01.31.06

emotional wellbeing affects children’s learning

Posted in News at 12:25 am by Paloma Cruz

Child’s academic success tied to emotional stability
Author says impulse control precedes learning
– reported by the Houston Chronicle

Besides preparing children for school by teaching them about colors, the alphabet and geometrical shapes, early childhood teachers and caregivers should also deal with the child’s social, emotional, cognitive and physical well-being.

So said Pam Schiller, an early childhood consultant and author, as she spoke Saturday to the 2,500 participants in the 20th annual Early Childhood Winter Conference.

Relationships between children and their teachers are as crucial as child’s home environment, said Schiller, who added children’s trust must be earned before trying to teach them. She said often by the time children become comfortable with their teachers, the child is advanced to another grade.

[snip]

01.30.06

Duke University drops to 27th place

Posted in News at 11:48 pm by Paloma Cruz

Duke, UNC MBA programs lose ground in annual rankings
– reported by Triangle Business Journal

The full-time MBA programs at both Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill took substantial nosedives this year in the Financial Times’ Global Top 100 MBA Ranking released Monday.

The MBA program at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business fell from 18th position last year to 27th this year, just two spots ahead of UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, which fell from 17th to 29th. Duke tied for 27th with Esade Business School in Spain.

Wake Forest’s Babcock Graduate School of Management ranked 70th on the annual list.

[snip]

U.S. business schools claimed 57 of the top 100 global business school spots in Financial Times’ 2006 rankings. European schools accounted for 27 rankings, followed by 7 Canadian schools.

Minnesota school districts to receive $55.2M from Microsoft

Posted in News at 11:45 pm by Paloma Cruz

State schools to get $55.2M from Microsoft settlement
– reported by Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal

Minnesota school districts will receive $55.2 million in vouchers for computer hardware and software as part of a settlement with Microsoft Corp.

Districts will start receiving the vouchers this week, Gov. Tim Pawlenty announced Monday. The money comes from a $174.5 million settlement related to a class-action lawsuit that accused Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft (NYSE: MSFT) of overcharging Minnesota consumers and businesses for certain products.

Under the Microsoft settlement, approved in 2004, consumers and businesses who bought certain Microsoft software products in Minnesota were eligible to receive vouchers from the company for new computer hardware or software. After the deadline for the public passed, half the value of the unclaimed vouchers was made available to the Minnesota Department of Education.

The department will distribute the vouchers to 467 school districts and charter schools in various amounts, ranging from several hundred dollars to $6.3 million. The voucher amount for individual school districts is based on each district’s percentage of the state’s students eligible for free- and reduced-price lunch.

[snip]

01.28.06

$1 billion endowments

Posted in News at 7:26 pm by Paloma Cruz

More than 50 colleges now have more than $1 billion endowments
– reported by KTRK ABC Channel 13

The number of U.S. colleges with endowments topping $1 billion has jumped to 56, a new study says, with nine schools joining the elite club in what was an average year for university investments overall.

Harvard remained the richest, with $25.5 billion, followed by Yale with $15.2 billion.

[snip]

The National Association of College and University Business Officers surveyed 746 institutions for the study. It found that those institutions earned a median of 9.3 percent on their investments in the year ending June 30, compared to 15.1 percent in fiscal 2004 and 3 percent in 2003.

Colleges typically spend about 5 percent of their endowment per year to support everything from scholarships to landscaping. Accounting for inflation and management fees, the investments generally need to earn about 9 percent to preserve their spending power. Last year’s 9.3 percent return precisely matched the 10-year average.

[snip]

The other eight universities passing the $1 billion endowment mark were: University of Wisconsin Foundation, University of Nebraska and Foundation, University of Delaware, University of Cincinnati, Amherst College, Smith College, Southern Methodist University, and Baylor College of Medicine

01.24.06

Florida recruiting teachers

Posted in News at 10:52 pm by Paloma Cruz

State unveils $239M teacher plan
– reported by The South Florida Business Journal

At an event this morning at a Miami-Dade County middle school, the governor recommended the state allocate $239 million to recruit and retain high-quality teachers.

Part of the plan includes helping educators know about options to make housing more affordable for teachers - a problem especially in South Florida. The plan also includes the participation of a Coral Gables-based advertising firm to help boost awareness of the state’s teacher shortage. Cooper DDB, which the state said is working pro bono, is to use emotional appeals to show how the state needs 30,000 new teachers - though students need need only one. The campaign may include using Internet marketing techniques, advertising placement in college publications and development of other collateral materials.

In addition to the awareness drives, the Department of Education said it plans a national recruitment effort and expansion of the www.teachinflorida.com Web site.

The site allows teachers to post their resumes online and review job announcements. The site is also where the state is to explain about-low interest loans and zero-down payment housing programs for teachers.

[snip]

college experiment in Mexico City

Posted in News at 12:02 am by Paloma Cruz

Experiment opens college to everyone in Mexico City
Presidential hopeful hails it as the future; critics call it populism running amok
– reported by the Houston Chronicle

There are no entrance exams. In fact, there are no exams at all, nor grades. Classroom attendance is optional, and tuition is free.

Welcome to the Autonomous University of Mexico City, or UACM. This radical experiment in higher education is how Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the presidential front-runner, sees the future of public universities in Mexico: accessible to all, regardless of age, income or academic achievement.

