Juno. Have you seen it? A movie, directed by Jason Reitman, about a sixteen year old who gets pregnant by her high school boyfriend, the nice kid, and puts the baby up for adoption but falls in love with the adoptive dad (Jason Bateman??!!) is the stuff that the old ABC After School Specials used to be made of. It goes to show you, it's not the what that makes a great movie, it's the how.
Juno should be seen by every junior high and high school student as a kind of cautionary tale about how to be authentic. It's less John Hughs's Breakfast Club and more in the vibrant dialogue flavor of Michael Lehman's Heathers because it will spawn other pretenders that won't be nearly as good. Yet, Juno is different than Lehman's movie because it goes against type. It's a wise-talking and rather normal character-driven movie that seems to be popular during this epoch, kind of like Dan in Real Life and other recent flicks where the central characters are borderline depressed people who find it hard finding love or even loving themselves, while all the while the audience is rabbit-eyes over them.
A clip from Jason Reitman's Juno
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Harrowing: Are We Headed for a Recession?
After some harrowing weather in Virginia on Thursday, I returned home late last night to a whole bunch of new ideas. Mostly what I have been thinking about is how to keep my little school in San Francisco growing and striving without killing the people who are having a tough time just making ends meet. Raising tuition six to eight percent on families as we enter what could be the beginning of a recession (or worse) is not a good plan for longevity.
More on the plan in future posts.
More on the plan in future posts.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
On Yale: Is Financial Aid to the Rich Fair?
Did Yale get it right?
For over forty years, the Ivy League colleges have been trend-setters in providing financial assistance and other forms of aid to people that some newspapers are calling the new middle class in America--or a family of four earning between $150-200,000. That's $150K!!!
Believe it or not, the so-called elite universities have priced themselves out of the market for what some people would call the moderately rich. If Yale and Harvard (plus some of the other wealthier Ivies) are sitting on their billion dollar nest eggs, also known as endowments, then is this really good for education?
Probably. But Probably not.
According to the article below from the New York Times, Congress is doing some arm-twisting, making these schools spend money from their endowments. Yale's endowment is over $22 Billion dollars. That's billion with a "B." At four percent interest on $22 Billion dollars, Yale would reap $880 million in interest to spend from its nest egg with another $220 million that can go back into the endowment. That's a great deal of money, even when you think about the size of the an institution like Yale. To put this in perspective, the cost of educating all 4,000 of its undergrads is a mere $192 million. Of course, the price of a Yale education is priceless, but should a university earn more money in its endowment than it cost to educate its students? Hmmmm....
What does this mean? Since the Ivies set the trends for the other colleges and universities in the US, small and large, particularly when tuitions began to mirror buying a foreign luxury sedan (between $30 - 48,000 a year), Congress is banking that the universities must begin to make college more affordable. Who wants to see a coed go to debtor's prison (see Countrywide Home Loans). Universities that have been literarily printing money since the mid- to late-Eighties will see some of that come back to the people (who can probably afford the high tuition), although it may be a stretch for most. Perhaps that remodel of the kitchen will have to wait four more years.
Indeed, some families are opting out of the rat race by "disowning" their children, emancipating them early on or even making them go and and get a "real" job so that they will appear to be penniless in the eyes of the universities. Do many kids do this? Probably not, but the desperation of getting those poor little rich kids into Yale has its price.
$22 Billion!! With a "B."
January 15, 2008
Yale Plans Sharp Increase in Student Aid
By KAREN W. ARENSON
Yale said Monday that it would sharply increase financial aid for undergraduates, including those from families with annual incomes up to $200,000, in a bid to ease costs for a broad swath of students.
Yale and other universities with large endowments have been under pressure from Congress to spend more and reduce charges for students. Harvard announced a similar aid expansion in December, saying the policy would cut the cost of attending college to 10 percent of income for a typical family making $120,000 to $180,000 a year.
Last week, Yale said that it would increase its annual spending from its $22.5 billion endowment, freeing up money for more aid.
The president of Yale, Richard C. Levin, said Monday in an interview, “I hope this will send a strong message to people with incomes between $45,000 and $200,000, some of whom at the high end perceive our sticker price as very daunting, that Yale does offer help at that range.”
On average, students who receive financial aid will see their charges drop in half, Mr. Levin said. A family with two children in college, $180,000 in income and $200,000 in assets will sees its Yale bill drop, to $11,650 from $22,300. Full tuition, room and board this year costs $45,000.
