NPR : African-American Homeschoolers on the Rise

NPR : African-American Homeschoolers on the Rise: Homeschooling is one of the fastest growing forms of education, expanding about 10 percent per year. Until recently, African Americans have made up only a tiny percentage of homeschoolers. But researchers say they are now the fastest growing minority in the homeschool movement.

Schools can't be colorblind - Los Angeles Times

Schools can't be colorblind - Los Angeles Times: The achievement gap between African American and Latino students and their white peers is stark and persistent. It has existed for decades, and it's growing more pronounced. The data refute what would be reassuring explanations. The gaps in reading and math test scores are not due to income disparities, nor are they attributable to parents' educational levels. The simple fact is that most black and brown children do not do as well in school as most whites.

The data also show, however, that African American and Latino children are excelling in schools scattered throughout California and the nation, suggesting that the achievement gap is not intractable. Rather, there is a profound disconnect between what we say are high expectations for children of color and the quality of education delivered to them in the classroom.

All of which leads to an uncomfortable but important conclusion: If a less-stratified society is desirable, we must be prepared to design educational programs that explicitly take race into account, that address African American and Latino students specifically and that openly recognize that we are not a single society when it comes to the needs of our children."

Club expands formula getting girls in science - The Boston Globe

Club expands formula getting girls in science - The Boston Globe: A long-running program that has boosted the academic confidence of young girls and women in Cambridge for 13 years has expanded to Boston and Lawrence this fall.

The Science Club for Girls, cofounded by Cambridge resident and mathematician Beth O'Sullivan, has been part of the after-school scene at five Cambridge elementary schools since the 1990s. This fall it debuts at the Tobin School in Boston's Mission Hill neighborhood.

About 25 girls there in grades 1 to 3 will soon be dissecting cow hearts and drawing life-size human anatomy maps, said executive director Connie Chow, who helped develop the curriculum. One new grade will be added each year.

"We're starting at a very young age," said Chow, "because we want to nurture the natural curiosity children have for the world around us. Our criteria is that a program has to be in an area that's accessible for volunteers because we're so volunteer-dependent, and it has to target groups that are underrepresented."

She said that women in general, but particularly women of color, remain underrepresented in the sciences.

"From 2001 to 2007, the number of women graduating with engineering degrees declined," Chow said. She said she hopes female scientists from the Longwood area's colleges, graduate schools, and hospitals will volunteer for the program.

NPR: Black Students Suspended in Greater Numbers

NPR: Black Students Suspended in Greater Numbers: Chicago Tribune: School Discipline Tougher on African Americans -- 'In every state but Idaho, a Tribune analysis of the data shows, black students are being suspended in numbers greater than would be expected from their proportion of the student population. In 21 states, that disproportionality is so pronounced that the percentage of black suspensions is more than double their percentage of the student body.'

$17.2 Million Awarded in Grants to Help Hispanic-Serving Institutions

$17.2 Million Awarded in Grants to Help Hispanic-Serving Institutions: U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings today announced the award of 30 new grants totaling $17.2 million to benefit colleges and other postsecondary schools that enroll a high percentage of Hispanic students.

'Thanks to No Child Left Behind, the achievement gap is closing for Hispanic students and academic progress is on the rise,' Spellings said. 'At the higher education level it's a different story where Hispanic students still lag behind their peers in earning a post-secondary credential. This program will ensure that Hispanic students have access to quality programs at the higher education level to improve their opportunities for success beyond school.'

Grants are awarded under the Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions program to expand educational opportunities and improve the educational attainment of Hispanic students. The purpose of the grants is to improve the academic quality, institutional stability, management, and fiscal capabilities of eligible institutions. Funds may be used for a variety of activities, such as: faculty development, curriculum development, scientific or laboratory equipment, construction and renovation of instructional facilities, academic tutoring, counseling and student support services.

Black History Museum Debuts Online - washingtonpost.com

Black History Museum Debuts Online - washingtonpost.com: Though its physical construction is years away, the National Museum of African American History and Culture today is inaugurating an online spot where visitors can help shape its content.

One feature of the Web site, named after the museum, is a Memory Book, where people can submit a story, photograph or audio recording that tells something about themselves or a moment in African American history.

Other components give a broad look at things the museum is likely to include, such as highlights of the museum's first exhibition, 100 portraits from the National Portrait Gallery and the International Center of Photography, to open at the National Portrait Gallery next month. The museum has also posted recordings of actor and singer Paul Robeson and activist Angela Davis. The recordings are from the archives of the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.

Colleges and Universities - Education and Schools - Admissions and Testing - Affirmative Action - Discrimination - New York Times

Colleges and Universities - Education and Schools - Admissions and Testing - Affirmative Action - Discrimination - New York Times: ...Ten or 20 years ago, Frances Harris almost certainly would have been admitted. Her excellent grades might not have even been necessary, because Berkeley and U.C.L.A. — the jewels in the U.C. system — accepted almost all of the African-Americans who met the basic application requirements. To an admissions officer, Harris would have seemed like gold: diversity and achievement, wrapped up in a single kid.

But in the early 1990s, the elite campuses began to pull back from their aggressive affirmative-action policies, and in 1996, California voters passed the California Civil Rights Initiative, also known as Proposition 209. After that, race could no longer be a factor in government hiring or public-university admissions. The number of black students at both Berkeley and U.C.L.A. plummeted, and at U.C.L.A. the declines continued throughout the next decade.

New Test Asks: What Does ‘American’ Mean? - New York Times

New Test Asks: What Does ‘American’ Mean? - New York Times: ...Federal immigration authorities yesterday unveiled 100 new questions immigrants will have to study to pass a civics test to become naturalized American citizens.

The redesign of the test, the first since it was created in 1986 as a standardized examination, follows years of criticism in which conservatives said the test was too easy and immigrant advocates said it was too hard.

The new questions did little to quell that debate among many immigrant groups, who complained that the citizenship test would become even more daunting. Conservatives seemed to be more satisfied."

Growing number of complaints allege unfair treatment in housing market - USATODAY.com

Growing number of complaints allege unfair treatment in housing market - USATODAY.com: WASHINGTON — Nearly 40 years after a national law banned housing discrimination, an increasing number of complaints are alleging unfair treatment of minorities, the disabled, families and other groups.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development and housing assistance agencies logged 10,328 complaints last year, a 12% jump from 2005. That's the highest number since HUD started keeping track in 1990, when it included complaints from the disabled and families with children.

'Some people want to say these are things that happened in the old days,' said Kim Kendrick, assistant secretary for HUD's Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. 'It doesn't happen in the old days. It happens today.'

A Gannett News Service analysis of 44,000 housing discrimination complaints filed between 2002 and 2006 with HUD and its contract agencies shows allegations of unfair treatment are widely dispersed across the nation."

College Aid Bill Signed- USATODAY.com

Bush signs college aid bill - USATODAY.com: The new student loan law signed by President Bush on Thursday would provide roughly $20 billion for financial assistance to college students. A look at the benefits:
• The maximum annual Pell Grant in the 2008-2009 school year will go up $490 to $4,800. The scholarship, which goes to the poorest students, will reach its maximum value of $5,400 per year by 2012-2013.

• Interest rates on federally subsidized loans will begin to decrease in July, when the interest rate will drop from 6.8% to 6%. Interest rates will be reduced by half, to 3.4%, by July 1, 2011.

• Annual payments for students will be capped at a percentage of their income to prevent people in low-paying jobs from having to pay back more than they can afford. Borrowers with new and existing loans will be eligible to enter into income-based repayment starting July 1, 2009.

• Undergraduate and graduate students who commit to teaching in public schools can receive tuition assistance of $4,000 each year, starting in the 2008-2009 school year.

• Public service workers, such as nurses or firefighters, will receive loan forgiveness after 10 years of service and loan payments. People will be able to take advantage of this beginning Oct.1.

Colleges See Flare In Racial Incidents

A couple of weeks into classes at the University of Maryland, a rope tied into what looked like a noose was found hanging outside the campus's African American cultural center. Campus police reports this month included two incidents of racially disparaging remarks, one written on a workstation and one on a bathroom stall in the student union.

