Showing posts with label Education.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Education.. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
End Of April
Yesterday, after the thunderstorms, I rolled my trash cans back to the Doghouse for the last time. Had a talk with my best neighbor, eulogizing the Doghouse. It was a sad feeling.
The Doghouse is 64 years old, and not really salvageable as even a starter house. It will likely be demolished, and a modern structure put up in it's place. If it gets replaced. The basement flooded again during the storms, the siding is starting to come off, and birds and squirrels are starting to reside in the attic, now that it is no longer continuously occupied. My nieghbor will be able to see the sunrise a bit earlier with it out of the way...
Got a nice postcard from my retired teacher cousin at my new address. Perfect Palmer Cursive handwriting. You won't see that very often. She's very glad to be out of education. It's a deathtrap, even for the most gifted and dedicated teachers, she says. She pities the kids, trapped in their medium security warehouses, when they emerge into young adulthood. From what I've seen on my service calls to educational institutions, she's right. One of the most cynical, hard-bitten generations is being conditioned to believe in nothing, especially themselves, contrary to the "entitled" narrative. The kids are run like cattle through (censored), treated like prisoners, and are no fools in distinguishing between what adults promise for the future, and what is actually happening.
And you thought Gen X was a happy bunch.
I've moved back over here, because I've had my fill of being dumped on by those happy abused children, who are now, of course, becoming the abusers. And, X is the largest group of control freak parents ever unleashed on the school system. No wonder the kids look like they have been stuck in Basic Training their entire lives. When they get loose, about 2024 or so, 1968 will look like High Tea at the Savoy Hotel.
Then, X will have something to worry about other than me. It will be...heartwarming...to watch them get screwed by the kids. :)
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
E-Textbooks Should Be Free-Textbooks
http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2012/01/apple_s_e_textbooks_should_be_free_textbooks_.html
The rules of the game dictate that any effort to move into America’s large and lucrative education publishing industry must be swaddled in pieties, and the electronic textbook initiative announced by Apple last week was no exception. Apple, which is normally willing to state that customers will be willing to pay a premium for superior design, was reduced to platitudes about how “when you integrate photography, video, audio, interactive objects, and Keynote animations right into the page, the material becomes so much more immersive and compelling.” The real truth, of course, is that Apple’s getting into this market to make money, not because they “really believe that technology can make a profound difference in the way teachers teach and students learn.” If digital textbooks are a game-changer for education, what they’ll change is the dollars and cents, cutting prices in a market where high-school textbooks currently sell for over a $100 a pop.
The rules of the game dictate that any effort to move into America’s large and lucrative education publishing industry must be swaddled in pieties, and the electronic textbook initiative announced by Apple last week was no exception. Apple, which is normally willing to state that customers will be willing to pay a premium for superior design, was reduced to platitudes about how “when you integrate photography, video, audio, interactive objects, and Keynote animations right into the page, the material becomes so much more immersive and compelling.” The real truth, of course, is that Apple’s getting into this market to make money, not because they “really believe that technology can make a profound difference in the way teachers teach and students learn.” If digital textbooks are a game-changer for education, what they’ll change is the dollars and cents, cutting prices in a market where high-school textbooks currently sell for over a $100 a pop.
Friday, January 6, 2012
Monday, December 12, 2011
Schools on military bases outdoing public schools
http://www.stltoday.com/news/national/schools-on-military-bases-outdoing-public-schools/article_b7897415-cdc2-50d3-a512-016749b951d6.html
How to explain the difference?
It has become fashionable for American educators to fly off to Helsinki to investigate how schools there produce such high-achieving Finns. But for just $69.95 a night, they can stay at the Days Inn in Jacksonville, N.C., and investigate how the schools here on the Camp Lejeune Marine base produce such higher-achieving Americans — both black and white.
They would find that the schools on base are not subject to former President George W. Bush's signature education program, No Child Left Behind, or to President Barack Obama's Race to the Top. They would find that standardized tests do not dominate and are not used to rate teachers, principals or schools.
They would find Leigh Anne Kapiko, the principal at Tarawa Terrace Elementary, one of seven schools here.
Test preparation? "No," Kapiko said. "That's not done in Department of Defense schools. We don't even have test prep materials."
At schools here, standardized tests are used as originally intended, to identify a child's academic weaknesses and assess the effectiveness of the curriculum.
Kapiko has been a principal both inside and outside the gates, and believes that military base schools are more nurturing than public schools. "We don't have to be so regimented, since we're not worried about a child's ability to bubble on a test," she said.
Military children are not put through test prep drills. "For us," Kapiko said, "children are children; they're not little Marines."
Under Obama's education agenda, state governments can now dictate to principals how to run their schools. In Tennessee — which is ranked 41st in NAEP scores and has made no significant progress in closing the black-white achievement gap on those tests in 20 years — the state now requires four formal observations a year for all teachers, regardless of whether the principal thinks they are excellent or weak. The state has declared that half of a teacher's rating must be based on student test scores.
Kapiko, on the other hand, has discretion in how to evaluate her teachers. For the most effective, she does one observation a year. That gives her and her assistant principal time for walk-through visits in every classroom every day.
"We don't micromanage," said Marilee Fitzgerald, director of the Department of Defense Education Activity, the agency that supervises the military base schools and their 87,000 students. "Individual schools decide what to focus on."
