Recently in Education Category

Source: Debra J. Ackerman and W. Steven Barnett, National Institute for Early Education Research, Policy Brief, issue 20, March 2009

From the summary:
Public support for the education and care of 3- and 4-year-olds has increased, but has this helped or hurt the provision of care for infants (children up to 12 months old) and toddlers (1- and 2-year-olds)? This policy brief examines trends in supply and demand in the infant/toddler care market, reviews state and federal policies for infant/toddler care, and recommends policy changes that could ensure new preschool policies benefit infant/toddler care and avoid unintended negative consequences.

Source: Dale Epstein, John Pruette, Kathleen Priestley, Aaron Lieberman, National Institute for Early Education Research, 2009

Presentation on policies, implementation strategies and monitoring of quality standards in prekindergarten at the national, state, district and program levels.

Source: The Food Research and Action Center, July 1, 2009

By 2015, the United States should be a place where all children have the adequate and nutritious food they need to build healthy bodies and strong minds. Achieving that goal will require the nation to strengthen policies so that families and schools and other service providers that care for children are better able to provide food reliably and efficiently. Parents or other caregivers must be able to purchase and prepare adequate, healthy meals for the family. Schools, child care centers and homes, and afterschool and summer sites -- the places where children are learning, playing, developing and being cared for -- must meet children's nutritional needs when they are in those settings. And children should be treated with respect when help is given, and in ways that do not identify a child's socio-economic status or carry any stigma.

Source: Southern Regional Education Board, 2009

The latest edition of the SREB Fact Book on Higher Education continues a SREB tradition dating back to 1956 of providing comparative national, regional and state-specific data highlighting trends that affect colleges and universities in the SREB member states.

Databases from the biennial SREB Fact Book on Higher Education include national, regional and state profiles -- many containing graphs, multiyear trends and breakdowns by type of college or university -- plus the latest updates from the annual SREB-State Data Exchange. The Fact Book includes information on the following topics:

* Population and Economy: state-by-state profiles of population changes and projections, age distribution and race/ethnic background, school enrollments and graduates, wealth, employment and unemployment, and state/local government revenues and expenditures
* Enrollments: state-by-state profiles of full-time-equivalent students by type of college or university, college participation rates, and head counts of students by sex, age, race/ethnic group, level of institution, student level and student attendance status
* Degrees Earned: state-by-state profiles of associate's, bachelor's, master's, doctoral and first-professional degrees awarded by sex, race/ethnic group and broad field of study, student persistence and progression rates, and patents issued to colleges and universities
* Tuition and Student Financial Aid: state-by-state profiles of median annual tuition and fees by type of college or university, Pell Grants, campus-based and Guaranteed Student Loan allocations and recipients, and state scholarship and grant funds
* Faculty and Administrators: state-by-state profiles of all staff (full-time and part-time) and of full-time instructional faculty and administrators by sex, race/ethnic group, and type of college or university, plus average salaries and fringe benefits for administrators by type of college or university or by teaching field
* College Budgets: state-by-state profiles of state/local government and tuitions and fees funding per full-time-equivalent student by type of college or university, state tax funds for higher education-related expenses, revenue and expenditure distributions, and federal funds to colleges and universities, including research and development

Source: William R. Beardslee, Mary Watson Avery, Catherine Ayoub, and Caroline L. Watts, Zero to Three, Vol. 29 no. 6, July 2009
(subscription required)

Early Head Start/Head Start teachers and staff encounter parents who have wrestled with depression and other adversities every day. This article describes an innovative program of trainings for and consultation to Early Head Start/Head Start staff to help them effectively deal with mental heath challenges faced by parents and children. The program is strength-based and has been used successfully in nine centers in the Boston area.

Source: Amanda Cuda, HR News, Vol. 75 no. 6, June 2009
(subscription required) (scroll down)

Hamburger University. The very words inspire a smirk of recognition. Even those who aren't big fans of the fast food giant McDonald's have heard of these institutions, which school restaurant employee in the finer points of the burger business. Of course, McDonald's isn't the only company that has its own institution of higher corporate learning. The communications company Motorola has its own university, as does automotive manufacturer Toyota and other corporations.

