Student Fights Record of â€˜Cyberbullyingâ€™

CAROL’S SUMMARY: Katherine Evans is sueing her high school, wanting her three-day expulsion for bashing her English teacher online removed from her record. Her lawyer, Matthew Bavaro, says the suspension violated Evansâ€™s right to free speech. But Pamela Brown, assistant director for the Broward County School District, says that inviting others to join in hating a teacher crosses the line.

Questions to consider:
1. What do you consider to be cyberbullying?
2. Do you know who to go to if someone is cyberbullying you?

ARTICLE:

By CARMEN GENTILE, Posted February 8, 2009 at www.nytimes.com

MIAMI â€” Katherine Evans said she was frustrated with her English teacher for ignoring her pleas for help with assignments and a brusque reproach when she missed class to attend a school blood drive.

So Ms. Evans, who was then a high school senior and honor student, logged onto the networking site Facebook and wrote a rant against the teacher, Sarah Phelps.

â€œTo those select students who have had the displeasure of having Ms. Sarah Phelps, or simply knowing her and her insane antics: Here is the place to express your feelings of hatred,â€ she wrote.

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Cuts could affect class sizes Schools

CAROL’S SUMMARY: Education budget cuts will most likely equate to elimination of jobs and less teachers means larger class sizes. Educators and teachers both agree that larger classes result in lower quality education.

Questions to consider:
1. How many students are in your childâ€™s class?

ARTICLE:

Educators say almost any drop in funding will mean more kids per teacher
By Lisa Schencker
Jennifer Flitton doesn’t teach her 25 sixth-graders about the science of heat by just opening a textbook. The Eastwood Elementary School teacher gives them feathers, cork, packing foam, hot water and thermometers and tells them to decide for themselves which material acts as the best insulator. Read the rest of this entry »

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â€˜Teaching Unprepared Studentsâ€™

From the Chronicle of Higher Education, November 25, 2008

Many experts say that the United States can only truly see gains in the percentages of adults who have a college degree if colleges and universities get better at teaching students who arrived on campus unprepared for college-level work. But many professors find themselves frustrated by teaching such students â€” and many of the students drop out. Read the rest of this entry »

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Surprising Impact of Student Loan Crunch

CAROL’S SUMMARY: The National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities released a survey suggesting that the student loan credit crunch has had a surprising and serious impact on the plans of students at private colleges. Many students were unable to obtain a private loan and were forced to turn to parents, credit cards, working more, switching to part-time students, and/or dropping out.

Questions to consider;
1. Do you know how youâ€™re going to pay for college?
2. Do you know where to find scholarship information?

ARTICLE:

Cries of financial distress from students unable to find private student loans have been relatively few and far between this fall, despite lots of newspaper headlines about a lack of availability of such loans. Read the rest of this entry »

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Rising Enrollments Buoy Some Colleges, Burden Others

CAROL’S SUMMARY: The current economic crisis has some colleges in a panic. Private colleges that rely on tuition to pay for a majority of their operation costs are getting hit hard with declining enrollment. Returning students are finding out they canâ€™t afford to finish right now and freshmen classes are smaller than last year.

Questions to consider:
1. How has the economic crisis affected your educational plans?
2. What do you plan to do about it?

ARTICLE:

Most Colleges Fill Classrooms Even as Students Struggle to Pay
By PAUL BASKEN,

http://chronicle.com

Section: Money & Management
Volume 55, Issue 14, Page A1

The nation’s economic crisis is bringing colleges higher borrowing costs, smaller endowments, tighter budgets, and fears over the availability of loans for their students.
Yet one of the most critical factors in colleges’ health â€” student enrollment â€” appears to be largely holding strong, at least for now.

Tuition and fees are the top source of revenue at private four-year colleges, with smaller institutions relying on those funds especially heavily. The loss of even a handful of students can bring some institutions to the brink of collapse.

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At Community Colleges, a Call to Meet New Students at the Front Door

CAROL’S SUMMARY: Sense, a survey of community college retention, noted that these schools typically lose about half of their students before the studentsâ€™ second year. The goal of the survey was to find out why.
The results show that many students are unaware of the services their college offers during the first weeks of their first semester. In hopes of higher retention, the Sense suggests that community colleges reach out to their new students earlier and more aggressively with orientation, academic advising, and financial aid.
Questions to consider:
1. Did you feel welcome at your school during the first weeks of your first semester?
2. What could your school do to make students feel welcome and promote retention and success?

ARTICLE:

From the issue dated March 28, 2008
By LIBBY SANDER

http://chronicle.com

Section: Students
Volume 54, Issue 29, Page A25

Community-college students, like students anywhere, begin to form their impressions of an institution the instant they set foot on its campus. And often what they find during those first few weeks can determine whether they come back for more â€” or turn heel and leave.