A family's economic well-being has considerable impact on how students score on standardized tests, and it is hard to make exact comparisons between military and public school families. But by one indicator, families at military base schools and public schools have similar earnings: The portion of students who qualify for federally subsidized lunches is virtually identical at both, about 46 percent.
What is clear is that the base schools have made impressive progress in narrowing the achievement gap.
In the last decade, the gap in reading between black and white fourth-graders at base schools has dipped to 11 points this year (233 compared with 222), down from a 16-point difference in 2003 (230 compared with 214), a 31 percent reduction. In public schools, there has been a smaller decrease, to a 26-point gap this year (231 compared with 205) from 30 points in 2002 (227 compared with 197), a 13 percent reduction.
How to explain the difference?
It has become fashionable for American educators to fly off to Helsinki to investigate how schools there produce such high-achieving Finns. But for just $69.95 a night, they can stay at the Days Inn in Jacksonville, N.C., and investigate how the schools here on the Camp Lejeune Marine base produce such higher-achieving Americans — both black and white.
They would find that the schools on base are not subject to former President George W. Bush's signature education program, No Child Left Behind, or to President Barack Obama's Race to the Top. They would find that standardized tests do not dominate and are not used to rate teachers, principals or schools.
They would find Leigh Anne Kapiko, the principal at Tarawa Terrace Elementary, one of seven schools here.
Test preparation? "No," Kapiko said. "That's not done in Department of Defense schools. We don't even have test prep materials."
At schools here, standardized tests are used as originally intended, to identify a child's academic weaknesses and assess the effectiveness of the curriculum.
Kapiko has been a principal both inside and outside the gates, and believes that military base schools are more nurturing than public schools. "We don't have to be so regimented, since we're not worried about a child's ability to bubble on a test," she said.
Military children are not put through test prep drills. "For us," Kapiko said, "children are children; they're not little Marines."
Under Obama's education agenda, state governments can now dictate to principals how to run their schools. In Tennessee — which is ranked 41st in NAEP scores and has made no significant progress in closing the black-white achievement gap on those tests in 20 years — the state now requires four formal observations a year for all teachers, regardless of whether the principal thinks they are excellent or weak. The state has declared that half of a teacher's rating must be based on student test scores.
Kapiko, on the other hand, has discretion in how to evaluate her teachers. For the most effective, she does one observation a year. That gives her and her assistant principal time for walk-through visits in every classroom every day.
"We don't micromanage," said Marilee Fitzgerald, director of the Department of Defense Education Activity, the agency that supervises the military base schools and their 87,000 students. "Individual schools decide what to focus on."
A family's economic well-being has considerable impact on how students score on standardized tests, and it is hard to make exact comparisons between military and public school families. But by one indicator, families at military base schools and public schools have similar earnings: The portion of students who qualify for federally subsidized lunches is virtually identical at both, about 46 percent.
What is clear is that the base schools have made impressive progress in narrowing the achievement gap.
In the last decade, the gap in reading between black and white fourth-graders at base schools has dipped to 11 points this year (233 compared with 222), down from a 16-point difference in 2003 (230 compared with 214), a 31 percent reduction. In public schools, there has been a smaller decrease, to a 26-point gap this year (231 compared with 205) from 30 points in 2002 (227 compared with 197), a 13 percent reduction.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Billionaire's role in hiring decisions at Florida State University raises questions
http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/billionaires-role-in-hiring-decisions-at-florida-state-university-raises/1168680
A conservative billionaire who opposes government meddling in business has bought a rare commodity: the right to interfere in faculty hiring at a publicly funded university.
A foundation bankrolled by Libertarian businessman Charles G. Koch has pledged $1.5 million for positions in Florida State University's economics department. In return, his representatives get to screen and sign off on any hires for a new program promoting "political economy and free enterprise."
A conservative billionaire who opposes government meddling in business has bought a rare commodity: the right to interfere in faculty hiring at a publicly funded university.
A foundation bankrolled by Libertarian businessman Charles G. Koch has pledged $1.5 million for positions in Florida State University's economics department. In return, his representatives get to screen and sign off on any hires for a new program promoting "political economy and free enterprise."
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Schools cut lunch options for kids who can't pay: Will grades suffer?
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-20034774-10391704.html
CBS) - How about a cheese sandwich? In some parts of the country, that may be the only option for public school students unable to afford school lunches. With budget cuts and a down economy, many school districts are offering bare-bones "alternative" lunches as a way to balance their budget.
The Lee County, Flordia school district - the 40th largest in the country - is among many school systems that have started offering "alternative options." Since the beginning of the school year, the school district was losing roughly $2,000 a week serving lunch. In a district of 80,000 students, school officials said 1,100 were not paying for meals.
The solution? Offer the cheapest meal possible. Public schools are required by the National School Lunch Program to provide nutritious meals to students. Fortunately for schools trying to cut back, that mandate is apparently met by a cheese sandwich and a 4-ounce juice box. That's the alternative option being offered in Lee County.
School districts across the country are offering similar options. In December, Harrison Hills City School District in Ohio began offering non-paying students a small carton of milk, two slices of bread and a slice of cheese. Things are a little better in Homewood City, Alabama, where students get a piece of fruit to go with their cheese sandwich.
