When I Grow Up, I Want to … Pay Off Student Loans

When I Grow Up, I Want to … Pay Off Student Loans: Sharde Jennings dreams of being a lawyer, but the $65,000 in student loans she acquired to complete her bachelor’s degree has her contemplating teaching or any job that has a loan-forgiveness program. For an increasing number of students like Jennings, their right-out-of-college career choices are being dictated by their loan situation.

College students are graduating with record levels of debt as they’ve come to increasingly rely on student loans to meet their college expenses. The pressure to start repaying these loans is prompting many of them to consider loan forgiveness programs.

Life Expectancy Drops for Some U.S. Women - washingtonpost.com

Life Expectancy Drops for Some U.S. Women - washingtonpost.com: For the first time since the Spanish influenza of 1918, life expectancy is falling for a significant number of American women.

n nearly 1,000 counties that together are home to about 12 percent of the nation's women, life expectancy is now shorter than it was in the early 1980s, according to a study published today.

The downward trend is evident in places in the Deep South, Appalachia, the lower Midwest and in one county in Maine. It is not limited to one race or ethnicity but it is more common in rural and low-income areas. The most dramatic change occurred in two areas in southwestern Virginia (Radford City and Pulaski County), where women's life expectancy has decreased by more than five years since 1983.

The trend appears to be driven by increases in death from diabetes, lung cancer, emphysema and kidney failure. It reflects the long-term consequences of smoking, a habit that women took up in large numbers decades after men did, and the slowing of the historic decline in heart disease deaths.

First Female Dean of Temple University’s Law School Talks of New Plans

First Female Dean of Temple University’s Law School Talks of New Plans: JoAnne Epps was recently named the new dean of Temple University’s Beasley School of Law. Epps, a longtime professor at Temple who graduated from Yale University’s law school, is a stalwart academician in the areas of evidence, criminal procedure and trial advocacy. The trial advocacy program at Temple is ranked No. 2 in the nation.

When Dean Epps assumes her post on July 1, she will become the first female dean of Temple’s law school and one of the few African-American female deans at a major law school in the United States. There are four African-American women serving as deans of programs that are members of the American Association of Law Schools.

New Report Highlights Schools That Make Minority Student Success a Priority

New Report Highlights Schools That Make Minority Student Success a Priority: The causes of poor college graduation rates among low-income, first-generation and minority students have pervaded the pages of academic publication for years, while the instances in which African-American students have outperformed their White counterparts in the same area have gone largely undocumented.

According to a new report released by Education Sector, an independent education policy think tank, there are currently 62 colleges and universities where the six-year graduation rates for Black undergraduate students outpace that of their White peers.

Typically, Black students graduate at a lower rate than White students at the same institution. And although Ivy League institutions like Dartmouth and Yale universities have achieved virtual parity as it relates to Black and White graduation rates through selective admissions, others such as Florida State University have worked diligently to develop effective retaining resources and initiatives that empower minority and low-income students to persist.

Ethnic Fraud?

Tribal scholars say some faculty are falsely claiming American Indian heritage to boost their job prospects.

By Mary Annette Pember

For American Indian scholars, securing a job in higher education can sometimes be as simple as checking a box. Most of the country’s colleges and universities do not require proof of tribal enrollment from faculty or staff who identify themselves as American Indians. Students looking to receive financial aid, however, must submit proof that they are members of federally recognized tribes. The question of American Indian identity can be an incendiary one. What does it mean to be an American Indian? Who are the “real” Indians? How are they identified? A recent surge of interest in personal genealogy has made the already complicated question even more troublesome. Many families hand down tales of American Indian ancestry, and the Internet is making it easier for average Americans to discover the truth for themselves. In the 2005 New York Times column, “The Newest Indians,” Jack Hitt suggests that the sudden spike in citizens claiming tribal heritage is a symptom of “ethnic shopping.” The term refers to individuals who wish to change identities and simply don new ethnicities that are more personally comfortable or interesting. But why are American Indians so often the ethnicity of choice among ethnic shoppers?

U-Md. Officials Approve Minor in Latino Studies - washingtonpost.com

U-Md. Officials Approve Minor in Latino Studies - washingtonpost.com: Undergraduates at the University of Maryland at College Park can now graduate with a minor in U.S. Latino studies after school officials yesterday approved the first such minor at a major university in the Washington region.

Students and faculty members, some of whom have been promoting U.S. Latino studies at Maryland's flagship public university for a decade, said they were delighted by the move but said more needs to be done to meet the needs of historically underserved Latino students.

'This is a great first step in a series of bigger steps that need to happen,' said Angel David Nieves, an assistant professor who has been working for years on creating a full U.S. Latino studies program at the university. 'We need to move on and . . . develop the funding necessary to bring the major and the graduate certificate on line.'

Latino studies focuses on the history, culture, literature and the social fabric of Latino communities in the United States. No college or university in the mid-Atlantic region has a U.S. Latino studies program, in part because of historical obstacles that include a lack of funding and debate about whether such content studies constitute legitimate scholarship.

Education Week: Black-White Gap Widens Faster for High Achievers

Education Week: Black-White Gap Widens Faster for High Achievers: New research into what is commonly called the black-white “achievement gap” suggests that the students who lose the most ground academically in U.S. public schools may be the brightest African-American children.

As black students move through elementary and middle school, these studies show, the test-score gaps that separate them from their better-performing white counterparts grow fastest among the most able students and the most slowly for those who start out with below-average academic skills.

“We care about achievement gaps because of their implications for labor-market and socioeconomic-status issues down the line,” said Lindsay C. Page, a Harvard University researcher, commenting on the studies. “It’s disconcerting if the gap is growing particularly high among high-achieving black and white students.”

Disconcerting, but not surprising, said researchers who have studied achievement gaps. Studies have long shown, for instance, that African-American students are underrepresented among the top scorers on standardized tests, such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Fewer studies, though, have traced the growth of those gaps among high and low achievers.

AT&T Giving $100 Million to Fight Dropouts - New York Times

AT&T Giving $100 Million to Fight Dropouts - New York Times: AT&T plans to announce a $100 million gift on Thursday intended to address the problem of high school dropouts and to improve the skills of the nation’s work force.

The gift, which will be distributed over four years, is among the largest corporate donations on record, but it is the second $100 million donation announced by a company this year. Last month, Goldman, Sachs & Company announced it would spend at least the same amount over 10 years to advance women’s business education in the developing world.

“We view it like any other investment we make,” said Ralph de la Vega, president and chief executive of AT&T Mobility, the company’s wireless operations. “It’s an investment in our future as well as the communities in which we work.”

A recent report by America’s Promise Alliance, a nonprofit started by former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, found that roughly one-third of American high school students, or about 1.2 million people, leave school before graduating.

Additionally, the unemployment rate among Americans with less than a high school education in March was 60 percent higher than among those who completed high school, according to AT&T.

Black Players Drop to 8.2 Percent of Major Leaguers

Black Players Drop to 8.2 Percent of Major Leaguers: Major League Baseball received its best grade for racial diversity in hiring, even as the percentage of Black players dropped again last year.

MLB received its first A- for race Tuesday from Richard Lapchick, director of the University of Central Florida's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports. Its grade was B in last year's study.

Among major leaguers, though, just 8.2 percent were Black players, down from 8.4 percent in 2006 and the lowest level in at least two decades.

