Colleges Instructed to Make Blind-friendly Gadgets Available to Students

Colleges Instructed to Make Blind-friendly Gadgets Available to Students: Federal officials are requiring colleges that use Kindles and other electronic book readers in the classroom to make sure the gadgets have accommodations for blind and vision-impaired students.

The U.S. Departments of Justice and Education sent a letter to college and university presidents Tuesday instructing them to find alternatives for blind students if the devices are required in the classroom.

Not doing so would be a violation of federal law, said Russlynn Ali, assistant secretary for civil rights at the Education Department.

Top Ranks of Bloomberg Managers Are Largely White - NYTimes.com

Top Ranks of Bloomberg Managers Are Largely White - NYTimes.com: Since winning a third term in November, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has announced a parade of major appointments: bringing aboard three new deputy mayors and six commissioners and trumpeting most of those arrivals in the Blue Room at City Hall.

All nine are white. All but one is a man.

Those selections are hardly anomalous. Despite a pledge he made when he took office to make diversity a hallmark of his administration, Mr. Bloomberg has consistently surrounded himself with a predominantly white and male coterie of key policy makers, according to an analysis of personnel data by The New York Times.

The city’s non-Hispanic white population is now 35 percent, because of an influx of nonwhite immigrants and other demographic changes in the past two decades.

Higher Education Summit on Asian and Pacific Americans Convened

Higher Education Summit on Asian and Pacific Americans Convened: The lack of federal education assistance targeting struggling Asian and Pacific Islander American students and families drove Neil Horikoshi, president and executive director of the Asian and Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund (APIASF), and fund supporters to organize the first annual APIASF Higher Education Summit on Thursday in downtown Washington.

More than 400 students, scholars, and community leaders attended the daylong summit, whose speakers included Dr. Martha Kanter, under secretary of the U.S. Education Department, and Kiran Ahuja, the executive director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Summit speeches and sessions largely explored the obstacles that underserved Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) students encounter in their pursuit of a college education.

Supreme Court Rules Law School Justified in Shunning Student Group That Barred Gays

Supreme Court Rules Law School Justified in Shunning Student Group That Barred Gays: An ideologically split Supreme Court ruled Monday that a law school can legally deny recognition to a Christian student group that won't let gays join, with one justice saying that the First Amendment does not require a public university to validate or support the group's 'discriminatory practices.'

The court turned away an appeal from the Christian Legal Society, which sued to get funding and recognition from the University of California's Hastings College of the Law. The CLS requires that voting members sign a statement of faith and regards 'unrepentant participation in or advocacy of a sexually immoral lifestyle' as being inconsistent with that faith.

But Hastings, which is in San Francisco, said no recognized campus groups may exclude people due to religious belief or sexual orientation.

National Scholarship Program Rewards Academically Talented Black Students

National Scholarship Program Rewards Academically Talented Black Students: The Ron Brown Scholars program is among those rare entities that boasts a 100 percent graduation rate.

Many of the scholarship winners chosen in the highly competitive program grew up in abject poverty. Yet, not a single one has failed or dropped out because the program gave them the support they needed to succeed. During its 13-year history, more than half of the scholars have matriculated at Ivy League institutions. Another 21 percent have enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford and Duke universities.

Given that a majority of its candidates are on their way to elite universities before receiving their scholarships, program executive director Michael Mallory is often asked why the Ron Brown Scholars program focuses its efforts on students who are on a solid trajectory, rather than those struggling at community colleges or small historically Black institutions.

Lack Of Grant Aid Keeps Low-Income Students From College: Report

Lack Of Grant Aid Keeps Low-Income Students From College: Report: A new report details how students from low- and middle-income families are having difficulty going to, and succeeding at, four-year colleges because of lack of grant aid.

The report, authored by the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance and titled 'The Rising Price of Inequality,' found that as the price of college has risen, the number of students from low- and middle-income families has fallen.

Some key points from the report:

* College enrollment rates of low-income students fell from 54 percent in 1992 to 40 percent in 2004. For middle-income students, enrollment rates dropped from 59 percent to 53 percent.

* 62 percent of low-income parents rated college expenses as 'very important' in 2004, as compared with 49 percent in 1992. In 2004, 17 percent of high-income parents rated college expenses as 'very important.

* 75 percent of low-income students in college persist four years or more, down from 78 percent.

Harvard Case Spotlights Deportation Debate : NPR

Harvard Case Spotlights Deportation Debate : NPR: Immigrant advocates are hoping the high-profile case of undocumented Harvard student Eric Balderas will help boost the cause of other illegal immigrants like him.

Balderas, 19, is an academic superstar at Harvard, studying molecular biology and hoping one day to help cure cancer. He was brought to the U.S. by his mother when he was four and went on to become his high school valedictorian and to win a full scholarship to Harvard. He was trying to fly back to school after a visit with his mom in Texas when he was stopped by immigration authorities and led away in handcuffs.

His story immediately made headlines. Advocates rallied for his release and within days authorities agreed to give Balderas a break.

HBCUs Struggle With Lag in Academic Progress by Student Athletes

HBCUs Struggle With Lag in Academic Progress by Student Athletes: There’s a memory burned into Walter Harrison’s brain. Harrison, the co-chair of the NCAA’s Committee on Academic Progress, recalled a 2003 meeting to hammer out details on the NCAA’s latest academic reform effort. The late Clinton Bristow Jr., then president of Alcorn State University, said something to Harrison that has stayed with him.

“He looked across the table and said, ‘I hope you’re not getting into this to ensnare HBCUs,’” said Harrison, president of the University of Hartford. “I said, ‘Of course not. That’s not my intention at all.’ I have carried that pledge ever since."

Brooklyn Diocese Seeks Sainthood for Priest - NYTimes.com

Brooklyn Diocese Seeks Sainthood for Priest - NYTimes.com: ...Nobody from Brooklyn has ever been made a saint.

But at a special church service on Thursday night, Bishop Nicholas A. DiMarzio of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn opened what is known as a “canonical inquiry” into the cause of sainthood for a Brooklyn priest, Msgr. Bernard J. Quinn.

Monsignor Quinn, who died in 1940 at age 52, championed racial equality at a time when discrimination against blacks was ubiquitous in America, even inside the Catholic Church. In the Depression-era heyday of the anti-Semitic, pro-Fascist radio broadcasts of the Rev. Charles E. Coughlin, Monsignor Quinn encountered sharp resistance from some fellow priests when he proposed ministering to Brooklyn’s growing population of blacks, many of them fleeing the Jim Crow South or migrating from the poor Caribbean countries.

Advocates Work To Develop Asian Pacific American-serving Higher Education Sector

Advocates Work To Develop Asian Pacific American-serving Higher Education Sector: When social conflicts arise within their communities, Pacific Islanders have a particular way of finding solutions. They sit in a circle and engage in informal storytelling to find the answers.

The tradition, called TalkStory, is one of many tools that leaders at South Seattle Community College (SSCC) use to engage Asian Pacific American students and their families in confronting their biggest challenges: English language acquisition, poverty, and cultural divides.

