National Urban League Convention Considers College Success, K-12 Education Reform

National Urban League Convention Considers College Success, K-12 Education Reform: The rough road to a college degree can be made smoother for first-generation and low-income students if society begins to step up support in the areas of academic support, mentoring and financial aid.

That was the message delivered by higher education, business and other leaders during a panel discussion Thursday at the National Urban League Conference’s 100th Anniversary Convention.

“A lot of students drop out of college because they don’t understand the geography and the environment,” said George Khaldun, chief administrative officer at the Harlem Children’s Zone, a New York-based initiative that features charter schools and a comprehensive array of services to students.

Khaldun spoke during a panel discussion titled “The College Crisis: Keeping Students on the Graduation Path.”

To help prepare Harlem’s Children Zone students for college, Khaldun said, officials at the initiative created Journey to College, an after-school program for middle and high school students that places a heavy emphasis on college readiness through extracurricular and other activities that range from martial arts to chess. The organization also created a College Success Office that keeps in touch with graduates who’ve gone on to college.

87% of Hispanics value higher education, 13% have college degree - USATODAY.com

87% of Hispanics value higher education, 13% have college degree - USATODAY.com: ...Despite strong belief in the value of a college diploma, Hispanics more often than not fall short of that goal.

The poll's findings have broad implications not only for educators and parents, but also for the U.S. economy.

In the next decade, U.S. companies will have to fill millions of jobs to replace well-trained baby boomers going into retirement. As the nation's largest minority group, Latinos account for a growing share of the pool of workers, yet their skills may not be up to par. Aware of the challenge, some California State University campuses are reaching out to Hispanic children as early as the fourth grade.

'Aspirations for higher education are very strong among Hispanics, but there is a yawning discrepancy between aspirations and actual attainment,' said Richard Fry, an education researcher at the Pew Hispanic Center.

Duncan Outlines 'Equity' Agenda - The School Law Blog - Education Week

Duncan Outlines 'Equity' Agenda - The School Law Blog - Education Week: U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today said his department would push for policies promoting equity in the schools for poor and minority students, in particular announcing plans for an Equity and Excellence Commission to promote fiscal equity among schools.

'In so many ways, our reform agenda is all about equity,' Duncan said in an address to a conference marking the 100th anniversary of the National Urban League, according to an Education Department release. 'Competition isn't about winners and losers. It's about getting better.'

The 15-member equity commission, authorized by Congress in the fiscal year 2010 Consolidated Appropriations Act, will obtain broad public input about inequities in K-12 education and examine how those inequities contribute to the achievement gap. The panel will submit recommendations to Duncan, the department said.

Next week, the department will publish a notice in the Federal Register asking for nominations for the panel.

William and Mary Professor Thinks He Found Oldest Black School

William and Mary Professor Thinks He Found Oldest Black School: A College of William and Mary professor thinks he may have found the nation’s oldest surviving schoolhouse for African-American children.

English professor Terry Meyers believes the college — at Benjamin Franklin’s urging — was instrumental in opening the Williamsburg Bray School in 1760 to educate both free and enslaved Blacks.

The find would be remarkable not only for its historical significance, but for its location in the political and ideological epicenter of slavery. The college itself was funded by taxes on tobacco harvested by slaves. The college, its faculty and even some students owned slaves, and slave labor built core campus buildings, maintained the grounds and fed the residents.

Opponents Protest Arizona Immigration Law : NPR

Opponents Protest Arizona Immigration Law : NPR: Arizona is fighting for its new immigration law meant to keep illegal immigrants out of the state. It asked an appeals court to reverse a federal district judge's decision to block key portions of the measure.

The remaining parts of the law did take effect Thursday, and opponents took to the streets of Phoenix.

Methodist pastor Laurel Scott came from Connecticut. She held a yellow sign that said, 'Standing On The Side of Love.' Scott marched down Washington Street in downtown Phoenix to fight the Arizona law and keep it from spreading.

'We hoped to see how we can react when inevitably this issue comes up in the New England region and how the church ought to respond,' she said.

Dan Moore came from Cincinnati. He says he objects to any law that, he says, stands in the way of comprehensive federal immigration reform, including rights for illegal immigrants.

Native American farmers and ranchers press USDA on bias complaints

Native American farmers and ranchers press USDA on bias complaints: Native Americans who have sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture alleging discrimination say they, like many African Americans, were taken aback by the agency's hasty firing of a black mid-level official last week after she was falsely accused of racism.

Shirley Sherrod was quickly vindicated, receiving apologies from the agency and the White House -- and an offer of a new job from Secretary Tom Vilsack. Though Sherrod has yet to say whether she will accept the offer, she said at the National Association of Black Journalists conference in San Diego on Thursday that she plans to sue Andrew Breitbart, the conservative blogger who posted the misleading video that led to her troubles.

On the heels of the incident, Native American farmers and ranchers say the USDA has failed to address their complaints.

U.S. Education Department, Civil Rights Leaders Discuss Reform

U.S. Education Department, Civil Rights Leaders Discuss Reform: Civil rights leaders are criticizing Obama administration education reforms aimed at turning around low performing schools and closing the achievement gap for minority students.

Eight civil rights organizations, including the NAACP, contend in a document released Monday the Education Department is promoting ineffective approaches for failing schools. They also claim the $4.35 billion “Race to the Top” grant competition – a program with a goal of spurring innovative reform in states – leaves out many minority students.

“We want to be supportive, but more important than supporting an administration is supporting our children across the country and ensuring that they have an opportunity to learn,” said John Jackson, president of the Schott Foundation for Education, one of the groups that developed the document.

Marc Morial Chats With DiverseEducation.com

Marc Morial Chats With DiverseEducation.com: Marc Morial, the president and CEO of the National Urban League, presides this week over the 100th anniversary conference of the civil rights and economic development organization. Morial, a former mayor of New Orleans, took time before the conference, which is being held in Washington, D.C., to talk about the organization’s civil rights, economic development and education agenda.

Congress passes bill to reduce disparity in crack, powder cocaine sentencing

Congress passes bill to reduce disparity in crack, powder cocaine sentencing: Congress on Wednesday changed a 25-year-old law that has subjected tens of thousands of African Americans to long prison terms for crack cocaine convictions while giving far more lenient treatment to those, mainly whites, caught with the powder form of the drug.

The House, by voice vote, approved a bill reducing the disparities between mandatory crack and powder cocaine sentences, sending the measure to President Obama for his signature. During his presidential campaign, Obama said that the wide gap in sentencing 'cannot be justified and should be eliminated.' The Senate passed the bill in March.

The measure changes a 1986 law, enacted at a time when crack cocaine use was rampant and considered a particularly violent drug. Under the law, a person convicted of crack cocaine possession got the same mandatory prison term as someone with 100 times the same amount of powder cocaine. The new legislation reduces that ratio to about 18 to 1.

Mississippi Ranks Worst for Children's Well Being

Mississippi Ranks Worst for Children's Well Being: Many of the youngsters in Western Line School District start kindergarten or first grade with limited vocabularies, he said, and many come from homes where there are no guarantees of regular, nutritious meals.

