Dear Commons Community,

The University of Georgia is taking seriously its efforts to improve undergraduate instruction by hiring dozens of new full-time faculty.  As reported in The Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription required):

“The University of Georgia, seeking to improve the classroom experience of its undergraduates, has begun a faculty hiring spree to reduce enrollments in hundreds of courses.

The university will hire 56 full-time, teaching-focused lecturers and professors over this academic year. It is one of several recent efforts at the research-focused institution to improve its educational environment. Others include the creation of a series of freshman seminars and the requirement that incoming students participate in a hands-on learning experience.

“It’s a piece in a larger puzzle,” said Rahul Shrivastav, vice president for instruction.

The addition of instructional faculty represents only a 3-percent increase to the university’s full-time teaching staff, but it is notable for its focus. Other institutions have announced large, multiyear hiring campaigns in recent years, but they typically aim to bolster research capacity.

In cutting down class sizes, Georgia took a strategic approach, Mr. Shrivastav said. Administrators examined data to find the courses that students most frequently dropped out of, withdrew from, and failed. Consulting with deans and department heads, the academic leaders further zeroed in on courses with the worst bottlenecks that stymied student progress…

At Georgia, most of the new hires will be off the tenure track. Of the 56 new instructors, 16 will be on the tenure track; the rest will be full-time and focused on teaching, Mr. Shrivastav said. Each will be expected to teach four courses each semester.

The $4.4 million that will pay for the effort will cover faculty salaries and benefits, he said. The source is recent tuition increases: In-state tuition and fees have risen nearly 18 percent over the past four years.

Though students dislike the tuition increases, few see their connection to the class-size reduction effort, said Johnelle Simpson, president of the student-government association. And even if they did, he added, they would support that use of funds. “It’s a direct impact on them,” said Mr. Simpson, a senior majoring in risk management and insurance, and political science.

Great move on the part of the University of Georgia!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

President Barack Obama yesterday announced a series of new steps by his administration to help make community college affordable for most Americans. Speaking at Macomb Community College in Warren, Michigan, Obama unveiled a advisory board and a wide-reaching advocacy campaign, both aimed at building support for America’s College Promise, the higher education plan he first publicized in January. It calls for spending $60 billion over 10 years to provide participating students with two years of free community college.  As reported in The Huffington Post: 

“In order to qualify for the tuition waiver, students would have to be enrolled at least half-time in accredited programs, and maintain their academic progress.

“Community colleges are at the heart of the American dream,” Obama told an enthusiastic crowd of students and faculty. “And for every young person willing to work hard, I want two years of community college to be as free and universal as high school is today.”

Offering free community college, he said, “is a concrete way to reduce the cost of education for young people, to improve the skills of workers so they get higher paying jobs, and to grow our economy.”

The president attended the event with Jill Biden, a community college professor and the wife of Vice President Joe Biden. Earlier in the day, the White House announced that she will chair the administration’s new College Promise Advisory Board with Jim Geringer, a former Republican governor of Wyoming.

“Our task is to bring together leaders from across the country to highlight student success stories like we’ve seen in Tennessee, Chicago and Michigan,” Biden told the crowd, “to share best practices and to encourage others to join our efforts.”

In addition to the community college initiatives, Obama also announced $175 million in federal grant money to expand apprenticeship programs, where students “earn while you learn” in job settings instead of traditional classrooms. The American Apprenticeship Grants will help train and place some 34,000 new apprentices at U.S. companies, a White House fact sheet stated.

“The average starting salary for a person who’s finished an apprenticeship is now more than $50,000,” said the president.”We want to give workers across America the same chance you have [at Macomb] to get real-world experience that leads directly to a good job.”

Obama’s free community college proposal was one of the highlights of the domestic policy agenda he unveiled during his State of the Union address in January. But it was quickly met with stiff opposition from Republicans in Congress, who balked at both the price tag and at the notion of creating a new federal education program.

The concept has had more success outside of Washington, and 11 states are currently considering legislative proposals to offer free community college. In Tennessee, state lottery funds are used to fund Tennessee Promise, a program that covers community college tuition and fees for students who maintain a minimum 2.0 GPA.

