Syracuse’s iSchool Expands Degree Programs With 2U

Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies (iSchool) and the learning platform 2U officially have announced a new collaboration in the field of online learning. The partnership will further improve the iSchool experience in online education by combining its e-programs with 2U’s technology-enabled services.it includes online degree programs for an MS in Information Management, an MS in Library Science, and an MS in Library Science with School Media Specialization, notes the official website of The School of Information Studies at Syracuse University.the program will encompass face-to-face e-classes given by the iSchool faculty and practical learning examples from the real world. Online students will be expected to fulfill the same academic requirements as students in traditional iSchool programs. The application procedure for Fall 2016 starts in April.

In comparison to other e-learning programs, the online degree offerings at the iSchool do not differ from the on-campus programs. They share the same syllabus, tuition fees, and faculty and the teaching staff is fully qualified in online pedagogy.furthermore, iSchool focuses on direct contact with students in online courses, with iSchool touting flexible study schedules so that students can learn anytime, anywhere. However, there is a limited residency requirement.earlier this year the iSchool was ranked No. 11 in the best online degree programs for graduate computer information technology in the United States by U.S. News and World Report, notes J.D. Ross of The Syracuse University News. Selectivity, graduation rates, and student services were among the key factors to determine the best schools. The director of online education at iSchool, Victoria Williams, said that she was proud of this achievement in a highly competitive area such as online learning:

“The iSchool’s online programs attract working professionals who require the flexibility and access to faculty expertise that our online programs provide. Our online programs also allow us to draw 

from a pool of high-quality distance faculty members and instructors.”

In 2014, iSchool was ranked No 1 in U.S. News and World Report’s best graduate schools rankings and No. 9 for online computer information technology programs for veterans.the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University was founded in 1896. Since 1993, it has offered a wide range of graduate level online learning opportunities to students from all over the world. Now it has more than 50 faculty members teaching over 1,400 students in graduate and undergraduate programs in information policy, information behavior, information management, information systems, information technology, information services, library science, data science and information security, writes Joshua Bolkan of Campus Technology.2U partners are among the leading providers of cloud-based operating infrastructure to academic institutions around the world.syracuse University and 2U have already successfully worked together to establish the online learning programs of SU’s School of Public Communications and the Martin J. Whitman School of Management.

Report Recommends Training, Funding, Flexibility for NY Online Learning

 A recent report from the New York State Online Learning Advisory Council suggests that the use of online and blended learning programs can boost course offerings for students who live in rural areas while at the same time allowing for a transformation of face-to-face instruction, as long as state-level supports such as professional development for teachers and training for pre-service teachers are in place.created in 2014, the 11-member council was asked to make recommendations regarding the delivery of online and blended learning courses to school districts across the state.  The report states that students today are creating online identities and it is up to schools to offer support and guidance on how best to maneuver these online lives.

“… teacher led education that utilizes technology with Intranet/Internet based tools and resources as a delivery method for instruction, research, assessment, and communication. It may be synchronous (in real time) or asynchronous (separated by time) and accessed from multiple settings (in school and/or out of school buildings). Online learning can be fully online, with all instructions taking place through Internet, or online elements can be combined with face–to–face interactions in what is known as blended learning.”

The report discovered that the majority of schools in the state need to increase their offerings of online learning experiences and work to create a digital transformation with online learning tools in the classrooms.the council found most schools that were successful with online learning had system-wide planning between administrators and teachers, in addition to school-wide communication between students, teachers, and administrators.recommendations made by the council to increase success with online and blended learning include the implementation of professional development programs in an effort to increase instructional skills; offering waivers for regulations as a way to make implementation of online learning programs easier; creating a team of leaders at the New York State Education Department that will focus on online learning and educational technology; and combining online and blended training with the curriculum for pre-service teachers.

The council suggested a need for professional development grants.  It says $100 million should be offered in grants that would support multi-year professional development grants to aid in planning and implementation to increase the development of instructional skills pertaining to the use of online tools, as well as for online course availability and capacity.in addition, the council would like to see an increase in staff members trained in education technology throughout New York, saying that not enough staff members in the state have expertise in the area compared to other states.  They suggest that a Chief Digital Officer is placed to lead education technology decisions for the state, as well as a standing committee to make recommendations to the Commissioner concerning online learning programs, with 50% of that committee coming from a rotating pool of PK-12 and higher education.

Andre Agassi Joins Board for Ed Tech Company Square Panda

Square Panda teaches pre-kindergarten age children how to spell using a tablet and a tray with eight squares into which users insert block-like letters. Its software tracks student progress and gradually increases the difficulty. The package is currently priced at $99 for its release in April after three years of development, writes Marco della Cava of USA Today. Right now only an iOS version is available, but an Android release is scheduled for later this year.both Agassi and Square Panda’s founder Tom Boeckle struggled in school and are now using their influence to improve the American education system, reports Taylor Soper of Geek Wire.

It’s always been the ideal of education to customize the educational experience to the learning style per child. Economically, that’s never been feasible, except for the very, very rich to have one-on-one tutoring systems. But with technology today and the ability to understand a child through actual engagement, we can now have adaptive software that approaches this ideal. That’s really what Square Panda is about.agassi’s involvement in education began in 1994 with the establishment of the Agassi Foundation for Education. In 2001, he founded a college preparatory academy in Las Vegas, his hometown. According to George Anders of Forbes, the school provides tuition-free education for at-risk children. Since then he has helped start 50 other charter schools.

“I regretted that we didn’t start in pre-K. It turns out that nine out of ten dropouts were unsuccessful readers at an early age.”he receives hundreds of pitches from educational start-ups each year, and according to Daniel Rothenberg of the Las Vegas Sun, turns down 99% of them. Square Panda, however, was different.he decided to get involved with Square Panda after visiting a Las Vegas preschool where children were using iPads with the company’s software.

His investment in the company is not only a “double-digit stake” but also an investment of time. 

It’s easy to write a check. What’s harder is to give time. … I look for ways to open doors.

In an interview, Agassi spoke of his changing focus to earlier stages of childhood development, joking:it’s too bad that Square Panda doesn’t show up in the hallways in maternity wards.

