Making It Known That Latinos Have an Education ‘Ally and Partner’

Making It Known That Latinos Have an Education ‘Ally and Partner’: Whether working to improve nonprofit organizations or directing the Obama campaign in Texas, Juan Sepulveda has learned the importance of what he calls “crowdsourcing,” or encouraging widespread input from diverse participants to develop better public policy.

“The more people you get involved, the more unique ideas you’ll receive,” he says.

Now Sepulveda brings those ideas to Washington, D.C., in his new job as executive director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans. Headquartered at the U.S. Education Department, the initiative is a high-profile perch through which Hispanic-serving colleges and Latino education leaders can provide input on issues from preschool through higher education."

More Diversity Sought Among U.S. Participants in Study Abroad Programs

More Diversity Sought Among U.S. Participants in Study Abroad Programs: In an economically depressed job market, college students are scrambling to set themselves apart with international experience. But myths about the affordability and accessibility of study abroad programs are behind the low participation rates of under-represented students, experts say.

As global competency becomes a growing advantage for job seekers, study abroad agencies said the industry needs to ramp up efforts to bring minority students into the fold with new tactics and fresh approaches.

“I think for some time it’s been a self-fulfilled prophecy; these students aren’t going abroad, so we are not paying attention to them,” said Andrew Gordon, president of Diversity Abroad, a program dedicated to sending under-represented students overseas.

The White House - Press Office - Presidential Proclamation-National Hispanic Heritage Month

The White House - Press Office - Presidential Proclamation-National Hispanic Heritage Month:

NATIONAL HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH, 2009
- - - - - - -
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

The story of Hispanics in America is the story of America itself. The Hispanic community's values -- love of family, a deep and abiding faith, and a strong work ethic -- are America's values. Hispanics bring together the rich traditions of communities with centuries-old roots in America and the energy and drive of recent immigrants. Many have taken great risks to begin a new life in the hopes of achieving a better future for themselves and their families.

Hispanics have played a vital role in the moments and movements that have shaped our country. They have enriched our culture and brought creativity and innovation to everything from sports to the sciences and from the arts to our economy.

About - National Hispanic Heritage Month

About - National Hispanic Heritage Month: About National Hispanic Heritage Month
Each year, Americans observe National Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15 to October 15, by celebrating the histories, cultures and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America.

The observation started in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week under President Lyndon Johnson and was expanded by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 to cover a 30-day period starting on September 15 and ending on October 15. It was enacted into law on August 17, 1988, on the approval of Public Law 100-402.

The day of September 15 is significant because it is the anniversary of independence for Latin American countries Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. In addition, Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on September 16 and September18, respectively. Also, Columbus Day or D�a de la Raza, which is October 12, falls within this 30 day period.

About This Year's Theme:

On April 18, 2009, the membership of the National Council of Hispanic Employment Program Managers (HEPM) voted on the top five themes selected during the national theme voting period from March 19 to April 3. The winning theme was submitted by Jorge Ponce, Director of the Policy and Evaluation Division at the Office of Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Commerce in Washington, DC. The National Council extends its congratulations and sincere thanks to Mr. Ponce for his participation and contribution of this year's winning theme.

Celebrating Hispanic Heritage | People & Places | Smithsonian Magazine

Celebrating Hispanic Heritage | People & Places | Smithsonian Magazine: In 1968, President Lyndon Johnson proclaimed National Hispanic Heritage Week to honor the contributions of Americans who trace their roots to Spain, Mexico, the countries of Central and South America and the Caribbean. Twenty years later, Congress extended this recognition into an annual month-long celebration, from September 15 through October 15.

In honor of this year's National Hispanic Heritage Month, Smithsonian.com discusses the origins and impact of Latin jazz with musician Bobby Sanabria and revisits the works of Daniel Alarcon, James De La Vega, Graciela Iturbide and Vallenato artists in Columbia. In addition, Smithsonian.com offers a list of festivals, concerts and lectures at the Smithsonian Institution and throughout the country.

Black President Stands Out At Mostly White College : NPR

Black President Stands Out At Mostly White College : NPR: More than 230 years since Hampden-Sydney's founding, tradition is very much alive at the Virginia college.

The students, all men, wear bow ties and jackets to football games. On arriving for the school year, students are handed an etiquette guide. The college slogan is simple. It reads: 'Forming Good Men and Good Citizens Since 1776.'

And 93 percent of those good citizens at the college are white — unlike the new president of Hampden-Sydney.

It's a school steeped in the traditions of the Old South — a place that educated the leaders and the children of the Confederate aristocracy. In 1861, Hampden-Sydney's president even raised a company of men to fight for the Confederacy during the Civil War.

Just 40 years old, the new president, Chris Howard, comes to Hampden-Sydney with a resume most people can't match in a lifetime: president of his class at the Air Force Academy, Rhodes Scholar, Oxford Ph.D., Harvard MBA, vice president at GE and head of the honors college at the University of Oklahoma.

Black Coaching Appointments Paying Dividends

Black Coaching Appointments Paying Dividends: When Miami’s Randy Shannon and Houston’s Kevin Sumlin lead their teams onto the football field Saturday, advocates of diversity in higher education will have much to cheer about.

University of Miami President Donna Shalala and University of Houston President Renu Khator and hired Shannon and Sumlin in 2006 and 2007, respectively, as the first black head football coaches in their respective schools’ histories. Fortunately, their unconventional decisions seem to be paying big dividends this season. Sumlin and Shannon and Sumlin have lead their teams back to prominence in relatively short periods of time. Their early success has surprised many, but not diversity experts.

“I think that because women have encountered their share of challenges, have been through so much themselves, they may be more open to giving leadership opportunities to minorities,” says Diana Cordova, director of the Center for Advancement of Racial and Ethnic Equity at the American Council on Education. As to why the success of these coaches has come about so soon, she says, “These two women tapped into talent pools that had been overlooked, so their success doesn’t come as a huge surprise.”

Film Review: Feeling the Power of “The Providence Effect”

Film Review: Feeling the Power of “The Providence Effect”: More than three decades after turning a west side Chicago parochial school into a nationally acclaimed private K-12 academy that annually sends 100 percent of its high school seniors to college, Paul J. Adams has attained legendary status as an educator. Providence-St. Mel, the private independent academy Adams helped establish in 1978, is among the nation’s most successful urban schools and provides the model for Providence Englewood, a public charter school launched in 2006 in a partnership with Chicago Public Schools.

Adams and the two schools make for compelling filmmaking in “The Providence Effect,” a newly released documentary that examines the Providence-St. Mel story in detail. Directed by Rollin Binzer, the 92-minute film grips the viewer with inspiring interviews and vignettes of its students, teachers and alumni. Its most winning moments come unexpectedly when, for example, the film captures students cheering each other on to complete math and spelling exercises at the blackboard. Adams is seen as a blunt, driven man whose early life in the civil rights battleground of Montgomery, Ala., infused him with a fierce commitment to spreading education’s liberating and transformative power.

Policy Perspectives on Increasing U.S. High School Graduation Rates Offered at Black Congressional Conference

Policy Perspectives on Increasing U.S. High School Graduation Rates Offered at Black Congressional Conference: One strategy to reduce high school dropout rates among African-American and Latino teenagers is to better align counselors and high quality teachers with the most vulnerable students as they move from elementary to middle to their high school freshman year, a Johns Hopkins University senior researcher told attendees Thursday during the Education Braintrust session at the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Annual Legislative Conference.

