Online Enterprises Gain Foothold as Path to a College Degree

Online Enterprises Gain Foothold as Path to a College Degree By TAMAR LEWIN, NYTimes

Some recent entrants into the field of online education offer grounds for both concern and hope.

A Short-Lived Test, Even With Coaching

A Short-Lived Test, Even With Coaching By TAMAR LEWIN, NYTimes

Signing up for some online classes, a reporter discovers she has forgotten a lot about math. Also, that studying in front of a computer is lonely.

How to Fix Our Math Education

How to Fix Our Math Education By SOL GARFUNKEL and DAVID MUMFORD, NYtimes

The current curriculum is not a good way to prepare a vast majority of high school students for life.

Young Hispanics’ College Enrollment Rose 24% in Year, Study Says

Young Hispanics’ College Enrollment Rose 24% in Year, Study Says By SABRINA TAVERNISE, NYTimes

The Pew Hispanic Center says the increase was not just about population growth, but reflected educational attainment goals as well.

Open Courses, Nearly Free

Open Courses, Nearly Free By TAMAR LEWIN, NYTimes

The University of the People relies on volunteer professors to teach 10-week online courses to poor students in 100 countries around the world.

Do We Spend Too Much on Education?

Do We Spend Too Much on Education? NYTimes, Room For Debate

Given that high school and college are no longer a ticket to middle-class life, does our society devote too much time and money to education?

• College Doesn't Create Success Peter Thiel


• A Smart Bet, but No Guarantee Judith Scott-Clayton


• Spending Triples; Results Slide Richard Vedder


• Investing in a Better Life Cecilia E. Rouse


• A Good Use of a Few Years Jeffrey Jensen Arnett


• Spend Smarter, Not Less Stephen Joel Trachtenberg


• Tailoring to Students' Interests Sandra Stotsky


• Is It a Priority to Teach the Poor? Pamela Burdman


• Preparation for Work Barbara Hofer
  

Boys and Reading: Is There Any Hope?

Boys and Reading: Is There Any Hope? By ROBERT LIPSYTE, NYTimes

Boys’ aversion to reading, let alone to novels, has been worsening for years, prompting the question — what turns boys into readers?

U.S. News’ Gold Medal High School List & Asian American Students

U.S. News’ Gold Medal High School List & Asian American Students by Tim, 8Asians.com

U.S. News and World Report put out their “Gold Medal” list of the top 100 public high schools in the United States. As expected some of the real estate forums in the San Francisco Bay Area picked this up and it started some lively debates on buying housing for the schools and school district; and of course conversations on the Asian American population in those neighborhoods and attending one of those schools. (read more)

Gold Medal List | US News Best High Schools

Mega-Congrats to #70 Monta Vista and #98 Lynbrook!

Gold Medal List US News Best High Schools

We looked at more than 21,000 public high schools in 48 states and the District of Columbia. The following are the 100 schools that performed the best in our three-step Best High Schools ranking analysis.

Back-to-School Special: 9 Credit-Card Tips For Students

Back-to-School Special: 9 Credit-Card Tips For Students by Martha White, Time.com

Even as school starts up again around the country, students may already be falling behind in one critical area of knowledge: How to choose and use credit cards. Unfortunately, until financial education is taught in high schools across America, students have to enter the world of consumer credit on their own. We talked to a couple of credit experts to ask them what they would tell students if they were teaching Credit Cards 101. (read more)

The New Students Going to Black Colleges

The New Students Going to Black Colleges by Sue Shellenbarger, WSJ.com

Many of the nation's 105 historically black colleges are increasingly wooing non-black students. The goals: to boost lagging enrollment and offset funding shortfalls.

• Black Colleges Break From Tradition (video)

Virtual and Artificial, but 58,000 Want Course

Virtual and Artificial, but 58,000 Want Course By JOHN MARKOFF, NTimes

Two leading experts on artificial intelligence at Stanford University will teach a free online course this fall, and tens of thousands of students from around the world have already enrolled.

In $32 Million Contract, State Lays Out Some Rules for Its Standardized Tests

In $32 Million Contract, State Lays Out Some Rules for Its Standardized Tests By SHARON OTTERMAN, NYTimes

Under a new contract, the Education Department has stipulated the details of what will and will not be on the standardized tests it gives to nearly all third through eighth graders.

