Accredited-Education.com Blog

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan spoke at the US Chamber of Commerce’s Education and Workforce Summit early this month.

Duncan told the crowd that he believes the quality of our education system says just as much about the health of our economy as does the stock market, the size of the GDP and the unemployment rate.

Duncan went on to say that the ability to drive change is done best at the local level where administrators, teachers and principals are making the day to day decisions affecting what goes on in the classroom. He says that it is in the classrooms where the most important teaching and learning occurs.

Duncan also states that the classroom is also the place that the important relationship between teacher and student is developed an nurtured.

Duncan told the group too that only 73% of America’s children graduate from high school and in fact, in many urban areas it is closer to 50% which condemns entire generations to fail. He said that the US has to focus more on graduation rates and not only on test scores.

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written by AE Admin \\ tags: US Chamber of Commerce's Education and Workforce Summit

The data collected from the 1993-2003 Baccalaureate and Beyond Study examined the borrowing habits of 1992-93 bachelor’s degree earners. The study was conducted to find out the details of the repayment of undergrad Stafford loans who were no longer enrolled in college.

Nearly half of the grads had borrowed money so that they could afford to earn a college degree and the average amount borrowed was $10,500. The study found that 74 percent of the graduates had repaid all of their student loans by the year 2003. There were 26% who were still making loan payment and the median debt burden among this group was 3.3 percent.

The recipients of bachelor’s degrees who did not go further with their education, 39% had taken out Stafford loans as undergrads. Among this group, five percent had a deferment, 12 percent experienced a period of forbearance while 10 percent had defaulted on their loan at one time or another.

The students did not have problems repaying the loan right away as the study found it took between four and five years for the students to run into trouble with regards to making the payments. Many stated that the problem was just temporary while nearly half said that they were able to enter into new repayment agreements. Also, most of those people who had periods of repayment said they were able to recover financially speaking and did not default on their loans.

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written by AE Admin \\ tags: Regarding Debt for Bachelor's Degree Recipients

In Boston, at the public meeting, the U.S. Department Education director Joanne Weiss asked a group of assessment experts to summarize their thinking about how her agency could improve the United State’s educational assessment systems.

The response of ‘good luck’ came from scientist Lauress Wise who works for Virginia-based Human Resources Research Organization. The crack drew laughter in the crowd of federal officials, state assessment directors and test vendors. It also highlighted the challenges the department faces in spending $350 million in economic stimulus money to aid states in developing assessments in math and reading.

Three common themes emerged from the meeting:
States should consider devising assessments to assist instructional practices on top of the annual tests that are now in place thanks to the No Child Left Behind Act.

Teachers have to become more involved in the use and scoring of assessments and the Dept of Education should seek to structure state consortia in such a manner that the one-time supply of money will create sustained work.

The meeting was held to assist officials to gain input for the design of the competition of the Race to The Top program that was built under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The Education Dept. says it will issue a final competition notice and application guideline for the   assessment funding.

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written by AE Admin \\ tags: Discussing Assessments & Funding

Students who entered college with the hopes of earning a college degree in teaching are now considering themselves fortunate to find work as a substitute.

All over the U.S., there are countless people unable to find teaching jobs, mostly due to the poor economy and how it is causing school systems to cut positions. The teacher shortage has turned into teacher glut.

Since last fall, school systems, state education agencies and colleges have cut about 125,000 jobs according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Simultaneously, many teachers who had wanted to retire or switch jobs are staying on due to the poor economy and many folks who have been laid off in other careers are trying to find teacher positions.

Just a few short years ago, several reports had predicted that there would be a teacher shortage across many subjects over the next few years due to baby boomers retiring and the strong economy.

Now the demand for teachers has declined. The only subject which still needs a great number of teachers is math. In recent years, over a dozen subjects had extreme shortages.

Substitute teacher rolls have risen so much lately that some school districts are increasing their requirements or stopped accepting substitute teacher applications completely. Just a few years ago teaching was the career choice for the students who wanted to be sure to find a job upon graduation.

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written by AE Admin \\ tags: Shortage of Teachers Leads To Teacher Glut

There is a sentiment from some quarters that college may not be the best option for all students. At the same time, President Obama has told all Americans to receive at least one year of higher education or vocational training.

The disagreement lies in the questions of which students are most likely to succeed in college, what type of college they should attend and whether the person or society benefits most from post secondary education.

Some people say that anyone who meets the requirements and is willing to pay tuition should be able to go to college and that it should not be up to the government to decide.

Other people feel that all high school students should get a good overview of the options available to them, be it a four year college, a two year degree program, an apprenticeship, the military or on the job training.