Are such slimmed-down meals enough for students? Alternative meals "are missing all the needs of a child going throughout the day," nutritionist Marissa Sherry tells CBS News. She said that the bare-bones lunches are "not providing enough for a child to properly function in a school setting."
With the U.S. economy in the tank, and school districts facing big budget problems, alternative meals may increasingly become mainstream meals. That doesn't seem to be good news if parents want children to have enough energy throughout the day.
But it's great news if those kids like cheese.
CBS) - How about a cheese sandwich? In some parts of the country, that may be the only option for public school students unable to afford school lunches. With budget cuts and a down economy, many school districts are offering bare-bones "alternative" lunches as a way to balance their budget.
The Lee County, Flordia school district - the 40th largest in the country - is among many school systems that have started offering "alternative options." Since the beginning of the school year, the school district was losing roughly $2,000 a week serving lunch. In a district of 80,000 students, school officials said 1,100 were not paying for meals.
The solution? Offer the cheapest meal possible. Public schools are required by the National School Lunch Program to provide nutritious meals to students. Fortunately for schools trying to cut back, that mandate is apparently met by a cheese sandwich and a 4-ounce juice box. That's the alternative option being offered in Lee County.
School districts across the country are offering similar options. In December, Harrison Hills City School District in Ohio began offering non-paying students a small carton of milk, two slices of bread and a slice of cheese. Things are a little better in Homewood City, Alabama, where students get a piece of fruit to go with their cheese sandwich.
Are such slimmed-down meals enough for students? Alternative meals "are missing all the needs of a child going throughout the day," nutritionist Marissa Sherry tells CBS News. She said that the bare-bones lunches are "not providing enough for a child to properly function in a school setting."
With the U.S. economy in the tank, and school districts facing big budget problems, alternative meals may increasingly become mainstream meals. That doesn't seem to be good news if parents want children to have enough energy throughout the day.
But it's great news if those kids like cheese.
Depression, loss of aid spurs dropping out (of college)
http://www.610wiod.com/cc-common/seasonal/health/sub.html?feed=104679&article=8207334
ANN ARBOR, Mich., Feb. 22 (UPI) -- Depression or a loss of financial aid may be the main reasons why some 40 percent of U.S. college students fail to graduate in six years, researchers say.
Lead researcher Tim Pleskac of Michigan State University and colleagues developed a mathematical model that describes how students decide to quit college.
They used the model to analyze surveys from 1,158 freshmen at 10 U.S. colleges and universities that listed 21 critical events or "shocks" and asked students if any of these events had happened to them. Later the students were asked whether they planned to leave college.
The most critical event influencing dropping out was depression, followed by students recruited by an employer or another institution, losing financial aid, experiencing a large increase in tuition or living costs, an unexpected bad grade and roommate conflicts.
Students were less sensitive to a death in the family, significant injury, inability to enter an intended major, becoming addicted, coming into a large sum of money, losing a job needed to pay tuition and becoming engaged or married.
"Prior to this work, little was known about what factors in a student's everyday life prompt them to think about withdrawing from college," Pleskac says in a statement. "We now have a method to measure what events are 'shocking' students and prompting them to think about quitting."
The findings are scheduled to be published in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.
ANN ARBOR, Mich., Feb. 22 (UPI) -- Depression or a loss of financial aid may be the main reasons why some 40 percent of U.S. college students fail to graduate in six years, researchers say.
Lead researcher Tim Pleskac of Michigan State University and colleagues developed a mathematical model that describes how students decide to quit college.
They used the model to analyze surveys from 1,158 freshmen at 10 U.S. colleges and universities that listed 21 critical events or "shocks" and asked students if any of these events had happened to them. Later the students were asked whether they planned to leave college.
The most critical event influencing dropping out was depression, followed by students recruited by an employer or another institution, losing financial aid, experiencing a large increase in tuition or living costs, an unexpected bad grade and roommate conflicts.
Students were less sensitive to a death in the family, significant injury, inability to enter an intended major, becoming addicted, coming into a large sum of money, losing a job needed to pay tuition and becoming engaged or married.
"Prior to this work, little was known about what factors in a student's everyday life prompt them to think about withdrawing from college," Pleskac says in a statement. "We now have a method to measure what events are 'shocking' students and prompting them to think about quitting."
The findings are scheduled to be published in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Achieving The Dream!
http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/16/news/economy/budget_cuts_hit_students/index.htm?source=cnn_bin&hpt=Sbin
College students socked by budget cuts
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Students at the University at Albany might have to say goodbye to the theater program. And in Reno, the University of Nevada's German studies program will soon be history.
Facing declining tax revenues in the wake of the Great Recession, states are slashing funding for higher education, forcing many colleges to eliminate majors and entire departments.
While administrators say they're trimming less popular areas that will have a smaller impact, some students are reeling from the changes. The cuts are forcing many to alter plans, change majors or even switch schools, and some worry that the elimination of their degrees will hurt their job searches after graduation.
"I'm hoping that when I apply for jobs, they'll be able to look past the fact that my university cut my program," said Victoria Sheehan, a French major at the University at Albany, State University of New York, whose program is a potential target.
Last October when the university announced that her program was under consideration for closure, the sophomore put her plans to study abroad on hold, and loaded up with French classes to finish her requirements as quickly as possible.
