Univ. Of Michigan Uses Computer Program To Achieve Diversity

ANN ARBOR
The University of Michigan says it has stopped using race and gender when selecting which students to admit, but it is using new tools to make sure it brings in a diverse class next fall.

Among the new factors is a demographic review that measures which schools and neighborhoods students come from and how well they are represented on the Ann Arbor campus.

The computer analysis, called Descriptor PLUS, from The College Board, uses a blend of geography and demographics to help supply background information about prospective students.

University officials were forced to change their admissions policies after voters approved Proposal 2 in November, which bans the use of race and gender preferences in university admissions.

University officials said Wednesday that they have received a record 27,000 applications from students seeking admission to UM next fall. They expect that number to be the largest among Big Ten schools for incoming freshmen.

Roughly 5,500 students are expected in the next freshmen class, although a few thousand more than that will gain admission but decide to go elsewhere or fail to take other steps needed for enrollment.

The admissions process won’t be complete for several more weeks. University officials said at a media briefing Wednesday that the admissions process is still thorough, holistic and multifaceted while remaining very selective and competitive.

“We make no bones about the fact diversity is important to us,” said Ted Spencer, a UM associate vice provost. “It always has been at the University of Michigan.”

A Top Honor For Soaring Achievements

Tuskegee Airmen to Receive Congressional Gold Medal


...Today, members of the famed black World War II aviation cadre now called the Tuskegee Airmen will be honored in the Capitol Rotunda for their history-making feats.

In a ceremony at 1 p.m., the airmen, including McGee, McCreary and Crockett, will receive the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor that Congress can give to civilians. President Bush is scheduled to speak, along with Colin L. Powell, former secretary of state, who received the medal in 1991.

The achievement of men such as McGee, McCreary and Crockett was simple: They were bold in battle and capable in command -- at a time when many in the military thought blacks could be neither.

"What we accomplished hasn't always been recognized for, really, what it meant to the country," McGee said this week. "There was meaning there, you might say, in a civil rights area that preceded what we know as the civil rights movement."

NPR : Teacher, Student Recall a Segregated Classroom

NPR : Teacher, Student Recall a Segregated Classroom: The first class that Huston Diehl taught was a group of fourth-graders at Morton Elementary School in Louisa County, Va.

It was 1970, in the waning days of officially sanctioned segregation — of separate and, as Diehl would learn, decidedly unequal schooling.

Diehl, now a professor of English at the University of Iowa, describes her experiences teaching in the rural South in a new book, Dream Not of Other Worlds: Teaching in a Segregated Elementary School, 1970.

It was here, in a school that the county neglected to provide with textbooks, that Diehl learned firsthand the damaging effects that institutional racism and Jim Crow politics would have on her young charges.

She soon discovered that she was learning more from her students than they had the chance to learn from her.

Diehl and Matilda Beauford, one of her former students, speak with Scott Simon about their days in Louisa County, and the legacy of segregation.

Maryland to express 'profound regret' for slavery - CNN.com

Maryland to�express 'profound regret' for slavery - CNN.com: ANNAPOLIS, Maryland (AP) -- Maryland lawmakers approved an apology Monday for the state's role in the slave trade, expressing 'profound regret' that it once 'trafficked in human flesh.'

Maryland follows Virginia in issuing a formal apology.

The vote in the House of Delegates makes the apology official, because a resolution doesn't require the governor's signature. The state Senate already approved it.

The resolution notes that slavery 'fostered a climate of oppression not only for slaves and their descendants but also for people of color who moved to Maryland subsequent to slavery's abolition.'

Co-sponsor Sen. Nathaniel Exum, a Democrat, said he was exhilarated that Maryland lawmakers decided to finally recognize the painful role the state played in slavery.

'Once we come to that recognition, maybe we will also recognize steps we need to do to get rid of the lingering effects of it on the people,' Exum said.

In the 1700s, slave ships docked blocks away from the Maryland State House, and thousands of enslaved men and women arrived in the town. Slavery officially ended in Maryland with the adoption of a new state constitution in 1864.