The former Mexico City mayor created the UACM by decree in April 2001, fulfilling a pledge to give disadvantaged residents the chance to attend college. If elected president in July for the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, he has vowed to re-create the experimental model in 30 new public universities across Mexico.

[snip]

It is a radical response to a well-known problem: the failure of public universities to meet growing demand for college education in Mexico. While record numbers of Mexican students are graduating from high school, only 20 percent attend college — a figure that is low even by Latin American standards. Meanwhile, enrollments in private universities have more than doubled from 15 percent in 1985 to the current 33 percent, according to Mexico’s Public Education Secretariat.

The result is a growing divide between those who can afford to pay for higher education and those who cannot.

[snip]

The UACM is the first public university created in the capital in three decades, and one of a tiny handful opened nationwide. It is also the first to cater to underprivileged residents. The vast majority of its 6,200 students come from poor, working-class families, according to administrators.

The university’s four campuses are in some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods, including one built inside a former women’s prison, in the working-class slums of Iztapalapa. And there are plans for a fifth campus; the goal is to bring enrollment up to 15,000 within the next four years.

[snip]

Students say they are too busy studying and holding down full-time jobs to worry about politics. The university offers morning and evening shifts to accommodate the majority of students who work.

Many are middle-aged women who were forced to drop out of school after they had children. Others, such as Leticia Arroyo, 31, attended public high schools that failed to prepare them for the competitive college admissions’ process.

[snip]

01.23.06

Spring school is honored

Posted in News at 10:54 pm by Paloma Cruz

Spring school receives technology award
– reported by the Houston Business Journal

Spring’s Stelle Claughton Middle School was one of 60 schools across the country to receive a $15,000 Best Buy te@ch award for demonstrating an innovative use of technology to improve the classroom experience.

[snip]

01.22.06

an education crisis

Posted in News at 11:17 pm by Paloma Cruz

Lindemann: crisis looms in economy
Under-schooled population poses problems for area
– reported by the Pasadena/Baytown news

[snip]

“There’s a huge gap between the requirements of the entry-level jobs in our area and the education level of the work-force population. That’s the perfect storm.”

The crisis is looming, he said, because many workers who were hired 25 or 30 years ago and have received on-the-job retraining throughout their careers are getting ready to retire. The number of East Harris County workers who are qualified to replace them will probably fall short of the need, he said.

[snip]

In that same 33-year period, the Hispanic population grew from about 98,860 to 468,480, nearly quadrupling with an increase of 374 percent. Meanwhile, the Anglo population decreased from about 433,000 to 306,700, or about 30 percent.

Between 1970 and 2005, the Hispanic percentage of the total population grew from 17.5 to 57.4, while the percent white decreased from 76.5 percent to 31.5 percent, according to the college’s report.

The importance of these figures is that Hispanics have lower education levels than whites, African-Americans and Asians, Lindemann said.

The explanation for the lower education attainment of Hispanics, the chancellor said, is recent immigration.

[snip]

Sometime between 2020 and 2035, Texas will be more than 50 percent Hispanic. This trend doesn’t matter, Murdock said, unless Hispanic education levels continue to lag behind.

But if education differences remain, Texas will be poorer and less competitive than it is today, he said.

[snip]

local schools are ranked

Posted in News at 10:51 pm by Paloma Cruz

Houston-Area School Districts Ranked Top In Nation
– reported by Click2Houston.com

Several Houston-area school districts have been recognized as some of the best in the nation, according to a survey released in December conducted by a business magazine that helps corporate executives decide where to move their business.

Expansion Management Magazine’s 15th annual Education Quotient ranked the Katy and Klein independent school districts in the top 17 percent of school districts across the nation.

Other Houston-area school districts named in the top 33 percent are:

  • Clear Creek
  • Conroe
  • Cypress-Fairbanks
  • Fort Bend
  • Humble
  • Pearland
  • Spring Branch

The Houston and Galveston independent school districts were both ranked in the middle 42 percent. Galveston ranked in the 57th percentile, while Houston ranked in the 27th percentile.

Aldine Independent School District was the only Houston-area school district surveyed in the poll that did not rank in the top 25 percent. It ranked in the 14th percentile.

[snip]

camping out for a good preschool spot

Posted in News at 10:48 pm by Paloma Cruz

Parents camp out to secure spot for their children in preschool
– reported by KTRK ABC Channel 13

A group of Houston area parents are planning well in advance for their children’s educations, some are hoping for college scholarships. But to get there they first had to spend days camped out trying to get them into preschool.

Some parents arrived on Friday afternoon. While some say it’s just a preschool, these parents know it’s much more than that.

Tents, chairs, sleeping bags, books and drinks — these were some of the supplies brought by parents in for the long haul. The Monday morning registration brought some parents out as early as Friday afternoon. What could be that impressive about the Houston Junior Forum Community House preschool?

[snip]

The preschool opened its doors in 1952 and is funded by the Junior Forum. Monday morning, of 98 slots, there were only 35 open for the three- and four-year-olds. But this community in the east end knows that kids who attend there have a magical beginning for several reasons.

[snip]

Eighty percent of the students who attend this preschool graduate from high school. A large number continue on to college.

Sounds worth it to me.

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