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(10/31/12 3:43am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>There are efforts to make early childhood education more accessible and affordable in Monroe County, a panel of five experts said Tuesday.But there’s still a long way to go.More than 50 residents posed questions to the panelists at Deer Park Manor in Bloomington. The panelists outlined current efforts to provide accessible, quality and reasonably priced education to pre-kindergarten children.One way Monroe County Community School Corporation is trying to expand access to affordable preschool is through the federally-funded program at Fairview Elementary School, MCCSC Elementary Director Cameron Rains said.The Fairview class is funded by the Title I grant and has free enrollment. However, one of the largest problems with Fairview, and all preschool education, is securing the resources necessary to broaden the number of seats available, Rains said.“Our access rate to preschool is in the bottom 40 percent,” Rains said.He said one reason access rates are low is because the state doesn’t fund preschool programs.“The state needs to have discussions about preschool education before it considers funding,” said Dana Jones, early childhood specialist with the Indiana Department of Education.Jones said Indiana school districts are not required to report data about preschool readiness to the state, and that would need to happen before the state could directly fund programs. There are currently about 80,000 Indiana students attending full-day kindergarten, Jones said.The fact that the state actually wants to have a discussion about pre-kindergarten education is enough for now, said Tina Peterson, president of Foundation of Monroe County Community Schools.She said the current goal is to use the funding MCCSC can secure through grants to extend seats for at-risk students. Long-term solutions have yet to be established, she said.Entire communities should be involved in developing a solution, United Way Monroe County Director Barry Lessow said.“Awareness must be raised,” Lessow said.He said there were many statistics showing preschool education has a positive impact at an individual, community and national level. Lessow said every dollar spent on a child’s preschool education yields a $7 return.Long-term benefits aside, kindergarten-readiness rates alone warrant expansion of preschool programs, Jones said.
(10/25/12 5:02am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Candidates for the state’s highest education office offered contrasting visions for the future of public education in Indiana when they answered questions during a forum Thursday.The Indiana League of Women Voters organized the event at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Ind. Indianapolis Star columnist Matthew Tully interviewed Democratic candidate Glenda Ritz and Republican incumbent State Superindenent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett separately. Bennett went first.Recent education reform should be further developed and implemented in the next four years, Bennett said.“Reform’s never finished and results are never final,” he said.Bennett has enacted reforms such as the Choice Scholarship private-school voucher program, A-F school-district grading and expansions of evaluations for teachers, students and administrators. He said these reforms were a part of his focus on choices for families, accountability for schools and measures of educator quality.Ritz, said Bennett’s reforms need reformed because they created a culture of educators teaching students how to pass tests and misguided accountability, resultant of faulty evaluations.Ritz said she plans to eliminate the “teach to test” culture and replace with it curriculum-based instruction; expand local control of school systems; implement effective measures of student growth and educator quality and improve readiness.She said she will undo the Choice Scholarship and school turn-around programs.“I’m for public dollars going to public schools,” Ritz said.Bennett said the facts that graduation rates are up, and more students are passing the Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress (ISTEP) evaluation, are indicators his reforms are working.“I give us a solid B,” Bennett said when Tully asked him what grade he gave himself.Ritz didn’t offer her grade for Bennett, but she did attack the numbers Bennett used.“ISTEP scores only went up 3 percent, not 8,” Ritz said.She continued that high school graduation rates appear to have gone up when graduations earned from waivers are included in the statistic; when excluded, they’re not higher than usual, she said.One problem both candidates were asked about was deficiency in pre-kindergarten readiness, something both candidates agreed had a negative influence on students’ growth.Bennett said he will not require Indiana public schools to offer all-day kindergarten classes, funded publicly, because it’s expensive and classrooms are already too crowded.In contrast, Ritz said she will require all-day, compulsory kindergarten glasses for all Indiana children 5 years or older.She said when students enter kindergarten when they’re not ready, they go on to have problems graduating.“When a student’s been retained twice, that’s your drop-out list,” Ritz said.The candidates will reconvene at 7 p.m. Friday for a debate sponsored by Northeast Indiana Public Radio and The Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics. It can be viewed live at www.nipr.fm.