Program Aims to Fill Gaps for Teen Immigrants

Yesterday, Montgomery County school officials announced a pilot program tailored to the specific needs of students such as Lisama: recent immigrants who have had little formal education although they are reaching the age when most native-born Americans graduate from high school.

"Over there, people don't think school is a big deal," Lisama said. "Even if people get their degree, there's no work."

The program, Students Engaged in Pathways to Achievement, would begin this summer at Wheaton High School, a campus serving a large immigrant population, and focus initially on about 15 students in their late teens. Students would be taught functional English, with an emphasis on career-specific vocabulary. Other classes would explore careers, including horticulture, cosmetology and hospitality. Students also would be taught to read and write fluently in their native Spanish.

The program confronts the realities facing teenage immigrants who escape poverty and upheaval in El Salvador and other Latin American nations for a better life in the Washington suburbs. They arrive unable to speak much English, unable to read or write well even in Spanish, with vast gaps in their formal education and too near adulthood to make up for lost schooling.

Students Learn to Seal the Deal, African Style - washingtonpost.com

Students Learn to Seal the Deal, African Style - washingtonpost.com: 'Say 50,' prompted Vera Oye Yaa-Anna, a woman swathed in the bright yellow and red patterns of her native continent. 'Auntie Oye,' a professional storyteller from Liberia, goes from school to school, lining classrooms with bold African cloths, animal-hide drums, straw fans, large stuffed jungle animals and an orangey, 12-foot-long python skin.

She teaches students a little about Liberia and its founding in the 1800s by freed slaves from the United States but mostly about Mali, a country of 12 million people that is the size of Texas and California combined. There, she tells them, mud is an ingredient in cloth-making, people shop for food every day because they don't have refrigerators and life centers on communal activities.

'I teach them how to deal with people who may not be like us,' she said. 'Your individuality in Africa doesn't work because we work together as a community.'

Yaa-Anna said she is motivated to teach kids about Africa in part because of prejudice she has encountered in the United States. For example, she said, people here sometimes assume that because she is from Africa, she must be hungry.

'If these [students] can cultivate a love for Africa, then that's my job,' she said. 'So that when they become adults, they won't stereotype like I've been stereotyped.'

ABCs of Change For Latino Children - washingtonpost.com

ABCs of Change For Latino Children - washingtonpost.com: Latino children nationwide tend to start kindergarten knowing less about letters and numbers compared with their non-Hispanic white peers. Many never catch up. Improving early childhood education is one of the best ways to narrow the achievement gap, educators say, citing such programs as the family book club. But many Latino families face economic, linguistic, educational and even cultural barriers.

'It's partly about parents not understanding the American system,' said Eugene E. Garcia, an Arizona State University administrator and chairman of the National Task Force on Early Childhood Education for Hispanics. 'Hispanic parents think school is good and education is good. They just don't have the tools they need.'

About 40 percent of Latino 3- and 4-year-olds (and 5-year-olds not yet in kindergarten) are enrolled in pre-kindergarten programs, compared with about 60 percent of white and African American children, according to the District-based advocacy group Pre-K Now. In addition, a new report from Garcia's task force noted that Hispanic mothers generally read and talk less to their children compared with white parents. Hispanic families also tend to have fewer children's books at home.

NEA Issues Report on Status of Hispanics in Education

NEA Issues Report on Status of Hispanics in Education : The National Education Association today issued A Report on the Status of Hispanics in Education: Overcoming a History of Neglect. The report finds that Hispanic students often face unique challenges in student achievement, influenced by the fact that Hispanics have poverty rates that are two to nearly three times higher than whites; Hispanics cite Spanish as their dominant language and more than 20 percent say they do not speak English or do not speak English well; and 40 percent of the Hispanic population is foreign born.

The result is that many Hispanic students must overcome language, cultural and socioeconomic barriers to succeed in school. In March 2006, NEA and the League of United Latin American Citizens convened an education summit in Denver to address the challenges that are hindering Hispanic youngsters from achieving educational success. Educators and community activists gathered to share views and make recommendations on how to improve the education of Hispanics. The results of the summit discussion along with supporting research are published in the NEA report.

