Afternoon announcements: Digital learning grows education markets

In order to combat the national high school dropout race, the U.S. needs to consider some policy changes. Among the changes proposed in a new paper from the National Education Policy Center at the School of Education, University of Colorado-Boulder is implementing responsible accountability systems tied to dropout rates and considering factors in and out of school that impact high school completion. Education Daily

A New Mexico bill allowed high school students in one year to receive a “reprieve” from a rigorous graduation exam. The state’s graduation rate went up this year, in large part because the exam wasn’t required. Santa Fe New Mexican

Education companies are buying into digital learning, fueling the market. Over $7 billion changed hadns in more than 250 total transactions in 2012, according to a report from investment banking firm Berekery Noyes. Education Week

Internet access isn’t a privilege anymore, it’s a necessity – when it comes to student success. Education Week Read Entire Post

Morning Announcements: February 21, 2012

Good Morning! Fortunately we were able to skip the sluggish Monday had head right into Tuesday. The countdown through a short week begins! Here are your latest education headlines.

As a part of the Obama administration’s efforts to address the alarming rate of childhood obesity, a new will be announced that highlights guidelines for vending machines in schools, according to the New York Times. The goal is to set nationwide standards that promote healthy choices for nourishment of growing children.

In Chicago, the public schools system’s new administration has added a new assessment test for elementary school students. As the Chicago Tribune reports, the new measures come after years of complaints from teachers and administrators that the previous assessment tests for the state's Illinois Standard Achievement Test set the bar too low when preparing kids for college.

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Morning Announcements: August 12, 2011

 For the first time, California reported the state’s eighth-grade dropout rate, shedding light on information that tends to be not been well recorded. The report found 3.5 percent of eighth-graders dropped out before they would have entered ninth grade, the Los Angeles Times reported. The information is a part of a system that enables officials to track students individually. Overall, nearly 75 percent of California high school students graduated after four years, while about 18 percent dropped out.

Bullying and its effects on students emotionally have been in the news a great deal over the past year, however, the Los Angles Times reported today on a new study that shows it can cause academic troubles as well. The study of over 7,000 ninth-graders and nearly 3,000 teachers randomly selected in Virginia showed schools with an intense bullying atmosphere had passing rates on standardized tests that were 3 to 6 percent lower than other schools. 

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Stats That Stick: July 27, 2011

High school graduates earn a national average of $8,000 more annually compared to high school dropouts. (Alliance for Excellent Education)

Nearly 87 percent of New Mexico’s schools are not making adequate progress under the federal No Child left Behind (NCLB) Act. When it comes to student proficiency, only 42 percent of New Mexico students perform at grade level in math and science and only 50 percent are proficient in Reading. (New Mexico Public Education Department)

The number of Louisiana public schools considered failing—or “academically unacceptable”—under the state’s accountability program jumped from 48 last year to 135 this year. (Education Week)

Students with disciplinary actions were five times more likely to drop out (10 percent) than students with no disciplinary action (2 percent), according to a new study of nearly one million Texas secondary school students released by the Council of State Governments. Additionally, students with disciplinary actions were more than six times more likely (31 percent) to be held back at least once, compared to students without (5 percent).

 

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Stats That Stick: July 13, 2011

The June unemployment rate for high school dropouts was 14.3 percent, compared to 4.4 percent for individuals with a bachelor’s degree, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The unemployment rate for high school graduates was 10 percent and 8.4 percent for individuals with some college or an associate’s degree.

In Alabama, more than 34 percent of 2010 high school graduates who attended a state public four-year or two-year college needed at least one remedial course, and many of them needed two. (Montgomery Advertiser)

The Huffington Post reports that the latest 2010 census data shows that the share of children in the United States is 24 percent, falling below the previous low of 26 percent of 1990. The share is projected to slip further, to 23 percent by 2050, even as the percentage of people 65 and older is expected to jump from 13 percent today to roughly 20 percent by 2050 due to the aging of baby boomers and beyond. And when this generation of children grows up, it will become a shrinking work force that will have to support the nation's expanding elderly population—even as the government strains to cut spending for health care, pensions and much else.

 

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Morning Announcements: November 3, 2010

Republican candidates for governor raced to victory, after campaigning on traditional conservative platforms that emphasized a return to local control over education and resistance to what they regarded as state and federal overreach in schools, Education Week reports. In state school superintendents’ contests, GOP candidates also fared well.

Inside Higher Ed writes about the shift in the statehouses after the mid-term elections and how it could impact higher education.

School leaders in Baltimore have mounted an offensive over the past three years to keep more students in school and on track, according to Education Week and last month, news came that the effort has produced a welcome dividend: Black male students are driving a marked increase in the district’s graduation rate and a decrease in its dropout rate, and showing improvement at a faster clip than the rest of the system.

USA Today examines a new teaching licensing system being tested in 19 states that includes filming student teachers in their classroom and evaluating the video. Candidates must also show they can prepare a lesson, tailor it to different levels of students and present it effectively.

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States Pick-Up on the Economic Benefits of Reducing the Dropout Rate

On the heels of the release of the Alliance’s study, several major state newspapers are reporting on the economic benefits that their local metropolitan areas could experience if they were to cut their high school dropout rate in half. In a Salt Lake Tribune story, Pam Perlich, a senior research economist at the University of Utah, responded to the study, saying that the Alliance’s research was in line with other research showing that people with higher levels of educational attainment will have better economic outcomes.

"It's very settled that people who have higher levels of education are more productive, and that pays off over the course of their entire working lives," Perlich said. "No matter what the magnitude of the number is they come up with, the general point is a great investment in education by residents of the state will lead to higher levels of economic performance by people in the state."

And Mark Bouchard, head of the Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce, Education Task Force and senior managing director of CB Richard Ellis, remarked in an interview with the Deseret News, "Businesses are the greatest consumer of the education system. We're directly impacted by the quality of the work force." An editorial in the same newspaper added, “The alliance report is an important reminder that the state's economy depends upon a strong educational system. The issue is larger than whether the children in one's own neighborhood graduate from high school. The state's economic well-being — and personal well-being — hinge on as many students as possible achieving academic success.”

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The Economic Benefits of Reducing the High School Dropout Rate

Back in January, the Alliance for Excellent Education released a blockbuster new study that provided convincing evidence for reducing the high school dropout rate in the nation’s largest metropolitan areas. The study, supported by State Farm ®, found that if high school dropout rates were cut in half in Baltimore, for example, which had a total of 9,700 students dropout in 2008, then the “new graduates” in the Baltimore metropolitan area would likely have:

• Seen as much as $77 million in increased earnings in the average year;
• Spent an additional $51 million and invested an additional $21 million each year;
• Supported 500 new jobs and increased the gross regional product by as much as $95 million;
• Boosted home sales with an additional $263 million in mortgage capacity over what they would have spent without a diploma;
• Spent an additional $6 million each year purchasing vehicles; and
• Boosted tax revenue by $12 million.

And that’s just in Baltimore...for one single class.

 

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