While the school assured students it would allow current majors to complete their studies, she's worried that administrators might pull the plug early.
Jens Schubert had done all but his dissertation in resource economics when the University of Nevada, Reno, announced his program would be phased out. He transferred to the University of Tennessee rather than complete his program at UNR.
Because he has to repeat classes, he said the move has delayed his graduation by at least a year. But he thinks it's better than a diploma from a defunct program, which could be a strike against him in the eyes of potential employers.
"If they find out the department doesn't exist anymore it might send the wrong impression," he said. "You can't explain that because you might not get the chance."
Cutting deep
Since 2008, at least 43 states have cut budgets for public higher education, according to a 2010 report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank. State higher education spending nationwide dropped $3.5 billion in fiscal 2010 from the year earlier, according to a report from the Center for the Study of Education Policy at Illinois State University.
The University at Albany, was forced to make cuts after losing $12 million in state funding last year. Administrators looked at factors like enrollment trends, said Edelgard Wulfert, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
For example, the French department has had a steady decline in majors over the years and Wulfert expects that will continue. It has seven full-time professors teaching 35 to 40 student majors each year. By contrast, the communications program has the same number of faculty and 550 majors.
Provost Marc Johnson of the University of Nevada, Reno, used a similar philosophy to explain his decision to eliminate 23 programs and sharply reduce six others. Some 350 students, including Schubert, were affected by the reorganization, but the changes helped insulate the rest of the school, he said.
"Are we narrower? Yes," he said. "But by cutting some areas strategically, we are able to maintain the current quality and size of other programs."
More pain ahead
Governors are now introducing their budgets for fiscal 2012, bringing new rounds of cuts for higher education.
In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposed budget would reduce state funding for community colleges and universities by 10%. Gov. Brian Sandoval of Nevada proposed cutting $162 million from higher education.
And Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana asked the state's Board of Regents to assess the possibility of merging the State University of New Orleans and Southern University at New Orleans, eliminating duplicate departments.
Louisiana's Board of Regents is already considering 450 degree programs for elimination across the state's 19 public colleges, universities and professional schools. That's one-third of all programs offered.
In the past high-demand programs like teaching were excluded from cuts, said Meg Casper, a spokeswoman for the board. "This go-around we have not excluded any programs."
College students socked by budget cuts
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Students at the University at Albany might have to say goodbye to the theater program. And in Reno, the University of Nevada's German studies program will soon be history.
Facing declining tax revenues in the wake of the Great Recession, states are slashing funding for higher education, forcing many colleges to eliminate majors and entire departments.
While administrators say they're trimming less popular areas that will have a smaller impact, some students are reeling from the changes. The cuts are forcing many to alter plans, change majors or even switch schools, and some worry that the elimination of their degrees will hurt their job searches after graduation.
"I'm hoping that when I apply for jobs, they'll be able to look past the fact that my university cut my program," said Victoria Sheehan, a French major at the University at Albany, State University of New York, whose program is a potential target.
Last October when the university announced that her program was under consideration for closure, the sophomore put her plans to study abroad on hold, and loaded up with French classes to finish her requirements as quickly as possible.
While the school assured students it would allow current majors to complete their studies, she's worried that administrators might pull the plug early.
Jens Schubert had done all but his dissertation in resource economics when the University of Nevada, Reno, announced his program would be phased out. He transferred to the University of Tennessee rather than complete his program at UNR.
Because he has to repeat classes, he said the move has delayed his graduation by at least a year. But he thinks it's better than a diploma from a defunct program, which could be a strike against him in the eyes of potential employers.
"If they find out the department doesn't exist anymore it might send the wrong impression," he said. "You can't explain that because you might not get the chance."
Cutting deep
Since 2008, at least 43 states have cut budgets for public higher education, according to a 2010 report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank. State higher education spending nationwide dropped $3.5 billion in fiscal 2010 from the year earlier, according to a report from the Center for the Study of Education Policy at Illinois State University.
The University at Albany, was forced to make cuts after losing $12 million in state funding last year. Administrators looked at factors like enrollment trends, said Edelgard Wulfert, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
For example, the French department has had a steady decline in majors over the years and Wulfert expects that will continue. It has seven full-time professors teaching 35 to 40 student majors each year. By contrast, the communications program has the same number of faculty and 550 majors.
Provost Marc Johnson of the University of Nevada, Reno, used a similar philosophy to explain his decision to eliminate 23 programs and sharply reduce six others. Some 350 students, including Schubert, were affected by the reorganization, but the changes helped insulate the rest of the school, he said.
"Are we narrower? Yes," he said. "But by cutting some areas strategically, we are able to maintain the current quality and size of other programs."
More pain ahead
Governors are now introducing their budgets for fiscal 2012, bringing new rounds of cuts for higher education.
In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposed budget would reduce state funding for community colleges and universities by 10%. Gov. Brian Sandoval of Nevada proposed cutting $162 million from higher education.
And Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana asked the state's Board of Regents to assess the possibility of merging the State University of New Orleans and Southern University at New Orleans, eliminating duplicate departments.
Louisiana's Board of Regents is already considering 450 degree programs for elimination across the state's 19 public colleges, universities and professional schools. That's one-third of all programs offered.
