Community colleges try new formula for remedial classes 0 comments

ANNANDALE, Va. — Shayla Dinh learned two key things about math this spring.

One: She can do it.

Two: She likes doing it.

"I love math. I never thought I'd say that," says Dinh, 34, who recently passed the first math class she has taken in more than a decade. It was a remedial course, taught here on the main campus of Northern Virginia Community College (known locally as NOVA), and it was her first big hurdle toward getting a bachelor's degree in communications.

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Dinh credits professor Alison Thimblin for breaking down math concepts in a way she could understand. But Thimblin says other factors played a role, too.
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The course was part of what educators call a learning community; students who enrolled in her math class also were required to take a course called College Success Skills, covering topics such as note-taking, time management and test anxiety. Counselor Ray Jones taught that course. But he and Thimblin coordinated efforts, and much of their emphasis was on helping students help one another and themselves.

"The students have a common goal: to get through math," Jones says. "What's really special is watching the bonds form."

Learning communities represent one of several ideas being tried nationwide as educators search for better ways to help more students succeed in college. The strategy also reflects a shift in the conversation about whom should be held responsible when a student struggles.

"It is not just the individual student rising or falling on his or her merits," says John Dever, NOVA's executive vice president for academic and student affairs. "If large numbers of students aren't making it through, it's a question of, is the program structure successful?"

Lofty goals for student success

NOVA officials hope learning communities and like-minded strategies will help it boost by 20% the number of students who complete remedial (also known as developmental) requirements by 2015. The state's 23-college system for two-year schools has similar aspirations. It is one of 15 states where community colleges are participating in Achieving the Dream, aninitiative supported by a partnership of non-profits that seeks to improve student success rates, particularly for minority and low-income students.

Remedial math has emerged as an important place to focus attention: Achieving the Dream data show that, among more than 250,000 students who required the most math remediation, only 16% completed those requirements in three years, and fewer than 10% of those passed a college-level math course within that period.

There's promising news, too: Once students get over the remedial-math hump, they are more likely to persist to the next year, even compared with students who didn't require remediation (80% vs. 54%).

Yet in many cases, students who need help may not get it. Slightly more than half of states require placement testing to determine whether students are prepared for college-level math, and even some of those don't require low scorers to get remediation. Even among states that require testing, "there is substantial evidence that colleges informally exempt students," according to a 2007 report by the Community College Research Center at Columbia University's Teachers College.

Progress limited but encouraging

Researchers are grappling with how state policy might foster more effective remediation. Meanwhile, campus officials and classroom instructors continue to look for ways to improve their success rates.

At NOVA, the picture is mixed but not altogether discouraging. Of 145 students who participated in remedial-math learning communities last fall, 49% passed. That was slightly above the 44% pass rate for remedial-math students who did not participate in a learning community, but below the 62% campus officials had hoped for. (Thimblin's class this spring had similar rates: Of 23 students enrolled, 10 passed; two withdrew.)

On the other hand, 83% of the students in learning communities last fall returned to campus the next semester, compared with 72% of the other developmental math students.

"That's a measure of success," Thimblin says, and campus officials are looking at how to build on it. No one says it will be easy, at NOVA or beyond.

"It's challenging to get such students through introductory courses," says Kati Haycock, president of Education Trust, which advocates for low-income and minority students. "But we can't really stop trying until we figure this out."

Gripping Solar Inside with eco-friendly benches 0 comments

Called “Solar Inside” these outstanding solar powered benches look beautiful. These slender benches were made of recycled material and designed to generate power using the energy of the sun. The concept benches prove to be a very effective method to make our world greener and cleaner. Conceived by designers Seon-Keun Park, Byung-Min Woo, and Owen Song, benches can be used in different weather conditions.

Its various season’s functionality is possible due to incorporated thin-film solar batteries that can produce power by collecting sun light. These batteries are rechargeable make benches lit up during nights with its unique capacity to also have Wi-Fi access. Being available in different colors, there is no word yet about the solar powered bench going into mass production. Most likely, it would be useful to use them in public parks.

For Many Teachers, a Famously Fertile Market Dries Up Overnight 0 comments

Larissa Patel dreamed of teaching English at a Brooklyn public school this fall, motivated by a desire to help low-income children. But instead, on Friday, Ms. Patel spent the day filling out applications for 30 jobs at private schools.

Ms. Patel’s abrupt change in plans was precipitated by a new citywide ban on hiring teachers from outside the school system.

“Suddenly, overnight, I am rethinking my entire career,” said Ms. Patel, 30, a student at St. John’s University who left a job in the digital imaging industry to work as a substitute teacher and pursue an education degree. “It’s a very bleak point in time. It’s forced me to sort of look in a new direction.”

In an effort to cut costs and avoid teacher layoffs, the Department of Education on Wednesday ordered principals to fill vacancies with internal candidates only. As a result, aspiring teachers at education schools and members of programs like Teach for America — a corps of recent college graduates — and the city’s Teaching Fellows — which trains career professionals to become teachers — are scrambling for jobs.

