Higher Education News

The Oral History Association's first-ever executive director, Clifford M. Kuhn, must lead it through the rocky terrain of legal challenges and digital advances.

Students go to college partly to land jobs. But are graduates ready for them? The Chronicle and Marketplace asked employers if colleges meet their needs.

As more colleges rush to offer free online courses, it's worth asking who might be left out for lack of high-speed Internet access to watch video lectures.

With a YouTube comment and a governor's challenge, the idea has grown into a kind of Rorschach test for how Americans view higher education.

Beheruz N. Sethna, who is retiring as president of the University of West Georgia, wanted to raise the institution's status, and he did.

About 15 percent of research facilities were subject to "inspection overlap," meaning multiple inspections by various agencies, in 2010-11.

MOOCs and other online tools are likely to enhance education, not cut tuition, at colleges like Harvard and MIT, said participants at a meeting in Cambridge, Mass.

In honor of Black History Month, the White House recently held a Champions of Change event honoring 10 leaders who are working to ensure that African American students in their community receive an education that prepares them for high school graduation, college completion, and productive careers.  Champions of Change are ordinary citizens who are doing extraordinary things.

Joyce Parker of Citizens for a Better Greenville and Becky James-Hatter of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri discussed the importance of nurturing children—“love them, believe in them and let them know you will support their dreams,” James-Hatter said.

As the father of a child with Down syndrome, Michael Graham talked of the challenges parents with children with disabilities face and the importance of parents, families, communities and students having a seat at the table when education decisions are made.

Champions of Change for Education Excellence for African American Participants with Secretary Duncan

“Let’s talk about the education of our children differently,” said Erin Jones, Director of Equity and Achievement for the Federal Way School District. “Let’s talk about the opportunity gap and not the achievement gap. I don’t have control over how a student takes a test on a particular day, but I absolutely have control over what opportunities I give him to learn the material so that he tests well that day.”

As substantial obstacles to equal educational opportunity still remain in America’s educational system, significantly improving the educational outcomes of African Americans will provide substantial benefits for our country by, among other things, increasing college completion rates, productivity, employment rates, and the number of African American teachers.

For this reason, President Obama signed an executive order last year establishing the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans. The initiative will work across Federal agencies and with partners and communities nationwide to produce a more effective continuum of educational programs for African American students.

During the Champions of Change event, Secretary Duncan announced the appointment of David J. Johns as the first executive director of the initiative.  Johns, former senior education policy advisor to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, said, “I look forward to bringing my experience in the classroom, Capitol Hill, and working with communities throughout the country to make this very important initiative a success.”

Champion profiles and blog entries are posted on the White House website, and archived video of the event is available on the White House YouTube Channel.

Kimberly Watkins-Foote is director of African American Communications and Outreach at the U.S. Department of Education

Yesterday, some 6,500 students in Chicago were moving, shaking, jumping and dancing in what may have been the largest coordinated “recess” in history. Why the sudden burst of activity? It has a lot to do with one of the enthusiastic recess leaders: First Lady Michelle Obama.

To mark the third anniversary of her Let’s Move! campaign to end childhood obesity within a generation, Obama is reaching out to schools. Yesterday, the First Lady announced the launch of Let’s Move! Active Schools (LMAS), an new collaboration with the private sector to increase physical education in public schools across the country. A $70 million program, the LMAS website provides simple steps and tools to help schools create active environments where students get 60 minutes of physical activity before, during and after the school day.

Students spend the majority of their day in or at school, and yet physical education programs around the country are feeling the strain of ever tightening school budgets—just as the country is finally starting to see some signs of progress in fighting the childhood obesity epidemic. Currently, only 20% of school districts require daily recess and only one in three kids is active every day.

“We can’t use tough economic times as an excuse,” Secretary Arne Duncan said on the Dr. Oz show that aired yesterday. “We have to get past this false dichotomy. Some people think, well, we can spend time helping kids be successful academically or we can help them play and be active physically. And that’s a false choice. Those two things reinforce each other.”

At the Chicago event, the First Lady and Duncan joined government officials, business leaders, athletes and Olympians in calling on school staff, families and communities to work together to reach an ambitious goal of engaging 50,000 schools in the Let’s Move! Active Schools program over the next five years. “Helping students become more active physically also helps students become more successful academically,” said Duncan.

For its part, the U.S. Department of Education will continue to support both physical and nutrition education in schools by realigning its $80 million Carol M. White Physical Education Program (“PEP”) to prioritize schools most in need and support applicants with plans to maximize their reach by building cost effective, sustainable programs. Applications for the next round of PEP grants are being accepted until April 13, 2013. For the next round of funding, ED is encouraging alignment with both the Partnership for a Healthier America’s new design filters for effective physical activity programs and the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition’s new Presidential Youth Fitness Program (PYFP).

