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U of A Engineering Information Session

If you are interested in learning more about Engineering at the U of A, please attend Engineering Expo on Saturday, September 25, 2010 from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00p.m.  at the Maier Learning Centre, ETLC at the U of A.  For more information, visit www.engineering.ualberta.ca/Expo or Student Services.

Sam Dillon

In many of the nation’s middle schools, black boys were nearly three times as likely to be suspended as white boys, according to a new study, which also found that black girls were suspended at four times the rate of white girls.

School authorities also suspended Hispanic and American Indian middle school students at higher rates than white students, though not at such disproportionate rates as for black children, the study found. Asian students were less likely to be suspended than whites.

The study analyzed four decades of federal Department of Education data on suspensions, with a special focus on figures from 2002 and 2006, that were drawn from 9,220 of the nation’s 16,000 public middle schools.

The study, “Suspended Education: Urban Middle Schools in Crisis,” was published by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit civil rights organization.

The co-authors, Daniel J. Losen, a senior associate at the Civil Rights Project at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Russell Skiba, a professor at Indiana University, said they focused on suspensions from middle schools because recent research had shown that students’ middle school experience was crucial for determining future academic success.

One recent study of 400 incarcerated high school freshmen in Baltimore found that two-thirds had been suspended at least once in middle school.

Federal law requires schools to expel students for weapons possession and incidents involving the most serious safety issues. The authors said they focused on suspensions, which often result from fighting, abusive language and classroom disruptions, because they were a measure that school administrators can apply at their discretion.

Throughout America’s public schools, in kindergarten through high school, the percent of students suspended each year nearly doubled from the early 1970s through 2006, the authors said, an increase that they associate, in part, with the rise of so-called zero-tolerance school discipline policies.

In 1973, on average, 3.7 percent of public school students of all races were suspended at least once. By 2006, that percentage had risen to 6.9 percent.

Both in 1973 and in 2006, black students were suspended at higher rates than whites, but over that period, the gap increased. In 1973, 6 percent of all black students were suspended. In 2006, 15 percent of all blacks were suspended.

Among the students attending one of the 9,220 middle schools in the study sample, 28 percent of black boys and 18 percent of black girls, compared with 10 percent of white boys and 4 percent of white girls, were suspended in 2006, the study found.

The researchers found wide disparities in suspension rates among different city school systems and even among middle schools in the same district.

Using the federal data, they calculated suspension rates for middle school students, broken down by race, in 18 large urban districts.

Two districts showed especially high rates. In Palm Beach County and Milwaukee, more than 50 percent of black male middle school students were suspended at least once in 2006, the study showed.

Jennie Dorsey, director of family services in the Milwaukee district, said the district had recognized that its suspension rate was too high and had begun a program aimed at changing students’ behavior without suspensions.

The program has brought only modest reductions in the suspension rate so far, but Ms. Dorsey predicted sharper reductions over several years.

Nat Harrington, a spokesman for the Palm Beach County district, disputed the study’s statistics, but acknowledged that “all the data show an unacceptably high number of black students being suspended.” He said the district was using several strategies to reduce suspensions.

The Graduate School of the College of Charleston now offers the opportunity to earn two master’s degrees in an abbreviated amount of time. Having both a Master of Environmental Studies (MES) and Master of Public Administration (MPA)  “will provide graduates with both the skills and the credentials to be successful in public and nonprofit organizations dealing with environmental issues” according to Kendra Stewart, program director of the MPA. To learn more about this opportunity, read the press release or touch base with Dr. Stewart or Dr. Callahan.

Ivy League School Application Information Session

If you are thinking about attending an Ivy League school for post secondary studies, then you will want to attend the following session: 

Who:  Admission officers from Brown University, Dartmouth College, Princeton University, Columbia University, Harvard University, Stanford University and the University of Pennsylvania

When:  Wednesday, September 22, 2010 @7:00 p.m.

Where:  Sir Winston Churchill School in Calgary

Topics will include applications for Canadian students, academic programs, admission policies, costs and more. 

No RSVP is required.  For more information, check out http://www.cbe.ab.ca/schools/view.asp?id=257

TALLAHASSEE — A teachers union lawyer told a circuit judge Wednesday that a proposed class-size amendment should be thrown off the Nov. 2 ballot for the same reason that the state Supreme Court recently struck three other amendments — because the ballot language is misleading about its purpose.