Dr. Robert Balfanz, associate research scientist at the Center for Social Organization of Schools at Johns Hopkins University, said that analysis of the 2,000 high schools which account for roughly half of the nation’s dropouts showed that four out of five ninth-graders at those schools have either repeated grades making them older than traditional ninth-graders, or are doing academic work far below their grade levels. Those same 2,000 schools, accounting for roughly 12 percent of the nation’s secondary schools, are where African-American and Latino students are heavily concentrated, according to research by Balfanz and other scholars with whom he has collaborated.

“Four-fifths of the ninth-grade students at the 2,000 high schools need extra help. They need more than just a good lesson every day. They need ways to overcome their skill gaps and become motivated with school,” said Balfanz. “You can see how schools get rapidly overwhelmed. Do we put the educational equivalent of the Army Rangers in those schools? No, we put the least experienced, the most transient, and the most unpolished teachers in those schools.”

Teachers College - Columbia University: News

Teachers College - Columbia University: News: In an article in the Journal of Community Psychology, TC Professor Jeanne Brooks-Gunn and Margo Gardner, a researcher at the College’s for Children and Young Families, report on their discovery of an inverse association between the variety of youth organizations available at in an urban neighborhood and adolescents’ exposure to community violence.

Using data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN), and Brooks-Gun found that “exposure to community violence occurs less frequently among adolescents who live in neighborhoods that offer a greater, versus lesser, variety of youth organizations.” Although that finding is keeping with the common perception about the protective role youth organizations play in neighborhoods, the relationship isn’t as straightforward as having access to a greater variety of neighborhood youth organizations equates to adolescents’ participation in organized community-based activities, which, in turn, protects against community violence exposure.

Teachers College - Columbia University: News

Teachers College - Columbia University: News: Racial microaggressions refer to subtle insults directed toward people of color, often automatically or unconsciously. It has become a growing area of research, and in a study published in the journal Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, Teachers College Professor Derald Sue Wing and four TC students explore racial microaggressions and how they play out in the classroom.

The qualitative study finds that difficult dialogues on race and racism are often triggered by racial microaggressions that result from classroom encounters or educational activities and materials. When poorly handled by teachers, these racial dialogues can assail the personal integrity of students of color while reinforcing biased worldviews of white students. The success or failure of facilitating difficult dialogues on race, the authors conclude, is intimately linked to the characteristics and actions of instructors and their ability to recognize racial microaggressions.

Education Week: Scholars Make Case for Integration

Education Week: Scholars Make Case for Integration: A study presented on Capitol Hill last week provides new evidence that black and Latino children who attend elementary schools with high concentrations of minority students fare worse academically than students being taught in whiter, or more integrated, school settings.

The paper, written by two researchers from Teachers College, Columbia University, was among several studies presented at a June 12 briefing organized by three universities to marshal new ideas and evidence for integrating K-12 schools.

The school desegregation movement suffered the largest in a series of setbacks in 2007, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, in cases involving the Seattle and Jefferson County, Ky., districts to limit the use of race in pupil-assignment plans. ('Race Plans Get Rough Reception,' December 13, 2006.) But advocates and researchers at the meeting implored federal lawmakers to take a stronger hand in promoting integrated schools and gave evidence for other proposals, including cross-district choice plans and income-based integration policies, that might achieve the same ends within the confines of the Supreme Court ruling.

Researchers and Activists Sound Alarm on Minority Plight in U.S. Economy

Researchers and Activists Sound Alarm on Minority Plight in U.S. Economy: Researchers and activists representing national minority organizations and progressive public policy groups urged members of Congress during a congressional hearing Wednesday to target specific programs and funding to alleviate the disproportionate impact the recession is having on African-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and Asian-Americans.

Citing evidence that minority unemployment and home foreclosure rates continue to dramatically outpace that of Whites, several people, including the congressional committee chair who presided over the hearing, questioned whether stimulus funding and federal programs to help homeowners avoid foreclosures are helping minorities at all.

“As our nation lays down the tracks of economic revitalization, we must be sure that every American has boarded the train toward recovery,” said U.S. Congressman Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.). “Unfortunately, recent reports indicate that not only are certain racial and ethnic-specific groups being left behind, but many never received a ticket to board the ‘recovery train’ to start off with.”

Cuban-American Scholars React to Havana Concert

Cuban-American Scholars React to Havana Concert: Sitting on the leather couch of her Miami living room, Uva de Aragon is surrounded by mementos of an island she knew only by memory. For 50 years, de Aragon has undergone the nightly exercise of mapping and memorizing every detail that adorned the hometown she left as a budding 15-year-old.

“My mother was a beautiful lady, unfortunately she had her leg amputated, but she was still beautiful. That is how I think of Havana, still beautiful with a few scars,” said de Aragon, who is the director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University.

Her exercise proved useful when she turned on the television last Sunday night to see Colombian rocker Juanes in Havana singing: “Los hermanos ya no se deben pelear, es momento de recapacitar, es tiempo de cambiar — it's time to change,” just a few miles from where she was born.

The emotion of watching more than a million Cubans wearing white and echoing chants of peace in Havana’s Plaza de la Revolucion brought tears to de Aragon’s eyes as she called her two American-born daughters between commercials.

Best & Brightest: African Teacher Excels as Student, Role Model in U.S.

Best & Brightest: African Teacher Excels as Student, Role Model in U.S.: An Ugandan mother attends graduate school in the U.S. while keeping tabs on school she established in her home country.

Joanita Senoga stood on her parent’s porch in her native Uganda in the mid-1990s to teach reading, math, English and science to disadvantaged youth.

With her family’s help, she opened Circle of Peace School to teach 24 low-income and orphaned children in a small building with no bathroom and where meals were cooked on a dirt floor above an open fire.

The school now has 200 children in grades kindergarten through seventh grade and has bathrooms, two stoves and a small dorm for 30 boys and girls.

While raising money to keep the school open, the 39-year-old single mother of two also is a graduate student at the University of Richmond in Virginia, where she received a bachelor’s degree in education in 2006.

“I was a primary school teacher in Uganda. You had to pay to attend school and some kids didn’t have money,” said Senoga, 39, who began teaching at age 22 immediately after she received an education degree at Kibuli Teacher’s College in Uganda. “These kids should receive the best education as everyone else.”

Blog: Implementing the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act and its impact on Latinos

Blog: Implementing the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act and its impact on Latinos: What is the tactical federal plan to reach Latino communities so they are aware of their student loan options and can make informed choices to pay for college? Translating a few publications into Spanish does not constitute a tactical plan.

This past week the House of Representatives passed landmark legislation to overhaul student college loan programs and redirect billions in projected savings to student aid and other education programs. Among its most significant changes, the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (HR3221) would eliminate the bank-based Family Federal Education Loan Program (FFELP) and make the federally run Federal Direct Loan Program the primary federal loan program.

New Dartmouth President Inaugurated

New Dartmouth President Inaugurated: Dartmouth College is the first Ivy League school to inaugurate an Asian-American president.

Jim Yong Kim told students at his ceremony Tuesday that they will achieve far greater success than he has as a leader in the global fight against HIV/AIDS and other diseases.

Kim took over the Dartmouth presidency from James Wright in July.

He is a former director of the World Health Organization's HIV/AIDS department.