'I'm very disappointed by that fact,' said Rachel Robinson, the widow of Jackie Robinson. 'Competition from other sports is certainly a big factor, but they're many factors. We've got to work on it in terms of getting younger children playing, into the game, and getting communities behind the programs, like the RBI programs and the academies.'

Lapchick released the study on Jackie Robinson Day, the 61st anniversary of when Robinson broke the major league color barrier.

The percentage of Black pitchers remained at 3 percent last year.

'Baseball has probably lost a whole generation here,' Lapchick said. 'African-Americans just aren't playing it at this point. They're going to have to increase their efforts.'

Hispanic-Serving Institutions Win Grants To Spur Economic Growth

Hispanic-Serving Institutions Win Grants To Spur Economic Growth: Colleges will receive much-needed funds from a Labor Department program, which works closely with businesses to fill work force gaps.

For some Hispanic-serving institutions, the key to winning grants at the federal level is building strong local relationships that foster partnerships and “out-ofthe- box” thinking about new and innovative services.

The trend is evident at seven HSIs that just won grants of $500,000 to $2 million from the U.S. Department of Labor for expanded work force development efforts. These community colleges are among several dozen new winners of Community-Based Job Training Grants designed to spur employment and local economic growth.

Gene activity may explain cancer's racial divide

Prostate and breast cancer are more deadly for African Americans than for whites. Now it seems that differences in the activity of key genes may be partly to blame.

Black men in the US are around 60% more likely to develop prostate cancer than their white counterparts, and are more than twice as likely to die from the disease.

In large part, these differences are thought to be due to socioeconomic factors such as access to healthcare. But at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) in San Diego on 15 April, Tiffany Wallace of the US National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, argued that biological differences between the tumours of blacks and whites are also involved.

Wallace and her colleagues used "gene chips" to scan for gene activity in prostate tumours removed from 33 African-American and 36 white patients. There were significant differences between blacks and whites for the activity of more than 160 genes, many of which were involved in regulating the immune system.

These differences could simply reflect greater inflammation in the tumours of African Americans. But given that some of the genes are involved in the production of interferons, one of the body's defences against viruses, the higher incidence of prostate cancer in African Americans could be due to a higher rate of infection with an unknown cancer-causing virus. To test this possibility, the researchers are now looking for viral genes in prostate tumour samples.

Book Lets Latino Dropouts in Rural Areas Tell Their Stories

A new book, Latino Dropouts in Rural America: Realities and Possibilities, allows former high school students from rural communities in Idaho to tell their own stories about why they left school.

It is co-authored by Mary E. Gardiner of the University of Idaho at Boise; Carolyn Hondo, assistant principal and Yolanda Sapien, English as a Second Language teacher, both of Burley High School in Burley and was published in March by State University of New York (SUNY) Press.

Gardiner is professor of educational leadership at the university and is the author of Parent-School Collaboration: Feminist Organizational Structures and School Leadership and the coauthor (with Ernestine Enomoto and Margaret Grogan) of Coloring outside the Lines: Mentoring Women into School Leadership, both also published by SUNY Press.

Hondo was one of Gardiner's students in her multicultural diversity and educational leadership class. She completed a paper on high-school dropout rates, followed by her doctoral dissertation on the subject.

Judging the Moral Character of Black and Hispanic Children

Judging the Moral Character of Black and Hispanic Children: Examining the academic achievement disparities in K-12 education between Black and Hispanic students compared to White and Asian students is not a science, however the study of moral and ethical disparities that exist between the same groups could be groundbreaking and controversial.

In suburban Washington, D.C., the Fairfax County School Board (VA.), one of the nation’s largest school systems, was scheduled to vote Thursday night on whether to accept a staff report that concludes that Black and Hispanic students received lower marks than White and Asian American students because they demonstrate a lack of “sound moral character and ethical judgment,” according to a story in The Washington Post.

The report on student behavior, first presented to the board on March 27, measured the moral-ethical gap by computing the number of third-grade students who received “good” or “outstanding” marks on report cards in areas such as “accepts responsibility,” “listens to and follows directions,” “respects personal and school property,” “complies with established rules,” and “follows through on assignments,” according to The Post.

Addressing Low Representation

Despite 30 years of affirmative action, the faculty profile at the majority of American colleges and universities remains largely White. While first-time Hispanic enrollment in graduate schools increased 5 percent from 1996 to 2006, according to the Council of Graduate Schools, Hispanics still make up a small percentage of minority faculty. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, Hispanics made up only 3.4 percent of full-time faculty positions at four-year, degree-granting institutions nationally in 2005.

“We’re helping address the low representation of Latinos in graduate programs as well as the low representation of Latinos in higher education among the faculty ranks,” says Rivera, director of the program. “Our fellows are engaging in community-based initiatives that empower the entire community and strengthen the pipeline.”

One of ENLACE’s first graduates, 38-year-old Michelle DeValdivielso, attempted to obtain her master’s degree a few years before joining the program, but as one of the few women of color enrolled in the senior administration program at National-Louis University, DeValdivielso felt isolated and dropped out. Joining ENLACE in 2001, DeValdivielso had a completely different experience.

Breaking Down Barriers: Women of Color in the Sciences

Breaking Down Barriers: Women of Color in the Sciences: When Angelica Patterson became program manager for the department of environmental science at Barnard College, the undergraduate women’s college of Columbia University, she saw very few fellow women of color in her department.

Now, two years later, “I have noticed a few more faces. I don’t know if it’s because I’m there,” she said. “Those students of color who are interested come to my office.”

Patterson recently convened a panel of prestigious women who work in the sciences to discuss “Breaking Down Barriers: Women and Their Experiences in the Sciences.” The unquestionable consensus was students have to have a support system. “There needs to be people available for students to relate to,” said Patterson.

“It is hard to get reaffirmed. Often you don’t have somebody of similar experience to talk to,” said Dr. Alison Williams, professor of chemistry at Princeton University. “Thank goodness for e-mails and phones, because I have friends and colleagues all over.”

Blacks in Higher Education Meet

Blacks in Higher Education Meet: Houston — “I really feel good” was Dr. Roland Smith’s reaction to a question about the recently held meeting of the American Association of Blacks in Higher Education. Smith is the AABHE’s president and driving force in its restoration after a three-year hiatus.

Many Black higher education professionals doubted that the organization could be revived. This group, as well as its Hispanic counterpart, was a caucus of the now defunct American Association for Higher Education. When that organization folded, the Hispanic group immediately morphed into the now vibrant American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education, which recently held its third consecutive national meeting. The Black caucus however had not met until last Friday.

“We’re not interested in competing with our Hispanic brothers. In fact, we have a history of working with the Hispanic, Asian and other caucuses and expect that to continue,” said Smith.

WOMEN REDEFINING LEADERSHIP

WOMEN REDEFINING LEADERSHIP: From the first female president of the American Council on Education to the first female and Hispanic president of Texas A&M University, women have been appointed to a number of high-profile presidencies over the past year. Yet, according to ACE’s “The American College President” report for 2007, women and people of color still occupy comparatively few presidencies. Furthermore, female presidents are largely concentrated at community colleges and least likely to head research universities. But in the following Q&As, female presidents leading a cross section of institutions are represented and speak candidly, offering words of wisdom regarding leadership skills, professional goals and presidential aspirations.