I’m learning to read with it as we speak.agassi himself quit school at age 14 due to academic frustrations in addition to the decision to focus on his sport.in his autobiography, Open, Agassi wrote 

I like books but feel over-matched by them. I have a steel-trap memory, but trouble concentrating. I need things explained twice, three times.agassi and Butler announced their partnership at the Consumer Electronics Show in the Bellagio Hotel and Casino.

CREDO Report Shows Online Charter Students Behind Peers

Online charter school students are underperforming compared to their peers, a Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) study reveals. The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools responded to the findings by calling for the closing of underperforming virtual charter schools.data from 17 states and the District of Columbia revealed that online students have attended math and reading classes less often than their brick-and-mortar peers, which negatively affects their academic performance. More specifically, the researchers discovered that at the national level, students have 72 days fewer days in learning to read and 180 days fewer in learning math.

In Ohio, students missed on average 144 days of math education and 79 of learning to read. In Michigan, things were slightly better, with no difference between traditional and digital students in terms of reading days missed. However, in math, digital learners lagged behind their peers.for online charter schools in Texas, Florida and Louisiana, the academic growth for virtual learners was substantially lower in relation to their brick-and-mortar peers. For the Michigan Virtual Charter Academy, results were poor with the Academy performing worse than 97% of Michigan’s schools. For the school year 2012-2013, 200 online charter schools offered learning opportunities to about 200,000 students.

The study, which aimed to identify the impact of online learning on academic performance combined data from school leader surveys, student-level data, and state policy data. The authors concluded:

“Current online charter schools may be a good fit for some students, but the evidence suggests that online charters don’t serve very well the relatively atypical set of students that currently attend these schools, much less the general population.”the analysts emphasized that academic gains from attending online charter schools are rare.reactions to the comprehensive study were mixed. The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools was alarmed by the findings. The nonprofit organization’s CEO, Nina Rees, said in a press release issued by the nonprofit:

“We firmly believe that individual charter public schools that are failing their students should be closed. This is an essential piece of the charter public school model in which schools are given more flexibility to innovate in exchange for a higher level of accountability for student achievement.”

Greg Richmond, president and CEO of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, said that although there’s a place for online virtual education in the country, the results are unacceptable, the Detroit Free Press reports.the CREDO analysts recommend in their report that oversight policies are strengthened to improve student achievement. They also call for states to assess online program efficiency before allowing the launch or expansion of online programs to serve more students.commenting on the researchers’ conclusions, 74Million.org says the method employed for the study’s purposes in which the attendance of online charter schools was juxtaposed to that of demographic- and performance-related traditional classroom students is controversial.

AAP Advises Action Plans for Kids WIth Prolonged Seizures

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has announced that doctors should work together with school administrators to develop individualized action plans for treatment of students with epilepsy who have prolonged seizures, says Molly Walker, writing for Med Page Today.in its first clinical report on the topic, the AAP said that the action plans should contain the medication the child will need, who will be responsible for giving the child the medication, and when and how to seek additional emergency medical care. The report’s authors were Adam L. Hartman, MD, and Cynthia Di Laura Devore, MD, of the AAP’s Section on Neurology and Council on School Health, who published in the journal Pediatrics.

It is possible that principals and other providers will have to step in to administer the rescue medication if there are issues that prevent the school nurse from being able to do so. It may be necessary that other assisting personnel will require additional training.Dr. Hartman explained that the main purpose of this report was to make pediatricians and neurologists aware of the legal and logistical issues involved in creating individualized seizure action plans for a school setting.

“Not all schools have nursing staff readily available in the school building, let alone in the school transportation or school activity settings,” he wrote in an e-mail to MedPage Today. “Legal liability for medical treatment also may vary between jurisdictions. Therefore, these seizure action plans are important so that students can participate safely in whatever programming the schools have to offer.”

The administration of the seizure rescue medication may be the essential part of the action plan. Although there are several medication options for students with epilepsy, the authors recommend medicines that are given bucally (orally) or through the nasal passage because they are the least restrictive choices.even these drugs have restrictions, however. If midazolam and lorazepam are administered bucally, the patient must not have profuse secretions or vomiting during the seizure. A crushed clonazepam tablet may be used, but special training could be required to avoid injury from the clenched teeth of the patient while administering the medication.

Another new route of administration is intranasally by using a premeasured syringe. This method would also require the provider to have additional training since this procedure is “relatively new.” Rectal diazepam gel is widely used for seizure rescue but requires the patient to be partially undressed. If the school nurse is unavailable, others could find administration of this method uncomfortable.additionally, providers must counsel school officials on any potential adverse effects of the medication and how to address them if they occur. Guidance must also be given regarding the logistics of a prolonged seizure, when to ask for medical advice, and concerns about any other complications.

“This paper is an effort to assist pediatricians, and possibly school districts, in designing advance planning to secure the safety of children and adolescents with epilepsy so they can participate in virtually all school activities to their full potential in a safe fashion.”

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the Rehabilitation Act have been around for many years now, but there is still a lack of regularity of practices and laws among states and school districts. An example is that not every school has a school nurse who can perform the medical plans from a specified “clinic.”

