From the Connecticut Post:

BRIDGEPORT A consultant brought in by Interim Schools Superintendent Paul Vallas to help fix the school district left days after she arrived when it was learned she was caught up in one of the nations largest cheating scandals.

Millicent Few, the former human resources director for the Atlanta school system, spent two days in the district, according to Vallas, who said he let her go Tuesday.

She is not going to remain on the transition team. She is gone. She may be the most skilled person on the planet but I dont need any controversy, said Vallas.

Few, who was with the Atlanta system for a dozen years, resigned in July with a number of other system leaders amid a widespread standardized-test cheating scandal that reportedly involved 178 teachers and principals and 44 schools. According to a Atlanta School District investigation by the state of Georgia and released in June 2011, Few, on two occasions, ordered those under her supervision to illegally destroy and alter public documents in order to hide evidence related to test cheating and misconduct.

In published reports in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Few denied to investigators that she tampered with documents or ordered anyone else to do so.

Vallas said Few was recommend by Elizabeth Arons, a New York-based human resources consultant for school districts who also does work with the Gates Foundation Human Capital Reforms. The cheating scandal was brought up, but Vallas said he was told Few was outstanding and was an innocent casualty of the cheating controversy. He said he has since done more online research.

The newspaper articles and the online network suggests otherwise, although we cannot attest to the veracity of those accusations, Vallas said. I felt and we mutually agreed her services would not be in her best interest at this time.

Vallas said that he will have to step up the search for a permanent human resources director. This time Ill do a Google search, Vallas said.

Heres another idea:  Head to The Center for College Affordability and Productivity, which is the think tank that generates Forbes magazines annual college rankings.

On the centers site you can find the schools that Forbes thinks are the best, as well as other lists that are broken down by region, type of schools and more. Forbes ranks 650 colleges and universities.

The Forbes rankings measure these five areas:

•   Student satisfaction (A big factor is RateMyProfessor.com evaluations.)
•   Post-graduate success (Graduates salaries compiled by PayScale.com.
•    Student debt (How much students owe upon graduation.)
•    Four-year grad rate (Most students dont graduate in four years.)
•    Student competitive awards (Includes Rhodes, Fulbright, Watson and more.)

Here is where you can find an exhaustive explanation of the methodology.

What I like about the magazines rankings is it can help you uncover colleges that you didnt know exist. When you look at the master list, lots of prestige schools rise to the top, but so do little-known institutions that do extremely well. In contrast, some hot brand names like Cornell, USC,  Penn, NYU and Washington University in St. Louis dont fare nearly as well as youd expect if you believe that the rankings over at US News are gospel. (Please dont!)

Schools that fared better in the Forbes rankings than some of those heavy hitters included such institutions as:

• Centre College (KY)
• St. Michael’s College (VT)
• Transylvania University (KY)
• St. Norbert College (WI)
• Westmont College (CA)
• University of Redlands (CA)
• St. Olaf College (MN)
• Hobart and William Smith Colleges (NY)
• University of Minnesota at Morris

By the way, the University of Minnesota at Morris is a public liberal arts college which gives in-state tuition ($12,o91) to all students! The school in Morris edged out the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

Here are all the ways the Forbes slices and dices the master list. This is a screen shot so you will have to go to the site to access these lists.

The lists that I particularly like are the ones broken down by region because most students do not stray outside their region. Im using the Midwest list as example because these schools are often a better value than those on the coasts. Also, there isnt as much competition to get into wonderful schools in the Midwest because few families outside the region even know about them! Its the same story in the South.

I bet it didnt take you long to stop recognizing the Midwestern schools on this list. And thats why I shared it. There are amazing schools in this country that just need discovering. What you should resist doing is believing the No. 1 is better than No. 19 and No. 25 has to be than No. 50. Just use these lists as idea generators!

If youre a real numbers person, you might also want to check out the centers component rankings list, where you can tease out such things as the schools where the students are happiest with the teaching, earn the highest salaries upon graduation and more.

Goncharoff told Eric Sondheimer Tuesday he has applied for the job, telling the reporter, “It’s a great area and a great situation. I wouldn’t have applied if I wasn’t interested. We’ll see what happens.”