Study: Dyslexia Differs by Language - washingtonpost.com

Study: Dyslexia Differs by Language - washingtonpost.com: WASHINGTON -- Dyslexia affects different parts of children's brains depending on whether they are raised reading English or Chinese. That finding, reported in Monday's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, means that therapists may need to seek different methods of assisting dyslexic children from different cultures.

'This finding was very surprising to us. We had not ever thought that dyslexics' brains are different for children who read in English and Chinese,' said lead author Li-Hai Tan, a professor of linguistics and brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Hong Kong. 'Our finding yields neurobiological clues to the cause of dyslexia.'

Millions of children worldwide are affected by dyslexia, a language-based learning disability that can include problems in reading, spelling, writing and pronouncing words. The International Dyslexia Association says there is no consensus on the exact number because not all children are screened, but estimates range from 8 percent to 15 percent of students.

Tennessee Higher Education Officials Deny Honor For `Freedom Riders’

Tennessee Higher Education Officials Deny Honor For `Freedom Riders’: The rejection by Tennessee higher education officials of a proposal to award honorary degrees to 13 former Tennessee State University students expelled from the college in 1961 because of the students’ participation in the historic freedom rides has stirred criticism of the action from the college’s president, alumni and some state lawmakers.

“I never imagined the request would be voted down,” said Melvin N. Johnson, president of Tennessee State, referring to the 7-5-1 vote last week by the Tennessee Board of Regents to reject the honorary degree proposal. It was made by Johnson, at the suggestion of several alumni and Nashville civic leaders, including retired Nashville newspaper publisher John Seigenthaler, a top civil rights enforcement official of the Justice Department during the Kennedy administration.

King - About the Show - History.com

King - About the Show - History.com: Forty years after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at age 39, a new History™ special, KING, with newsman Tom Brokaw, takes viewers on an unprecedented journey back in time and forward to today. KING goes beyond the legend to delve into the man, the questions, the myths and, most importantly, the relevance of Dr. King's message in today's world.

In a rare television interview, Dr. King's son Martin Luther King III shares his memories and thoughts about his father in the special. In an insightful conversation with Brokaw, he talks about how he carries his father's torch today by leading a new campaign against poverty called "Realizing the Dream." During the interview, he takes Brokaw into the field to show him the devastating poverty still plaguing our nation.

Some of Dr. King's closest confidants draw viewers inside his mind as he led the civil rights movement; and others from public life and entertainment speak about his indelible influence on their lives. Among those interviewed in the special are Andrew Young, Former President Bill Clinton, Harry Belafonte, Chuck D, Forest Whitaker, Rep. John Lewis and many others.

GAO Releases Report on Successful Programs for At-risk Youth

GAO Releases Report on Successful Programs for At-risk Youth: A Government Accountability Office study, “Disconnected Youth,” found that there are a number of common characteristics among programs that successfully reconnect youth who have been disengaged from school and employment.

The GAO studied 39 successful youth programs and found that they share commonalities in four areas: staff and leadership, holistic comprehensive services, program design components and youth empowerment.

According to the study, successful programs have staff and leadership that develop sound relationships with young people and garner community support; provide counseling, health services, child care and housing assistance to their participants; provide a self-paced and hands-on curriculum that offers incentives for attaining educational goals; and empower youth through high expectations, clear rules on behavior, and encourage active participation in the process.

Programs that followed this model were successful in helping disconnected youth become independent adults through education and employment."

Cultivating Student Leaders of Color on Majority Campuses

Cultivating Student Leaders of Color on Majority Campuses: To foster an inclusive leadership environment for women and students of color, student affairs representatives must develop both formal and informal relationships with prospective student leaders to create a welcoming and inclusive environment, said Stephanie Ray, associate dean of students at Georgia Institute of Technology, during a presentation at the American College Personnel Association's annual conference in Atlanta.

“Women and underrepresented students have different challenges than those who’ve traditionally held student leadership positions. As advisors, we need to recognize those challenges and help them think through the process,” Ray said.

African American students at predominately White institutions develop coping skills to deal with the added stress of racial tensions. According to recent research, these students are more likely to cope by avoiding tensions, as opposed to using a communicative effort to deal with the situation.

“Women and underrepresented students need more interaction with faculty and staff [of all colors], and these interactions need to be different. Students respond well when individuals ask questions and show concern,” Ray said.

Just the Stats: Science Foundation Program Producing Results

More than 200,000 students from underrepresented populations have so far participated in a program started by the National Science Foundation to increase minority representation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, according to the foundation.

Although official figures have not yet been released on the percentage increase in participation, the Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program graduated 25,309 students in the 2006 academic year of which 12,454 were Hispanic students graduating with a bachelor’s degree in a STEM discipline.

LSAMP Program Director A. James Hicks says some of the growth is related to an increase in participating campuses. In 1990-91, before NSF stepped in to support the fledgling program, there were fewer than 4,000 STEM graduates in six “alliances” — a conglomerate of academia, government, industry, and other organizations in various regions. Today, there are 38 alliances across the nation.

Hispanic Americans have benefited from the program, according to LSAMP. In 2001-2002, Hispanics represented 49 percent of graduates in the LSAMP program. The biggest gains were in Engineering (3,703 students or 55 percent of total graduates) and Mathematics (3,461 students or 43.2 percent) degrees. They represented 48.8 percent of total graduates in Life Sciences and 39 percent of total graduates in Computer Science. However, they substantially lag (1 percent or lower) in Physics/Astronomy, and Environmental Science.

Immigrants More Likely to Commit Suicide After Divorce, Study Finds

A study of Riverside County residents co-authored by a team of sociologists found that divorced immigrants are more than twice as likely to commit suicide as native-born Americans who are divorced.

The study published in Archives of Suicide Research in March was co-authored by Augustine J. Kposowa, a sociology professor at the University of California at Riverside UCR, Riverside County Sheriff’s Capt. James P. McElvain, who holds a Ph.D. in sociology from UCR, and sociology professor Kevin D. Breault of Middle Tennessee State University.

They also found that the longer immigrants lived in the United States, the less likely they were to kill themselves.

The authors said the findings, based on death records and census reports, indicate that policies aimed at reducing suicide should address depression, anxiety and acculturation-stress problems in immigrant communities, especially among new arrivals.

ESPN Documentary on the HBCU Athletes Who Desegregated College Sports Scores Big

The stories of Black athletes integrating professional sports are legendary. Names like Jackie Robinson, Althea Gibson and Lee Elder are known throughout the cosmos as pioneers for justice and equality.

Little, however, was known about the integration of college basketball until ESPN’s groundbreaking documentary, “Black Magic,” chronicled the lives of former players and coaches that worked to desegregate the collegiate athletic conferences.

Televised commercial free, March 16 and 17, “Black Magic,” drew a 1.3 household rating, watched by an average of 1.2 million households, making it the ESPN’s most-watched documentary ever. The film documents the injustices faced by Black college athletes during the civil rights movement as told through the lives of basketball players and coaches from that period.

Perry Wallace, the first Black basketball player to play in the Southeastern Conference, remembered vividly his days in Tennessee as a Vanderbilt Commodore. Some days, says Wallace, were pleasant. Others, he admits, were frightening.

“When you played in the stadiums of the Mississippi and Alabama schools, you encountered a hostile crowd of thousands screaming racial epithets: nigger, coon, all the old-fashioned stuff. I received hate letters. My life was threatened,” says Wallace, who played from 1967-1970.

