Moscow Education (Idaho)

As reported in today's edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

The new marketing and recruitment package is part of the university’s new Strategic Communications Initiative, which is likely to cause ripple effects throughout the region as it launches this fall. As the UI attempts to attract students, it simultaneously draws in more residents, more customers, even more volunteers.

“We rely on that, those students and strong enrollment numbers, to help drive this local economy in so many ways,” Kimmell said.

The four-year initiative began with a research phase last year. Now in year two, the UI is taking the campaign public with fresh recruitment and branding materials like viewbooks, billboards, radio ads, and even television commercials.

The UI’s need for a successful campaign increased this year as the total fall enrollment dropped 5.9 percent — from 12,476 students at last year’s 10-day count to 11,739 students this fall.

On the Moscow campus, that decline was seen in an enrollment of 10,682 students, which is down from 11,310 students last year.

Low enrollment is a serious matter, because it plays a key role in the funding that comes to the university through student fees, tuition, etc. It also hits local businesses that rely on student customers.

UI Vice President for Finance and Administration Lloyd Mues said when enrollment goes down, “we have to raise more, charge more, or stop services.”

In 2006, student monies accounted for about 11.3 percent of the university’s budget, or $39 million out of a $343 million budget, he said.

Mues can’t yet predict how the change will affect the university’s budget because the composition of the students is different this year. Full-time, part-time, in-state, out-of-state, undergraduate, graduate … There are several factors that impact funding and how much the students bring into campus, he said.

“We’re concerned about any drop in student fees,” Mues said.

I hope for UI’s sake that this marketing push works. But it takes a whole lot more than glossy marketing gimmicks to attract students. Every university has that…

This should concern Americans, given the tendency of certain influential members of the federal judiciary to place international legal precedents above the U.S. Constitution. From CNS News:

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Sept. 18 ruled that German restrictions on religious-motivated home-schooling do not violate human rights, a decision that American religious rights groups fear could influence U.S. domestic policy.

A German family filed a complaint alleging that their freedoms were violated by a German law requiring attendance in public or state-sanctioned private schools. The family's religious beliefs are opposed to some topics addressed in state-sponsored education, including sex education and mythological fairy tales.

Instead, the parents attempted to educate their children at home using a Christian syllabus developed by the "Philadelphia school," a Siegen, Germany, institution that is not recognized by the German government as a legitimate private school.

But the ECHR ruled that the objectives of a state-sanctioned education "cannot be equally met by home education" and that the law didn't violate the family's religious freedoms.

The court wrote that it was in the "general interest of society to avoid the emergence of parallel societies based on separate philosophical convictions and the importance of integrating minorities into society."

It ruled that the parents were allowed to educate their children from a religious perspective "after school and at weekends. Therefore, the parent's right to education in conformity with their religious convictions is not restricted in a disproportionate manner."

Some American religious rights groups worry that the decision could influence U.S. policy on religious home schooling by encouraging liberal-minded judges who increasingly rely on international law instead of American law.

"The decision by the European Court of Human Rights opens the door to continued prosecution," said Benjamin Bull, a lawyer with the America-based Alliance Defense Fund, "and should highlight to Americans the extreme dangers of allowing international law to be authoritative in our own court systems."

OK, let me get this right. Idaho just raised the sales tax from 5% to 6% so that all that money could go to the schools. In doing so, they lowered the Idaho property taxes.

But MSD wants to raise the property taxes. I wonder if they will have a campaign saying that they are not raising property taxes — just keeping them the same. They tried that during the high school bond levy. “Let’s get this bond passed before the supplemental levy goes away; then we can tell everyone that we’re not increasing their taxes.” As if voting for a levy isn’t an increase in taxes?

This supplemental levy just must be because their doors are being blown off by all the new students enrolling in the Moscow public schools.

Oh, wait, that’s not it…

Kate said it best here last year:

"If the MSD lived within their means and thought ahead like normal people they would already have the money for "repairs and faculties" set aside. I, for one, will not voluntarily chip in one thin dime extra for MSD."

As reported in Wednesday's edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Moscow voters likely will see a supplemental maintenance and operations levy election for the Moscow School District next spring, but no election is scheduled for a facilities bond.

Superintendent Candis Donicht told school board members at a Tuesday meeting the draft of the annual audit shows a need to increase the district’s supplemental levy. She said she plans to recommend at the October meeting that the district hold a spring election for an increase of roughly $1 million.

“That should hold us for about five years,” Donicht said.

The need for an increase comes every four to seven years due to inflation and the rising costs of doing business, she said.

“We are right there on that threshold,” Donicht said.

The district’s current supplemental levy is set at $5.646 million, with the last increase of $1.1 million approved by voters in April 2002. It accounts for roughly one-third of the district’s maintenance and operations budget, Donicht said.

The levy pays for maintenance and operations within the district that aren’t covered by state funds.

The district has an indefinite-term levy that was approved by Moscow voters in 1992. [DMC: Can you imagine how crazy it is to vote for an indefinite levy? Hello! How do you get rid of it?]