'These kids, when they get to school, they're already at a disadvantage,' Green said Monday.

It comes as no surprise to him or to some other Mississippi educators and policy makers that a new national survey ranks the perennially poor state as worst in the nation for children's well being based on health and poverty statistics.

The annual Kids Count report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, released Tuesday, uses information from 2007 and 2008.

The report says Mississippi ranked worst nationally in seven of 10 categories.

It says the state had the highest percentage of low-birthweight babies; the highest rates of infant mortality, child deaths and births to teenagers; the highest percentage of children in families where no parent has full-time, year-round employment; the highest percentage of children in poverty and the highest percentage of children in single-parent families.

Minority-Serving Schools Gain Victory in Science Consolidation Battle

Minority-Serving Schools Gain Victory in Science Consolidation Battle: A U.S. Senate panel has rejected White House plans to consolidate federal science programs for minority-serving colleges and universities, noting that these postsecondary institutions reap significant gains under the existing system.

“One size will not fit all,” the Senate Appropriations Committee said in outlining its opposition to the Obama administration plan to merge the programs into a larger fund and then allow participation by majority white institutions. Instead, the panel voted to continue existing funding streams for the federal fiscal year that begins Oct 1.

Mueller says no racial targeting with guidelines

Mueller says no racial targeting with guidelines: FBI Director Robert Mueller told Congress on Wednesday that the bureau's domestic surveillance guidelines are being used properly and that agents are not employing them to target people for investigation based on race.

The FBI director's defense of the guidelines at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing followed criticism by civil liberties groups that the guidelines unfairly target innocent Muslims.

The guidelines 'do not target based on race,' Mueller said.

Mueller's response came during questioning by committee chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., about an Associated Press story indicating widespread cheating on an FBI test designed to be sure agents understood the guidelines.

In an interview Tuesday, Farhana Khera, executive director of the nonprofit group Muslim Advocates, said the Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide is 'quite an invasive data collection system.'

Reports find technical divide among foreign- and U.S.-born Latinos

Reports find technical divide among foreign- and U.S.-born Latinos: Young Latinos born in the United States are far more likely to use text messages, social networking sites and other digital methods to communicate with their friends than their foreign-born parents or peers, according to two reports released Wednesday by the Pew Hispanic Center.

The reports, 'How Young Latinos Communicate with Friends in the Digital Age' and 'The Latino Digital Divide: The Native Born versus The Foreign Born,' found that 85 percent of native-born Latinos older than 16 use the Internet while 51 percent of foreign-born Latinos do; that 80 percent of native-born Latinos between 16 and 25 use cellphones compared with 72 percent of their foreign-born peers; and that 78 percent of native-born Latinos 16 to 25 who have Internet access use social networking sites such as Facebook, compared with 62 percent of their foreign-born peers.

Tribute: Dr. David Blackwell, 1919-2010

Tribute: Dr. David Blackwell, 1919-2010: Like many African-American mathematicians who came of age in the 1980s and afterward, I was first aware of professor David Blackwell's contributions to areas in probability, such as renewal theory, before I knew that he was African-American. Later, I would come to meet him personally. Still later, I discovered that as a professor at Howard University in the early 1950s he taught mathematics major David Dinkins, who became the first African-American mayor of New York in 1990.

In the summer of 1980 as a graduate student working at Bell Laboratories (later to work there full time the following year) I met Dr. Wesley Thompson. He was a young African-American statistician who had just joined the Mathematical Sciences Research Center at Bell Labs. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley under the direction of Blackwell on the topic of 'conditional medians.' Tragically, Thompson died a year later in a swimming accident.

On Education - Equity of Test Is Debated as Children Compete for Gifted Kindergarten - NYTimes.com

On Education - Equity of Test Is Debated as Children Compete for Gifted Kindergarten - NYTimes.com: ... Bloomingdale, with headquarters at West 109th Street, is a highly regarded Head Start, and Ms. Mims says she has several 4-year-olds who she feels would do well in a gifted kindergarten program.

Founded as a preschool in 1960 even before the federal Head Start program was established, Bloomingdale became a national prototype. To this day, it’s considered a model, and educators worldwide visit it — recently from Iceland, Indonesia and the Netherlands.

An early 4-year-old graduate, Patrick Gaspard, who grew up to become a White House political adviser, thinks so highly of Bloomingdale that he took one of its founders, Susan Feingold, to meet President Obama.

This week, Bloomingdale marks its 50th year by graduating 100 4-year-olds, 98 percent of them black and Hispanic and all poor (to qualify, a family of three must earn less than $18,300).

Not one of the 100 will be attending one of the city’s gifted kindergarten programs in the fall, according to Bloomingdale officials.

After Africa, some Baraka School alumni soar while others struggle

After Africa, some Baraka School alumni soar while others struggle: Nearly eight years ago, its last class of students left the streets of Baltimore for an education in Africa that was meant to change the course of their lives. Yet the uneven legacy of the Baraka School continues to unfold.

This month, one of the young men, Romesh Vance, featured in the well-regarded documentary 'The Boys of Baraka' stood before a judge in a courtroom, where he was indicted on federal drug-conspiracy charges.

Other former Baraka students have been gunned down, joined gangs and followed a path the school tried to lead them away from.

'Every child is unique in their situation,' said Robert C. Embry, president of the Abell Foundation, which funded the experimental school.

Burke 'Mickey' Syphax dies at 99; led Howard University's Department of Surgery

Burke 'Mickey' Syphax dies at 99; led Howard University's Department of Surgery: Burke 'Mickey' Syphax, 99, who led Howard University's Department of Surgery for more than a decade during one of its most difficult periods and helped train most of Washington's African American surgeons, died July 19 of kidney failure at Howard University Hospital.

In 1950, Dr. Syphax was a young faculty member at Howard when Charles R. Drew -- whose pioneering work on blood-plasma storage techniques revolutionized the medical field -- died suddenly after a car accident on his way to a conference in Alabama.

At the time, Drew was head of Howard's surgery department and a powerful force in directing the school's surgical training program, which had been established in 1936. His death left a void sensed by colleagues as well as students.

'You wondered: Could the school continue to exist? He cast that kind of shadow,' LaSalle D. Leffall Jr., a medical student at the time, said of Drew.

Immigrant rights groups adjust focus to passage of AgJobs, Dream Act

Immigrant rights groups adjust focus to passage of AgJobs, Dream Act: Some immigrant rights groups are shifting the strategy in their so-far unsuccessful push to overhaul immigration law: They're calling the new tactic the 'down payment' approach.

"We are aware that the clock is running out, and there are no guarantees that a Congress that is supportive of immigration reform will be returned in November," said Antonio Gonzales, president of the William C. Velásquez Institute, a Latino public policy group. "We took a deep breath and said, 'Okay, we need a Plan B.' "

That plan centers on lobbying hard for the passage of two bills: AgJobs and the Dream Act. AgJobs is a compromise between farmworker unions and agriculture business groups, which was negotiated more than five years ago and is intended to provide legal farm labor and protect the rights of immigrant workers. The Dream Act would give some undocumented students the ability to apply for permanent residency. Both bills have had Republican support in the past.