Inside Bay Area - Black immigrants, the invisible model minority

Inside Bay Area - Black immigrants, the invisible model minority: DO African immigrants make the smartest Americans? If you were judging by statistics alone, you could find plenty of evidence to back it up.

In a side-by-side comparison of 2000 census data by sociologist John Logan at the Mumford Center, State University of New York at Albany, black immigrants from Africa average the highest educational attainment of any population group in the country, including whites and Asians.

For example, 43.8 percent of African immigrants had achieved a college degree, compared to 42.5 of Asian Americans, 28.9 percent for immigrants from Europe, Russia and Canada, and 23.1 percent of the U.S. population.

That defies the usual stereotypes of Asian Americans as the only 'model minority.' Yet the traditional American narrative has rendered the high academic achievements of black immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean invisible, as if it were a taboo topic.

Instead, we should take a closer look. That was my reaction in 2004 after black Harvard law professor Lani Guinier and Henry Louis Gates Jr., chairman of Harvard's African-American studies department, stirred a black Harvard alumni reunion with questions about precisely where the university's new black students were coming from.

Media Life Magazine

Media Life Magazine: U.S. Hispanics wield an increasing amount of spending power and have become a desirable group to advertisers, but one area where they continue to lag is the internet. A smaller percentage of Latinos go online than any other ethnic group, according to a new report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The study finds that only 56 percent of U.S. adult Latinos go online, compared with 60 percent of blacks and 71 percent of whites. They are especially far behind in broadband connections, with 29 percent of Latinos using high speed compared with 43 percent of whites. At the same time, there are major differences between different Hispanic demographic groups. Nearly 80 percent of English-speaking Latinos and 76 percent of bilingual Latinos use the web compared with just 29 percent of Spanish-dominant Latinos. Education and economic factors appear to be the biggest indicator of who’s going online. Susannah Fox, associate director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project and co-author of the report, talks to Media Life about why so many immigrants are not online, what role education plays, and why Mexicans have lower web usage.

National Women's History Project

National Women's History Project: The National Women's History Project, founded in 1980, is an educational nonprofit organization. Our mission is to recognize and celebrate the diverse and historic accomplishments of women by providing information and educational materials and programs.

March is National Women's History Month!

Women's History Month 2007 -- A National Register of Historic Places Feature

Women's History Month 2007 -- A National Register of Historic Places Feature: The National Register of Historic Places is pleased to promote awareness of and appreciation for the historical accomplishments of American women during Women's History Month. As part of the celebration, this site showcases historic properties listed in the National Register, National Register publications, and National Park units commemorating the events and people, the designs and achievements that help illustrate the contribution of women to the Nation's history. Join the National Register in paying tribute to the many women who have made an impact in our past.

Accelerating Hispanic Progress in Higher Education

Accelerating Hispanic Progress in Higher Education
As the Hispanic community continues to grow in this country, efforts to accelerate and expand student success in higher education will be critical to the nation’s future competitiveness, says Excelencia in Education President Sarita Brown at a Capitol Hill policy briefing on Tuesday.

Excelencia, a nonprofit organization aimed at increasing Hispanic student achievement in higher education, also released figures on the state of Hispanics in higher education and a separate study concerning Hispanic women in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs.

There were approximately 1.8 million Hispanic college students in 2004, representing about 11 percent of the total student enrollment in higher education. The figure represents a 6 percent increase from 1990, when 782,400 Hispanic students were enrolled. But despite increases in enrollment, only 25 percent of college-age Hispanics — those 18 to 24 years old — were enrolled in college, compared to about 42 percent of Whites, 32 percent of Blacks and 60 percent of Asians.

“The number of Hispanic women going to college has increased more rapidly. In 2004, Hispanic women represented almost 60 percent of all Hispanics in higher education,” said Deborah Santiago, vice president for policy and research at Excelencia. She noted that about 58 percent of Hispanic undergraduates are enrolled in two-year institutions.