Many are forwarding their résumés to charter schools and private schools; others are looking to the suburbs and across state lines. Some are reconsidering the teaching profession altogether.

“This was a pretty big bomb that dropped,” said Pam Ritchie, 43, a substitute teacher in Park Slope, Brooklyn, who had hoped the connections she developed would land her a permanent job in the fall. “I’m devastated.”

Ms. Ritchie was looking to leave behind the on-call lifestyle of a substitute teacher and finally have her own classroom with regular students and regular pay. “I have to stick with this until I get a job,” she said. “This is what I want to do.”

The Department of Education typically hires thousands of teachers for the start of school each September. In 2008, it hired 5,725 educators — 1,792 from the Teach for America and the Teaching Fellows programs, and 3,933 who, by and large, came from schools of education.

But this year, the department anticipates fewer openings and will not hire externally except in certain high-needs areas like speech therapy and bilingual special education. Instead, principals can fill spots only with internal candidates, including teachers from a reserve pool made up of those whose jobs have been eliminated and many who have earned unsatisfactory ratings.

Schools that opened in the past two years and are still expanding their ranks are also exempt from the hiring restrictions, as are charter schools.

Vicki Bernstein, executive director of teacher recruitment and quality for the Department of Education, said the news came as a surprise to many prospective teachers who had considered New York City an attractive option because of its historically high demand for teachers.

Ms. Bernstein’s office informed job seekers on Thursday that some hiring restrictions could be lifted by the end of the summer if there was a dearth of internal candidates in certain neighborhoods or subjects.

“They should remain committed and flexible,” Ms. Bernstein said, “so when and if there are opportunities, they are poised to be considered.”

It remains unclear how long the ban on outside hires will last.

Teachers from traditional pathways like education schools are likely to suffer the most under the new hiring restrictions. The city still plans to hire about half the usual number of educators from Teach for America and the Teaching Fellows program, but it has not made similar guarantees for other teachers. (Breaking with past practice, however, the city will not pay the salaries of Teach for America and Teaching Fellows educators if they do not find jobs by the fall.)

Some teachers had already received informal offers from principals but now find themselves dusting off their résumés and backing out of housing arrangements.

As news of the hiring restrictions trickled out, many education school students left frantic messages for principals asking for work. Others fired off anxious messages to e-mail lists and online discussion boards.

Aida Sanchez, a student at Teachers College at Columbia University who hopes to work with children in Harlem, Washington Heights or the Bronx, said that it was unfair to give an advantage to educators from nontraditional backgrounds like Teach for America. Ms. Sanchez is waiting to see how the city’s school budgets look when they are released this month, but said she was considering getting certified to teach in New Jersey. In the meantime, she is pursuing certification in special education in the hope of being hired under the exception.

“I am really eager to go in the teaching direction,” she said. “Now it’s kind of like you really don’t know where you’re going to be.”

Joshua P. Stager, 24, a high school teacher in Oregon who is looking for work in New York City because his wife is starting piano studies at Manhattan School of Music in the fall, said the hiring restrictions did not surprise him, given the state of the economy. For the past several months, he has made a morning ritual out of typing “New York schools” and “budget” into Google and waiting for the headlines. On Thursday, he said, “I had a little freak-out moment.”

“I’m opening up to the possibility of not getting an education job,” said Mr. Stager, adding that he and his wife had started limiting expenses as a precaution.

On Thursday, Ms. Patel, the St. John’s student who hopes to teach English, made a final pitch to principals at her four dream schools in Brooklyn. They said they did not have openings. Until she finds a permanent job, Ms. Patel plans to continue as a substitute.

“The stability in teaching was something that was I looking for,” she said. “That has been turned on its head.”

HyperMac External Battery Juices Your Macbook For Over 24 Hours Or Recharges Your iPhone 52 Times 0 comments

Today, Hyperdrive introduced the world’s first external battery solution for all Macbooks, the HyperMac. It’s available in 4 different capacities and contains all the appropriate tech to auto adjust charging to the type of Macbook plugged in. Using the largest battery, the MBP-222, a Macbook Air can accomplish just under 32 hours of power or alternatively charge your iPhone 52 times. Each HyperMac battery contains an LED power indicator as well as a USB port for simultaneously charging compatible devices. Starts at $199.95.

Samsung HMX-R10 Hi Def Camcorder Shows Up On Amazon For Preorder, Releasing May 15th 0 comments

Samsung’s SMX-C14 And SMX-C10 camcorder may have been officially announced yesterday, but now we’ve got word that the high def version we first saw in March has been slated for a May 15th release. Price you ask for the HMX-R10? $499.99 out the door. In case you forgot, features include a 12 megapixel sensor with 9 megapixel stills, full 1920×1080 HD video recordings, 5x optical zoom, 2.7-inch LCD and SD/MMC card slot.