“Indefinite term” means the levy does not have to be approved by voters each year. Instead, voters see elections only when the district wants to increase the amount of the levy. A majority of voters must approve the increase for any change to occur.

This affects the district’s facilities planning because both supplemental levies and bond levies must be approved by voters.

Donicht worked with a Facilities Task Force throughout the past year to review and establish plans for a facilities bond to improve the school buildings at West Park and Russell Elementary schools, as well as Paradise Creek Regional High School.

An election had been tentatively set for May, but the board decided to halt any further action when research revealed community members were split by different priorities and a two-thirds majority vote on any of the plans seemed unlikely.

Donicht said the recurring theme was that the community wants something to be done, but it doesn’t agree on what.

Now that the members of the task force are returning from their summer vacations, Donicht wanted to know what the task force’s assignment for the year ahead would be.

After much discussion, the board decided to put into motion a review of the April 2005 bond measure for $29 million, which had failed to receive two-thirds majority. [DMC: Kate Baldwin wrote this article. But this sentence is a gross understatement. That bond only received 44% support. That’s different than just failing to receive 67%]

Dawn Fazio, board chairwoman, said it was the most economical and forward-thinking of all of the plans from the past few years.

“I still think it solves all of our problems,” she said. [DMC: Read “give us your money; money solves everything”]

Board member Paul Weingartner agreed, saying that it would have been “a much more feasible long-term plan” than what was presented last year.

“There was not enough time to sell it … and explain how it answered the problems of the district,” he said.

He wanted the task force to revisit the plan but consider a new piece of property for any new construction. He also asked that the district either use existing land assets or trade them to acquire a new site.

The board also asked for the active engagement of community members in the construction of a revamped plan.

Weingartner suggested the task force use the former plan as a template, but also expect it to evolve over the next few years.

“Consensus is something you work towards, it is not something you assess,” he said. “I think consensus is something that is achievable.”

Even a little accountability and competition work. From The Economist.

Many educators acknowledge that over the past 30 years Alberta has quietly built the finest public education system in Canada. The curriculum has been revised, stressing core subjects (English, science, mathematics), school facilities and the training of teachers have been improved, clear achievement goals have been set and a rigorous province-wide testing programme for grades three (aged 7-8), six (10-11), nine (13-14) and twelve (16-17) has been established to ensure they are met.

It is all paying off. Alberta's students regularly outshine those from other Canadian provinces: in 2004 national tests, Alberta's 13- and 16-year-olds ranked first in mathematics and science, and third in writing. And in international tests they rank alongside the best in the world: in the OECD's 2003 PISA study, the province's 15-year-olds scored among the top four of 40 countries in mathematics, reading and science (see table).

Elsewhere in Canada, especially British Columbia and Ontario, dissatisfaction with public-school standards is increasingly driving parents to pack their children off to private schools. Over the past decade, the proportion of students in such schools has risen by 20% in Canada as a whole, and double that in Ontario. But the private system does not have the same appeal in Alberta, where some 80% of parents say they are happy with the public schools.

This is especially true in the province's capital of Edmonton, which is noted for its innovative system stressing choice, accountability and competition. Funding there is based on the number of students in a school. Each school controls its own budget, spending money on its own educational priorities (such as improving aboriginal-student results), while following the provincial curriculum. Students are free to (and 57% do) attend any school in the city, not just in their own neighbourhood. They can seek out schools specialising in the arts, sports, leadership skills, girls-only education, aboriginal culture, Mandarin, and many other alternative programmes-or simply choose the schools with the best academic results. Students in every grade are tested annually and their scores published.

The results are also used to improve teaching. There is currently a citywide push to ensure that all children in Edmonton can read competently by grade three (88% now can). Far from fearing private-school competition, the city's public system has embraced it: it has already absorbed three private religious schools (two Christian, one Hebrew). "In Edmonton," says Angus McBeath, the city's recently retired schools chief, "the litmus test is that the rich send their kids to the public schools, not the private schools."

Another litmus test is the extent to which Edmonton's ideas are being studied by educators from elsewhere (mostly the United States, but some also from Ontario and British Columbia) and are now being emulated. Pilot projects on the Edmonton model have already been launched by school boards in Colorado Springs, Oakland and New York City.

All this is not to say that they have all the answers in Alberta. Their rigorous measurement scheme has revealed that schools still need to do a lot better teaching aboriginal and immigrant children and ensuring that more students finish high school. At present, about 30% of students drop out early, compared with 25% for the country as a whole. That, Alberta's educators admit, is an embarrassing statistic. But in the province's red-hot economy, a 17-year-old with a driver's licence can drop out and easily make C$60,000 ($53,300) a year driving a lorry serving an oil-drilling camp. That's tough competition.

HT: Jack Wenders

From the WSJ Opinion Journal:

"I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power."