APUSH MUST READ: Joseph Ellis' FOUNDING BROTHERS and AMERICAN CREATION

CTForum.org: Joseph Ellis discusses the Presidency (3 min).

Joseph John Ellis is a Professor of History at Mount Holyoke College who has written influential and award-winning histories on the Federalist period. His book Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation (2000) received the Pulitzer Prize for History in 2001. Professor Ellis followed up Founding Brothers with American Creation. Read together, these two books provide and in depth look at the American Revolution.

Chapters from Founding Brothers and American Creation in chronological order with links to other online resources by Joseph Ellis and friends.

Note: if you are preparing for your first APUSH test (usually given on the second day of school), review AC3, Inventing, and FB2 (for a good overview of the Colonial Period, read Hannah's Escape). Remember, nothing substitutes for actually reading the book.

• AC 1: The Year (1776): the Declaration of Independence and American Revolutionary War.


• AC 2: The Winter (1777-1778): the Continental Army's winter at Valley Forge.


• AC 3: The Argument (1787-1789): Constitutional Convention and its debates.


• FB 3: The Silence: (1787-18the future of Slavery in the United States. Also listen to the NCC series The Legacy of 1808: (1) A Historical Perspective, (2) Traces of the Trade, (3) “Iron Ladies of Liberia”, (4) The Emancipation Proclamation Defined, (5) The Lincoln and Douglas Debates, (6) Modern-Day Slavery, (7) Slavery and the Literary Imagination, (8) Delta Blues, (9) Deconstructing Reconstruction


• Inventing The Presidency (1789-1797)As America goes into its fifty-fifth presidential election, we should remember that there might have been only one—if we hadn’t had the only candidate on earth who could do the job


• FB 2: The Dinner (1790): Jefferson, Madison, and Hamilton discuss the selection of the Potomac River site for construction of the new national capital, in exchange for assumption of state debts by the federal government.


• AC 4: The Treaty (1790): Knox, Washington, McGillivray, and the Treaty of New York


• FB 4: The Farewell (1796): the Farewell Address of President George Washington


• AC 5: The Conspiracy: Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, James Madison and the origins of the Democratic-Republican Party.


• FB 5: The Collaborators (1) (1789-1801): John Adams and his wife Abigail (2) during Adams' presidency (also see 3); and Thomas Jefferson and James Madison (4) during the same time period.


• AC 6: The Purchase (1803:) the Louisiana Purchase and impact on President Thomas Jefferson


• FB 1: The Duel (1804): the Burr-Hamilton duel.


• FB 6: The Friendship (1812-1826): John Adams and Thomas Jefferson during the last fourteen years of their lives
  

More resources for Founding Brothers and American Creation

• Wikipedia: Founding Brothers and American Creation


• Scribd: Founding Brothers Summary


• Mr Brandon's Book Review (4 min video)


• Founding Brothers Reading Group Guide


• Gonzaga Study Guide


• Founding Brothers History Channel DVD


• Adapted Lesson Plan for the DVD (anticipate your teacher's questions!)


• Joseph Ellis on American Creation and the Founding

Other Books by Joseph J. Ellis:

• First Family: Abigail and John Adams, Oct 2010 (Google books overview)


• American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies in the Founding of the Republic, 2008 (Google Books overview)


• His Excellency: George Washington, 2004 (Google Books preview)


• After the Revolution: Profiles of Early American Culture, 2002 (Google Book preview)


• Passionate sage: the character and legacy of John Adams, 2001 (Google Books preview)


• Founding Brothers: the Revolutionary Generation (200) Google Books preview


• American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, 1997 (Google Books overview--no preview)
  

Life After High School

Life After High School By Annie Murphy Paul

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. wrote about many scary things: the firebombing of Dresden, the aftermath of the Vietnam War, the specter of individuals controlled by the state or by technology. But the most unnerving image he ever put on paper may have been this, written when he was 47 years old, recounting the words of a fellow Indianapolis high school grad: "When you get to be our age, you all of a sudden realize that you are being ruled by people you went to high school with ... You all of a sudden catch on that life is nothing but high school." (read more)

Back-to-School Special: 5 Tips on Picking a Good School

Back-to-School Special: 5 Tips on Picking a Good School By Andrew J. Rotherham, TIME.com Aug 4, 2011