Kim helped found Partners in Health to support health programs in poor communities worldwide.

He comes to Dartmouth from Harvard Medical School, where he was chairman of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine.

Representatives from close to 130 colleges and universities also attended the inauguration.

Republican Leader Says Party Must Court Blacks

Republican Leader Says Party Must Court Blacks: Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele on Monday said his party must take steps to win over black voters, and he faulted both Democrats and Republicans for failing to address poverty.

Speaking at Philander Smith College, a historically black college near downtown Little Rock, Steele said Republicans and Democrats need to address poverty in discussions ranging from health care to environmental issues.

'Dr. King would be disappointed in the political leadership of this country for failing to address the least of us,' Steele, who is the first African-American head of the Republican Party, told an audience of more than 500 people at Philander Smith.

Racial discrimination found at Pa. swim club - washingtonpost.com

Racial discrimination found at Pa. swim club - washingtonpost.com: PHILADELPHIA -- A state panel has found probable cause of racial discrimination at a suburban Philadelphia swim club that asked a day camp group of mostly black and Hispanic children not to return, a ruling the club's lawyer blamed late Tuesday on the 'media firestorm' that followed the incident.

The Valley Club in predominantly white Huntingdon Valley, Pa., has denied there was any racial motive behind its actions June 29, when children from Creative Steps Inc. day camp went to the club and their payment for swimming was refunded without explanation. The club has maintained that there were too many children for the number of lifeguards on duty and that many of the children who were at the club couldn't swim.

'District 9' depiction angers some Nigerians - CNN.com

'District 9' depiction angers some Nigerians - CNN.com: ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- When Ken Umeano went to watch the summer sci-fi blockbuster 'District 9,' he stormed out after 30 minutes.

"I was so angry," said Umeano, a Nigeria native living in Atlanta. "They were showing Nigerians as corrupt, eating aliens, saying they have sex with aliens. I could not watch that."

The movie set in South Africa is a story about an alien space ship that breaks down over Johannesburg -- leaving the stranded creatures in a fierce battle with humans.

In the film, Nigerians jump at an opportunity to exploit the aliens, who are being kicked out by their South African hosts. A Nigerian gangster provides the aliens with a range of paid services including prostitutes, food and weapons.

The depiction has sparked an outcry, including a Facebook group condemning its portrayal of Nigerians. Officials in the West African country have banned it and are demanding an apology from Sony Pictures, the film's principle distributor through Tri-Star Pictures.

"Why do they want to denigrate Nigerians as criminals, cannibals and prostitutes who sleep with extra-terrestrial animals?" said Dora Akunyili, information minister. "We've had enough with the stereotypes they have branded us with ... we are not going to sit back and allow people to stigmatize us."

Immigrant population dipped last year, Census says - USATODAY.com

Immigrant population dipped last year, Census says - USATODAY.com: The share of the U.S. population composed of immigrants dropped slightly in 2008, reversing a 40-year trend that helped fuel the nation's explosive growth and diversity.

The foreign-born dropped from 12.6% in 2007 to 12.5%, according to Census data out Monday. The share had been rising every decade since 1970, when it hit a low of 4.7%.

The dip is more pronounced in areas that have taken a big economic hit in the recession, such as Los Angeles and Riverside in California and Phoenix. Areas doing better such as Houston and Dallas did not experience as large a drop — an indication that immigrant numbers could rise again as soon as the economy rebounds.

'It's short-term, but it's a real marker in terms of immigration slowdown,' says William Frey, demographer at the Brookings Institution.

Health Disparities Pose High Cost for American Economy, Researchers Say

Health Disparities Pose High Cost for American Economy, Researchers Say: For years minority health advocates have made a social justice argument to bring national attention to health disparities affecting minority Americans, but now they have an economic one.

Researchers commissioned by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies released a report Thursday, calculating the combined costs of health inequalities and premature death in the nation to be $1.24 trillion between 2003 and 2006. During that time, minorities spent nearly $230 billion in excess medical care costs. The Joint Center is a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that focuses on the concerns of African-Americans and communities of color.

“There is no question that reducing the health disparities can save incredible amounts of money — more importantly it can save lives,' said U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, adding that reducing health disparities is high on her administration’s agenda. “There's no single explanation for the disparities outlined in today's report. And there's no single solution either. But we know that the two biggest contributors to these disparities are a lack of access to insurance and a lack of access to care.”

NC Community Colleges to Enroll Undocumented Students

NC Community Colleges to Enroll Undocumented Students: RALEIGH, N.C. _ North Carolina's community college system voted Friday to admit undocumented immigrants at its campuses next year, a move unlikely to bring an immediate surge in undocumented students given a requirement that they pay higher tuition.

The State Board of Community Colleges approved the rules, which according to proponents will provide clarity after four previous policy changes on the topic since 2001.

A no-admission policy, with some rare exceptions, has been in place since May 2008, but Friday's vote will open more opportunities for Latino residents to succeed, an advocate said.

``We are thrilled with the decision,'' said Marco Zarate, president of the North Carolina Society of Hispanic Professionals. ``We believe that education is something that is probably one of the few things that once you have it, nobody can take it away from you.''

Why We Need to Talk About Obama and Racism | Newsweek Newsweek - Raina Kelley | Newsweek.com

Why We Need to Talk About Obama and Racism | Newsweek Newsweek - Raina Kelley | Newsweek.com: Let me say this clearly so there are no misunderstandings: some of the protests against President Obama are howls of rage at the fact that we have an African-American head of state. I'm sick of all the code words used when this subject comes up, so be assured that I am saying exactly what I mean. Oh, and in response to the inevitable complaints that I am playing the race card—race isn't a political parlor game. It is a powerful fault line in a nation that bears the scars of slavery, a civil war, Jim Crow, a mind-numbing number of assassinations, and too many riots to count. It is naive and disingenuous to say otherwise.

Initiative Focuses on Early Learning Programs - NYTimes.com

Initiative Focuses on Early Learning Programs - NYTimes.com: Tucked away in an $87 billion higher education bill that passed the House last week was a broad new federal initiative aimed not at benefiting college students, but at raising quality in the early learning and care programs that serve children from birth through age 5.

The initiative, the Early Learning Challenge Fund, would channel $8 billion over eight years to states with plans to improve standards, training and oversight of programs serving infants, toddlers and preschoolers.

The Senate is expected to pass similar legislation this fall, giving President Obama, who proposed the Challenge Fund during the presidential campaign, a bill to sign in December.

Experts describe the current array of programs serving young children and their families nationwide as a hodgepodge of efforts with little coordination or coherence. Financing comes from a shifting mix of private, local, state and federal money. Programs are run out of storefronts and churches, homes and Head Start centers, public schools and other facilities. Quality is uneven, with some offering stimulating activities, play and instruction but others providing little more than a room and a television.

House Votes to End Subsidies to Student Loan Firms - washingtonpost.com

House Votes to End Subsidies to Student Loan Firms - washingtonpost.com: The Democratic-led House approved a bill Thursday that would overhaul college lending and spend tens of billions of dollars on student grants, community colleges, school construction and early childhood education.

The bill would end a program that subsidizes private lenders that provide federally guaranteed student loans. The government itself would make all such federal loans as of July 1, effectively cutting out banks and other lenders as middlemen. That would be a major shift because direct government lending in the last academic year accounted for about a quarter of federal loan volume.