In this case, Florida Education Association attorney Ron Meyer argued, the ballot language doesn’t make clear that the purpose is to reduce the state’s cost of paying for public schools.

But the lawyer for the state said Amendment 8 is just what it appears to be — a proposal that would give school districts the flexibility they say they need by limiting class sizes at the school level rather than at the classroom level as the constitution currently requires.

Charles Frances, the chief circuit judge for Leon County, said he hoped to rule on the case by Friday, and both sides have promised to appeal to the Florida Supreme Court for a final decision before the Nov. 2 election. It’s too late to remove the item from the ballot because ballots have already been printed but the court could order supervisors of elections not to tally the votes if it is ultimately tossed.

Meyer referred to Republican lawmakers’ frequent complaints that the current class-size standards are too costly and argued that the measure they placed on the ballot is misleading because it fails to inform voters that, if passed, it would undo the requirement that lawmakers give “adequate funding” to schools to reduce class sizes, which he said was “at the heart” of the 2002 amendment that created the class-size restrictions.

“Amendment 8 changes all that. You don’t know that by looking at the ballot summary. You don’t know that by looking at the ballot title,” Meyer said. “That change inescapably changes the funding. The voter doesn’t know that. The voter doesn’t see that. The voter doesn’t get that.”

But Jon Glogau, a lawyer in Attorney General Bill McCollum’s office defending the state in the lawsuit, argued that it is “pure speculation” that funding for schools will decrease if the amendment passes.

“This case is not about adequacy of school funding,” Glogau said. “I don’t know what he’s talking about … The chief purpose of this amendment is to change the caps. It’s patently obvious.”

Current class size rules cap classes at 18 students in Pre-K through third grade, 22 students in grades 4 through 8, and 25 students in high school. Amendment 8 would loosen the standards by applying those limits to school averages rather than individual classrooms; it also would set higher limits for individual classrooms: caps of 21 (K-3), 27 (4-8) and 30 (high school).

The Palm Beach County School District, like the rest of the districts in the state, has chosen not to meet the standards that were required by the start of school this year. Palm Beach County schools need an additional 800 to 900 teachers to meet the standards, and Schools Superintendent Art Johnson has said the district would pin its hopes on voters relaxing the law in November rather than raising taxes or making the other cuts necessary to find the $59 million needed to hire that many teachers.

Of the six amendments the legislature had placed on the Nov. 2 ballot, three have already been struck by the state Supreme Court on the grounds that their ballot summaries were misleading. Meyer was the attorney for the challenging group in one of those cases; he successfully used the argument in challenging the legislature’s amendment regarding the way legislative and Congressional districts are drawn.

What’s at stake

• For core classes, school districts were supposed to have met strict limits on individual class sizes by the start of school this August: 18 students in kindergarten through third grade, 22 in fourth through eighth grade and 25 in high school.
• If voters approve Amendment 8, those same limits would be applied on a school-wide average rather than to each individual class. In addition, individual classes would have caps of 21 (K-3), 27 (4-8) and 30 (high school).
• For example, under the proposal, the average size of an elementary school’s K-3 classes could not be more than 18 students, and no single class could have more than 21 students.
• The new standards would be made retroactive to the start of the 2010-2011 school year.

The Chronicle of Higher Education shared with graduate students tips on how to get the most out of your academic career. This open letter to graduate students encourages you to network productively within your field, but I also encourage you to expand your horizons and get to know others in your local community.

This week is full of opportunities for you to meet students from other programs and professionals of the Lowcountry.

Tuesday, the Social Media Club Charleston is hosting their Summer Social at Taco Boy Downtown. It also happens to be at the same time and in the same place as the AdFed membership drive.

Join the Charleston Young Professionals on Wednesday at O’Brion’s on James Island for their monthly networking event.

The first Graduate Student Association meeting of the semester is at 5:30 on Friday in room 409 of the Stern Center on campus. Everyone is invited to attend and let their voice be heard. Then, join us for the annual Kick-Off event at 5:30 on Saturday. We’ll be outside at the Ft. Johnson Outdoor Classroom on James Island. It’s always a great time, and a great way to start your semester.

For more ideas on things to do, pick up a copy of The Post & Courier, The Charleston City Paper, Skirt! Magazine, or any other publication usually found in a coffee shop, on a street corner, in your gym, at a restaurant, or any other public venue.