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Who Gets to Attend College?

By Tram Nguyen  -- GROWING UP IN BOYLE HEIGHTS, a working class neighborhood of East Los Angeles, Nancy Meza figured out early on that the school system wasn’t working for many of her friends and family. Both her older brothers went from being honors students in middle school to dropping out in high school. One brother, who was put in woodshop two years in a row, eventually started ditching and never came back. “It’s really heartbreaking now,” Nancy said. “They’re always struggling to find a job, always in and out of jobs. They’ll be out of work for long periods of time, or they have backbreaking work at minimum wage. They’re struggling a lot.”Nancy herself was put into ESL classes until seventh grade, when she passed an English test and was lucky enough to get placed into honors classes in eighth grade. It wasn’t until then that she heard teachers and counselors telling her to go to college and programming her schedule with college prep classes.But that wasn’t the case for most of her peers.As high school went on, the group she hung out with got smaller and smaller. Those who had dropped out or were thinking of dropping out told her much the same thing: they would get the same job with or without a high school diploma, so why bother graduating?“Students are not exposed to what it takes to go to college,” concluded Nancy, now 20. Fast-talking and bubbly, she wants more than anything to go to UCLA and then on to law school. For now, She’s attending East Los Angeles Community College. By all accounts, California’s public education system is in trouble and has been for quite some time. The decline can be traced arguably as far back as 1978 when Proposition 13 was passed, undercutting property taxes that are the main mode of public school funding.In 2007, the National Assessment of Educational Progress found that California ranked close to the bottom in the country: eighth graders ranked 47th in reading and 44th in math. The state’s high school graduation rate has fallen far below the national average, and only Mississippi and Arizona have lower rates for sending high school seniors to four-year universities. SOURCE:COLORLINES.COM

Scientology is focus of flap over Will Smith's new school

In Los Angeles' rarefied world of private schools, where tuitions are high, academics are tough and educational philosophy is taken seriously, the newest member of the tribe is getting the kind of breathless attention reserved for a music or film star. That may be because the founders of New Village Academy are themselves such stars: Will Smith and his wife Jada Pinkett Smith. Entertainers have long flocked to private schools on the Westside and in the San Fernando Valley, where campuses are comparatively small, offer a discreet environment and are close to studios.The Smiths, however, will be among the few celebrities -- Oprah Winfrey, Andre Agassi and Tiger Woods among them -- to establish their own school or program.It is one of several initiatives by the couple, including a new foundation that will give grants to young people in the arts and education. About 80% of New Village students will receive financial assistance in the fall.But the school's Sept. 3 opening, on the leased campus of a former school in Calabasas, will be accompanied by a whiff of controversy. Some of its teachers are members of the Church of Scientology, and it will use teaching methods developed by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.That has provoked a slew of headlines: On FOXNews.com, "Will Smith Funds Private Scientology School"; from Britain's The Guardian, "Will Smith funds school teaching Scientology creator's study method"; and on the religion blog of the Dallas Morning News, "Is Will Smith school a front for Scientology?"Both Smiths have said they are not Scientologists.In a statement, Will Smith said of the school: "About 10 years ago, Jada and I started dreaming about the possibility of creating an ideal educational environment, where children could feel happy, positive and excited about learning. . . ."New Village Academy was born of a simple question, 'Is it possible to create an educational environment in which children have fun learning?' Jada and I believe the answer is 'Yes.' " SOURCE:LAT.COM

White valedictorian: A first for historically black Morehouse

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Joshua Packwood knows what it's like to be a minority.This weekend he'll be the first white valedictorian to graduate from the historically black, all male Morehouse College in the school's 141-year history.Morehouse, in Atlanta, Georgia, is one the nation's most prestigious universities of its kind. For more than a century, the school has prided itself on personifying the dream of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., one of the school's most notable alums, by producing "Morehouse Men" - intelligent and successful black leaders."Because I'm one of the only white students, it's easy to call me 'the white boy,' I'm naturally going to stand out," says Packwood.But Packwood, 22, doesn't stand out solely because he is white or has maintained a 4.0 grade point average. For those who don't know him, what is surprising is that a Rhodes Scholar finalist turned down a full scholarship to Columbia University to attend the all-black men's university.This came naturally to Packwood, who attended a predominantly black high school."A large majority of my friends, like all my girlfriends have been minorities," says Packwood. "So it was very, it was kind of strange that I always kind of gravitated to the black community."Packwood fit in immediately at Morehouse. His charm, movie-star good looks and chiseled physique made him popular among students. He was elected dorm president and to class council during freshmen year - and was a favorite at campus fashion shows. White valedictorian makes history »He also gained worldly experience studying and traveling abroad.