The Associated Press: Court denies Kalahari Bushmen water rights

The Associated Press: Court denies Kalahari Bushmen water rights: GABORONE, Botswana — A court in Botswana ruled Wednesday that indigenous dwellers in one of the driest parts of the world will not be allowed to drill wells for water.

The Botswana High Court said the Bushmen people were not entitled to use a well already established on their traditional land in the Kalahari Game Reserve or excavate a new one.

The government has argued that the Bushmen's presence in the reserve is not compatible with preserving wildlife and that living in such harsh conditions offers few prospects.

In 2006, another court allowed the Bushmen to return to desert-like homelands where diamond mining claims and a new luxury tourist lodge led to their eviction by the government.

Hundreds returned and their leaders protested that they were denied water to drive them away again.

After the ruling Wednesday, community spokesman Jumanda Gakelebone said they will seek legal advice to fight the ruling.

'It's a sad day,' he said. 'If we don't have water, how are we expected to live?'

Competitive Cheer Fans See Acceptance in Their Future - NYTimes.com

Competitive Cheer Fans See Acceptance in Their Future - NYTimes.com: ...But on Wednesday a federal judge in Connecticut delivered a blow to universities, like Oregon, that classify competitive cheer as a varsity sport, ruling that Quinnipiac University’s team could not be counted toward compliance with Title IX, the federal law mandating gender equity in education.

“Competitive cheer may, some time in the future, qualify as a sport under Title IX,” Judge Stefan R. Underhill of the United States District Court in Bridgeport wrote in his decision. “Today, however, the activity is still too underdeveloped and disorganized to be treated as offering genuine varsity athletic participation opportunities for students.”

While the decision applies only to Quinnipiac, women’s sports advocates said the ruling could lead other universities to reconsider their decision to offer the sport, which has been criticized by those who say institutions view it as an easy fix when they need to pump up women’s participation numbers.

Black Racism: A Real Problem or Pure Politics?

Black Racism: A Real Problem or Pure Politics?: Shirley Sherrod was dismissed from her Agriculture Department job because remarks she made almost a quarter century ago about her dealings with a White farmer were perceived as racist. She was offered her job back Wednesday because a full viewing of that speech showed it to be a tale of racial reconciliation.

But put aside the furor and confusion over the employment of the Black woman who headed the USDA's rural development office in Georgia. The Sherrod affair brings to the fore a simmering debate over whether Black racism is cause for concern in America under its first Black president.

Lock Haven AD Taylor lightning rod for controversy, litigation - USATODAY.com

Lock Haven AD Taylor lightning rod for controversy, litigation - USATODAY.com: ...Lock Haven is on the litigious front lines of a bitter battle of the sexes that turns upside-down the common Title IX argument that women in college athletics are not treated as well as men.

Sharon Taylor is the longtime athletics director at the small (enrollment: 5,329) state school in north-central Pennsylvania. Her critics say she favors women over men and that's why women's teams fare better than men's at the Division II school.

'Oh, it's worse than that,' says Patrick Guerriero, a former assistant athletics director. 'Sharon hates men.'

Taylor calls that unfair, untrue and emblematic of the sort of searing personal attacks that led her to file a defamation suit against men from a community group that supports LHU's Division I wrestling team.

Latin Alternative Music Conference 2010 : NPR

Latin Alternative Music Conference 2010 : NPR: Tired of living a life without adventure, last week Felix Contreras and I packed our bags and stole away on a midnight train to New York City in search of fame and fortune. We found neither, but we did stumble across the 2010 Latin Alternative Music Conference, which brings together industry players and Latin Alternative acts from around the Spanish-speaking world.

The variety of bands was a testament to the kaleidoscope that is Latin identity and rock in Spanish. From a group of shy Mexican boys who went crazy on the banjo to a Cuban rapper who fuses metal and salsa with hip-hop, the conference served as a sort of musical Noah's Ark.

For several days, we hopped in and out of taxis, ran from one end of the city to another, attended concert after concert and stayed up till daybreak eating fancy food with bands that wear way more eye makeup than I do — all so you wouldn't have to. You can thank us later.

USDA To Reconsider Official's Ouster Over Comments : NPR

USDA To Reconsider Official's Ouster Over Comments : NPR: Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says he will reconsider the department's decision to oust a black employee over racially tinged remarks after learning more about what she said.

Vilsack issued a short statement early Wednesday morning after Shirley Sherrod, who until Tuesday was the Agriculture Department's director of rural development in Georgia, said she was pressured to resign because of her comments that she didn't give a white farmer as much help as she could have 24 years ago.

But Sherrod said she's not quite certain whether she would return to the Agriculture Department if invited back.

'I am just not sure how I would be treated there,' she said Wednesday on NBC's Today show, adding that she was shocked at being forced to resign by Vilsack.

Blacks Face Bone Marrow Donor Shortage : NPR

Blacks Face Bone Marrow Donor Shortage : NPR: Bone marrow transplants are often the only treatment for blood-related cancers. The treatment, however, is dependent on the patient finding a donor who shares a similar genetic makeup. In most cases, that means the match is found in someone of the same race. But the black community has a particularly tough time attracting donors.

Shawn Austin sits in the living room of his home in Brooklyn.

'She's beautiful in that picture,' Austin says as he grabs a photo of his wife from on top of the piano. The picture shows an African-American woman with long straight hair, a slender build, and a mischievous smile. That was Shawn's 42-year-old wife last year. In September, Jennifer Jones Austin was diagnosed with leukemia.

Ariel survey: Blacks' finances take big hit from recession - USATODAY.com

Ariel survey: Blacks' finances take big hit from recession - USATODAY.com: Faced with hardships caused by the Great Recession, middle-class blacks dialed back stock and retirement investments and dipped into savings more than their white counterparts, causing them to 'slip even further behind' in their quest for financial security, according to a survey to be released today.

In a sign of just how savage the economic downturn has been on black Americans, nearly half (48%) of blacks polled said they pulled money out of savings to make ends meet in the past two years, vs. just 31% of whites, the 2010 Ariel Black Investor Survey found. Blacks also were forced into committing personal finance no-nos, such as reducing monthly contributions to retirement savings and withdrawing money from 401(k)s.

'No question, we have taken a step back. Our community is slipping even further behind,' says Ariel President Mellody Hobson.

Students disclose illegal status as part of push for immigration law reform

Students disclose illegal status as part of push for immigration law reform: On a patch of asphalt outside the White House this week, Renata Teodoro, Maricela Aguilar and scores of other students are risking deportation simply by sharing their full names and immigration status with anyone who asks.

In an act of defiance unimaginable to many in their parents' generation, they are publicly declaring that they are in the United States illegally as a way to push for change that would help thousands of undocumented young people like them. And they are doing so in one of the most highly patrolled -- and politicized -- spots in the country.

"I'm not going to lie and say that I'm not afraid of someone coming in and trying to arrest me, but I can't let that fear take over my life," said Teodoro, 22, a student at the University of Massachusetts in Boston whose parents were deported back to Brazil a couple of years ago. "The only way of people finding out about my situation is to tell my story."

