02.26.06
Posted in News at 11:39 pm by Paloma Cruz
According to a recent poll, Texans would:
Poll: 52% of Texans would pay more for schools
– reported by KHOU CBS Channel 11
The majority of Texans, despite being tax leery and skeptical of government spending, are willing to open their wallets to provide more money for public education, according to a new statewide survey.
A poll conducted for The Dallas Morning News shows that 52 percent of Texans say they would pay more in state taxes if the money went to schools, while 39 percent oppose an increase.
[snip]
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02.25.06
Posted in News at 10:30 pm by Paloma Cruz
NEA’s Read Across America Day Celebrations
– reported by HispanicAd.com
There’s only one event that will get teachers, principals and school employees to dye their hair blue, cook up a breakfast of green eggs and ham, or be duct-taped to a wall if it boosts their students’ enthusiasm to read. Nearly 45 million are joining the National Education Association in the ninth annual Read Across America Day, to bring the gift of reading to children who have been affected by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma.
Starting this month, Read Across America will travel to the Gulf Coast region on a Reading Relief Tour to visit public school libraries impacted by the hurricanes. Three Cat-A-Van tours will kick-off in Mobile, Ala., Jackson, Miss., and Houston on Feb. 28, and will culminate in the New Orleans area with Read Across America Day on March 2—the birthday of beloved children’s author Theodor Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss.
[snip]
The tour route will include book donations and read-in stops in more than 26 Gulf Coast cities, including Baton Rouge, La., Beaumont, Texas, and Biloxi, Miss. During the tour, a host of celebrities, athletes and public figures will participate in reading events and drop off books to public school libraries and their students.
[snip]
For more at http://www.nea.org/readacross
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Posted in News at 9:52 pm by Paloma Cruz
College donations climb to a record
– reported by the Houston Chronicle
Donors gave an all-time record of at least $25.6 billion to American colleges and universities in 2005, an increase of 4.9 percent over the year before, thanks largely to greater generosity from alumni and foundations.
Stanford raised $603.6 million, more than any other university last year, and the second-highest total ever behind Harvard’s $683 million in 2001, according to the annual survey released last week by the Council for Aid to Education.
Second was the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with $595.2 million, including a $296 million foundation grant awarded to its medical school after the conversion of Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Wisconsin to a for-profit company.
Next was Harvard ($589.9 million), the University of Pennsylvania ($394.3 million) and Cornell ($353.9 million).
[snip]
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Posted in News at 12:04 pm by Paloma Cruz
They do according to a recent article in the Houston Chronicle. Buried deep in “Gender wage inequality persists, study says” is the following information:
Female high school teachers, for example, earned an average of $42,848, compared with $49,660 for men who have the same tenure and credentials.
Lovely.
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02.24.06
Posted in News at 9:49 pm by Paloma Cruz
Navigating college savings accounts
Controversial funds are seeing some changes
– reported by the Houston Chronicle
[snip]
In the decade since they were created by Congress, so-called 529 college savings plans have soared in popularity. By the end of last year, Americans had $80.3 billion invested in 8.1 million accounts.
But as the first generation of students and parents take advantage of the plans, complaints are mounting about poor returns, high fees and confusion generated by the 80-odd different programs offered by state agencies around the country.
[snip]
CRASH COURSE IN COLLEGE SAVINGS
Here are some of the basic ways to save taxes on money meant for college costs:
• 529 savings plans: Money saved may be used tax-free for educational expenses. Some states match contributions or provide tax breaks for them. The money can be used for any U.S. college, and the donor retains control of account. But investors’ options are limited, and they could lose money with more aggressive choices. No plan has a track record longer than 10 years.
• Coverdell education savings accounts: Known as Education IRAs until they were renamed for Paul Coverdell, the late Georgia Republican senator who helped create them. They allow a broader range of investments than 529s and similar tax benefits. Some financial advisers like them because the money can be used for primary and secondary education, and the accounts can have lower expenses. But annual contributions are capped at $2,000 per child, and the money isn’t returnable if it isn’t used.
• Uniform transfers or gifts to minors: These are custodial accounts set up on behalf of a minor. These are free to invest in a wide variety of vehicles and are less expensive than setting up a trust. But the child takes control of the money at age 18 or 21 and can face income taxes.
Sources: www.morningstar.com, www.savingforcollege.com
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02.23.06
Posted in News at 2:25 am by Paloma Cruz
HISD students protest dress code
– reported by KHOU CBS Channel 11
A group of angry Austin High School seniors protested Monday over what they call a broken promise.
[snip]
They say school officials promised to relax the uniform dress code for the rest of the year as long the kids passed the TAKS test.
That’s a standardized test that all Texas students must pass to get a diploma. The number of students who pass counts toward each school’s performance rating.
The Austin protesters passed, but the dress code didn’t change.