The findings from a new study, the Survey of Entering Student Engagement, may offer some clues as to why those who leave do so, and what officials can do to make them stay.

The survey results, which were released this week, show that a large number of students are unaware of their college’s core services in the opening weeks of their first semester. And only one in five said they felt welcome at their institutions the first time they came to campus.

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Late to Rise Seems to Make Students Wise

CAROL’S SUMMARY: The study â€œCourse Scheduling and Academic Performanceâ€ by Angela K. Dills, an assistant professor of economics at Mercer University, and Rey HernÃ¡ndez-JuliÃ¡n, an assistant professor of economics at the Metropolitan State College of Denver, found a small increase in grades of students taking afternoon classes rather than early morning classes.

The most likely explanation is that teenagers tend to stay up late, therefore, to get their full amount of rest and be adequately awake, they need to get up later in the day than adults.

Questions to consider:
1. What time of day do you feel most productive?
2. What time of day do you feel least productive?
3. Why do you think that is?

ARTICLE:

Tuesday, December 16, 2008
By DAVID GLENN

When college students refuse to sign up for early-morning classes, parents and faculty members sometimes give them sermons or stale quotations from Benjamin Franklin. But those students might actually have the right instincts, says a new study by two economists.

The study, whose results appear in the December issue of the Economics of Education Review, found that students earn higher grades in courses that are offered later in the day. The effect is small but unmistakable: For each hour after 8 a.m. that a class begins, students’ average grades are 0.024 points higher, on a 4-point grading scale.

The most likely reason, the authors say, is sheer exhaustion. Nineteen-year-olds find plenty of reasons not to go to bed before midnight. And even when they get adequate sleep, adolescents’ brains tend to fire up later in the morning than adults’ brains.

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Indianapolis Metropolitan High School helps its grads in college

CAROL’S SUMMARY: Indianapolis Metropolitan High School counselors consider helping former students navigate college part of their job. Most of their students are the first in their family to go to college, so they donâ€™t have a voice of experience to turn to. Counselors are available by phone or email to answer questions and check in a couple times a semester to see how the students are doing.

This type of program is rare, but when it comes to helping students pursue their educational goals-the more help the better.

Questions to consider:
1. Do you have someone to turn to for questions about college?
2. Would you propose a program like this for your childâ€™s school?

ARTICLE:

January 31, 2009
By Andy Gammill
andy.gammill@indystar.com

Felisha Dugan didn’t know what to do last fall when she arrived at Indiana State University and couldn’t afford any of her textbooks.

Fearing she’d fall behind in her classes, the 18-year-old turned to an unlikely source of help: a college counselor provided by her high school. Dugan, a biology major, attended Indianapolis Metropolitan High School, which has a guidance counselor to help former students navigate their way through college.

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Dreamers and Doers

Posted January 4, 2009 at www.nytimes.com

Nicolas Naranjo knocked on Evan Kimbrellâ€™s door at midnight. At other colleges, this might have been a prelude to a fraternity prank or an invitation to help float the keg at the end of a party. But Mr. Naranjo, who had just arrived in the United States from his native Colombia some weeks before, wanted to talk about starting a business. He had an idea about a hop-on, hop-off bus service for college tours around the Boston area. Mr. Kimbrell had tried to start a bus company the previous year and knew the pitfalls â€” and was happy for the break from his studies to talk business. Read the rest of this entry »

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Community Colleges Pursue Many Paths to Create International Campuses

CAROL’S SUMMARY: Community colleges are turning their focus from local to global. Instead of just preparing graduates with the skills for nearby companies, they are now shifting to focus on success in an international work force.

Questions to consider:
1. What are the benefits of an internationally focused education?
2. How has your education prepared you for a global marketplace?

ARTICLE:

Section: Community Colleges
Volume 55, Issue 10, Page B8

For community colleges, global is the new local. Long attuned to turning out graduates whose skills are calibrated to the needs of nearby companies, two-year colleges are now striving to meet the demands of multinational businesses seeking workers who can succeed in a worldwide marketplace.

Community-college leaders want to ensure that their institutions produce students who can collaborate with co-workers from other countries and cultures, who have an understanding of global economics, and who, perhaps, even speak a foreign language. Despite the obstacles, two-year institutions across the United States are pursuing a variety of strategies to give their students an international edge. Some go for greater numbers of international students, while others are after stronger ties with immigrant groups or multinational firms in their region to provide students with globally relevant volunteer experiences or internships. Still others have developed certificate programs for students who complete several courses with an international perspective. “There’s definitely a recognition of the importance that community-college studies have a global component, that our students need to be more globally educated,” says Judith Irwin, director of international programs and services at the American Association of Community Colleges. “You have to think like that in the 21st century.”

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