The Southeastern Conference was established in 1932, when the 13 members of the Southern Conference left to form their own conference. Ten teams make up the SEC including: the University of Alabama, Auburn University, the University of Mississippi, Mississippi State University and University of Tennessee.

At Diversifying Colleges Tenure Still a Hurdle for Women, Minorities

At Diversifying Colleges Tenure Still a Hurdle for Women, Minorities: ... Lezli Baskerville, president of the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO), said historically Black colleges and universities have a successful model to achieve a diverse professoriate.

Close to 48 percent of HBCU faculty come from diverse racial backgrounds, said Baskerville, adding that approximately 52 percent of the faculty at HBCUs are Black, 33 percent are White, 7 percent are Asian American and 3 percent are Hispanic.

Baskerville recommended putting pressure on state and federal legislatures to shift funding away from colleges and universities that are not giving priority to diversifying their faculties and allocating these funds to institutions, such as HBCUs, that have diverse faculties.

However, although HBCUs by their very nature have diverse student bodies and faculties, the pipeline to the professorship for women and minorities is not working, said Dr. Catherine Hill, director of research for the American Association of University Women.

Many Muslims Turn to Home Schooling - New York Times

Many Muslims Turn to Home Schooling - New York Times: LODI, Calif. — Like dozens of other Pakistani-American girls here, Hajra Bibi stopped attending the local public school when she reached puberty, and began studying at home.

Her family wanted her to clean and cook for her male relatives, and had also worried that other American children would mock both her Muslim religion and her traditional clothes.

“Some men don’t like it when you wear American clothes — they don’t think it is a good thing for girls,” said Miss Bibi, 17, now studying at the 12th-grade level in this agricultural center some 70 miles east of San Francisco. “You have to be respectable.”

Across the United States, Muslims who find that a public school education clashes with their religious or cultural traditions have turned to home schooling. That choice is intended partly as a way to build a solid Muslim identity away from the prejudices that their children, boys and girls alike, can face in schoolyards. But in some cases, as in Ms. Bibi’s, the intent is also to isolate their adolescent and teenage daughters from the corrupting influences that they see in much of American life.

Harlem to Antarctica for Science, and Pupils - New York Times

Harlem to Antarctica for Science, and Pupils - New York Times: ... Dr. Pekar had found just the person for his Antarctica team: a talented, intrepid African-American teacher to be a role model for minority science students.

“I’m tired of having a bunch of white people running around doing science,” said Dr. Pekar, who is white. “When it comes to Antarctica, it isn’t just the landscape that’s white.”

Dr. Pekar wants to get more American students, and particularly more minority students, excited about science. Many studies show teenagers across the United States lagging in math and science scores behind their peers in other industrialized countries.

“These kids don’t have the role models, or the environment, that shows them what the possibilities are,” he said. “I want Shakira Brown’s students to be able to live this experience through her. I want them to be thinking like scientists — like lovers of life.”

The trip is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, which sends about 300 scientists to Antarctica each year. Tom Wagner, director of earth sciences for the program, estimates that perhaps three or four African-Americans have joined that research effort.

Relatively few African-Americans, Hispanics and American Indians work in the earth sciences, Dr. Wagner said, adding that the foundation was working to bring greater diversity to the field.

Many Potential Leaders of Tomorrow Reject the Role - washingtonpost.com

Many Potential Leaders of Tomorrow Reject the Role - washingtonpost.com: A new nationwide survey of girls and boys found that a majority of children and youths in the United States have little or no interest with achieving leadership roles when they become adults, ranking 'being a leader' behind other goals such as 'fitting in,' 'making a lot of money' and 'helping animals or the environment.'

The study commissioned by the Girl Scouts of the USA and released today determined that three-quarters of African American girls and boys and Hispanic girls surveyed already identify themselves as leaders, a much larger group than white youths, about half of whom think of themselves this way.

The youths defined leaders as people who prize collaboration, stand up for their beliefs and values, and try to improve society. Girls in particular endorsed these approaches, although a majority of boys did, as well. Yet when asked in focus groups about leadership styles among adults, what they described was traditional top-down management.

Judy Schoenberg, research director for the Girl Scouts, said the youths in the survey "see a disconnect between what they aspire to and what is."

11 Black Head Coaches are in The 2008 NCAA National Tournament

11 Black Head Coaches are in The 2008 NCAA National Tournament: This year’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship field of 65 has 11 teams lead by Black head coaches. Approximately 63 percent of all male Division I basketball players are Black, while Blacks represent 17 percent of the head coaches in this year’s field of 65.

The 11 Black head coaches who made it into the 2008 NCAA Basketball National Championship are:

Dennis Felton – University of Georgia

Ernie Kent – University of Oregon

Frank Haith – University of Miami

James Green – Mississippi Valley State University

Jeff Capel – University of Oklahoma

John Thompson III – Georgetown University

Milan Brown – Mount Saint Mary’s University

Oliver Purnell – Clemson University

Randy Monroe – University of Maryland Baltimore County

Ron Mitchell – Coppin State University

Trent Johnson – Stanford University

Blacks Were Improperly Kept Off La. Jury, High Court Rules - washingtonpost.com

Blacks Were Improperly Kept Off La. Jury, High Court Rules - washingtonpost.com: The Supreme Court yesterday reversed the conviction of a Louisiana death row inmate, ruling that a prosecutor improperly excluded African Americans from the jury in what he had called his 'O.J. Simpson case.'

The court's 7 to 2 decision means a new trial for Allen Snyder, who was sentenced to death in 1996 after being convicted of killing his estranged wife's boyfriend and seriously wounding her.

Former Jefferson Parish prosecutor James Williams, who was known for persuading juries to sentence murderers to death, compared Snyder's case to Simpson's both in and outside court and told jurors during the sentencing phase of Snyder's trial that Simpson "got away with it.

The court's opinion, written by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., did not mention the Simpson remarks but focused narrowly on whether Williams had improperly excluded blacks from the jury.

Snyder's lawyer, Stephen B. Bright of the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, said the decision is an important reinforcement of the court's position that judges have an obligation to scrutinize why lawyers reject potential jurors.

Is separate ... more equal? Tackle boys' learning gap with academic focus

PERSPECTIVE

... A complex array of gender equity concerns has led some educators to consider single-sex public education as one way to address the disparate experiences and outcomes of girls and boys. Urban educators in particular began exploring single-sex education for boys left behind.

The majority of these boys are African-American and Hispanic, a compelling rationale for innovation given the preponderance of literature that these boys are in academic and socio-economic crisis.

The 2006 Delaware State Testing Program 10th-grade reading proficiency scores are 47 percent for black boys, 52 percent for Hispanic boys, and 85 percent for white boys -- a gap of almost 40 percent.

Black girls score at 69 percent, Hispanic girls at 52 percent, and white girls at 91 percent.

The 10th-grade writing proficiency scores put black boys at 52 percent, Hispanic boys at 60 percent, and white boys at 81 percent.

Black girls score at 73 percent, Hispanic girls at 61 percent, and white girls at 91 percent proficiency in writing.

The 10th-grade math proficiency scores put black boys at 28 percent, Hispanic boys at 48 percent, and white boys at 80 percent -- a gap of more than 50 percent.

Black girls score at 50 percent, Hispanic girls at 42 percent, and white girls at 78 percent in math.