Students who did not excel in high school should also be told that students who graduated in the bottom 40 percent of their high school class, two-thirds will not graduate from college. Even if they do succeed in college and graduate, their often lower GPA averages will stop them from becoming gainfully employed.

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written by AE Admin \\ tags: Are There Too Many People Going to College?

At LaGuardia Community College, students are being turned away due to an increasing number of of them interested in earning a college degree the least expensive way. The New York community college, for the first time ever, was forced to abandon their ‘all are welcome’ admission policy.

President Gail Mellow says she has never seen anything like this before and also stated that the student body has increased by nearly 50 percent in the past ten years.

LaGuardia ceased accepting applications at the end of July of this year and applications are up 19 percent for the 2010 spring semester. LaGuardia has 52,000 students, including 17,500 degree-seekers. They now have November 15 set as the new deadline for spring applications.

Community colleges offer an affordable alternative for low income students and the only requirements have been (for years) a high school diploma or a GED. The early cut-off times have caught many students by surprise.

Across the U.S., many community colleges have felt the same kind of pressure. The weak economy drove many workers back to school to sharpen their skills, while others have given up on earning a four year degree in favor of a more affordable two year degree.

Researchers expect enrollment in online classes to increase as a result of limited classes at colleges around the nation.

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written by AE Admin \\ tags: Two Year Colleges Getting Full

A new national study has found that for all teens, having a mentor means a 50 percent greater likelihood of attending college. For disadvantaged teenagers, mentorship nearly doubled the chances of attending college.

A student’s potential can be quelled by the social environment and data shows that mentors can help students to overcome these negative forces.

The new study was authorized by Brigham Young University’s Lance Erikson, professor of sociology. The research done shows that half of disadvantaged students report having an adult mentor and only seven percent of these had a teacher as a mentor. This information came from over 14,000 teens who took part in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.

The authors say that much needs to be done to help disadvantaged youth to connect to the adults in their lives. Comments from the participants indicated that their mentors were not doing anything remarkable, but were simply being involved and treating the youngsters as important human beings.

As a result of the findings, it is deemed very important to give disadvantaged youth access to a mentor early in their high school careers.

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written by AE Admin

College attendance in the U.S. has grown so quickly over the past forty years that now 75 percent of high school grads get some form of post secondary education within two years of graduating from high school. Nearly 90% of all high school students today say that they hope to attend college. Even older adults have recognized the benefits of attending college and account for more than one third of all new college applicants. It means much more today to have a college degree than what it did a century ago as it is the ticket to most careers and without it, people can often end up in very unrewarding and dead-end jobs.

Not only has college attendance risen, so has the diversity of the students who enroll. There is strong pressure to make education truly effective so teaching techniques, course content and college organization are in a constant state of renewal.

Forty years ago, the typical student entered college at the age of eighteen and graduated four years later. Many students still follow this pattern, but it is no longer the norm. Today, many undergrads are older and the are resuming their interrupted studies or are going part-time as they work and take care of the family at the same time.

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written by AE Admin

A college degree can provide you with many opportunities in life and a college education also means that you will earn more money per year than the person who did not go to college. Someone with a two year associate’s degree, for example, earns more than a high school grad, while a person with a degree from a four year university can expect to earn $18,000 more annually than a person who does not attend college.

A college education increases your understanding of the community as you will explore interests, consider lifelong goals and become a productive and responsible citizen.

A college degree also offers more job opportunities in this ever-changing world we live in. Many of today’s jobs rely on new technology and require more brain than brawn. With a college education, you will have more jobs to choose from in a wide range of fields and interests.

Some of the benefits of college may not be so obvious to you now if you are still in high school.

You will have to make the final decision about attending college and you can make this process easier by discussing your future with your high school counselor.

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written by AE Admin

Jeff Adkins is a man who enjoys working with his hands ad working as a collision repair technician he is allowed to express himself. Jeff says that he loves getting feedback from customers whenever he fixes a car.

Jeff attended WyoTech and enrolled in their Collision Refinishing Program that is divided into two courses. This program provides students with the instruction they need in the fundamentals of restoring cars with special attention given to heating and cooling systems, air conditioning, electrical circuits, power accessories and more.

The refinishing courses provide students with instruction in surface preparation and masking, detailing and spot repair as well as collision protection and hazardous materials, to name a few.

If you are interested in earning a college degree or if you are simply interested in working with your hands much like Jeff, then consider taking a look at WyoTech to see if they have a program that fulfills your needs. It can be difficult to find and walk your own path in life.

Jeff says that if you are interested in something and are passionate, then by all means go for it. Jeff says too that he does not regret a thing and that he knows he definitely made the right decision when he chose to enroll at WyoTech.

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written by AE Admin