Written by Gabrielle Batchelor on June 29, 2011.
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A boost in applications indicates a growing number of young people want to attend Texas Christian University, including record numbers from outside the state.
A decade ago, about 5,000 potential students applied to TCU. But Ray Brown, the dean of admission, says a record 19,000 have applied to attend the upcoming fall semester. He says 61 percent of the increase was from out of state.
The university will admit only about 1,800 freshmen.
Victories on the football and baseball fields have raised TCU’s national profile, including a win in the Rose Bowl in January. But university leaders have also stepped up recruiting and marketing while making campuswide improvements.
Written by Gabrielle Batchelor on June 29, 2011.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Teachers, school administrators and clergy sued Friday to block the nation’s broadest private school voucher plan on the day it took effect, arguing that the new Indiana law violates state constitutional provisions on education and protecting taxpayers from supporting religious institutions.
The lawsuit filed in Marion County seeks a preliminary injunction on grounds that most of the 352 private schools whose students are eligible for the vouchers are affiliated with churches or other religious institutions. It also said the Indiana Constitution directs the General Assembly to educate children through a “general and uniform system of Common Schools.”
“This voucher program will provide public funds to private schools that can give individual preference to students based on test scores, disabilities, wealth and personal faith. Such preferences should not be publicly funded,” said lead plaintiff Teresa Meredith, a Shelbyville public school teacher and vice president of the Indiana State Teachers Association, the state’s largest teachers union.
Read more…
Written by Laura Lawley on June 28, 2011.
In an effort to be more transparent and hold colleges accountable for rising tuition costs, the Department of Education launched its College Navigator website today that included a list of the nation’s most expensive colleges.
According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, the lists were required by the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008. Fifty four different lists were created, comprised of six different variables–highest published tuition, highest net price, largest percentage increase in tuition, largest percentage increase in net price, lowest published tuition and lowest net price–and nine different sectors (such as public and private, four-year and two-year).
The goal of the lists is to provide consumers with clear information regarding the cost of college. The hope is that it will also force colleges to keep higher education affordable or be held accountable for significant increases.
“We hope this information will encourage schools to continue their efforts to make costs of college more transparent so students make informed decisions and aren’t saddled with unmanageable debt,” explained U.S.
Read more…
Written by Laura Lawley on June 28, 2011.
Clarksville, Ind. (WHAS11) – Clarksville Elementary School is welcoming a new principal.
The Clarksville school board has approved Kathy Gilland to replace Principal Don Maymon, who retired this month.
Gilland is from New Albany and has been the principal at Margaret R. Brown Elementary School in Seymour, Indiana since 2004.
She will start in the fall.
Written by Gabrielle Batchelor on June 28, 2011.
It’s the middle of the day. It’s hot. East San Gabriel Valley hot. On a curb outside Blandford Elementary School a parked bus, painted sky-blue, seems to pulsate as you open the door and walk up the steps.
About two-dozen fourth- and fifth-graders crowd around music stands. Most sit. Some stand as they play clarinets, trumpets and other wind instruments. No one’s complaining.
On a bus that also serves as a mobile music classroom, Richard Schermer leads the lesson with a tuba on his lap and earplugs firmly in place. He’s been doing this for 30 years, and he’s not done.
“I have earplugs in for my sanity, so I don’t lose my hearing. After you’ve been doing this for 30-something years you want to be able to hear,” he said.
After about an hour, the students leave the bus and walk back to campus. Sixth grader Joseph Llamoca is new to music lessons. He plays alto saxophone and, like his classmates, says he likes all kinds of music.
“I hear Aerosmith … Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, any hip-hop songs.”
What about composers? “Beethoven, Mozart any
Read more…