(10/25/12 3:45am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU freshman Lindsay Cate was a contestant on “The Price is Right” during the summer. She had the chance to win a vacation, but it slipped though her fingers. During Tuesday’s airing, host Drew Carey told Cate to “come on down.” She jumped and screamed her way to the bright-green lectern at the foot of the stage. She made a closer guess of the price of a designer outfit, beating three other contestants and winning a chance to play for a prize.She jumped and screamed her way up to Carey, too. The game was “Side by Side.” The prize was a four-day trip to Seattle with tickets to a Major League Soccer game. All Cate had to do was choose between two prices for the cost of the trip. The audience cheered louder for the $4,358 option than the $5,843 option. She chose the former, the wrong answer.“I really had no clue, I was so nervous,” Cate said. “I just looked at the audience, and I felt like most of them were telling me to go the way I ended up going.”Cate went to the show with her uncle, John Allstott, who she said could have helped her out.“That was my initial reaction, to look at him and see which direction he was pointing,” Cate said. “He literally just sat there.”Allstott said the fact Cate was called down rendered him speechless.“I was so flabbergasted,” Allstott said. “I don’t remember those few minutes.”He said they had spent the nine-hour wait to get on the show discussing strategy, and vacation prizes were brought up.“You stand in line trying to figure out what it takes,” Alstott said. “We knew trips tend to be more expensive.”Cate said she shouldn’t have listened to the audience.“I’ll never forget it,” Cate said. “I basically had a 50/50 chance, and I blew it.”She said she would do it again if she had the chance, though.“But you can’t be on a game show again within 10 years or so,” she said. “Even if you’ve been on another game show.”
(10/23/12 5:11am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Twice as many Indiana students are attending private school this year, up from more than 3,000 last year, because of state-issued vouchers.More than 9,000 students participated in the “Choice Scholarships” voucher program this year, said Alex Damron, press secretary with the Department of Education. Students are not eligible for vouchers unless they meet a set of criteria that includes living in a household at or below variable income limits, according to the education department’s website.A family of four could receive a 90 percent choice scholarship if its annual income is about $40,000. The same family would be eligible for a 50 percent scholarship if it made about $60,000 a year.Kate Shively, a Bloomington resident whose children attend private school, said although it’s important the vouchers make private education available to families with low socioeconomic status, she said she has heard other families express concerns about the definition of private. The vouchers don’t cover the total cost of tuition, Shively said, continuing that more affluent families who normally donate money to the school are experiencing more pressure to contribute because private schools are incurring greater costs from the voucher program.The number of vouchers issued this year didn’t near the 15,000 cap set by the state law, but it exceeded the 3,919 issued in 2011. Damron said he did not know when the final 2012 count would be released. The number of vouchers available will be unlimited beginning in the 2013-14 school year, according to state law. However, the education department is more interested in ensuring students have the option to choose a quality private education than extending vouchers to everyone, Damron said.Shively said she thinks opening the pool will help because more scholarships mean more private education for low-income families and more funding for the schools themselves. Vouchers create a two-tier system, said Cathy Fuentes, chairwoman of Indiana Coalition for Public Education Monroe County and South Central Indiana.Children who come from broken homes are likely to be denied enrollment at a private school, even with a voucher, Fuentes said. She said there’s no guarantee private schools will accept students who have received vouchers.“They don’t give you the full tuition of a private school,” Fuentes said. “There is no guarantee, I’m quite certain, that the school will accept you.”
(10/19/12 3:52am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>A candidate running for Indiana’s top education spot said the state’s education department should release the A-F grades assigned to public schools when she spoke to a small group of supporters in Bloomington on Thursday.The education department hasn’t released the grades because incumbent Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett knows the results won’t be positive, said Democrat Glenda Ritz, Bennett’s opponent.“They should show what he predicted they would show,” Ritz said. “We should see half of our schools have C’s, D’s and F’s.”The grades will be released Oct. 31, said Alex Damron, Indiana State Department of Education spokesman.“This year, we’ve extended to review windows for local schools,” Damron said. “This decision was based on feedback we’ve received from school leaders who wanted more time to review the data they submitted to the department and familiarize themselves with new metrics process.”The State Board of Education approved the grading system in February after the state was waived from the No Child Left Behind Law. Last year, under the old system, grades were released in August.Ritz said the A-F grading system is based on faulty measurements of student growth. Measurements, she said, would support Bennett’s privatization of public education.“Having many schools in the D and F category allows privatization to happen at a much quicker rate,” Ritz said.Ritz said she didn’t know how schools with D and F grades expedite privatization. Indiana law does not allow the state to take over schools based on the grade they receive.However, several of the people in attendance said they were concerned the grading system would lead to takeovers, which in turn would lead to privatization.“I think it isn’t possible for a letter grade to represent a school’s needs, strengths and challenges,” said Melissa Keller, clinical professor at the School of Education.