“There’s a movement going on here; it’s an idea whose time has come,” Obama said. “Free community college for responsible students. It’s an idea that makes sense.”

Free community college is an idea whose time has come. 

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

A teachers strike on the first day of school in Seattle left families scrambling for alternative childcare, however, many parents of the district’s 53,000 students were supporting the teachers.  As reported in The Huffington Post:

“Around 5,000 members of the Seattle Education Association, which represents teachers and support staff in Washington’s largest school district,  picketed all 97 schools yesterday after contract negotiations broke down Tuesday night. 

Naomi Wilson, a research specialist at the University of Washington College of Education with a first-grader and fourth-grader in the district, spoke to The Huffington Post from the picket line outside her children’s school, where she went to stand in solidarity with teachers. The teachers are demanding a 10.5 percent pay increase, along with fair teacher evaluations and workloads, equity in student discipline, less standardized testing and guaranteed student recess time.

“Cost of living is definitely something that we support for teachers,” Wilson said, emphasizing how expensive Seattle housing is, “but things like recess and reasonable testing and workloads and special education and equity — that’s them fighting for us. Those are the issues we raised. So we come out strong and support their ability to bargain and fight not just for us, but for the education system. These are our kids. These are my kids.”

“…More than 4,000 people have signed a Change.org petition calling on parents to support the union. Several parents have co-authored op-eds advocating for the teachers’ demands. 

“Of all the parents that I have talked to, they have been just overwhelmingly in support,” Wilson said. “I think the overwhelming majority of the public — and definitely parents — are in full support of their teachers that strike.”

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Pope Francis announced new procedures yesterday to make it easier for Roman Catholics to obtain marriage annulments, a move intended to streamline a process long criticized by many Catholics as too cumbersome, complicated and expensive. The new rules take effect on Dec. 8 and are expected to speed up cases in which neither spouse is contesting the annulment. These fast-track cases may be heard as soon as 30 days after a couple files an application, and at most within 45 days.  The new procedures also eliminate one of the two church trials that are required of all couples seeking an annulment, a process that can drag on for years, at great cost.

As reported in the New York Times:

“Church officials acknowledge that many details still have to be worked out, including instructing bishops on the annulment process. In the past, Francis has said the annulment process should be free, and Vatican experts said the new system was expected to be free, not counting legitimate fees to maintain the tribunal process.

Divorce is a topic that has long splintered many of the Catholic faithful from the church. Under church law, marriage is indissoluble, divorce is not recognized, and any Catholic who remarries without annulling a first marriage is committing adultery.

Yet many Catholics are divorced, especially in the Western world, and the divide between reality and church dogma has alienated many of the faithful. Many divorced Catholics, believing that annulments are too invasive and onerous, have drifted away from the church without even bothering to undertake the process.

“These reforms say, ‘If you think a marriage is invalid, don’t let the procedure frighten you away,’ ” John Thavis, an author and Vatican expert, said in an interview.

The new rules demonstrate Francis’ approach to his papacy: Change procedures and tone, so as to attract people back to the church, without changing doctrine. They are also a tacit acknowledgment of the challenges the church faces in the modern world, and Francis’ attempts to find points of interaction.”

Pope Francis should be praised for the way he has reached out to divorced Catholics but more needs to be done.  If the Church truly wants to open itself to include divorced Catholics, procedures should be established to receive the sacraments through normal confession.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Iowa’s statewide Board of Regents named J. Bruce Harreld last Thursday as president of the University of Iowa.   Mr. Harreld is a business consultant and speaker and a former executive at several multinational corporations, and has taught at Harvard’s business school. But he has no experience in higher-education leadership and his appointment has sparked controversy.  The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that:

 “… many rank-and-file faculty members described the appointment as the Board of Regents’ latest attack on the state’s flagship university.

The nine-member board announced its decision Thursday afternoon, after interviewing the four finalists for the position earlier in the day. The other three candidates — two provosts and a college president — have traditional academic backgrounds.

Mr. Harreld, who is 64, will succeed Sally K. Mason, who retired on August 1 after leading the university for eight years. The regents signed Mr. Harreld to a five-year contract, and he’ll make $590,000 annually.