Online Computer Science Master’s at Georgia Tech Graduates First Cohort

India- and US-based education technology company Springboard has received a $1.7 million in investment to support its mentor-led program for online learning. The seed round funding led by LinkedIn co-founder Allen Blue, Princeton Review founder John Katzman, and InMobi founder Naveen Tewari. Springboard will use the funds to offer additional student services and support to its users.“The company will use the funds to increase its capacity in courses, provide additional student services and support and enhance growth,” Springboard’s co-founder said according to VCCircle.springboard will also offer up to seven new courses in fields not previously covered including web development, app development, marketing and potentially soft-skills courses.enrolled students have access not only to courses and other learning materials, but also to industry mentors and an active community of classmates and alumni to further support their learning. The mentor-centered model translates into a ten-times higher completion rate compared to non-mentor-led online courses, 

The Hindu says.“Our approach of combining a project-heavy curriculum with 1-on-1 mentorship from industry experts creates accountability and ensures that our graduates are ready to thrive in the new economy,” Springboard co-founder Gautam Tambay said, according to Tech New Today.students meet with their mentors on a weekly basis. Mentors work in high-profile companies such as Facebook, Pandora, LinkedIn, Etsy, and Airbnb.springboard, previously known as SlideRule, was initially a MOOC search engine. Realizing that users wanted curated lists of courses based on their needs and goals, the company adjusted its focus to curation and course recommendation. The startup pivoted its focus one more time after seeing poor user engagement with many learners not completing the courses they signed up for. Tambay said:“we noticed that many wouldn’t complete their courses. We got on the phone with a  users, and found out that people were missing some kind of human contact,” Tambay explained.

adding the element of human interaction in online learning through mentors and an accessible and useful community meant that Springboard stood out for its unique, more holistic learning experience:

“Offering content alone is not education,” Tambay told Jon Russel of Tech Crunch. “That’s like sending someone to a library and telling them to learn.”other Springboard investors include Kartik Hosanagar, a Wharton School professor; Kashyap Deorah, a co-founder of Chalo; and Blue Fog Capital. Investor John Katzman said:“Springboard brings a smart team and a promising approach to curriculum and mentoring. With the new economy’s need for perpetual learning, Springboard is poised to have real impact.”Company projections by its founders see massive growth potential in paid student numbers from 1,000 today to up to 60,000 in two years. By 2016, the company projects a 10-fold revenue rate growth at $10 million.so far, the company says more than 1,000 learners have completed their courses, some of which were hired by companies such as IBM and Reddit. Springboard offers paid and free courses with thousands of students currently enrolled in the free options.typically, courses cost $300-$500 per month, which include online material and activities and mentor and community access. The Bangalore and US-based startup numbers more than 110 mentors in the fields of Data Analysis and UX Design over the last year alone.

ESSA Passage Draws More Attention to Computer Science

President Obama has signed a new education bill that will take the place of the controversial ‘No Child Left Behind Act’ from 2001 — and the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) will also provide a boost to computer science education.

While the thirteen-year-old act connected funding of schools to the scores that students achieved on standardized tests, ESSA reduces some of the control that the federal government has on education. But according to EnGadget’s Sean Buckley, the new act also makes computer science just as important as other “well-rounded” school subjects.frank Smith of EdTech feels that the new legislation could close the gap in student achievement. Smith explains:

“The latest update to the U.S. National Education Technology Plan has big plans for addressing unequal access to the powerful technology changing schools today. On Thursday, [December 10th] the U.S. Department of Education laid out a vision for the future of technology at schools. The new plan updates technology guidelines issued in 2010, but doesn’t change direction dramatically. Instead, the latest plan sets up a series of bold calls to action designed to ensure technology helps close the achievement gap.”the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) includes various block grants that, along with other uses, are created for technology-related courses. Dennis Pierce of eSchool News shares how the bill will boost funding for ed-tech:“Although it’s not the program that ed-tech advocates had hoped for, many expressed cautious optimism that a section of ESSA under Title IV (“21st Century Schools”) could help schools use technology tools to transform teaching and learning.”the bill comes a full eight years after the No Child Left Behind Act was supposed to expire. The ESSA gives the state more power in choosing how to close gaps in student achievement and gives more importance to technology-related courses.it is the first time that technology has received funding since 2010. That year, the Enhancing Education Through Technology program was funded. There is also  E-Rate, which provides discounts for some technology-related services such as internet access and telecommunications needed to bring the web to the classroom.

According to Yoree Koh blogger for the Wall Street Journal, the new law will likely bring good news for tech companies who continually deal with a shortage of engineers to employ. These companies, including leaders like Google and Microsoft, have been backing any bill that would increase the teaching of computer science in the classroom.hadi Partovia, the founder of Code.org, is also pleased that the bill is going through. Partovia stated in an email:“This week marks a watershed moment for computer science in U.S. Schools. In just two years this field has been adopted by all the largest cities, almost 100 school districts. It’s great to see the Federal government finally recognize this field as a foundational academic subject.”

The overall hope is that this bill will cause computer science to find its way into more American classrooms, leading to more graduates who qualify to work at tech companies. Code.org shares that while there are over 600,000 computer jobs currently open in the US, only 38,175 students graduated from computer science courses last year.

California Faces School Renovation Needs, Budget Constraints

California’s system of school construction and maintenance is subpar and unfair, with low-income districts often under-funding construction but overspending on patching facilities that need major restorations, according to a study by Jeffrey Vincent, deputy director of the Center for Cities + Schools in the Institute of Urban and Regional Development at U.C. Berkeley.“California must bolster – not recede from – its role in the state-local funding partnership for K-12 school facilities. Moving forward, the state should ensure that all school districts can reasonably meet both maintenance and capital investment needs” by combining local dollars with “stable and predictable state funding.”

The study was published as new data has been released showing inequality in facilities funding in the state. It is possible that school construction could be a controversial issue in the Legislature next year, writes John Fensterwald of EdSource.the last state-funded construction bond was passed in 2006, and now the state has run out of money while there is still about $2 billion worth of district projects waiting to be funded. The Coalition for Adequate School Housing (CASH), a group comprised of school districts and building and design contractors, has collected enough signatures to put a $9 billion bond on the November 2016 ballot.of that amount, approximately $2 billion would be used by community colleges and the rest would be divided among K-12 districts, technical education partnerships, and charter schools. Last year in his budget message, Gov. Jerry Brown said the state should not acquire further school construction debt. He suggested that local school districts make their contributions larger.

Without the backing of Brown and the California Teachers Association, the school coalition will have a difficult time getting the $9 billion bond passed. State Department of Finance officials and school construction leaders have discussed a new funding framework. The structure could take the form of a smaller bond, based on the ability of the districts to pay.

An editorial by The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board says the study will certainly impact local decisions such as San Diego Unified’s $100 million plan to refurbish Memorial Prep, a struggling middle school in poverty-stricken Logan Heights.