(10/19/12 3:47am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Thirty percent of children who entered kindergarten in Monroe County this year did not have necessary literacy skills, according to Monroe County United Way’s website. MCUW and the Salvation Army worked together at the Literacy Party on Wednesday to teach parents with children 5 years old and younger ways they can ensure their children will be ready for kindergarten.Exposure to books is the first step, said Jason Anderson, education coordinator at the Salvation Army Child Care Center. He said even children who are too young to read can learn simple but important skills when handling books. He also said exposure to the alphabet, other adults and other children helps young children develop literacy and communication skills.“Exposure makes them more confident,” Anderson said.While children played a game involving paper plates with letters painted on them to help with letter recognition, MCUW representative Ashley Schoolman taught parents education skills.The most important among them was dialogic reading, Schoolman said, a method establishing a discourse between the parent and child.Dialogic reading involves not only reading to the child, but also asking questions that pertain to the book’s content and later referencing the book. Schoolman told parents this develops critical thinking skills and imagination.The book used during the event was “B is for Bloomington.” It featured pictures of landmarks and people around Bloomington and Monroe County.Jeremy Kiger, a Bloomington resident who attended the event with his 7-month-old daughter, Vanceletta, said he learned a lot.“I didn’t know about dialogic reading,” Kiger said. “I’m going to try that.”Brittany Branam, mother of 2-year-old Grant, agreed with Kiger.“I really like learning about establishing dialogues,” Branam said.Only five children and their families were in attendance. Anderson said that was a good turnout, though, and MCUW and the Salvation Army will likely sponsor another Literacy Party.Anderson said the Salvation Army is one of few child care facilities in Bloomington accessible to families with low socioeconomic status. He also said its mission is to have children ready for kindergarten.“We consider ourselves a preschool,” he said. “We’re not a day care.”
(10/16/12 5:03am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>More than 10,000 students attending public colleges in Indiana require remediation for mathematics and English, according to Indiana’s Education Roundtable. Only one in four of those students will graduate in six years.Now, Indiana universities will receive $36,000 from the “Core to College” grant, funds intended to establish relationships between higher and K-12 education.Students take remediation courses when they are not ready for college-level, credit-bearing coursework. Stephanie Sample, communications director for the Indiana Department of Education, said part of the reason some students aren’t ready is because K-12 schools and post-secondary schools don’t have a shared definition of readiness.“One of the main missions is to bring them to the table,” Sample said. “It’s to unite them in that definition.”The participating Indiana colleges, including Indiana State University, IU-Purdue University Columbus and Purdue University Calumet, will cooperate with community colleges and local schools. Once a shared definition has been achieved, new tests for readiness will be developed and implemented.Alice Anderson, dean of the school of education at Purdue University Calumet, said a test designed by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers might be a possible solution.“If we can measure what we need to measure, the PARCC assessment will be able to determine if students are ready,” she said.Sample said the assessment would track a student’s progress through K-12, something the Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress assessment (ISTEP) doesn’t do.Currently, Indiana public universities require freshmen students to take readiness assessments that are developed by their respective faculty. Anderson said a test like the PARCC assessment might be administered in high school. She said that way students who are ready for college could avoid redundant testing, and those who are not ready could avoid remediation.Sample said the DOE might have students take remediation coursework in high school before they graduate.Public universities in Indiana like IU-Bloomington and Purdue University in West Lafayette don’t offer remediation. Anderson said most students take those non-credit-bearing courses at community colleges like Ivy Tech Community College.Remediation costs students, taxpayers and institutions about $35 million each year, according to a 2012 report by the Indiana Commission for Higher Education.Sample said extra time is the enemy of completion.Establishing relationships between K-12 and post-secondary schools is critical in aligning policies, Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett said in a press release.“In Indiana, we are committed to forming more productive and coordinated K-12/higher education partnerships like these that support students’ success throughout their lives,” Bennett said.