College Students are Health Care’s Invisible Minority

College Students are Health Care’s Invisible Minority: Close to 5 million students don’t have health insurance, report says.

Susana Sagastizado, a senior at the University of Maryland, started coughing today. Her nose is running a bit and she feels an ill warmth on her forehead — all bad signs, she said since she doesn’t have health insurance.

Luckily, the university’s health center provides care at a reasonable price, so Sagastizado can be seen and pay for a flu shot using her part-time income. But if she does have the flu, joining the more than 600 suspected cases at Maryland, it gets worse. The 21-year-old’s good fortune could end.

“I worry about it a lot, it’s always in the back of my head,” Sagastizado said about not having insurance. Her parents can’t afford to have her and her two brothers on their insurance without losing their home. “I feel anxious especially when I’m sick. You always think of the worst-case scenario that you might have to go to an emergency room.”"

Passing Judgment

Passing Judgment: From the time President Barack Obama introduced Sonia Sotomayor as his U.S. Supreme Court nominee to the day of her confi rmation as an associate justice, conservative criticism of her nomination remained vocal and unrelenting.

While some conservatives focused on Sotomayor’s positions on gun rights and abortion, many seemed fixated with her comments regarding race and ethnicity. Their opposition, which continued up to the moment of the 68-31 Senate vote last month, appeared to be based on the notion that her ethnic background precluded her from judicial objectivity.

This might have been a typical conservative outcry to a left-of-center court nominee, but many scholars say the fi ght over Sotomayor is indicative of a larger struggle over the politics of identity. They say the Sotomayor nomination, on the heels of the election of the country’s first Black president, appears to be an attempt by White conservatives to control the discourse on race and ethnicity.

School Book Ban Raises Censorship Concerns in Puerto Rico

School Book Ban Raises Censorship Concerns in Puerto Rico: Several university professors in Puerto Rico are protesting a decision to ban five books from the curriculum at public high schools in the U.S. territory because of coarse language.

The Spanish-language books previously were read as part of the 11th grade curriculum, but proofreaders this year alerted education officials about “coarse” slang, including references to genitalia in “Mejor te lo cuento: antologia personal,” by Juan Antonio Ramos.

Also among the banned books is the novel “Aura” by Carlos Fuentes of Mexico, one of Latin America's most prominent contemporary writers. The other four authors affected are from Puerto Rico.

Magali Garcia Ramis, a communications professor at the University of Puerto Rico, expressed concern Saturday about how books are being evaluated by the island's Department of Education.

“This kind of mentality rejects everything that is art and only associates sexuality with inappropriateness,” Garcia Ramis said."

Survey Shows More Diversity and Higher Graduation Rates at Public HBCUs

Survey Shows More Diversity and Higher Graduation Rates at Public HBCUs: Public Historically Black Colleges and Universities have grown and expanded in the last 20 years, making their students and faculty among the most intellectually and racially diverse in higher education, according to a survey released Monday.

In their 20-year analysis on member institutions from 1986 to 2006, the Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF), a national organization that provides scholarships, support, and research to HBCUs, found that the schools are attracting more students than ever before—particularly Hispanics and Asians.

“We are supporting diversity and it matters to HBCUs whose historic mission has been to serve under-served communities including Hispanic and Asian minorities, as well as, the low-income population,” said TMCF education researcher Olivia Blackmon.

Over the last two decades, Hispanics and Asians have consistently increased their numbers while overall enrollment has increased about 30 percent, TMCF data indicates.

Blackmon said that among female students, Asian and Hispanic women have more than doubled their presence in graduate programs while the number of degrees conferred has increased 43 and 45 percent respectively."

Op-Ed Contributors - The Recession’s Racial Divide - NYTimes.com

Op-Ed Contributors - The Recession’s Racial Divide - NYTimes.com: WHAT do you get when you combine the worst economic downturn since the Depression with the first black president? A surge of white racial resentment, loosely disguised as a populist revolt. An article on the Fox News Web site has put forth the theory that health reform is a stealth version of reparations for slavery: whites will foot the bill and, by some undisclosed mechanism, blacks will get all the care. President Obama, in such fantasies, is a dictator and, in one image circulated among the anti-tax, anti-health reform “tea parties,” he is depicted as a befeathered African witch doctor with little tusks coming out of his nostrils. When you’re going down, as the white middle class has been doing for several years now, it’s all too easy to imagine that it’s because someone else is climbing up over your back.

Food stamp list soars past 35 million: USDA | U.S. | Reuters

Food stamp list soars past 35 million: USDA | U.S. | Reuters: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than 35 million Americans received food stamps in June, up 22 percent from June 2008 and a new record as the country continued to grapple with the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The food stamp program, which helps cover the cost of groceries for one in nine Americans, has grown in step with the U.S. unemployment rate which stood at 9.4 percent in July.

The Labor Department will release August employment figures on Friday.

June was the seventh straight month in which food stamp rolls set a record. The average benefit in June was $133.12 per person.

Census: Income fell sharply last year - USATODAY.com

Census: Income fell sharply last year - USATODAY.com: WASHINGTON — Americans' household income last year took the sharpest drop since the government began keeping records in 1947, the Census Bureau reported Thursday.

Median household income sank 3.6% to $50,303, after adjusting for inflation, during the first full year of the recession.

Income tumbled to its lowest dollar level since 1997 — a decade's worth of gains wiped out in one year — and things will get worse before they get better, says Sheldon Danziger of the Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan.

"2009 is going to be dreadful," he says. He predicts income will drop at least 5% this year because of rising unemployment in the recession's second year.

The Census Bureau's annual report on income and poverty is one of the most important benchmarks of the U.S. economy.

The income and poverty data reflect the sweeping effects of the recession, which began in December 2007 and has erased 6.9 million jobs. The report covers a wide range of pre-tax income, such as wages, Social Security payments and dividends. It doesn't count the value of non-cash benefits, such as food stamps or employee health insurance.

Washington Ranked Fourth-Best Area for Attending College in New Report

Washington Ranked Fourth-Best Area for Attending College in New Report: Washington, D.C. was ranked as the country’s fourth-best metropolitan area for attending college according to the new 2009-10 College Destinations Index released Tuesday by the American Institute for Economic Research. According to The Washington Post, The report groups cities by size. The D.C. region, ranked among metropolitan areas with at least 2.5 million residents, tops such locales as Seattle (fifth) and Chicago (12th). Baltimore, home to Johns Hopkins University, ranks seventh. San Jose ranks first among midsize metropolitan areas of 1 million to 2.5 million. D.C. was behind New York, San Francisco and Boston.

Excelencia in Education

Excelencia in Education: Excelencia in Education has led the Latino Student Project Series since 2004 to develop greater understanding about institutional leadership and practices to accelerate Latino student success in higher education. The current project, Achieving LAtino Student Success (ALASS) works with eight Texas border institutions.

The findings and learning from this multi-phase effort explore the following critical question
What does it mean to academically serve Latino students?

2009 Examples of Excelencia

Meeting the increasing challenges of a global economy requires all U.S. citizens are well educated, especially the growing Latino population. Now, more than ever, it is necessary to build momentum to capture the talents of Latino students and enhance their transitions into a highly skilled workforce and into leadership roles in the U.S. society.

