Daily News Roundup, February 8, 2010

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Some of the News Fit to Print

FOR STUDENTS AT-RISK, EARLY COLLEGE PROVES A DRAW
More than 200 of early college schools are part of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Early College High School Initiative, and dozens of others, scattered throughout the nation, have sprung up as projects of individual school districts.

“As a nation, we just can’t afford to have students spending four years or more getting through high school, when we all know senior year is a waste,” said Hilary Pennington of the Gates Foundation, “then having this swirl between high school and college, when a lot more students get lost, then a two-year degree that takes three or four years, if the student ever completes it at all.” Most of the early college high schools are on college campuses, but some stand alone. Some are four years, some five. Most serve a low-income student body that is largely black or Latino. But all are small, and all offer free college credits as part of the high school program. The article is in The New York Times.

WITH STIMULUS MONEY GONE, MANY SCHOOLS FACE BUDGET GAPS
Federal stimulus money has helped avoid drastic cuts at public schools in most parts of the nation, at least so far. But with the federal money running out, many of the nation’s schools are approaching what officials are calling a “funding cliff.” Congress included about $100 billion for education in the stimulus law last year to cushion the recession’s impact on schools and to help fuel an economic recovery. New studies show that many states will spend all or nearly all that is left between now and the end of this school term. With state and local tax revenues still in decline, the end of the federal money will leave big holes in education budgets from Massachusetts and Florida to California and Washington, experts said. The article is in The New York Times.

DEBATE HEATS UP OVER REPLACING AYP METRIC IN ESEA
The Obama administration’s proposal to revamp the signature yardstick used to measure schools’ progress under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act is being seen as a bold step toward revising a key feature of the law, even as questions loom about how a new system would work. Under the plan, adequate yearly progress, or AYP—the accountability vehicle at the heart of the current version of the law, the 8-year-old No Child Left Behind Act—would be replaced with a new metric that would measure student progress toward readiness for college or a career. The premium article is in Education Week.

COLLEGE MAKES STUDENTS MORE LIBERAL, BUT NOT SMARTER ABOUT CIVICS
While many graduates of American colleges cannot answer basic civics questions, a higher education does make their opinions more liberal on controversial social issues, according to a new report issued on Friday by an academic think tank. The Intercollegiate Studies Institute, an independent group with a tradition-minded view of issues, asked about 2,500 randomly selected people more than 100 questions to gauge their civic knowledge, public philosophy, civic behavior, and demographics. “The Shaping of the American Mind,” the fourth report from the institute on civic literacy, will be formally released on Wednesday. Richard A. Brake, a co-author of the report, said he and his colleagues had sought to see what civic or social lessons students were learning in college. The article is in The Chronicle of Higher Education.