Thomas Jefferson     
letter to William Charles Jarvis     
Sept. 20, 1820

So how is America's modern education system doing in this regard? Are our citizens enlightened enough to exercise the powers of our democracy? Do our colleges and universities provide their students the American history and constitutional understanding needed to make them strong and responsible citizens?

A study released this week by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute--www.americancivicliteracy.org--demonstrates that the answers to both questions are no. The study concludes that "America's colleges and universities fail to increase knowledge about America's history and institutions." In a 60-question multiple-choice quiz ,"college seniors failed the civic literacy exam, with an average score of 53.2 percent, or F, on a traditional grading scale." And at many schools "seniors know less than freshmen about America's history, government, foreign affairs, and economy." (Disclosure: I am a member of the ISI's Civic Literacy Board, though I was not involved in preparing this survey.)

Read the entire article. It should tick you off at how government money is being spent and what we’re (not) getting back (or in some cases, are) for it.

HT: Tim T.

From our Representative Tom Trail:

One should keep an eye on the enrollment trends in S.E. Idaho. The enrollment at BYU-Idaho in Rexburg is over 15,000, and experts predict that within a few years it will overtake BSU and thus become the largest institution of higher learning in Idaho.

The 9% drop in enrollment at ISU may be partially attributed competition with BYU-Idaho.

From the Detroit Free Press.

Take your antacid before reading. This is a doozie.

Schools across the state are pulling out all the stops -- with some offering iPod music players and even lunch with a rap star -- to lure students to class Wednesday, the day the state takes attendance to calculate funding.

The practice of offering incentives is not new in Michigan, but the stakes have gotten higher in districts like Mount Clemens, Detroit and Pontiac, which have seen double-digit student enrollment declines over the last six years.

With as much as 90 percent of some districts' budgets coming from the state, enticements this year range from an ice cream social at Washington Academy in Mount Clemens to pizza for adult education students in Ferndale, to the chance to win lunch with Atlanta rapper Yung Joc in Detroit.

"For school districts, the count on that day is so essential to their bottom line," said Stephanie Hall, spokeswoman for Ferndale Public Schools. "If they feel they can bring in some students to that day, then they'll offer anything to make it fun that day."

While school officials say they don't have a choice, some observers frown on treats and prizes, saying it amounts to bribery.

Since 1994, state aid dollars have been allocated based on enrollment, which is measured on just two days of the year -- the fourth Wednesday of September and the second Wednesday of the previous February. State funding per student varies from district to district, mostly ranging from about $6,000 to $11,000. With district boundaries becoming obsolete because of Schools of Choice and charter schools, the competition for state dollars has become intense.

Some experts believe offers of enticements are sending the wrong message about education.

"It's valuing attendance over participation," said Tim Dodd, executive director for Duke University's Center for Academic Integrity. "What we want is students there learning, and not here eating pizza and winning iPods," he said.

HT: EIA Intercepts

From Vincent over at WorldMagBlog:

According to a Sept. 19 report on Stateline.org, a journalistic arm of the Pew Research Center, the number of single-gender public schools has shot from five to at least 241 over the past decade. Title IX, in 1972, sharply limited gender-exclusive classroom programs, but the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act allowed federal money to be used for innovative single-gender programs that sought to apply scientific findings about differences in the way boys and girls learn. The DOE will soon issue guidelines to smooth out snags and quell the threat of civil liberties lawsuits.

The following story of interest was in today's Spokesman Review (subscription required):

One of the chief researchers at the University of Idaho whose ties to two private companies were criticized by auditors says he and others were subjected to a "public tar-and-feathering" that will discourage economic development arising from university research.

Until last summer, Jody Gambles was a researcher at the Center for Advanced Microelectronics and Biomolecular Research in Post Falls. He was also one of the owners, along with center director Gary Maki, of a private company that marketed CAMBR research and shared profits with employees at the center.

The Dec. 7, 2005, audit cited several conflicts of interest involved in the relationship. The UI put a halt to the profit sharing and implemented a variety of other changes to improve internal controls. The audit was released Monday after a public records request from The Spokesman-Review.

In an interview last week, Gambles said that while the audit identified some bookkeeping problems, CAMBR had disclosed its relationship with the company and charged it rent, and its employees didn't improperly benefit or use public resources in pursuit of financial gain. He said it's not improper for researchers to own stock or have financial interests in a related company, as long as such relationships are fully disclosed.

Such relationships are inevitable, he said, if universities are to participate in technology transfer – the spinoff of research into patents and startup businesses. Like a lot of research universities, the UI encourages its scientists to look for tech transfer opportunities, partly as a way to bring in revenues for the school and inventors.

Gambles said the UI is still shell-shocked over the problems from its University Place project, a troubled attempt to expand in Boise that raised a host of conflict of interest problems among the university, its fundraising foundation, its attorneys and others. That project largely fell apart in 2002, and the fallout led to job cuts and financial difficulties throughout the university.

"The primary mind-set at the University of Idaho today has remained rooted in the Boise project, having gone through a situation where they had to sue their own attorneys over conflict of interest issues," he said. "They now seem to have the position that no conflict of interest can be managed."

