video on CNN

My name is Jennifer Clark.  I am a senior level student at BGSU, majoring in Early Childhood Education – Elementary school level.  I have an intervention specialist (special education) minor, and I am currently working on a minor in Journalism.