Launched in 2005, the Examples of Excelencia initiative is designed to help reach this goal by identifying and honoring programs and departments at the forefront of increasing academic opportunities and improving achievement for Latino students at the Associate, Baccalaureate and Graduate levels. We focus on results and disseminating these promising practices to others interested in serving Latino students. We invite you to make a nomination for a program you believe deserves to be recognized as an Example of Excelencia.

National Summit on Adult Learning

Women In Government is proud to be holding the 'National Summit on Adult Learning: Education as a Driver of Economic Success' on October 8 - 10, 2009 in Washington, DC! Scholarships are still available for this event!

This Summit will bring together State Legislators from across the country to explore higher education as it relates to adult learners. The Summit will feature presentations from expert speakers, as well as fellow state legislators who will provide first hand knowledge on how state policy can affect the adult learner. Topics highlighted will include:

* Model programs from Maine, Kentucky and Minnesota
* Access, affordability and accountability for higher education initiatives for adult learners
* Working breakouts to identify key concepts in legislation that work towards educating adults for greater economic success

To learn more about topics covered view a draft agenda for this event.

Invitation

Invitation: Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Midwest at Learning Point Associates is sponsoring a full-day conference to review the emerging research about increasing access to higher education for all students. Policymakers and leaders from higher education and state education agencies from across the country are invited to engage in a collaborative policy discussion with the following distinguished presenters: Thomas Bailey, Ph.D., Director of the National Center for Postsecondary Research; Freeman Hrabowski III, Ph.D., President of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Nicole Farmer Hurd, Ph.D., Executive Director of the National College Advising Corps; Robert Shireman, Deputy Under Secretary of Education at the U.S. Department of Education; and William Tierney, Ph.D., Wilbur-Kieffer Professor of Higher Education and Director of the Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis at the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education.

Excelencia in Education :: Programs :: Events

Excelencia in Education :: Programs :: Events: The evaluation of the Limited English Proficiency and Hispanic Workers Initiative is an effort to gauge the effectiveness of five demonstration projects that each implemented different models of contextualized learning via an implementation analysis. This session will explore ways to raise the bar on implementation studies to obtain evidence-based information for future pilots and demonstrations. Come and learn about the different models the grantees employed, promising practices gleaned from the field, and recommendations for future demonstrations.

Speakers
Patrick Dail, Project Director, VESL for a Successful Worker, CUNY Research Foundation, NY (Grantee)
Deborah Santiago, Principal Investigator, LEPHWI Evaluation, Excelencia in Education

Moderator
Heidi M. Casta, Director, Division of Research and Demonstrations, Employment and Training Administration, U.S. Department of Labor.

Excelencia in Education

Excelencia in Education: By the year 2025, nearly one-quarter of the nation’s college-age population will be Latino. But not enough are earning college and university degrees. Accelerating Latino student success now–and for the next 15 years–is vital to our national interest. To ensure the high caliber of tomorrow’s workforce and civic leadership, Excelencia in Education links research, policy, and practice to inform policymakers and institutional leaders and promotes policies and practices that support higher educational achievement for Latino students and all students.

Survey: Americans say Muslims face 'a lot' of bias

Survey: Americans say Muslims face 'a lot' of bias: Americans are learning more about Islam, and familiarity with the faith makes people more likely to view Muslims favorably and less likely to believe Islam encourages violence, according to a new study.

The survey by the Pew Research Center also showed that Americans still believe Muslims face far more discrimination than the nation's other religious groups.

The findings can be linked because increased knowledge about Muslims is tied to more sensitivity about bias they face, said Greg Smith, the report's senior researcher.

'To say that Muslims are discriminated against ... it's not the same thing as expressing an unfavorable view of Muslims. In fact it's just the opposite,' he said. 'People who are most sympathetic to a group are more likely to see that group as being discriminated against.'

In the annual survey released Wednesday, 58 percent of Americans said there was 'a lot' of discrimination against Muslims. Jews were seen as the religious group with the next highest level of bias against them, with 35 percent saying they faced a lot of discrimination.

Homosexuals were the only group seen as facing more discrimination than Muslims, with almost two-thirds of Americans saying homosexuals are discriminated against a lot.

Poverty Rates Highest Since 1997 : NPR

Poverty Rates Highest Since 1997 : NPR: Almost 40 million people in the U.S. lived in poverty last year — the first full year of the recession — putting the nation's poverty rate at its highest level in 11 years, according to new figures released Thursday by the Census Bureau.

The fact that poverty is on the rise is no surprise. Since the start of the recession back in December 2007, unemployment has been going up and incomes have been going down. The median income dropped 3.6 percent last year, and the poverty rate rose to 13.2 percent. That pushed an additional 2.5 million people below the poverty line. Many were children.

David Johnson, a senior statistician with the Census Bureau, says the increase is clearly linked to jobs.

'Children in nonworking families, children in female-headed households, children in families that receive food stamps, their poverty rate didn't change much,' Johnson says. 'Whereas children in earner households, the poverty was affected a lot. So you see a lot of it tied to the earnings change in 2007, 2008.'

That makes a lot of people nervous. If things were so bad last year, what about now?

Even Babies Discriminate: A NurtureShock Excerpt. | Newsweek Life | Newsweek.com

Even Babies Discriminate: A NurtureShock Excerpt. | Newsweek Life | Newsweek.com: At the Children's Research Lab at the University of Texas, a database is kept on thousands of families in the Austin area who have volunteered to be available for scholarly research. In 2006 Birgitte Vittrup recruited from the database about a hundred families, all of whom were Caucasian with a child 5 to 7 years old.

The goal of Vittrup's study was to learn if typical children's videos with multicultural storylines have any beneficial effect on children's racial attitudes. Her first step was to give the children a Racial Attitude Measure, which asked such questions as:

How many White people are nice?
(Almost all) (A lot) (Some) (Not many) (None)

How many Black people are nice?
(Almost all) (A lot) (Some) (Not many) (None)

During the test, the descriptive adjective "nice" was replaced with more than 20 other adjectives, like "dishonest," "pretty," "curious," and "snobby."

Skin whiteners labeled racist - CNN.com

Skin whiteners labeled racist - CNN.com: NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Cosmetic advertisements in Asia are targeting men with blunt campaigns aimed at skin color that one lawmaker labels racist.

In one TV commercial, two men, one with dark skin, the other with light skin; stand on a balcony overlooking a neighborhood. The dark skin guy turns to his friend and says in Hindi, "I am unlucky because of my face." His light skin friend replies, "Not because of your face, because of the color of your face."

Suddenly the light skin guy throws his friend a cream. It's a whitening cream.

It is one of several television commercials aimed at men in Pakistan and India. In the end the darker skin actor is shown several shades lighter and he gets the girl he was after. Most of the ads end up that way.

The commercials are sending a not-so-subtle message to men in Asia: Get whiter skin, and you'll get the girl and the job of your dreams. Or at the very least you'll be noticed.

"We always have a complex towards a white skin, towards foreign skin or foreign hair," Jawed Habib says.

Howard University Students Not Satisfied by Response to Protest - washingtonpost.com

Howard University Students Not Satisfied by Response to Protest - washingtonpost.com: Student leaders said Wednesday that concessions made by Howard University in response to a protest last week were 'a start' but that they planned to keep pushing for more on-campus housing, better access for students with disabilities and technology upgrades on campus, among other improvements.

Leaders of the Howard University Student Association organized a protest Friday that drew about 350 students and union workers. Although the students had a long list of demands, much of the focus last week was on delays in payments from the university's financial aid office.