The editors disagree with Vincent, saying that California should consider a revised, equity-driven path to school construction funded by the state. But this approach would come only after the adoption of reforms that mandate districts to be responsible and prevent the destructive cycle of “disrepair and replacement with their facilities.”

They add that Vincent found 62% of the state’s districts do not adequately maintain their facilities. When improperly maintained, facilities need replacement more often. The reason for this, in part, is that during the Great Recession, the Legislature suspended the state directive that required that districts spend at least 3% of their budgets on maintenance. In essence, districts gave up on maintaining their school buildings and now that there is funding, districts have not increased preservation up to previous levels.unless mandates on maintenance are put in place and enforced, the maintenance budget will always be at risk. But most important, say the editors, it is unfair for students of 2035 to have budget constraints because of bond debt that was used to fix broken windows and remove graffiti in 2015.

Li-Fi Poised to Take Over for Wi-Fi

Li-Fi, a new, super-fast alternative networking technology capable of reaching speeds hundreds of times faster than current standards in real-world use, could soon replace Wi-Fi.

Harald Haas, a professor of mobile communications at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, has created a working model of a Li-Fi system, transmitting data through LED lightbulbs flickering on and off over a matter of nanoseconds.  Haas recently demonstrated his prototype by transmitting a video from an LED lamp to a solar cell on a laptop.

“Li-Fi is essentially the same as Wi-Fi, except for a small difference—we use LED lights around us to transmit the data wirelessly as opposed to using radio,” Haas says.Wi-Fi, which currently carries half of the world’s internet transmissions, works by using radio signals to transmit data to a number of electronic devices, including phones and laptops.  As more people gain access to the internet, the use of Wi-Fi is expected to expand, which experts such as Haas believe will result in the creation of a “spectrum crunch” that would see Wi-Fi networks slow down under the high demands, reports Adam Boult for The Telegraph.

“Radio spectrum is not sufficient,” Haas says. “It’s heavily used, it’s very crowded…we see that when we go to airports and hotels, where many people want to access the mobile internet and it’s terribly slow. I saw this coming 12, 15 years ago, so I thought ‘what are better ways of transmitting data wirelessly?’”Li-Fi was found to reach speeds of 224 gigabits per second in a lab setting, which could allow a person to download 20 full-length movies in just one second.  Haas’s research shows Li-Fi can achieve data density 1,000 times greater than Wi-Fi because Li-Fi signals are limited to a smaller area.in addition, whereas Wi-Fi can extend through walls, allowing neighbors to “share” the connection, Li-Fi is not capable of this, and can be contained by closing the curtains, which could make it potentially more secure.haas went on to say that lights would not need to be kept on throughout the house in order for the system to work.  The bulbs could be dimmed to a level in which they appear to be off but are still transmitting data, writes Emily Matchar for The Smithsonian.the technology also has possibilities for smart home appliances by creating a network for devices located within a home to talk to each other.one company, Velmenni, recently put the technology into real-world situations in offices and industrial environments in Estonia, finding that it was capable of reaching the high speeds attained in the lab.several other companies, including Oledcomm and pureLiFi, have also jumped on board to bring the technology to customers.  Both companies offer a kit to aid in the installation of Li-Fi networks at home and in the office, with pureLiFi promising speeds of 10 Mbps.

Professor Harald Haas, from the University of Edinburgh in the UK, is widely recognised as the original founder of Li-Fi. He coined the term Li-Fi and is Chair of Mobile Communications at the University of Edinburgh and co-founder of pureLiFi.the general term visible light communication (VLC), includes any use of the visible light portion of the electromagnetic spectrum to transmit information. The D-Light project at Edinburgh's Institute for Digital Communications was funded from January 2010 to January 2012. Haas promoted this technology in his 2011 TED Global talk and helped start a company to market it. PureLiFi, formerly pureVLC, is an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) firm set up to commercialize Li-Fi products for integration with existing LED-lighting systems.

In October 2011, companies and industry groups formed the Li-Fi Consortium, to promote high-speed optical wireless systems and to overcome the limited amount of radio-based wireless spectrum available by exploiting a completely different part of the electromagnetic spectrum.a number of companies offer uni-directional VLC products, which is not the same as Li-Fi.VLC technology was exhibited in 2012 using Li-Fi.[24] By August 2013, data rates of over 1.6 Gbit/s were demonstrated over a single color LED. In September 2013, a press release said that Li-Fi, or VLC systems in general, do not require line-of-sight conditions.In October 2013, it was reported Chinese manufacturers were working on Li-Fi development kits.in April 2014, the Russian company Stins Coman announced the development of a Li-Fi wireless local network called BeamCaster. Their current module transfers data at 1.25 gigabytes per second but they foresee boosting speeds up to 5 GB/second in the near future. In 2014 a new record was established by Sisoft that was able to transfer data at speeds of up to 10Gbps across a light spectrum emitted by LED lamps.

AEI Releases Education Agenda for the States Brief

In an effort to help state lawmakers across the nation, the American Enterprise Institute put together a briefing that lists a number of do’s and don’ts for reform in K-12 education, higher education, and early childhood education.

The briefing, titled An Education Agenda For the States, begins with Director of Education Policy Studies at AEI, Frederick M. Hess, said that in general, it matters more how a reform is executed rather than whether or not it is attempted.  He goes on to clarify that this means education reforms should be left up to individual states rather than carried out by the federal government, as it is often difficult for federal officials to produce the results that will most help students.“The US Constitution leaves education to the states for a reason: states are close enough to their communities and have suffi- cient control over schools and colleges that they can promote reforms in a manner that is actually likely to deliver.”

The briefing begins by discussing the importance of early childhood education, which is the foundation for learning and brain development.  According to researchers from Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child, “Early experiences determine whether a child’s developing brain architecture provides a strong or weak foundation for all future learning, behavior, and health.”

While a number of issues, including poverty, neglect and maltreatment, have been shown to have a negative effect on a child’s ability to learn, the authors contend that research has shown that high-quality care for at-risk infants, toddlers and preschools can help these children to overcome such disadvantages and rise above the negative consequences associated with them.