I just caught up with Goncharoff, who said he has never applied for a new job since being hired at Bellevue. He just wanted to go through the process.

“I’ve never gone through the process before,” said Goncharoff, who has won nine state titles in 11 years. “There’s nothing about Bellevue I’m displeased about. It’s awesome. The community is great. The school is great. My situation is unbelievable. I just want to put myself out there, take a look at it.”

He added, “I’ve never said I’m leaving. I’m just going through the process for whatever that’s worth.”

It is a well-known fact that children from affluent families tend to do better in school. Yet the income divide has received far less attention from policy makers and government officials than gaps in student accomplishment by race.

Now, in analyses of long-term data published in recent months, researchers are finding that while the achievement gap between white and black students has narrowed significantly over the past few decades, the gap between rich and poor students has grown substantially during the same period.  Additionally, the gap also exists at the college level.  In a study conducted by The University of Michigan, researchers looked at two generations of students, those born from 1961 to 1964 and those born from 1979 to 1982. By 1989, about one-third of the high-income students in the first generation had finished college; by 2007, more than half of the second generation had done so. By contrast, only 9 percent of the low-income students in the second generation had completed college by 2007, up only slightly from a 5 percent college completion rate by the first generation in 1989.  Some experts maintain that the recession over the past few years has not only impacted the gap but will continue to widen it.

Read the entire article here at NYTimes.com with additional information about the research data.

Schoodoodle.com carries a wide selection of resources to improve teaching and learning in preschool through high school.  Also, browse our materials designed to help parents support the learning process at home such as  Parental Involvement resources,  resources for home school kids, early childhood, standardized test prep, and learning games for kids.

“A 20-percent increase in tuition would make higher education for a student like me nearly impossible. If financial aid was to be opened up to middle-class white students, it would make education for me a lot easier than packing on the loans and having a second job. Right now I work as much as possible and I take out as much as I can in unsubsidized loans.”

Justin Nygard

Sophomore, undeclared

“The hope is that I’ll gain a scholarship. My plan used to be to do a ROTC scholarship, but now ROTC has stopped doing all of their scholarships. They won’t do that until next year, and by next year, we won’t have the money to put me through school. As it is, I’ve got a transfer degree, but if tuition increases I won’t be able to finish up my education.”

Timothy Vo

Sophomore, Chinese

“It just means a lot more student loans. I’m already going to try to graduate as fast as humanly possible, so I’m probably going to be taking as many credits as I can without having to pay the extra tuition for credits. I’m going to try my hardest to get out by summer of next year instead of doing a senior year, because I cannot afford to keep going to this school.”

Keena Bean

Junior, undeclared

“It would be a big impact. It’s disappointing that our state isn’t prioritizing education more, and that the school has to pass the burden of everything that they have to buy to the students because that’s the only way that they can pay for it.”

Bradford Walzer

Junior, political science

The offensive coordinator is gone. The defensive coordinator is gone. Eleven players have left the program since December. A total of 23 have left the program since last January. For a short time yesterday afternoon, it seemed as if yet another player was going to follow that group out the door. It’s been an offseason to forget for Maryland, which is fitting: it was a season to forget for the Terrapins, after all. It’s difficult to imagine a rockier debut for Randy Edsall, the former Connecticut coach who leaped at the chance to trade in Storrs for College Park, and the developments over the last two months does point to the idea that Maryland’s woes may continue in 2012.

For starters, any progression that was made on either side of the ball — if any was made at all — might be undone by the changes on the coaching staff. Not to say that new offensive coordinator Mike Locksley won’t be an improvement over Gary Crowton: Locksley isn’t a head coach, but he’s a fine coordinator who will have an enormous impact on Maryland’s recruiting efforts in the region.

But changes are changes, and come the spring, the Terrapins will be learning their third offensive system in as many years. While Locksley’s offense will be reminiscent of Maryland’s philosophy under James Franklin — the former coordinator, now Vanderbilt head coach — the latest coaching move will have the Terrapins’ heads spinning, as you’d expect.

And any development that the program’s many transfers made under Edsall is for naught, seeing that each will be taking that growth elsewhere for the remainder of their college careers. And that several of those transfers were either starters or battling for a starting role will greatly impact depth, which hurts Maryland across the board.