Students along with others sit together, sharing personal stories of struggle and triumph in an environment where most assume Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI), or Asian Pacific Americans (APA), are excelling. Yet, many are not.

Native Americans embrace tradition to defeat diabetes - USATODAY.com

Native Americans embrace tradition to defeat diabetes - USATODAY.com: Finding a Native American in Towaoc, Colo., who does not have diabetes or know someone with diabetes is rare.

'It is the exception,' says Gerald Pond, general manager of the Ute Mountain Casino Hotel and Resort.

Pond, whose roots are with the Assiniboine tribe in Montana, comes from a family of nine. Seven members have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, he says.

Of the 3.3 million American Indians and Alaska Natives in the USA, about 16% have diabetes, most of them type 2, says the Indian Health Service, part of the Department of Health and Human Services. That's almost twice the rate of diabetes in whites.

Thousands of scientists are gathering this weekend in Orlando for the American Diabetes Association's 70th scientific sessions, an annual conference that focuses on advances in diabetes research and the needs of patients, including high-risk groups such as Native Americans and African Americans.

American Indians Grow Wary of Genetics Research

American Indians Grow Wary of Genetics Research: The much-publicized settlement between Arizona State University (ASU) and the Havasupai tribe over alleged misuse of DNA samples collected from tribal members sheds light on the often-uneasy relationship between indigenous peoples and academia.

For many American Indians, the case is an example of the paternalism that that has dominated the relationship between academic researchers and tribes for generations.

“There continues to be a sense that Western ways of knowing and understanding are more important and therefore give researchers the right of way in understanding the world,” says Dr. Sonya Atalay, a member of the Anishinabe tribe and an assistant professor of anthropology at Indiana University.

Spreading the Word on Asian American Diversity

Spreading the Word on Asian American Diversity: Decades after being labeled the “model minority,” Asian Americans struggle with a stereotype that obscures significant socioeconomic, education, and health disparities within a group made up of more than 30 ethnicities in the U.S.

For Kiran Ahuja, the executive director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI), communicating an accurate picture of Asian American diversity to policymakers across the federal government represents a fundamental task of the office she has been leading since this past November.

“It’s our job to make sure our colleagues have a good understanding of the unique issues that impact our community and how diverse we are,” Ahuja said during an interview at the U.S. Department of Education headquarters. “All Asian Americans are not doing well.”

Mississippi University for Women Bets on Online Education

Mississippi University for Women Bets on Online Education: COLUMBUS, Miss. – Mississippi University for Women's turnaround is about to begin, but it won't happen on campus. It will happen online.

Dr. Bill Mayfield, dean of the School of Professional Studies at MUW and director of its new e-college, says plans are in motion to make MUW a major player in the burgeoning online education movement, beating state schools like Mississippi State University, University of Mississippi and University of Southern Mississippi to the well.

MUW's yet-to-be-named e-college is the product of Mayfield's business experience—he’s the former dean of the business college at the Indiana Institute of Technology—and the vision of outgoing MUW president Claudia Limbert to expand the school's reach beyond its geographic area.

Courtland Milloy - Tolerance of white militias exemplifies racial double standard

Courtland Milloy - Tolerance of white militias exemplifies racial double standard: Imagine that the inauguration of President George W. Bush had sparked an explosive rise in African American militia groups. Suppose thousands of heavily armed black men began gathering at training camps in wooded areas throughout the country, devising military tactics for 'taking back their country' after what they believed was an electoral coup.

Do you think Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney would have reacted to a black militaristic buildup as coolly as President Obama has to the phenomenal growth of white militias?

Since Obama took office last year, the number of white militias has shot up from about 170 to more than 500, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors extremist groups in the United States. Armed with enough firepower to take on a police department, some of these groups are honing their sniper skills using photographs of Obama for target practice.

About New York - Descent Into Slavery, and a Ladder to Another Life - NYTimes.com

About New York - Descent Into Slavery, and a Ladder to Another Life - NYTimes.com: ...Mr. Gutierrez had gotten to the other side of slavery, climbing a ladder of second chances.

More than a decade ago, he was part of the nameless, unseen cast of a horror story. Lured from Mexico on promises of prosperity, he and 56 other people lived as prisoners in two row houses in Queens. By day, they sold key chains and miniature screwdriver kits in the subways, at airports, on roadsides. At night, they turned over every penny to the bosses of the houses.

All of the peddlers were deaf. Mr. Gutierrez, the youngest, had arrived in the United States at age 15, fluent only in Mexican Sign Language.

Race-Based School Team Names Face Ban In Wisconsin : NPR

Race-Based School Team Names Face Ban In Wisconsin : NPR: School team nicknames like the Chieftains and Braves may soon be a thing of the past in Wisconsin, where a new law allows the state to ban race-based mascots and logos. If a complaint is upheld, school districts face fines of up to $1,000 a day.

The day Wisconsin's new sports-mascot law took effect, Oneida tribal member Carol Gunderson and her husband, Harvey, drove three hours to the state capital, Madison, to file their complaint in person.

The reason, Carol Gunderson says, is 'because it's the first law in the whole United States that addresses this issue. We didn't want it to get lost in the mail.'

Assessing Arizona

Assessing Arizona: Since its enactment in April, the Arizona law that gives local and state police the ability to arrest and detain people they suspect to be undocumented immigrants has spurred a whirlwind of discussion and activism concerning immigration policy and race relations.

With the specter of racial profiling and civil rights violations looming, a coalition of civil rights groups and activists around the country has condemned the law (SB 1070). The National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies (NACCS) and the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) are among groups that have called for an economic boycott of Arizona.

Diverse interviewed three prominent Mexican-American academics about the law, its impact on Arizona colleges, and what they hope to see in real immigration reform moving forward.

New York Schools Seek New Gifted Admissions Test - NYTimes.com

New York Schools Seek New Gifted Admissions Test - NYTimes.com: ...The current testing program for the city’s gifted kindergarten and first-grade classes was adopted in 2008 as a way to standardize admissions across the city, to address longstanding complaints that favoritism played a role when districts were allowed to set their own rules, as well as to increase racial and economic diversity in the programs.

But a result has been that while more students now take admissions tests for gifted programs, fewer students now enroll, and they are less racially diverse, council members said.

Under the previous policies, 15 percent of the students admitted to gifted programs were Hispanic and 31 percent were black. In the 2009-10 school year, 12 percent were Hispanic and 15 percent were black. Over all, 39 percent of kindergartners are Hispanic and 27 percent are black.

Six districts in central Brooklyn and the South Bronx will have no gifted kindergartens in the fall because so few students qualified.

FCC Eyes Broadband For Indian Reservations : NPR

FCC Eyes Broadband For Indian Reservations : NPR: Only 63 percent of all Americans have high-speed Internet connections. That's low compared with other countries.

But when it comes to American Indians, the Federal Communications Commission estimates that fewer than 10 percent are connected. On Tuesday, the FCC announced the appointment of a special liaison to the American Indian community to oversee efforts to get broadband to reservations.

