Many four year colleges are hard-pressed in these economic times to find ways to increase their revenues amidst state budget cuts and dwindling enrollments from students who are choosing more economically priced community colleges. In the article below, many colleges are trying to “close†students and parents ahead of time through advanced payment plans. This may pay the college less over the long haul, but it ensures student attendance and commits students to that school for the course of their degree programs unless something goes really wrong.
Too Busy to Start Over?
Many professionals who desire to make a career change may view this as an all or nothing proposition, but as the article below states, there are incremental steps anyone can take to move closer to their dream job. If you’re considering a new career field, here are a few questions to ask yourself to get yourself ready for a successful transition:
India Defies Slump, Powered by Growth in Poor Rural States
CAROL’S SUMMARY: India’s lowest classes, long denied access to the basics of education and civil living, are now being given the opportunity to change their lives through learning. In the WSJ’s article below, some of the poorest and the weakest areas of India are resurging and fueling an economic force that is shoring up the rest of India which, like the rest of the world, is in financial decline. The potential for these “lower castes†to participate in India’s future has tremendous implications for labor and vitality in the most far-flung and often forgotten parts of India as well as people in the poorest slums of the largest cities. Most importantly, people who have a had a culture and history of non-importance and the most degrading life conditions are now being given dignity, access and the ability to change their plight through exposure to education in this “flat†new world.
ARTICLE:
By PETER WONACOTT
DEV KULI VILLAGE, India — This country’s path out of the global economic turmoil may start here, among a community of outcastes who dine on rats.
In Bihar, India’s poorest and least literate major state, the Mushahar are the poorest and least literate. Most are farm laborers. About one in 10 can read. So impoverished is this group that they hunt field rats to supplement a deprived diet. Mushahar is Hindi for “rat eater.”
But the outlook for the state’s two million Mushahar has brightened in the past year. Thanks to government aid programs, more Mushahar children are attending school. Increased state investment in roads and local factories has put their parents to work. Demand for laborers has pushed up wages for field work.
Visit www.wsj.com for the entire article
On the Job, but on the Outlook for Work
CAROL’S SUMMARY:
Even introverts should open their minds to the power of social networking in a down economy. As the article below indicates, people who get out and meet others through women’s groups, special interests, sports and hobbies will have more job connections and information about jobs than people who keep to themselves. You can network in person or on-line through LinkedIn and sites like FaceBook, but a combination of both strategies is likely your best bet. So, put yourself out there and reap the rewards of expanding your social circle to people who can help you and vice versa.
ARTICLE
New York Times
by Laura M. Holson
Networking before the pink slip arrives is a measure of the anxiety seeping into nearly every corner of the work world.
So a few weeks ago, Katherine Wu, an executive at NBC Universal, packed an overnight bag with her yoga mat and drove 80 miles to Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz, N.Y., to a retreat organized by 85 Broads, a women’s networking group. In between spa treatments and sun salutations, she and 17 fellow executives discussed career prospects in an unsettled economy.
To view the entire article visit
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/09/fashion/09networking.html?emc=eta1
Europe’s Higher-Education Restructuring Holds Lessons for U.S., Report Says
CAROL’S SUMMARY:
Clifford Adelman from the Institute for Higher Education, is leading a new way of thinking in the U.S. based on the Bologna Process, the higher education agenda of 29 European countries. Like many of us, Adelman believes the U.S. is no longer on the cutting edge, nor can “we assume world-wide dominance oblivious to the creative energies, natural intelligence and hard work of other nations.”
The Lumina Foundation agrees with Adelman and will be working in three states–Minnesota, Utah and Indiana–to pilot some of the strategies from the Bologna Process. Most appealing to me, is that people from many perspectives will be surveyed–students, faculty, recent grads and, hang on to your hat, employers in an effort to define knowledge and skills needed from specific disciplines as they translate to real world success. Wow!
What a concept and how obvious in this age of serious global competition. I would encourage all states to follow suit as soon as possible.
The Lumina Foundation’s goal is to increase the quality of degrees–and I am sure there must be workforce equivalent to measure this longitudinally–from 39% to 60% by 2025. As I said, we could really benefit from this nationally. In this age of global achievement and opportunity, the U.S. needs to look out for best practices and then apply them to an educational system which can again become cutting-edge, hopefully on or before 2025.
ARTICLE
Chronicle of Higher Education
April 8, 2009
To view entire article visit
http://chronicle.com/temp/email2.php?id=tmVtWCKdrCC6W9rrvrhSmf5mcXpNkvfc
Report Envisions Shortage of Teachers as Retirements Escalate
CAROL’S SUMMARY:Â
As the article below indicates, over the next four years, one third of the nation’s 3.2 million teachers are slated to retire. In addition to that, many entering the profession—one in three–drop out in their first five years of teaching.
What can we do to keep talented young teachers on the teaching track? What are we not doing in our schools of education to prepare these students for what lies ahead? How can we recruit some of the best and brightest people from industry to get their teaching certificates and become teachers in this tough economy? How can we look to other nations for top talent in teachers who can inspire and educate our students in the United States? How can more talented teachers become principals or leaders in their districts in other important capacities?