That has "paralyzed the ability to do tech transfer" at the UI, he said.

This question sounds like the same one that Moscow’s liberals used to ask — then stopped asking because they found out the answer and didn’t like it.

From EIA:

Detroit school officials are in a panic because next Wednesday is the day the state counts the number of students enrolled to determine the amount of state funding each district gets. And, due to the illegal 16-day teachers' strike, enrollment is roughly 25,000 students below projections.

It's a measure of just how much of a mess Detroit is in that people can't decide whether this is actually true, or a manipulation of the numbers by various players in order to apply political pressure.

Daniel Howes of the Detroit News nails it with his assessment. After noting that since 1994, Detroit's enrollment dropped 23 percent, but its per-pupil revenue increased 94 percent, Howes spells it out for everyone involved:

"No work means fewer students. Fewer students beget less money. Less money
promises fewer jobs. Those are pretty powerful economics, which overwhelm all
the picket signs, finger-pointing and administrative begging now under way, just
days from the dreaded 'count day' that determines state funding."

UPDATE: Something is rotten in the state of Michigan. Where did the 25,000 students go?

From The Education Intelligence Agency.

From EIA:

Financially, the National Education Association fills a redistribution role for its members and affiliates. By collecting dues in an equal amount from everyone, the national union can then disburse the funds in unequal amounts depending on needs, politics and internal imperatives.

 

So it's unusual to find one state affiliate contributing directly to another. Yet the Maine Education Association donated $500 last month to the Idaho Education Association in support of the latter's ballot initiative campaign. Proposition 1 would raise the state's sales tax and direct the funds to public schools.

 

Five hundred dollars isn't much, but Maine teachers might want to know why their state dues are winging their way to a political campaign 2,800 miles away.

From The Education Intelligence Agency.

The following article ran in Sunday’s Lewiston Tribune (subscription required).

A proposal for a new public charter school will be considered by the Moscow School Board at its Oct. 9 meeting, starting at 7 p.m.

The Palouse Prairie School is slated to open next fall and may serve as many as 70 or more students in kindergarten through sixth grade.

Bill Rivers, board chairman for the proposed new school, said the plan is to bring more educational choice to Moscow, and, in particular, the Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound program.

"This all started from educators who have been associated with this model before," Rivers said during a recent interview.

"They were so excited, they wanted to see it available to local kids. ... The school district itself is limited in its ability to innovate and try new methods. We are really excited about this specific method of teaching kids the love of learning at an early age so they can take that through their whole life."

Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound is a New York-based organization that helps schools develop a program that combines rigorous academic content with real-world projects, active teaching and community service. The program has been adopted in more than 140 schools nationwide and was the original model for the Renaissance Charter School in Moscow, which closed two years ago.

Rivers said the Renaissance Charter School failure was due to financial and administrative problems and was not related to the learning program.

"We've built our charter so that we can take that information and build a stronger governance piece so the board can't be taken over by a small group of individuals with their own agenda," Rivers said.

Idaho's public charter school law was enacted in 1998 and, as of the 2005-2006 school year, statewide there were 24 charter schools with 8,209 students enrolled.

The Moscow Charter School -- the state's first -- is thriving, with more than 100 students enrolled in kindergarten through sixth grade. The only other public charter school in this area is the Idaho Distance Education Academy based at Deary -- a virtual school that has nearly 1,000 students and is in its third year of operation.
…
But first things first. If the Moscow school board does not approve the charter, the school will then apply to the Idaho State Board of Education, which can approve it or defer to the state charter school commission.

Rivers said he expects the school will attract more applications for enrollment than it can accept.

"There's no way to know," he said. "We started this with about 15 core families and it's been advertised a lot since then. I expect it will be like any other (Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound) school and it will be overflowing with a waiting list."

Educational choice is a good thing. I chuckle to watch liberals (who are pro-choice) flail when they actually get some real choice opportunities.

From the WSJ:

Schools of education have gotten bad grades before. Yet there are some truly shocking statistics about teacher training in this week's report from the Education Schools Project. According to "Educating School Teachers," three-quarters of the country's 1,206 university-level schools of education don't have the capacity to produce excellent teachers. More than half of teachers are educated in programs with the lowest admission standards (often accepting 100% of applicants) and with "the least accomplished professors." When school principals were asked to rate the skills and preparedness of new teachers, only 40% on average thought education schools were doing even a moderately good job.

The Education Schools Project was begun in 2001, with foundation funding, to analyze how America trains its educators and to offer constructive criticism. Its report card this week is significant for two reasons.

• First, it is based on four years of broad and methodical research, including surveys of school principals and of the deans, faculty members and graduates of education schools.
• In addition, researchers studied programs and practices at 28 institutions. No matter how many establishment feathers get ruffled by the results of these inquiries, miffed educators can't easily brush off the basic findings: There are glaring flaws and gaps in our teacher-training system.