Poor Nutrition In Kids Could Tie Obesity And Cavities : NPR

Poor Nutrition In Kids Could Tie Obesity And Cavities : NPR: Teeth riddled with cavities could point to other health problems. Among children ages 2 to 5, poor nutrition may be a common thread connecting obesity and tooth decay, a new study finds.

Researchers found that 28 percent of young children who required anesthesia to treat their cavities — either because of the seriousness of the decay or their lack of cooperation — had a BMI indicating they were overweight or obese.

For comparison, data gathered from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey a few years back suggests that 21 percent of children from the same age group are overweight or obese.

Class Struggle - New evidence that SAT hurts blacks

Class Struggle - New evidence that SAT hurts blacks: Roy Freedle is 76 now, with a research psychologist's innate patience. He knows that decades often pass before valid ideas take root. When the notion is as radical as his, that the SAT is racially biased, an even longer wait might be expected. But after 23 years the research he has done on the surprising reaction of black students to hard words versus easy words seems to be gaining new respectability.

Seven years ago, after being discouraged from investigating findings while working for the Educational Testing Service, Freedle published a paper in the Harvard Educational Review that won significant attention.

He was retired from ETS by then. As he expected, his former supervisors dismissed his conclusions. Researchers working for the College Board, which owns the SAT, said the test was not biased. But the then president of the University of California system, a cognitive psychologist named Richard C. Atkinson, was intrigued. He asked the director of research in his office to replicate Freedle's study.

Georgia Colleges Working To Verify Students' Status

Georgia Colleges Working To Verify Students' Status: ATLANTA – Georgia's 35 colleges and universities are working to carry out a mandate from their governing body and verify the citizenship status of nearly 316,000 students by mid-August.

University System Chancellor Erroll Davis and the state Board of Regents ordered colleges to review the tuition charges placed on all students earlier this month after it was disclosed that Kennesaw State University charged an illegal immigrant student in-state tuition.

The regents appointed a committee to examine the most efficient ways to check residency status to prevent illegal immigrants from getting in-state tuition.

New Initiative To Examine Equity of College-access Programs

New Initiative To Examine Equity of College-access Programs: Following the release of a report that revealed just 35 percent of college-bound Boston public high schools graduates from the class of 2000 had earned a degree by spring 2007, Mayor Thomas Menino launched a citywide initiative challenging educators and community members to improve college completion rates for Boston Public Schools (BPS) graduates.

The initiative, Success Boston, is centered around three tenets: get ready, get in and get through.

Reader complains about Hispanic students who take AP Spanish

Reader complains about Hispanic students who take AP Spanish: Early last Monday , while I was still in bed and wondering why the 'Today' show had gotten so tabloidish, I was slammed on my washingtonpost.com blog by a reader who did not like my column about Doris Jackson, the principal at Wakefield High School in Arlington County.

It wasn't Jackson who bothered the commenter, but my praise of the school's strong performance on Advanced Placement tests. He had a complaint that has often puzzled me: Hispanic students who take AP Spanish, and the schools that let them, are getting away with something, he suggested.

'It is because of the Internet that we know that about half the students in Wakefield are Hispanic,' he said. 'We also know that the AP test that they are taking, which has falsely massaged these stats, is the Spanish Advanced Placement test. Take away that fabrication of academic performance, and the true percentage of AP tests passed plummets.'

Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands go head-to-head on rum, fueling tensions in Congress

Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands go head-to-head on rum, fueling tensions in Congress: It's the preferred drink of Caribbean tourists and swashbuckling pirates alike, and now it's at the heart of a nasty political dispute: The rum wars have come to Washington.

A fight over federal rum taxes pits Puerto Rico against the U.S. Virgin Islands and is sparking rare public tensions among Hispanic and African American lawmakers in Congress.

Put simply, the argument involves whether tax dollars can be used to lure a Captain Morgan Rum distillery now located in Puerto Rico to the Virgin Islands, a project highly coveted for the tax revenue it promises.

The Virgin Islands, a relatively poor, majority-black territory of about 120,000 people, has promised nearly $3 billion in tax subsidies to the owner of Captain Morgan if it moves the rum-making operation to St. Croix, the largest of its three main islands. The money will come from rum taxes the U.S. government gives back to the territories; the Virgin Islands will use the rebates to help build a distillery for the company and provide it cash payments for the next 30 years.

Ballet Across America: Smaller troupes stand tall at Kennedy Center

Ballet Across America: Smaller troupes stand tall at Kennedy Center: As a snapshot of ballet in this country, the six-day, nine-company Ballet Across America series at the Kennedy Center, which concluded Sunday, offered some good news but little revelation. The primary take-away is that whether you're talking Memphis or Tulsa, Seattle or Charlotte, there's an impressively high level of skill among the nation's ballet dancers.

The companies are also overwhelmingly white and dotted with Europeans -- as they have always been. Diversity in ballet remains a serious problem for the small companies as well as the large, on the coasts as well as in the heartland. In the 21st century, we can put a black man in the White House, but as last week's survey shows, we can't put a black ballerina in the Opera House. Clearly, not enough work is being done to foster African American dancers. But with public money in their coffers, ballet companies -- and the local, state and federal funders -- need to make equal opportunity in the dancer ranks a priority.

Study: Blacks Routinely Excluded From Juries

...In a new study, Stevenson's group details "widespread discrimination" in the selection of jurors across the Deep South.

He says it's been illegal to exclude people from jury service on the basis of race since 1875. But prosecutors can give any reason they want for dismissing a juror, and it's rarely challenged.

Stevenson found that serious criminal cases and death penalty cases are even more prone to have discriminatory jury selection than other types of cases.

We've had African-American jurors excluded because they're too old at 43, because they're too young at 28, while other white jurors much older are being accepted, and other white jurors much younger are being accepted.

The study looked at eight states: Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi and South Carolina. In some counties, 80 percent of the African-Americans who had qualified for jury service were excluded.

"The evidence of racial bias that we focus on is evidence that's pretty obvious," said Stevenson. "It tends not to be unintentional. ... We've had African-American jurors excluded because they're too old at 43, because they're too young at 28, while other white jurors much older are being accepted, and other white jurors much younger are being accepted. ... We've had jurors excluded because they were in an interracial marriage or had a biracial son.

Schools Struggle Over How to Teach Disabled People - NYTimes.com

Schools Struggle Over How to Teach Disabled People - NYTimes.com: ...Once predominately isolated in institutions, severely disabled students have been guaranteed a free, appropriate public education like all children since the passage of federal legislation in 1975. In the years since, school districts across the country have struggled to find a balance between instruction in functional skills and academics while providing basic custodial care.

Donovan is part of a fraction of a fraction, classified as having “multiple disabilities,” a broad category under the federal Individuals With Disabilities Education Act that refers to children who have at least two disabilities and severe educational needs.

There are 132,000 such students in the United States, out of more than 6.5 million now receiving some kind of special education service at an estimated cost of $74 billion a year.