In a letter and in an interview with the Hilltop, Howard's student newspaper, President Sidney A. Ribeau agreed to improve access to the financial aid office by extending its hours and moving it to a larger location until Sept. 25. Ribeau also said a recycling program would be instituted on campus by the end of the month.

But he said that some of the requests, such as 24-hour library access and widespread wireless high-speed Internet service, were not affordable at the moment.

"That's very alarming," said Jeanette Hordge, a spokeswoman for the student association. Given how much students pay in tuition, she said, "it's simply unacceptable."

Tuition, room, board and mandatory fees total $29,322 for new students this year.

Hordge also said that students were disappointed with what she characterized as a lack of specifics in Ribeau's response. "We don't want general answers, and we don't want things brushed under the carpet," she said.

Obama's back-to-school speech inspires some kids - Yahoo! News

Obama's back-to-school speech inspires some kids - Yahoo! News: PHILADELPHIA – On the very first day of the school year, 12-year-old Mileena Rodriguez was reminded by President Barack Obama himself that hard work can take you places. Mileena listened to Obama's plea to study hard and stay in school Tuesday, watching along with several of her classmates at Thurgood Marshall Elementary School and students across the country. For all the hubbub among adults over the back-to-school speech, many youngsters took the president's message to heart.

'He said that we're the future, and he's right,' said Mileena, who wants to be a forensic scientist. 'That's a president telling you, `I care about you getting your education.' Just imagine what kids like us can do if we actually listen.'

Gay Latino Americans are 'coming of age' - CNN.com

Gay Latino Americans are 'coming of age' - CNN.com: ... A 2007 survey conducted by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network discovered that at schools where a Gay Student Alliance club existed, 59 percent of gay Latino students participated in the club, says Elizabeth Diaz, a senior researcher at the network. The survey defined gay youths as those who were lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

The network also says that since 1999, at least 4,000 Gay Student Alliances have formed groups at public and private schools in the United States.

'While harassment in schools for Latino gay students remained high, we also know that these students have more support than in past generations,' Diaz says.

At least one Latina scholar is now even questioning a fundamental assumption about homophobia in the Latino community.

Lourdes Torres, president of Amigas Latinas, a lesbian and bisexual support group, says the notion that Latino people are more homophobic and its men more macho is not only false, but tinged with racism.

Men from all sorts of ethnic groups have long acted in a patriarchal manner, but only Latino men have the term 'machismo' attached to their behavior, she says.

'Eclipsed' Brings Story Of Liberian Civil War To Stage : NPR

'Eclipsed' Brings Story Of Liberian Civil War To Stage : NPR: Playwright Danai Gurira says the inspiration for her new play, Eclipsed, came from a photograph one of her professors showed her when she was in graduate school. The picture, which ran alongside a New York Times article about women in Africa, showed a female fighting unit.

'I didn't know anything about women fighters in African wars,' Gurira tells Jennifer Ludden. 'And just to see these women standing there, you know, in their jeans and ... fashionable tops and their hair is all done, and they're all carrying AK-47s, was just an image I couldn't get out of my head.'

Gurira, who was born in the U.S. but raised in Zimbabwe, knew that one day she'd try to get behind the eyes of the fighting women, to tell their story. So in 2007, she journeyed to Liberia to learn more. On her trip, she met women fighters — as well as women who promoted peace.

Obama Back to School Speech Reveals Racial Fears

Obama Back to School Speech Reveals Racial Fears: Sesame Street and President Barack Obama have two things in common when it comes to managing public discourse. In the 1960s, the popular television show was accused of promoting socialism because it taught children how to share. Now, the president is being called a communist for encouraging students to stay in school.

These are just two examples of how seemingly innocuous rhetoric can metamorphose into a controversy of national proportions. While commentators railed the debate as “silly,” some experts say the issue is an articulation of racial fears.

African-American political expert Ronald Walters says race and politics are the two issues behind the contention.

“I’ve never seen something like this when a president wanted to speak to children and there was any kind of noticeable opposition,” Walters says. “With an African-American president there are going to be some firsts.”

Commentary: Obama on risky ground on schools - CNN.com

Commentary: Obama on risky ground on schools - CNN.com: President Obama has made it clear from the earliest days of his presidency that he intended to make education a high priority for his administration.

He reaffirmed that commitment Tuesday when he addressed schoolchildren on the topic.

In one of his first presidential addresses, he made a special appeal to students at risk of dropping out: '... [D]ropping out of high school is no longer an option. It's not just quitting on yourself, it's quitting on your country, and this country needs and values the talents of every American.'

The president's commitment to education is truly remarkable, considering the enormous array of policy challenges confronting the administration. From health care and the economic crisis, to global warming and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the administration is beset by controversies that will not be easily resolved.

Students Borrow More Than Ever for College

Students Borrow More Than Ever for College: Nowadays students are borrowing more to pay for college. According to the National Center for Policy Analysis, this is becoming an increasing trend. The total amount borrowed by students and received by schools in the 2008-09 academic year grew about 25 percent over the previous year to $75.1 billion. A growing body of research suggests that tough loan payments are affecting major life decisions by recent graduates, forcing them to put off traditional milestones -- from buying a first home to even marriage and having children.

Howard, Va. Tech Join U.S. Intelligence Program

Howard, Va. Tech Join U.S. Intelligence Program: Howard University and Virginia Tech have joined 19 other colleges and universities in developing national security studies that support critical skills needed by intelligence agencies. According to The Washington Post, the $2.5 million academic program, which is funded by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, is designed to teach undergraduates skills that the nation's intelligence agencies need. Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair announced the grant last week at the national annual conference of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities in Washington, D.C.

Penn. State Asking Merit Scholar Parents for Donations

Penn. State Asking Merit Scholar Parents for Donations: Students who are accepted into Penn State University's honors college get more than academic feathers in their caps. They get $3,500 annual merit scholarships.

But given the tough economic times, the school is making an unusual request: Would parents consider donating that money back?

The fundraising appeal for Schreyer Honors College leans on parents who have not applied for financial aid for their children, encouraging them to share their good fortune with needier students. It appears to be working. The first appeal to 75 families last year raised about $228,000.

'I have not heard of this kind of an approach before,' said Lee Andes, president of the National Association of State Student Grant and Aid Programs. 'It doesn't surprise me to hear people getting creative.'

Obama Lectures to Students on Virtues of Hard Work - washingtonpost.com

Obama Lectures to Students on Virtues of Hard Work - washingtonpost.com: President Obama, shrugging off a controversy over his appearance at a Northern Virginia high school, challenged students Tuesday to develop their skills and take responsibility for their education.

In a visit to Wakefield High School in Arlington, Obama used the post-Labor Day reopening of schools in Northern Virginia and other parts of the country to meet with students and deliver a lunchtime pep talk that was broadcast to schools across the country.

He told students that "if you quit on school, you're not just quitting on yourself, you're quitting on your country."

Sotomayor Takes Judicial Oath in Court Chambers - washingtonpost.com

Sotomayor Takes Judicial Oath in Court Chambers - washingtonpost.com: Justice Sonia Sotomayor officially took her seat as the Supreme Court's 111th member Tuesday in a tradition-laden ceremony witnessed by President Obama, Vice President Biden and scores of her relatives and friends.