Conference: Access Programs Will Increasingly Help Students Consider College

Conference: Access Programs Will Increasingly Help Students Consider College: As the Obama administration continues its push to make America’s work force the most college-educated in the world, college access programs such as GEAR UP will play an increasingly crucial role in getting students to view themselves as college material.

That was the message delivered Monday by a U.S. congressman, a top U.S. Education Department administrator and other proponents of GEAR UP at the annual National Council for Community and Education Partnerships/GEAR UP conference. GEAR UP is an acronym for Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs.

“High aspirations, love and people who care is really the formula of GEAR UP and the formula for the Department of Education,” U.S. Undersecretary of Education Martha J. Kanter told the approximately 2,100 GEAR UP delegates from throughout the United States and U.S. territories attending the conference this week at the Washington Hilton.

Underrepresented Minorities Hit Hard by California Graduate Study Fees

Underrepresented Minorities Hit Hard by California Graduate Study Fees: ...“Overwhelmingly, these individuals go back to their communities to work,” says Dr. Michael Ellison, minority affairs committee chair for the National Association of Advisors for the Health Professions.

Yet, ever-climbing student fees at all UC campuses make it more challenging to attract individuals like Godoy, a first-generation college student, to health-science and related graduate-level programs. Along with a 32 percent systemwide fee increase that UC regents approved less than a year ago in response to an ongoing state fiscal crisis, regents approved myriad wide-ranging spikes for professional degree programs that ran as high as 64 percent. Professional degree fees (PDFs) make up a portion of the total retail price for a graduate education.

Courtland Milloy - WWII hero Vernon Baker fought fascism over there, racism at home

Courtland Milloy - WWII hero Vernon Baker fought fascism over there, racism at home: With the death last week of Medal of Honor recipient Vernon J. Baker, who was 90, the time has come to heed his final commands: You don't have to remember him as a hero, the retired Army lieutenant told me during a visit to Washington in 1997; just don't forget the sacrifices made by African American soldiers during World War II.

In his memoir, 'Lasting Valor,' Baker wrote of a fierce battle April 5, 1945, in Querceta, Italy, between German soldiers and his all-black platoon from the 92nd Infantry Division: 'We had cleared the way for this all-white company to go all the way to [the Castle Aghinolfi, a Nazi stronghold] without hearing a shot. Our thanks was an ass chewing and an assignment to scout for white soldiers. It was a way of life for my men. It made me furious.'

Mass. Minority Professor Program Marks 20th Year

Mass. Minority Professor Program Marks 20th Year: Just a few weeks ago, Javier Bermudez Reveron was too shy to lead discussions on the works of French philosopher Michel Foucault.

It wasn't that the 21-year-old senior at the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras did not understand the material. He was just unsure about public speaking and expressing himself confidently.

After completing an intensive four-week program at a well-known New England prep school that trains Black, Latino and Asian with potential as college professors, Reveron is not only leading discussions but also is looking to have his own classroom one day.

“Absolutely it has given me more confidence,” Reveron said after taking part in the Phillips Academy Institute for Recruitment of Teachers in Andover, Mass.

Virginia HBCU Hosts Latino Student Symposium

Virginia HBCU Hosts Latino Student Symposium: As the heat rose with the early Virginia morning sun, so did the anticipation of volunteers hoping to relive an experience that once changed their lives.

“I can’t wait ‘til they get here,” said one orange-teed volunteer to another as they milled around the empty Whiting residence hall at Virginia State University. Dozens of peppy college students, identified by their orange-colored name badges and infectious energy, were ready to impart the same wisdom that made a higher education possible for them.

“You can really feel the energy in here,” said Frank Hernandez, a Virginia Tech mechanical engineering major in his senior year, never once breaking his smile.

Then the rumble of a rear-engine, diesel-fueled locomotive unsealed the intensity, and cheering ensued almost on cue. The kids had arrived.

“Welcome to the 2010 HYS!”

Opinion: Diversity in the Curriculum is the Next Step for Leadership in a Globally Interconnected World

Opinion: Diversity in the Curriculum is the Next Step for Leadership in a Globally Interconnected World: The assault by minorities on unequal education first begun in the 1940s has resulted in a more diverse student body and faculty throughout academe. Yet without more, this matrix cannot succeed in including all students and preparing them for leadership in a globally interrelated world. To achieve full-blown diversity and fulfill the fundamental mission of higher education in America, the curriculum must change to keep pace with the dynamic of an increasingly diverse student body and professoriate.

People of color learned early that the road to opportunity leads through academia. Without education, opportunities for employment and advancement in society were limited.

UT Regents Strip Klansman’s Name from Dorm

UT Regents Strip Klansman’s Name from Dorm: University of Texas regents agreed Thursday to strip the name of a former law school professor and early organizer of the Ku Klux Klan from a campus dormitory.

The dorm named after William Stewart Simkins will now be known as Creekside Residence Hall. The two-story brick building was constructed in the 1950s near Waller Creek.

The unanimous vote came after a motion from regent Printice Gary, who is African-American, to make the change.

“From time to time we are reminded of ugly periods in our nation's history regarding civil rights,” Gary said. “The history behind the name is not in line with today's University of Texas and its core values.”

Undocumented Students Hold D.C. ‘Teach-In’ to Push DREAM Act

Undocumented Students Hold D.C. ‘Teach-In’ to Push DREAM Act: They can't get citizenship or in-state tuition rates, so they're taking the next steps the Capitol and White House steps, that is.

A coalition of student immigrant advocacy groups in Massachusetts, Colorado and California on Wednesday launched a makeshift school in the nation's capital, reminiscent of the 'teach-ins' of the 1960s, to encourage a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants through college enrollment.

The first class at “Dream University” a school with informal classes and volunteer professors and instructors from around the country was held Wednesday outside the White House, with more planned in the weeks ahead. Students don't get credit for the classes, but they're free.

The first class of about 27 students, several wearing white DREAM University T-shirts, gathered at Lafayette Park, across from the White House.

Fellowship Program Opens Doors for Minority Researchers

Fellowship Program Opens Doors for Minority Researchers: ...According to a 2006 National Science Foundation study, African-Americans, Hispanics and American Indians make up only 2.65 percent, 3.53 percent, and 0.59 percent, respectively, of life sciences academics at four-year institutions. Precise numbers are not available, but advocates agree minorities are also underrepresented as industry researchers who work outside of academia. Students from these underrepresented communities sometimes leave graduate school or post-doctoral programs because they feel socially isolated or unable to find mentors.

The lack of biologists and other scientists from these ethnic groups is a threat to America’s public health and national economy. Many diseases like AIDS, juvenile diabetes and hypertension are running rampant in these communities. Finding effective treatments will require scientists who understand their patients’ culture and lifestyles.

National Museum Home To Black Heroes And Foes : NPR

National Museum Home To Black Heroes And Foes : NPR: There's still nearly five years to go before the National Museum of African American History and Culture opens its doors in Washington D.C.

But to Lonnie Bunch it feels more like five days. As the founding director of the museum, he's crossing the country and the seas to build the collection for the museum.