Officials: Harvard student will not be deported

Officials: Harvard student will not be deported: An undocumented Harvard University student is no longer facing deportation to Mexico after being detained nearly two weeks ago by immigration authorities at a Texas airport, officials said.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said late Friday that they would not pursue the deportation of Eric Balderas. The 19-year-old was detained in June after he tried to use a university ID card to board a plane from San Antonio to Boston.

Mario Rodas, a friend of Balderas, said Balderas was granted deferred action, which can be used to halt deportation based on the merits of a case. Rodas said Balderas learned the news Saturday morning from his lawyer.

Minority homeowners more affected by foreclosures than whites, report says

Minority homeowners more affected by foreclosures than whites, report says: About 2.5 million homeowners have lost their homes to foreclosure in the housing crisis so far, and black and Latino borrowers have been disproportionately affected, according to a report released Friday by a nonprofit research group.

The study by the Center for Responsible Lending was based on an analysis of government and industry data on millions of loans issued between 2005 and 2008 -- the height of the housing boom. It found that whites made up the majority of foreclosures completed between 2007 and 2009, about 56 percent, but that minority communities were affected more.

While about 4.5 percent of white borrowers lost their homes to foreclosure during that period, black and Latino borrowers had a 7.9 percent and 7.7 percent foreclosure rate, respectively. That means that blacks and Latinos were more than 70 percent more likely to lose their homes to foreclosure during that period, the study found.

Jump in U.S. College Enrollment Highest in 40 Years

Jump in U.S. College Enrollment Highest in 40 Years: The nation's colleges are attracting record numbers of new students as more Hispanics finish high school and young adults opt to pursue a higher education rather than languish in a weak job market.

A study released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center highlights the growing diversity in higher education amid debate over the role of race in college admissions and controversy over Arizona's new ban on ethnic studies in public schools.

Newly released government figures show that freshman enrollment surged 6 percent in 2008 to a record 2.6 million, mostly due to rising minority enrollment. That is the highest increase since 1968 during the height of the Vietnam War, when young adults who attended college could avoid the military draft.

Almost three-quarters of the freshman increases in 2008 were minorities, of which the largest share was Hispanics.

Policy Summit Tackles Changing U.S. Demographics

Policy Summit Tackles Changing U.S. Demographics: The United States is a country whose youth population is browning while its White population is heavily concentrated in older age brackets. According to recent census data, 35 percent of the U.S. population is non-White. And while discussing the enormous demographic shift that the country is experiencing, people often refer to the year 2042 when the U.S. will be a majority-minority country. In essence, much of that change is already here.

As Ronald Brownstein, veteran journalist and political director of National Journal Group media company, pointed out Thursday during a National Journal policy summit on demographics and the workforce of the future, currently 65 percent of the population is White, compared to 70 percent in 2000 and 80 percent in 1980. The changes are even more profound among younger age cohorts. Generation Y, aged 30 and under, is two-fifths non-White, as is 45 percent of the population under 18. In addition, minority children comprised 49 percent of births in the past year, noted Brownstein, who moderated the policy summit.

Race, Class, and College Access Explored in ‘Strivers’ Research

Race, Class, and College Access Explored in ‘Strivers’ Research: Despite gains in college access by minorities, the top tiers of higher education are becoming more affluent and more White as the lower tier and two-year colleges increasingly accommodate more low-income minority students, researchers declared Thursday during a policy forum centered on low-income students and college access.

“There is almost no way that you can use affirmative action to begin to equalize the tiers in this system,” said Dr. Anthony Carnevale, director of the Georgetown Center on Education and the Work Force, during the forum’s lunchtime address at the National Press Club in Washington.

“Since we can’t move low-income and minority students en masse into high-quality systems, we have to move the high-quality systems and the money to pay for them toward the two-year schools and less selective colleges,” Carnevale noted.

Exclusive: Teen Arrested for Kidnapping Tot: 'Just Trying to Help' - ABC News

Exclusive: Teen Arrested for Kidnapping Tot: 'Just Trying to Help' - ABC News: The 14-year-old Florida boy arrested last week for allegedly kidnapping a 3-year-old girl after walking her out of a store said today he was only trying to help the lost toddler find her mother.

"I was just trying to help," said the soft-spoken Edwin, who was shopping with his own mother at the time of his arrest, in an exclusive interview today with "Good Morning America."

Surveillance video of the incident at a Burlington Coat Factory shows Edwin walking out of the store with the little girl. He later told police that he thought her mother left the store without her.

Shortly after that, the little girl's panicked mother headed outside, found her daughter with Edwin and returned to the store. Edwin then rejoined his mother and continues shopping -- until a few minutes later when police show up and put him in handcuffs.

Students Gain After Strike at University of Puerto Rico - NYTimes.com

Students Gain After Strike at University of Puerto Rico - NYTimes.com: Thousands of students at the University of Puerto Rico who went on strike two months ago to oppose severe budget cuts declared victory on Thursday after reaching an agreement with administrators.

As part of a deal brokered by a court-appointed mediator, students would end their strike — one of the largest and longest such walkouts in Puerto Rican history — in exchange for a number of concessions. Most notably, the university’s Board of Regents has agreed to cancel a special fee that would have effectively doubled the cost to attend the university’s 11 public campuses.

The deal also includes a promise that there will be no sanctions against strike organizers, who clashed at times with the police at the main Río Piedras campus outside San Juan.

The Answer Sheet - Minorities drive biggest jump in college freshman enrollment in 40 years, study says

The Answer Sheet - Minorities drive biggest jump in college freshman enrollment in 40 years, study says: Hispanics and other minority students drove the largest rise in freshman enrollment in the past 40 years at the nation’s 6,100 four-year, post-secondary institutions from fall 2007 to fall 2008, according to a study released today. But the enrollment boom was concentrated in certain states and highly focused on a very small number of the largest colleges and universities.

The report, by the Pew Research Center and entitled “Minorities and the Recession-Era College Enrollment Boom,” said that there was a 6 percent jump in overall freshman enrollment at four-year colleges, community colleges and trade schools from 2007 to 2008, the first year of the recession.

Hispanics had a 15 percent increase; blacks, 8 percent; Asians, 6 percent; and whites, 3 percent, according to the study, conducted by Pew Center’s Social & Demographic Trends Project.

Study: Majority of Institutions Receive Applications from Undocumented Students

Study: Majority of Institutions Receive Applications from Undocumented Students: ...Every year, four-year higher education institutions receive thousands of applications from students like Zacatelco, who remain undeterred in their quest of earning a scholarship or financial aid for college.

In a survey released today, the National Association of College Admission Counseling (NACAC) reported that about 60 percent of 382 participating institutions said they had received college applications from undocumented students. Among the most selective nonprofit colleges in the survey sample, the percentage is 86 percent.

In a survey released today, the National Association of College Admission Counseling (NACAC) reported that about 60 percent of 382 participating institutions said they had received college applications from undocumented students. Among the most selective nonprofit colleges in the survey sample, the percentage is 86 percent.

“Many undocumented students turn out to be very high-achieving and it would substantiate the description of these students as contributors to our society,” said David Hawkins, director of public policy and research at NACAC. NACAC supports the DREAM Act.