But this is old news. The only reason to discuss it now is that for roughly an hour yesterday afternoon, starting quarterback Danny O’Brien seemed to be the next player to walk out of the door; while O’Brien refuted the report of his transfer, several media outlets, including The Washington Post, have intimated that O’Brien is leaning heavily towards leaving the program.

O’Brien isn’t happy. He’s upset over his deteriorating standing on the depth chart; the unquestioned starter after a terrific redshirt freshman season in 2010, by the midway point of last fall O’Brien found himself embroiled in a competition for the starting job with C.J. Brown, the more mobile and athletic of Maryland’s two options.

The only way O’Brien does return, in my opinion, is if Edsall and Maryland come out and anoint him the starter prior to the start of spring ball. There’s very little chance of that happening — Locksley wants to see both quarterbacks, of course, and putting O’Brien back atop the depth chart might lead Brown to transfer, which Maryland doesn’t want.

It’s an ugly time for the Terrapins, and one that could potentially grow worse, should Edsall botch the delicate situation brewing at quarterback. It’d be hard to alienate both O’Brien and Brown; if any program could, however, it would be Maryland — based on how Edsall has mishandled the roster he inherited from Ralph Friedgen a year ago.

You can also follow Paul Myerberg and .

OLYMPIA Clark County lawmakers this week promoted bills to fund the Columbia River Crossing project and protect education budgets.

Columbia River Crossing

Vancouver Democrats Rep. Jim Moeller and Sen. Craig Pridemore are sponsoring companion bills that would authorize tolling as a partial means to replace the Interstate Bridge joining Portland and Vancouver.

Both bills passed votes in Transportation committees Tuesday and could make their way to the floor in the next couple of weeks.

Finding the money for a new Interstate 5 bridge is a complicated process, Moeller said. It relies upon a combination of funds from Washington, Oregon and the federal government.

“We have to show the federal government that we are serious and that we have a funding plan,” Moeller said.

The Columbia River Crossing is the largest construction project in the history of Southwest Washington, Pridemore said.

“It will bring 16,000 jobs over the next seven years in direct stimulus and more than 27,000 jobs in economic impact,” he said. “It’s the single greatest thing we can do in both the short term and the long term to promote the economic vitality of the region.”

Education

Sens. Joe Zarelli, R-Ridgefield, and Don Benton, R-Vancouver, are sponsoring SB 6567, a bill intended to solidify education funding as a top priority.

“It’s just another way to ensure we fulfill our paramount duty,” Benton said.

State government has a spending limit for its general fund. Spending cannot exceed the prior year’s expenditures plus a fiscal growth factor calculated by taking into account inflation and population growth for the previous three years.

This bill would pull education funding out from under that spending-limit umbrella.

The shift would apply not only to K-12 education but also higher-education appropriations and financial aid.

The bill came up for its first public hearing in the Senate Ways and Means Committee Tuesday. Benton admitted he doesn’t know whether it will gain traction with enough lawmakers.   

“It’s hard at this point to get a sense of anything right now,” he said. “We’re so late at getting things moving.”

Benton said in all his previous years working at the Capitol he never witnessed the Senate struggle so much to focus on budgeting during a short session.

– Justin Runquist

Joining Larry Blustein between 9-10 on WQAM (560 AM) will be Linda Doyle from Arena Advertising and Marketing, Josh Darrow, Managing Editor of the very popular South Florida High School Sports (http://sfhighschoolsports.com/) website and Charles Fishbein of Elite Scouting Services.

YEARLY EVENT The 4th annual South Florida High School Football Signing Day TV Special and Celebration will take place on February 1st at Dave & Buster’s Hollywood. This Celebration Show starts at 5:30pm and the LIVE TV show airs on NBC6 at 7:00pm. The event is hosted by Joe Rose and Adam Kuperstein.

This event is FREE for ALL senior football players in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach County, along with coaching staffs, Athletic Directors, Player’s families and friends are invited to be a part of the TV show and celebration at Dave & Buster’s Hollywood. Last year the event was billed as “The largest gathering of high school recruits ever in South Florida.”

