U.S. Department of Education Proposes Overhaul of Gainful Employment Regulations

U.S. Department of Education Proposes Overhaul of Gainful Employment Regulations

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Department of Education today announced a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that proposes to rescind Gainful Employment (GE) regulations in order to provide useful, transparent higher education data to students and treat all institutions of higher education fairly.

“Students deserve useful and relevant data when making important decisions about their education post-high school,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. “That’s why instead of targeting schools simply by their tax status, this administration is working to ensure students have transparent, meaningful information about all colleges and all programs. Our new approach will aid students across all sectors of higher education and improve accountability.”

The Department continues to believe that data such as debt levels, expected earnings after graduation, completion rates, program cost, accreditation, and consistency with licensure requirements are important to consumers, but not just those students who are considering enrolling in a gainful employment program. Therefore, in the NPRM the Department invites public comment concerning whether or not the Department should require institutions to disclose, on the program webpage, information about the program size, its completion rate, its cost, whether or not it is accredited, and whether the program meets the requirements for licensure in the State in which the institution is located.

In addition, to provide prospective students with important, actionable, and accurate information that could be used in college enrollment and borrowing decisions, the Department plans to update the College Scorecard or a similar web-based tool to provide program-level outcomes including, at a minimum, median debt and median earnings for all higher education programs, at all title IV participating institutions. The Department believes that this will improve transparency by providing comparable information for all programs and helping students understand what earnings they might expect based on those of prior graduates. This would also increase accountability of institutions by making it more difficult for institutions to misrepresent program outcomes, such as the earnings of prior graduates, since prospective students would have access to accurate data provided by the Secretary of Education.

The 30-day public comment period for these proposed regulations will begin once published in the Federal Register. In the interim, an unofficial version of the proposed rule can be found here.

Principals Are Running for Elected Office. Here’s Why

Principals Are Running for Elected Office. Here’s Why

 The final straw broke in November when Aimy Steele got a call from the central office asking her to find space for five more classrooms.

Steele, the principal of Beverly Hills STEM Elementary School in Concord, N.C., about 25 miles from Charlotte, had already moved an English-as-a-second-language class into the library and an after-school program from a portable unit into the cafeteria to comply with a state law mandating lower class sizes in elementary grades.

The mandate, which she said did not come with extra money for new teachers or classrooms—school construction is funded at the county-level—came after financially-strapped districts had shed hundreds of teaching assistants.

“That was kind of the last moment, where I said, ‘this is absolutely ridiculous,’” said Steele, who filed paperwork to run on the Democratic ticket in North Carolina’s 82nd district just a few weeks later. She will face Republican Linda P. Johnson, a nine-term incumbent and chairwoman of the House K-12 education and appropriations committees, in November.

Steele, 39, is among a handful of current and former school leaders—including principals and assistant principals—who are running for local and state offices this year. Their numbers are dwarfed by teacher-candidates, who, fed up with low salaries and cuts to general education funding, marched on state capitols in the spring. (An Education Week analysis found at least 156 teachers had filed to run for state offices this year, with 25 so far winning their party primaries and 42 advancing without a primary challenge.)

Principals Want Bigger Voice in Education Policy

But the small number of principals who are running hope their experience running schools will give them a bigger voice in state education policy and other policy areas that affect education. The school leaders argue that many of the hot-button issues that legislators are wrestling with are school-connected—whether it’s the opioid crisis, the economy, transportation, infrastructure, or healthcare.

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Plugging Kids into Mental Health

Plugging Kids into Mental Health

Sabrina Vance, the director of NFusion Metro, hopes the youth mental-health program model she runs will expand to surrounding counties to serve more youth.

On a sticky and still June weekday, kids trickled into the cool, air-conditioned room on the second floor of New Horizon Church that smelled like homemade enchiladas. Some had swimsuits on under their clothes and carried backpacks with towels. It was a pool day.

To an outsider, this could be any community summer camp or school program—but it is much more. NFusion Metro is a community-based mental-health-care program primarily for ages 11 to 18 years old in the Jackson area.

During the summer, counselors are doing themed weeks for their lesson time. On June 8, the “Around the World” theme was focused on Mexico. NFusion staff made enchiladas and virgin margaritas for the students to supplement their bag lunches and engage them in the lesson. After lunch the students went to swim at the community pool and then came back for group or individual therapy.

