Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Great Expectations: Multilingual Poll of Latino, Asian and African American Parents Reveals High Aspirations for Children – From Preschool to College

SAN FRANCISCO—Ethnic and minority parents in California share high expectations for their children and rank education as a top concern, according to a New America Media multilingual poll, released on Wednesday, August 23. The results of the poll debunk many preconceptions about how immigrant and ethnic minorities view public education.

“This poll, like many others we’ve commissioned, proves how important it is to survey these groups in their own languages,” says Sandy Close, executive director of New America Media. Opinions among the three groups studied vary widely on a range of issues, reflecting important differences in their socio-economic and educational backgrounds.

Overall, poll findings show that ethnic and minority parents have aspirations that reach well beyond the hope that their children will earn a high school diploma. “The parents view schools as opportunity providers, not sorting mills. The overwhelming majority want their children to attain at least a college degree and are actively engaged in helping them succeed,” says Close. “They could become an important source of pressure to raise achievement levels in public schools in California.”

There is also strong support for early education programs, according to the poll. "This survey clearly shows that parents of all backgrounds want their children to have the best education possible, starting with quality preschool," said Graciela Italiano-Thomas, Chief Executive Officer of Los Angeles Universal Preschool (LAUP). "But it also shows that more needs to be done to make sure families have access to quality preschool programs in their communities."

Nationally recognized pollster Sergio Bendixen conducted the poll, commissioned by New America Media. Bendixen surveyed 602 Asian, African American and Latino parents in English, Spanish, Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese and Vietnamese. NAM, a nationwide non-profit association of ethnic media, has pioneered multilingual polling as a way to gauge the views of non-English speaking and ethnic minority populations normally excluded from mainstream public opinion surveys.

Sixty-five percent of the students in California’s public schools are members of the state’s new majority of ethnic minorities and over one-third speak languages other than English at home with their families. New America Media’s poll is the first to poll parents on education issues in their language of preference.

For information on the open briefings or to view poll results after release, visit www.newamericamedia.org/polls

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

U.S. Poverty Rate Leveling Off

U.S. Poverty Rate Leveling Off: WASHINGTON -- Four years into an economic recovery, the number of people living in poverty has finally stopped climbing.

Household incomes edged up slightly in 2005, but 37 million people were still living below the poverty line, about the same as the year before, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday.

Sunday, August 27, 2006

In Schools Across U.S., the Melting Pot Overflows - New York Times

In Schools Across U.S., the Melting Pot Overflows - New York Times: STERLING, Va., Aug. 25 — Some 55 million youngsters are enrolling for classes in the nation’s schools this fall, making this the largest group of students in America’s history and, in ethnic terms, the most dazzlingly diverse since waves of European immigrants washed through the public schools a century ago.

Millions of baby boomers and foreign-born parents are enrolling their children, sending a demographic bulge through the schools that is driving a surge in classroom construction.

It is also causing thousands of districts to hire additional qualified teachers at a time when the Bush administration is trying to increase teacher qualifications across the board. Many school systems have begun recruiting overseas for instructors in hard-to-staff subjects like special education and advanced math.

Friday, August 25, 2006

Education Quality for Minorities Faulted

Education Quality for Minorities Faulted: Most states have shirked the law by failing to ensure that poor and minority students get their fair share of qualified teachers, a new analysis contends.

The No Child Left Behind law says underprivileged and minority kids should not have a larger share of teachers who are unqualified, inexperienced or teaching unfamiliar topics.

It puts the responsibility on states to figure out how to do that.

States are falling far short on the promise, according to a study released Thursday by The Education Trust, a group that advocates for poor and minority kids. It is based on a review of new plans from every state and the District of Columbia.

'What we found gives cause for grave concern,' said Heather Peske, one of the authors.

The report contends that states handed in vastly incomplete data, weak strategies for fixing inequities across schools, and goals so vague they can't even be measured.

All of it undermines the national effort to improve achievement, the report suggests.

The Education Department took heat, too. The report blames the agency for giving poor guidance to the states and for essentially ignoring the teacher-equity issue for four years.

'We cannot close achievement gaps if we don't close gaps in teacher quality,' said Ross Wiener, policy director of The Education Trust.

Free preschool will help Latinos and US | csmonitor.com

Free preschool will help Latinos and US | csmonitor.com: We generally think of kindergarten as a time of possibilities and fresh starts. But kids don't begin their formal education on equal footing: When they arrive at the schoolhouse door, poor and minority students often lag behind their peers by as much as 18 months. The imperative of reducing this achievement gap has convinced state leaders to invest in toddlers' education. Over half of governors increased spending on pre-K last year. Three states - Oklahoma, Florida, and Georgia - offer free preschool to 4-year-olds, and policymakers in Arizona, Virginia, and Illinois are considering universal programs.

