Boston.com / News / Nation / An LA 'posse'; finds its new turf in Iowa: "Launched 15 years ago, the program, based in New York, has helped to snag more than $85 million worth of college scholarships and sent almost 1,000 high school seniors through the posse pipeline."

The posses cultivate potential young leaders who might not otherwise make it to college, or who might not be able to tough things out once they arrive.

So far, 90 percent of posse students have finished college within five years, and most finish in four, the Posse Foundation reported.

That contrasts with the 53 percent of all students nationwide who are awarded bachelor's degrees within six years, according to the most recent federal statistics. The figures are lowest for minorities: only 40 percent of Hispanics finish within six years, while just 37 percent of blacks make it.

The Jakarta Post - Myth that education brings economic prosperity: "The argument that education matters for the economy is plausible because, at one level, it is obviously right. A modern society does need educated people: Not just engineers, chemists, and doctors, but millions of people who can write coherent letters, fill in complicated forms, explain insurance policies, and interpret statistical data from machines on factory floors. Some of these skills can be learned only in universities; others can (and should) be mastered in primary and secondary schools.

Employers naturally tend to hire the most educated workers on offer, and so as the number of graduates increase, so does the number of 'graduate' jobs. However, every study I know of -- whether British, Scandinavian, or American -- agrees that large numbers of these 'graduate' jobs require no more than they did when non-graduates performed them perfectly well. In this sense, many societies are already 'over-educated.'"

SCHOOL: The Story of American Public Education"SCHOOL: The Story of American Public Education, is a dramatic four-part documentary series that chronicles the development of our nation’s public education system from the late 1770s to the 21st century. Produced by Stone Lantern Films, and presented by KCET/Hollywood, SCHOOL (narrated by Academy Award winner Meryl Streep) recaptures the idealism of the early proponents of public education and continues with an unflinching look at the experiments and challenges that contribute to the climate in the classroom today."

Center on Reinventing Public Education:"The Center on Reinventing Public Education studies major issues in education reform and governance in order to improve policy and decision-making in K-12 education.

The Center’s work is grounded in the idea that the current system does not work as well as it should and that efforts to improve schools have to include a broad and fair look at the possibility of fundamental change in the institutions that provide them."

Winston-Salem Journal | SERVICE: Businesses see benefits of employing diverse workers: "As the face of Western North Carolina changes, so does demand for work forces to reflect the community. Customers want to see people like themselves, Jackson said. Locally, businesses are trying to diversify their work forces. It's part of doing business, advocates and businesses leaders said."

Jerusalem Post | Breaking News from Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World: "A five-day school week, in which schools stay open longer Sunday-Thursday but are closed on Fridays, saves money on transport, security and ancillary school services. However, teacher, parent, and welfare organization say the short school week must be backed up with school dinners during the longer days and activities on Friday to keep children from roaming the streets."

[That's funny; Israel is in an uproar over shortening the school year. Would that it would happen here. There would be dancing in the streets I'd hazard. - Barry]

ARTICLE: Math program to increase students in field integral to the sciences: "'We find that there is intense competition among the disciplines for scientifically inclined students in college,' says Adem, adding, 'Mathematics does not often come across as 'glamorous' or even an attractive subject to study.'

To address these issues, Adem and his colleagues, Paul Milewski and Ken Ono, will lead the new VIGRE program, or the Vertical Integration of Research and Education. With a five-year, $2.55 million grant from the National Science Foundation, this group, along with others on campus, plan to develop an array of activities that encourage more students to take a closer look at math - both as a foundation for other research and as a profession.

Adem says that the overarching goal of the VIGRE program is to develop an integrated approach to training mathematicians: It not only seeks to integrate academic activities, such as research, teaching and outreach, but also to integrate faculty and students at all levels.