NFusion Metro differs from regular therapy for youth largely due to the environment. No part of the program’s rented space on the second floor of New Horizon Church feels like a doctor’s office. A long, open hallway connects staff offices. Counselors, whom the organization calls clinical care coordinators, share office space, and printed-out selfies adorn their doors.

“What we’re trying to do is have a non-traditional approach to therapy,” NFusion Metro Program Director Sabrina Vance told the Jackson Free Press in February. “There is such a stigma regarding mental health, so the reason why we’re not at the community mental-health center is because this age we work with—that population—they don’t want anyone to know that they’re receiving services. …

“We’re trying to provide a stigma-free environment, and that’s why we’re here at New Horizon Church.”

The advantage of a program like NFusion Metro, Shakena Lee-Bowie, one of the counselors at NFusion Metro says, is that she can do non-traditional therapy. Vance said some young people come to the program through referrals from Hinds Behavioral Health Services or Henley-Young Juvenile Justice Center. Other times, families find the program through word-of-mouth or another doctor’s referral.

‘It Caught Me Off Guard’

Evandia Woods remembers sitting in the room with her son, Von’Tavius, during a regular doctor checkup and was stunned to hear his affirmative answers to questions about thinking of harming himself.

“It caught me off guard,” Woods told the Jackson Free Press in February. “I was thankful because I had no idea. … (He) went day-by-day just happy and doing things like he normally (would), so I had no idea.”

The doctor referred her son to NFusion Metro, and Woods has seen dramatic changes in his behavior and their relationship since then. She said her son was not a big socializer before starting the program, but now that he has been in it for more than a year, he looks forward to interacting with his peers there.

“He comes every day that he can,” Woods said. “It was real friendly and open; they made us feel like we were welcome.”

When a family signs up to be a part of the system of care, the child, guardian, and counselor sit at the table and decide on what boundaries and care are necessary. Youth get individual and group therapy sessions as a part of the program, but they also have access to their counselor more directly. NFusion accepts all insurance, including Medicaid, and the program currently runs through a federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration grant.

Parents and guardians get plugged into their child’s mental health care at NFusion, too. The program hosts nights specifically for parents to help break down the stigma of mental illness and bridge communication gaps.

At Their Level

Nadia Snyder has struggled with attention-deficit hyperactive disorder and got in trouble for acting out in school during middle school. She went to Hinds Behavioral Health for services, but at some point, her health-care coverage cut out, and she fell into a gap during middle school. When she was referred to NFusion Metro, she was nervous.

“I don’t know these people. How can I relate to these people?” she recalls thinking when she first started.

Bowie, Snyder’s care coordinator, agreed that Snyder should stick with it. She had a busy senior year. She was working two jobs, participated in Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps and was expected to help at home as the only child still living there. She came to the program when she could. Eventually, Snyder took a break from working and was able to start coming to group more.

“It helps me getting along with people because I’m really not a people person,” Snyder told JFP.

Snyder, who is 18 and recently graduated from Forest Hill High School, says NFusion Metro is different than other therapies she has gone through. She can text Bowie and keep her updated on how she is doing at school or work.

“Because we do nontraditional therapy, she will text me about issues that she has … and she’ll tell me how she handled them in a positive way instead of snapping off or some of the old behaviors,” Bowie said. “So she’ll text me and say, ‘This is how I corrected it or chose to ignore it.'”

The program has eased tensions in Snyder and her mother’s relationship, Snyder said, and she helps out a lot more at home. Bowie attended Snyder’s graduation from Forest Hill High School, and Snyder plans to attend a local junior college. In the meantime, she can still come to group and individual sessions at NFusion Metro because the program can serve youth up to 26 years old.

Vance is focused on making the program sustainable in the coming months, so it can continue after 2020 when the grant funds run out. Currently, the program is capped at 30 students a day, with a maximum of 10 students per counselor. This, of course, limits the reach of a community-based system of care. Vance said her goal is to create Rankin and Madison County NFusion Metro programs.

There are six SAMSHA-funded system-of-care programs similar to NFusion Metro statewide, including ones in Oxford, Southaven and Columbus.

Texans Can Academies Sponsors Back-to-School Fund Drive for Upcoming School Year

Texans Can Academies Sponsors Back-to-School Fund Drive for Upcoming School Year

Countdown to Class 2018 school uniform drive has begun

DALLAS – July 31, 2018 – Texans Can Academies, a non-profit organization giving young Texans a second chance at life through education, today announced that they are sponsoring a back-to-school fund drive, Countdown to Class, for their students who need assistance getting ready for the approaching school year. As summertime comes to an end, students across the state of Texas are gearing up for the upcoming first day of school. While some are out shopping for new clothes or visiting their campus to pick up their school uniforms, others are faced with the dilemma of affording new clothes. Texans Can Academies understands the challenges a lot of families face with back-to-school expenses and wants their students to begin the school year with confidence and refreshed outlooks.