Ms. Mason has had a strained relationship with the regents during much of her tenure. And over the past year, the board had tried to impose a new model for allotting state money to the state’s three universities, proposing initially to take millions of dollars away from Iowa and give them to the University of Northern Iowa and Iowa State University.

Some faculty members and others raised fears that Mr. Harreld would simply be an ally of the board, by agreeing to such cuts in the name of efficiency, effectiveness, and transformation.

“Someone who has not had academic administrative experience, just those things make me not have as much confidence in how the person is going to serve as our president,” said Cornelia C. Lang, an associate professor of physics and astronomy.”

As financial pressures continue to plague higher education, I believe we will see more appointments like Mr. Harreld in the future.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Today while most of us will be celebrating the end of summer with family and friends, we should take a moment to remember the contributions and achievements of American workers.  They are the true builders of America – its freedoms, accomplishments, and strengths.

Tony

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dx0m31I1v-A[/youtube]

Dear Commons Community,

Colin Powell expressed support for the nuclear agreement with Iran on Sunday, “It’s a pretty good deal,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press”. The former Secretary of State says the agreement limits Iran’s centrifuges and stockpiles and…

“…these are remarkable changes, and so we have stopped this highway race that they were going down — and I think that’s very, very important,” Powell said.

He also pushed back on skeptics who have expressed worries about the ability of independent inspectors to verify that Iran is following the agreement. Powell said that, “with respect to the Iranians — don’t trust, never trust, and always verify.”

“And I think a very vigorous verification regime has been put into place,” he said.

“I say, we have a deal, let’s see how they implement the deal. If they don’t implement it, bail out. None of our options are gone,” Powell added.

On Wednesday, Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski came out in support of the deal, giving President Obama the 34 Democratic votes he’d need in the Senate to override a veto of the deal and all but ensuring its implementation.

And Powell noted that, even if the deal did fail in Congress, dozens of other nations who were party to the negotiations have already agreed to it, making it impossible for the U.S. to sit out.

“Even if we were to kill the deal — which is not going to happen — it’s going to take effect anyway, because all of these other countries that were in it with us are going to move forward,” he said.

“They’re all going to be moving forward — we’re going to be sitting on the sidelines.”

Wise comments from a wise soldier/statesman!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Chicago officials announced plans late last week to open a new arts-focused school in Dyett High School once slated for closure, but protesters who have disrupted budget meetings vowed to continue a hunger strike over perceived racial disparities and other issues in the city’s education system.  According to the Associated Press:

“Parents and activists have opposed the phased-out closure of Walter H. Dyett High School in the historically black Bronzeville neighborhood for years. The nation’s third-largest school district cited poor performance and declining enrollment in the decision, but officials later said they’d consider proposals to reopen.

One group, pushing for a community partnered green technology school, ratcheted up opposition last month with a hunger strike that’s attracted solidarity from the Rev. Jesse Jackson. The 12 protesters – who stick to water, juice and broth – have cited racial disparities in Chicago Public Schools as a prime motivator and said Thursday they’d continue doing without food until their proposal gets better reception. Protests at a Wednesday evening budget were so intense that Emanuel was escorted from the room.

Schools CEO Forrest Claypool made the new school announcement hours before another of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s budget hearings, saying the school and planned lab will serve the neighborhood.

“Working with community partners,” Claypool said in a statement, “we arrived at a solution that meets multiple needs: Creating an open enrollment neighborhood high school, producing an enrollment stream that can weather population changes, filling the critical demand for an arts high school on the south side and working with education leaders to create a technology hub.”

The move drew some praise, including from U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, a Chicago Democrat who largely called it a win for the strikers.

But the activists immediately said they didn’t buy it.

Parent and hunger striker Jeanette Taylor-Ramann called it “baloney” saying CPS officials didn’t give their proposal, which she said had wide community buy-in, a fair shot. She said several on the strike have been hospitalized and though she’s lost 30 pounds and a doctor has told her to eat, she plans to continue. The protesters have recently added vitamins and protein drinks.

“I’m not satisfied and we’re going to continue the hunger strike,” she said. “This is their way of pushing us out of our own community.”