This weekend, a swastika was spray-painted onto the car of a member of the Kappa Alpha fraternity, which one member described as a Christian fraternity.

It's not the only campus that has seen intolerance. A Maryland congressman is asking for an investigation into nooses left among the personal effects of a black cadet at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and on the office floor of a staff member doing racial sensitivity training after the initial incident.

This month, more than 200 students at the University of Virginia protested cartoons depicting starving Ethiopians and a slave that ran in the student paper.

Because so many colleges are more racially and culturally diverse than ever, with students hanging out, dating and studying together, such incidents have left many wondering: What's going on?

Field Notes - msnbc.com

Field Notes - msnbc.com: LITTLE ROCK, Ark.-- Tuesday marks the 50th anniversary of the start of desegregation of public schools in the South. Ordered into Arkansas by President Eisenhower, the 101st Airborne escorted the Little Rock Nine into Central High School in the first federal enforcement action of the historic Brown v. Board of education ruling.

The nine students of the class of 1957 bravely endured a mob to enter a high school that today is recognized as one of the best schools in the nation. Nine current seniors at Central High join NBC News to reflect on the legacy of that historic day in 1957.

Illegal drug use rising among Hispanic teens - Addictions - MSNBC.com

Illegal drug use rising among Hispanic teens - Addictions - MSNBC.com: NEW YORK - Hispanic teenagers used illegal drugs at greater rates than white and black teenagers, according to a report released Monday by a White House drug control policy office.

The report, 'Hispanic Teens & Drugs,' warned that while overall illegal drug use among U.S. teens was down, Hispanic teens' use of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine outpaced use by their white and black peers. The report blamed drug use among Hispanic teens, in part, on their adaptation to new culture in America.

Eighth-Grade and Fourth-Grade Math Scores Rise in Area and Nation - washingtonpost.com

Eighth-Grade and Fourth-Grade Math Scores Rise in Area and Nation - washingtonpost.com: The nation's fourth- and eighth-graders continue to improve steadily in mathematics, and fourth-grade reading achievement is also on the rise, according to test scores released this morning. But progress in narrowing racial and ethnic performance gaps remains slow and in some cases has stalled.

This year's scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress showed non-Hispanic white students well ahead of black and Hispanic students in reading and math. In addition, eighth-grade reading scores remained about the same as they were in 1998, confirming the belief of many educators that middle schools need improvement.

Tennessee Universities Take Steps to Recruit More Hispanics

Tennessee Universities Take Steps to Recruit More Hispanics: NASHVILLE, Tenn. Universities across Tennessee are taking steps to recruit more Hispanics to diversify their student bodies, officials say.

A recent study shows nearly half of Hispanic undergraduates attend about eight percent of universities in the United States.

The study, conducted by Washington-based Excelencia in Education, a Hispanic issues think tank, found that Hispanic undergraduates are concentrated in the country’s universities where at least 25 percent of undergraduates are Hispanic.

None of those institutions are in Tennessee.

To remedy that, university officials have hired Hispanic advisers, increased visibility in the Hispanic community and begun contacting prospective students earlier in their careers, even before they reach high school.

Little Rock Nine mark 50th anniversary - CNN.com

Little Rock Nine mark 50th anniversary - CNN.com: LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) -- Fifty years after federal troops escorted Terrence Roberts and eight fellow black students into an all-white high school, he says the struggles over race and segregation still are unresolved.

"This country has demonstrated over time that it is not prepared to operate as an integrated society," said Roberts, who is a faculty member at Antioch University's psychology program.

He and the other students known as the Little Rock Nine will help the city observe Central High School's 50th anniversary this week with a series of events culminating with a ceremony featuring former President Bill Clinton.

For three weeks in September 1957, Little Rock was the focus of a showdown over integration as Gov. Orval Faubus blocked nine black students from enrolling at a high school with about 2,000 white students. Although the U.S. Supreme Court had declared segregated classrooms unconstitutional in 1954 -- and the Little Rock School Board had voted to integrate -- Faubus said he feared violence if the races mixed in a public school.

It's the Same Old Story in Jena Today - washingtonpost.com

It's the Same Old Story in Jena Today - washingtonpost.com: Fifty years ago today, nine African American teenagers in Little Rock were escorted into Central High School by National Guardsmen while an angry white mob hurled racial epithets.

Last week, thousands of marchers protested the plight of six young African American high school students charged with attempted murder in the beating of a white classmate in Jena, La. They were treated much more harshly than white teenagers who beat up a black student in the town.

The two cases are divided by context, circumstances and 50 years, but at the heart of the conflicts is a fight over something as fundamental as space in a toxic racial climate. In 1957, the contested space was a white school that was formally placed off limits to black students. In Jena, it was the "white tree," a privileged spot of shade from the hot Louisiana sun. It seemed to have been reserved for white use only and it was part of the series of events that led to the Jena controversy.

Ken Burns still fighting ‘War’ over inclusion - Celebrity News - MSNBC.com

Ken Burns still fighting ‘War’ over inclusion - Celebrity News - MSNBC.com: Last spring, several major Latino organizations, along with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, declared war on Ken Burns’ 15-hour interpretation of World War II. The groups were offended because “The War,” a seven-part series apparently had excluded the Latino experience from what is truly a riveting and compelling documentary on the war that forever changed the world.

Letters were sent, meetings were held and the next thing you knew, the acclaimed documentarian was back in the editing room adding 28 minutes of footage. The new additions included not only two Latino WWII veterans, but a Native American who served as well.

Dr. Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, director of the U.S. Latino & Latina WWII Oral History Project and co-chair of the DOH group, has done extensive research into the Latino contributions in WWII and is concerned that the added stories aren’t fully flushed out. When you compare them to the more extensive segments featuring white, African-American and Japanese-American veterans, she’s right.

Desegregation Stamp to Be Issued - washingtonpost.com

Desegregation Stamp to Be Issued - washingtonpost.com: WASHINGTON -- A 1946 court ruling that helped pave the way for the nation's school desegregation will be commemorated Friday with a new U.S. postage stamp. 'This stamp captures the vision and inspiration of a group of parents who fought the odds to make a difference for all Americans,' Thurgood Marshall, Jr., a member of the U.S. Postal Service's board of governors, said in a statement.

To Africa, For Culture and Credits - washingtonpost.com

To Africa, For Culture and Credits - washingtonpost.com: ...Immigrants' journeys to America have long been inspired by educational opportunities for children. But unlike previous generations of immigrants, who often encouraged their kids' full assimilation, today's newcomers strive and sometimes struggle to transmit traditions to children submerged in a high-speed, diverse American culture. For some Africans, many of whom came to the United States for higher education, the answer is full immersion -- in Africa. A few years abroad, immigrant parents say, teaches children about Africa and, even better, some perspective about life in America.

For HBCU Students, Jena Is The Civil Rights Movement of Their Generation

For HBCU Students, Jena Is The Civil Rights Movement of Their Generation: North Carolina Central University law student Quinn Byars had heard all the talk about being part of history for making the trek to Jena, La., with thousands of other protestors Thursday. But college students like Byars believe they’ve made a much bigger statement to the world. “For our generation it’s so important because we don’t really get the opportunity to come together like this,” says Byars during Thursday’s rally in Jena. “It gives us an opportunity to come together to make noise and come together on an issue.”

To take a stand against injustice, specifically the excessive charges leveled against the six young Black male high school students in the small Louisiana town for injuries suffered by a White male student in a school fight, is what brought thousands to town to demand justice for the group dubbed the “Jena 6.”

Jena is a rural, central Louisiana town of nearly 3,000 residents (85 percent White) surrounded by acres of cotton fields and small two-lane highways. It’s also a town that historically has had tense race relations, where Whites live on their side of town and Blacks on theirs. Rarely do the two meet."

