Online Smart School

Kelley Williams-Bolar made national headlines back in January when she was caught sending her two daughters across district lines from the woeful Akron Public Schools to the plusher Copley-Fairlawn School District. In the name of her cause, pitchforks were raised, battle trumpets were sounded, and petitions were signed—no fewer than eight “Save Kelley” Facebook pages were created.

And the same predictable tempest has already begun to brew around the case of Tonya McDowell, a Connecticut mother now fined over $15,000 for sending her son to a neighboring, out-of-bounds school district. Probably rightfully so. Both cases offer school-choice advocates clear examples of students and parents hurt by onerous and antiquated districting systems. They both offer a Rosa Parks-like poster child to prove how decent people are being hurt. Williams-Bolar was a student-teacher, working to become licensed in Ohio educator, clearly dedicated to K-12 education. And McDowell is homeless.

Where they diverge, and what is most interesting about McDowell’s situation, is in the last word of the previous sentence: homeless.

Per the McKinney-Vento Act (really, it’s just 185 pages of NCLB), homeless students must be allowed access to their “school of origin for the duration of their homelessness.” Details about McDowell’s situation have yet to surface, but out of the fog we learn a few key facts: McDowell and her son are homeless, splitting their time between a homeless shelter and a friend’s apartment in Bridgeport, CT. To attain access to the Norwalk Public Schools, McDowell used her babysitter’s address—an apartment in a housing project in Norwalk. It’s still unclear where the boy’s “school of origin” is. Further, per the M-V Act, “the choice regarding placement shall be made regardless of whether the child or youth lives with the homeless parents or has been temporarily placed elsewhere.” Is the temporary placement of the child in custody of the babysitter enough?

These are tricky issues, ones that the district’s homeless-student liaison (a required but often unfilled position in all district central offices), should have muddled through, and should have tackled jointly with McDowell before NPS slapped her with $15k in fines.

So, surely, the case of McDowell is one of school choice, but it also showcases some of the problematic complexities of educating homeless youth. I wonder if any “Save Tonya” Facebook groups will be created, and how many will bring this heady issue to the fore.

        When it opens in Issaquah, Wash., in September, zHome will be the first multifamily, zero-energy, carbon-neutral community in the United States. Issaquah is located about 13 miles east of Seattle.   A collaborative effort of several organizations and companies, including the Washington State University Energy Program, zHome is a template for what 21st century, carbon-neutral housing will look like.   It will use:
* Zero net energy by balancing its carbon emissions throughout the year.
* 70 percent less water than a typical home.
* Materials that come from some of the greenest sources possible.  

Read more at the Issaquah Press online here. Visit the zHome website here.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently released a report outlining the top 10 jobs that will require qualified workers. There are more than a million new jobs expected to be available in 2018, and according to the report, there are not enough workers to fill them.

For more of the following jobs, there is some level of training involved, but often less than a four year degree.

1. Biomedical Engineer

Job Growth: 12,000 new jobs by 2018
Salary: $$82,550 mean; $103,000 for scientific and technical consultants

Biomedical Engineers design and build devices for the medical industry, as well as improving existing processes and equipment. With new technological advances and the healthcare industry set to experience a boom, biomedical engineers will be hugely in demand.

Training for this career requires an interest in math, science and engineering. Engineering and biology are required subjects and a masters degree is a must.

2. Network Systems and Data Communications Analyst

Job Growth: 53 percent, or 156,000 new jobs by 2018
Salary: $76,560 mean; $99,000 in top industries (rail transportation, natural gas); $105,000 in technical areas.

Analysts maintain and control I.T. departments and design, create, test and maintain information systems.

Certificates are useful when applying for a job in this area but many of the skills are teachable.

3. Home Health Aid

Job Growth: 461,000 new jobs by 2018
Salary: $21,620 mean; up to $40,000

Home Health Aides care for sick or elderly people in their homes or in assisted-living facilities. They are licensed to administer medication and operate medical equipment. With the healthcare industry set to experience a boom, healthcare and medical assistants of all types will be in demand.

There are generally programs which offer licensure, which usually require about 75 hours of training, depending on the state.

