06.27.06
Posted in News at 11:03 pm by Paloma Cruz
Simon Bolivar? Hernando Cortez? Kids don’t know.
– reported by HispanicAd.com
A new Fordham Institute study says two-thirds of the states don’t make the grade when it comes to standards for instruction in world history, but states received their lowest marks for weak or non-existent standards for the teaching of the history and culture of Latin America and Mexico.
The study, by renowned historian Walter Russell Mead, is the first ever conducted of states’ academic standards for teaching K-12 world history. Saying he was “aghast at how poorly written and organized” are most states’ world history standards, Mead’s report reserves especially harsh criticism for the lack of effective standards for instruction in the history and culture of the Western Hemisphere.
“The United States did $409 billion in trade with Latin America and Mexico in 2004 alone, and the Hispanic population is growing exponentially,” noted Michael Petrilli, the Institute’s Vice President for National Programs and Policy. “We are an increasingly ‘Latinized’ culture, where a working knowledge of the rich history of Latin America and Mexico will soon be indispensable to this generation of young Americans – socially, politically, economically and culturally,”
Nonetheless, on a scale of “zero” to “10,” four states (Alaska, Idaho, Missouri and Montana) received a grade of “z ero” for maintaining standards that pay only “superficial or cursory attention” to Mexico and the Western Hemisphere. Another 30 states – including Hispanic population centers like Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Nevada and Texas — received grades of “2” through “5” for standards that address Mexico and Latin America, but with “significant gaps or shortcomings” in their approaches.
[snip]
Source: http://www.edexcellence.net/institute
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06.25.06
Posted in News at 12:43 am by Paloma Cruz
Rice University gets $32 million gift to expand housing
– reported by the Houston Chronicle
Houston natives Deedee and Burt McMurtry have pledged $32 million to Rice University as part of a plan to help the school expand its undergraduate residence program.
[snip]
The university will use a portion of the McMurtrys’ gift to create a long-term fund to support Rice’s 50-year-old residential college system, which Burt McMurtry played a role in planning while he was a student a Rice.
That housing system assigns all undergraduate students to one of nine residential colleges, each with its own dormitory, dining hall and common areas.
[snip]
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06.24.06
Posted in News at 5:38 am by Paloma Cruz
This is something I don’t get to point out often: Houston Independent School District teachers will get a 7.5% pay increase as part of new school-finance legislation. Good news… maybe.
Plan would give HISD teachers a 7.5% raise
– reported by the Houston Chronicle
Houston Independent School District teachers would see their pay increase an average 7.5 percent next year, but homeowners won’t get much property tax relief under the district’s proposed $1.4 billion operating budget.
Despite school-finance legislation that touted lower taxes, the owner of a home with an average $125,000 assessed value would either see their bill decrease by $14 a year or increase by $35 a year, depending on whether trustees vote to approve a 4-cent tax increase option later this month.
If they increase taxes, the extra money would go toward campus repairs, new student computers and increased per-student funding, according to the proposal.
But even without the tax increase, the budget would increase the pay of starting teachers from $36,050 to $39,870. HISD has proposed adding up to $4,000 raises on top of the $2,500 raises for teachers at some experience levels.
[snip]
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06.23.06
Posted in News at 11:34 pm by Paloma Cruz
This story from the Houston Chronicle doesn’t really address that, but does give more details on this epidemic:
Only 67% of eligible Texans graduated in ‘03, study says
Education Week report contradicts TEA’s 83% claim
– reported by the Houston Chronicle
Only two-thirds of Texas’ eligible students earned a high school diploma in 2002-03, 16 percentage points lower than the 83 percent graduation rate touted by the Texas Education Agency that year, according to a study released Tuesday by Education Week magazine.
[snip]
Texas students are 20 percent more likely to live in poverty and 60 percent more likely to be English-language learners than national averages, according to the report.
The study, Diplomas Count, shows that 1.2 million U.S. students failed to graduate with their classmates in 2006.
[snip]
Most dropouts leave school in the ninth grade, including 40 percent of dropouts in low-income districts including Houston, officials said.
Texas measured up well in other standards.
The state requires students to earn 22 credits to graduate, slightly higher than the national average.
It’s one of 23 states that requires student to pass an exit-exam to graduate, and Texas also requires students to attend school until they’re 18, a year longer than the national average.
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06.21.06
Posted in News at 1:32 pm by Paloma Cruz
A nice story about The Chinquapin School.
‘A really different kind of school’
Miles from the city, a college prep campus is helping urban kids succeed
– reported by the Houston Chronicle
[snip]
Every year, there are more applications to the 37-year-old Chinquapin School than there are spaces, and so the best of the bunch are chosen to attend a summer tryout week, which was last week and this week. More than 120 middle and high school students will try out for the nearly 30 open spaces.