Sotomayor took her judicial oath and joined the court on Aug. 8, soon after her Senate confirmation. But Tuesday's investiture ceremony marked the first time she joined her eight colleagues in the court's historic chambers, with their marble columns and burgundy draperies.

In school speech, Obama says education key to country's future - CNN.com

In school speech, Obama says education key to country's future - CNN.com: WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House released the text Monday of a controversial back-to-school speech to students from President Obama.

Many conservatives have expressed a fear that the address would be used to push a partisan political agenda. In the text of the speech, however, Obama avoids any mention of controversial political initiatives. He repeatedly urges students to work hard and stay in school.

"No matter what you want to do with your life, I guarantee that you'll need an education to do it," he says.

"This isn't just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country."

The text of the 18-minute speech was posted on the White House Web site so people can read it before its scheduled Internet broadcast to schoolchildren Tuesday. Read text of Obama's speech to students (pdf)

A Surge in Homeless Children Tests School Aid Programs - NYTimes.com

A Surge in Homeless Children Tests School Aid Programs - NYTimes.com: In the small trailer her family rented over the summer, 9-year-old Charity Crowell picked out the green and purple outfit she would wear on the first day of school. She vowed to try harder and bring her grades back up from the C’s she got last spring — a dismal semester when her parents lost their jobs and car and the family was evicted and migrated through friends’ houses and a motel.

Charity is one child in a national surge of homeless schoolchildren that is driven by relentless unemployment and foreclosures. The rise, to more than one million students without stable housing by last spring, has tested budget-battered school districts as they try to carry out their responsibilities — and the federal mandate — to salvage education for children whose lives are filled with insecurity and turmoil.

Legal Battles Continue in Fight for Equity in Maryland Higher Education

Legal Battles Continue in Fight for Equity in Maryland Higher Education: In an ongoing struggle to right past wrongs, lawyers, community activists and students are awaiting their chance in court to make all Maryland universities equal and to reverse policies they say serve to weaken historically Black universities.

At the heart of the case, The Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education v. Maryland Higher Education Commission, are allegations that the state failed to live up to a 2000 desegregation agreement designed to ensure that HBCUs achieve parity with Maryland’s traditionally White institutions by providing equitable funding. The state was to also avoid duplicating at TWIs academic programs already offered at HBCUs in order to preserve the Black colleges’ uniqueness and attractiveness to nontraditional students.

UTSA College of Business Ranked No. 1 in the Nation by Hispanic Business

UTSA College of Business Ranked No. 1 in the Nation by Hispanic Business: Hispanic Business ranked the University of Texas at San Antonio College of Business the No. 1 graduate school in the nation in their September 2009 edition. According to PRNewswire, this is the second year that UTSA has been included in the listing and the 12th year that Hispanic Business has conducted their study. The rankings (in order) included UTSA, UT-El Paso, University of Miami, UT-Austin, Stanford University, University of New Mexico, Dartmouth, Florida International University, University of California at Berkeley and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Stray Bullet Kills Spelman Student Walking Atlanta Campus

Stray Bullet Kills Spelman Student Walking Atlanta Campus: One of the nation's largest historically Black academic centers mourned the death Thursday of a 19-year old student hit by a stray bullet as she walked on campus with friends just after midnight.

Police said Jasmine Lynn of Kansas City, Mo., was struck in the chest when at least six shots were fired during a fight at Clark Atlanta University, one of four adjoining campuses that together make up the Atlanta University Center. Lynn was a student at one of the schools, Spelman College.

Jerome Jones, a Clark Atlanta student who was with Lynn, was hit by a bullet on the wrist and was treated at a hospital and released, police said.

“One of the friends actually heard the gunshots, actually saw the weapon and told her to get on the ground,” Atlanta Police Lt. Keith Meadows said. “As she was getting on the ground, she got shot in the chest.”

Minority-Serving Institutions Seek Long-Term Funding Increases

Minority-Serving Institutions Seek Long-Term Funding Increases: With a short-term federal funding increase set to expire soon, minority- serving institutions and their advocates on Capitol Hill are moving on several fronts to make permanent at least some of these valuable gains.

In a fiscal 2010 education appropriations bill and the newly proposed Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, advocates are seeking to consolidate increases achieved in 2007. At that time, the College Cost Reduction Act steered an extra $500 million to minority-serving institutions — in addition to regular appropriations — with the proviso that the additional funding would end in 2009.

Since President Barack Obama’s inauguration in January, groups representing historically Black colleges, Hispanic-serving institutions and tribal colleges have sought to extend that short-term funding. Organizations say the need for long-term extra funding is significant given the effects of the recession on colleges.

While the Obama White House has endorsed only small increases for these colleges, Congress is taking steps to extend the large investments approved in 2007.

Racial Equality and Sports

Racial Equality and Sports: University of Maryland, College Park students in Dr. Damion Thomas’ “Black Masculinity and Basketball” class are usually talkative. A rare exception is when Thomas steers them to the subject of the late Len Bias, a UMD basketball star whose talents captivated sports fans nationally.

Bias died from a cocaine overdose in June 1986, when Thomas’ students were either too young to remember or before they were born. Their less-than-chatty demeanor also results from the other circumstances surrounding Bias’ death: At age 22, he suffered a seizure while partying with friends in his dorm room less than a week aft er the Boston Celtics selected him second overall in the NBA Draft. Bias had one of the brightest futures any young man could dream of.

Thomas, an assistant professor of kinesiology, uses Bias as an entry point to show how sports connects people, particularly Blacks, to society at large.

Montgomery County, MD - Press Releases

Montgomery County, MD - Press Releases: Montgomery County Public Libraries Celebrates National Hispanic Heritage Month with Family-oriented Programs

Montgomery County Public Libraries will celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month -- September 15 to October 15 -- with free musical performances by Cantare and Mariachi Los Amigos at local branches. All programs begin at 2 p.m., and no registration is required.

Cantare artists Patricia Vergara of Brazil and Cecilia Esquivel from Argentina will introduce audiences to the songs and rhythms of Latin America. The lively interactive performance, featuring a blend of songs in Spanish and Portuguese, will provide the background of the music’s culture and history.

Mariachi Los Amigos will perform a diverse repertoire of mariachi music from the latest cancion ranchera (country song) to romantic boleros, lively polkas and hard-driving jaliscienses.

The programs are funded through a grant provided by the Friends of the Library, Montgomery County, Inc."

Montgomery County, MD - Press Releases

Montgomery County, MD - Press Releases: Montgomery County Celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month

Montgomery County will kick off Hispanic Heritage Month – September 15 to October 15 – with a celebration on Tuesday, September 15 from 3:30 to 6 p.m., in the Executive Office Building Auditorium, 101 Monroe Street, Rockville.

Following a community reception with music and refreshments, County Executive Isiah Leggett will give opening remarks, followed by School Superintendent Dr. Jerry Weast and Montgomery College President Dr. Brian Johnson. Dr. Mark Hugo Lopez with the Pew Hispanic Center will be the keynote speaker. Delegate Ana Sol Gutierrez will talk about the 2010 Census. Leggett and County Council President Phil Andrews will present a joint proclamation declaring Hispanic Heritage Month in Montgomery County.

The event is co-hosted by the County Executive’s Office of Community Partnerships, the Montgomery County Government Hispanic Employees Association, Montgomery County Office of Human Resources, Montgomery County Board of Elections, Montgomery County Public Schools Hispanic Employees Association, Montgomery College Latino Network, Montgomery County Hispanic Heritage Planning Committee and various individuals and community–based organizations.