Yet from time to time, he still finds a few minutes to tell NPR's Guy Raz about his latest discoveries. This time, we learn about some hard-working men from black history — one a hero, and the other a slave trader.

In siting a national Latino museum, the best view is the long view

In siting a national Latino museum, the best view is the long view: The Juggernaut of Museum Politics is moving again, straight toward the Mall. This time it's a proposal for a National Museum of the American Latino, and the momentum is coming from a commission created by law in 2008. The 23-member panel is studying the feasibility of a museum in Washington to celebrate 'the art, history and culture of the Latino population of the United States.'

The commission made its first formal presentation to the National Capital Planning Commission on July 1, sharing with the planning oversight group a shortlist of possible sites for the museum. The NCPC will respond in August, and the museum commission will report back to Congress in September.

Utah Eyes Two In Release Of Immigrant Information : NPR

Utah Eyes Two In Release Of Immigrant Information : NPR: The state of Utah has identified two of its employees as possible sources of a list of 1,300 purported illegal immigrants that was sent to news media and law enforcement agencies.

The workers are now on administrative leave; a formal investigation is to begin Monday.

There may be more state workers involved in creating a list based on information held by the Utah Department of Workforce Services, but so far only two have been identified.

The information about the purported illegal immigrants came from applications for programs such as prenatal care and Medicaid for children who are U.S. citizens. Kirsten Cox, the director of the Utah Department of Workforce Services, says the two state employees under investigation have strong political views on illegal immigration.

'Regardless of what their frustration is, if they work for the Department of Workforce Services or for state government, they understand what the rules are, they understand the protocols, and if they want to go rogue, they need to quit the department,' Cox said.

Program provides free breakfast and lunch to children in need over the summer

Program provides free breakfast and lunch to children in need over the summer: During the academic year, meals at school are an important source of nutrition for students from low-income families. But the food and the need for it don't go away in the summer months.

At Rolling Terrace Elementary School in Takoma Park, children under 18 can get a free lunch any weekday. It's one of eight Montgomery County schools with a drop-in summer program to feed disadvantaged youths.

Montgomery officials say demand for the free meals is up 10 to 15 percent this summer, which they attribute to economic troubles. This week, the school system served about 15,000 free breakfasts and lunches a day at 125 sites across the county. Most sites serve children enrolled in programs such as summer camps.

Similar summer meal programs are offered elsewhere in the Washington area.

Minority Students Attending College In Larger Numbers: Report

A new report from the United States Education Department's National Center for Education Statistics indicates that minority students are increasingly attending some form of higher education.

The Chronicle of Higher Education points out that minority group members are "disproportionately" enrolling in public and for-profit colleges.

Some important points in the report, titled "Status and Trends in the Education of Racial and Ethnic Groups," include:

-Among students enrolled in college in 2008, about 81 percent of Hispanics and 79 percent of American Indians/Alaska Natives attended public institutions, higher than the percentages of Whites (73 percent), Blacks (68 percent), and Asians/Pacific Islanders (75 percent) who did so. Some 21 percent of White, 18 percent of Asian/Pacific Islander, and 17 percent of Black students attended private not-for-profit institutions, while 11 percent of Hispanic and 12 percent of American Indian/Alaska Native students did so. A higher percentage of Black students (15 percent) attended private for-profit institutions than did students of the other races/ethnicities shown (ranging from 6 to 8 percent).

-In 2008, about 29 percent of U.S. adults (25 years of age or older) had at least a bachelor's degree, including 52 percent of Asian/Pacific Islander adults, 33 percent of White adults, 20 percent of Black adults, 13 percent of Hispanic adults, and 15 percent of American Indian/Alaska Native adults.

The same report from September 2007 found that 32 percent of all undergraduates in 2004 were minority students.

Indian tribe seeks equal footing on Hamptons - USATODAY.com

Indian tribe seeks equal footing on Hamptons - USATODAY.com: Members of the Shinnecock tribe are used to the incongruity: a pocket of working-class Native Americans living on a sometimes-shabby reservation amid the wealth of Long Island's Hamptons resorts.

Their tax-free cigarette shops are down the road from designer boutiques and gourmet caterers.

Their health clinic building once served as the pro shop for the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, a bastion of privilege built on land dotted with their burial mounds.

Their struggling oyster farm lies across Heady Creek from the oceanfront estates of millionaires.

Now the tribe — recognized by New York state in 1792 — is evolving from a local anomaly to a regional power. After 32 years of trying, the Shinnecock Indian Nation is one legal hurdle away from becoming a federally recognized Native American tribe.

University of Texas to Consider Taking Klansman’s Name Off Dorm

University of Texas to Consider Taking Klansman’s Name Off Dorm: The president of the University of Texas will ask the school's regents to remove the name of a former professor and Ku Klux Klan member from a campus dormitory.

Simkins Hall, a two-story brick dorm built in the 1950s, is named after William Simkins, who was a popular law school professor in the early part of the 20th century but one with a dubious past. He served as a Confederate fighter and early organizer of the Ku Klux Klan in Florida, promoting the Klan and bragging about efforts to terrorize and harass 'darkey' in campus speeches and publications.

Today, Texas President William Powers Jr. will ask university regents to take his name off the dorm a move that comes after weeks of deliberations by an advisory panel and two public hearings. The regents are expected to bring the issue to a vote.

Maryland HBCU Developing Solar Energy Project

Maryland HBCU Developing Solar Energy Project: There’s no question that higher education institutions during this recession have implemented cost-cutting measures to reduce their operating expenses. Among those schools have been institutions, such as Coppin State University, that are seeking innovative green technologies to make permanent campus changes that save on energy costs.

Recently, the Baltimore-based historically Black school was awarded a $500,000 stimulus-funded grant to finance the installation of solar photovoltaic systems to help power eight of its campus buildings. The project is underway and the university expects to have it completed by April 2011.

College to honor first black applicant 60 years later - USATODAY.com

College to honor first black applicant 60 years later - USATODAY.com: It was the summer of 1950, and Mary Jean Price, the salutatorian of Lincoln High School in Springfield, Mo., hoped to enroll at a hometown college and become a teacher.

But this was four years before Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision that declared denying black children equal educational opportunities was unconstitutional.

At 18, Price was, school records show, the first black student ever to apply to Southwest Missouri State College (now Missouri State University) in Springfield, was denied admission.

'I did the best I could in high school to get to college, but as soon as I got to the front door, they didn't let me inside,' she says.

Report criticizes treatment of Mexican women recruited to pick Md. crabs

Report criticizes treatment of Mexican women recruited to pick Md. crabs: Hundreds of Mexican women who travel to Maryland's Eastern Shore every summer to pick crabs are isolated and sometimes exploited by employers and recruiters, according to a report that urges changes to a U.S. guest-worker program.

The report, released Wednesday by American University and the Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, reflects interviews with 43 of the 1,000 or so women who worked at 11 crab companies last year. They described being charged illegal fees by recruiters in Mexico and enduring substandard working conditions in Maryland.

The women, few of whom spoke English, said they lived in housing with backed-up sewage and no working stove, lacked transportation to buy groceries or seek medical care, were not trained for their jobs or told how their paychecks and taxes were handled, and had a hard time picking enough pounds of crabmeat to make minimum wage.