Plans to close Dyett were first announced in late 2011 and preceded a tumultuous time for the cash-strapped district. In 2012, Chicago teachers went on strike for the first time in 25 years. The following year, Emanuel pushed to close dozens of neighborhood schools.”

Power to these parents!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Tom Sobol, a leading educator in New York for decades, died yesterday at the age of 83. The cause of death was Parkinsons’ Disease.  Dr. Sobol was the superintendent of schools in Scarsdale,  NYS Commissioner of Education, and on the faculty of Columbia Teachers College.  The New York Times obituary commented as follows:

“Dr. Sobol, a former schools superintendent in Scarsdale, was the New York State education commissioner for eight years, appointed by Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, a Democrat, in 1987. During Dr. Sobol’s tenure, the percentage of high school graduates going to college increased, as did the number of students passing advanced placement exams.

Despite that success, Dr. Sobol resigned in frustration in 1995, accusing Gov. George E. Pataki, a Republican, and lawmakers from both parties of making his department and the policy-making Board of Regents scapegoats for the grinding bureaucracy, violence, family dysfunction, poverty, poorly trained teachers, deficient buildings and inferior learning materials that had plagued public schools.

“We’re an inviting target — nobody loves a regulatory agency,” he said at the time. “So let’s dump on them. Then we don’t even have to talk about the realities. And meanwhile the realities go unaddressed.”

As commissioner, Dr. Sobol had pressed for what he called A New Compact for Learning, a broad manifesto aimed at transferring policy making from sluggish bureaucracies to educators and parents, and at creating grade-specific curriculum standards that local school districts could implement on their own.

“In leading one of the first efforts by any state to set K-12 learning standards, he established a rationale — ultimately applied nationwide — for holding the state accountable for adequately funding all schools,” Susan H. Fuhrman, president of Teachers College at Columbia University, said in an email.

“He cared so deeply about the rights of students to a sound education,” she continued, “that when, on his watch as commissioner, the state was sued by New York City for more school funding, he sided with the plaintiffs.”

Diane Ravitch, the education historian, wrote in an email: “Tom Sobol was the last state commissioner who understood that education means something more than test-taking and high scores.”

Dr. Sobol did a good deal for public education in New York State.  Since he left as Commissioner in 1995, the NYS Department of Education has been largely rudderless and “the realities” have continued to be unaddressed.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

A group of Dyett High School protesters caused Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to shut down a budget meeting on Wednesday evening after he refused to answer their questions regarding the future of the school.  According to The Huffington Post and local news reports,

“Emanuel was holding a public hearing about the city’s 2016 budget when residents protested the closure of Dyett High School. After he repeatedly declined to answer their questions, the protesters swarmed the stage, demanding an answer from him “right now.” Chicago police quickly escorted Emanuel out of the meeting. The mayor’s office then ended the meeting early.

Dyett High School closed in June due to low test scores and enrollment rates, part of a wave of school closures in Chicago over the last two years. City officials have yet to make permanent plans for the school, but neighborhood residents want it to reopen next year as an open-enrollment, science-focused school called Dyett Global Leadership and Green Technology High School.

Some of the protesters have been part of a hunger strike that reached its 17th day on Wednesday. That same day, two of the protesters, Jitu Brown and April Stogner, took their fight to Washington, D.C., and delivered a letter to Education Secretary Arne Duncan, asking him to intervene. The hunger strikers have insisted that they will not stop until city officials decide to keep the school open and select the community’s proposed plan.

“We’re going to do whatever is necessary to keep this school and have an open-enrollment school in our community,” Stogner said at a press conference. “I’m hungry. But I’m not really hungry for food — I’m hungry for justice. I’m hungry for justice for my grandbabies, for all the kids in my community.”

Their cause has begun to attract national attention, including from National Education Association President Lily Eskelsen García and American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, who both attended Wednesday’s event in Washington.

While Dyett was once slated for permanent closure, city officials are considering several different proposals to reopen the school. However, protesters say the process has been slow and they are concerned that the delay will ultimately allow the school to remain closed. City officials postponed a public meeting about the school to focus on the city’s budget.”

Congratulations to these parents who are right to fight for their school, for their community, and for their children.

Tony