[snip]
The demonstrators also complained they were locked outside in the cold and rain Monday until the media showed up at the school.
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Posted in News at 2:19 am by Paloma Cruz
Teen bloggers at risk of cyberstalking
– found at Science Blog
A study of 68 randomly selected weblogs produced by teenagers aged 13 to 17 finds that teen bloggers often willingly reveal their actual names, age and offline locations, putting them at risk for cyberstalking and cyberbullying.
David Huffaker, a Northwestern University researcher working in the technology and social behavior program with Northwestern Professor Justine Cassell, will present his study findings within the context of other studies of teenage Internet behavior at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in St. Louis Sunday, Feb. 19.
In “Teen Blogs Exposed: The Private Lives of Teens Made Public,” Huffaker finds that half of all teenage bloggers link to other bloggers, and often include a “friends list.” Sixty-seven percent of teen bloggers provide a comment section in order to get feedback from readers of their blogs.
[snip]
Seventy percent of the teens disclosed at least their first name, 67 percent revealed their age, and 61 percent provided their contact information either in the form of e-mail (44 percent), instant messenger name (44 percent) or a link to a personal home page (30 percent). Fifty-nine percent of those who provided contact information disclosed the city or state in which they reside.
[snip]
On the positive side, blogs give teens an opportunity to share their stories and feelings. “They provide a venue in which they can reflect upon their experiences,” says Huffaker. “The ability to create a community online also bodes well for future social development.”
[snip]
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02.20.06
Posted in News at 5:20 pm by Paloma Cruz
Strayhorn blasts Perry on schools
She says state can be united by a leader who is independent
– reported by the Houston Chronicle
Comptroller and gubernatorial hopeful Carole Keeton Strayhorn attacked Gov. Rick Perry on school finance Saturday, telling a group of protesting teachers that poor leadership has deprived the state of a solution.
The independent candidate spoke to about 300 teachers rallying at the state Capitol for better pay and more classroom dollars.
[snip]
Organizers from the grass-roots organization “No Texas Teacher Left Behind” put together the event to call upon elected officials to raise teachers salaries, improve benefits and allocate more money for classrooms.
Strayhorn, a former teacher, told the crowd that any plan she might put forth would include a $3,000 across-the-board pay raise for teachers.
[snip]
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Posted in News at 4:42 pm by Paloma Cruz
Technology doesn’t improve education. Technology, and the speed at which we live, doesn’t improve our grasp of the English language. In fact, it does the opposite.
Literacy Limps Into the Kill Zone
– reported by Wired News
[snip]
Welcome to the comic-book generation, the post-literate society. The stories that excited my news editor’s imagination then — the ones packed with lurid sex, vapid celebrity shenanigans, fallen idols — are merely the plat du jour of journalism these days.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re reading your local rag, surfing the net or trying to make heads or tails of someone’s inane blog — the quality bar is set lower than ever, which is saying a lot considering it was never set very high to begin with.
[snip]
The very nature of e-mail (which, along with first cousins IM and text messaging, is an undeniably handy means of chatting) encourages sloppy “penmanship,” as it were. Its speed and informality sing a siren song of incompetent communication, a virtual hooker beckoning to the drunken sailor as he staggers along the wharf.
[snip]
Technology conspires against language in another, more insidious way: The sheer speed with which things move these days has given us the five-second attention span, the 10-second sound bite and the splashy infographic that tells you very little, if anything, while fooling you into thinking that you are now somehow informed. (Of course, if you need more than 10 seconds to “get” Mariah Carey, well, shame on you.)
Sadly, this devalues the thoughtful essayist and the sheer linguistic joy of the exposition. And the language dies a little more each day.
Then there’s the havoc wrought on spelling and punctuation by all this casual communication. You can’t lay all that at the feet of technology, of course. Grammar skills have been eroding in this country for years and that has a lot more to do with lax instruction than it does with e-mail or instant messaging. (Math is a different matter. No student should be allowed to bring a calculator into a math class. Ever.)
[snip]
I wonder if this comes as a surprise to anyone?
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Posted in News at 12:36 pm by Paloma Cruz
My sisters tell me stories like this too frequently. The things that parents do, but against which teachers can’t do anything, against which they don’t have any recourse… it’s scary.
Mom jailed after dropping child off at school
– reported by KHOU CBS Channel 11
A 27-year-old League City woman who police said confused the weekend with a weekday and dropped her 6-year-old off at school was arrested Saturday.
Lt. Bruce Whitten of the League City police department said police believe the mother thought Saturday was a school day and drove her daughter to Ferguson Elementary that morning. Despite the lack of activity at the school or cars in the parking lot the child was let off at the school, Whitten said.
A few hours later a passer-by saw the child, who was coatless in a chilly drizzle, and called police.
[snip]
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