(10/15/12 3:29am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Thirty-eight veterans went to American Legion Post 18 Thursday for resources, information, medical treatment and, if they needed it, a haircut.The post sponsored the second annual Stand Down, a combined effort by the Department of Veterans Affairs and community organizations to help veterans experiencing homelessness. Any veteran with proper identification to establish veteran status had access to the barber’s chair, a free meal or a bag full of donated goods.Steve Roberts, a veteran of the Army and Navy, said events like Stand Down are important not only because they provide meals and haircuts, but because they inform veterans about services available to them.“Six or seven of my friends got help here last year for things like substance abuse,” Roberts said.Brad Taylor, a veteran who served with the Navy, said although he currently lives with his brother, he was on the streets for five years.“My son drowned,” Taylor said. “That made me want to get up on my feet. It’s great that these people are here. Without them, we wouldn’t know what sort of benefits we have.”The IU School of Optometry was among the health services organizations in attendance and helped participants determine if they suffered from things like hypertension and diabetes.“A good way to look at small blood vessels is through the eyes,” clinical assistant professor Todd Peabody said. “We can tell a lot that way.”Peabody said systemic disease is a common problem among those experiencing homelessness.Jim May, adjutant at the American Legion Post, said post-tramautic stress disorder is another common problem for veterans. He said because homeless veterans usually suffer from PTSD, they avoid people and homeless shelters. That’s a problem for Stand Down organizers, because if homeless veterans do not go to a shelter, they are unlikely to hear about the event.“This is the only event they’ll come to,” May said.He said he estimates there are 75 to 200 homeless veterans in Monroe County. He said because they avoid other people, veterans experiencing homelessness tend to live near railroads, under bridges and in wooded areas within city limits.Rincon said although many homeless veterans didn’t come to Stand Down because they weren’t aware, others were too proud to attend.“Homelessness may be seen as dishonorable,” Rincon said. “They don’t want to admit it.”
(10/08/12 2:32am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Upland Brewing Company offered discounted beer and free live music Saturday to help Bloomington Animal Shelter find adoptive homes for dogs and win a $100,000 prize.Upland, 350 W. 11th St., sponsored “Hops for Hounds,” part of the shelter’s other efforts during Barktoberfest. Barktoberfest is part of the ASPCA’s $100,000 Challenge, in which shelters around the country try to double adoption rates from August to October.Shelter manager Virgil Sauder brought nine puppies to the three-hour event. While interacting with the dogs, participants could buy $4 beers, enter into a raffle for prizes and listen to the free, two-hour concert played by Kisses for Free. All proceeds were donated to the animal shelter. Sauder said the friendly environment made adoption more likely.“The opportunity to eat and drink makes family decisions easier,” he said. “They tend to make those choices over the table at home.”Though it wasn’t clear if the fare, music or prizes encouraged adoption, Sauder said the event was a success.Each dog received attention from participants. Trish Hernacki, an IU freshman majoring in optometry, applied to adopt a several-month-old collie-terrier mix named Lafayette. She had to apply and could not take Lafayette home from the event because the shelter confirms all dogs will be going to a good home before released to adoptive owners. “The shelter has to contact our landlord,” Hernacki said. “A lot of adopted dogs are taken back because landlords don’t allow pets. Ours allows two dogs.”Lloyd, a 1-year-old labrador, was adopted and taken home before the event ended.Although the event went well, Sauder said he didn’t think they would win the $100,000 prize, which would be used to renovate the shelter.“We’re hoping to reach 300 adoptions,” he said. “If we do, we can win a $5,000 prize, and that’s better than nothing.”Shirley Davies, a volunteer who has worked with the shelter for five years, said the shelter does a fantastic job of having dogs adopted, and events like “Hops for Hounds” are a big reason why.“We need to get the animals out,” Davies said. “An event like this attracted a gentleman who drove more than three hours to adopt a 14-year-old beagle.”Sauder said there tend to be 80 to 120 dogs at the shelter at any given time, and that most adoptions are walk-in.Emily Gentry, assistant manager at Upland, said the brewery is supportive of the animal shelter and would be interested in sponsoring a future event.Sauder said the shelter will consider working with Upland again.“I don’t know why we wouldn’t,” he said.