...friends and colleagues who want to know how we went about picking a school, as if there were some secret education-analyst methodology I was privy to. I wish that were true! But even though I don't have access to the secret sauce, I do have a pretty good sense of how to kick a school's tires. Plus, I think it would be a shame not to use all of our parental angst for the greater good. And so, as our kids start a new year at a public school, here are some lessons from our school-hunting experience that might help guide yours. (read more)

Straight A's in High School May Mean Better Health Later in Life

Straight A's in High School May Mean Better Health Later in Life TIME.com Dec 9, 2010

Class rank is important for more than just wowing college admissions officers and securing bragging rights. According to new research, the better your grades were in high school, the healthier you are years later. It's not the first time that education has been associated with physical well-being — more degrees equal better health — but a study published in the December issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior shows that it's not only more schooling but performance that makes a difference. Read more

Two stories about Student-Athletes

Student-Athlete Equation Could Be a Win-Win By JONATHAN MAHLER, NYTimes

The term student-athlete has become a punch line, with more focus on the entertainment the athletes can provide than the education they should be receiving.

Also read:

All-Nighters for a Football Team During Ramadan By JERÉ LONGMAN , NYTimes

To accommodate its many fasting players, a high school in Dearborn, Mich., is holding practices from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m.

Schools Plan Leap Into Data

Schools Plan Leap Into Data By MELISSA KORN And SHARA TIBKEN, wsj.com

Faced with an increasing stream of data, many companies are seeking managers who can make sense of the numbers through data analytics, or business intelligence. Finding qualified candidates has proven difficult, but business schools hope to fill the talent gap.

• More Business Schools To Accept GRE Scores

College Grants Spared From Cuts

College Grants Spared From Cuts By LAURA MECKLER, wsj.org

In a deficit-reduction deal that is almost all about cutting government spending, one federal program emerged with more money: Pell grants, which help low-income students pay for college.

Heffernan: Education Needs a Digital-Age Upgrade

Heffernan: Education Needs a Digital-Age Upgrade, byVirginia Heffernan, NYTimes Opinator Blog

It’s time to stop preparing students for a world that no longer exists.

For a Standout College Essay, Applicants Fill Their Summers

For a Standout College Essay, Applicants Fill Their Summers By JENNY ANDERSON, NYTimes

Students preparing to apply to college are increasingly tailoring their summer plans with the goal of creating a better personal statement.

Nonprofit Nurtures Students as Writers

Nonprofit Nurtures Students as Writers By YUKARI IWATANI KANE, wsj.com

The executive director of San Francisco writing-skills nonprofit 826 Valencia, co-founded by writer Dave Eggers, says the need for the program has become more acute as education budgets are cut.

A Progress Report on Geography

A Progress Report on Geography By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS, NYtimes

The Department of Education recently released the results of its national geography survey, and there were both good and bad implications

Online courses: Task force wants to allow fees

Online courses: Task force wants to allow fees by Nanette Asimov, Chronicle Staff Writer, SFGate.com

Hundreds, maybe thousands, of California community college students take online classes that require them to pay an access fee to a commercial publisher on top of their registration fee for the course.

The Corner Office Eludes Many Asians

The Corner Office Eludes Many Asians By KYLE STOCK, wsj.com

Despite an outsized share of Ivy League degrees, Asian-Americans are under-represented in executive suites, according to a new study.

States Test No Child Left Behind

States Test No Child Left Behind By STEPHANIE BANCHERO, wsj.com

Wisconsin and other states say No Child Left Behind unfairly penalizes schools that don't meet rigid requirements. Tired of waiting for Congress to overhaul the law, some states have taken matters into their own hands.

Local Basketball Stars Shun Bay Area Colleges

Local Basketball Stars Shun Bay Area Colleges By SAM LAIRD, NYTimes

The Bay Area has one of the best crops of young basketball recruits in years, but Northern California is losing many of them to faraway schools.

Long Fights for Sports Equity, Even With a Law

Long Fights for Sports Equity, Even With a Law By KATIE THOMAS, NYTimes

While a college or university in violation of Title IX risks losing its federal funds, that penalty has never been used, and there are no examples of cases being referred to the justice department.