Several studies found that students in single-sex schools devoted more time to homework, had higher aspirations for academic and educational achievement, and wanted to be remembered for their scholastic abilities rather than leadership in activities or popularity.

NPR: Racism and Family Secrets in 'Mudbound'

NPR: Racism and Family Secrets in 'Mudbound': Morning Edition, March 14, 2008 Hillary Jordan's first novel, Mudbound, is a story of racism and well-kept secrets. Set on a desolate farm in the Mississippi Delta at the end of World War II, the novel explores the complex relations between two families: the owners of the land, and the sharecroppers who live and work on it.

The novel earned Jordan the Bellwether Prize for fiction, an award founded by author Barbara Kingsolver to promote literature of social responsibility. The cash prize and publishing contract is awarded bi-annually to an unpublished author.

Kingsolver says Mudbound is a beautifully written novel that examines the roots of racism through the distinct voices of its characters.

NPR: Black Players' Struggles Find Voice in 'Black Magic'

NPR: Black Players' Struggles Find Voice in 'Black Magic': All Things Considered, March 15, 2008 In March 1944, basketball players from the North Carolina College for Negroes played a secret game against military medical students from Duke University.

Rabid segregation kept the teams from playing together in public, and by the end of the clandestine matchup, the North Carolina players had soundly beaten Duke, 88-44.

The secret game was just one of the historic incidents featured in a new ESPN documentary about early African-American basketball pioneers and the historically black colleges and universities that nurtured them. Black Magic tells the stories of many of the players who gradually broke through the barriers of segregation and racism and set the standard for the basketball stars of today.

John McLendon coached the North Carolina team in 1944. His widow, Joanna, remembers that the experience was unique for students throughout segregated America.

'Some of his players had never had any contact with whites before. Some of them had never touched a white person to shake hands,' she recalls.

Black Magic co-producer Earl Monroe, who was named one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history, says the historic 1944 game wasn't an isolated incident.

Virginia Hispanic Population Triples in 16 Years

Virginia’s Hispanic population tripled from 1990 to 2006, to more than 460,000 or 6 percent of the population, according to a study released Feb. 25 by the University of Virginia's Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service.

The study of Virginia’s Hispanics analyzes United States Census Bureau data to describe growth trends, characteristics and life in Virginia for resident Hispanics.

Qian Cai, director of the Cooper Center’s Demographics and Workforce section and author of the study, said the study shows that “Virginia’s Hispanic population is complex, varied and deeply engaged in significant sectors of the Virginia economy, and Hispanic presence in the overall population is likely to increase in future years. A thorough understanding of the population’s composition and characteristics provides a foundation for sound policy deliberations.”

He said the study found that 60 percent of Hispanics in Virginia are U.S. citizens, the majority U.S.-born, and 13 percent naturalized, and that “adult Hispanic citizens surpass Virginians overall in both educational attainment and household income.”

Minorities cite health care disparities

WASHINGTON — Minorities are more likely than white patients to rate their health care as fair or poor, a view that is particularly true among Chinese-Americans, Vietnamese-Americans and blacks born in Africa.

Researchers have long stressed that improving patients' perception of their care is important to improving outcomes. That's because negative experiences can lead to less time spent with a physician and poor communications between doctor and patient.

To get a more detailed view of the differing perceptions that patients have, researchers at Harvard University and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation surveyed 4,334 adults last year. The researchers asked patients such questions as how quickly they were able to get an appointment the last time they were sick and whether their doctor explained things in a way the patient could understand. The researchers found that whites routinely rated their experience higher than did the minority patients, who still had largely favorable views of their care.

For example, 91% of whites rated their care as excellent or good. That percentage fell for most ethnic groups, with the lowest ratings recorded among Chinese-Americans, 74%; African-Americans born in Africa, 73%; and Vietnamese-Americans, 72%.

When it came to getting an appointment, about 63% of whites were able to get an appointment on the same day or the next day after they became sick or injured. That percentage dropped to 42% for Cuban-Americans and 39% for African-Americans born in the Caribbean.

Population Shift Sends Universities Scrambling - washingtonpost.com

Population Shift Sends Universities Scrambling - washingtonpost.com: Colleges and universities are anxiously taking steps to address a projected drop in the number of high school graduates in much of the nation starting next year and a dramatic change in the racial and ethnic makeup of the student population, a phenomenon expected to transform the country's higher education landscape, educators and analysts said.

After years of being overwhelmed with applicants, higher education institutions will over the next decade recruit from a pool of public high school graduates that will experience:

- A projected national decline of roughly 10 percent or more in non-Hispanic white students, the population that traditionally is most likely to attend four-year colleges.

- A double-digit rise in the proportion of minority students -- especially Hispanics -- who traditionally are less likely to attend college and to obtain loans to fund education.

Despite those obstacles, minority enrollment at undergraduate schools is expected to rise steadily, from 30 percent in 2004 to about 37 percent in 2015, some analysts project.

For Hispanic Leaders, College Affordability Is Top Concern

For Hispanic Leaders, College Affordability Is Top Concern: A panel of Hispanic college and university presidents said affordability is greatly affecting Hispanic students’ access to college and offered suggestions for boosting public investment in higher education at a plenary session at the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education’s annual meting.

Time and again the speakers, Dr. Max Castillo, president of the University of Houston’s downtown campus, Dr. Ricardo Fern�ndez, president of Lehman College at the City University of New York and Dr. Marcelina V�lez-Santiago, president of the Pontificia Universidad Cat�lica de Puerto Rico, came back to the issue of affordability.

Castillo described one of the “seismic transformations” in higher education affecting access as the disinvestment of the government in higher education. No matter the state, “it’s not unusual to go into a legislative session and continuously defend your school,” he said in his presentation to the large crowd of Hispanic graduate students, faculty and administrators.

Just the Stats: Science Foundation Program Producing Results

Just the Stats: Science Foundation Program Producing Results: More than 200,000 students from underrepresented populations have so far participated in a program started by the National Science Foundation to increase minority representation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, according to the foundation.

Although official figures have not yet been released on the percentage increase in participation, the Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program graduated 25,309 students in the 2006 academic year of which 12,454 were Hispanic students graduating with a bachelor’s degree in a STEM discipline.

LSAMP Program Director A. James Hicks says some of the growth is related to an increase in participating campuses. In 1990-91, before NSF stepped in to support the fledgling program, there were fewer than 4,000 STEM graduates in six “alliances” — a conglomerate of academia, government, industry, and other organizations in various regions. Today, there are 38 alliances across the nation.

AP Course Access and Scores Improve for Hispanics in Some States

Although Hispanic students have continued to close the “equity and excellence gap” in 15 states in the Advanced Placement courses, gaps persist in California and Texas, two of the biggest states with a high percentage of Hispanics in their population, the College Board reveals in its annual AP Report to the Nation.

While more minority students are entering AP classrooms, significant gaps remain, the College Board reports. In California, for instance, where Hispanics make up 37 percent of the student population, 30.7 percent of the Hispanic students scored three or higher in the tests. In Texas, the margin was lower with 32.6 percent of Hispanic students scoring three or higher. In that state, Hispanics are 36.5 percent of the student population in public schools.

“More students from varied backgrounds are accomplishing their AP goals, but we can’t afford to believe equity has been achieved until demographics of successful AP participation and performance are identical to the demographics of the overall student population,” says College Board President Gaston Caperton.