As such, the authors suggest that reforms look to expand beyond an increase to pre-kindergarten programs, arguing that pre-k can sometimes be too late for disadvantaged children, and that early childhood expansion should begin at the infant stage.  Because learning begins at birth, brain development at that time becomes crucial.The authors suggest creating initiatives that can test what works while at the same time serving children well, as the authors stress that how a program is designed is just as important as it existing at all.  However, they continue to stress that new programs should not built up too quickly because it creates programs that are less-effective.

The authors continue by discussing the K-12 system in the US, which they say creates opportunity within each state.  In order to create a high-quality education system, they suggest that each state complete a comprehensive review, and that regulations should not micromanage schools.  They go on to say that instead of using standardized tests and teacher evaluation systems, states include a variety of tools that allow for flexibility.

The briefing concludes with a discussion of higher education, in which authors discuss the portability of transfer credits, suggesting that state lawmakers allow credits to transfer between state colleges and universities in an effort to shorten the amount of time spent working toward a degree, and therefore decrease the amount of money they spend on tuition.AEI warns not to simply spend additional public dollars, but instead to find a way to put the correct amount of funding into each institution to help them to better serve their students.

Fort William College

Fort William College (also called the College of Fort William) was an academy and learning centre of Oriental studies established by Lord Wellesley, then Governor-General of British India. The law to establish its foundation was passed on the 4th of May, 1800 to commemorate the first anniversary of the victory over Tipu Sultan at Seringapatam. It was founded on July 10, 1800, within the Fort William complex in Calcutta. Thousands of books were translated from Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, Bengali, Hindi, and Urdu in English at this institution

Fort William College aimed at training British officials in Indian languages and in the process it fostered the development of languages such as Bengali and Urdu.The period is of historical importance. In 1815, Ram Mohan Roy settled in Calcutta. It is considered by many historians to be starting point of the Bengal renaissance. A establishment of The Calcutta Madrassa in 1781, the Asiatic Society in 1784 and the Fort William College in 1800, completed the first phase of Kolkata’s emergence as an intellectual centre.

Teaching of Asian languages dominated: Arabic, Urdu, Persian, Sanskrit, Bengali; and later Marathi and even Chinese were added. Each department of the college was staffed by notable scholars. The Persian department was headed by Neile B. Edmonstone, Persian translator to the government. His assistant teacher was John H. Harington, a judge of Sadar Diwani Adalat and Francis Gladwin, a soldier diplomat. For Arabic studies, there was Lt. John Baillie, a noted Arabist. The Urdu department was entrusted to John Borthwick Gilchrist, an Indologist of great repute. Henry Thomas Colebrooke, the famous orientalist, was head of the Sanskrit department. William Carey, a non-civilian missionary and a specialist in many Indian languages, was selected to head the department of vernacular languages. While notable scholars were identified and appointed for different languages, there was no suitable person in Kolkata who could be appointed to teach Bengali. In those days the Brahmin scholars learnt only Sanskrit, considered to be the language of the gods, and did not study Bengali. The authorities decided to appoint Carey, who was with the Baptist Mission in Serampore. He, in turn, appointed Mrityunjoy Vidyalankar as head pandit, Ramnath Bachaspati as second pandit and Ramram Basu as one of the assistant pandits.

Along with teaching, translations were organized. The college employed more than one hundred local linguists. At that time there were no textbooks available in Bengali. On 23 April 1789, Calcutta Gazette published the humble request of several Natives of Bengal for a Bengali grammar and dictionary.It was located at the corner of Council House Street. The house was subsequently occupied by Messrs. Mackenzie Lyall & Co., and known as The Exchange. Still later, it housed the offices of Bengal Nagpur Railway. In those days, it was at one corner of the parade ground, now known as the Maidan. The Raj Bhavan (then known as Government House) was opened a little later.

For teaching purposes the College of Fort William accumulated a library of old manuscripts (from all over South Asia) and added multiple copies of its own imprints. The list of books recommended later for preservation includes many books of historical value.Subsequently, when the college was wound up, it gave away the magnificent collection in the library to the newly formed Calcutta Public Library, now the National Library.The court of directors of the British East India Company were never in favour of a training college in Kolkata and as such there always was a fund crunch for running the college. Subsequently a separate college for the purpose, The East India Company College at Haileybury (England), was established in 1807. However Fort William College continued to be a centre of learning languages.with the British settling down in the seat of power, their requirements changed. Bentinck announced his educational policy of public instruction in English in 1835, mostly to cater to the growing needs of administration and commerce. He clipped the wings of Fort William College and the Dalhousie administration formally dissolved the institution in 1854.

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College of New Rochelle

The College of New Rochelle (CNR) is a private Catholic college with its main campus located in New Rochelle, New York. The College of St. Angela was founded by the Order of the Ursulines as the first Catholic women's college in New York state in 1904, a time when women were generally excluded from higher education. The name was changed to The College of New Rochelle in 1910. Building on its original commitment to women, the college reaches out to those who have not previously had access to higher education. It places particular emphasis on the concept of lifelong learning. The undergraduate program remains women-only but the nursing program, graduate school and adult learners program are now open to men.

The main campus is located in New Rochelle, a suburban Westchester city about 16 miles (26 km) north of Manhattan. In 1896, the college's founder, Mother Irene Gill, traveled to New Rochelle to explore the possibility of establishing a seminary there for young women. It was during this trip that she came across Leland Castle, an 1850s gothic revival structure and former vacation home of wealthy New York hotelier Simeon Leland. The castle was purchased in 1897 and became the first structure of the College. It has since been designated a National Historic Site. The castle is part of the campus quadrangle and currently houses the "Castle Gallery". The college's art collections include a Museum Set of 75 photographs by Ansel Adams"the campus consists of 20 main buildings including a $28MM athletic, recreational and educational complex called The Wellness Center (completed in 2008), including an NCAA competition-sized swimming pool, basketball court, fitness center, indoor running track, yoga studio, roof garden and meditation garden, and volleyball court; The Mooney Center with computer and photography labs, TV production studio and the Debra and Russel Taylor Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies; the 200,000-volume Mother Irene Gill Memorial Library; the Student Campus Center; the Rogick Life Sciences Building with many laboratories; four residence halls; and the Learning Center for Nursing.