Over the past few decades, companies like these have latched onto the idea of corporate learning centers as a way to create a stronger workforce. According to the 1997 article "The evolution of learning strategies in organizations: From employee development to business redefinition," which appeared in the journal The Academy of Management Executive, corporate learning has long been deemed an essential part of organizational success. The article states that, with so many changes in the corporate world, including the growing role of technology, employees and employers both need to be learning constantly to stay competitive and relevant in today's workforce. Places like the aforementioned universities were created to fill that need.

But what about employers from the public sector? Governments and other agencies also have been affected by the ascendance of technology and other changes. What are they doing to keep workers current and qualified? Have any of them established their own universities or learning centers to help deepen their employees' knowledge base? The short answer is yes...and no.
See also:
Training vs. Cost Savings: Is it Even a Choice?
Source: Amanda Cuda, HR News, Vol. 75 no. 6, June 2009
(subscription required) (scroll down)

Source: National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education, 2009

Among the report's other findings:

* Public elementary and secondary enrollment is projected to increase to 54 million in 2018. Over the period of 2006 to 2018, the South is projected to experience the largest increase (18 percent) in the number of students enrolled.

* The rate of college enrollment immediately after high school completion increased from 49 percent in 1972 to 67 percent by 1997, but has since fluctuated between 62 and 69 percent.

* The percentage of 25- to 29-year-olds who had completed a bachelor's degree or higher increased from 17 to 29 percent between 1971 and 2000 and was 31 percent in 2008.

* Women accounted for 57 percent of the bachelor's degrees and 62 percent of all associate's degrees awarded in the 2006-07 academic year.
See also:
Highlights

Source: Rob Linné, Adrienne Andi Sosin, and Leigh Benin, New Labor Forum, Vol. 18 no. 2, Spring 2009
(subscription required)

From the abstract:
In The American Pageant, a widely used U.S. history textbook for high school students, the authors imply that the labor movement is no longer relevant:

Organized labor withered along with the smokestack industries in which it had previously flourished. Some observers concluded that the trade union movement had played out its historic role of empowering workers and ensuring economic justice in the industrial age, and that it would gradually disappear altogether in the new post-industrial era.

This dismissal of the labor movement as a vital part of our culture and society is typical of school discourse across the United States. The de facto curriculum, created by corporate textbook publishers, usually presents labor organization as a historically circumscribed response to unique economic conditions of a distant past. Content analysis studies of commonly used textbooks have found that the role of the labor movement in our history and culture is minimized and decontextualized. At best, what students learn is gleaned from a few school lessons on the Industrial Revolution and the Great Depression, which teach labor unions as historical artifacts with little contemporary relevance. At worst, students assimilate the negative stereotypes about labor that spring from conservative advocacy groups and continue to flood our mass culture.

Fortunately, some educators and unionists have developed promising approaches to teaching about the American labor movement. This article will discuss and analyze three related but distinct avenues for teaching students about labor's indispensable struggle for economic and social justice: (1) unions reaching out directly to youth; (2) teacher unions becoming active in integrating labor issues into the K-12 schools; and (3) union involvement and participation in education.

Source: Sara Mead, New America Foundation, May 2009

In April, the states and school districts began receiving the first installment of more than $48 billion in federal economic stimulus funds for education and child care appropriated under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA). This unprecedented federal investment in education--from early childhood through college--is a tremendous opportunity for state and local investments to improve our nation's schools. The danger is that states and school districts may squander these funds on ill-conceived projects or use them simply to maintain the status quo. It is critical that the states and school districts make wise decisions about how to spend the stimulus funds, using them not only to maintain educational services and jobs during the current economic downturn but also to institute lasting reforms that will yield ongoing gains in student learning and help fuel America's long-term economic growth.

Source: Kristin Maloney, Education Commission of the States, May 2009

Prior to the passage of the ARRA, states faced budgetary shortfalls that forced cuts to postsecondary budgets. Since the passage of ARRA, state agencies and postsecondary education staff are relieved that many postsecondary budget cuts can be restored. A new ECS StateNote states that caution should be used when spending State Fiscal Stabilization Funds on programs or positions that require recurring funds. If states are not careful and thoughtful about how stabilization money is spent, they will face similar financial issues in two years.