NAACP Slams BP For Sticking Minorities In The Most Hazardous Clean-Up Jobs

NAACP Slams BP For Sticking Minorities In The Most Hazardous Clean-Up Jobs: The NAACP accuses BP of disproportionately assigning its most hazardous, low-paying cleanup jobs to minorities and is requesting an urgent meeting with Tony Hayward to address the problem.

In a letter to Hayward dated July 8, Benjamin Jealous, president of the NAACP, outlined a number of concerns related to BP's treatment of minorities, including allegations that 'contractors of color are not receiving equal consideration for opportunities to participate in mitigation efforts' and that minority workers are not being provided with appropriate protective gear.

Jackie Patterson, director of climate and justice for the NAACP, said the allegations were not based on 'intense research' but, rather, anecdotal observations.

Researchers Compile History of Black S.C. Hamlets

Researchers Compile History of Black S.C. Hamlets: Researchers from two states are compiling a history of Black hamlets on the South Carolina coast originally settled by freed slaves and now threatened by suburban sprawl.

The Post and Courier of Charleston reported Monday that historians from Clemson University and from Ursinus College in Pennsylvania are collecting the history of the 10 communities northeast of Charleston.

The hamlets extend from Remley's Point where the Arthur Ravenel bridge links Mount Pleasant to Charleston northeastward for 15 miles along the coast.

Race, culture may play role in Alzheimer's disease - USATODAY.com

Race, culture may play role in Alzheimer's disease - USATODAY.com: Racial and cultural differences may impact how early people with dementia are diagnosed, the type of care they receive and how long they live— and they even impact the way families of Alzheimer's patients deal with grief when their loved one dies, according to several new studies.

Research presented at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease in Honolulu, Hawaii, on Monday suggests more culturally-tailored resources could benefit African Americans, Latinos and other minority groups.

'These results have significant implications for caregiver burden and community resources,' says Maria Carrillo, the Alzheimer's Association's Senior Director of Medical and Scientific Relations. 'Alzheimer's leads so many families through unfamiliar territory. The need for education, information, supportive services is paramount.'

Businesses owned by minorities, women boomed before recession, census says

Businesses owned by minorities, women boomed before recession, census says: ... In the years preceding the recession, the ranks of minority and female entrepreneurs exploded, according to census statistics released Tuesday. By 2007, minorities owned one in five small U.S. businesses, and women owned almost one in three.

The number of U.S. companies increased 18 percent between 2002 and 2007, from 23 million to 27 million -- and minority-owned businesses showed outsize gains. Black firms rose by 60 percent. There was a 44 percent jump in Hispanic-owned businesses, and a 41 percent increase for Asian-owned firms. Firms run by whites, in contrast, rose just 13 percent, although they still account for 83 percent of all small companies.

The largest numerical increase in the five-year span was in businesses owned by women, up 1.3 million, to a total of 7.8 million. That represented a 20 percent increase.

But even as the statistics were released, they were eclipsed by the recession that started in December 2007, leading economists to wonder whether the downturn will reverse much of the progress.

Association Creates Plan for ‘1890’ HBCUs To Meet Modern Challenges

Association Creates Plan for ‘1890’ HBCUs To Meet Modern Challenges: Dr. Lorenzo Esters has spoken resolutely about the “bold, futuristic and intentional” five-point plan launched last month for 18 historically Black land-grant colleges and universities, but he could have easily been summing up his first year as the person tapped by the nation’s oldest higher education association to advance access and diversity among its member institutions.

As the debate over the relevancy of Black colleges continues to swirl inside and outside of academia and troublesome HBCU graduation and retention rates linger, Esters, vice president of the Office for Access and the Advancement of Public Black Universities at the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), has this message at the ready for critics: “Success is a longer road for historically Black colleges and universities.”

Opinion: How The Diversity Officer Can Help Transform Curriculum

Opinion: How The Diversity Officer Can Help Transform Curriculum: Increasingly, institutions of higher education are embracing the need to produce culturally competent graduates. Research demonstrates that students taught from a multicultural curriculum — one that includes new scholarship on race, ethnicity, gender, physical ability, sexuality and orientation in a manner that amplifies the diverse worldviews — are enthusiastically engaged in the learning process. They are also more likely to attain their educational goals and are better equipped as global citizens. Consequently, faculty and administrators are reconceptualizing the curriculum and seeking effective ways in which to implement it.

An appropriate question for diversity officers, then, is how might they best collaborate with faculty to align curricular development with institutional cultural competence initiatives? With multicultural competencies being adopted into the general education core curriculum at many institutions of higher learning, I decided to re-examine my role as diversity officer in fostering institutional multicultural education.

United Farm Workers invite Americans to 'Take Our Jobs' - Jul. 7, 2010

United Farm Workers invite Americans to 'Take Our Jobs' - Jul. 7, 2010: Facing growing anti-immigrant rhetoric, the United Farm Workers union is challenging Americans to take their labor-intensive, low-paying farm jobs.

As communities nationwide grapple with tenacious unemployment, migrant workers are often accused of stealing jobs from Americans. The union believes this accusation is without basis, and intends to demonstrate this with a newly-launched campaign called 'Take Our Jobs.'

"Farm workers do the work that most Americans are not willing to do," said union president Arturo Rodriguez in the announcement of the campaign.

At least half a million applicants are needed to replace the immigrant workforce, so the union has posted an online application for Americans who want to work on a farm.

Through its Web site, at www.takeourjobs.org, the union promises to connect applicants with farm jobs in their area.

Biloxi Journal - A School Closing That Some See as Fiscal Responsibility, Others Racism - NYTimes.com

Biloxi Journal - A School Closing That Some See as Fiscal Responsibility, Others Racism - NYTimes.com: BILOXI, Miss. — It still looks like a happy, thriving school: child-size chairs in the cafeteria, yellow buses in the parking lot, a marquee sign that declares “Tomorrow’s Leaders Begin Here.”

But unless things change before next month, this city is going to close its top-ranked school, Nichols Elementary, to save about $400,000 a year — less than 1 percent of the school district’s $50 million budget. Worse than that, say residents of the poor and largely black east side of Biloxi, the neighborhood is losing one of its chief sources of pride and cohesion.

The question of whether closing the school is an act of fiscal prudence or discrimination has become an explosive subject in Biloxi, reopening age-old racial divides. Nearly 90 percent of the school’s students are black or Asian, while the four School Board members who voted in April for the closing are white.

“I simply cannot get my arms around it,” said William Stallworth, the only black member of the City Council, who is lobbying the board to reverse its decision before classes begin on Aug. 11. “What kind of city closes its best school?”

Stafford County woman confronts issues of race, autism after son's arrest

Stafford County woman confronts issues of race, autism after son's arrest: ...Alexander acknowledges that no one can know exactly what happened between her son and the officer. But at the core of her fight, and the reason strangers are listening, are two issues she said authorities should consider: Her son has Asperger's, which makes it difficult for him to read social situations, and the incident started because of someone's assumptions upon seeing a black man sitting outside a library. In a news release after the incident, authorities said no weapon was found, and further investigation revealed that the original caller had never seen a gun.