The first mention of sports at CNR is in the St. Angela’s Quarterly in 1905. A coach was hired to organize a basketball team. By 1908, annual inter-class athletic meets began between the "odds" and "evens" (year of graduation). The meets became a focus of inter-class spirit and competition—often reaching a fevered pitch. Each class had its own colors, banners, and songs which were brought out for the meet. Ingenious ways and places of getting the class banner to the highest point on campus put lives in peril as students scaled trees, sneaked up to the Castle towers, or climbed onto roofs to place the class banner. Held in the fall and spring, the meets initially involved gymnastic drills as well as basketball. Later, track and field competitions were held and awards were given. The meets continued until the early 1940s. Intramural sports were popular—basketball, volleyball, golf, hockey, tennis, and riding. In 1916, CNR began playing basketball with other college teams.

In less than 30 years, the growing College needed a much larger and more modern gymnasium than the gym in Chidwick. In 1932, at the height of the Depression, the ultra-modern Art Deco Sports Building was completed—with a pool, gymnasium, social rooms, equipment, and exercise rooms. The Athletic Association was open to anyone interested in sports, as a team member or supporter. Dues paid for some new equipment, parties, prizes, and speakers. In later years, a full CNR scholarship was offered every four years, fundraised by the Athletic Association through sponsored games and dances.sports lost some of their appeal during the politically-turbulent late 1960s-1970s, but the annual Swimphony/Landphony water and land ballet competition begun when the pool was opened continued to spark class spirit and inter-class competition into the 1990s. Exercise equipment was added in the 1970s, and the pool was often opened in the summer to day camps and residents of Residence Park.

The College of New Rochelle joined the National Collegiate Athletic Association during the mid-1980s. CNR’s basketball team took the name "Blue Angels" and won a number of local championships, a state championship and a NCAA Tournament bid, losing in the Championship Game.the College also elevated the sports of volleyball, swimming, tennis, and softball to NCAA status. CNR athletic teams have produced many successful team and individual records during their NCAA tenure.today, the "Blue Angels" remain an NCAA Division III Member and compete locally in the Hudson Valley Women’s Athletic Conference and the New York State Women’s Collegiate Athletic Association. They have continued to place in the top echelon of the HVWAC, with the Volleyball Team winning the Championship.

Study Shows Preschool Reduces Need for Special Education

A study published this week has found that a high-quality early childhood program can reduce the number of children who are diagnosed with a variety of learning disorders by the third grade.
Conducted by Clara G. Muschkin, Helen F. Ladd and Kenneth A. Dodge of Duke University, the study is expected to play a part in reducing the burden that special education services place on municipal budgets.
Researchers looked at two early childhood initiatives in North Carolina and how they affected the probability that children would need to be placed in special education by the time they finished the third grade. The authors focused on a preschool program that serves four-year-children from at-risk families referred to as More At Four, and another program that offers child, family and health services to children from birth to age five, called Smart Start. Around 871,000 children born between 1988 and 2000 were observed during this study. The children all entered the third grade between 1995 and 2010.
Children from the More at Four program, which is now referred to as NC Pre-K, were found to be 32% less likely to be in special education by the third grade in comparison to their peers who were not enrolled in a preschool program.children enrolled in the Smart Start program were 10% less likely to be in special education by the end of the third grade.both programs together reduced the likelihood of needing special education services by 39%, according to the researchers.  This discovery could mean a significant increase in savings, as special education costs in the US are almost twice as much as regular classroom costs, writes Lyndsey Layton for The Washington Post.
“It shows a level of benefit not only in academic terms but also financially, because special education services are so expensive,” Muschkin said. “This gives policy makers useful evidence that investments in early childhood education are a source of significant cost savings for the state.”
Additional smaller studies have suggested that children who participate in high-quality preschool programs show lifelong benefits, including better jobs, higher wages, and a reduced probability of being in the criminal justice system or needing social services.
However, a large study performed in 2013 looking at almost 5,000 children enrolled in the federal Head Start program serving low-income children from birth to age five, discovered that any literacy progress made in those children faded by the third grade, causing many critics to believe Obama’s universal preschool proposal may not be as cost-effective as it is made out to be.


The Duke study has now suggested that not only is a high-quality preschool program cost effective, and could greatly benefit children who may otherwise need special education services, it could also benefit other children as well.children who were also enrolled in the two preschool programs studied benefited because they are high-quality programs. “The state funding goes to the slots in the classroom, but because the quality has to be high, the other children in the classroom also benefitted, even though they didn’t qualify for More at Four,” said Muschkin.

Benefits of Pre-K in Tennessee Fade by 3rd Grade, Study Says

According to a recently released study by Vanderbilt University, children from low-income families greatly benefit from the pre-kindergarten program in the state of Tennessee, but that the gains quickly fade — and long-term results may be even worse.
The five-year study, which cost $6 million, looked into the effectiveness of Tennessee’s Voluntary Pre-K Program for low-income children.  In the end, researchers found that the children who participated in the program eventually perform worse academically than their peers who did not attend the program.
The results come as the debate continues across the state whether the $85 million program should be cut back or eliminated altogether.
“If kids are doing worse, then why in the heck are they going to spend millions of dollars on it?” said Rep. Bill Dunn, a state representative from Knoxville who has argued for years against state-funded pre-K. “Anybody who really studied the issue would have seen that the emperor had no clothes.”

As a joint effort between Vanderbilt’s Peabody College of Education and Human Development and the Tennessee Department of Education, the study found that children who participated in the program for low-income families initially made gains over the students who did not attend, and were more prepared when they entered kindergarten.  However, those children who did not participate caught up by the end of the kindergarten year.


By second grade, the results found among the two groups of children were evened out, and by third grade, the group of students who had not attended the pre-kindergarten program were outperforming those who had.previous research on the topic, including a study released from the state Comptroller’s office, found a “negligible” difference between children who attended the program and those who did not by the time they reached the third grade.  In addition, these studies suggested the program came with a number of benefits, including higher graduation rates, and a greater likelihood of owning a home by the time they reach their mid-twenties.
“These programs are necessary, and if they’re not doing what we need them to do, we need to fix them. But we certainly need to keep them and we do need to expand them,” said Lisa Wiltshire, executive director of the Tennessee Department of Education’s Office of Early Learning at a panel discussion with Vanderbilt University researchers and early education experts last week.