CNN.com - Send an I-Report

CNN.com - Send an I-Report: Hispanic Heritage Month begins September 15 and ends October 15. Share your thoughts and memories with CNN. Today, the Hispanic community is one of the fastest-growing groups in the United States. Its growing influence is changing the social, cultural and political landscape of the country. What does it mean to be Hispanic in America? Grab your video camera and talk to us about your family and your community. Open up your photo album and share memories. What role does politics play and how do you see this changing over time? What are some of the challenges and sources of pride in the Hispanic community? Give us a peek at your parents' and grandparents' point of view. What traditions and ideas became formative experiences when you were growing up? Did you ever feel different from others, or was it no trouble at all? Tell us how you've overcome any challenges you've faced. We're looking to feature your videos and stories.

NPR : What's the Impact of School Segregation?

NPR : What's the Impact of School Segregation?: News & Notes, September 20, 2007 Annie Wimbish, a school superintendent in Hattiesburg, Miss., and educator Jonathan Kozol are both long-time educators who work with children in public schools. They talk with Farai Chideya about the current trend of re-segregation in public schools. Kozol's latest book is titled 'Letters to a Young Teacher.'

NPR : Crimes Against Race: Hate or Ignorance?

NPR : Crimes Against Race: Hate or Ignorance?: Tell Me More, September 19, 2007 Reports of racial hate crimes have made national headlines in recent weeks. But some are beginning to wonder whether younger perpetrators of these crimes truly commit these acts solely based on malice, or hate, or out of ignorance. Reformed skinheads T.J. Leyden and Angela King are joined by sociologist Randy Blazak to explain potential thought patterns behind symbols of racial hatred.

A Light on Slaves' Lives - washingtonpost.com

A Light on Slaves' Lives - washingtonpost.com: ...Yesterday, Mount Vernon unveiled its highest-profile slavery exhibit in years, a 16-by-14-foot log cabin modeled on the field hands' quarters on Washington's vast estate along the Potomac River. The exhibit is the first to show how the majority of Washington's slaves lived, Mount Vernon officials said. In recent years, Mount Vernon -- the most visited historic home in the country -- has undertaken a pricey effort to renew interest in the life of the nation's first president, culminating with the opening of a $110 million orientation and museum center last year. Yet officials say visitors have always craved more information about slavery, one of the most troubling aspects of the life of the war hero, president and statesman.

Alabama Plan Brings Out Cry of Resegregation - New York Times

Alabama Plan Brings Out Cry of Resegregation - New York Times: TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — After white parents in this racially mixed city complained about school overcrowding, school authorities set out to draw up a sweeping rezoning plan. The results: all but a handful of the hundreds of students required to move this fall were black — and many were sent to virtually all-black, low-performing schools.

Black parents have been battling the rezoning for weeks, calling it resegregation. And in a new twist for an integration fight, they are wielding an unusual weapon: the federal No Child Left Behind law, which gives students in schools deemed failing the right to move to better ones.

“We’re talking about moving children from good schools into low-performing ones, and that’s illegal,” said Kendra Williams, a hospital receptionist, whose two children were rezoned. “And it’s all about race. It’s as clear as daylight.”

Tuscaloosa, where George Wallace once stood defiantly in the schoolhouse door to keep blacks out of the University of Alabama, also has had a volatile history in its public schools. Three decades of federal desegregation marked by busing and white flight ended in 2000. Though the city is 54 percent white, its school system is 75 percent black.

The schools superintendent and board president, both white, said in an interview that the rezoning, which redrew boundaries of school attendance zones, was a color-blind effort to reorganize the 10,000-student district around community schools and relieve overcrowding. By optimizing use of the city’s 19 school buildings, the district saved taxpayers millions, officials said. They also acknowledged another goal: to draw more whites back into Tuscaloosa’s schools by making them attractive to parents of 1,500 children attending private academies founded after court-ordered desegregation began.

Report Blames Supreme Court For Re-segregation Of Schools

Report Blames Supreme Court For Re-segregation Of Schools: Resegregation in American public schools has intensified over the last two decades, particularly in the American South, and the U.S. Supreme Court is largely responsible for this trend. Those are the findings in a new report released by the Civil Rights Projects, which is headquartered at the University of California, Los Angeles.

In “Historic Reversals, Accelerating Resegregation, and the Need for New Integration Strategies,” authored by Dr. Gary Orfield and Chungmei Lee, the scholars argue that since 1991, the U.S. Supreme Court has steadily ruled against efforts to integrate public schools, creating a climate that has ultimately forced local and state school districts across the country to abandon voluntary desegregation programs.

The indictment of the Supreme Court comes just three months after the high court ruled in the Louisville and Seattle cases that race cannot be used in an effort to achieve desegregation, prompting some to question whether the court was slowly reversing its position on the 1954 landmark Brown vs. Board of Education decision.

Income gap closes in rural suburbs, Census says - USATODAY.com

Income gap closes in rural suburbs, Census says - USATODAY.com: Fast-growing suburbs sprouting on farmland near thriving metropolitan areas are much less likely to be home to people of widely disparate incomes than urban centers, according to Census data.
In a nation that continues to see the gap between the very rich and the very poor widen, these new, remote suburbs stand out as islands of income equality.
Kendall County, Ill., 40 miles west of Chicago, has the least economic disparity among 783 U.S. counties included in the 2006 income and poverty survey released last month. New York County — Manhattan — and some of its toniest suburbs rank high on the list of places where the gaps among income groups are the widest.
'The big urban coastal counties, with high housing costs and immigrant service workers, have an 'upstairs-downstairs' residential population,' says William Frey, demographer at the Brookings Institution. 'Meanwhile, middle-class residents have gravitated to outer suburbs.'
Suburbs historically have appealed to middle-class families that could not afford a home in central cities. Many also were escaping crime, poverty and diversity.

Needy students given food for weekend - USATODAY.com

Needy students given food for weekend - USATODAY.com: Today and every Friday, more than 50,000 children are taking backpacks full of food home from school in programs that have quietly swept the nation. The goal is to keep needy kids and their families from going hungry on weekends.
More than 120 food banks are distributing backpacks at 1,200 sites — mostly schools — in 40 states, up from about 30 food banks in a handful of states three years ago, according to Maura Daly of America's Second Harvest, a network of food banks.
Funding for the BackPack Program has come from individuals, civic groups, churches and companies, including Wal-Mart. 'There's a real concern about childhood hunger in the United States,' Daly says.
Hilary Duff, 19, TV's Lizzie McGuire, worked with another hunger-relief group, USA Harvest, to launch Blessings in a Backpack. Begun in July 2005 at two schools in Louisville, it will serve eight schools in four states by next month. Duff funds weekend meals for about 1,000 kids at a Los Angeles grade school.
Each backpack contains several pounds of healthful foods such as fruit cups, bread, milk, juice, crackers, beef stew and peanut butter.

Just the Stats: Capitalizing Higher Education in the Global Market

Although U.S. graduate schools admitted eight percent more international students this fall, that growth rate is considerably lower than 2006’s 12 percent increase, according to a new report from the Council of Graduates Schools.

The results in the report, “2007 International Graduate Admissions Survey, Phase II: Final Applications and Initial Offers of Admissions,” are based on a three-part annual survey of international graduate student admissions among American CGS member institutions. Out of the 473 institutions, 160 responded, which is a 34 percent response rate. Despite the response rate, 84 percent of the largest 25 schools responded. This is the second year in a row that American schools as a whole experienced an increase in applications from international students, although about 78 percent of respondents reported receiving fewer international applicants this year than in 2003.

The report also found that American universities are facing increasing competition for students from other countries that are actively recruiting and responding to the global marketplace. Nearly 30 percent of all graduate schools in the U.S. have formed alliances with international universities creating dual- or joint-degree programs. An additional 24 percent of U.S. graduate schools reported their intent to form international collaborations within the next two years.

“U.S. graduate education has long been recognized as the best in the world, but other countries are actively recruiting talented domestic and international students,” said Debra W. Stewart, CGS president “This report highlights how U.S. graduate schools are establishing collaborative degree programs with institutions overseas as one response to increasing global competition.”