The study also comes at a uniquely challenging moment in American education. The final report was written by ESP director Arthur Levine, a former president of Columbia's Teacher's College. Mr. Levine notes that we're currently facing a national shortage of nearly 200,000 teachers -- at the same time that, "to compete in a global marketplace and sustain a democratic society, the United States requires the most educated population in history." Society now demands that teaching success be measured no longer by what children have studied but by what they have actually learned. [DMC: Now there’s a novel idea!] (A copy of "Educating Teachers" is at www.edschools.org.)

The report's most stunning revelation -- to outsiders at least -- is that nobody knows what makes a good teacher today. Mr. Levine compares the training universe to "Dodge City." There is an "unruly" mix of approaches, chiefly because there is no consensus on how long teachers should study, for instance, or whether they should concentrate on teaching theory or mastering subject matter. Wide variations in curricula, and fads -- like the one that produced the now- discredited "fuzzy math" -- make things worse. Compare such chaos with the training for professions such as law or medicine, where, Mr. Levine reminds us, nobody is unleashed on the public without meeting a universally acknowledged requisite body of knowledge and set of skills.

Mr. Levine also outlines many recommendations. Some seem obvious: more in-classroom training, for instance. Some are perennial: The report notes that one way to attract the best and the brightest to teaching would be to pay them the same salaries as other professionals -- although it more realistically mentions special scholarships and merit pay as alternative incentives. The report also reveals that many failing teacher programs operate as "cash cows" for universities, which encourage their education departments to admit (and graduate) almost anybody for the sake of tuition dollars. It suggests closing some of these schools and directing students toward more rigorous academic institutions. Some critics in the education establishment already have labeled that idea "elitist," saying that it would deprive many people of a chance to become teachers.

Yet there's one idea that seems more important and urgent than the others. That is the recommendation that all states begin collecting information about how much their schoolchildren have learned from kindergarten through high school so it can be correlated with information about how their teachers were trained. Until this fundamental question is explored and answered -- what kind of training produces teachers who get the best results from their children -- we'll be holding classes in the dark.

Dr. Jack Wenders has written about the latter—what’s the value added by teachers? And at what cost?

HT: Jack Wenders

While this story focuses on Pullman/Whitman County, the same argument could probably be made for Latah County as well.

As reported in today's edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Educators are expecting a teacher shortage in the next few years as more baby boomers retire.

That, coupled with No Child Left Behind laws that require educators to have a degree in every subject they teach, could pose challenges for local school districts.

“It will hit rural schools particularly hard,” said Judy Mitchell, dean of the College of Education at Washington State University.

For example, Colfax schools might have a teacher who has a degree in general science. That person might previously have taught chemistry, physics or advanced anatomy as well, which wouldn’t be permitted under NCLB requirements, said Colfax Superintendent Michael Morgan.

He said all of Colfax’s teachers currently meet the NCLB requirements for having a degree in every subject they teach, or are “highly qualified,” as mandated by NCLB.

However, Morgan said the “highly qualified” part of the equation could become a problem as more experienced teachers retire and are replaced by younger teachers.

“Our biggest problem is going to be having a staff that can teach multiple (subjects),” he said.

Teachers in Washington used to be able to teach two periods “out of field,” Mitchell said, meaning teachers certified to teach math might be able to teach physics if they held a minor in the subject.

I’m no expert in the NCLB law, but as I recall there is an exemption to various requirements based on school size.

And having attended government school and having my high school English teacher be the head football coach who had a degree in physical education (and seemed to never have taken an English class in his entire life), I can tell you that having teachers who actually majored in their subject is vital.

I wish they would just do away with all of the Colleges of Education and require that teachers be competent in the subjects that they teach.

Again, it seems most of my high school teachers taught classes as a collateral duty (to their coaching jobs), not as their primary responsibility. I don’t know how many others experienced this same thing.

Every fall about 1.4 million high school students take the PSAT (Preliminary SAT)/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (NMSQT) in the United States. Of those students, about 50,000, or about the top five percent, are recognized for academic awards. About 16,000 of those students go on to be Semi-finalists, eligible to apply for Finalist standing.

Among our twenty-five Logos juniors (now seniors) who took the test last October, three students were recognized for awards:

*Cecilia Hui and Brian Kohl were commended for being in the top five percent of national scores.

*Samuel Dickison was selected as a Semi-Finalist and has applied for Finalist standing.

Congratulations to these students and their families! Well done!

The following letter to the editor appeared in today’s Lewiston Tribune:

Once again, Republicans accuse Democrats of saying more money is all public schools need. [Watch how this line morphs in the article]

That was a statement made by state Rep. Debbie Field, R-Boise -- the spokesperson for Congressman Butch Otter's campaign for Idaho governor.

Money from the state is always appreciated, but from my experience in the Legislature and serving the last four years on the House Education Committee, money was not the main topic.

It was seldom discussed.