Governor Bill Haslam has been waiting for the results of the current study to be released before announcing any decisions concerning what to do with the program.  He recently told reporters that he took the report to mean that “quality pre-K with good follow-up can have an impact.”  However, he needs to weigh the research against the money spent on the program.
“I would like for us to put more dollars into [K-12]. We have to do that in context of the budget and in the context of where we’ll get the best results,” Haslam said.

What Makes MA Different From Other States On Education?

Student achievement in Massachusetts handily demonstrates why treating the US as one undifferentiated mass when it comes to education policy may be wrong-headed. According to the latest data, if MA were treated as a separate country, it would have the second-highest levels of academic attainment in the world.

The state defies trends when it comes to science and mathematics. According to the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, it ranked behind only Singapore in 4th-grade science and lagging only Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan in the same subject at the 8th grade level.

This puts the state a full 4 places ahead of United States as a whole, according to Kenneth Chang of The New York Times.

TIMMS might not provide a complete picture of student achievement, but the test offers an interesting insight into what happens when a state gets serious about improving its science and math education. Nearly 20 years ago, lawmakers, along with education advocates and experts, set this as a goal, developed a plan and – most importantly – believed in it enough to stick with it through early years of disappointment.while Massachusetts has a richer and better-educated population than most states, it is not uniformly wealthy. The gains reflected improvement across the state, including poorer districts.“I think we are a proof point of what’s possible,” said Mitchell D. Chester, the state education commissioner.

The goal was encapsulated in the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993, a joint effort between the Democratic state legislature and Republican governor William F. Weld. The law attacked the problem of education on three fronts: allocating funding, adopting objective academic benchmarks and – a full decade before it become popular – rolling out a set of standardized exams all students had to pass before they could graduate high school. In this regard, the state seemed foretell the education reform movement that was to upend American education only a few years later. However, there were some parts of the movement that MA rejected outright – specifically, school choice.

Also noteworthy was what the reforms did not include. Parents were not offered vouchers for private schools. The state did not close poorly performing schools, eliminate tenure for teachers or add merit pay. The reforms did allow for some charter schools, but not many.then the state, by and large, stayed the course.the new achievement test, the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS for short), was given to 10th graders for the first time in 1998. (The graduation requirement of obtaining an acceptable score on the 10th-grade MCAS did not take effect until 2003.)

Six GOP Presidential Hopefuls Explain Their Education Platforms

As the 2016 Presidential election season continues to develop, Republican presidential candidates are talking more about their stances on education.

Jeb Bush, at a panel discussion sponsored by the American Federation for Children, a group that advocates school vouchers, and The 74, an education news website launched by former CNN anchor Campbell Brown, said the kids who are left behind tend to be young people who live in poverty, mostly African-American and Hispanic kids. When they fail, he said, we blame it on the “social circumstances of their lives.” Bush also stated that he supports annual standardized tests for public school students just as his brother President George W. Bush did.

The New York Times’ Motoko Rich writes that Bush, a former governor of Florida, used one of his brother’s signature phrases when he said, “And that is what a former president called the ‘soft bigotry of low expectations,’ and we should reject that out of hand.”gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin said he did not support the federal government overseeing public schools.“The federal government doesn’t have a very good track record of holding anybody accountable,” he said. “My solution is, I would like to take the money and the power from Washington in education and send it back to the states.”

By saying this, he added, he would be going against some in his own party.

Republicans in the race for president have been divided on the subject of education, and the panel was a testimony to that fact as participants tried to explain how little they would have the federal government involved in public schools; that they were on the side of high standards for the country’s schoolchildren; and that some were backing away from the Common Core, the educational guidelines that have become extremely controversial among teachers, parents, and conservatives.both Walker and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie are critical of teachers unions. And for years, Republicans have wanted the federal government to get out of the education business, even as far as abolishing the federal Education Department. But President G. W. Bush’s education law, No Child Left Behind, greatly expanded the role of the federal government by requiring annual standardized tests and ordering interventions for schools that were judged to be failing.

The summit on education took place at a Londonderry, NH high school and was moderated by CNN anchor-turned education reformer Campbell Brown. The American Federation for Children and Brown are backers of expanding access to charter schools and overhauling teacher tenure laws that they say make it too hard to fire a bad teacher.

Bush and Ohio Gov. John Kasich were the only backers of Common Core in the group. Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, says she does not support the Common Core, however, five years ago she praised President Obama for initiating the “internationally benchmarked standards.”

Obama’s Race to the Top called for states to use higher quality, more stringent academic standards, which did not necessarily have to be the Common Core, in exchange for federal dollars. Most states did choose to add Common Core, according to Stephanie Condon of CBS News.bush and Fiorina endorsed school vouchers to push competition and innovation in the nation’s school systems. Fiorina touted Nevada’s new law that permits parents to open a K-12 education accounts which would allow their children to take their public funding to whichever school they and their parents choose. The plan is strongly opposed by Democrats and several education organizations, as opponents say this will leave struggling and low-income students in lower-funded schools.

Caitlin Emma of Politico writes that Louisiana Gov. Jindal was behind the Common Core at the start, but is now suing the federal government over the standards. Gov. Chris Christie agreed to the Common Core in 2010, but now denounces the curriculum. The GOP candidates speak often of restoring local control, but Brown asked whether education could be improved if there is no federal role.

College of the Holy Cross

The College of the Holy Cross or Holy Cross is a private, undergraduate Roman Catholic, Jesuit liberal arts college located in Worcester, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1843, Holy Cross is the oldest Catholic college in New England and one of the oldest in the United States. U.S. News & World Report ranked Holy Cross 25th in the U.S. among liberal arts colleges in 2014. Holy Cross is the only Catholic college among the top 50 liberal arts schools on the U.S. News list.opened as a school for boys under the auspices of the Society of Jesus, it was the first Jesuit college in New England. Today, Holy Cross is one of 28 member institutions of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU) and is part of the Colleges of Worcester Consortium (COWC). Holy Cross sports teams are called the Crusaders, and their sole color is purple; they compete in NCAA Division I as members of the Patriot League. As of 2014, the Holy Cross endowment was valued at $726,053,000.