There was little discrepancy between AP exam enrollment rates and overall enrollment rates for Hispanic and White students, while Asian American students represented a disproportionately higher number of AP exam enrollees.

America Fails To Meet Justice Goals 40 Years After Kerner

America Fails To Meet Justice Goals 40 Years After Kerner: Over the last 40 years, America has failed to make significant progress on poverty, inequality, racial injustice and crime, according to a report that updates the 1968 report of the Kerner Commission, the bipartisan National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders.

In commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the Kerner Commission, convened to respond to a wave of riots that engulfed communities of color from 1963 to 1967, the Eisenhower Foundation published a report to update the commission’s 40-year-old findings. The foundation is a nonprofit group that continues the work of the National Advisory Commission.

The report revealed that 37 million Americans live in poverty and another 46 million Americans are without health insurance. While poverty among African-Americans has declined, poor African-Americans are three times as likely and poor Hispanics twice as likely as non-Hispanic Whites to live in deep poverty, half below the poverty line. Nearly 44 percent of Black female-headed households with children under 18 were impoverished in 2006.

Georgia's first black police officers may take pension battle to court - CNN.com

Georgia's first black police officers may take pension battle to court - CNN.com: ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- A 'whites only' sign was still hanging on the precinct house water fountain in 1964 when James Booker joined the suburban College Park police force.

He soon learned it wasn't the only thing off limits to Georgia's new black recruits.

Until 1976, black officers were blocked from joining a state-supported supplemental police retirement fund.

Today, white officers who entered the fund before that year are taking home hundreds of dollars more every month in retirement benefits than their black counterparts.

The now-retired black officers have been lobbying hard to change that, but eight years after they began an effort to amend the state constitution and give them credit for those lost years is stalled in the Legislature.

The Georgia Constitution prohibits the state from extending new benefits to public employees after they have retired.

Exhibit Preserves Pursuit Of Liberty - washingtonpost.com

Exhibit Preserves Pursuit Of Liberty - washingtonpost.com: An exhibit of hundreds of rare artifacts unearthed in Annapolis over the past 27 years shows that the quest for freedom by African Americans is as much a part of the city's history as the fight for liberty by the wealthy property owners who rebelled against the British.

A central theme of the exhibit, which opens Tuesday, is 'the quest of African Americans to create and preserve their integrity and to establish their freedom in a slave society,' said Mark Leone, a University of Maryland anthropology professor who directs the Archaeology in Annapolis project, a partnership that, through the years, has involved the university, the city's Banneker-Douglass Museum, the City of Annapolis and the Historic Annapolis Foundation.

The items, which the project has discovered in about 40 digs since 1981 with more than 350 students, professors and others at the university, will be on public display together for the first time in 'Seeking Liberty: Annapolis, an Imagined Community' at the museum. The exhibit will be the largest archaeological display ever at the museum, the state's official repository for African American material culture.

Free Lunch Isn’t Cool, So Some Students Go Hungry - New York Times

Free Lunch Isn’t Cool, So Some Students Go Hungry - New York Times: ... San Francisco school officials are looking at ways to encourage more poor students to accept government-financed meals, including the possibility of introducing cashless cafeterias where all students are offered the same food choices and use debit cards or punch in codes on a keypad so that all students check out at the cashier in the same manner.

Only 37 percent of eligible high school students citywide take advantage of the subsidized meal program. But the stigma of accepting a government lunch, while others are paying for food from a different menu, is not unique to San Francisco. It is a problem many school districts across the country have been quietly confronting with mixed results, education and school nutrition officials said.

Goals for black America not met - USATODAY.com

Goals for black America not met - USATODAY.com: The USA has made great strides in the past four decades toward expanding a black middle class and producing black political leaders, including the first viable candidate for president. Yet blacks still lag behind whites significantly in income, education and other measures of well-being, a study out today concludes.

Forty years after the Kerner Commission warned of a country heading toward 'two societies, one black, one white — separate and unequal,' the Eisenhower Foundation, a private urban-policy institute, finds the country has failed to meet the goals laid out by the presidential commission.

Whites tricked blacks into consuming urine, university says - CNN.com

Whites tricked blacks into consuming urine, university says - CNN.com: JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) -- White students at a South African university tricked black residence hall workers into eating stew containing urine, prompting a march Wednesday in which five people were arrested, university officials said.

The white students made a video of the incident, which they staged in reaction to the university's efforts to integrate its residences, according to a statement from the University of the Free State.

The protesters on Wednesday included black and white students who later marched to the residence where the video was made and demanded that it be shut down, witnesses said.

The video surfaced on Tuesday but was made in September, the university said.

In the video, white male students at Reitz Residence are seen encouraging at least three black female housekeepers to participate in what the students call the "Reitz Fear Factor," an apparent reference to the television show in which contestants eat live worms or compete in other feats.

Civil Rights Icon Johnnie Carr Dies - TIME

Civil Rights Icon Johnnie Carr Dies - TIME: (Montgomery, Ala.) — Johnnie Carr, who joined childhood friend Rosa Parks in the historic Montgomery bus boycott and kept a busy schedule of civil rights activism up to her final days, has died. She was 97.

Carr died Friday night, said Baptist Health hospital spokeswoman Melody Ragland. She had been hospitalized after a stroke Feb. 11.

Carr succeeded the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association in 1967, a post she held at her death. It was the newly formed association that led the boycott of city buses in the Alabama capital in 1955 after Parks, a black seamstress, was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to whites on a crowded bus.

A year later the U.S. Supreme Court struck down racial segregation on public transportation.

For Muslim Students, a Debate on Inclusion - New York Times

For Muslim Students, a Debate on Inclusion - New York Times: ... The intense debate over whether organizations for Muslim students should be inclusive or strict is playing out on college campuses across the United States, where there are now more than 200 Muslim Students Association chapters.

Gender issues, specifically the extent to which men and women should mingle, are the most fraught topic as Muslim students wrestle with the yawning gap between American college traditions and those of Islam.

“There is this constant tension between becoming a mainstream student organization versus appealing to students who have a more conservative or stricter interpretation of Islam,” said Hadia Mubarak, the first woman to serve as president of the national association, from 2004 to 2005.

Hate Mail Sent to Blacks at Prep School Is Investigated - New York Times

Hate Mail Sent to Blacks at Prep School Is Investigated - New York Times: CONCORD, N.H. — A police investigation is under way at an elite prep school here after many black students received anonymous letters that the head of the school described as “threatening hate mail.”

A spokeswoman for the school, St. Paul’s, said the letters had arrived in the students’ mailboxes on Tuesday. The spokeswoman, Jana Brown, would not disclose the contents of the letters or how many students received them, but said, “Students of color do appear to be the target.”

According to several people associated with St. Paul’s, each student received a copy of his own photo from the school’s internal face book with the words “bang bang get out of here” written below. They said the letters, sent through the Postal Service, were postmarked from nearby Manchester, N.H.

Students to Study University of Maryland’s Ties To Slavery

Students to Study University of Maryland’s Ties To Slavery: The University of Maryland, College Park is the latest institution of higher education to announce plans to examine its ties to slavery, this time doing so with the help of students in a research course.

Next fall, Dr. Ira Berlin, Distinguished University Professor of U.S. history, African-American history and slavery, will lead a group of students in a two-semester research course, “Knowing Our History: African-American slavery in the University of Maryland.”