In the past high-demand programs like teaching were excluded from cuts, said Meg Casper, a spokeswoman for the board. "This go-around we have not excluded any programs."
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Laid-off workers retrain but end up in same spot: Jobless
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2010-06-04-retrain04_CV_N.htm
When Todd Wyman lost his job making parts for trucks and SUVs in June 2008, he started on a path trod by millions of unemployed workers in this recession: He retrained to do something else.
After consulting with the Montgomery County job center in Dayton, Ohio, the 28-year-old decided that the something else would be welding. Industry officials bemoan a shortage of skilled trainees to replace the 10,000 or so older workers retiring each year.
But since graduating from a 10-month, government-subsidized welding program in early December, Wyman has come up empty in the search for his first gig. Wyman and job-center officials say he's competing against experienced welders in a still-wounded southwestern Ohio economy.
JOBS OUTLOOK: Latest data for all states, 384 metros
TOO FEW? Auto industry may see labor shortage
"I'm getting annoyed and tired," Wyman says. "All I hear is, 'We're short on welders.' I hear it, but I don't see it. I maybe could have (taken) a different route."
Enrollment in job-training initiatives across the USA has swelled since the recession began as dislocated workers in shrunken industries such as manufacturing, construction and real estate retool for growing fields such as health care, renewable energy and computers. But a diploma is not necessarily a ticket to a job or higher earnings, especially with the jobless rate still hovering near 10%.
"Training doesn't create jobs," particularly as a nation emerges from recession, says Anthony Carnevale, head of Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce. "It's jobs that create the demand for training."
Many enrollees do land positions weeks after graduating, and experts say retraining is often the best option for a laid-off worker in a battered industry. But others hunt for months, or even years, with some using federal dollars to retrain multiple times for different occupations. Part of the problem: Though economists say the recession ended last summer, high unemployment pits graduates against both experienced workers who were laid off in the slump and newly trained colleagues. Sometimes job centers funnel too many workers into the same field.
Officials "in my system walk a tightrope every day," says Jane Oates, an assistant secretary for the Labor Department. "It's very difficult to do 100% foolproof projections anytime, but during a recession it's really complicated."
Job forecasts can be undercut by unforeseen events such as a plant closing. The promise of some categories projected to be plentiful, such as green jobs, has yet to be fulfilled. And the training system itself is beset by poor communication.
Participation in worker retraining funded by the federal Workforce Investment Act (WIA) jumped 70% to 672,000 in the year ended last June, Labor says. But the portion of those in jobs related to their training one year after graduating fell to 67.6% from 83.2% in 2006.
Wyman got $16,500 in federal funding to attend the Hobart Institute of Welding Technology after his employer, a Delphi auto plant, closed. The Huber Heights, Ohio, resident was always good with his hands; at Delphi, he operated a drill and stamping press. And welders' wages start as high as $19 an hour, a nice bump from the $16 he'd been earning.
Asked about Wyman's job search, Heath MacAlpine of Montgomery County's Department of Job and Family Services, says the region's manufacturing and construction were pounded by the recession. But he says funding Wyman's training wasn't a mistake: "We're not investing for this recession. If we don't have the stockpile of trained talent, we're not going to have the fuel to drive this recovery."
As employers ramp up hiring, he says, they'll run out of laid-off welders and Wyman "will suddenly find himself in demand."
Wyman isn't sure how long he can wait. He and his wife, Jessica, borrow from her parents to pay the rent, and the couple and their two children are relying on food stamps. He frets if he doesn't find work soon, he'll get rusty and "lose the ability to weld."
Eyes on health care
Other jobless workers are turning to health care, a hot sector that typically promises a near-certain road to employment. Matt Moceri of Shelby, Mich., lost his job last July as a manager for a large home builder. So he took a six-week, $1,800 course at Macomb Community College to be a certified nursing assistant, a field Labor says will grow 19% by 2018.
"I thought of it as recession-proof," says Moceri, 31, who is married with two children.
After volunteering at a hospital's cardiac unit, he landed a similar paying job at St. John Macomb-Oakland Hospital. He works the night shift, tending to up to 16 patients, including their food and toileting needs and checking vital signs. While he loved his building job, "it pales in comparison" to the rewards of health care. "You're taking care of every aspect of the human being. They have another lease on life, and I feel I have a part in that."
His $30,000-a-year pay is far less than his construction wage. But he expects to make $60,000 or more when he gets more training, possibly to be a nurse.
Yet a volatile job market for nurses underscores the vagaries of job training. Registered nursing leads all occupations with projected job growth of 581,000 by 2018, Labor says. Nursing graduates, however, have been scrounging for jobs for six months or longer in many areas because of a rare glut of nurses, job-service officials say. With their husbands laid off, many older female nurses put off retirement, and retirees came back to work. Also, hospitals have less revenue in the downturn.
Recent graduate Anita Jamili, 28, of Van Nuys, Calif., who lost her lab-technician job when her employer closed in 2008, has looked for a nursing slot since December. When she entered College of the Canyons' nursing school, hospitals were offering $5,000 signing bonuses. "It's extremely frustrating — I went back to school for two years," she says.
What's worse, some students who graduated 18 months ago are still searching and will be at a disadvantage vs. recent graduates even when the market rebounds, says Margaret Craig, associate dean of nursing at Napa Valley College.