In 1998, Holy Cross initiated an eight-year capital campaign, "Lift High the Cross," with a three-year quiet period. The campaign for Holy Cross ended in fiscal 2006 with $216.3 million raised, surpassing its original goal of $175 million. The funds allowed Holy Cross to establish an additional 12 new faculty positions, along with more than 75 newly endowed scholarships for students. The campaign provided support for the renovation of the Mary Chapel as well as construction of new facilities on campus, including Smith Hall, which houses the new Michael C. McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture; a five-story apartment-style residence housing 244 seniors; and a new 1,350-seat soccer stadium. During the history of the campaign, the College's endowment grew to more than $544 million.on July 1, 2000, Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J. became the president of the college. On February 3, 2011, Fr. McFarland announced his resignation as President of the College, and a national search, led by the Board of Trustees, was conducted to find his successor. On May 7, 2011, Rev. Philip L. Boroughs, S.J., the Vice President for Mission and Ministry at Georgetown University, was named as McFarland's successor.

Holy Cross has 240 faculty members who teach 2,817 undergraduate students. It offers 28 majors mainly focused on a liberal arts curriculum, each of which leads to the completion of the Bachelor of Arts degree. All B.A. candidates must successfully complete 32 semester courses in eight semesters of full-time study to graduate. Common requirements include one course each in arts, literature, religion, philosophy, history, and cross-cultural studies; and two courses each in language studies, social science, and natural and mathematical sciences. As of 2010, Holy Cross is in the top 3% of four-year colleges in the number of students going on to earn doctorates in their fields.the top five majors for the 2008-2009 school year were Economics, English, Psychology, Political Science, and Sociology. Holy Cross also offers multidisciplinary concentrations, pre-professional programs, and the option to create a major or minor through the Center for Interdisciplinary and Special Studies. Holy Cross students who apply to medical school have an 91% acceptance rate and for law school an 91% acceptance rate. The College notes that the medical school acceptance rate is more than twice the national average.

Of particular interest is the Classics department at Holy Cross, which has ten faculty members, making it the second largest Classics program at any American liberal arts college (after St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe), where Ancient Greek is a required subject). D. Neel Smith, one of the department professors, is a primary collaborator on the Perseus Project, the multimedia database of Greek antiquity created by several college and universities. During the 2006-07 academic year, Holy Cross will specifically be editing the Homer Multitext Project, a long-term analysis and electronic presentation of all the many variations of Homer’s epic poetry.

Holy Cross has traditionally drawn many of its students from a pool of historical Catholic high schools and private boarding schools, though a majority of current undergraduates come from public schools. Holy Cross' overall undergraduate acceptance rate for the incoming 2014 class was 43.3 percent. In 2013, the middle 50% SAT score range for those who submitted a score was 1220-1380 out of 1600. Even though Holy Cross did not first admit women students until 1972, its student population is currently majority female, as with most liberal arts institutions, with this majority continuing to grow with the most recent entering classes.in May 2005, Holy Cross announced that it would no longer make standardized test scores an admissions requirement. College officials said this policy would reduce the importance of the tests and place greater weight on the academic experience of a candidate, as demonstrated through the high school transcript and recommendations. As of October 2006, more than 730 four-year colleges and universities of varying rank do not use the SAT I or ACT to admit bachelor degree applicants. Tuition for full-time students for the 2012-13 academic year is $55,130.

Holy Cross' campus, a registered arboretum, has won national awards for its landscaping. In 1977, Holy Cross was cited by the Professional Grounds Management Society (PGMS) for having the best-maintained school or university grounds in the United States[45] Holy Cross is marked by an irregular layout as its 175-acre (0.71 km2) campus is situated on the northern slope of a very steep hill named Mount Saint James which offers it a panoramic view of the city of Worcester. The Princeton Review ranked the campus as #5 most beautiful campus in the nation in 2010 and consistently ranks the campus in the top 15. The design and landscape is ingrained into many themes and nicknames for the school which is commonly known as The Hill.

Today, some 37 college buildings are divided primarily with residential housing and academic buildings located in the middle sections of the campus, with athletic and practice facilities on the outskirts of the campus on its northern and southern ends. Holy Cross also owns 6 non-campus properties.anchoring the traditional campus gateway of Linden Lane are Stein and O’Kane Halls, the latter of which is marked by a clock tower. The oldest part of campus lies in this area, as O’Kane is connected to Fenwick Hall, the first building which was designed in 1843; it also houses the admissions offices and the Brooks Concert Hall. This area contains manicured trees and landscaped greens which include three nude bronze statues by Enzo Plazzotta, Georg Klobe, and Welrick on the hillside. This is a popular spot for pranks as students take turns dressing up the statues. The area around Fenwick and O'Kane Halls is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Notable buildings north of this area are Dinand Library; Smith Hall, the Hogan Campus Center; the scientific complex housing O'Neil, Swords, and Haberlin Halls, and Beaven Hall, home to an assortment of academic departments. Smith Hall, opened in 2001, was financed in large part by Holy Cross alumnus Park B. Smith, and is architecturally impressive as it is built into a hillside of the campus. Smith Hall connects the lower campus, where much of the academic life occurs, and the upper campus, where much of the social and residential life takes place on campus due to its design which incorporates Fenwick Hall. A plaza outside Smith Hall, named Memorial Plaza, commemorates seven Holy Cross alumni who perished in the September 11, 2001 attacks.to the western end of campus lies Millard Art Center, St. Joseph Memorial Chapel, the Chaplains' Office (Campion House), and Loyola Hall, which served as the Jesuit residence in the past, but has since been converted into another hall for student housing. The Jesuit residence Ciampi Hall is now located in the Northeast corner of the campus.