What we did hear was professional educators from all parts of our public school system and from all parts of our state helping committee members be aware of the problems that must be dealt with daily: the lack of qualified signers for the hard-of-hearing students in our schools, the increased number of foreign language-speaking students, the increased need to have support staff to help in our overcrowded classrooms and mentoring for the new teachers who enter our system every year.

Yes, these needs cost money, but before reform comes -- as was suggested by Rep. Field -- we need to correct the needs we have right now.

I enjoyed working with Field on many noneducation issues in the Legislature. But neither she nor Congressman Otter sat in our Education Committee meetings.

Mike P. MITCHELL, Lewiston
Democrat Mitchell represents Idaho's 7th District, Nez Perce County, in the Idaho House.

Did Mitchell not just say that Dems are accused of saying it’s all about the money; then this Dem turns around says they need more money before they can reform?

Good grief.

The following ad ran in yesterday’s Moscow-Pullman Daily News:

Yea, now there’s one for all homeschool parents to jump on: the opportunity for State testing.

From Delaware Online: “No more teachers, no more books: 'Educators' lead School of the Future, and 'learners' all have laptops”.

Students enter this city's newest public high school through an invisible metal detector. They swipe "smart cards" to open their lockers, stowing jackets as they head to class with laptop computers.

They carry no textbooks. Visitors won't find bound volumes lining library shelves either. Wireless Internet allows students to access reference materials from everywhere in the building, from the food court to the locker room.

Welcome to the Microsoft-designed School of the Future, which opened to its inaugural class of 170 freshmen this month. Government-funded and built on a typical budget -- $63 million -- the three-story, 163,000-square-foot school bordering Fairmount Park is anything but traditional.

"Information is available anytime, anyplace," said Mary Cullinane, Microsoft's director of U.S. Partners in Learning.

Classroom furniture is on wheels, making it easy to rearrange desks from rows to pods to a large circle. Instead of using blackboards or overhead projectors, instructors project Web sites, Word documents and teaching materials on interactive white boards.

Microsoft designed software so teachers can send quizzes to students' laptops. If they answer questions correctly, the program directs them to more in-depth material. When they struggle, they link to remedial lessons.

I’m skeptical — for numerous reasons.

The All-American Colleges book is finally out. Recall that New Saint Andrews College was featured prominently as one of the nation’s top 50 “All-American Colleges”.

One interesting blurb on the back cover says,

"Schools like these produced America's founders, and it's on such colleges that our country's future depends."

And this from the editor's intro:

"You might be surprised to learn that some of the best schools we have found--academically, socially, spiritually-- happen to be less well-known to high school guidance counselors than the fifty "top" schools ranked by selectivity. But think of these colleges as if they were fine wines from regions not yet trumpeted by the critics, or as if they were important authors too long overlooked just as Melville and Hawthorne were once all but forgotten). These schools have mostly stayed true to their founding visions, attracting scholars and students who aren't driven by fashionable trends and academic fads. By flying "under the radar," they have evaded the pressure to conform, retaining their individual characters. Here you will find schools that really are devoted to such glorious particularities as the Great Books, the Bible, Thomist philosophy, Mennonite peacemaking, Southern military traditions, or Quaker theology. But above all, you'll encounter colleges devoted to the vision of formation in the liberal arts outlined by John Henry Newman in his seminal work The Idea of a University."

John Zmirak, "How (and Why) to Use This Guide," All-American Colleges: Top Schools for Conservatives, Old-Fashioned Liberals, and People of Faith, (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2006), pp. ix-x).

You can order a copy over at ISI Books.

This update from today's Idaho Statesman:

The University of Idaho has removed all non-university operations from its northern Idaho research park after an audit revealed state and university policy violations in the park's relationship with two private businesses.

The audit by the Moscow, Idaho-based school found broad conflicts of interest between employees at the Center for Advanced Microelectronics and Biomolecular Research, or CAMBR, and two companies, "which contributed to misuse of university facilities, equipment and personnel to further private business interests."

One of the companies was ICs LLC, which is owned by the research park's director, Gary Maki, as well as Jody Gambles, previously a researcher at CAMBR.

From the Associated Press:

A federal judge has said a lawsuit brought by a former University of Idaho football player against U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, the Department of Homeland Security and others can move forward.

U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge made the ruling in a written order Monday.

Abdullah al-Kidd, who played for the Vandals under the name Lavoni Kidd, contends that in 2003 the government wrongfully arrested him as a material witness in its unsuccessful computer terrorism case against a fellow student, Sami Omar Al-Hussayen.

A jury acquitted Al-Hussayen of using his computer skills to foster terrorism and of three immigration violations in an eight-week federal trial. It deadlocked on eight other immigration charges, and Al-Hussayen — who was only months from finishing his doctorate study at the University of Idaho — was eventually deported to Saudi Arabia.

Al-Kidd was never actually called to testify in the case. But three weeks after Al-Hussayen had been arrested, al-Kidd was arrested at Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., as a material witness in the Al-Hussayen case. Al-Kidd had planned to board a flight to Saudi Arabia to begin studying Islam on a four-year scholarship. But federal prosecutors maintained that al-Kidd had testimony that was crucial to their case against Al-Hussayen, and said they feared if al-Kidd was allowed to leave the country he would not return for the trial.