Students will still be expected to contribute in addition to parental payment — but the bill will drop to $2,500 next year, down from their $4,400 share of the $45,000 total. Despite other efforts to increase the aid and outreach to low- and middle-income students, Dr. Levin said, “we are still believed in many parts of the country to be inaccessible and too expensive.”
Yale said its changes, to take effect in the fall and apply to all undergraduates, would raise spending on undergraduate aid by $24 million, to more than $80 million. Yale also said it would limit the increase in tuition, room and board next year to 2.2 percent, raising total costs to $46,000. In the last five years, the increases have ranged from 4.5 percent to 5.5 percent.
Senator Charles E. Grassley, the Iowa Republican who has been pressing colleges and universities to spend more of their endowments, applauded Yale, saying, “Students and parents are the winners.”
But Mr. Grassley questioned why other colleges with endowments of more than $1 billion had not followed suit.
Other well-heeled colleges have also taken steps to assist low- and middle-income students by replacing loans with grants in aid packages.
Not everybody welcomes the trend. Critics say it could lead less-well-off colleges to reduce aid for lower-income students as they tried to compete for upper-income students.
“We encourage colleges to fully fund the neediest students before extending financial aid pledges up the income scale,” said Robert Shireman, executive director of the Project on Student Debt, a group that focuses on financial aid.
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
For over forty years, the Ivy League colleges have been trend-setters in providing financial assistance and other forms of aid to people that some newspapers are calling the new middle class in America--or a family of four earning between $150-200,000. That's $150K!!!
Believe it or not, the so-called elite universities have priced themselves out of the market for what some people would call the moderately rich. If Yale and Harvard (plus some of the other wealthier Ivies) are sitting on their billion dollar nest eggs, also known as endowments, then is this really good for education?
Probably. But Probably not.
According to the article below from the New York Times, Congress is doing some arm-twisting, making these schools spend money from their endowments. Yale's endowment is over $22 Billion dollars. That's billion with a "B." At four percent interest on $22 Billion dollars, Yale would reap $880 million in interest to spend from its nest egg with another $220 million that can go back into the endowment. That's a great deal of money, even when you think about the size of the an institution like Yale. To put this in perspective, the cost of educating all 4,000 of its undergrads is a mere $192 million. Of course, the price of a Yale education is priceless, but should a university earn more money in its endowment than it cost to educate its students? Hmmmm....
What does this mean? Since the Ivies set the trends for the other colleges and universities in the US, small and large, particularly when tuitions began to mirror buying a foreign luxury sedan (between $30 - 48,000 a year), Congress is banking that the universities must begin to make college more affordable. Who wants to see a coed go to debtor's prison (see Countrywide Home Loans). Universities that have been literarily printing money since the mid- to late-Eighties will see some of that come back to the people (who can probably afford the high tuition), although it may be a stretch for most. Perhaps that remodel of the kitchen will have to wait four more years.
Indeed, some families are opting out of the rat race by "disowning" their children, emancipating them early on or even making them go and and get a "real" job so that they will appear to be penniless in the eyes of the universities. Do many kids do this? Probably not, but the desperation of getting those poor little rich kids into Yale has its price.
$22 Billion!! With a "B."
January 15, 2008
Yale Plans Sharp Increase in Student Aid
By KAREN W. ARENSON
Yale said Monday that it would sharply increase financial aid for undergraduates, including those from families with annual incomes up to $200,000, in a bid to ease costs for a broad swath of students.
Yale and other universities with large endowments have been under pressure from Congress to spend more and reduce charges for students. Harvard announced a similar aid expansion in December, saying the policy would cut the cost of attending college to 10 percent of income for a typical family making $120,000 to $180,000 a year.
Last week, Yale said that it would increase its annual spending from its $22.5 billion endowment, freeing up money for more aid.
The president of Yale, Richard C. Levin, said Monday in an interview, “I hope this will send a strong message to people with incomes between $45,000 and $200,000, some of whom at the high end perceive our sticker price as very daunting, that Yale does offer help at that range.”
On average, students who receive financial aid will see their charges drop in half, Mr. Levin said. A family with two children in college, $180,000 in income and $200,000 in assets will sees its Yale bill drop, to $11,650 from $22,300. Full tuition, room and board this year costs $45,000.
Students will still be expected to contribute in addition to parental payment — but the bill will drop to $2,500 next year, down from their $4,400 share of the $45,000 total. Despite other efforts to increase the aid and outreach to low- and middle-income students, Dr. Levin said, “we are still believed in many parts of the country to be inaccessible and too expensive.”