Whether you are a parent, teacher, school administrator or community member, get involved in making your school an active one and visit LetsMoveSchools.org to determine how your school is doing, what you can do to help, and what resources Let’s Move! Active Schools can offer to assist you.

Click here to read more about the launch of Let’s Move! Active Schools.

Don Yu is a special advisor to the Secretary at the U.S. Department of Education

Glimpses of life in academe from around the world

An educator asks a question during “How Career and Technical Education is Addressing the Nation’s Skills Gap,” a recent ED Policy Briefing. Official Department of Education Photo by Joshua Hoover.

Brian Will was inspired to investigate careers in family and consumer sciences in seventh grade. Today the Deep Run High School student is a consultant to the FCCLA Virginia state association and on track to pursue college and the career path of his choice.

Alvon Brown found inspiration in the mechanical processes of working with his hands in an HVAC career and technical education program, and is now eager to pursue engineering after graduating from The Edison Academy at Edison High School.

Brian and Alvon’s stories are just two of many that illustrate the impact of early career and technical education awareness. Many similar stories were told about how career and technical education is addressing the nation’s skills gap at a recent ED Policy Briefing to celebration National CTE Month at the U.S. Department of Education.

“The students were spectacular,” Assistant Secretary of Vocational and Adult Education Brenda Dann-Messier said of the panelists at the briefing. “They were poised, articulate, self-confident and spoke eloquently about their CTE experiences and how well prepared they are for college and to pursue the career of their choice.” Also joining Brown and Will on the panel were Natalie Tran, the Future Business Leaders of America chapter president at River Hill High School, and David Kelly, the national president of the Health Occupations Students Association (HOSA) and an undergraduate at New York University. 

Dann-Messier and Senior Advisor on College Access Greg Darnieder hosted a pair of conversations – one with educators and business leaders, and a second with Career and Technical Student Organization (CTSO) participants. Both conversations focused attention on the need for better alignment between high-quality CTE programs and the labor market, more collaboration among industry, secondary and postsecondary education partners, accountability for improving academic outcomes, and the need to support innovation.

Employers are seeking people with the skills to fill more than three million job vacancies each month. Whether you believe there is a skills gap or a training gap, early career awareness is an important part of the solution. Marie Zwickert, a business development manager for Cisco, emphasized the need to address the lack of technical and workforce readiness skills by raising standards and increasing participation in secondary and postsecondary CTE programs.

Last year, the Obama Administration proposed a blueprint for raising standards and transforming CTE nationally. High-quality CTE programs and Career Academies, like the Cisco Networking Academy, and CTSOs, teach employability skills that include working in effective teams, communications and problem solving, and help to increase students’ technical content knowledge and understanding.

Where rigor and expectations are high, CTE students display a sense of pride that attracts other students to the programs.  Students are earning industry-recognized credentials in a wide array of sectors, gaps between college and career readiness are closing, and doors are opening for students to pursue today’s in-demand jobs and the careers of the future.

 John White is Deputy Assistant Secretary for Rural Outreach at the U.S. Department of Education

The group that seeks to maintain traditionalism in higher learning struggles to attract members and money.

While Congress failed to act in time to head off the federal spending cuts, higher-education and other groups still don't know exactly how they'll be affected.

Secretary Arne Duncan and Corporation for National and Community Service CEO Wendy Spencer with two Americorps members at Grad Nation.

Yesterday, as education leaders from across the country gathered at the Grad Nation Summit in Washington, D.C., we were pleased to announce a new collaboration between our agencies: School Turnaround AmeriCorps.

This competitive, three-year grant program is designed to strengthen and accelerate interventions in our nation’s lowest-performing schools. The new initiative will engage hundreds of AmeriCorps members in turnaround schools across the country. AmeriCorps members will help students, teachers, and principals to transform struggling schools by providing opportunities for academic enrichment, extended learning time, and individual supports for students. These interventions will lead to increased academic achievement and improved high school graduation rates and college readiness among our most disadvantaged students.

We know that students are most successful when they have personal, attentive support.  We believe this initiative is an important step forward in the effort to provide our lowest-performing schools with the additional resources that they need to improve.

Turning around struggling schools is challenging work that requires everyone to play a part – from teachers, administrators, and counselors to business leaders, the philanthropic sector, and community members. This partnership will expand the role of AmeriCorps members in helping students, teachers, parents, and school administrators to transform persistently underachieving schools into models of success.

Public or private nonprofit organizations, including faith-based and other community groups; schools or districts; institutions of higher education; cities and counties; Indian Tribes; and labor organizations are eligible to apply to this program, along with partnerships and consortia of these entities.