Morehouse President to Freshmen: ‘Look the part. Act the part. Talk the talk and walk the walk’

Morehouse President to Freshmen: ‘Look the part. Act the part. Talk the talk and walk the walk’: Morehouse could soon join a growing number of university campuses that have instituted dress codes. A handful of public and private campuses, where students once exercised the freedom to dress as they please, have adopted stricter codes of conduct that prohibit sagging jeans, flip-flops and even the wearing of baseball caps inside buildings. While other college campuses such as Paul Quinn College in Dallas and the business school at Illinois State University recently began regulating student attire this fall, Elise Durham, media relations manager at Morehouse College, points out that the school hasn’t officially changed its policy, but has set forth a set of expectations for students. Still, candidates running for Morehouse student government positions are debating the issue, and the school’s new president is also talking about it. Morehouse’s new president, Dr. Robert Michael Franklin Jr., wants to make being smart cool again and put morality at the forefront of the college’s mission. The jackets are the first step in that direction, according to officials. It’s also part of the school’s new, stricter dress and conduct expectations.

Women feed the jump in college enrollment - USATODAY.com

Women feed the jump in college enrollment - USATODAY.com: Colleges and universities these days are seeing a surge in enrollment — and it's increasingly driven by young women, according to U.S. Census data out today. The numbers confirm years of enrollment data showing that women have not only closed the college enrollment gap — they have far surpassed men on campuses. For every four men enrolled in graduate school in 2006, there were nearly six women.

While the number of both male and female students rose between 2000 and 2006, the survey found, women outpaced men in both undergraduate and graduate programs. In that period, the nation's undergraduate enrollment swelled by nearly 2.7 million students, 18.7%, but the percentage who were male fell 1.2 points, to 44%.

Women in 2006 made up 56% of undergrads, up from 54.8% in 2000.

University of Maryland Investigates Possible Hate Crime After Noose Discovered Hanging in Tree

COLLEGE PARK, Md.
University of Maryland police on Monday were investigating as a possible hate crime what appeared to be a noose hanging in a tree near a building that houses several black campus groups.

The noose, a throw-back to the days of lynching of blacks in the U.S. South, was found between the student union and the Nyumburu Cultural Center, where organizations that include the Black Faculty and Staff Association and the Black Explosion newspaper are based.

“We are starting out with the assumption that it was a hate crime,” campus police spokesman Paul Dillon said Monday.

Witnesses reported seeing the 3-foot-long (1 meter) rope Thursday. The rope had a 3-inch-diameter (7.6-centimeter) noose tied at one end and was reportedly 10 to 12 feet (3.7 meters) up in the tree, Dillon said.

The rope was destroyed by campus maintenance workers before police had a chance to see it, Dillon said. But the department has photos and several witness accounts.

The rope may have been in the tree for as long as two weeks, he said.

University President C.D. Mote Jr. said in a statement over the weekend that the discovery was “of great concern.”

“The possibility that this act appears intended to bring to mind the horrific crime of lynching, which is such a terrible and tragic part of our nation’s past, is particularly abhorrent,” Mote said.

Area Schools' Success Obscures Lingering Racial SAT Gap - washingtonpost.com

Area Schools' Success Obscures Lingering Racial SAT Gap - washingtonpost.com: SAT scores at the Washington region's top high schools show an achievement gap between blacks and the rest of the student population -- a gap that is often masked by the overall performance of the schools. White students in the spring graduating class of Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda -- the top performer in Montgomery County -- averaged 1893 out of a possible 2400 points on the SAT. The 13 black students tested averaged 1578, more than 300 points lower.

At Yorktown, Arlington County's leader, white students averaged 1804 on the SAT; black students averaged 1470. Black students at Severna Park High, the top performer in Anne Arundel County, averaged 1336, while white students' average was 1646.

Despite the gap, black students in the Class of 2007 scored well at some of the region's most prestigious high schools; at a few, black students topped the overall national average, 1511, on the best-known college entrance test. Solid scores on the SAT or the rival ACT are all but essential to students aspiring to competitive universities.

Why Male Teacher Ranks Are at 40-Year Low - Newsweek Society - MSNBC.com

Why Male Teacher Ranks Are at 40-Year Low - Newsweek Society - MSNBC.com: According to the National Education Association, the number of male schoolteachers is hovering at a 40-year low. Only one quarter of our 3 million teachers are men. In elementary schools, the problem is more acute—just 9 percent are men, down from 18 percent in 1981. 'If kids do not see males in the classroom, they begin to believe teaching is only for females,' says Reg Weaver, president of the NEA. Unless more men become teachers, says Weaver, the shortage will continue to be a self-perpetuating problem.

Although the feminization of the teaching profession has been underway since the 1890s, school administrators say it's becoming a more salient issue as boys fall behind girls in graduation rates and demonstrate more difficulties with reading and writing. There are several reasons many men find it difficult to enter, and stay in, the teaching profession: the starting salary for teachers is about $30,000, and less in early education.

Racial differences in kidney cancer care, outcome

Racial differences in kidney cancer care, outcome: NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - There are disparities in the treatment and outcome between older black and white patients who have renal cell cancer, with blacks having significantly lower survival rates, according to a new study. However, the lower rates of nephrectomy (surgical removal of the kidney) and the higher rates of comorbid illnesses in black patients largely explain the survival difference, the study found. In recent years, 5-year survival rates for renal cell cancer have improved among whites, the authors explain in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, but there has been little change in survival rates among blacks.

Poll: Young, white Americans are happier - Kids & Parenting - MSNBC.com

Poll: Young, white Americans are happier - Kids & Parenting - MSNBC.com: From their relationships to their jobs to their money — even from they time they first roll out of bed — young white Americans are happier with life than their minority counterparts. According to an extensive survey of 1,280 people ages 13-24 by The Associated Press and MTV, 72 percent of whites say they are happy with life in general, compared with 51 percent of Hispanics and 56 percent of blacks. “It doesn’t surprise me,” said Martin Carpenter, 21, a black New Jersey resident. “There’s a lot of issues out there for African-American young adults. You can still go to certain places and feel uncomfortable, like you don’t belong there.”

Seeking Out Success

Seeking Out Success: University of Pennsylvania’s Dr. Shaun Harper expects his extensive research will create a new paradigm of how Black males adapt and succeed in college. It was in his high school years that Raymond Roy seriously thought about going to college. Raised largely by his grandmother in a tough, low-income neighborhood in north Philadelphia, Roy found encouragement from family members and a few college-bound friends.
“I had good grades, but I didn’t think college was something I could do until I saw some of my friends going for it,” he says. Roy’s college pursuit took him to Lock Haven University in Pennsylvania where he made the Dean’s List his freshman year.
Identified in the spring of his freshman year by campus administrators as a motivated high achiever, Roy took part in the National Black Male College Achievement Study, the largest-ever empirical study of Black male undergraduates.

Study Finds Why Breast Cancer Is More Deadly in Black Women

Study Finds Why Breast Cancer Is More Deadly in Black Women: A new study gives a possible explanation for why breast cancer is more deadly in Black women: they are more likely to have tumors that do not respond to the hormone-based treatments that help many others with the disease. The study is the largest yet to link a biological factor to the racial disparity, which also has been blamed on Black women getting fewer mammograms and less aggressive treatment. “This puts biology more to the forefront,” said Dr. Julie Gralow, a cancer specialist at the University of Washington School of Medicine familiar with the work. “It’s not just access to care, access to treatment and other factors that have been implicated in the past.” The study was led by Dr. M. Catherine Lee of the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center and will be presented starting Sept. 7 in San Francisco at a conference, which was organized by the American Society of Clinical Oncology and other cancer groups. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in American women. An estimated 178,480 new cases and 40,460 deaths are expected from it in the United States this year. Blacks are less likely than Whites to develop breast cancer but are more likely to die from it, doctors have long known. Blacks also are diagnosed at younger ages and at later stages of disease.

La. beating case stirs racial anger - USATODAY.com

La. beating case stirs racial anger - USATODAY.com: "A grass-roots movement is spreading across black America in support of six black high school students charged with attempted murder for beating a white classmate in the small Louisiana town of Jena. On black radio, black college campuses and websites from YouTube to Facebook, the young men known as the Jena 6 are being held up as symbols of unequal and unfair treatment of blacks in a case that evokes the Deep South's Jim Crow era, complete with nooses hanging from a tree. 'People are fed up,' says Esther Iverem, 47, a Washington, D.C., writer who runs a website called Seeingblack.com, which has featured articles about the Jena 6. 'It's another case of young black men railroaded unjustly. We do not want to see this happen to young boys who got involved in a school fight.' Tenisha Wilkerson, 20, of Chicago, posted a page on Facebook supporting the Jena 6. It has attracted 35,000 members. 'Why is this kind of thing still going on?' she asks."