While California voters voted down a proposition that would have provided free preschool to 4-year-olds earlier this year, the state is set to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to provide early education to poor children, the group likely to profit most from high quality programs.

In order to deliver on the promise of pre-K, states will need to aggressively reach out to the fastest-growing part of our population: Latino children. Only 40 percent of Latino 3- to 5-year-olds attend preschool, compared with approximately 60 percent of both African-American and white children. Ironically, Latinos are particularly in need of early intervention: They often live in poverty, their parents generally have low levels of education, and in recently arrived immigrant families, children's exposure to English can be minimal.

courant.com | Feds Demand Teacher Equity

courant.com | Feds Demand Teacher Equity: Federal officials have ordered Connecticut to bolster efforts to assure that schools in the state's poorest cities get the same kind of high quality teachers that schools in wealthier towns have.

The U.S. Department of Education wants the state to spell out in more detail how it plans to address inequalities outlined in a teacher quality plan prepared by the state. That plan included figures showing children in Connecticut's poorest cities are more likely than others to be in classrooms with poorly qualified teachers.

English learner fines are dropped

English learner fines are dropped: Chip Scutari
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 25, 2006 12:00 AM

A federal appeals court gave legislative leaders and the state schools chief a major victory Thursday by wiping out $21 million in fines the state faced in a case involving the fate of 160,000 students who struggle to learn English.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also ruled that English-learner students must pass the AIMS test to graduate from high school.

Raner Collins, a U.S. District Court judge in Tucson, had ordered Arizona to pay $21 million in fines because the Legislature and Gov. Janet Napolitano missed a deadline for a plan to help students who need assistance to learn English. Collins also ruled that the fines should be set aside for programs to help the children. Now that the fines have been erased, the money will be returned to state coffers.

Bush Administration Opposes Integration Plans - Los Angeles Times

Bush Administration Opposes Integration Plans - Los Angeles Times: WASHINGTON — The Bush administration has urged the Supreme Court to strike down voluntary school integration programs across the nation that exclude some students because of their race.

Administration lawyers filed briefs this week in pending cases from Seattle and Louisville, Ky., on the side of white parents who are challenging 'racial balancing' programs as unconstitutional.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Uth TV - Show

Uth TV - Show: Kiri Davis, 16, of the Urban Academy wanted to make a film that explored the standards of beauty imposed on today's black girls. Use the link to view Kiri's 7 minute film. See how these standards of beauty effect black females self-esteem, self-image and achievement.

Sunday, August 20, 2006

A push for more complete U.S. history - Race in America - MSNBC.com

A push for more complete U.S. history - Race in America - MSNBC.com: American students often get the impression from history classes that the British got here first, settling Jamestown, Va., in 1607. They hear about how white Northerners freed the black slaves, how Asians came in the mid-1800s to build Western railroads.

The lessons have left out a lot.

Forty-two years before Jamestown, Spaniards and American Indians lived in St. Augustine, Fla. At least several thousand Latinos and nearly 200,000 black soldiers fought in the Civil War. And Asian-Americans had been living in California and Louisiana since the 1700s.

Thursday, August 17, 2006

CNN.com - ACT scores highest since 1991 - Aug 16, 2006

CNN.com - ACT scores highest since 1991 - Aug 16, 2006: "(AP) -- The high school class of 2006 posted the biggest score increase on the ACT college entrance exam in 20 years, and recorded the highest scores of any class since 1991.

Average composite scores on the exam, which measures students' readiness for college-level work, rose to 21.1 from 20.9 last year. Both boys and girls posted gains, as did all racial groups except Hispanics, whose scores held steady. ACT scores range from 1 to 36.

Officials at the independent, nonprofit ACT said an increase of 0.2 points is significant when considered across a record 1.2 million test-takers nationwide, or 40 percent of graduating seniors.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Schools’ desegregation oversight relaxed - Education - MSNBC.com

Schools’ desegregation oversight relaxed - Education - MSNBC.com: CHICAGO - After a quarter century, a judge has released portions of Chicago Public Schools’ desegregation plan from federal oversight.

In a decree issued Monday, U.S. District Judge Charles Kocoras eliminated a set of spending and reporting requirements from the original 1980 agreement covering the nation’s third-largest school system, which has about 431,000 students.

“The current demographic makeup of Chicago and its student population bears virtually no resemblance to that which gave rise to litigation between the parties in the first instance,” Kocoras wrote.

Black leaders urge fight against AIDS - AIDS - MSNBC.com

Black leaders urge fight against AIDS - AIDS - MSNBC.com: "TORONTO - It is time for the African-American community 'to face the fact that AIDS has become a black disease' and find ways to defeat it, said the chairman of the NAACP at the international AIDS summit Monday.

Julian Bond, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and other powerful African-American leaders called on their own community to accept responsibility for ending the devastation of AIDS, which has claimed more than 200,000 black Americans since the epidemic began 25 years ago.

