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(09/09/11 3:55am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>It has been called the most comprehensive and aggressive approach to education reform today. In April the state of Indiana passed three bills to reform public education for grades K-12, and in July those policies became law.HEA 1001, HEA 1003 and HEA 1004 have been contested by politicians, educators and tax payers since their inception, and the controversy surrounding their legality is still prevalent. But the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy (CEEP) at IU has published a report to calm the controversy and neutralize the discussion. “School Choice Issues in Indiana: Sifting through the Rhetoric” is the 20-page report that addresses each of the bills, weighs the pros and cons of their implementation and provides suggestions for the consideration of Indiana policy makers. Report authors are Rebecca Billick, a licensed school counselor, local attorney and former CEEP graduate research assistant; Stephen Hiller, current CEEP graduate research assistant; and Terry Spradlin, CEEP’s director for education policy.The authors presented their findings and recommendations Sept. 1 during a meeting of the Indiana Public School/University Partnership, also called Partnershare. Partnershare was formed to create an alliance between researchers from IU and educators around the state to share information and ideas about the advancement of education in Indiana. “There’s a lot of bad information out there, and my goal is just to clear things up,” Billick said. “I want people to be real honest about what they are upset about and look at it from an unbiased perspective.”***HEA 1004 allows a select group of Indiana parents to receive a tax deduction based on income to home school their children or cover the expenses of sending them to a private institution.HEA 1001 permits students to acquire scholarships funded by Scholarship Granting Organizations, which are subsidized by private donations of individuals or corporations who receive tax credits for their contributions.HEA 1003 allows students to be granted a Choice Scholarship, commonly referred to as a voucher. The Indiana Department of Education can award 7,500 vouchers this school year and 15,000 next school year, with no cap thereafter. The state has already awarded approximately 3,700 vouchers this year, and 200 private schools are expected to accept students who have benefited from the new laws, Spradlin said. The reform plan is expected to save the state money, the report concluded, because the scholarship only awards a percentage of funding that would otherwise go to the student’s former public school. Billick also said the amount of money given through tax credits is far from appropriated at this point. “The annual limit on the amount of tax credits allowed each year to individuals donating to Scholarship Granting Organizations was increased from $2.5 million to $5 million during the 2011 legislative session,” Billick said in a press release. “But what’s important to keep in mind is that the Department of Revenue only granted about $340,000 in tax credits during the 2011 fiscal year for this program.”***The Indiana State Teacher’s Association has filed a lawsuit on the grounds that the new laws violate the Establishment Clause and the Indiana Constitution, but the CEEP report concludes it is unlikely they will win. Controversy surrounding the Establishment Clause, which prohibits the state from promoting a particular religion, is unlikely to help the teacher’s association, because the three Indiana laws were written in ways to avoid the legal pitfalls of similar programs in other states. “The research raises questions whether these policies will impact public education as a whole, but we just focused on how the policies will affect Indiana,” Spradlin said. “If these programs or options give students a greater opportunity to succeed, then we will see. If we are going to have vouchers, we need to give them time to see their impact,” she said. “And after several years, we need to be able to look at the program and evaluate their significance in advancing education.”