SAT Minorities Scholastic Aptitude Test and Black Hispanic Students

SAT Minorities Scholastic Aptitude Test and Black Hispanic Students: The most diverse group of test-takers in the history of the exam sat for the SAT in 2007, with 39 percent, or four out of 10 test-takers, classified as minority. Blacks represented the majority of minority test-takers at 12 percent, closely followed by Hispanics at 11 percent. In addition, approximately 24 percent of test-takers’ first language was not exclusively English, compared to 17 percent in 1997 and 13 percent in 1987. Compared to last year’s scores, 2007 showed little statistical significance; nevertheless, average scores declined one point in reading and three points in the math and writing sections. “The record number of students, coupled with the diversity of SAT takers in the class of 2007, means that an increasing number of students in this country are recognizing the importance of a college education and are taking the steps necessary to get there,” said Gaston Caperton, president of the College Board, at Tuesday’s press conference.

UC-Berkeley Study: Half of Black Employees in Low-Wage Jobs

UC-Berkeley Study: Half of Black Employees in Low-Wage Jobs: The unemployment crisis in the Black community has been well documented. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in July that the Black unemployment rate was 8 percent, nearly twice the rate for Whites. The crisis though, is much larger than unemployment, a new study finds. More than half of Blacks that have jobs are paid a low salary with no retirement and health benefits, according to a report by the University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Labor Research and Education released just before Labor Day. “Typically when people examine the African-American jobs issue, people focus on the question of unemployment,” said Steven Pitts, a labor policy specialist at the center and author of the report. “While we recognize that serious problem, we found there is a secondary important problem that involves low-wage work. There are a lot of Black folk who do have jobs, and there are very high levels of them, who work with very low wages. This is a very serious problem. The study, “Job Quality and Black Workers: An Examination of the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York,” used data from the 2000 U.S. Census to analyze low-paying jobs among Blacks. Even though it used seven-year- old statistics, Pitts contends that the reports findings are still applicable to 2007.

Picture boards help bridge language gap in health emergencies - USATODAY.com

Picture boards help bridge language gap in health emergencies - USATODAY.com: TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — With more ill and injured people unable to speak English, hospitals, clinics and rescue squads are turning to picture boards to bridge the communication gap with easily understood images. The large, double-sided panels let patients point to icons showing their problem — such as pain, a burn, breathing trouble or a fall — as well as the part of the body that is affected. They also can point to their native language in a list so an appropriate interpreter can be located. 'They ought to be in every ambulance, in every hospital, in every clinic,' said Dr. Fred M. Jacobs, head of New Jersey's health department. 'Communication barriers lead to adverse impacts on (care) quality, misunderstandings and even medical errors.' His department is partnering with the state's hospital association to distribute thousands of the boards to all New Jersey hospitals, rescue squads and public health clinics. Use of the panels is likely to spread under a new U.S. Department of Health and Human Services program aimed at helping hospitals to determine their patients' communication needs and to find tools to meet those needs. At least nine state hospital associations have signed on: New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Utah and Washington.

Report: Segregation in U.S. Schools is Increasing - washingtonpost.com

Report: Segregation in U.S. Schools is Increasing - washingtonpost.com: ATLANTA (Reuters) - Public schools in the United States are becoming more racially segregated and the trend is likely to accelerate because of a Supreme Court decision in June, according to report published Wednesday. The rise in segregation threatens the quality of education received by non-white students, who now make up 43 percent of the total U.S. student body, said the report by the Civil Rights Project of the University of California in Los Angeles.

Many segregated schools struggle to attract highly qualified teachers and administrators, do not prepare students well for college and fail to graduate more than half their students.

Stereotypes turn girls off to math, science - LiveScience - MSNBC.com

Stereotypes turn girls off to math, science - LiveScience - MSNBC.com: "The days of sexist science teachers and Barbies chirping that 'math class is tough!' are over, according to pop culture, but a government program aimed at bringing more women and girls into science, technology, engineering and math fields suggests otherwise.

Use the link to read five myths about girls and science that still endure, according to the National Science Foundation's Research on Gender in Science and Engineering program.

Top Hispanic Degree Producers : HSIs : Hispanic-Serving Institutions and Others

Top Hispanic Degree Producers : HSIs : Hispanic-Serving Institutions and Others: Each year when we do our Top 100 undergraduate degree producers, we get calls from Hispanic-serving institutions asking why they didn’t make the list. Out of the Top 100 schools that confer the most bachelor’s degrees to Hispanics in 2005-06, just 33 percent were HSIs. According to Excelencia in Education’s analysis of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), in 2005-2006, some 252 institutions met the basic criterion for an HSI. Out of these 252 institutions, roughly 50 percent (125 institutions) were four-year institutions (54 were public and 71 were private institutions). The other 50 percent (127 institutions) were two-year. Hispanic-serving institutions are defined not by their institutional mission, but by their total Hispanic enrollment. “HSIs are public and private not-for-profit degree-granting institutions of higher education with 25 percent or more undergraduate full-time equivalent Hispanic enrollment,” according to Excelencia in Education.

NYC to Pay Poor Parents to Help Their Kids - Newsweek National News - MSNBC.com

NYC to Pay Poor Parents to Help Their Kids - Newsweek National News - MSNBC.com: Paying kids for good grades is a popular (if questionable) parenting tactic. But when school starts next week, New York City will try to use the same enticement to get parents in low-income neighborhoods more involved in their children's education and overall health. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has raised more than $40 million (much of it from his own money and the Rockefeller Foundation) to pay families a modest amount for small tasks—$50 for getting a library card or $100 to take a child to the dentist—that could make a big difference.
The experimental program, called Opportunity NYC, is modeled on a 10-year-old Mexican program called Oportunidades, which has been so successful in reducing poverty in rural areas that it has been adopted by more than 20 countries, including Argentina and Turkey. International studies have found that these programs raise school enrollment and vaccination rates and lower the number of sick days students take. Bringing this idea to Harlem and the South Bronx may not make a radical difference, concedes Linda Gibbs, the deputy mayor for Health and Human Services. But, she adds, "It makes these activities matter in a new way." Gibbs thinks that the money could also make parents more active in asking for services that might not exist in their neighborhoods. "A mother might demand an early-intervention evaluation [to look for developmental or learning disabilities] for a child" to get the $150 payment, Gibbs says. "If she can't find a doctor to do it, the cash incentive might make Mom more likely to ask why those services aren't available in her community." Schools chancellor Joel Klein says he hopes that the money will "get our students more interested in performing well at school, and the positive reinforcement they receive as well will, in turn, get them excited about the learning."

Finding Their Voices - washingtonpost.com

Finding Their Voices - washingtonpost.com: ... The teens are participating in the annual, highly competitive J.B. Fuqua Urban Debate League Novice Celebration in Atlanta, where 14 of the top teams from around the country have convened for the season-culminating competition. The Reagan students came prepared to debate the official resolution -- a proposal to increase young people's national service in organizations such as the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, Teach for America and the armed services. They have been researching and debating this very topic all year. They have tons of material about volunteerism sorted into files, placed in rubber bins and dragged halfway across the country on a plane from Milwaukee. They have been eating, sleeping and dreaming 'volunteerism' for months, debating both the pros and cons of this issue at competitions across the Midwest.

Poll: 1 in 4 read no books last year - U.S. Life - MSNBC.com

Poll: 1 in 4 read no books last year - U.S. Life - MSNBC.com: ... One in four adults read no books at all in the past year, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll released Tuesday. Of those who did read, women and older people were most avid, and religious works and popular fiction were the top choices. The survey reveals a nation whose book readers, on the whole, can hardly be called ravenous. The typical person claimed to have read four books in the last year — half read more and half read fewer. Excluding those who hadn’t read any, the usual number read was seven.