Doyle and her staff have worked very hard to make this a quality event.

IT’S ABOUT RECRUITING One of the “new kids on the block” when it comes to covering high school sports in the region is SouthFloridaHighSchoolSports.com. With a heavy emphasis on football, this is a website that has been a huge addition.

With games and video interviews along with BLOGS and player information, the website has been recognized as one of the main sources for year-round high school sports information.

Darrow has developed the website into a tool that is used by college coaches, high school coaches, parents and players.

On Thursday, Feb. 2 from 7-10 p.m. Bokampers in Miramar is the place to be for a LIVE radio show, devoted to the Miami Hurricanes and other South Florida recruits.

UM signees and their families will join other Hurricane fans for the event.

FINAL DECISION? Over the next week or so, there will be many questions asked of athletes who are ready to sign on that dotted line as part of the Class of 2012.

Nobody knows more what it’s like this time of year than Fishbein. He has watched many signing days, and understands what’s at stake.

How did Miami do? What about FSU or Florida? Check out to see what Fishbein thinks of those classes.

The Epigenetics Revolution: How Modern Biology Is Rewriting Our Understanding of Genetics, Disease, and Inheritance Nessa Carey

Sayonara Amerika, Sayonara Nippon: A Geopolitical Prehistory of J-Pop Michael Bourdaghs

Mahatma Gandhi: Nonviolent Power in Action (With a new Afterword by the Author) Dennis Dalton

Psychosocial Capacity Building in Response to Disasters Joshua Miller

Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America (Now available in paper) Lillian Faderman

Two viewings of MISS REPRESENTATION will be hosted on the College of Charleston campus. This first showing will be held in room 235 of the Robert Scott Small building this Saturday, January 28 from 11:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. The address for this building is 175 Calhoun Street, and is located near the corner of St. Philip Street. The second event will be on Wednesday, February 1 at 3:00 p.m. These showings are free and open to the public.

See you all there!

Complementing the upgrade in facilities, Porter Moser, men’s basketball head coach, and Dr. Grace Calhoun, athletic director, tirelessly work to keep Rambler Pride flowing around campus and within the student body. They have successfully instilled a new-found swagger in students and Loyola alums, evident each home game at the ‘Joe. The tenacious crowd plays well into the thunderous design of the arena.

Mark Lazerus of the Post-Tribune is marveled by the construction and believes Loyola has made the perfect decision on the cozy size of Gentile.  He also sees the gym as a microcosm for other Horizon League arenas.  ”Well, Loyola has created a mid-major paradise,” Lazerus writes. ”The Gentile high school gym has been converted into arguably the nicest facility in the league.” Anyone that has been to the Gentile pre-renovation knows exactly what Mark is talking about by referring it to a ‘high school gym.’ Valpo plays home to a high school style gym and would cherish in the chance to convert the Arc into a Gentile like arena.

Not only have the renovations increased fan fare, but have had an insurmountable effect on recruiting. When talking to Class of 2012 commit Matt O’Leary he stated the following for the reason he chose the Ramblers for college, “What ultimately drew me to Loyola was the fact that the campus is amazing, I see the program as one that has a chance to be very successful in the future.”

Bill Potter, Director of Communications for the Horizon League, finally took in a game last Saturday when Butler paid Loyola a visit. “I was lucky enough to take a hard-hat tour of Gentile Arena earlier in the year, and the finished product is remarkable. The fans are on top of the action, which I think they enjoy, and I think will serve Loyola well in terms of building a home court advantage in the years to come,” Potter explicated. Last month when cross town team DePaul played at Gentile, Blue Demon head coach Oliver Purnell took notice of the crowd right away. Having the Rambler Rowdies jeering and screaming amplified by the dynamics of the stadium is the ultimate form of home court advantage.

“What I was fortunate to see on Saturday was the energy in Gentile. I look forward to seeing the energy continue to pick up as Porter Moser builds his program,” Potter said. As delightful as it is to have a brand new first rate home court, the potential and forward direction for the Ramblers is the most enticing. All of Rambler nation anticipates the return to college basketball greatness.

Porter Moser and his Gentile Arena are just the first two steps.