A notice of intent to apply must be submitted to the Corporation for National and Community Service by April 2, 2013 via e-mail at: americorpsgrants@cns.gov. Applications are due on April 23, 2013. Grants will be awarded by mid-July.

Please take a moment to read about the initiative. More information about the notice of intent and application instructions may be found here. Together, we can help all students thrive in school and in life.

If Congress fails to reach an agreement before March 1, automatic, across-the-board spending cuts—also known as the sequester—will go into effect. The cuts will have real consequences for real people—especially teachers, young children in low-income families, and students with special needs.

Earlier this month, Secretary Arne Duncan testified before the Senate about the negative effects of sequestration. “When the cuts hit, they will hurt the most vulnerable students worst,” Duncan said during his testimony.

Duncan went on to explain that sequestration would cut Title I by $725 million, affecting 1.2 million disadvantaged students, and risk the jobs of about 10,000 teachers and aides. Other cuts include $600 million in special education, requiring states and districts to cover the cost of approximately 7,200 teachers, aides, and other staff. In Head Start, some 70,000 students could be kicked out. “Doing that to our most vulnerable students is economically foolish and morally indefensible,” said Duncan.

President Obama has provided a plan to avoid these cuts using a balanced approach, and the White House has also released state-by-state reports showing how sequester will impact jobs and middle class families.

During a Sunday morning appearance on “Face the Nation,” Duncan noted that “We don’t have to be in this situation. This is not rocket science. We could solve this tomorrow if folks had the will to compromise, to come to the table and do the right thing for children and to try and keep growing the middle class.”

Resources:

• State-by-State Reports – Overall Impact
• Updated: Estimated Dollar Impact of the Sequester on States under the Department’s 12 Largest Formula Grant Programs PDF (107K) | MS Excel (112K)
• Title I Impact Largest 100 Districts (xls)
• Article: Education Secretary Decries Sequestration

Secretary Arne Duncan visited New York City's Harbor School last Friday. The school has a robust CTE program that is preparing its students for college and career. Photo by Andy Kropa for the U.S. Department of Education.

A little more than a week after the State of the Union address where President Obama spoke about redesigning high schools to equip graduates with the skills that employers demand, Secretary Duncan and several Department of Education staff (myself included) visited a school in New York City that meets this challenge head on.  Located on Governors Island and accessible only by boat, Urban Assembly New York Harbor School was established back in 2003 with one goal in mind: preparing students for success in college and careers through restoration of the local marine environment.

All Harbor School students enroll in the New York State Regents-based academic courses and then select one of six career and technical education (CTE) programs–Aquaculture, Marine Biology Research, Marine Service Technology, Ocean Engineering, Scientific Diving or Vessel Operations. Through a combination of school-based, harbor-based and community-based activities, students build and operate boats, spawn and harvest millions of oysters, design submersible remotely operated vehicles and conduct real-life research. The school boasts a professional advisory committee of more than 60 businesses, industry groups, postsecondary partners and foundations.

Harbor School students work on experiments. Photo by Andy Kropa for the U.S. Department of Education.

Through their courses of study, students earn industry-recognized certifications and licenses, as well as postsecondary credits that will give them a leg up regardless of their immediate plans after high school. Some students clearly had aspirations of on-water careers. (The captain of our ferry over to the island was a Harbor School graduate.) Other students were interested in engineering, architecture or construction. Still others were interested in a completely unrelated field. For each student, what seemed to matter most was the hands-on, real-life application of learning. They indicated that school was exciting, challenging and relevant. Harbor School’s 430 students come from all five of New York’s boroughs, some beginning their trek to Governors Island as early as 5:30 in the morning—first by bus, then subway and, finally, by boat. Now that’s commitment!

At the end of our tour on Feb. 22, one student asked Secretary Duncan what he had learned. With National CTE Month coming to a close, Arne responded by saying that now, more than ever, he is convinced that this country’s debate about whether to prepare students for college or careers is artificial. He indicated that the conversation really needs to shift toward how to prepare all students for college and careers, and that Harbor School was a phenomenal example of just how to do that.

“This school is on to something really, really special,” Arne said. “This is a very different vision of what a high school can be. What if we had more of these?” Graduation rates would go up, he predicted, and dropout rates would go down.

Harbor School matches closely the President’s vision for the future of American high schools. Stay tuned for more details on his plan.

Sharon Miller is director of ED’s Division of Academic and Technical Education in the Office of Vocational and Adult Education.

The result would be a system with just one grant program, one loan program, and one tax break.

The Obama administration says federally financed research should be made freely available within 12 months of publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

When University of Iowa students applied for gun permits, the sheriff got data about them from the university. Legal experts say similar cases are likely to arise.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said it was looking to offer distressed borrowers more-flexible repayment and refinancing options.