Yale said its changes, to take effect in the fall and apply to all undergraduates, would raise spending on undergraduate aid by $24 million, to more than $80 million. Yale also said it would limit the increase in tuition, room and board next year to 2.2 percent, raising total costs to $46,000. In the last five years, the increases have ranged from 4.5 percent to 5.5 percent.
Senator Charles E. Grassley, the Iowa Republican who has been pressing colleges and universities to spend more of their endowments, applauded Yale, saying, “Students and parents are the winners.”
But Mr. Grassley questioned why other colleges with endowments of more than $1 billion had not followed suit.
Other well-heeled colleges have also taken steps to assist low- and middle-income students by replacing loans with grants in aid packages.
Not everybody welcomes the trend. Critics say it could lead less-well-off colleges to reduce aid for lower-income students as they tried to compete for upper-income students.
“We encourage colleges to fully fund the neediest students before extending financial aid pledges up the income scale,” said Robert Shireman, executive director of the Project on Student Debt, a group that focuses on financial aid.
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
Monday, January 14, 2008
Students Cheat the System To Get Educated: Public School Officials Catch On, Throw The Crumb-Snatchers Out
I love stories like the one below from yesterday's New York Times about students sneaking into richer districts to get educated. I'd actually like to thank the NYT for providing us with another coined phrase: domicile investigator. Hey, man. Pimp my house, and then come on over to peep it.. That's not what they were thinking here, me thinks.
Funny, I thought public education was supposed to be "free." What's the deal with that economic disparity-thing anyway? What I know for sure is that if all things were equal in this country, families and their students would not feel compelled to sneak to wealthier districts in order to get educated.
Perhaps these parents should be rewarded for actually sending their kids to school, snd congratulate them further for not having their children get into trouble. Now there's a thought...
What do you think?
-------
January 13, 2008
SCHOOLS
On the Lookout for Out-of-District Students
By DEBRA NUSSBAUM
AT 8 o’clock one morning, Juanita Ludwig and Vincent Constantino, employees of Clifton Public Schools, are knocking on the door at a house to check a tip. Someone had said a Clifton elementary school student did not really live there and was sneaking in from another district.
Ms. Ludwig, the supervisor of counseling and student services, explains to the parent who answers the door that the district must check to see that the child lives there most of the time. “We made sure there were age-appropriate toys for an 8-year-old child,” she said. “We explain to the parents that the child must stay at the house at least four nights a week.”
“They weren’t upset,” Ms. Ludwig said. “A majority of people understand.”
This time, Ms. Ludwig and Mr. Constantino, the district’s domicile investigator, concluded that the student lived there full time. But that is often not the case.
In the 2006-7 school year, the Clifton district, which has 10,500 students, investigated 625 reports of students illegally attending its schools; it caught 62 last year and 59 the year before. Those students cost the district hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Clifton is hardly the only district searching for students sneaking into its schools. While the State Department of Education does not keep statistics, administrators in suburban districts report that hundreds of tips are received and checked every year.
And there are many ways to find students who don’t belong. Bounties, detectives, stakeouts with cameras, and hot lines that receive tips from anonymous callers are tools that some school districts use to combat the perennial problem of illegally enrolled students.
Those who are caught can suffer consequences: For example, in Ewing, 13 families were asked to remove their children from its schools last year when attendance officers investigated and found the families did not live in the Mercer County community.
There is strong anecdotal evidence that families, including some from Pennsylvania and New York, try to sneak into some of the state’s top suburban districts, said Richard Vespucci, a Department of Education spokesman.
“It’s been an issue on again and off again,” he said. “It’s a bigger issue when the economic climate is weaker. It’s climates like this where property taxes are a real issue and anyone spending public funds wants to show where they are spending the money.”
Districts combat the problems in various ways. Clifton, for example, offers a $300 bounty to anyone reporting a student who turns out to be attending a district school illegally; it has paid once so far this school year, once last year and twice the year before. Students are required to reregister in certain grades in some districts, and attendance officers go to students’ homes to verify they live there.
School administrators say taxpayers demand the accountability. With the average per-pupil cost at about $12,000, taxpayers want to be assured that a student’s “permanent home is located within the school district,” Mr. Vespucci said.
In Cherry Hill, where about 400 such cases are investigated each year, the district got a tip a few years ago from a woman who lived in another South Jersey town. The woman said a fellow employee was bragging about sneaking her child into the Cherry Hill school district, said Don Bart, director of support operations for the district, which has almost 12,000 students.