Microsoft's Philly High School Overcame Challenges

Microsoft's Philly High School Overcame Challenges: ...Although the school's creative ambitions have been frustrated by high principal turnover, curriculum tensions and a student body unfamiliar with laptop computer culture, the school graduated its first senior class Tuesday with each student having been accepted to an institution of higher learning.

“The first three years were definitely a challenge,” said Mary Cullinane, Microsoft's liaison to the school. “They're hitting they're groove now. I'm excited to see what's in store.”

From the beginning, everything about the $63 million School of the Future was designed to be different.

Built in the city's rough Parkside section with district money, the school partnered with Microsoft on new approaches to curriculum, instruction and hiring. It attracted reform-minded teachers and students bent on avoiding traditional high schools.

The vision was for a paperless, textbook-less school that embodied the motto “Continuous, Relevant, Adaptive.” Each student would get a take-home laptop on which to keep notes, do homework and take tests.

But learners are chosen by a lottery of public school students. Most are low-income and without home computers, yet they are expected to manage their high school careers on a laptop.

Study praises Howard, other minority medical schools

Study praises Howard, other minority medical schools: Graduates of medical schools at historically black universities such as Howard and Morehouse are the most likely to practice the kind of medicine especially needed under the health-care overhaulthan graduates of elite medical schools at universities such as John Hopkins, Northwestern and Vanderbilt in the Annals of Internal Medicine ranked medical schools based on the communities where their graduates worked and whether those doctors practiced primary care. The Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Howard University College of Medicine in the District and Meharry Medical College in Nashville ranked as the top three, in that order.

By the study's 'social mission' criteria, other well-known medical schools ranked far lower. Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville was last among the 141 ranked schools and Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago was 139th. The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore ranked 122nd.

New York Charter Schools Attract Few Hispanics - NYTimes.com

New York Charter Schools Attract Few Hispanics - NYTimes.com: When charter schools began opening in New York a decade ago, they were hailed as a better opportunity for children in poor neighborhoods, where failing schools had been the norm. But while charter schools are open to all, they have catered to one demographic group far less than another.

Although Hispanics are the largest ethnic group in New York City’s public schools, there are almost twice as many blacks among the 30,000 charter school students, an analysis by The New York Times shows.

The issue is a sticky one among charter school advocates, who say the most important aspect of any school is that it educates the students who attend. But officials at the city’s Education Department acknowledge that charter schools should better reflect the city and say that they are working to attract to the schools more immigrants, including those from Latin America.

Slave Children Photo Found In North Carolina Attic

Slave Children Photo Found In North Carolina Attic: RALEIGH, N.C. — A haunting 150-year-old photo found in a North Carolina attic shows a young black child named John, barefoot and wearing ragged clothes, perched on a barrel next to another unidentified young boy.

Art historians believe it's an extremely rare Civil War-era photograph of children who were either slaves at the time or recently emancipated.

The photo, which may have been taken in the early 1860s, was a testament to a dark part of American history, said Will Stapp, a photographic historian and founding curator of the National Portrait Gallery's photographs department at the Smithsonian Institution.

Arizona's Next Immigration Target: Children of Illegals - TIME

Arizona's Next Immigration Target: Children of Illegals - TIME: Anchor babies' isn't a very endearing term, but in Arizona those are the words being used to tag children born in the U.S. to illegal immigrants. While not new, the term is increasingly part of the local vernacular because the primary authors of the nation's toughest and most controversial immigration law are targeting these tots — the legal weights that anchor many undocumented aliens in the U.S. — for their next move.

Buoyed by recent public opinion polls suggesting they're on the right track with illegal immigration, Arizona Republicans will likely introduce legislation this fall that would deny birth certificates to children born in Arizona — and thus American citizens according to the U.S. Constitution — to parents who are not legal U.S. citizens.

Undocumented Harvard Student Faces Deportation : NPR

Undocumented Harvard Student Faces Deportation : NPR: An undocumented Harvard University student is facing deportation to Mexico after being detained by immigration authorities at a Texas airport, the students said Friday.

Eric Balderas, 19, who just completed his first year at Harvard, said he was detained Monday by immigration authorities when he tried to board a plane from his hometown of San Antonio to Boston using a consulate card from Mexico and his student ID.

'I'd made it through before so I thought this time wouldn't be any different,' Balderas said Friday in a phone interview with The Associated Press. 'But once ICE picked me up I really didn't know what to think and I was starting to break down.'

Balderas, who previously had used a Mexican passport to board planes but recently lost it, said he became despondent and thought he was being deported to Mexico immediately, only to be released the next day. He said he has a scheduled July 6 immigration hearing.

'All I can think about was my family,' said Balderas, who doesn't remember living in Mexico.

Expert Says Company Culture Helps Determine Prospects for Workplace Diversity

Expert Says Company Culture Helps Determine Prospects for Workplace Diversity: ARLINGTON, Va. – A commitment to diversity and inclusion has to be inextricably woven into the culture of an organization for that organization to realize its greatest potential, said Tiane M. Gordon, senior vice president of diversity and inclusion at AOL, Thursday during a keynote address at George Mason University’s fourth annual Workplace Diversity Conference.

Students, government officials, researchers and academics assembled in Arlington, Va., for a two-day conference hosted by George Mason University's School of Management to discuss strategies for strengthening communication and collaboration among diversity researchers, practitioners and educators.

The conference is centered on marrying the theoretical with the practical, said conference organizer Dr. David Kravitz, a professor in the school of management at George Mason.

Census: Multiracial US becoming even more diverse

Census: Multiracial US becoming even more diverse: The nation's minority population is steadily rising and now makes up 35 percent of the United States, advancing an unmistakable trend that could make minorities the new American majority by midcentury.

As white baby boomers age past their childbearing years, younger Hispanic parents are having children - and driving U.S. population growth.

'The aging of baby boomers beyond young middle age will have profound impacts on our labor force, housing market, schools and generational divisions on issues such as Social Security and Medicare,' said William H. Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution. 'The engine of growth for the younger population in most states will be new minorities.'

College Success Foundation Celebrates 10 Years of Helping Students

College Success Foundation Celebrates 10 Years of Helping Students: Minority and low-income children in the United States are suffering from an educational achievement gap. Only 51.2 percent of African-American students and 55 percent of Hispanic students earn a high school diploma in four years. Getting through college is an even bigger hurdle, with just 38.9 percent of African-American and 46.5 percent of Hispanic students graduating in four years—that is, if they’re lucky enough to attend in the first place.

The College Success Foundation, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary, provides scholarships and a variety of other assistance to underserved youths, many of whom have grown up in poverty. On Wednesday, the organization released a report highlighting its success in preparing middle and high school students to enter college, graduate, and then return the favor to other young people in their communities who are facing the same challenges that they once did.

Scholar Says Research Universities Not Serious About Faculty Diversity

Scholar Says Research Universities Not Serious About Faculty Diversity: WASHINGTON – To Dr. M. Cookie Newsom, director for diversity education and assessment at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, there’s no delicate way of describing the lack of commitment she believes many top research universities demonstrate as they allegedly seek to diversify their faculties.