But while Hispanic women enroll in college in greater numbers than Hispanic men, men greatly outnumber women in engineering programs. In 2005, undergraduate Hispanic women represented just 22 percent of Hispanics in engineering programs.

American Indians in Oklahoma say English-only Policy Diminishes Their Tribal Languages

American Indians in Oklahoma say English-only Policy Diminishes Their Tribal Languages

OKLAHOMA CITY
Legislation to make English the official language of the state of Oklahoma has run into opposition from American Indians, who say their native tongues are dying fast enough without any help from lawmakers.

As Oklahoma observes its centennial year, the English-only issue bring up divisions that persist more than a century after American Indians were forcibly marched to the region and then endured a series of land grabs.

Many of Oklahoma’s 37 federally recognized tribes are fighting to save their languages and cultures from extinction years after the end of organized efforts to stamp them out.

Critics of the English-only legislation point out that Oklahoma’s very name is formed from two Choctaw Indian words — “okla” and “homma” — that mean “red man.”

“If you go to English only, what are we going to call the state of Oklahoma?” asks Terry Ragan, director of the Choctaw Nation’s language program. “Even town names in the state will have to be named differently.”

Supporters of the legislation say it could end bilingual state government documents, such as driver’s license tests, and force immigrants to learn English and assimilate into American society.

Illinois Retires American Indian Mascot

Illinois Retires American Indian Mascot: The University of Illinois swept aside the last vestiges of Chief Illiniwek on Tuesday, voting to retire the mascot’s name, regalia and image.

The school will continue to call its sports teams the Fighting Illini under the resolution. Chancellor Richard Herman is to decide how and when Chief Illiniwek’s name and image will stop being used and licensed to apparel makers and others.

Activists and some American Indians have long complained the chief is demeaning. Backers defend him as an honorable tradition.

The school decided in February to end performances of the chief, leading the NCAA to lift sanctions that had barred Illinois from hosting postseason sports since 2005. The NCAA had deemed Illiniwek portrayed since 1926 by buckskin-clad students who danced at home football and basketball games and other sports events an offensive use of American Indian imagery.

Pew: Latinos less likely to be online - Tech News & Reviews - MSNBC.com

Pew: Latinos less likely to be online - Tech News & Reviews - MSNBC.com: Latinos are not going online as much as non-Hispanic whites and blacks, even at younger ages where Internet use is far greater, according to a report released Wednesday.

Fifty-six percent of adult Latinos use the Internet, compared with 70 percent of whites and about 60 percent of blacks, according to the Pew Hispanic Center and the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

The Internet use of U.S.-born Latinos is comparable to that of whites, but about two-thirds of adult Latinos in the United States were born elsewhere.

States stress benefits of pre-kindergarten programs

... A report being released Wednesday finds states spent at least $3.3 billion last year on pre-kindergarten. That doesn't include money from federal and local governments, which contribute to the state programs. The state funding is up from $2.8 billion in 2005, according to the report by the National Institute for Early Education Research at New Jersey's Rutgers University.

In all, nearly 1 million children, or 20 percent of the country's 4-year-olds, were in state pre-kindergarten last year -- up from 17 percent the previous year, the report found.

About two-thirds of 4-year-olds are in private preschool or child-care programs or at home, the study said.

About one in 10 is in Head Start, the federal pre-kindergarten program for poor children, the report said. The $6.8 billion Head Start program covers only about half of all eligible children. About 7 percent of the nation's 3-year-olds also participate in Head Start.

As in Virginia, most state-funded programs are aimed at poor children. However, Florida, Georgia and Oklahoma offer pre-k to all 4-year-olds. Other states are considering going that route.

Illinois Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich won approval to extend preschool to all 3- and 4-year-olds by 2011 and is pushing for the money to do it.

The federal No Child Left Behind education law probably has something to do with the trend, says Steven Barnett, who wrote the report on state pre-k spending.