(09/02/11 2:34am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU graduate student Carl Urness has been in New York City for only a week and a half, but he is already getting a taste of what life is like in the public policy realm — and loving every minute of it. “I am still at work now, and it’s 6:30,” Urness said. “But it’s OK, because I am doing what I love.”He is working at the Center for Economic Opportunity in New York City representing the IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs’ VISTA Fellows Program that launched last week.The Fellows Program, a suborganization of AmeriCorps, provides SPEA graduate students with the opportunity to work full time with anti-poverty organizations and agencies in Indiana and throughout the United States while obtaining their master’s degree. SPEA is working in partnership with the Indiana office of the U.S. Corporation for National and Community Service, the government agency that administers AmeriCorps VISTA, a national service program designed specifically to fight poverty.“It is a very innovative type of experience that combines education and community service,” said Tarah A. Maners, state program specialist with Indiana CNCS. “This fits directly into our strategic priorities — services to veterans and military families, increasing high school graduation rates and grade level achievement, increasing economic opportunity and improving the environment disaster preparedness and response.”Urness is one of seven SPEA graduate students participating in the program this year. Although they will be doing total volunteer work, as VISTA participants, the students will receive a modest living allowance, health care and other benefits.At the end of their one-year commitment, the participants will also receive either a $5,550 education award or a $1,500 cash stipend. The education award can be used for tuition, book fees or loans. They also earn credit toward their degrees, including the experiential requirement for the SPEA master’s programs, Maner said. “This is an opportunity for our students to think about what they’re learning and see how it applies, or doesn’t apply, in the real world,” SPEA Assistant Dean Doug Goldstein said. Goldstein said the school hopes the program will benefit not only the students that participate, but the entire SPEA community through the knowledge the fellows will bring back to Bloomington. The seven fellows participating this year have been placed at sites with some of the most innovative organizations working to relieve poverty across the country, SPEA VISTA Fellows Program Coordinator Megan Siehl said.Siehl joined SPEA last spring to recruit participants and organize placement sites for this year’s fellows, including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Center for Economic Opportunity, where Urness is working. Staci Orr, an environmental sciences graduate student and fellow working with the Health Foundation of Greater Indianapolis, said after her first week in the program, she already knows this experience will benefit her future. “My co-workers are amazing and really supportive,” she said. “I hope to gain program-planning skills fundraising for the Indiana AIDS fund and to develop a greater responsibility for something bigger than myself.”
(08/31/11 4:29am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>For the third consecutive year, the Kelley School of Business has proven itself a tycoon in the entrepreneurship arena. Kelley’s Department of Management and Entrepreneurship ranked No. 1 in the 2011 World Rankings for Entrepreneurship Productivity. “I was originally going to go to NYU, but I decided to come to IU because I know entrepreneurship is my passion, and IU’s program is great,” senior entrepreneurship major Jon Stein said. “It makes me feel more confident compared to students at other schools because I know I am working with the best faculty in the world.”The study looked at the top three entrepreneurship journals — Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice and Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal — and determined its ranking by counting the number of published journal articles each institution’s faculty had generated during the last year. The study was conducted among 150 schools across the globe, and Kelley’s top entrepreneurship faculty produced almost twice as many articles as its nearest challenger. “Because we have the number one research faculty in the world, we are the ones that are moving the needle in the field,” Donald F. Kuratko, the Jack M. Gill Chair of Entrepreneurship, said. “We were thrilled the first year we were named number one, so to continue receiving the distinction is a great honor.”Some of the most prominent articles the faculty published included topics such as corporate innovation, as well as emotion, decision making and entrepreneurial failure, Kuratko said. Daniel C. Smith, dean of the Kelley School of Business, said the school’s goal is not just to outdo competition in the Big Ten, but to be a globally recognized and superior institution for business learning. “One of our goals at the Kelley School is to transform the lives of our students and to give them a competitive edge in the marketplace. Who better to accomplish these aims than the best entrepreneurship scholars in the nation, if not the world?” Smith said in an email. “I am confident that the reputation of our faculty has a material impact on the number and quality of students interested in studying at Kelley.”