“The dismal truth is academe doesn’t really want a racially-diverse faculty,” Newsom said during a faculty diversity presentation at the American Association of University Professors' (AAUP) annual national conference in Washington, D.C. “It’s totally a myth.”

Taking Diversity to the Next Level

Taking Diversity to the Next Level: When Colgate University decided a few years ago to recast its diversity efforts, it joined a small, but growing, number of schools across the country in taking a new approach to a decades-old challenge of how best to make their schools more appealing to people from all walks of life and more compelling to employers as a good place to recruit

Colgate, a midsize liberal arts college in northwestern New York state, created a high-ranking diversity post with an ambitious mandate to help expand the school’s approach to diversity. It would embrace recruitment, enrollment and retention of students; development and retention of staff; long-term planning; academic programs; and internal and community relations. It would be quite a leap from historical efforts largely run at department levels by individuals with less authority.

Thurgood Marshall’s Legacy Takes Center Stage in Washington

Thurgood Marshall’s Legacy Takes Center Stage in Washington: WASHINGTON – He called her Shorty. She called him the most important lawyer of the 20th century.

Now, in a case of uncanny timing, the story of former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall is taking center stage at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts just as the Senate prepares to take up the nomination of his one-time clerk, Elena Kagan, to join the high court.

Marshall, the first Black justice on the court, is brought to life by actor Laurence Fishburne in the one-man play 'Thurgood.' The production opened on Broadway in 2008 and earned Fishburne a Tony Award nomination.

Black Child Removed From School, White Teacher Allergic to Afro

Black Child Removed From School, White Teacher Allergic to Afro: In Seattle, Wash., a white male teacher had an 8-year-old African American girl removed from the classroom. In most cases, children are removed for behavioral and disciplinary issues, which is clearly understandable and acceptable; however, this wasn’t the case here.

The teacher removed the girl, claiming her Afro was making him sick. Naturally, the father of the child, Charles Mudede, was extremely concerned after the incident, and, as a result, the girl, who was the only black child in the advanced-placement class, has missed two weeks of school.

The incident, which occurred at Thurgood Marshall Elementary School, was featured on KIRO-TV. The segment showed the hair product the girl used, Organic Root Stimulator's Olive Oil Moisturizing Hair Lotion, as well as interviews with her mother and lawyer.

Mexico asks for probe into teen's shooting death by U.S. border agent - CNN.com

Mexico asks for probe into teen's shooting death by U.S. border agent - CNN.com: The Mexican government is requesting a quick and transparent investigation into the fatal shooting by a U.S. Border Patrol agent of a Mexican teen in Ciudad Juarez on Monday night, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

The teen was shot during a rock-throwing incident, Mexican and U.S. officials said.

Mexico 'reiterates that the use of firearms to repel a rock attack represents a disproportionate use of force, particularly coming from authorities who receive specialized training on the matter,' the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday in a news release.

Florida Policy Options to Accelerate Latino Student Success in Higher Education | EdExcelencia.org

Florida Policy Options to Accelerate Latino Student Success in Higher Education | EdExcelencia.org: This report offers policy recommendations, based on recent research and discussions, to improve the educational attainment of Florida's workforce, with a focus on Latinos. Given that a large portion of the demographic growth in Florida through 2030 will be Hispanic, the state's economic competitiveness will be highly dependent on the educational attainment of this population. However, the educational attainment of Hispanics in Florida is low. In 2008, about 23 percent of Hispanics 25 and over in Florida had earned a bachelor's degree or higher.

Charges from Racially Charged Mass. Campus Fight To Be Dropped Against Black Man

Charges from Racially Charged Mass. Campus Fight To Be Dropped Against Black Man: NORTHAMPTON, Mass. – For more than two years, supporters of former University of Massachusetts student Jason Vassell have urged prosecutors to drop charges against him that stemmed from a racially charged fight and sparked protests, demonstrations and accusations of bias.

On Friday, prosecutors agreed to do just that, if Vassell serves the rest of his 2 1/2-year pretrial probation, which ends in August.

To Vassell's supporters, the decision to end the case against Vassell is a clear victory.

“If you are a Black man in a dormitory and someone is yelling racial epithets at you ... you just do what you think is right, and that's what Jason did,” said Jasmin Torrejon, a member of Justice for Jason, a group of UMass students, professors and others who supported him.

The case sparked passionate rallies in support of the biology major from Boston and accusations of racism against prosecutors and police.

Prosecutors, while acknowledging that race was a factor in the fight between Vassell and the two White men he fought with, said race played no role in their decision to bring charges against Vassell.

Becoming a Force for Diversity and Inclusion

Becoming a Force for Diversity and Inclusion: Rosemary E. Kilkenny made her foray into the diversity arena more than three decades ago.

Troubled at the time by the dearth of Black graduate students in her class at Kent State University, Kilkenny complained to the dean of graduate studies about the lack of diversity but was later challenged to develop a program of her own aimed at increasing Black enrollment.

She accepted the challenge, and her strategy for increasing minority enrollment by ensuring Black students had the financial and mentoring support they needed was immediately hailed as a success and Kilkenny was later appointed assistant dean for graduate recruitment. She went on to serve in various positions at Kent State University and the State University of New York at Albany before arriving in 1980 at the nation’s oldest Jesuit university, where she assumed the role of special assistant for affirmative action programs.

Findings - Daring to Discuss Women’s Potential in Science - NYTimes.com

Findings - Daring to Discuss Women’s Potential in Science - NYTimes.com: ...This proposed law, if passed by the Senate, would require the White House science adviser to oversee regular “workshops to enhance gender equity.” At the workshops, to be attended by researchers who receive federal money and by the heads of science and engineering departments at universities, participants would be given before-and-after “attitudinal surveys” and would take part in “interactive discussions or other activities that increase the awareness of the existence of gender bias.”

I’m all in favor of women fulfilling their potential in science, but I feel compelled, at the risk of being shipped off to one of these workshops, to ask a couple of questions:

1) Would it be safe during the “interactive discussions” for someone to mention the new evidence supporting Dr. Summers’s controversial hypothesis about differences in the sexes’ aptitude for math and science?

2) How could these workshops reconcile the “existence of gender bias” with careful studies that show that female scientists fare as well as, if not better than, their male counterparts in receiving academic promotions and research grants?

Each of these questions is complicated enough to warrant a column, so I’ll take them one at a time, starting this week with the issue of sex differences.

Medical schools use outreach programs to make student bodies more diverse

Medical schools use outreach programs to make student bodies more diverse: ...Two years ago, a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association concluded that diversity in medical schools helps prepare doctors for today's very varied patient population. More than 20,000 graduating students were surveyed for the study; those who had attended more ethnically and racially mixed medical schools saw themselves as better able to interact with a diverse patient pool than those from less mixed schools.