Truck driving is considered another lifeline for the unemployed, with 233,000 additional jobs expected by 2018.
After he lost his horse-grooming job at a harness-racing track, Jason Crampton of Warren, Mich., took a month-long, $5,000 truck-driving class last July that was financed by the state's No Worker Left Behind program. He can earn upwards of $32,000 a year, a significant raise from his $20,000 harness racing salary.
But Crampton, 27, is still jobless. He says trucking firms are hesitant to hire him because he'd have to ride with a more experienced driver for three months, increasing their costs.
His experience also points up the balancing act job centers face. They've shuttled ex-manufacturing and construction workers into driver training by the thousands. Macomb County, where Crampton lives, turned out so many drivers in 2008 that the job center stopped funding classes the first half of last year, says director John Bierbusse.
Crampton plans to move to South Florida if he doesn't find a job soon, but he may not fare much better. The Broward County job center in Fort Lauderdale has stopped funding truck-driver training because of a similar glut.
Green dreams
Perhaps the trendiest new career track for dislocated workers is green energy, as many states require utilities to boost their clean power output. But many jobs have not yet arrived. Others are less than glamorous.
Ken Stahovec, 47, of Chesterfield, Mich., got government aid for a $2,000 renewable energy program at Macomb Community College after he was laid off from his engineering job at an automaker in 2008. With few solar and wind-turbine installation jobs available, he snared a post monitoring methane wells at a landfill, which uses the methane from decaying compost to run electric generators.
His pay: $17 an hour, half his old salary. "I could have held out and waited" for an auto job, "and I'd still not be working."
Some try multiple training programs. When Tyrone Madison lost his sales job at a Las Vegas car dealership in July 2008, he got government funding for a $6,000 truck-driving class. After failing to land a job, he took a solar-energy class last summer. "They said solar was going to be the next big thing," says Madison, 48.
But he hasn't found a solar-installation job either after sending dozens of résumés. This year, Madison took a third class in hopes of getting a job auditing homes for energy efficiency. But he has no regrets.
"When you put a fishing pole in the water you can put one in there or you can put a bunch of hooks in there," he says. He recently got a job as a collections agent but is still seeking a spot related to his training.
Las Vegas job-center executive Helicia Thomas, who worked with Madison, says federal funding for some clean-energy projects has yet to be released. And jobs at a solar farm being built in Nevada were unexpectedly filled by workers from California and Arizona.
Experts say much of the hit-or-miss nature of job training is rooted in a fragmented system. The guidance that job centers give trainees is based on localized versions of federal job forecasts that may be off the mark.
That's why centers also are supposed to rely on local employers' input. But job centers, community colleges and employers have separate agendas, and communication among them is often poor, says Julian Alssid, head of the Workforce Strategy Center, a consulting firm.
Community colleges, beset by state funding cuts, want to boost enrollment, Carnevale says.
Employers, meantime, often have little incentive to share hiring plans, says Andy Levin, head of Michigan's workforce transition bureau. "It doesn't affect this quarter's bottom line," he says.
Even when employers do communicate, they may overestimate their need for workers. "It's in their interest to have a large pool of people from which to select," says Jim Jacobs, president of Macomb Community College.
Also, many colleges emphasize short-term training to get students back to work quickly, while high-skill jobs in demand require lengthier courses, says Tom Bailey of Columbia's Teachers College.
Filling needs
Some are trying to bridge the gaps. In Michigan, Doug Stites, CEO of Capital Area Michigan Works, set up councils for six industries made up of about 100 employers each. He funds training only when he's fairly certain a related job will be there. His placement rate: 90% within 100 days of graduating. He concedes he's accepting far fewer displaced workers for training than other state centers.
Perhaps the key question is this: Is retraining better than the status quo? A study commissioned by Labor that compared laid-off workers who were retrained to similar ones who weren't found that four years after entering programs, benefits in earnings and employment were "small or non-existent."
One problem: Retrained workers often spend several years casting about until they find their niche, a process most workers experience after high school or college, says Ken Troske, a study co-author and a professor of labor economics at the University of Kentucky. For workers 40 or older, that leaves fewer years to benefit from their new skills.
A more upbeat study for Labor and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago found a year of community college credits boosts earnings 9% for men and 13% for women. But the report said gains were nearly halved for workers over 35. Arguing laid-off workers shouldn't keep looking for jobs in dwindling sectors, study co-author Louis Jacobson says, "If you don't retrain them, what else are you going to do?"
Kevin Hollenbeck of the Upjohn Institute, a research firm, says unemployed workers have little to lose by acquiring new skills when jobs are scarce. "It's much better than sitting at home and watching soaps," he says
When Todd Wyman lost his job making parts for trucks and SUVs in June 2008, he started on a path trod by millions of unemployed workers in this recession: He retrained to do something else.
After consulting with the Montgomery County job center in Dayton, Ohio, the 28-year-old decided that the something else would be welding. Industry officials bemoan a shortage of skilled trainees to replace the 10,000 or so older workers retiring each year.
But since graduating from a 10-month, government-subsidized welding program in early December, Wyman has come up empty in the search for his first gig. Wyman and job-center officials say he's competing against experienced welders in a still-wounded southwestern Ohio economy.