Al-Kidd spent two weeks in jail before he was granted a detention hearing in Idaho, at which the judge agreed to release him into the custody of his wife. But al-Kidd was prohibited from traveling anywhere but Idaho, Washington, Nevada and California, and his public defenders said the restrictions and the detention cost al-Kidd his scholarship in Saudi Arabia as well as job opportunities.

Al-Kidd sued, alleging that he was falsely imprisoned, and that the government was guilty of abuse of process. He contended that the arrest warrant was invalid because in order to get it, the FBI gave wrong information about al-Kidd to a U.S. magistrate.

Specifically, the FBI allegedly told the judge that al-Kidd had only a one-way ticket to Saudi Arabia, when he had purchased a round-trip ticket. The FBI also allegedly failed to tell the judge that al-Kidd had a wife and children in the United States and that he was a U.S. citizen.

The University of Idaho has opened a new, $3.2 million biotechnology laboratory in Hagerman, Idaho.

From Northwest Public Radio:

The 13,000 square foot building was dedicated Thursday at the UI’s existing aquaculture research station in Hagerman, located in the Magic Valley along the Snake River. More than two hundred people saw UI President Tim White, Governor Jim Risch, and others dedicate the new facility.

Risch told the crowd that the new facility will increase the research capacity to develop profitable alternative means for aquaculture, key, he said, to economic development. Risch said the station is already known for its work in conservation biology of salmon, fish feed technology, and trout breeding for grain based diets.

Thursday’s dedication ceremony marked the end of an $18 million University of Idaho Biotechnology Campaign started in 1997. 

• Financial Aid at Flagship Public Universities Increases but Not as Much as Tuition and Fees: Median tuition rise is $465 greater than aid increase
• Students Attend College Closer to Home: Nine in 10 stay within 150 miles of home
• Fewer Small Colleges Now Require the SAT: One quarter of nation's top liberal arts college are now test-optional
• Home-Schoolers Face Challenges in Admissions Process: While admission rates are comparable, additional testing is sometimes required for home-schoolers
• New College Rankings Book Computes "Gay Point Average": Publication offers profiles of 100 LGBT-friendly schools

HT: Bev A.

The following article ran in today's Lewiston Tribune (subscription required).

The University of Idaho announced Monday it has discovered and recovered "inappropriately used" resources at its Post Falls research facility.

At question were $6,724.29 in public funds at the Center for Advanced Microelectronics and Biomolecular Research, or CAMBR.

The bulk of the sum, about $5,000, was in the form of university employee and equipment time given to a computer chip company, ICs of Post Falls, according to an internal audit conducted by the UI.

The audit also said CAMBR employees failed to appropriately disclose their ownership interests in another chip company, Concise Logic Inc. of Albuquerque, N.M., that was served by the research center.

"Within CAMBR there are employees who have numerous disclosed and nondisclosed conflicts of interest which contributed to misuses of university facilities, equipment and personnel to further private business interests," auditor Dolores Salesky wrote in the executive summary of her audit report dated Dec. 7, 2005.

Other funds were misused for travel and moving expenses, the audit concluded. Problems with timekeeping and nepotism were also cited. The audit said several family members of CAMBR employees were hired without competitive processes.

From the Associated Press:

Some teachers are getting antsy about the Idaho Standards Achievement Test exit exam, which will take a new form this spring after being rewritten by a new vendor.

This year's sophomore class will be the first that must pass the ISAT to graduate. Students have until their senior year to pass the exam at the 10th grade level. [DMC: I still don’t understand what everyone is up in arms about—the 12th graders cannot pass a 10th grade exam, yet the schools still want them to get a diploma?]

Students take the standardized test twice a year. In the fall, the scores are used to calculate how many students are meeting individual learning goals. The spring test gauges grade-level proficiency, with a 10th grade level now required to receive a diploma.

A 2005 study by the state Board of Education found deep flaws in the test, saying it asked questions in areas not typically considered "core standards" for students.

Last spring, the state dumped the ISAT's four-year vendor, Oregon-based Northwest Evaluation Association, and hired testing contractor Data Recognition Corp., of Maple Grove, Minn., to oversee the test. The two companies are working together to draft a fall test.

Data Recognition will draft a new test, which will be scored differently, for the spring exams.

The following letter to the editor appeared in today’s Lewiston Tribune:

I believe charter schools hurt children and communities.

The welfare of a community depends on the involvement of good people working to create a better world available to all. A good school invites every child to attend and provides each with the knowledge and skills needed for lives of choice and opportunity. A good school offers advantages to children who may have had few through no fault of their own and society benefits as it raises the quality of life for all.