From now until September, Texans Can Academies is hosting their annual Countdown to Class 2018 Uniform Drive to raise funds that will benefit students at their 14 campuses across the state of Texas. The open-enrollment public charter high school has campuses located in Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio. The funds from the drive will benefit students and their families by providing brand new clothes that fit properly to wear as the school’s uniform of khaki pants and white collared shirts. A $75 donation will provide one pair of pants, two shirts, socks and a belt for one student.

“We know the expense of school supplies and clothing can put a major dent in the household budget for a lot of families,” said Richard Marquez, President and CEO of Texans Can Academies. “All donations will help our families provide back-to-school items so that their children will feel proud and comfortable during the school year. It’s especially important for teenagers to feel confident in what they are wearing when they are in school so they focus on learning.”

A 2018 study by Deloitte found that the average United States household planned to spend $510 per child on back-to-school shopping. The National Retail Federation estimates that families shopping for students this year will spend the most on clothing, about $237 per school-age child.

The cost of clothes and school supplies for teenagers can create financial and emotional strains on families that cannot be met and can lead to a child dropping out of school. Texans Can Academies takes steps every year to offer solutions to any obstacles students face outside their classrooms to help them remain in school and graduate.

“We know that if children don’t have school supplies or the proper clothes to wear to school, they may decide to stay home,” continued Marquez. “Our goal throughout our campuses and programming is to break down barriers to educational success. We are asking for help to raise funds for our kids to have clothes they are proud to wear to school throughout the school year. All children deserve to come to school wearing clothes that fit comfortably and feeling like they look their best.”

Texans Can Academies believes in providing the highest quality education for all students. The high school’s curriculum has been designed to prepare their students for life beyond high school graduation with skills and concepts such as Marquez Reading, thinking skills, college preparation, workforce etiquette and more. Classes are structured with a learning, yet nurturing environment that touches on student-centered decision making.

Serving the education system for 33 years, Texans Can Academies provides open enrollment, public high schools of choice for students who have struggled in traditional high school settings. To participate in Texans Can Academies’ 2018-2019 Uniform Drive, please visit www.texanscan.org/countdown2class2018.

About Texans Can Academies
Celebrating 33 years of providing the highest quality education for all students, Texans Can schools are graduating thinkers. Texans Can Academies are a unique network of 14 charter schools located in Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio. The schools are tuition-free, open enrollment, public high schools of choice serving students who have struggled in a traditional high school setting. To date, more than 143,000 youth have been given a second chance at life with the opportunity to pursue their dreams. Cars for Kids is a 501(c)3 tax exempt organization benefiting Texans Can Academies and is the only car donation program in Texas that is operated by the charity it serves. For more information, visit: www.texanscan.org or www.carsforkids.org.

Westchester Community College Adds Members

Westchester Community College Adds Members

VALHALLA – The Westchester Community College Board of Trustees has added three new members:

Elizabeth Lugones has been selected as the student representative to the college’s Board of Trustees. Her goal is to graduate from the college with a degree in Engineering Science and then move on to a master’s program before entering the industry.

Deborah S. Raizes is a senior consultant for Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates, Ltd., which specializes in searches for administrators, including superintendents, at public schools. Prior to this position, she was a teacher for the Durham County Schools in Durham, North Carolina.

She has a significant record of voluntary public service in the field of education. Highlights include her affiliation with the Westchester Community College Foundation Board for which she has served in a variety of roles including member, chairperson, and president. She has also served as vice chairperson and chairperson for the Lesley University Board of Trustees. She is currently a member of the Board of Trustees for this private institution in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In addition to her work with Westchester Community College Foundation, her local impact has been significant through her involvement with the Scarsdale School System. She served as president of the Scarsdale Council of Parent Teacher Associations, was a member of the Westchester-Putnam School Board Association, and was a member of the New York State School Board Association. For the Scarsdale Board of Education, she held several roles ranging from member to vice president and president.

A member of the Institutional Review Board of the White Plains Hospital Center, she received her B.S. in Education from Lesley College. She was recognized by the Westchester Community College Foundation, which bestowed the Abeles Award to her due to her commitment to public service. She also received the Lesley College Community Service Award.