Medical school officials have long said they want a broad range of backgrounds among their students, yet they have had trouble attracting more students from traditionally underrepresented groups. Today, about 7 percent of 77,722 medical students nationwide are African American and about 8 percent are Hispanic, according to the Web site of the Association of American Medical Colleges, which represents the nation's 132 medical schools. Whites make up almost 61 percent, with Asians accounting for nearly 22 percent. Other traditionally underrepresented groups, including American Indians and Alaska natives, make up about 2 percent.

People's Republic in the Classroom

People's Republic in the Classroom: The People's Republic of China has been providing much of the capital to keep the U.S. government operating through its purchase of American debt. Now it is helping to shape our school curricula as well. The Chinese government is providing teaching materials and instructional assistance free of charge to school districts across the United States for the teaching of Chinese language and culture. The Hacienda La Puente Unified School District in Los Angeles adopted the program by a 4-1 vote in January of this year, though not without some controversy.

'I am not against the teaching of foreign languages, but this is a propaganda machine from the People's Republic of China that has no place anywhere in the United States,' said John Kramer, a former superintendent of the district told the Los Angeles Times.

'A lot of people are saying it's a way for the Chinese people to brainwash our students. They are really misinformed,' Jay Chen, vice president of the Hacienda La Puente board told the Times. 'From Oregon to Rhode Island, public schools have implemented the same program. As far as I can see, nothing sinister is going on.'

Purdue Report Notes University’s Lack of Diversity

Purdue Report Notes University’s Lack of Diversity: WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue University needs to become more affordable and create additional programs to retain students to improve its campus diversity, the school's vice provost for diversity and inclusion says in a report.

Purdue is able to attract top minority students but lags behind other Big Ten institutions and other peer schools in the number of those students that it enrolls, the report by Vice Provost Christine Taylor also says.

“At the end of the day, at the end of that four-year degree, we have to ask ourselves, have we done the most that we can to prepare every student at Purdue to be successful,” Taylor said. “In an increasing global and competitive environment, we know that diversity helps students do that.”

Stars band together to protest Arizona law

Stars band together to protest Arizona law: Four summers ago, a handful of Spanish-speaking radio disc jockeys helped bring hundreds of thousands of Latino marchers to the streets of Los Angeles and other cities to support immigration reform.

Now, in what is partly a sign of the growing clout of U.S. Latinos both as voters and cultural consumers, a number of prominent artists, both Latino and non-Latino, are urging a boycott of Arizona's controversial new statute that requires law enforcement officials to determine the status of people they suspect are illegal immigrants whom they've stopped or detained for other reasons.

Several musicians, including Carlos Santana, Willie Nelson and the Mexican pop-rock band Mana, are recording songs in support of the millions of immigrants, mainly from Mexico and other parts of Latin America, living in the United States, whatever their legal status.

Amid Arizona immigration protests, a new generation dreams of the Dream Act

Amid Arizona immigration protests, a new generation dreams of the Dream Act: PHOENIX -- Among the 10,000 or so protesters who gathered in front of the state Capitol here last weekend under a scorching sun, one group stood out. Despite the heat, they wore graduation caps and gowns in shiny royal blue and sunburst yellow.

They were graduates of American colleges, young people who mostly grew up in the United States, accidental Americans who just happen to be living here illegally.

Like the rest of the crowd, they came to protest Arizona's controversial new immigration enforcement law, but they also sought recognition of a long-sought goal -- passage of the Dream Act, federal legislation that would provide a path toward legal status for people like them, undocumented immigrants who were brought to this country as children by their parents.

The Answer Sheet - In Arizona, a school mural controversy

The Answer Sheet - In Arizona, a school mural controversy: In Arizona, an elementary school principal is said to have ordered that the faces of some children depicted in a giant mural be lightened after receiving complaints about the ethnicity of the kids.

The Arizona Republic reports that Jeff Lane, the principal at Miller Valley Elementary School in Prescott, said he sent artists out only to fix shading.

But R.E. Wall, the leader of Prescott’s Downtown Mural Projects, said he was ordered to lighten the skin tone on the 'Go on Green' mural, which covers two walls outside Miller Valley and was designed to advertise a campaign for environmentally friendly transportation.

It features portraits of four children, with a Hispanic boy as the dominant figure. Faces in the mural -- the fourth of community murals drawn by a group of artists known as the “Mural Mice” -- were drawn from photos of kids enrolled at the K-5 school, located about two hours north of Phoenix.

Hispanic College Success: It's All in The Family

Hispanic College Success: It's All in The Family: ...Studies show that more Hispanic students are enrolling in college, but a disproportionate number drop out with debt instead of degrees. At the average college or university, 51 percent of Hispanic students earn a bachelor's degree in six years, compared with 59 percent of White students, according to a March study by the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank.

For students from underperforming high schools or with parents unfamiliar with the demands of college life, it might appear the odds of making it to graduation day are against them before their first lecture class.

But authors of a January report from The Education Trust and other researchers point out that similar institutions that serve similar students show wide disparities in graduation rates. Their argument: What colleges do matters.

Symposium: Education Leaders Recommend Priorities for HBCUs

Symposium: Education Leaders Recommend Priorities for HBCUs: DURHAM, N.C. – In the view of the Obama administration’s top education official, historically Black colleges and universities face two looming challenges as they look to define themselves in the 21st century – preparing students to be the next cadre of minority teachers and improving their retention and graduation rates.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan laid out these priorities Thursday at the North Carolina Central University Centennial HBCU Symposium in Durham, N.C. Duncan headlined the conference and discussed the importance of these schools in educating young minority men and women, and many of the steps the Obama administration is taking to bolster these academic institutions.

“Children only get one chance at a good education,” Duncan said. “The responsibility for providing it is in our hands, and we simply cannot wait to make changes that will give them a nurturing environment and a chance to succeed.”

Minority College Presidents Share Their Stories

Minority College Presidents Share Their Stories: Dr. Bob Suzuki was a content assistant professor of engineering at the University of Southern California in the late 1960s who wanted nothing more than tenure. But then all hell broke loose.

Suzuki found himself enveloped in the civil rights struggles of the era, organizing with local community groups and becoming a social activist himself.

It was then that Suzuki understood that the traditional professorial track would not satisfy his ambitions and the thirst for social activism he developed.

“I wasn’t doing research so I reached a point after four years that I needed to make a decision,” Suzuki said during a roundtable discussion of university presidents at the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education (NCORE). “I decided I couldn’t drop the social activism and it changed the course of my career.”

Gulf oil spill touches isolated Pointe-au-Chien Indian tribe and its past

Gulf oil spill touches isolated Pointe-au-Chien Indian tribe and its past: POINTE-AUX-CHENES, LA. -- The best thing about this place -- where the dry land of south Louisiana gives up, and marshes and bayous stretch away to the gulf -- used to be that white people had so much trouble finding it. Here, a French-speaking Indian tribe has lived for more than a century, isolated from a world that had proved itself unfriendly.

But the oil found its refuge in a month and a day.

Now, this tribe is feeling an especially sharp version of Louisiana's despair. Its members worry that the oil will kill the marsh, and seethe at the idea that a bitter history now seems to be getting worse.