JOBS OUTLOOK: Latest data for all states, 384 metros
TOO FEW? Auto industry may see labor shortage
"I'm getting annoyed and tired," Wyman says. "All I hear is, 'We're short on welders.' I hear it, but I don't see it. I maybe could have (taken) a different route."
Enrollment in job-training initiatives across the USA has swelled since the recession began as dislocated workers in shrunken industries such as manufacturing, construction and real estate retool for growing fields such as health care, renewable energy and computers. But a diploma is not necessarily a ticket to a job or higher earnings, especially with the jobless rate still hovering near 10%.
"Training doesn't create jobs," particularly as a nation emerges from recession, says Anthony Carnevale, head of Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce. "It's jobs that create the demand for training."
Many enrollees do land positions weeks after graduating, and experts say retraining is often the best option for a laid-off worker in a battered industry. But others hunt for months, or even years, with some using federal dollars to retrain multiple times for different occupations. Part of the problem: Though economists say the recession ended last summer, high unemployment pits graduates against both experienced workers who were laid off in the slump and newly trained colleagues. Sometimes job centers funnel too many workers into the same field.
Officials "in my system walk a tightrope every day," says Jane Oates, an assistant secretary for the Labor Department. "It's very difficult to do 100% foolproof projections anytime, but during a recession it's really complicated."
Job forecasts can be undercut by unforeseen events such as a plant closing. The promise of some categories projected to be plentiful, such as green jobs, has yet to be fulfilled. And the training system itself is beset by poor communication.
Participation in worker retraining funded by the federal Workforce Investment Act (WIA) jumped 70% to 672,000 in the year ended last June, Labor says. But the portion of those in jobs related to their training one year after graduating fell to 67.6% from 83.2% in 2006.
Wyman got $16,500 in federal funding to attend the Hobart Institute of Welding Technology after his employer, a Delphi auto plant, closed. The Huber Heights, Ohio, resident was always good with his hands; at Delphi, he operated a drill and stamping press. And welders' wages start as high as $19 an hour, a nice bump from the $16 he'd been earning.
Asked about Wyman's job search, Heath MacAlpine of Montgomery County's Department of Job and Family Services, says the region's manufacturing and construction were pounded by the recession. But he says funding Wyman's training wasn't a mistake: "We're not investing for this recession. If we don't have the stockpile of trained talent, we're not going to have the fuel to drive this recovery."
As employers ramp up hiring, he says, they'll run out of laid-off welders and Wyman "will suddenly find himself in demand."
Wyman isn't sure how long he can wait. He and his wife, Jessica, borrow from her parents to pay the rent, and the couple and their two children are relying on food stamps. He frets if he doesn't find work soon, he'll get rusty and "lose the ability to weld."
Eyes on health care
Other jobless workers are turning to health care, a hot sector that typically promises a near-certain road to employment. Matt Moceri of Shelby, Mich., lost his job last July as a manager for a large home builder. So he took a six-week, $1,800 course at Macomb Community College to be a certified nursing assistant, a field Labor says will grow 19% by 2018.
"I thought of it as recession-proof," says Moceri, 31, who is married with two children.
After volunteering at a hospital's cardiac unit, he landed a similar paying job at St. John Macomb-Oakland Hospital. He works the night shift, tending to up to 16 patients, including their food and toileting needs and checking vital signs. While he loved his building job, "it pales in comparison" to the rewards of health care. "You're taking care of every aspect of the human being. They have another lease on life, and I feel I have a part in that."
His $30,000-a-year pay is far less than his construction wage. But he expects to make $60,000 or more when he gets more training, possibly to be a nurse.
Yet a volatile job market for nurses underscores the vagaries of job training. Registered nursing leads all occupations with projected job growth of 581,000 by 2018, Labor says. Nursing graduates, however, have been scrounging for jobs for six months or longer in many areas because of a rare glut of nurses, job-service officials say. With their husbands laid off, many older female nurses put off retirement, and retirees came back to work. Also, hospitals have less revenue in the downturn.
Recent graduate Anita Jamili, 28, of Van Nuys, Calif., who lost her lab-technician job when her employer closed in 2008, has looked for a nursing slot since December. When she entered College of the Canyons' nursing school, hospitals were offering $5,000 signing bonuses. "It's extremely frustrating — I went back to school for two years," she says.
What's worse, some students who graduated 18 months ago are still searching and will be at a disadvantage vs. recent graduates even when the market rebounds, says Margaret Craig, associate dean of nursing at Napa Valley College.
Truck driving is considered another lifeline for the unemployed, with 233,000 additional jobs expected by 2018.
After he lost his horse-grooming job at a harness-racing track, Jason Crampton of Warren, Mich., took a month-long, $5,000 truck-driving class last July that was financed by the state's No Worker Left Behind program. He can earn upwards of $32,000 a year, a significant raise from his $20,000 harness racing salary.
But Crampton, 27, is still jobless. He says trucking firms are hesitant to hire him because he'd have to ride with a more experienced driver for three months, increasing their costs.
His experience also points up the balancing act job centers face. They've shuttled ex-manufacturing and construction workers into driver training by the thousands. Macomb County, where Crampton lives, turned out so many drivers in 2008 that the job center stopped funding classes the first half of last year, says director John Bierbusse.