(08/30/11 3:59am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Jacobs School of Music brought them to IU, her voice drew him in and the reds and oranges of autumn became the backdrop to a love story made in music.Now, after 20 years of marriage and professional experience in the musical world, Kevin Murphy and Heidi Grant Murphy are back in Bloomington where their love for music, and each other, began.The duo will bring its professional experience to IU this fall. Kevin Murphy will serve as a professor of practice and Heidi Grant Murphy will be an adjunct professor of practice in the same institution where they met. He is a pianist and vocal coach, and she is a world-renowned soprano.“These are people who are coming directly from the professional world to us,” Voice Department Chairwoman Mary Ann Hart said. Kevin Murphy will serve as the head vocal coach for the Jacobs operas, where he will polish the singers and their performances and help the students with foreign languages, Hart said.He earned his bachelor of arts in Piano from Jacobs and master of fine arts in piano accompaniment from the Curtis Institute. Kevin Murphy’s most recent professional position was with the New York City Opera, where he had served as director of music administration since September 2008. He also assumed the position of director of the vocal program at Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute in August. “We want to help those in the Jacobs School make the transition from the student world to the professional world,” he said. Heidi Grant Murphy began her vocal studies at Western Washington University and continued at IU. However, her graduate studies were interrupted when she was named a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and was recruited by Maestro James Levine to participate in the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. Her husband joined her at the Metropolitan from 1993 to 2006 as assistant conductor. She has had an ongoing relationship with the Metropolitan for 20 years and will continue to work with them while she teaches a graduate opera workshop and Italian diction at IU. “It’s quite a statement about our school that so many of our students have become so prominent in the profession,” Jacobs School Dean Gwyn Richards said.The Murphys said they feel honored to join the Jacobs faculty. “The school already has a talented faculty. We just hope we can add to it,” Heidi said. “Bloomington has always been a special place for us — there is great art, it is full of color and the people here are wonderful.” Kevin, Heidi and their four children will move into a brand-new house in Bloomington on Wednesday, the couple’s 20th anniversary.“We’ve made roots here,” he said. “We plan to stay a while.”
(08/26/11 2:31am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Reece Clark, a freshman Herman B Wells Scholar and biology major, said he arrived on campus Sunday for Wells Welcome Week and has been attending formal and informal events since.But Clark finished out his whirlwind week by connecting with some of the scholars, old and new, for a pick-up game of ultimate Frisbee. “It’s amazing just to hear people talk. Everyone is going places,” Clark said. “We are like a family already, and I know this is definitely going to open a lot of doors.”The University inducted 17 incoming freshmen and one IU junior to the program, placing them among some 460 current Wells Scholars and alumni. The program was founded two decades ago in honor of former IU President and Chancellor Herman B Wells.Wells Scholars are nominated by their high schools, the IU Office of Admissions or IU faculty and are selected for having demonstrated exceptional qualities of character, leadership and distinction both inside and outside the classroom. The recipients fill out an extensive application, which requires three essays and a résumé, and visit the Bloomington campus for interviews in December. The scholars are then selected by a committee of IU professors and faculty.“We want to attract students whose characteristics remind us of Herman B Wells,” Wells Scholar Program Director Tim Londergan said. “They demonstrate academic excellence, proven leadership and a commitment to the life of their community.” Incoming freshmen Wells Scholars are granted full tuition, including course-related fees, and a living stipend for four years of undergraduate study on the Bloomington campus. Scholars may spend up to one of those years participating in one of IU’s study abroad programs. Newly named scholars who are already students at IU can apply the scholarship to their remaining years on campus.Scholars are also members of the Hutton Honors College and are granted special opportunities to take classes with distinguished guests and IU professors. Examples include a class on mind games with New York Times crossword editor Will Shortz and a class on international security issues in the 21st century with David Albright and British international security expert Lord Timothy Garden.