'If you see a black man sitting outside a library and then you initially assume that he has a gun, that's a problem,' Bell said. If Latson had been white, he said, 'there would not have been a call.'

On Alexander's Web site -- http://avoiceforneli.com -- strangers have left comments arguing, for example, that Latson is 'a victim of SWB, sitting while black.'

Book Review: Black Women, United and Hell-Bent on Doing God’s Work

Book Review: Black Women, United and Hell-Bent on Doing God’s Work: Dr. Dorothy Height’s longevity and 40-year tenure as head of the National Council of Negro Women made her perhaps the best-known Black female activist in America, respected by Whites and revered by Blacks. When she died in April at age 98, The Washington Post referred to her as “a founding matriarch of the American civil rights movement whose crusade for racial justice and gender equality spanned more than six decades.”

In a sense, however, she was just the latest in a long line of Black church ladies who turned their zeal for God into the justification and engine for the campaigns against racial and gender injustice, as well as for social progress for African-Americans.

Dr. Bettye Collier-Thomas, a professor of history at Temple University and a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, has labored in this voluminous work to write such women into history where they belong.

California officer conviction on lesser charge touches off protests - USATODAY.com

California officer conviction on lesser charge touches off protests - USATODAY.com: LOS ANGELES (AP) — A white former transit officer was convicted of involuntary manslaughter Thursday in the videotaped shooting death of an unarmed black man on an Oakland train platform, a verdict that touched off violent protests in Oakland that damaged businesses and led to at least 50 arrests.

Prosecutors had wanted Johannes Mehserle convicted of murdering 22-year-old Oscar Grant, who was shot once in the back as he lay face-down.

The jury's conviction on the lesser charge raised concerns of a repeat of the days of rioting that followed the shooting on New Year's Day in 2009. The incident is among the most racially polarizing cases in California since four Los Angeles officers were acquitted in 1992 in the beating of Rodney King.

Near Oakland City Hall, a crowd moaned and cursed Thursday when they heard the verdict, decrying what they called a lack of justice.

Legalizing marijuana is civil rights issue, California NAACP says - CNN.com

Legalizing marijuana is civil rights issue, California NAACP says - CNN.com: ...Police departments in California have made more than 60,000 marijuana possession arrests in 2008, three times more than in 1990, according to a recent study released by the Drug Policy Alliancean organization that says it promotes policies to end the war on drugs. Although blacks and Latinos make up less than 44 percent of the state's population, together both ethnic groups constitute up to 56 percent of arrests that are made for marijuana possession in California, according to the study. Furthermore, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has found that African-Americans use marijuana at lower rates than white Americans across the country.

The study said arrests in California are 'racially-biased' and have led to a 'system-wide phenomenon, occurring in every county and nearly every police department in California, and elsewhere.'

Post Tech - Pew: Blacks, Hispanics among biggest users of wireless Web

Post Tech - Pew: Blacks, Hispanics among biggest users of wireless Web: African Americans and Hispanics continue to be among the most avid users of the Internet over their cellphones, according to a report released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center.

And low-income groups are among the fastest adopters of the mobile Web, showing an opportunity that wireless technology could play in helping to bridge a digital divide that has brought the Web disproportionately to wealthier communities over the past two decades.

According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 64 percent of African Americans surveyed last May said they access the Internet over their laptop or mobile phone, an increase from 57 percent who said they did in 2009.

New Mexico Librarian Enlivens the Research Experience Among Native Students

New Mexico Librarian Enlivens the Research Experience Among Native Students: Growing up, Paulita Aguilar developed a love for books and a reliance on librarians that she now grooms among American Indian and other college students who lacked the resources she had available.

Aguilar is curator of the University of New Mexico’s Indigenous Nations Library Program (INLP), mandated to increase information literacy and research skills among tribal students, who make up 6 percent of the flagship campus in Albuquerque.

Before college, many of them only knew modest, single-room libraries that sometimes did not employ a staff librarian. Consequently, UNM’s four libraries, which are cavernous enough to house more than 1 million volumes, can seem overwhelming, especially to freshmen.

Justice Dept. sues, seeks injunction on Ariz. immigration law

Justice Dept. sues, seeks injunction on Ariz. immigration law: The Justice Department filed suit Tuesday against Arizona, charging that the state's new immigration law is unconstitutional and requesting a preliminary injunction to stop the legislation from taking effect.

The lawsuit says the law illegally intrudes on federal prerogatives, invoking as its main argument the legal doctrine of "preemption," which is based on the Constitution's supremacy clause and says that federal law trumps state statutes. The Justice Department argues that enforcing immigration laws is a federal responsibility.

But the filing also asserts that the Arizona law would harm people's civil rights, leading to police harassment of U.S. citizens and foreigners. President Obama has warned that the law could violate citizens' civil rights, and Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has expressed concern that it could drive a wedge between police and immigrant communities.

Language Help for New York Immigrants Falls Short - NYTimes.com

Language Help for New York Immigrants Falls Short - NYTimes.com: In the world’s most diverse city, it was hailed as a milestone: Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg signed an executive order in July 2008 requiring every New York City agency that dealt with the public to provide interpreters, translated documents and other language help to people who spoke little or no English.

The order was supposed to help immigrant New Yorkers use services and navigate a daunting city bureaucracy. And in keeping with Mr. Bloomberg’s passion for applying good business practices to city government, the policy was meant to prevent the waste of time and money caused by miscommunication and misunderstanding.

Mr. Bloomberg pledged at the time to “make our city more accessible, while helping us become the most inclusive municipal government in the nation.”

But two years later, the mayor’s promise has fallen short. Many government workers fail to offer interpreters, even if people ask for them, and signs and forms in multiple languages are often nowhere to be found, according to interviews with people who have sought services and a lawsuit filed against one of the city’s largest agencies where the problems seem particularly acute.

Grambling’s President Orders Review of School Spending

Grambling’s President Orders Review of School Spending: Grambling State University's (GSU) new president has hired the former president of Virginia's largest historically Black university to review “every dime” of GSU's budget.

Dr. Frank Pogue said Dr. Marie McDemmond and two members of her staff also will check the qualifications of Grambling's accounting staff.

Last week, a state audit found that, during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2009, the university bought stock with money supposed to be used for buildings and grounds and lost $1 million on the deal.


The purchase was made six months before Pogue arrived on campus as interim president.

Scholarship and Activism Help Cultivate Community Farming Movement

Scholarship and Activism Help Cultivate Community Farming Movement: Just weeks after the three crop-yielding hoop greenhouses went up on the backside of one of Northeast Baltimore’s battered, but still striving, Black high schools, vandals struck.

“A troubled kid. Somebody who probably doesn’t know what was going on in here,” says John Ciekot, executive director of Civic Works, the nonprofit human services and youth development organization that erected the year-round, tunnel-shaped greenhouses eight months ago.

After postulating a reason for the destruction at the site of what’s officially known as Real Food Farm, Ciekot makes what he believes is the more essential point. His six-person paid staff and the neighborhood and high school volunteers who are the sweat and sinews behind the greenhouses kicked right back in.