The first semester will focus on the history of slavery and training about 30 students to be “good historians of slavery,” says Berlin, adding that the second semester will “focus our skills and knowledge on our own backyard” by delving into UMD’s role in the slave trade.

The founder of UMD, Charles B. Calvert, was a slave owner and the university’s grounds were a part of his estate. The goal of the course is to find out what happened on UMD’s campus in relation to American slavery.

Suffering the Borrowing Blues

Suffering the Borrowing Blues: Low-income students and students of color may have a harder time getting some college loans because of an ongoing credit crunch and tighter underwriting rules in the industry.

While the trend may not affect federally guaranteed loans, usually the first line of credit for college students, it likely will have an impact on the fast-growing private loan market that serves low-income students once they reach federal lending limits, analysts say.

The trend became clearer in mid-January when loan giant Sallie Mae announced plans to cut back on private loans to students attending postsecondary institutions with low rates of student success.

“We’re not going to lend at schools with poor graduation rates,” Tom Joyce, a Sallie Mae spokesman, tells Diverse. “We will do less private lending at these schools.”

Joyce says this move is most likely to affect proprietary schools and not institutions like historically Black and Hispanic-serving institutions that enroll a large number of low-income students.

Higher Education Gap May Slow Economic Mobility - New York Times

Higher Education Gap May Slow Economic Mobility - New York Times: Economic mobility, the chance that children of the poor or middle class will climb up the income ladder, has not changed significantly over the last three decades, a study being released on Wednesday says.

The authors of the study, by scholars at the Brookings Institution in Washington and sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts, warned that widening gaps in higher education between rich and poor, whites and minorities, could soon lead to a downturn in opportunities for the poorest families.

The researchers found that Hispanic and black Americans were falling behind whites and Asians in earning college degrees, making it harder for them to enter the middle class or higher.

“A growing difference in education levels between income and racial groups, especially in college degrees, implies that mobility will be lower in the future than it is today,” said Ron Haskins, a former Republican official and welfare expert who wrote the education section of the report.

Affirmative Action Bans Hurt Male Student Enrollment

Affirmative Action Bans Hurt Male Student Enrollment: According to a new study, released by the University of California, Los Angeles, (UCLA), college admission rates of Asian American students at select public universities have thrived in the absence of affirmative action, whereas the admission rates of Black, Hispanic and White students have declined.

In a review of enrollment statistics from three states where affirmative action bans are in effect — California, Florida and Texas — the report also revealed that across all races, the male population drops in schools with blind admissions processes. Researchers examined admissions at five select institutions — the University of California, Berkeley; UCLA, the University of California, San Diego; the University of Florida; and the University of Texas at Austin.

James Orange, civil rights activist, dies at 65 - CNN.com

James Orange, civil rights activist, dies at 65 - CNN.com: ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- The Rev. James Orange, a civil rights activist whose 1965 jailing sparked a fatal protest that ultimately led to the famed Selma-to-Montgomery march and the Voting Rights Act, died Saturday at Atlanta's Crawford Long Hospital, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference said in a statement. He was 65.

Orange was a native of Birmingham, Alabama, 'who resided in southwest Atlanta for four decades while fighting the good fight for equality and social justice for all mankind,' said the SCLC, a civil rights organization.

Orange was arrested and jailed in Perry County, Alabama, in 1965 on charges of disorderly conduct and contributing to the delinquency of minors for enlisting students to aid in voting rights drives.

Transition to digital hits Hispanics hardest - HDTV- msnbc.com

Transition to digital hits Hispanics hardest - HDTV- msnbc.com: WASHINGTON - Hispanics are nearly twice as likely as whites to be left without television service following the nationwide transition to digital broadcasting next year, according to a new survey.

Beginning in February 2009, full-power broadcast stations will transmit digital-only signals, meaning people who get their television programming over an antenna and do not have a digital set won't get a picture without a special converter box.

The Nielsen Co. survey released Friday estimates that more than 13 million households in the U.S. receive television programming over the air on non-digital sets, meaning they will need converter boxes. Another 6 million households contain at least one television that fits that description.

Nielsen researchers found that 10.1 percent of all households would have no access to television signals if the transition occurred today. Broken down by race, 8.8 percent of whites would be unready; 11.7 percent of Asians; 12.4 percent of blacks; and 17.3 percent of Hispanics.

By age, of those 35 and younger, 12.3 percent rely solely on over-the-air broadcasts. Of those age 55 and older, 9.4 percent fall into that category.

The survey noted that 16.8 percent of all households have at least one analog television set that would not work after the switch.

In Some States AP Course Access and Scores Improve for Hispanics, But Not Blacks

In Some States AP Course Access and Scores Improve for Hispanics, But Not Blacks: Despite the strides made by educators and school districts to provide underrepresented students access to Advanced Placement courses, known predictors of college success, African-Americans lag behind their White counterparts in AP course enrollment and success, the College Board reveals in its annual AP Report to the Nation.

While there are more minority students entering AP classrooms, significant gaps in equity and excellence remain, the College Board reports.

“An analysis of the students sitting in the AP classrooms compared to students sitting in non-AP classrooms reveals a true and startling lack of equity,” says Trevor Packer, vice president of the AP program at the College Board. “We can see that African-American students, in particular, are not receiving the encouragement and support to enroll in AP classes.”

According to the report, Black students comprise just 7.4 percent of students who participate in taking AP tests, even though they account for 14 percent of all students at their high schools. There was little discrepancy between AP exam enrollment rates and overall enrollment rates for Hispanic and White students, while Asian American students represented a disproportionately higher number of AP exam enrollees.

Study: Hispanic Freshman Want ‘Helicopter Parents’

The conventional wisdom has it that so-called helicopter parents are annoying their children by hovering over their every move as they apply to college. But it turns out most freshmen are happy with how involved mom and dad were during their college search.

In fact, new survey data suggest that the bigger problem may be the opposite — parents sometimes aren't as attentive as their children would like.

That's especially true for Hispanic students, who were much more likely than Whites to say their parents weren't involved enough in areas like helping them apply to college and helping them choose classes once they got there.

The figures, from a major survey of college freshman out from University of California-Los Angeles, are part of an emerging body of research on what has largely been an anecdotal trend: the idea that parents have become much more involved in the lives of their teenage children, perhaps unhealthily so.

Just the Stats:Older population to Grow Faster Than Total of Working-age Adults

Rapid growth in the nation's older population is likely to put huge pressure on the cost of government safety-net programs, even though the rise of immigrants is helping to increase the total of working-age people, a report from the Pew Hispanic Center said.

Most of the overall population growth, 82 percent, will be the result of immigrants arriving between 2005 and 2050, as well as their children and grandchildren.

Other findings include:

• The number of working-age adults, ages 18 to 64, will rise from 186 million three years ago to 255 million in 2050.
  
• Foreignborn adults will account for 23 percent of the population in 2050, while non-Hispanic Whites drop from 68 percent to 45 percent of the group.
  
• The nation's population of seniors, those 65 and over, will more than double in size to 81 million by 2050. The last of the baby-boom generation will reach 65 in 2029. That combination will add up to 32 seniors for every 100 working-age adults, up from 20 in 2005. For every 100 working-age adults in 2050, 72 people will be either seniors or young children, , up from 59 in 2005.
  
• Pew researchers project that by 2050, the nation's population will total about 438 million, as long as today's immigration, fertility and other population trends continue.