“The students we get could go anywhere,” Londergan said. “We are competing to get them to our University.”Londergan said this year’s Wells Scholars will take a required freshman seminar for all scholars. Londergan will use his physics background to teach the fall seminar, “The Origin and History of the Universe,” and business professor Tim Lemper will teach the spring seminar, “Morality and Law in Utopia.”To remain a scholar, students must maintain a minimum 3.4 GPA and take at least 12 credit hours per semester. A press release announcing the new scholars also stated that Wells Scholars have gone on to win more than 60 national and international scholarships, fellowships and grants, such as the Rhodes, which brings students from around the world to the University of Oxford, and the Fulbright, which provides grants to study, teach and conduct research to U.S. citizens going abroad and non-U.S. citizens traveling to the United States.Wells, a beloved figure on IU’s campus, dedicated most of his life to the University and spearheaded the movement to keep the Bloomington campus green. He spent his undergraduate years at IU, returned as a faculty member and later became dean of the School of Business Administration. Most remember Wells for his 25 years served as IU President. Friends and colleagues of Wells began fundraising for the scholarship fund in 1988, and on June 7, 1992, Wells’ 90th birthday, he was officially presented with the Wells Scholar Program in his name. “The Wells Scholarship is the best thing any institution could have offered me. To be one in 18 is a very special honor,” Clark said. “It’s worth so much more than money.”2011 Wells ScholarsRadhika Agarwal, Carmel, Ind. Nandita Chittajallu, Indianapolis Reece Clark, Noblesville, Ind. Ian Clarke, Studio City, Calif. Saleh ElHattab, Plainfield, Ind. Casey Goodall, Wyoming, Ohio David Gordon-Johnson, Cincinnati Jonathan Hawkins, Charleston, Ill. Nicholas Kolar, Fort Wayne Grant Manon, Kendallville, Ind. Alicia Nieves, Munster, Ind. Marjorie Richards, Bloomington Aaditya Shah, Munster, Ind. Daniel Smedema, Indianapolis Sandhya Sridhar, Memphis, Tenn. Sarah TeKolste, Carmel, Ind. Emma Winkler, Bloomington Allison Winstel, Cincinnati
(02/14/11 3:17am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>A celebration of the achievements of African Americans during the month of February. What is ... Black History Month? The Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center is celebrating this month-long cultural commemoration with its annual Black Knowledge Bowl, a Jeopardy-style trivia competition where students have the opportunity to learn about Black literature, geography, philosophy and culture.The event, which will be at 6 p.m. Feb. 23 in the Grand Hall of the Neal-Marshall, has been around for more than 25 years, culture center Director Audrey McCluskey said.“The Black Knowledge Bowl began in the African-American and African Diaspora Studies Department, and eventually the Neal-Marshall took it over in the late ’80s,” McCluskey said. “Each year we strive to grow the event, and we hope to see a great turn-out this year.”McCluskey said she, along with the help of her student staff members, has been reaching out to different student organizations on campus during the past several months, hoping to draw in participants and spectators from every corner of IU’s campus. They have contacted leaders in the greek community and major student organizations and even enticed passers-by in the Indiana Memorial Union with teaser questions similar to the ones asked during the competition.“We are trying to live up to the diversity that our campus advertises and embraces,” McCluskey said.Many teams have already committed to participating, but students have until Friday to submit their team registration forms to the administrative office at Neal-Marshall. “Our goal is to have six teams for this year’s competition,” McCluskey said.Tenecia Broaden, a junior majoring in Public Health and Biochemistry, participated in the Black Knowledge Bowl last year as the student coach for team Lioness, the reigning champion. “It’s really great, and I have come across a lot of the information in my classes here at IU,” she said. “It got real intense last year and I had so much fun, but I wanted to actually compete this year.”Broaden is joining a handful of her classmates from her Introduction to Writing and Black Literature class to form the Frederick Dougies. The students got the inspiration for the team name from the material they are studying in class about Frederick Douglass.“The Black Knowledge Bowl is a great way to educate yourself,” said June Evans, a graduate assistant at Neal-Marshall. “Anyone who is interested in black culture is welcome here.”McCluskey said students preparing for the Black Knowledge Bowl can find study guides at www.indiana.edu/~nmbcc, and books and sources containing the answers will be on hold for students to use in the center’s library. First, second and third place finishers will receive cash prizes, and the winning team will get its picture on plaque in the Grand Hall. Spectators are encouraged to attend and cheer on the participants, and there will be a reception following the competition where food and refreshments will be served.“Students should come because Black History is American History, and if you don’t know your history, you don’t know yourself,” Evans said.