U.S. Education Secretary Wooing Students from Brazil, Chile to Reverse Post 9/11 Decline

SAO PAULO, Brazil
U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings looks more like a college recruiter this week, traveling through South America with American university leaders to woo back international students spooked by lengthy visa delays linked to post-9/11 security.

“American higher education is open for business to students from our neighbors,” Spellings said in Santiago, Chile, before meeting Tuesday with Chilean students and university rectors. Her next stop on Wednesday is Sao Paulo, the continent’s largest city.

The number of foreign students enrolling in American universities is rebounding following a drop due to extra visa security precautions after the Sept. 11 attacks. But the number of visas are granted to students seeking to study for a year or more is still less than before the terrorist attacks.


Only 5,881 F-1 student visas were handed out in Brazil in 2006, the latest year for which figures are available, down from 12,325 in 2001, according to the U.S. Embassy in Brasilia.

And competition for students is growing fast from nations like Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. Even South Africa is in the race to attract South America’s best and brightest.

American universities depend on foreign students for teaching and research help, and policymakers consider them essential so that future foreign leaders will be familiar with the United States. It also has an economic effect: Foreign students provide of billions of dollars annually to the U.S. economy.

Cornel West Debates Michael Eric Dyson Over Use of the N-Word on New CD

Cornel West Debates Michael Eric Dyson Over Use of the N-Word on New CD: Dr. Cornel West, one of the nation’s most recognized Black public intellectuals, this week released his second hip-hop CD, a collaborative project with some of the biggest names in rap and R&B. The CD titled, “Never Forget: A Journey of Revelations,” by West, who teaches religion and African American Studies at Princeton University, enlists the sounds of artists like Prince, Talib Kweli, Jill Scott, Andre 3000, KRS-One and the late Gerald Levert. It’s the second socially conscious CD for the academic who released “Sketches of My Culture” in 2001, a CD that was harshly criticized by former Harvard University president Lawrence Summers who publicly questioned West’s scholarship. Summers ridiculed the CD, arguing that it was not befitting of real scholarship. The public spat eventually caused West — who felt disrespected — to abandon his alma mater for Princeton. “Sister Tilghman is qualitatively different than Brother Summers,” says West, referring to Dr. Shirley Tilghman, the current president of Princeton University, who helped to lure West to Princeton from Harvard. “The hip hop scared Brother Summers. It’s a stereotypical reaction.”

Tolerance.org: Teaching Tolerance: The Question of Class

Tolerance.org: Teaching Tolerance: The Question of Class: Paul C. Gorski challenges educators to push beyond a one-dimensional understanding of poverty. Rather than examining a so-called 'culture of poverty' -- a term used by the very popular Ruby Payne and others who write and speak about poverty at the national level -- Gorski urges educators to question the culture of classist assumptions that infiltrates our classrooms and schools.

Just the Stats: The Top Hispanic-serving Degree Producers

Each year when we do our Top 100 undergraduate degree producers, we get calls from Hispanic-serving institutions asking why they didn’t make the list. Out of the Top 100 schools that confer the most bachelor’s degrees to Hispanics in 2005-06, just 33 percent were HSIs. According to Excelencia in Education’s analysis of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), in 2005-2006, some 252 institutions met the basic criterion for an HSI. Out of these 252 institutions, roughly 50 percent (125 institutions) were four-year institutions (54 were public and 71 were private institutions). The other 50 percent (127 institutions) were two-year.

Hispanic-serving institutions are defined not by their institutional mission, but by their total Hispanic enrollment. “HSIs are public and private not-for-profit degree-granting institutions of higher education with 25 percent or more undergraduate full-time equivalent Hispanic enrollment,” according to Excelencia in Education.

So why don’t more HSIs make the top 100 list? Eliminating the community colleges brings us down to 125 schools. In our Top 100 analysis, we usually exclude schools in Puerto Rico so that they don’t dominate the list, skewing the results and making it difficult to see how other schools are doing when it comes to graduating their Hispanic students. Out of the 125 institutions, 45 are in Puerto Rico. Most HSIs don’t make the Top 100 list simply because their enrollment is much smaller than the schools that do make the list.

Study: Overweight Kids Being Teased Out of an Education

A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University have found that obesity is linked to high absenteeism rates in school-aged children.

The study of more than 1,000 students in 4th, 5th and 6th grades in the Philadelphia school system determined that body mass index, or BMI, is as significant of a factor in determining absenteeism from school as age, race, socioeconomic status and gender, formerly the four main predictors.

The study, conducted from 2003-2004, also found that overweight children were absent on average 20 percent more than their normal-weight peers.

Dr. Gary D. Foster, who runs the Center for Obesity Research and Education, received funding from the National Institutes of Health to measure the height and weight of the students. Researchers then calculated the students BMI, which relates height to weight.

Based on BMI, 2 percent of the children were underweight, 58 percent were normal weight, 17 percent were overweight, and 23 percent were what the researchers consider obese.

Researchers examined school attendance records of close to 1,200 students who attend the city’s poorest schools. More than 80 percent of students at these schools were eligible for free and reduced-cost meal plans. The study reveals that the obese children missed 12 days of school during the school year, compared to 10 days for children with normal weight.

Hispanic Outreach By Non-HSIs Lacking, Study Indicates

Hispanic-serving institutions make up only 6 percent of all colleges, but enroll half of all Hispanic college students, raising questions in a new study about outreach and diversity efforts at majority schools.

“There are more than 3,000 higher education institutions in the U.S., and all of them say they aspire to create a more diverse student body. While the high-achieving students that took part in our research could have gone anywhere, they largely chose HSIs,” said Sarita Brown, president of Excelencia in Education, the Hispanic education think thank that conducted the study.

“Latino students are sending a clear message on what they value in a college. If mainstream colleges and universities truly want to be more diverse, they should take note,” Brown said in a statement.


}The Ford Foundation-sponsored study, titled “Choosing Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs): A Closer Look at Latino Students’ College Choices,” also finds that most Hispanics enrolled in HSIs didn’t do so intentionally, and are motivated by factors such as open admissions policies, locations in close proximity to large Latino populations, and cost. Subsequently, many colleges that fit into that criteria reach the 25 percent threshold qualifying them for federal HSI designation quickly.

“So many of these students are first-generation college-goers. And that means they don’t have the kitchen-table conversations about college options and trade-offs that might be occurring in families where at least one parent has gone to college,” says study author Dr. Deborah A. Santiago, vice president for policy and research at Excelencia in Education. “That level of awareness by institutions at whatever level of selectivity is absolutely critical. There has to be that awareness within the institution that they’re reaching out to students that don’t have that intrinsic knowledge.”

Jazz Musician Max Roach Dies at 83 - washingtonpost.com

Jazz Musician Max Roach Dies at 83 - washingtonpost.com: Max Roach, the dazzling drummer who helped create the rhythmic language of modern jazz while expanding the expressive possibilities of the drums, died Aug. 15 in New York. He was 83 and had been ill for several years. Mr. Roach was a founding architect of bebop, the high-speed, harmonically advanced music of the 1940s that helped elevate jazz from dance-hall entertainment to concert-stage art. In dozens of landmark recordings with such musical giants as Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk -- including a 1953 performance that has entered legend as 'the greatest jazz concert ever' -- he pioneered a new approach to jazz drumming that remains the standard to this day.

Professor dies from malaria in Egypt | ajc.com

Professor dies from malaria in Egypt | ajc.com: Dr. Asa G. Hilliard, who as a teacher, psychologist and historian shaped the minds and laid the groundwork for future African-American students, died Sunday while on a trip to Egypt. He was 73. Since 1980, Dr. Hilliard was the Fuller E. Callaway Professor of Urban Education at Georgia State University. He died two days before classes were to begin at the university.

... Dr. Hilliard often was called upon by school districts, public advocacy organizations, government agencies and private businesses to validate testing, advise on African content in curricula and identify biases for training programs.

He served as an expert witness in several cases that have resulted in the elimination of admissions tests as the sole criterion for college admission and led to the revamping of achievement testing.

Dr. Hilliard wrote more than 200 research reports, books and articles on testing, ancient African history, teaching strategies, African culture and child growth and development.