4. Personal and Home Care Aide

Job Growth: 46%, or 376,000 new jobs by 2018
Salary: $20,280 mean

The duties are similar to a home health aides but there is no license required. Training is generally picked up on the job but certificates can be obtained from vocational schools.

5. Financial Examiner

Job Growth: 11,000 new jobs by 2018
Salary: $71,000 mean

The duties of a financial examiner are similar to an accountant but often requires more investigative work. They examine an organizations financial practices and ensure they are legally compliant.

With corruption exposed at many levels of banking financial examiners are likely to be highly in demand to ensure companies remain more legally sound. Licensing is not necessary for the job but a background in math and accounting is a must. Many companies offer in-house training to existing employees but those with a certification often have better job prospects and salaries. The Society of Financial Examiners and the Institute of Internal Auditors offer self-directed courses and exams toward certification.

6. Medical Scientist

Job Growth: 40%, or 44,000 new jobs by 2018
Salary: $84,760 mean; most jobs are in states with established and supported academic research institutions, like Massachusetts, California and Pennsylvania.

Medical scientists study the factors of disease and conditions. They work with pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, university research centers or for the federal government.

A masters in biology of a similar medical/science field will help you get a position in a lab.

7. Physician Assistant

Job Growth29,000 new jobs by 2018
Salary: $85,000 mean; Connecticut, Nevada and Washington are top-paying states at $96,000-plus.

P.A.s are medical professionals that work alongside nurses and doctors. They diagnose illnesses and treat patients with basic problems.

An undergraduate degree in areas like biology and chemistry are a must and many graduates continue to get a masters in health science areas. Many institutions offer two-year programs, which are often quite competitive.

8. Skin Care Specialist

Job Growth: 15,000 new jobs by 2018
Salary: $13 median hourly wage; $60,000 in certain areas with product sales

Skin care specialists are a subsection of cosmetology students, dealing mainly with womens facial care. They carry out botox, lasers, skin peels and other cosmetic procedures from a doctors office or a spa.

All states but Connecticut require licensing, which can be obtained after training for 600 hours. Cosmetology schools offer certificate programs as do continuing education departments at community colleges.

9. Biochemist and Biophysicist

Job Growth: 37%, or 9,000 new jobs by 2018
Salary: $88,550 mean; best pay is in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.

Biochemists and biophysicists study the chemical composition of living organisms, especially DNA. They use these studies to see how disease can be treated.

The training is similar to that of a medical scientist.

10. Athletic Trainer

Job Growth: 37% or 6,000 new jobs by 2018
Salary: $41,340 mean

Athletic trainers are trained to treat muscular/skeletal injuries. They work with a doctor to assist athletes recover after injury. They also design and test out new treatments and exercises that strengthen atheletes and prevent injury.

47 states require licensing to practice, and a bachelor’s in athletic training is the minimum requirement. Many atheletic trainers have a masters degree, after completeing an “entry level” master’s — five-year B.S./M.A. programs.

The Hon. Michio Harada, Deputy Consul General of the Consulate General of Japan, expressed his thanks to the Fresno community and California State University, Fresno, for local relief efforts for Japan following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Harada, who is based in San Francisco, said during a visit to Fresno State Wednesday, April 20, 2011, that the people of Japan deeply appreciate the donations and concern expressed by the residents of Central California.

He also singled out the relief efforts of the Japanese Student Association at Fresno State, which has raised nearly $7,000.

Harada spoke to reporters and community members in the Peters Ellipse of the Henry Madden Library, with a backdrop of an exhibit of rare Samurai weaponry objects, including suits of armor, helmets and swords. He was welcomed to the campus by Vice President for Student Affairs Dr. Paul Oliaro and Dean of the Library Peter McDonald.

Harada was born in Okayama Prefecture and graduated from Okayama University, where he majored in law. He joined Japans Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1979 and has worked around the world in various positions, including First Secretary, Consulate General of Japan in New York City; Assistant Director of the WTO Affairs Division, Embassy of Japan in Malaysia; and Consul and Director of the Economic Affairs Bureau, Policy Planning and Administration Division, Consulate General of Japan in Hong Kong.

The Flash Player and a browser with Javascript support are needed.