The district’s full-time attendance officer checked it out, and the student was asked to leave the district. “We are just enforcing the law,” Mr. Bart said.
Under state law, a student a student may legally attend the school in the district where he or she resides the majority of the time. Out-of-district students are required to pay tuition.
Three years ago, the Clark Public School District hired a retired police officer to investigate cases of illegal students. The investigator has parked outside students’ homes to see if they come out in the morning and checked documents like licenses and car registrations.
“The key word here is domicile,” Superintendent Vito Gagliardi said. “The child must live in the house as a primary residence.”
Dr. Gagliardi said the concern is not only for taxpayers, but also for a student who has to lie to teachers and classmates. “In addition to protecting the tax dollar, this is unfair to the child,” he said. Students whose parents take them to districts outside the one they live in have to be careful what they say, and it can be uncomfortable when someone wants to go to their house, he said.
In some cases in Clifton, investigators have followed buses or sat outside homes at 6:30 a.m. in an effort to see if students really live in the district, said Ms. Ludwig. The district also requires three proofs of residency. “We are very vigilant,” said Ira E. Oustatcher, assistant superintendent.
With pressure on districts to reduce class size and stretch dollars, many taxpayers do not have patience for families sneaking into a district, be it for better schools, safety or convenience.
“The school districts are not being coldhearted,” said Frank Belluscio, a spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association. “There is a financial burden on them, and they have limited resources. This is painful for schools, but it’s what the law says. It’s been a nagging problem and fairly consistent over the years.”
Ewing has one full-time attendance officer and four part-time officers, said Raymond Broach, the school superintendent. “It’s a pretty steady issue,” he said. Students have been caught coming in from Bristol and Morrisville, Pa., across the Delaware River.
In Teaneck, Al Schulz, a retired police detective, is attendance officer. Sometimes, he watches to see if students are coming over the George Washington Bridge from New York, said David Bicofsky, the district spokesman.
“You are talking $10,000 to $11,000 a year to educate a student,” he said. “You have to be vigilant for your taxpayers.”
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
Funny, I thought public education was supposed to be "free." What's the deal with that economic disparity-thing anyway? What I know for sure is that if all things were equal in this country, families and their students would not feel compelled to sneak to wealthier districts in order to get educated.
Perhaps these parents should be rewarded for actually sending their kids to school, snd congratulate them further for not having their children get into trouble. Now there's a thought...
What do you think?
January 13, 2008
SCHOOLS
On the Lookout for Out-of-District Students
By DEBRA NUSSBAUM
AT 8 o’clock one morning, Juanita Ludwig and Vincent Constantino, employees of Clifton Public Schools, are knocking on the door at a house to check a tip. Someone had said a Clifton elementary school student did not really live there and was sneaking in from another district.
Ms. Ludwig, the supervisor of counseling and student services, explains to the parent who answers the door that the district must check to see that the child lives there most of the time. “We made sure there were age-appropriate toys for an 8-year-old child,” she said. “We explain to the parents that the child must stay at the house at least four nights a week.”
“They weren’t upset,” Ms. Ludwig said. “A majority of people understand.”
This time, Ms. Ludwig and Mr. Constantino, the district’s domicile investigator, concluded that the student lived there full time. But that is often not the case.
In the 2006-7 school year, the Clifton district, which has 10,500 students, investigated 625 reports of students illegally attending its schools; it caught 62 last year and 59 the year before. Those students cost the district hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Clifton is hardly the only district searching for students sneaking into its schools. While the State Department of Education does not keep statistics, administrators in suburban districts report that hundreds of tips are received and checked every year.
And there are many ways to find students who don’t belong. Bounties, detectives, stakeouts with cameras, and hot lines that receive tips from anonymous callers are tools that some school districts use to combat the perennial problem of illegally enrolled students.
Those who are caught can suffer consequences: For example, in Ewing, 13 families were asked to remove their children from its schools last year when attendance officers investigated and found the families did not live in the Mercer County community.
There is strong anecdotal evidence that families, including some from Pennsylvania and New York, try to sneak into some of the state’s top suburban districts, said Richard Vespucci, a Department of Education spokesman.
“It’s been an issue on again and off again,” he said. “It’s a bigger issue when the economic climate is weaker. It’s climates like this where property taxes are a real issue and anyone spending public funds wants to show where they are spending the money.”