The event is free and open to the public.

While Smaller Colleges Weather Recession, Private HBCUs Face Unique Challenges

While Smaller Colleges Weather Recession, Private HBCUs Face Unique Challenges: Small- and middle-sized independent colleges have fared the economic recession well during the past six months, but historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in that category face special problems, according to Dr. Richard Ekman, president of the Council of Independent Colleges.

“When the crisis hit last fall, many of our members focused on students coming back in January and helped with financial aid. As a result many did,” Ekman told Diverse in an interview.

Also helping were the facts that the council's 587 members are not big public colleges affected by state budget cuts or private schools with large endowments that have taken huge hits in the past year because of stock market drops, he said.

Unprecedented Federal Support Predicted for HBCUs

Unprecedented Federal Support Predicted for HBCUs: At the conclusion of the 2009 National Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Week Conference, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan told a gathering of Black college leaders Wednesday that he predicts HBCUs will receive “unprecedented” levels of financial support under the Obama administration.

While providing few spending specifics, Duncan pointed to the expansion of the Pell Grant program, which will boost grant awards for HBCU students as well as increase the number of grant recipients attending HBCUs.

“Going forward, we project that HBCU students and their institutions will receive an additional $80 million in Pell Grants and 13,000 more students will become Pell Grant recipients, bringing the number of Pell Grant recipients at HBCUs to almost 200,000 students,” he said.

Immigrants' Sons More Likely to Be Obese, Report Finds - washingtonpost.com

Immigrants' Sons More Likely to Be Obese, Report Finds - washingtonpost.com: The sons of immigrants to the United States suffer from alarmingly high levels of childhood obesity, according to a new report funded by the Foundation for Child Development.

Thirty-four percent of kindergarten-age immigrant boys are obese or overweight, compared with 25 percent of the sons of native-born Americans, according to an analysis of data collected by the U.S. Education Department. By eighth grade, that number rises to 49 percent, compared with 33 percent among natives. No similar discrepancy was found among girls.

Adult immigrants do not tend to become overweight until they have been in the United States for a while and become more acculturated, whereas "children from the newest, least acculturated immigrant families tend to be the most at risk of obesity," said the report, released this week, which relied on a federal study that tracked 21,000 children from kindergarten to eighth grade, a quarter of whom were children of immigrants.

America as 100 people: 'Village' concept used to teach - USATODAY.com

America as 100 people: 'Village' concept used to teach - USATODAY.com: Now he has written a follow-up: If America Were a Village ($18.95, Kids Can Press), which reduces the USA to the same-size 100-person village.

In it we learn that 50 of 100 live in just nine states (12 of them in California). The combined populations of five rural states — Alaska, Vermont, Wyoming, North Dakota and South Dakota — amount to just one person. (Each 'person' equals more than 3 million people.)

It also tackles economic inequality, noting that:

•Five people share more than half the USA's wealth;

•One person controls more than 30%;

•The 60 poorest share about 4%.

The poverty figures, Smith notes, are actually rising, and like other stats will likely be updated in the next edition. 'A lot of people are really shocked by the fact that 'people living in poverty in the U.S.' is increasing.'"

Report Lauds “Model” of School Diversity

Report Lauds “Model” of School Diversity: A school integration plan that takes into account the demographics of a student’s neighborhood rather than the student’s race when making school assignments has been endorsed by University of California researchers as a model for other school districts seeking to maintain diversity.

The elementary schools in the Berkeley (Calif.) Unified School District are well integrated, and the district’s integration plan is constitutionally sound, according to a report released Tuesday by The Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity and Diversity at UC-Berkeley’s School of Law, and the Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at UCLA.

Public school districts around the country have been challenged to meet such goals since a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court 5-4 decision endorsed the importance of creating diverse schools, but limited assignment to public schools based upon a student's race. The ruling stemmed from challenges to integration plans in Seattle and Louisville, Ky. In Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. I , and Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education, parents sued the respective school districts, arguing their desegregation plans relied too heavily on race to determine school population.

HBCU Leaders Urged to Innovate

HBCU Leaders Urged to Innovate: Invoking the rich history of historically Black colleges and universities in the U.S., Dr. John S. Wilson Jr., the newly appointed executive director of the White House Initiative on HBCUs urged several hundred administrators and faculty members from these institutions as well as federal government officials Tuesday to develop innovative approaches for improving Black schools.

In what might be considered Wilson’s inaugural address during the annual HBCU Week conference, the Morehouse College graduate recalled the century-long struggle by HBCUs to close the resource gap that exists between them and predominantly White institutions.

Morris Brown President Speaks Out on Battle for HBCUs

Morris Brown President Speaks Out on Battle for HBCUs: Some historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have struggled in this economic downturn. So, is this causing African-American students to consider other colleges and universities? According to Grio, at one point HBCUs were responsible for awarding 90 percent of the degrees earned by blacks. However, today HBCUs only attract an estimate 15 percent of African-American college students. Consider Morris Brown College in Atlanta. Its enrollment declined to fewer than 150 students and it lost its accreditation. Dr. Stanley Pritchett, Morris Brown’s president, said HBCUs still graduate 20 percent to 30 percent of those in the engineering and technology fields. Nevertheless, he said Morris Brown has experienced financial challenges.

Nashville Police Defend Racial Policies at Fisk Forum

Nashville Police Defend Racial Policies at Fisk Forum: Nashville police officials told a forum at Fisk University late last week that racial profiling serves no purpose in community policing.

The NAACP forum at the historically Black campus invited community members and police together to discuss the issue on Thursday. The event was part of a monthly series dubbed ``Black in Nashville,'' organized by the NAACP to examine quality-of-life issues.

Nashville businessman Carl Jones, who is Black, said he filed a complaint after he was pulled over about a year ago by two officers. Jones said at the forum that one of the officers told him, “You know if I shot you, nothing would happen.”

“I feel hurt and offended because I've worked hard to make this a better city,” said Jones, a contractor who helped build LP Field, where the Tennessee Titans play. “This isn't an indictment of the entire police force, but an indictment of an environment created by a police chief where this is allowed to happen. I refuse to let such an environment continue.”

ETS Says New Assessment Tool Should Boost Minority Enrollment in Graduate Schools

ETS Says New Assessment Tool Should Boost Minority Enrollment in Graduate Schools: A new product launched by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) in July will help increase graduate school minority enrollment, according to officials with the Princeton, N.J.-based nonprofit testing and educational research organization.

The Personal Potential Index (PPI) will “compliment” recommendation letters from professors and the required Graduate Record Examinations in allowing students to ask their professors and supervisors to rate them among six traits: knowledge and creativity, teamwork, communication skills, resilience, planning and organization and ethics and integrity.

ETS produces, administers and scores tests for thousands of colleges and universities nationwide and internationally.

Financial Advice Offered to HBCU Leaders

Financial Advice Offered to HBCU Leaders: Despite diminished endowments and decreased donor and public support undermining the finances of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) this past year, Black schools can pursue a number of strategies to restore their fiscal health, a panel of business and investment professionals told Black college leaders at the annual HBCU Week conference in Washington, D.C. During the Monday workshop, “Methods to Strengthen Fiscal Capacity,” experts told some 50 Black college officials that HBCUs can survive and thrive despite the economic downturn that plunged the nation into a deep recession late last year.