Black Women See Fewer Black Men at the Altar - NYTimes.com

Black Women See Fewer Black Men at the Altar - NYTimes.com: ...A new study shows that more and more black men are marrying women of other races. In fact, more than 1 in 5 black men who wed (22 percent) married a nonblack woman in 2008. This compares with about 9 percent of black women, and represents a significant increase for black men — from 15.7 percent in 2000 and 7.9 percent in 1980.

Sociologists said the rate of black men marrying women of other races further reduces the already-shrunken pool of potential partners for black women seeking a black husband.

“When you add in the prison population,” said Prof. Steven Ruggles, director of the Minnesota Population Center, “it pretty well explains the extraordinarily low marriage rates of black women.”

Among all married African-Americans in 2008, 13 percent of men and 6 percent of women had a nonblack spouse. This compares with nearly half of American-born Asians choosing non-Asian spouses.

Black man shot to death, body dragged in S.C. - USATODAY.com

Black man shot to death, body dragged in S.C. - USATODAY.com: NEWBERRY, S.C. — The FBI and state and local police are trying to determine whether a hate crime was committed when a white man allegedly shot a black man to death and then dragged his body for about 10 miles behind his pickup.

A day after police arrested Gregory Collins, 19, in the murder of Anthony Hill, 30, the killing was all the talk in this town of 11,000 about 40 miles northwest of Columbia. Residents defended the diversity and improved race relations in their rural community.

'Newberry is kind of an exceptional small town,' said Chris McDonald, 32, who is white and whose family owns As Time Goes By Antiques downtown. 'Things here are pretty good. Maybe if you dug beneath the surface, you would find some tension. But as far as overt racism, I really don't see much of that at all here.'

Police believe the men met on the job at the Louis Rich poultry processing plant in town, said Newberry County Sheriff Lee Foster. Collins had worked at the plant since August and Hill since November, said Syd Lindner, a spokeswoman for Kraft Foods, owner of Louis Rich.

In Arizona, 'Los Samaritanos' leave water, food on trails used by immigrants

In Arizona, 'Los Samaritanos' leave water, food on trails used by immigrants: ...At a time when state and federal governments are focused on tightening the border to keep out immigrants who cross illegally from Mexico, Wallin and her colleagues help people who make the trip. They leave water and food along well-known foot trails. They distribute maps that show the water sites and search for trekking migrants. Sometimes, they find dead bodies.

Their efforts are at odds with a new Arizona law that makes it a state crime to be in the United States illegally. One of the staunchest advocates of the hard-line approach, Gov. Jan Brewer (R), is due to meet behind closed doors on Thursday afternoon at the White House with President Obama.

Brewer contends the law, known as SB1070, is necessary to fill a federal leadership vacuum on immigration reform. Obama, who has called the measure 'misguided,' has directed the Justice Department to assess the law's constitutionality.

Student Immigrants Use Civil Rights-era Strategies

Student Immigrants Use Civil Rights-era Strategies: BOSTON – They gather on statehouse steps with signs and bullhorns, risking arrest. They attend workshops on civil disobedience and personal storytelling, and they hold sit-ins and walk out of class in protest. They're being warned that they could even lose their lives.

Students fighting laws that target undocumented immigrants are taking a page from the civil rights era, adopting tactics and gathering praise and momentum from the demonstrators who marched in the streets and sat at segregated lunch counters as they sought to turn the public tide against racial segregation.

“Their struggle then is ours now,” said Deivid Ribeiro, 21, an illegal immigrant from Brazil and an aspiring physicist. “Like it was for them, this is about survival for us. We have no choice.”

Public Policy Takes Center Stage at Race and Ethnicity Conference

Public Policy Takes Center Stage at Race and Ethnicity Conference: NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – University of Maryland System Chancellor William Kirwan opened the annual National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education (NCORE) characterizing stagnant educational performance as the “gravest crisis” facing our nation.

“We can only keep (our competitive) edge if we continue to produce new generations of highly educated and highly motivated young people,” Kirwan said during the NCORE opening session Wednesday afternoon.

Like numerous education advocates and officials over the past year, Kirwan invoked President Barack Obama’s 2020 goal of the U.S. becoming the world’s leading nation in college degree completion. Praising the president’s vision, Kirwan said the initiative is as much about social equity as it is international competitiveness.

Study Finds Blacks Blocked From Southern Juries - NYTimes.com

Study Finds Blacks Blocked From Southern Juries - NYTimes.com: In late April in a courthouse in Madison County, Ala., a prosecutor was asked to explain why he had struck 11 of 14 black potential jurors in a capital murder case.

The district attorney, Robert Broussard, said one had seemed “arrogant” and “pretty vocal.” In another woman, he said he “detected hostility.”

Mr. Broussard also questioned the “sophistication” of a former Army sergeant, a forklift operator with three years of college, a cafeteria manager, an assembly-line worker and a retired Department of Defense program analyst.

The analyst, he said, “did not appear to be sophisticated to us in her questionnaire, in that she spelled Wal-Mart, as one of her previous employers, as Wal-marts.”

Arguments like these were used for years to keep blacks off juries in the segregationist South, systematically denying justice to black defendants and victims. But today, the practice of excluding blacks and other minorities from Southern juries remains widespread and, according to defense lawyers and a new study by the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit human rights and legal services organization in Montgomery, Ala., largely unchecked.

Experts Explore Black-White Divide in Youth Employment

Experts Explore Black-White Divide in Youth Employment: WASHINGTON — For decades, studies have consistently shown that Blacks lag behind Whites in education and employment, particularly among teens and young adults between age 18 and 24.

Using recent employment data in the context of the high school dropout crisis, the Urban Institute, a national public policy research organization, hosted a lively policy discussion Tuesday that examined the discrepancies in the time that it takes high school graduates and dropouts in that age range to connect to work or postsecondary learning opportunities. A panel of experts also discussed possible policy solutions.

The statistics came from a national survey of Black and White teens and young adults from 1997 to 2005. The young people were 15 to 17 years old when they were initially interviewed and 23 to 25 at the end of the study in 2005. In addition, they were virtually identical in measures such as neighborhood, family income, the number of parents in the household and their level of education, and youth engagement in risky behaviors.

Girls Prevail in New York City Programs for Gifted - NYTimes.com

Girls Prevail in New York City Programs for Gifted - NYTimes.com: ...Weird or not, the disparity at the three schools is not all that different from the gender makeup at similar programs across the city: though the school system over all is 51 percent male, its gifted classrooms generally have more girls.

Around the city, the current crop of gifted kindergartners, for example, is 56 percent girls, and in the 2008-9 year, 55 percent were girls.

Educators and experts have long known that boys lag behind girls in measures like high school graduation rates and college enrollment, but they are concerned that the disparity is also turning up at the very beginning of the school experience.

Why more girls than boys enter the programs is unclear, though there are some theories. Among the most popular is the idea that young girls are favored by the standardized tests the city uses to determine admission to gifted programs, because they tend to be more verbal and socially mature at ages 4 and 5 when they sit for the hourlong exam.