One of that law's goals is to eliminate achievement gaps between low-income and wealthier students, but studies show the gap begins before children enter school.

HIV hits U.S. blacks harder than whites - AIDS - MSNBC.com

HIV hits U.S. blacks harder than whites - AIDS - MSNBC.com: ATLANTA - African American men are nearly seven times more likely to be diagnosed with HIV than white men, according to a report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released on Thursday.

Blacks represent 13 percent of the U.S. population but account for nearly half of Americans living with the disease and 40 percent of AIDS deaths and 61 percent of all new diagnoses of people aged 13-24 are black.

The report, which is based on 2001-2005 data, does not reveal a dramatic increase in the rate of HIV infection among African Americans and it shows a significant decline in black mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

Disney first: black princess in animated film - Movies - MSNBC.com

Disney first: Black princess in animated film - Movies - MSNBC.com: The Walt Disney Co. has started production on an animated musical fairy tale called “The Frog Princess,” which will be set in New Orleans and feature the Walt Disney Studio’s first black princess.

The film, set for release in 2009, also is the first hand-drawn film Disney has committed to since pledging last month to return to the traditional animation that made it a worldwide brand.

“The Frog Princess,” a musical scored by composer Randy Newman, is “an American fairy tale” starring a girl named Maddy who lives in the French Quarter in New Orleans, said John Lasseter, chief creative director for Disney and Pixar Animation Studios.

Depression Hits U.S. Blacks Harder Than Whites - washingtonpost.com

Depression Hits U.S. Blacks Harder Than Whites - washingtonpost.com: Black Americans are more likely than whites to suffer severe, untreated and disabling depression, U.S. research shows.

Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health analyzed data on 6,082 people who took part in a national survey conducted between 2001 and 2003.

They found that 17.9 percent of white Americans had depression at some point in their lives, compared with 10.4 percent of blacks of African descent and 12.9 percent of blacks of West Indian or Caribbean descent.

Rates of depression in the 12 months before they were surveyed were 7.2 percent for Caribbean blacks; 6.9 percent for whites; and 5.9 percent for blacks of African descent. Among those who reported depression at some point in their lives, rates of depression in the 12 months before they were surveyed were 56.5 percent for blacks of African descent; 56 percent for Caribbean blacks; and 38.6 percent for whites.

RACE - About the Project

RACE - About the Project: We expect people to look different. And why not? Like a fingerprint, each person is unique. Every person represents a one-of-a-kind, combination of their parents’, grandparents’ and family’s ancestry. And every person experiences life somewhat differently than others.

Differences… they’re a cause for joy and sorrow. We celebrate differences in personal identity, family background, country and language. At the same time, differences among people have been the basis for discrimination and oppression.

Yet, are we so different? Current science tells us we share a common ancestry and the differences among people we see are natural variations, results of migration, marriage and adaptation to different environments. How does this fit with the idea of race?

Looking through the eyes of history, science and lived experience, the RACE Project explains differences among people and reveals the reality – and unreality – of race. The story of race is complex and may challenge how we think about race and human variation, about the differences and similarities among people.

More women working but inequalities are acute: U.N. | International | Reuters

More women working but inequalities are acute: U.N. | International | Reuters: GENEVA (Reuters) - More women are working than ever before, but most are stuck in low-wage jobs and virtually all are paid less than their male counterparts, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said on Thursday.

The United Nations agency said there were 100 million more women in the workforce last year than in 1996. But, for a total of 1.2 billion employed or seeking work, there remained sizeable gaps in their status, job security and pay.

The female share of overall global employment is 40 percent -- the same as a decade ago -- and the proportion of women seeking work has fallen in several regions including Eastern Europe, South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Women are more likely to be unemployed than men, and make up the bulk of the world's "working poor", whose families live on less than $1 per person per day, the ILO found.

"The pace with which gaps are closing is very slow," it said in the report released on International Women's Day.

One of the reasons female labor force participation has stagnated is that more women are accessing higher education and staying out of the workforce longer, the report said.