Hispanic Seniors Encouraged to Apply for Heritage Awards by March 14

High school seniors across the nation are being urged to apply for the Hispanic Heritage Foundation's (HHF) Youth Awards, which honor academically successful students. The deadline is March 14.

Young Latino leaders at a regional and national level can compete for the educational grants ranging from $1,000 to $8,000. HHF is a nonprofit organization that works to identify, inspire, promote and prepare Latino role models through national leadership, cultural, educational and workforce programs.


In 2007, more than $650,000 in Youth Awards was given to nearly 300 young leaders, according to HHF.

Application information is available at youthawards.hispanicheritage.org

Assessing Attitudes

Assessing Attitudes: Assessing Attitudes
Pew survey highlights Black perceptions of a deepening social split between poor and middle-class Blacks.

By Ronald Roach

Typically, the period between the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in mid-January and the end of Black History Month in February sees serious and sober public discussions about the state of Black America. Those discussions have heated up earlier than expected due to the November release of a national survey on Black social progress by the influential Washington-based Pew Research Center entitled “Blacks See Growing Values Gap Between Poor and Middle Class: Optimism About Black Progress Declines.” The survey highlights Black perceptions of a deepening social split between poor and middle-class African-Americans.

To many observers, the survey confirms unsurprisingly that Black optimism about racial progress in the United States is at the lowest level it’s been in more than two decades. It revealed that one in five African-Americans, or 20 percent, said Blacks fare better now than compared with five years ago; that is the lowest percentage since 1983, when the Pew Research Center found that only 20 percent also claimed improvement in their lives. In 1999, 32 percent of Black respondents reported they believed Blacks were better off compared to five years prior, according to the Pew Research Center.

Australia apologizes to Aborigines - USATODAY.com

Australia apologizes to Aborigines - USATODAY.com: CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia apologized Wednesday to its indigenous people for past treatment that 'inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss,' in a historic parliamentary vote that supporters said would open a new chapter in race relations in the country.

Lawmakers unanimously adopted Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's motion to say sorry of behalf of all Australians in an emotional session of the federal Parliament that was telecast across the country and watched by crowds gathered giant screens set up in cities, students in school halls, and people huddled around televisions in remote Outback communities.

U.S. Latino Population Projected To Soar - washingtonpost.com

U.S. Latino Population Projected To Soar - washingtonpost.com: The number of Hispanics in the United States will triple by 2050 and represent nearly 30 percent of the population if current trends continue, according to a report released yesterday.

The study by the nonpartisan, Washington-based Pew Research Center also found that nearly one in five Americans will be foreign-born in 2050, compared with about one in eight today. Asian Americans, representing 5 percent of the population today, are expected to boost their share to 9 percent.

Blacks are projected to maintain their current 13 percent share. Non-Hispanic whites will still be the nation's largest group, the report says, but would drop from 67 percent of U.S. residents to 47 percent.

Overall, by 2050 the U.S. population is projected to increase by 47 percent, from 296 million in 2005 to 438 million. Newly arriving immigrants would account for 47 percent of the rise, and their U.S.-born children and grandchildren would represent another 35 percent.

Catching Up to the Boys, in the Good and the Bad - washingtonpost.com

Catching Up to the Boys, in the Good and the Bad - washingtonpost.com: ... A generation of parents and educators have pushed to ensure that girls have the same opportunities as their male counterparts, with notable results. In 2007, for example, it was girls who dominated the national math and science competition sponsored by Siemens. But a growing number of reports show that the message of equality might have a downside.

Teenage girls now equal or outpace teenage boys in alcohol consumption, drug use and smoking, national surveys show. The number of girls entering the juvenile justice system has risen steadily over the past few years. A 2006 study that examined accident rates among young drivers noted that although boys get into more car accidents, girls are slowly beginning to close the gap.

Chinese New Year 2008: Kids' Activities, Crafts, and History for the Chinese Lunar Year of the Rat - Kaboose.com

Chinese New Year 2008: Kids' Activities, Crafts, and History for the Chinese Lunar Year of the Rat - Kaboose.com: February 7, 2008 marks the start of the Year of the Rat on the Chinese Lunar Calendar. Celebrate the Chinese New Year holiday with great kids' activites and crafts. Also learn about the history and meaning behind Chinese New Year symbols.

Black History Month 2008 :: University Communications Newsdesk, University of Maryland

Black History Month 2008 :: University Communications Newsdesk, University of Maryland: The University of Maryland has faculty experts who can talk about Black History Month issues that range from the African Diaspora to minority education issues, and make them relevant to your audiences.

A listing of experts by category are on the site- or you can see the Black History Month 'Hot Topic' list (in alphabetical order).

Please feel free to contact each expert directly.

High schoolers name women, black Americans 'most famous' - USATODAY.com

High schoolers name women, black Americans 'most famous' - USATODAY.com: Asked to name the most famous Americans in history, high school students put 20th-century black Americans in the top three slots. Here are the top 10, with the percentage who chose each:

1. Martin Luther King Jr.: 67%

2. Rosa Parks: 60%

3. Harriet Tubman: 44%

4. Susan B. Anthony: 34%

5.Benjamin Franklin: 29%

6. Amelia Earhart: 25%

7. Oprah Winfrey: 22%

8. Marilyn Monroe: 19%

9. Thomas Edison: 18%

10. Albert Einstein: 16%

Diversity Rule Goes to College - washingtonpost.com

Diversity Rule Goes to College - washingtonpost.com: A version of the minority-interviewing rule that was the catalyst for the NFL to diversify its head coaching ranks has been adopted by major college football.

A written policy stipulating that any division I-A football program with a head coaching vacancy will interview at least one minority candidate was sent just more than three weeks ago to athletic directors at the 120 schools. The two-page document details what it calls 'acceptable standards' regarding diversity in interviewing and hiring practices, and was distributed by the Division I-A Athletic Directors' Association.

Racial harassment cases rise sharply - USATODAY.com

Racial harassment cases rise sharply - USATODAY.com: Cases of racial harassment filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission increased 24% last year, a time of racial turmoil that included the Jena Six controversy and an outbreak of noose displays.

At the same time, state and city lawmakers have stepped up efforts to make it a crime to intimidate someone with a noose. And the Justice Department, which set up a network to link investigators reviewing noose incidents, has indicted a Louisiana teen on hate crime charges for dangling a noose from his pickup and driving past demonstrators after a protest in Jena, La., in September.

'Nooses are more prevalent,' says EEOC chair Naomi Earp. 'The noose has replaced the N-word … as the choice if you want to threaten or intimidate someone.'

NPR: The Woolworth Sit-In That Launched a Movement

NPR: The Woolworth Sit-In That Launched a Movement: On Feb. 1, 1960, four students from all-black North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College walked into a Woolworth five-and-dime with the intention of ordering lunch.

But the manager of the Greensboro Woolworth had intentions of his own — to maintain the lunch counter's strict whites-only policy.

Franklin McCain was one of the four young men who shoved history forward by refusing to budge.

McCain remembers the anxiety he felt when he went to the store that Monday afternoon, the plan he and his friends had devised to launch their protest and how he felt when he sat down on that stool.

'Fifteen seconds after … I had the most wonderful feeling. I had a feeling of liberation, restored manhood. I had a natural high. And I truly felt almost invincible. Mind you, [I was] just sitting on a dumb stool and not having asked for service yet,' McCain says.