Dr. Gregory Robeson Smith is the senior pastor of the Mt. Hope A.M.E. Zion Church, the oldest African-American Congregation in Westchester County. He is the president of the Mt. Hope Community Development Corporation; Prince Hall Housing Development Fund Inc.; and Prince Hall Fund Inc., a multi-million dollar non-for-profit 501(c)3 Foundation providing program funds/grants to assist the poor, distressed, and underprivileged. In 1990, he was appointed by President Bush as president and chief executive officer of the African Development Foundation, an independent Federal agency in Washington, D.C., with offices in 25 African nations and a staff of more than 3,000 individuals. Dr. Smith continued to serve in this position in the Clinton Administration. The agency assists the most vulnerable members of society with grants for technical assistance and capacity building to grassroots organizations, cooperatives, and community enterprises that strengthen local institutions and achieve lasting impact. He also has served as Director of International Disaster Response for Church World Service, an entity of the National Council of Churches.

A graduate with honors from Livingstone College in Salisbury, North Carolina, Dr. Smith also earned two Masters and two Doctoral degrees: MBA Degree in Marketing and Finance; a Master of Divinity Degree; Doctorate in Higher Education Administration and Finance ABD; and a Doctorate in Ministries.

Dr. Smith is the grandnephew of the late Paul Robeson, the renowned singer and activist.

The post Westchester Community College Adds Members appeared first on Hudson Valley Press Newspaper.

COMMENTARY: STEM Education Has a Math Anxiety Problem

COMMENTARY: STEM Education Has a Math Anxiety Problem

Education Week logoBy Gina Picha

In 2012, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology released a report calling for a national effort to produce 1 million more STEM graduates. Science, technology, engineering, and math educators have responded with a sense of urgency, and STEM programs and schools have been developed throughout the United States to better prepare our youths for careers in those fields. STEM curricula experts have begun to integrate student-driven inquiry and a real-world context that add authenticity to class projects and prepare students for future STEM careers. They also encourage educators to connect learning across disciplines.

So how is STEM education still missing the mark, especially at the elementary level? Project-based learning and other practices that support educators in integrating across content areas have benefits, but those benefits will mean nothing if our young people do not enter in STEM fields or majors. These skills and experiences are rich and useful when done well, but secondary to the real roadblock that many American students face. We must look deeper than any new program or initiative aimed at simply increasing interest in STEM careers. We must look at a known problem that we often avoid talking about: the math problem.

“Our students cannot enter into STEM majors if they have a fear of mathematics.”

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VIDEO: College funds raised for Rouses employee who helped teen with autism: report

VIDEO: College funds raised for Rouses employee who helped teen with autism: report

A Rouses employee in Baton Rouge was surprised with a free car Monday morning (Aug. 6), days after the employee let a teen with autism help him stock shelves in the store, Fox 44 Baton Rouge reports.

Jordan Taylor was stocking shelves of orange juice one day when Jack Ryan Edwards and his father came across Taylor. A video that has gone viral shows Taylor patiently teaching Edwards how to stock those shelves for roughly 30 minutes, Fox 44 reported.

With Taylor’s kindness in mind, Neighbors FCU President and CEO Steve Webb acknowledged Taylor during the Central Community School System Convocation Monday. Fox 44 reported that Neighbors worked with “community partners” to provide Taylor with his own new vehicle.

Taylor’s actions also spurred the Edwards family to create a GoFundMe account to raise $100,000 for Taylor’s college tuition. In five days, more than 3,300 people have donated $115,485 as of Monday afternoon.

Read and watch the full story at the Fox 44 website.

. . . . . . .

Wilborn P. Nobles III is an education reporter based in New Orleans. He can be reached at wnobles@nola.com or on Twitter at @WilNobles.

Jennifer Harris Selected as 2018 Heroes for Children Award Recipient  

Jennifer Harris Selected as 2018 Heroes for Children Award Recipient  

Jennifer Harris, Senior Vice President at Texas Bank and Trust and a community volunteer, has been selected as a recipient of the 2018 Heroes for Children Award for District 9 from the State Board of Education.  Harris is one of only 15 awardees statewide who will be given such honor by the State Board of Education (SBOE).  Awardees will receive a plaque and a resolution at the State Board of Education board meeting on September 14, 2018.