Many people with industry experience are now being considered for Superintendent positions. School boards value managers who are data driven, smart and able to motivate and inspire people beyond what they have always done. Michael Bennett in Colorado was a lawyer and a successful business person before he ran Denver Public Schools. Now that he is a United States Senator, his successor was the CFO under Bennet and has the same business sensibilities as the new Superintendent.
ARTICLE
New York Times
By SAM DILLON
April 7, 2009
Over the next four years, more than a third of the nation’s 3.2 million teachers could retire, depriving classrooms of experienced instructors and straining taxpayer-financed retirement systems, according to a new report.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/education/07teacher.html?emc=eta1
Gossip Girls and Boys Get Lessons in Empathy
CAROL’S SUMMARY: Spoiled behavior among young adults has long been a problem, but schools are tackling those problems first-hand by developing programs and classes to teach students empathy. LifeBound publishes a book and a program called People Smarts for Teenagers, which focuses on teaching students what Daniel Goleman terms “emotional intelligence.” Goleman argues that your EQ is more important than your IQ in college, career and life. People Smarts—and EQ—is all about how you understand and manage yourself, relate to and work with others, and handle life disappointments and setbacks. These qualities go into someone’s personal grist—and those are some of the greatest indicators of life success.
ARTICLE:
By WINNIE HU
Published: April 4, 2009
SCARSDALE, N.Y. — The privileged teenagers at Scarsdale Middle School are learning to be nicer this year, whether they like it or not.
Readers’ Comments
English classes discuss whether Friar Laurence was empathetic to Romeo and Juliet. Research projects involve interviews with octogenarians and a survey of local wheelchair ramps to help students identify with the elderly and the disabled. A new club invites students to share snacks and board games after school with four autistic classmates who are in separate classes during the day.
Visit www.nytimes.com to view this entire article
Community Colleges Anticipate Boom in Baby-Boomer Students
Students over 50 will be hitting college campuses this year at record rates. What does that mean for colleges and what does that mean for the students themselves?
High school dropouts cost US $319B over lifetime
CAROL’S SUMMARY: Virginia Governor, Bob Wise, says that the high school drop-outs in the class of 2008 will cost the nation $319 billion over their lifetime in lost or low wages, health-care and prison costs. Currently, 30% of all high students totaling 1.2 million, do not graduate from high school. For minority students, that number is a staggering 50%.
So, what can we do to start early and often to prevent this alarming trend from continuing? For one thing, we need to have a level playing field for minority students and at-risk students who may not have the resources at home to succeed. Schools featuring advisory classes can focus on the emotional, social and academic development of every child. The organization I founded, LifeBound, has books and resources to help every student discover their gifts, talents and abilities as well as their educational passion. Beginning in fifth grade, we need to emphasize success and transition so that we can prepare students for success—not failure or even average performance—in the global world they are about to enter.
ARTICLE:
ATLANTA (AP) — High school dropouts from the class of 2008 will cost the country $319 billion over their lifetime, former West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise said during a panel discussion Thursday.
That number includes the income the students will have lost because of a lack of education and what they’ll cost taxpayers in publicly funded healthcare, prison stays and other services.
“The first group affected when a student drops out of high school is the student themselves, but there’s another group affected as well,” Wise told the room full of teens from across the country. “It’s the rest of us. It’s you, me, all of us.”
Visit www.edweek.org for the entire article
The Complicated Task of Simplifying Student Aid
The FAFSA form, which is how students and families apply for financial aid, is a long cumbersome form which baffles and stymies many families. Nationally, 8 million people fail to file the FAFSA form. As the article below indicates, many people feel that this form is longer and more complex than the 1040.
So, what can be done to make this form more simple and straight-forward for people to complete? Many ideas are being considered including linking this to tax information. Along with privacy issues, opponents argue that by the time that tax information would be considered, it is two year old. It seems like whatever is done to streamline this process, more disadvantaged populations will gain access to Higher Education. Currently, only 7% attend college from the lowest socioeconomic realms representing the most “at-risk” populations, while 60% of students attend college from the middle to upper class population. While the latter may not be at-risk economically, they are often at-risk emotionally and socially as they begin college. No matter what, a shorter FAFSA would provide more access for all and less family stress in considering how to get in to and pay for college.
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ARTICLE:
The U.S. Education Department examines 2 ways to make it easier for families to apply
By KELLY FIELD
The first time Kathy Peterson saw the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, the six-page form that the government uses to assess student need, she felt overwhelmed.
“I just kept going from one screen to the next, wondering, ‘When is this going to end?'” said Ms. Peterson, an office manager for a telecommunications trade association, whose son will attend Old Dominion University in the fall.
She says she spent at least 20 hours completing the electronic form, 20 times as long as the government estimates it should take.
Ms. Peterson was one of the persistent ones. Each year more than 40 percent of college students, nearly eight million, fail to file a Fafsa, even though most of them would be eligible for aid, according to the U.S. Education Department. The agency doesn’t know how many students start the process and give up, or how many never even begin because they’re intimidated by the form’s length and bureaucratic language.
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