[snip]
For plenty of families, the academically rigorous school away from the bustling city is an opportunity worth pursuing, thanks to the school’s long-standing reputation in the Houston area for providing a challenging environment for some of the city’s most underserved or economically disadvantaged children.
Teachers live on campus with the boys who board there during the week, while girls and sixth-grade boys are bused home daily. All students attend with a scholarship and also pay monthly tuition that is based on family income. The majority of students pay $50 or less, and those who can’t pay assume more chores in addition to the ones that every student must do at the school.
The majority of the school’s funding comes from private donations, fundraising events and a private endowment. Their biggest supporter is the Houston-based Brown Foundation.
Getting the middle school-age boys, who are typically less protected by their parents than girls, away from the distractions of their neighborhoods and closer to their teachers is the biggest difference that distinguishes Chinquapin from other area college preparatory schools, Heinzerling said.
[snip]
Chinquapin graduates have gone on to pursue degrees at Stanford, Rice, Columbia, Northwestern, the University of Texas, Xavier and the University of Houston, among others.
[snip]
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06.20.06
Posted in News at 12:57 pm by Paloma Cruz
Staff makes most gains in HISD plan
Property tax bill may rise, but not as much as if state law hadn’t passed
– reported by the Houston Chronicle
Rookie teachers would get 11 percent pay raises this year, but few homeowners will see significantly lower property tax bills under the Houston Independent School District’s proposed $1.4 billion budget.
School-finance legislation that touted property tax relief would produce a tax bill $14 lower to $35 higher than last year’s for the owner of a typical home with a taxable value of $125,000, according to an HISD projection. The school district assumes that the average home value increased nearly 9 percent over last year.
The numbers confirm that the property tax bill Gov. Rick Perry signed inside HISD headquarters won’t put extra money in most homeowners’ wallets this year, according to those who advocated for a more aggressive cut.
[snip]
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06.19.06
Posted in News at 4:41 pm by Paloma Cruz
Teachers get funds for energy lessons
– reported by the Houston Chronicle
BP America awarded more than $1 million in grants and scholarships to 93 area teachers this week in recognition of their efforts to teach energy and energy conservation.
The teachers represent 69 schools from Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston and Harris counties. The teachers will receive either $5,000 or $10,000 grants for energy education projects and classroom materials.
[snip]
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06.18.06
Posted in News at 3:47 pm by Paloma Cruz
Houston lags in education
Study reports city is hurt by dropouts, poverty
– reported by the Houston Chronicle
More students need to graduate from high school and college if the Houston area is going to be competitive in an economy that is knowledge-based, a Gulf Coast Workforce Board report says.
[snip]
For the second year, the board compared Houston with Atlanta, Denver, San Diego, Dallas, San Antonio and Miami. It used publicly available economic data, ranging from job growth to median household income to the number of new businesses.
The Houston area scored fifth among the seven, losing points because a higher proportion of its residents live in poverty, don’t speak English and haven’t finished college.
Another troubling fact, according to the report, is the low ratio between 12th graders to 9th graders which, while it doesn’t directly correspond to a drop-out rate, indicates students are leaving high school before they graduate.
The higher the ratio, the better. In San Diego, for example, the ratio is 0.76 and in Denver it’s 0.69. In Houston, however, the ratio is 0.58.
[snip]
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06.17.06
Posted in News at 12:56 am by Paloma Cruz
reported by the Greenwich Times, via Topix.net:
Promotional videos, newsletters and bus advertisements are just some of the new tactics local districts are using to attract families to public schools.
With competition from private and parochial schools, public relations officials from Stamford, Norwalk and Greenwich are, in some cases, using unconventional means to get their district’s message across to potential parents and prospective home buyers.
In Norwalk, parents can learn about the district by watching a video about the schools on the district’s Web site. The 15-minute film, ‘No Child Left Behind,’ gives viewers a glimpse inside classrooms and after-school programs, including band rehearsals, homework help and computer labs.
[snip]
Related links:
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06.16.06
Posted in News at 12:16 am by Paloma Cruz
The Culinary Institute Alain & Marie LeNotre has been in Houston for eight years, offering training and instruction to hundreds, perhaps thousands students. They are now a federally accredited junior college.
Culinary Institute receives federal accreditation
– reported by the Houston Business Journal
Eight years after its creation, the Culinary Institute Alain & Marie LeNotre has become a federally accredited junior college.
The Houston-based institute now offers an Associate of Applied Science Degree in Culinary Art and an Associate of Applied Science Degree in Baking & Pastry Arts.
[SNIP]
The full-time schedule is an intensive schedule designed to fast-track students, allowing them to attend classes five days a week for 14 months to achieve 107 credit hours, compared to two years for most schools.
[SNIP]
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