In a first for the political leaders, they blamed the disaster on a lack of will and pledged to do more.

USATODAY.com - Census: New arrivals fan out

USATODAY.com - Census: New arrivals fan out: "Census: New arrivals fan out
By Haya El Nasser, USA TODAY
Mexicans with little education and limited English skills are leading a wave of newly arrived immigrants who are increasingly fanning out from traditional gateway states, Census data released Tuesday indicate.

The dispersal of new immigrants to parts of the Southeast and Midwest that are unaccustomed to foreign-born populations in large numbers may be fueling national concerns about illegal immigration, some population analysts say.

'The most rapid gainers are almost every state in the southeastern U.S. other than Florida,' says Jeffrey Passel, demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center. 'Those are the states with the highest percentage of undocumented immigrants.'

Diversity growing across U.S. - Race in America - MSNBC.com

Diversity growing across U.S. - Race in America - MSNBC.com: "WASHINGTON - America’s growing diversity has reached nearly every state. From South Carolina’s budding immigrant population to the fast-rising number of Hispanics in Arkansas, minority groups make up an increasing share of the population in every state but one, according figures from the Census Bureau.

“This is just an extraordinary explosion of diversity all across the United States,” said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. “It’s diversity and immigration going hand in hand.”

Saturday, August 12, 2006

Women in Top Ranks Pull Up the Pay of Others

Women in Top Ranks Pull Up the Pay of Others: "MONTREAL -- American women earn substantially more money and narrow the long-standing gender gap in income if other women in their workplaces reach the ranks of senior management, according to a new national study presented here.

By contrast, the study found, increasing the number of women managers in junior positions makes no difference to the gender gap -- women on average continue to earn about 20 percent less than men.

CNN.com - States shirking order to distribute qualified teachers - Aug 11, 2006

CNN.com - States shirking order to distribute qualified teachers - Aug 11, 2006: "WASHINGTON (AP) -- Most states have shirked the law by failing to ensure that poor and minority students get their fair share of qualified teachers, a new analysis contends.

The No Child Left Behind law says underprivileged and minority kids should not have a larger share of teachers who are unqualified, inexperienced or teaching unfamiliar topics.

It puts the responsibility on states to figure out how to do that.

States are falling far short on the promise, according to a study released Thursday by The Education Trust, a group that advocates for poor and minority kids. It is based on a review of new plans from every state and the District of Columbia.

"

CNN.com - Historically black colleges recruiting Hispanics - Aug 11, 2006

CNN.com - Historically black colleges�recruiting Hispanics - Aug 11, 2006: "ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- Faced with stiff competition for their traditional students, historically black colleges are now making a push to recruit Hispanics.

Black colleges that want to shore up enrollment numbers are revising recruitment strategies to include more members of the nation's largest and fastest-growing minority. The campuses are hiring Hispanic recruiters, distributing brochures that feature Hispanic students and establishing special scholarships for Hispanics.

'I tell them 'There's a place for you and a need for Latinos to be present on (historically black) campuses,'' said Nelson Santiago, a Puerto Rico native and recruiter for the historically black Howard University in Washington, D.C., which has about 170 Hispanics out of 11,500 students."

Saturday, August 05, 2006

USATODAY.com - Black colleges recruit Hispanics

USATODAY.com - Black colleges recruit Hispanics: By Dorie Turner, Associated Press
ATLANTA — Squeezed by stiff competition for their traditional students, historically black colleges are making a push to recruit Hispanics.

While the country's Hispanic population is booming, the number of blacks is growing at a much slower rate and other colleges are doing more to attract them. Black colleges that want to shore up enrollment numbers are revising recruitment strategies to include more members of the nation's largest and fastest-growing minority.

The campuses are hiring Hispanic recruiters, distributing brochures featuring Hispanic students, and establishing special scholarships for Hispanics. At the historically black Texas Southern University in Houston, the school has started five Hispanic student organizations, including fraternities and sororities, to help make the campus more inviting.

Friday, August 04, 2006

USATODAY.com - Study: Diversity rises in suburbs

USATODAY.com - Study: Diversity rises in suburbs: Suburban counties, once the bastion of white America, are becoming multiethnic tapestries, and white populations are inching up in some urban areas after big losses in the 1990s, according to new Census estimates out Friday.

'Suburbs and especially fast-growing outer suburbs are not just attracting whites anymore,' says William Frey, demographer at the Brookings Institution, a think tank. 'All minority groups are coming. They're a magnet for blacks as well as Hispanics and Asians.'

The changes are dramatic in the South. About 74% of the growth in the U.S. black population happened there from 2000 to 2005. The region also generated about 71% of the national growth in whites, 42% of the Hispanic growth and 27% of the Asian growth.