He was a founding member of the National Black Child Development Institute and the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations.

Before joining the GSU faculty, Dr. Hilliard spent 18 years at San Francisco State University. He was chairman of the secondary education department, dean of education and a consultant to the Peace Corps.

Dr. Hilliard earned a bachelor's degree in psychology and a master's degree in counseling from the University of Denver, where he also taught in the College of Education and the College of Arts and Sciences. He received a doctorate in educational psychology there, as well.

NPR : Counties See Minorities Become the New Majority

NPR : Counties See Minorities Become the New Majority: Tell Me More
Immigrants who were once attracted to big cities like New York and Los Angeles are instead heading to the suburbs. Zala Siddiqui, living in Chicago's suburbs, and Narsi Narasimhan, from the Atlanta area, tell their stories.

NPR : Schools Worry About Fate of Desegregation Efforts

NPR : Schools Worry About Fate of Desegregation Efforts: Schools are reopening this year under a new legal cloud: Districts around the country must decide whether they can continue using race to assign students to schools. In June, the Supreme Court struck down the use of race in school assignment plans in Seattle and Louisville, Ky. Those districts are already revising their assignment plans. But many other school systems are hoping that local support will help them avoid court challenges to their desegregation efforts. Chester Darling has been fighting desegregation plans for decades. The Massachusetts attorney hailed this year's Supreme Court ruling and says he knows what he would like to do about school systems that still use race to decide who attends a particular school. 'I would go after every single one of them,' Darling announces. 'It's wrong. You just don't sort kids by color and deny benefits to them because of the color of their skin.' Desegregation is still a touchy issue around Boston, the scene of violent protests over school busing in the 1970s. Supporters of desegregation plans now worry the pendulum has swung back to those bad old days.

Just the Stats: How To Increase Minority Presence in STEM Fields at Your Institution

A few weeks ago, I started to look at the programs that work to boost minority participation in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields, specifically Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation. The Model Institutions for Excellence (MIE) is another successful program that focuses on helping STEM students by providing long-term institutional funding to Hispanic-serving institutions, historically Black colleges and universities, and tribal colleges and universities. The National Science Foundation provides funding for both programs.

Each MIE institution focuses on student support systems, undergraduate research opportunities, faculty development through technology and curriculum, outreach recruitment programs for K-12 students, STEM educational infrastructure, internal and external institutional assessment and evaluation, and partnerships and collaborations with business for student internship programs.

Currently there are several institutional partners actively involved: Bowie State University in Maryland; Spelman College in Atlanta; Universidad Metropolitana in Puerto Rico; The University of Texas at El Paso; Xavier University of Louisiana; Oglala Lakota College and Sisseton Wahpeton College in South Dakota; and Sitting Bull College in North Dakota.

In 2003-2004 there were roughly 34,810 undergraduate students enrolled in the MIE institutions, with 20 percent (6,950) in STEM fields. More than 40 percent of the 6,950 students enrolled in STEM are Hispanic, and 37 percent are Black.

Black History AP Course Faces Obstacles by College Board

Some K-12 school district officials have proposed a remedy to the lack of Black student enrollment in Advanced Placement classes: an AP course in African-American History.

“My thinking is, if we can get [Black students] to engage in one AP course, then eventually they will enroll in others,” says Dr. Linda Lane, the deputy superintendent for instruction for the Pittsburgh Public School District.

However, the officials at the College Board, which oversees the AP tests, say the likelihood of a Black history AP course coming to fruition is slim to none. Adding a new subject to the AP curriculum is up to colleges, who at this point are cool to the idea, says Trevor Packer, vice president of the AP program.

“We could not find a single college that shared an interest [in having an AP course in African-American history,” he says. “What [our member colleges and universities] explained to us is that though the issue is important, they don’t want to lose enrollment in their African-American studies.”

Instead, Packer says, colleges and the College Board believe it would be more effective to place an increased emphasis on African-American history in the existing AP U.S. history course. Other options include offering pre-AP courses in middle schools and providing support to teachers in predominately Black high schools so more can qualify to teach AP classes.

Packer says that of the 5,200 College Board members — which include private and public high schools, colleges, universities and minority-serving institutions — none, including HBCUs, expressed interest.

Expect More Challenges to Diversity Programs, Says Spelman President

Expect More Challenges to Diversity Programs, Says Spelman President: Spelman College President Beverly Tatum has championed racially diverse relationships for most of her life: as a child growing up in New England, as a young professor teaching about the psychology of racism and as an author writing about cross-racial interaction. Her perspective as a self-titled “integration baby” led her to predict the June 28 U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down voluntary integration efforts in two public school districts. “The current composition of the Supreme Court … increases the possibility that the Court may side with the Department of Education and rule that any use of race as a selection criteria is unconstitutional,” she wrote in her latest book, Can We Talk About Race? which was published in April. The topic of resegregation has been on many minds following the high court’s decision. The Court voted 5-4 to strike down school integration plans in Louisville, Ky. and Seattle. While the decision does not affect several hundred public school districts under federal court order to desegregate, it does jeopardize similar programs in hundreds of cities and counties using voluntary integration as a means to diversify their schools.

Research shows that non-English-speaking young children learn more quickly with immersion - News - inRich

Research shows that non-English-speaking young children learn more quickly with immersion - News - inRich: Chesterfield County school officials are planning changes for the county's limited-English-speaking students. Non-English-speaking students made up about 3.7 percent -- 2,125 students -- of the county's nearly 58,000 students last school year. That's more than triple the number in 2000. The current English as a second language program serves students in 18 elementary schools, five middle schools and two high schools. Students attend the ESL school closest to them. But starting with the 2008-09 school year, school officials are going to eliminate those school-based ESL centers and instead send ESL students to their 'home' schools. The plan still is being developed, but the idea is that limited-English students will be placed in more regular education classes, while continuing ESL learning based on their level of English. Students on levels 1 or 2 -- those with very limited English skills -- spend more time with ESL teachers than those on levels 3 and 4. But research shows that young children, such as pre-kindergartners and kindergartners, learn more quickly when immersed in regular education classes where they're learning sounds and symbols along with their English-speaking peers.

Closing learning gaps

... Research shows that children, particularly those from low-income families, slip in reading and math over the summer if they don't receive appropriate enrichment to reinforce school lessons. The findings have grabbed attention in Washington, where Maryland Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski and Democratic presidential candidate and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama are co-sponsoring a bill that would, among other things, grant $100 million to five states selected by the U.S. secretary of education to fund summer programs for children from disadvantaged families.

"Everyone would expect an athlete or a musician's performance to suffer if they didn't practice. The research suggests the same is true for students and their academic work," said Ron Fairchild, executive director for the Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins University. "We know, through research, that students who don't practice lose ground every summer. Those losses are cumulative and grow the achievement gap that schools are working so hard to erase."

The latest study from Johns Hopkins, which tracked 325 Baltimore students from first grade to age 22, found that by the end of the ninth grade, students from disadvantaged homes performed more than three grade levels below their peers in higher socio-economic families on reading comprehension tests. Two-thirds of that gap, Hopkins sociologist Karl L. Alexander found, was attributable to the lack of adequate summer enrichment in the early years. By the time the same students graduated, the disadvantaged students were performing six grade levels below their peers.

Immigrant parents struggle to keep their children bilingual - The Boston Globe

Immigrant parents struggle to keep their children bilingual - The Boston Globe: ... According to research presented to Congress in May, even the children of immigrants prefer to speak English by the time they are adults. Rub�n G. Rumbaut, a sociologist at the University of California at Irvine, and his team of researchers looked at 5,700 adults in their 20s and 30s in Southern California from different generations to see how long their language survived. A key finding centered on 1,900 American-born children of immigrants. The shift toward English among them was swift: While 87 percent grew up speaking another language at home, only 34 percent said they spoke it well by adulthood. And nearly 70 percent said they preferred to speak English. 'English wins, and it does so in short order,' said Rumbaut, who presented his findings to the US House Judiciary subcommittee on immigration in May. 'What we're talking about is a real phenomenon.' It is difficult for children to sustain their parents' languages amid the tidal wave of American pop culture, including movies and television, coupled with societal pressure to speak only English. Most schools and communities do little to preserve bilingualism, Rumbaut said. Even bilingual education programs, which Massachusetts voters dismantled in 2002, were commonly designed to help students make the transition to English-only classrooms.