Jennifer Harris has been a long standing advocate for Pine Tree ISD. She is a past president of the Pine Tree Education Foundation and has served on the board since 2010. In addition to her volunteer commitment with Pine Tree ISD, Jennifer is also active in the Longview community. She is a sustaining member of the Junior League of Longview, a member of the President’s Advisory Council of LeTourneau University, and volunteering with organizations such as Buckner Children & Family Services, the Crisman School, and Longview 2020. Jennifer was named a 2014 Star Over Longview by Longview Regional Hospital for her compassion and lobe for all she does for the Longview Community.

Jennifer has volunteered for Play it Safe East Texas, an event offering free heart scans to area teens. This screening can help detect the heart conditions that bring down healthy teens during or just after an athletic event.

This coupled with the fact that my stepchildren and their friends are young athletes weighed heavy on me so I wanted to try and help kids in our community that perhaps have undiagnosed heart conditions.” She also volunteers with the Greater Longview United Way to support Day of Action specifically working with the Boys and Girls Club with her employer.

Jennifer is a native of East Texas and the Senior Vice President of Business Development at Texas Bank and Trust. Jennifer has been employed with Texas Bank and Trust since February 2009. She is married to Scott Harris and has two children PTISD and a 2017 graduate of PTISD who is currently a student at Texas Tech.

The post Jennifer Harris Selected as 2018 Heroes for Children Award Recipient   appeared first on East Texas Review.

Federal Flash: Three Important Things In the New Perkins Career and Technical Education Law

Federal Flash: Three Important Things In the New Perkins Career and Technical Education Law

In this week’s Federal Flash we’ll tell you three important things in the new federal career and technical education (CTE) law that is on its way to President Trump’s desk.

We’ll also review the Education Department’s proposed new rules for the charter school program and a proposal from House Democrats to renew the Higher Education Act.

It’s not every week that we have good news to share from Capitol Hill, but we certainly do today.  

With time running out before members of Congress head home to campaign for the midterm election in August, a rewrite of the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act had to happen quickly.  

Usually the House passes one version of a bill, the Senate passes another, and they meet to work on a compromise of the two versions in a conference committee. Then each chamber passes the compromise bill. That process typically takes a while. 

This time, the Senate education committee passed its bill in late June and the full Senate raced to pass a slightly modified version of that bill on Monday. On Wednesday, the House passed the Senate’s bill, allowing them to avoid a conference committee altogether and send the bill to President Trump for his signature. 

This is an example where good politics actually pushed good policy.  

The Perkins rewrite had been stalled for a while, but the urge to use the rewrite on the campaign trail helped to push Congress to finish the job. And this urge to get something done didn’t just come from Congress. The White House stepped in to move things along, including the personal involvement of Ivanka Trump. 

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History at Harvard: Four Black Women Head Colleges

History at Harvard: Four Black Women Head Colleges

By LaMont Jones, Diverse Education

click on image to play slideshow.

When Harvard University students arrive for classes Aug. 15, they will return to history in the making: for the first time in the Ivy League school’s history, four of its colleges will be headed simultaneously by African-American women.

Dr. Claudine Gay’s appointment in July as the first African-American and the first woman dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences followed Dr. Bridget Terry-Long’s appointment in May as the first Black woman dean of the Graduate School of Education. They join Dr. Tomiko Brown-Nagin, the first Black woman dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and Dr. Michelle A. Williams, an epidemiologist and professor at the School of Public Health, who became the first Black person to head a faculty at Harvard and the first female dean of that school, according to a story in The Harvard Crimson.

Less than three years ago, not one of Harvard’s 14 schools was headed by a Black woman, according to the Crimson.

In an interview with the college newspaper, Gay said: “If my presence in this role affirms someone’s sense of belonging and ownership, the same way [former president Dr. Drew G. Faust’s] appointment affirmed my own sense of belonging, then I think that’s great. And for people who are sort of beyond our gates, if this prompts them to look again and look anew at Harvard and imagine new possibilities for themselves, I think that’s great, as well.”

The advances in diversifying the ranks of administrators have elicited praise on campus. They signal “that Harvard is getting ready for a new future for itself and for the country and for the world,” said John S. Wilson, a key leader in the university’s diversity and inclusion initiatives.

Dr. Danielle S. Allen – a government professor who spearheaded a Task Force on Inclusion and Belonging that issued a final report in March calling for more faculty diversity – said it’s “great to see such wonderful, talented individuals in leadership posts and to see the university diversifying its leadership ranks.”