The costs for college have been very high nowadays. Average families might find it difficult to give financial support to their college students that is why financial aid programs are really a big help for these families. The prices of tuition fees today are noted to be ten times higher than its price thirty years ago.  The tuition fee is just one of the costs of college education. There are also payments for the dormitories, for the books and the daily allowance that the student need. Because of these, some college students need to get part time jobs just so they can keep up with their academic expenses. Why is college becoming so expensive? Here are some of the possible reasons for that:

The worth for college is more. The gap in income of people with college degrees to those who were only able to get a diploma for high school is very high. The record in 2008 suggested that men who are college graduate have income 42 percent higher than men who were only high school graduates. Women who graduated in college receive income 44 percent than women who are high school graduates. The economic value of college is higher that is why it is not surprising to see that the cost of college nowadays has increased too much.

College education uses high-end labor now. Hiring highly educated and skilled people that will teach the students is very costly now. Even if there are technological advances available today to enhance the learning experience of the student, the human mind, the wisdom and the experiences of the professors and teachers are still very important in producing a highly skilled and educated graduate. The professors cannot be replaced by any teaching aid available that is why the cost of hiring professors are still soaring.

Higher price college requirements, administration costs, dormitory fees are several factors that also lead to a skyrocketing college bills for students. Even if there are discounts availed sometimes, and there are scholarships and academic grants given to deserving students, still, the college pay is too high.

A New York Times-Chronicle of Higher Education collaboration yields a story about the lowly undergraduate business department, where slackers slack with impunity. The unremarkable business school student, the article suggests, is an unconcerned fellow, missing class or sleeping through it, neglecting his studies, and generally spending his days drinking with buddies and powering through grocery money at his roommate’s homemade poker table. And then he graduates with an entirely respectable GPA—a 3.1 or so, “right in that meaty part of the curve, not showing off, not falling behind,” as George Constanza would say—and goes on to an entirely respectable white-collar job managing this, selling that, or representing the other. The most recent National Survey of Student Engagement, whatever that is, found that business majors “spend less time preparing for class than do students in any other broad field,” according to the Times-Chronicle piece. They also score less well than any other group on the Collegiate Learning Assessment, which tests pupils in writing and reasoning at the start of their freshman year and then again at the end of their sophomore year. And business majors who intend to pursue graduate-level instruction at business school score lower on the GMAT, business school’s SAT, than all other majors. Add to this that over 20 percent of the undergraduate degrees issued each year are business degrees, “making it the most popular field of study,” and the worrying begins.

The article identifies three “sources of trouble”: first, too many pupils choose their majors by default and opt for business because its seems a practical route to future employment; second, “in management and marketing, [which are components of the business curriculum, and often separate majors in the business school] no strong consensus has emerged about what students ought to learn or how they ought to learn it”; and finally, business schools are comparatively inexpensive to operate, which makes business majors profit-generators for their universities.

All true. But re-read the first trouble spot and then ask why anyone is surprised that undergraduate business majors seem to both learn less than their peers and be less motivated to learn. Each college student chooses his major. The person who chooses business is simply likely to be less interested in knowledge for knowledge’s sake than the philosophy major and more interested in picking up a bit of practical information and, eventually, earning a piece of paper that will make him eligible for all types of jobs in which awareness of Kant is not vital. The undergraduate business major is a vocational, not academic, course of study, which is why Ivy League kids jazzed about getting rich don’t major in business (their schools don’t offer it) but in economics—a difficult, academic subject.

Completely missing from the Times-Chronicle article is any speculation about the reason that undergraduate business majors at unselective colleges are there at all. They are there, of course, because so many jobs that shouldn’t require a college diploma now do. Thus, 19-year-olds who with a few weeks of night school and on-the-job training could run the local bank with their eyes closed must now spend four years waiting around to receive a business degree of little inherent value toward which they devoted hours upon hours of strenuous Flip Cup and Beer Pong competition . . . when they could have been working in the real world and growing up, which is what many of them wanted to do in the first place.

This is the inescapable fact: when more and more students attend college, the nature of college—what it fundamentally is—will change. The university will reshape itself to meet its clients needs, and that means less academic, intellectual learning and more vocational training. It’s a choice. Either schools are exclusive, rigorous, and scholarly or they are inclusive, slack, and career-oriented. Its clear which way they are headed.