Achievement Gap Mystery Partly Solved - It's Murder - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

Achievement Gap Mystery Partly Solved - It's Murder - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher: A startling new study has profound implications for school improvement efforts. From Reuters:

A murder in the neighborhood can significantly knock down a child's score on an IQ test, even if the child did not directly witness the killing or know the victim, U.S. researchers reported Monday.

The findings have implications both for crime control efforts and for the heavy reliance on standardized tests, said New York University sociology professor Patrick Sharkey, who conducted the study.

They can also explain about half the achievement gap between blacks and whites on such tests, he reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Willemstad Journal - A Language Thrives in Its Caribbean Home - NYTimes.com

Willemstad Journal - A Language Thrives in Its Caribbean Home - NYTimes.com: WILLEMSTAD, Curacao — Thousands of languages spoken by small numbers of people, including many of the Creole languages born in the last centuries of human history, are facing extinction. But a little-known language spoken on a handful of islands near the coast of Venezuela may be an exception.

Papiamentu, a Creole language influenced over the centuries by African slaves, Sephardic merchants and Dutch colonists, is now spoken by only about 250,000 people on the islands of Curaçao, Bonaire and Aruba. But compared with many of the world’s other Creoles, the hybrid languages that emerge in colonial settings, it shows rare signs of vibrancy and official acceptance.

Most of Curaçao’s newspapers publish in Papiamentu. Music stores do brisk business in CDs recorded in Papiamentu by musicians like the protest singer Oswin Chin Behilia or the jazz vocalist Izaline Calister.

“Mi pais ta un isla hopi dushi, kaminda mi lombrishi pa semper ta derá,” goes a passage in Ms. Calister’s hit song “Mi Pais.” (That roughly translates as “My island is a lovely place, where my umbilical cord forever lies.”)

Op-Ed Columnist - Fourth of July 1776, 1964, 2010 - NYTimes.com

Op-Ed Columnist - Fourth of July 1776, 1964, 2010 - NYTimes.com: ALL men may be created equal, but slavery, America’s original sin of inequality, was left unaddressed in the Declaration of Independence signed 234 years ago today. Of all the countless attempts to dispel that shadow over the nation’s birth, few were more ambitious than the hard-fought bill Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law just in time for another Fourth of July, 46 summers ago.


With the holiday weekend approaching, Johnson summoned the television networks for the signing ceremony on Thursday evening, July 2. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, first proposed more than a year earlier by John F. Kennedy, banished the Jim Crow laws that denied black Americans access to voting booths, public schools and public accommodations. Johnson told the nation we could “eliminate the last vestiges of injustice in our beloved country” with the help of a newly formed “Community Relations Service” and its “advisory committee of distinguished Americans.” Talk about an age of innocence!

U.N. creates new body on women, gender equality | Reuters

U.N. creates new body on women, gender equality | Reuters: After years of difficult negotiations, the U.N. General Assembly voted on Friday to set up a body that will seek to improve the situation of women and girls around the world.

The new body will be known officially as the U.N. Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, although officials say it will be referred to as U.N. Women (www.unwomen.org). It will consolidate four separate U.N. divisions now dealing with women's and gender issues.

'U.N. Women will significantly boost U.N. efforts to promote gender equality, expand opportunity, and tackle discrimination around the globe,' U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement.

Training video for Arizona law takes heat - USATODAY.com

Training video for Arizona law takes heat - USATODAY.com: In a training video released to Arizona law enforcement officers Thursday, state officials repeatedly discourage racial profiling when enforcing the state's new immigration law — but some Hispanic civil rights groups say some of the instructions constitute a recipe for racial profiling.

In the video, factors such as 'dress,' 'traveling in tandem' and 'significant difficulty communicating in English' are given as clues that a person may be an illegal immigrant.

'This list has obviously been drawn to legitimize racial profiling,' said Foster Maer, senior litigator for LatinoJustice. 'I don't believe the police will approach white people and ask them for their papers because of the way they're dressed.'

College Inc. - U-Texas reconsiders dorm named for Klan leader

College Inc. - U-Texas reconsiders dorm named for Klan leader: According to this recent Wall Street Journal report, the University of Texas is reconsidering the wisdom of naming a dormitory near its law school after a late law professor who was a leader in the Ku Klux Klan.

William Stewart Simkins was a longtime UT law professor. According to the Journal, he and his brother 'helped form the Ku Klux Klan in Florida after the Civil War.'

The dorm opened 55 years ago under Simkins's name, and the university apparently overlooked his past.

The Daily Texan student newspaper opines:

'William Stewart Simkins was, by all accounts, a deplorable human being. Some people may say he was only playing into the sentiment of the time period in which he lived. Regardless, any person that participates, much less organizes, a group that advocates for the murder of individuals on the basis of race is horrible, no matter what era he or she lived in.'

A public forum on the potential name change was held on campus Monday. An advisory committee will forward a recommendation; any name change would require action by university regents.

No Child Left Behind Renewal Sparks Push for Equity Funding

No Child Left Behind Renewal Sparks Push for Equity Funding: By most accounts, No Child Left Behind is widely considered a failure by lawmakers and educators alike. Its stated goal is “to ensure that all children have a fair, equal and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education” and reach” proficiency on state academic achievement standards and assessments.

Instead, legislators and advocates complain, it is an unfunded mandate that forces educators to focus on teaching a rote set of facts for standardized testing rather than intellectually stimulating and developing young minds so they are prepared to compete in a global society. While it offers many ways to identify failure, it fails to support improved student achievement or increase teacher capacity.

Affirmative Action Advocates Consider Recession’s Impact on Diversity

Affirmative Action Advocates Consider Recession’s Impact on Diversity: Diversity isn’t recession proof, and higher education and corporate officials agreed that institutions of all types must be proactive to prevent the faltering economy from overly impacting one or more underrepresented groups.

That was a theme of discussion during the American Association for Affirmative Action (AAAA) annual meeting in Raleigh, N.C., on Wednesday. The main question: how can organizations maintain diversity when the bottom line forces downsizing?

Displaced Black Landowners Fight to Reclaim Georgia Land - NYTimes.com

Displaced Black Landowners Fight to Reclaim Georgia Land - NYTimes.com: When the managers from the federal Fish and Wildlife Service talk about this 2,800-acre preserve of moss-draped cypress, palmetto and marsh, they speak of endangered wood stork rookeries and disappearing marsh habitat, dike maintenance and interpretive kiosks.

But when the members of the Harris Neck Land Trust talk about it, they speak of injustice, racism and a place they used to call home.

In 1942, Harris Neck, a thriving community of black landowners who hunted, farmed and gathered oysters, was taken by the federal government to build an airstrip. Now, the elders — who remember barefoot childhoods spent climbing trees and waking to watch the Canada geese depart in formation — want to know why they cannot have it back.

The Harris Neck Land Trust, formed by the former residents, their descendants and a handful of white families who owned land but did not live on Harris Neck, is asking Congress to return the land. The Fish and Wildlife Service maintains that the land is a crucial part of the national refuge system.