Education - One new school, three languages - sacbee.com

Education - One new school, three languages - sacbee.com: A new charter school that will teach children in three languages -- Mandarin Chinese, Spanish and English -- is scheduled to open in September in the North Sacramento School District with about 120 children in kindergarten through third grade. Students at the Lindsay Global Language Academy, as the charter school is called, will learn all their subjects in the three languages from teachers who are native speakers. And they'll practice conversation skills by participating in video conferences with students in Beijing, Shanghai and Mexico City, said Linda Ventriglia, a former Sacramento City Unified educator who created the school. 'Kids that don't get out of Sacramento now are going to see people around the world,' Ventriglia said. 'We're trying to create a 21st century school.'

English Instruction Touted for Immigrants - washingtonpost.com

English Instruction Touted for Immigrants - washingtonpost.com: Spending on English instruction must be quadrupled to more than $4 billion a year for the next six years to make legal and illegal adult immigrants proficient in skills crucial to their assimilation and the economic future of a country whose population is increasingly foreign-born, a new national report says. In the first nationwide study of its kind, the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute estimates that an additional $200 million a year is needed to improve legal immigrants' English skills enough for them to pass a citizenship test and 'fully participate in the country's civic life.' An additional $2.9 billion a year is required for illegal immigrants to meet those standards, the report says.

Federal and state governments currently spend about $1 billion a year on English as a Second Language instruction for adults, most of which comes from the states.

The report calls English acquisition by immigrants the "most important integration challenge" facing the country. English proficiency among immigrants is linked to higher earnings and tax contributions, lower welfare dependency and greater educational and economic advancement in the second generation, the study notes. Given global economic competition and the stagnant growth of the native-born labor force, spending on English instruction should be seen as an investment, the authors argue.

Gender Public Advocacy Coalition : About GenderPAC

Gender Public Advocacy Coalition : About GenderPAC: WASHINGTON – A new study shows that teachers tend to view the behavior of black girls as not 'ladylike' and therefore focus disciplinary action on encouraging behaviors like passivity, deference, and bodily control at the expense of curiosity, outspokenness, and assertiveness. Based on two years' observation at a Texas middle school, the Ohio University study found that teachers' class- and race-based assumptions of black femininity made them more likely to discourage behaviors and characteristics that lead to class involvement and educational success. The teachers' actions appeared to be less the result of conscious racism or sexism than an unwitting tendency to view the behavior of black girls through a different lens than that of their peers.

Study: Rate of black men slain in U.S. rises - USATODAY.com

Study: Rate of black men slain in U.S. rises - USATODAY.com: WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly half of the nation's murder victims in 2005 were black, and the number of black men who were slain is on the rise. A majority of the black murder victims were relatively young — between 17 and 29, the Justice Department said in a study released Thursday. The department's Bureau of Justice Statistics report offers a snapshot of racial disparities among violent crime victims. Black people represented an estimated 13% of the U.S. population in 2005, the latest data available, but were the victims of 49% of all murders and 15% of rapes, assaults and other non-fatal violent crimes nationwide. Most of the black murder victims — 93% — were killed by other black people, the study found. About 85% of white victims were slain by other white people. National Urban League President Marc Morial, a former mayor of New Orleans, said the data reflect a trend that cannot be reversed by law enforcement alone. It will require changes in public education and a revival of federal summer jobs programs for economically disadvantaged young people, he said.

Minorities become the majority in 10 percent of U.S. counties - CNN.com

Minorities become the majority in 10 percent of U.S. counties - CNN.com: Whites are now in the minority in almost one in 10 U.S. counties.

And that increased diversity, fueled by immigration and higher birth rates among blacks and Hispanics, is straining race relations and sparking a backlash against immigrants in many communities.

"There's some culture shock," said Mark Mather of the Population Reference Bureau, a Washington-based research agency. "But I think there is a momentum building, and it is going to continue."

As of 2006, non-Hispanic whites made up less than half the population in 303 of the nation's 3,141 counties, according to figures the Census Bureau is releasing Thursday. Non-Hispanic whites were a minority in 262 counties in 2000, up from 183 in 1990.

The Census Bureau's report has population estimates by race and ethnicity for every county in the nation. They are the first such estimates since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005, scattering hundreds of thousands of people.

Va. Lawyer Was at Fore of Attack on Segregation - washingtonpost.com

Va. Lawyer Was at Fore of Attack on Segregation - washingtonpost.com: Oliver W. Hill, 100, a Virginia lawyer who helped overturn legal segregation in his native state and was one of the country's foremost civil rights defenders during a six-decade career, died yesterday at his home in Richmond. He had a heart ailment.

Hill was an instrumental member of an NAACP-affiliated legal team that persistently attacked segregation. He also was a lead lawyer on a Virginia case later incorporated into Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 case in which the U.S. Supreme Court declared segregated schools unlawful.

He lacked the renown of his Howard University Law School classmate Thurgood Marshall, who later became a Supreme Court justice, but at one time, Hill had 75 civil rights cases pending. He is estimated to have won $50 million in better pay and infrastructure needs for the state's black teachers and students during his career.

Harvard Study Examines Hidden Biases Among ER Physicians

A new Harvard University study reports that physicians’ subconscious racial biases play a significant role in the care and treatment they provide to patients and is a contributing factor to the health disparity that exists between Black and White patients.

“We have a very serious problem in health care today,” says Dr. Alexander Green, the leading author of the study. “It has become very clear that minority patients are less likely to get certain important tests and treatments than White patients.”

The study examined the actions of nearly 300 resident physicians in Atlanta and Boston as they determined the best method of care for patients suffering from heart disease, the number one killer of Blacks.

First, the study participants were presented with the medical histories and images of either a 50-year-old Black or White man and asked how they would treat each patient if the patient showed up in the emergency room complaining of chest pains.

Researchers then asked the doctors, depending on their initial response, whether they would diagnose the man as a heart attack victim and, if so, whether they would prescribe thrombolytics, drugs commonly used to treat heart attacks.

The study also had doctors take the Implicit Association Test, a computer survey that detects hidden biases. Dr. Mahzarin Banaji, a psychology professor at Harvard and a co-author of the study, co-designed the test. It was first introduced in 1998 and is widely used to measure unconscious biases.

The result of the study showed that White physicians were less likely to prescribe potentially life-saving medications or treatments to Black heart attack patients.

However, Black physicians were consistent in the care they provided for their patients.

Multicultural Dorm Project Rewarded For Retention Results

Multicultural Dorm Project Rewarded For Retention Results: Five years ago, when Purdue University’s administrators sat down to brainstorm ways to improve diversity and retain students, they came up a solution they never thought would become an award-winning retention program.

In their program, “Multicultural Learning Communities,” a diverse selection of students studying the same discipline live in the same dorm as well as take the same classes. MCL project enforce the importance of living and learning from a multiple perspectives by requiring students in the courses to live and learn together.

Purdue, the University of Central Michigan and West Virginia UniversityOrlando. received the Lee Noel and Randi Levitz Retention Excellence Award earlier this month at the higher education consulting firm’s 2007 National Conference on Student Recruitment, Marketing and Retention, in

“The winning programs…went above and beyond in terms of generating identifiable and measurable institutional outcomes, demonstrating originality in program development and using resources in a creative manner,” said Tim Culver, vice president of the firm.

English Instruction Touted for Immigrants - washingtonpost.com

English Instruction Touted for Immigrants - washingtonpost.com: Spending on English instruction must be quadrupled to more than $4 billion a year for the next six years to make legal and illegal adult immigrants proficient in skills crucial to their assimilation and the economic future of a country whose population is increasingly foreign-born, a new national report says.

In the first nationwide study of its kind, the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute estimates that an additional $200 million a year is needed to improve legal immigrants' English skills enough for them to pass a citizenship test and 'fully participate in the country's civic life.' An additional $2.9 billion a year is required for illegal immigrants to meet those standards, the report says.