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SUSAN TOMPOR:A Last-minute research on college loans: "Yes, it may be late for parents to start scurrying around for a loan to cover this fall's college tuition bill. But last-minute borrowing could be as common as waiting until the night before the big economics exam to crack open Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations"
'I get calls from parents all the time. They don't start thinking about how they're going to pay for it until the student gets admitted,' said Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org, a student loan site.
Or emergencies pop up. Or tuition and other costs prove more costly than expected."

From: El Paso Times Online - Two Readily Available, Easy To Obtain Scholarships

The Dale Fridell Memorial

The Hispanic Scholarship Fund

INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE - NEWS: "The International Olympic Committee (IOC) promotes and develops sport through athlete and team scholarships, made available by Olympic Solidarity. The scholarships' first objective is to allow the athletes to qualify and prepare themselves in the best conditions for the Olympic Games, in order to fulfil their dream."

Charting an Education Course %7C csmonitor.com: "Quantitative measures, the controversial linchpin of the Bush administration%27s approach to improving education, appear to have exposed performance problems with a favored alternative to public schools, the charter school"

WANE-TV Coverage You Can Count On: Vincennes scholarships not aimed at top students: "Vincennes Unlimited Horizons Scholarships target low-income and minority students. The two-year college pays tuition, room and board and textbook fees -- a package totaling about 10-thousand dollars per scholar a year.
Officials say the initiative aims to help youngsters with promise as leaders but does not rely on past academic success to measure that potential."

GLIMA Gets Export Assistance, Online Press Releases, Student ... Michigan Technology News - Novi,MI,USA:
"Each GLIMA chapter – Pontiac, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Flint and Traverse City – also will be able to provide 18 GLIMA students memberships, courtesy the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. The MEDC is eager to stem the IT brain drain from Michigan’s colleges and universities to the bright lights of Chicago, and other big cities on the West and East Coasts, where technology jobs are far more prevalent."

From DenverPost.com - Middle School The Weak Link?: "In ad survey of 1,400 middle-school faculty conducted about four years ago, less than 60 percent of teachers reported assigning one hour or more of homework per week, with only one in three consistently requiring students to revise their work. While 50 percent of those surveyed listed 'helping students develop socially' as a top priority, just 37 percent rated 'helping students prepare for college-prep classes' as important." (Best as I can tell, kids have no trouble with "social development." - Barry)

Wal-Mart Will Award $500,000 in Journalism Scholarships to Minority College Students: "This initiative was designed to fill the gap identified in recent surveys by two news industry groups, the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the Radio and Television News Directors Association. The announcement was made at the UNITY 2004 Convention in Washington, D.C."

TIME.com: Who's the Education President?: "Americans traditionally trust Democrats will improve education much more than Republicans, but in 2000, after Bush spent much of his campaign talking about his 'compassionate conservatism' and his education reforms as governor in Texas, Americans ranked he and Al Gore as equal on the issue. This year, with teachers and some parents angry about how No Child Left Behind has played out, John Kerry has an opportunity regain some ground with voters concerned about education. "

PRESS RELEASE: Williams Authors Article Concluding North Carolina?s Diversity Scholarships Are Unconstitutional

The New York Times > Opinion > Guest Columnist: Breaking the Silence: "Why has it been so difficult for black leaders to say such things in public, without being pilloried for 'blaming the victim'? Why the huge flap over Bill Cosby's insistence that black teenagers do their homework, stay in school, master standard English and stop having babies? Any black person who frequents a barbershop or beauty parlor in the inner city knows that Mr. Cosby was only echoing sentiments widely shared in the black community."

With National Merit scholarships, prestige rivals money - The Clarion-Ledger: "Jennifer Gillis of Jackson said her National Merit award was small compared with the full ride the University of Southern Mississippi offered her, but simply being a National Merit finalist was a boost in picking up other honors, like a $5,000 study-abroad supplement and a laptop.

'National Merit winners tend to be offered a lot of scholarships,' said Gillis, who was valedictorian at Forest Hill High, where some older friends alerted her to the PSAT qualifying exam her sophomore year."