A charter school invites the children of families who are seeking the best for their own children. It is not an effort to improve the lives of all. Charter schools are small -- they cannot serve many. Charters schools are independent -- their accomplishments do not become part of general education. Charter schools are exclusive -- they serve only the children of families who can seek them out and have the time and energy needed to run the schools. Charter schools are a burden -- a new charter school takes district staff time and its enrollment decreases the money available to educate the majority.

A charter school is an invitation to participate in a system of tiered education, where involved parents surround themselves with similarly involved parents. [DMC: Gasp! Parents surrounded with similarly involved parents!] As the involvement of families in the remaining schools declines, the perception of superior and inferior schools increases. Eventually, it becomes reality.

I believe we can create a world better than that we were born into, a place where it matters more what you give, than what you have. Having the best for your child is not as important as giving the best to all children.

Nancy Nelson, Moscow

I wonder what she thinks of homeschooling and private schooling. Also a detriment to society? Only good for a few?

But educational choice is good. Allow parents to select the best educational opportunities for their children and everyone will excel. Force them all to fit into one government mold and you know what you get: no diversity.

Instead of surrounding themselves with involved parents (and what’s wrong with that?), they surround themselves with non-involved parents. In homeschooling, parents are fairly involved (pun intended). Private schools are not under the restrictions of the State or of the Teachers Unions. Non-government schooling options allow the most freedom for true parental involvement.

But I’m sure Nelson and I are on the opposite side of the spectrum since I believe government schools hurt children and communities overall. The state can fund education without providing education.

World Magazine (subscription required) has an article by Janie Cheaney about the shift over the last 15 years from “girls are in trouble in school” to “boys are in trouble in school”.

Funny: some group is always in trouble in school.

Cheaney writes:

Male attendance on campus has declined every year, to the point where some colleges are considering a form of affirmative action to bring up their male enrollment. Social commentators worry about disaffected young men, conservatives wonder where the future leaders are, and young women find the mating pool decreased (whether or not they will admit to looking).
…
In government and in crime, at the box office and on the streets, in heroic rescues and in shooting sprees, men lead. And will continue to lead, one way or another. With an education system that respects their nature and curbs their baser instincts, men will lead society in a generally forward direction. Without that training they will lead into chaos, while women flee to interactive groups behind locked doors, wondering what went wrong.

This cannot and will not happen with our current government education system. It is built for women/girls; and anyone who acts like a boy is medicated into acting like a girl.

From the Associated Press:

BONNERS FERRY, Idaho -- When the school district in Boundary County, on the Idaho-Canada border, moved to a four-day school week, parents raised eyebrows.

But the 2005-2006 school year, the first Friday-less school season, saved the cash-strapped county $268,000. There was also better attendance and fewer disciplinary problems, said Superintendent Don Bartling.

He told the school board that teachers now are better trained, receiving instruction on Fridays, and students come to school after the long weekend more invigorated than ever.

"I was against the four-day week when it was first implemented, but now I am in favor of it," Bartling told the Bonner Daily Bee. "It has not hurt our students academically at all."

In the shortened school year, Boundary County District 101 met each of the 41 federal benchmarks tested by the No Child Left Behind Act, for the first time ever, said Brenda Walter, the district's curriculum director.

Attendance jumped 4.9 percent last year and all grades reported that students came to class more than 90 percent of the time.

Since Idaho allocates money to districts based partly on attendance figures, the district will receive an additional $160,000 during the 2006-2007 school year.

Boundary County also saved $108,000 by not paying to gas up buses, heat classrooms and cover other operating costs on Fridays.

The following letter to the editor appeared in today’s Moscow-Pullman Daily News:

As I suspected, the most recent complainers about the downtown presence of New Saint Andrews College offered no quantitative survey data regarding parking space abuse by NSA students and staff. Yet a specific number, 42, was set as the number of parking spaces the college must “find.” In a single leap of logic (?) the City Council went from the vague and unspecified to a definitive quantity. Impressive.

And by the way, where do Main Street merchants and their employees park? Yes, I know, their presence is inherently essential to downtown commerce, unlike the college students. But I still wonder.

Leonard C. Johnson, Moscow

This was in the Sacramento Bee.

The governing board for the California community college system on Monday voted unanimously to raise requirements for a two-year associate's degree, starting in the 2009 fall semester.

"We're not trying to train for dead-end, low-wage jobs," said Ian Walton, a math teacher at Mission College in Santa Clara and president of the Academic Senate.

Community college professors have pushed for the tougher standards since 1999. The requirements replace an old graduation standard that critics said was inappropriate and embarrassing for a higher education system that educates 2.5 million students in California.

Old requirements for an associate's degree were elementary algebra and an English course one level below freshman composition -- which is what it takes to get a high school diploma.

Those classes also weren't rigorous enough to transfer the credits to the state's public universities, California State University and University of California. (The new English standard is, but the new math standard still falls short.)

Board president George Caplan, an attorney from Los Angeles, said the move reflects the national rise in education standards.

"It's necessary. It's really necessary, otherwise our work force will be terribly unprepared," Caplan said.

I’m confused. Are they talking about community colleges training the workforce or educating their students?