Female literacy rates are lowest in south and west Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and the Arab world, the regions where women are most likely to work in agriculture. Many of these women work as vendors in local food markets, and have more difficulty than men in accessing land and credit, the ILO said.

In Diversity Push, Top Universities Enrolling More Black Immigrants - washingtonpost.com

In Diversity Push, Top Universities Enrolling More Black Immigrants - washingtonpost.com: The nation's most elite colleges and universities are bolstering their black student populations by enrolling large numbers of immigrants from Africa, the West Indies and Latin America, according to a study published recently in the American Journal of Education.

Immigrants, who make up 13 percent of the nation's college-age black population, account for more than a quarter of black students at Ivy League and other selective universities, according to the study, produced by Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania.

The large representation of black immigrants developed as schools' focus shifted from restitution for decades of excluding black Americans from campuses to embracing wider diversity, the study's authors said. The more elite the school, the more black immigrants are enrolled.

Demand for English Lessons Outstrips Supply - New York Times

Demand for English Lessons Outstrips Supply - New York Times: A survey last year by the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials found that in 12 states, 60 percent of the free English programs had waiting lists, ranging from a few months in Colorado and Nevada to as long as two years in New Mexico and Massachusetts, where the statewide list has about 16,000 names.

The United States Department of Education counted 1.2 million adults enrolled in public English programs in 2005 — about 1 in 10 of the 10.3 million foreign-born residents 16 and older who speak English “less than very well,” or not at all, according to census figures from the same year. Federal money for such classes is matched at varying rates from state to state, leaving an uneven patchwork of programs that advocates say nowhere meets the need.

UCLA Expert Challenges The Asian-American “Model Minority” Assumption

UCLA Expert Challenges The Asian-American “Model Minority” Assumption: ... Even though Asian Americans the model minority theory persists because examples of academic success, including the fact that most of the University of California campuses having student bodies that are over 40 percent Asian, those examples mask the experiences of Asians who are not doing as well.

“I agree that there is a need to disaggregate data on Asian Pacific Americans and to examine the very real and significant differences among ethnic groups, income levels, generations, etc. Hopefully, one can do this in a constructive manner,” Nakanishi said.

He also addressed the diversity of Asian American high school students and the obstacles they face in getting into college.

“A large number of Asian Pacific American students attend multiracial, low-income, as well as low-performing schools, and yet they are oftentimes compared with Asian Pacific American students who attend stronger academic schools, families with college-educated and more affluent parents, etc.,” Nakanishi says.

“I think there are admissions officers who are aware of the tremendous differences among Asian Pacific American students, and try their best to evaluate an applicant’s record in the context of the high school that they attend,” he says.

Student Loan Interest Rates: Financial Aid: Low-Income Students

Student Loan Interest Rates: Financial Aid: Low-Income Students
The College Student Relief Act of 2007, recently approved by the U.S. House of Representatives, has been hailed as a savior for students trying to handle the ever-rising costs of college. Phased in over five years, the interest rate on federally backed loans will be cut in half, from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent. But some say the cut isn’t the saving grace politicos make it out to be.

“Once fully phased in, these cuts would save the typical borrower, with $13,800 in need-based federal student loan debt, $4,420 in savings over the life of the loan,” says U.S. Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., of the House Committee on Education & Labor, relying on an analysis by U.S. PIRG. The new interest rate will drop to 3.4 percent by 2001, but on January 1, 2012 the rates will go back to 6.8 percent.

But U.S. PIRG, a public interest advocacy group, has said Miller’s office has misquoted its findings. Miller’s prediction assumes that the interest rate at its low of 3.4 percent will be permanent, although the act is scheduled to expire in 2012. A student with $13,800 in debt might save $4,420, but only if the rate was not scheduled to go back up to 6.8 percent in 2012.

Even if the 3.4 percent interest rate were to be extended, it would only help borrowers taking out loans in 2012 or later. Unlike a mortgage, when the rates drop, students with existing loans do not have the capability to re-finance at the new, lower rates.