Crampton plans to move to South Florida if he doesn't find a job soon, but he may not fare much better. The Broward County job center in Fort Lauderdale has stopped funding truck-driver training because of a similar glut.
Green dreams
Perhaps the trendiest new career track for dislocated workers is green energy, as many states require utilities to boost their clean power output. But many jobs have not yet arrived. Others are less than glamorous.
Ken Stahovec, 47, of Chesterfield, Mich., got government aid for a $2,000 renewable energy program at Macomb Community College after he was laid off from his engineering job at an automaker in 2008. With few solar and wind-turbine installation jobs available, he snared a post monitoring methane wells at a landfill, which uses the methane from decaying compost to run electric generators.
His pay: $17 an hour, half his old salary. "I could have held out and waited" for an auto job, "and I'd still not be working."
Some try multiple training programs. When Tyrone Madison lost his sales job at a Las Vegas car dealership in July 2008, he got government funding for a $6,000 truck-driving class. After failing to land a job, he took a solar-energy class last summer. "They said solar was going to be the next big thing," says Madison, 48.
But he hasn't found a solar-installation job either after sending dozens of résumés. This year, Madison took a third class in hopes of getting a job auditing homes for energy efficiency. But he has no regrets.
"When you put a fishing pole in the water you can put one in there or you can put a bunch of hooks in there," he says. He recently got a job as a collections agent but is still seeking a spot related to his training.
Las Vegas job-center executive Helicia Thomas, who worked with Madison, says federal funding for some clean-energy projects has yet to be released. And jobs at a solar farm being built in Nevada were unexpectedly filled by workers from California and Arizona.
Experts say much of the hit-or-miss nature of job training is rooted in a fragmented system. The guidance that job centers give trainees is based on localized versions of federal job forecasts that may be off the mark.
That's why centers also are supposed to rely on local employers' input. But job centers, community colleges and employers have separate agendas, and communication among them is often poor, says Julian Alssid, head of the Workforce Strategy Center, a consulting firm.
Community colleges, beset by state funding cuts, want to boost enrollment, Carnevale says.
Employers, meantime, often have little incentive to share hiring plans, says Andy Levin, head of Michigan's workforce transition bureau. "It doesn't affect this quarter's bottom line," he says.
Even when employers do communicate, they may overestimate their need for workers. "It's in their interest to have a large pool of people from which to select," says Jim Jacobs, president of Macomb Community College.
Also, many colleges emphasize short-term training to get students back to work quickly, while high-skill jobs in demand require lengthier courses, says Tom Bailey of Columbia's Teachers College.
Filling needs
Some are trying to bridge the gaps. In Michigan, Doug Stites, CEO of Capital Area Michigan Works, set up councils for six industries made up of about 100 employers each. He funds training only when he's fairly certain a related job will be there. His placement rate: 90% within 100 days of graduating. He concedes he's accepting far fewer displaced workers for training than other state centers.
Perhaps the key question is this: Is retraining better than the status quo? A study commissioned by Labor that compared laid-off workers who were retrained to similar ones who weren't found that four years after entering programs, benefits in earnings and employment were "small or non-existent."
One problem: Retrained workers often spend several years casting about until they find their niche, a process most workers experience after high school or college, says Ken Troske, a study co-author and a professor of labor economics at the University of Kentucky. For workers 40 or older, that leaves fewer years to benefit from their new skills.
A more upbeat study for Labor and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago found a year of community college credits boosts earnings 9% for men and 13% for women. But the report said gains were nearly halved for workers over 35. Arguing laid-off workers shouldn't keep looking for jobs in dwindling sectors, study co-author Louis Jacobson says, "If you don't retrain them, what else are you going to do?"
Kevin Hollenbeck of the Upjohn Institute, a research firm, says unemployed workers have little to lose by acquiring new skills when jobs are scarce. "It's much better than sitting at home and watching soaps," he says
Friday, September 10, 2010
Do you really want to be a teacher?
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/education/article_3c7e5178-c26b-5379-93cf-2f2b34a252ec.html
The State Of Missouri doesn't think so.
The State Of Missouri doesn't think so.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
No Wonder The Kids Aren't Too Happy At Commencement
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-jobs-educate-20100612,0,5466021,full.story
"Don't train yourself or your children [in work] that a computer can do or a smart kid in China or India can do. Because that's ferocious competition."
"Don't train yourself or your children [in work] that a computer can do or a smart kid in China or India can do. Because that's ferocious competition."
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
There Is No Depression
http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/04/news/economy/education_job_cuts/index.htm?source=cnn_bin&hpt=Sbin
Monday, August 31, 2009
College, the Lottery Ticket
http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/college/2009-08-30-college-costs-recession_N.htm
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Goodbye, Handwriting
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1912419,00.html?xid=rss-topstories-cnnpartner
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
SIUE Scammed
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/illinoisnews/story/04603657B2B3FEED862575BD0052A56C?OpenDocument
Monday, May 11, 2009
It Was Stupid, they Knew It, And they Went Ahead And Did It Anyway
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/education/story/59F8BB642DD01DAC862575B1001A45A1?OpenDocument
Open Source Textbooks
Eat this, college bookstores:
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/10/1815215
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/10/1815215
Friday, May 8, 2009
Education Woes
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/politics/story/0C4D8933A9AA4F7B862575AF00831654?OpenDocument
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