6:00AM GMT 16 Jan 2012

Teachers will be able to keep unruly pupils behind at the end of the school day without warning after ministers scrapped the existing 24-hour notice period for parents.

The Government insisted the rules – being introduced from today – would make children more accountable for their bad behaviour.

It is among a series of Coalition reforms enshrined in the Education Act 2011 designed to crack down on classroom indiscipline. This includes increased powers to search pupils for banned items, granting teachers anonymity when accused of assault and giving heads the final say on expulsions.

It comes amid fears that the balance of power in schools has swung too far towards pupils in recent years.

Almost 1,000 children are suspended from school for abuse and assault every day and two-thirds of teachers admit bad behaviour is driving professionals out of the classroom.

While Forex trading is potentially lucrative, it isn’t for everyone, and you need to respect that different people are going to have differing opinions about how to grow your wealth. If you try to listen to everyone, you might end up never doing anything.

Image via Flickr

Your Trading Platform is Important

In years past, the only method anyone had for investing was to trade through a broker. You’d call up your broker and instruct him to buy this or sell that. Fortunately, in the computer age, your options have opened up considerably. Regardless of what kind of asset you want to invest in, you can get into Forex currency trading online with UFXmarkets or another wholesale investing platform in this day and age. Your options are generally now limited only by how much you want to invest and when you want to start. But choosing one that allows you to invest in your own way is crucial.

They Aren’t All the Same

Your choice of trading platform is very important to how ultimately successful you become. While many people end up with the first company they see online, you should take the time to check out plenty of different platforms, to make sure the one you choose is the best one for you. While many Forex trading platforms allow you to change up your view of the trading window and other screens, finding one that offers all of the features you want is even more important. Make sure every currency pair that interests you is featured in any company you choose to work with.

Image via Flickr

The Work Should be the Research

Researching currencies can take a lot of twists and turns. You may research the country and its GDP to determine its currency’s relative value, or you may be more technically inclined, and look for trends along the candlesticks. No matter what method you use to pick your currencies, picking your trading platform shouldn’t be anywhere near as difficult. If you have to work harder negotiating the interface than you do in your research, you’ve got a real problem.

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama — Huntsville Middle School seventh-grader Emma Stowe loves to write, so her parents gently encouraged her to enter a nationwide creative writing competition a few months ago.

Good call. Emma’s entry, Thinking Cap, won the grand prize in the 9-13 age group of the annual “Be a Famous Writer” contest sponsored by MrsP.com, a website that aims to encourage a love of reading.

“I knew I was a finalist, but I never thought I might win,” Emma, 13, said Sunday. “I’m really excited.”

Emma’s 950-word short story about a missing gerbil named Ginger will be turned into a web video featuring Mrs. P. – TV sitcom actress Kathy Kinney. Kinney’s past credits include “My Name is Earl,” “The Drew Carey Show,” “Seinfeld” and “Grace Under Fire.”

Robin E. Kaplan, an award-winning illustrator from Portland, Ore., will create original artwork to accompany Emma’s story.

In addition to the video, MrsP.com is producing a bound copy of Emma’s story with Kaplan’s illustrations. The picture of Emma that accompanies this article will appear on the book jacket.

“Emma’s written stories since she was little,” mother Elaine Stowe said Sunday. “It’s just something she’s always loved to do, so we thought this contest would be a fun experience for her.”

“But it was a pretty big surprise” that she took top honors.

Emma’s father, Jay Stowe, is chief operating officer of Huntsville Utilities.

Her story is set in Miss Applewood’s fourth-grade classroom. Ginger, the class pet, has vanished from her cage. A student in the class, Lily, skips recess to try to solve the mystery.

Lily ends up using carrots to coax the missing gerbil from its hiding place in the wall.

“Like a lot of fourth-grade teachers, Miss Applewood encourages the kids to use their thinking caps,” Emma said. “There’s a constant theme of Lily saying to herself, ‘I need to use my thinking cap to figure out where Ginger is.’”

Emma credited her sixth-grade reading teacher at Huntsville Middle, Michelle Steed, with pushing her to become a better writer.

“She taught me to really like words and learn their meaning.”

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