Districts combat the problems in various ways. Clifton, for example, offers a $300 bounty to anyone reporting a student who turns out to be attending a district school illegally; it has paid once so far this school year, once last year and twice the year before. Students are required to reregister in certain grades in some districts, and attendance officers go to students’ homes to verify they live there.
School administrators say taxpayers demand the accountability. With the average per-pupil cost at about $12,000, taxpayers want to be assured that a student’s “permanent home is located within the school district,” Mr. Vespucci said.
In Cherry Hill, where about 400 such cases are investigated each year, the district got a tip a few years ago from a woman who lived in another South Jersey town. The woman said a fellow employee was bragging about sneaking her child into the Cherry Hill school district, said Don Bart, director of support operations for the district, which has almost 12,000 students.
The district’s full-time attendance officer checked it out, and the student was asked to leave the district. “We are just enforcing the law,” Mr. Bart said.
Under state law, a student a student may legally attend the school in the district where he or she resides the majority of the time. Out-of-district students are required to pay tuition.
Three years ago, the Clark Public School District hired a retired police officer to investigate cases of illegal students. The investigator has parked outside students’ homes to see if they come out in the morning and checked documents like licenses and car registrations.
“The key word here is domicile,” Superintendent Vito Gagliardi said. “The child must live in the house as a primary residence.”
Dr. Gagliardi said the concern is not only for taxpayers, but also for a student who has to lie to teachers and classmates. “In addition to protecting the tax dollar, this is unfair to the child,” he said. Students whose parents take them to districts outside the one they live in have to be careful what they say, and it can be uncomfortable when someone wants to go to their house, he said.
In some cases in Clifton, investigators have followed buses or sat outside homes at 6:30 a.m. in an effort to see if students really live in the district, said Ms. Ludwig. The district also requires three proofs of residency. “We are very vigilant,” said Ira E. Oustatcher, assistant superintendent.
With pressure on districts to reduce class size and stretch dollars, many taxpayers do not have patience for families sneaking into a district, be it for better schools, safety or convenience.
“The school districts are not being coldhearted,” said Frank Belluscio, a spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association. “There is a financial burden on them, and they have limited resources. This is painful for schools, but it’s what the law says. It’s been a nagging problem and fairly consistent over the years.”
Ewing has one full-time attendance officer and four part-time officers, said Raymond Broach, the school superintendent. “It’s a pretty steady issue,” he said. Students have been caught coming in from Bristol and Morrisville, Pa., across the Delaware River.
In Teaneck, Al Schulz, a retired police detective, is attendance officer. Sometimes, he watches to see if students are coming over the George Washington Bridge from New York, said David Bicofsky, the district spokesman.
“You are talking $10,000 to $11,000 a year to educate a student,” he said. “You have to be vigilant for your taxpayers.”
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Data Research
When I was at Agassi Prep in Las Vegas, we piloted programs to use data in our assessment of students. Even though the kids still lagged far behind many of their peers from across the City in mostly non-minority schools, the students made great gains in a period of less than four years.
I must admit that I do not recommend that quantitative data alone is solely the answer but it certainly helps. It helps when trying to move the very bottom quartile kids from where they were to the next quartile up. It also works when trying to move the second two quartiles to the top two, but less well. However, it didn't work as well when trying to move the top kids up more. Why? It seems that instruction was aimed at the middle and lower half of the class rather than to the very top achievers. Often, there is even a negative return on data mining investments because the bright kids in a class want to be engaged in a different way.
What does this mean?
The question asking and other inquiry-based methods of learning help students more than putting kids into buckets (or quartiles). Yet, "sit and get" kinds of exercises are meant to help a large majority of students get through the gates that a particular school holds.
What are your experiences in using data successfully to drive student instruction?
I must admit that I do not recommend that quantitative data alone is solely the answer but it certainly helps. It helps when trying to move the very bottom quartile kids from where they were to the next quartile up. It also works when trying to move the second two quartiles to the top two, but less well. However, it didn't work as well when trying to move the top kids up more. Why? It seems that instruction was aimed at the middle and lower half of the class rather than to the very top achievers. Often, there is even a negative return on data mining investments because the bright kids in a class want to be engaged in a different way.
What does this mean?
The question asking and other inquiry-based methods of learning help students more than putting kids into buckets (or quartiles). Yet, "sit and get" kinds of exercises are meant to help a large majority of students get through the gates that a particular school holds.
What are your experiences in using data successfully to drive student instruction?
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