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Life hasn't always been easy for Packwood. He grew up in a poor area of Kansas City, Missouri, where he says he found himself gravitating to the black community at a young age. Adolescence was rough. His mother's second marriage to a black man ended in divorce and family tension forced him to seek refuge with his best friend's family - who were black and middle-class.The experience of living with his best friend's family had a profound effect on Packwood, who says he saw a "different side of black America."During his teens, Packwood says he got into his share of fights and even landed in jail a few times. Still, his grades were good and eventually earned him a full scholarships to Morehouse College and Columbia University.Against the advice of some family members, Packwood gave up the scholarship to an Ivy League school. He felt the true college experience was at Morehouse - where he believed he would get more than an education."I gained this interest in African-American studies and I thought that Morehouse would probably be the best experience," says Packwood. "I think of it in terms of 'study abroad.' If I really want to learn it, if I really want to understand it - maybe it's best if I immerse myself in the culture.""Mr. Packwood is deserving. He has earned this," says Dr. Robert Franklin, the president of Morehouse. "We are committed to merit, to hard work - no matter who it might be."For the most part, Packwood says the experience among his Morehouse brethren has been overwhelmingly good - with the exception of a few negative comments."One guy came up to me and told me -- he didn't like the fact that I was here," recalls Packwood. "He absolutely didn't like the fact that I dated black women.""So I heard him out, and said, 'I appreciate your opinion but don't agree with what you have to say,'...and now we've become, not necessarily close, but very cool," Packwood says. SOURCE: CNN.COM

City students less likely to graduate than suburban kids

WASHINGTON -- Students in urban public school districts are less likely to graduate from high school than those enrolled in suburban districts in the same metropolitan area, according to research presented Tuesday. The report by the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center found that about 75% of the students in suburban districts received diplomas, but only 58% of students in urban districts did. In the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the gap was even wider, with 78% of students in suburban districts and 57% of those in city districts graduating. Just 45% of the students in the Los Angeles Unified School District completed all four years of high school successfully, compared with the national graduation average of 70%. The analysis of graduates in the 2003-04 school year examined U.S. Department of Education data from metropolitan areas surrounding the country's 50 most populous cities. Of the principal school districts serving those cities, LAUSD's graduation rate was the ninth-lowest, the report found. Nationally, 52% of students in the main school districts of urban areas graduated.The dropout rate of more than a million students each year "is not just a crisis; this is a catastrophe," said former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, the founding chairman of America's Promise Alliance, which presented the research.Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings said the government would soon require states to use a uniform method to report graduation data, although she did not provide specifics. This would require a change in the No Child Left Behind Act, which allows states to devise their own methods of determining graduation rates and tracking improvements. SOURCE OF THIS STORY

ALICIA KEYS LAUNCHES 'AS I AM' CONTEST: Effort aims to boost awareness of her Keep A Child Alive charity.

Alicia Keys has teamed with Seattle-based online and mobile community Treemo to launch the "As I Am"The contest celebrates the third track on the album titled "Superwoman" by allowing fans to create a Treemo.com account at http://alicia.treemo.com and upload via their mobile phone or web, a photo, video, or text, telling a story about someone they know who is a "Superwoman."Treemo will donate $1 to KCA for every user who enters the "As I Am" contest, up to $10,000. Keys is the Global Ambassador for Keep A Child Alive, a charity providing an urgent response to the AIDS pandemic ravaging Africa. "This contest and Treemo's support will not only increase our ability to spread the word about the realities of this pandemic, but also recruit more potential donors who can easily see they can indeed save the life of someone who needs their help. It's only $1 a day to sustain a life; it's time we all start giving a buck," said Leigh Blake, Founder and President of KCA. KCA provides comprehensive AIDS care to over 20,000 people living with AIDS; including provision of life-saving AIDS medications, nutritional support and treatment for AIDS-related illnesses. For more information about Keep A Child Alive, visit http://www.keepachildalive.org/. 

Colleges See Flare In Racial Incidents

A couple of weeks into classes at the University of Maryland, a rope tied into what looked like a noose was found hanging outside the campus's African American cultural center. Campus police reports this month included two incidents of racially disparaging remarks, one written on a workstation and one on a bathroom stall in the student union. This weekend, a swastika was spray-painted onto the car of a member of the Kappa Alpha fraternity, which one member described as a Christian fraternity. It's not the only campus that has seen intolerance. A Maryland congressman is asking for an investigation into nooses left among the personal effects of a black cadet at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and on the office floor of a staff member doing racial sensitivity training after the initial incident. This month, more than 200 students at the University of Virginia protested cartoons depicting starving Ethiopians and a slave that ran in the student paper. Because so many colleges are more racially and culturally diverse than ever, with students hanging out, dating and studying together, such incidents have left many wondering: What's going on? And what are schools doing about it?  SOURCE OF THIS STORY

Rich, Black, Flunking

The black parents wanted an explanation. Doctors, lawyers, judges, and insurance brokers, many had come to the upscale Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights specifically because of its stellar school district. They expected their children to succeed academically, but most were performing poorly. African-American students were lagging far behind their white classmates in every measure of academic success: grade-point average, standardized test scores, and enrollment in advanced-placement courses. On average, black students earned a 1.9 GPA while their white counterparts held down an average of 3.45. Other indicators were equally dismal. It made no sense. When these depressing statistics were published in a high school newspaper in mid-1997, black parents were troubled by the news and upset that the newspaper had exposed the problem in such a public way. Seeking guidance, one parent called a prominent authority on minority academic achievement.  UC Berkeley Anthropology Professor John Ogbu had spent decades studying how the members of different ethnic groups perform academically. He'd studied student coping strategies at inner-city schools in Washington, DC. He'd looked at African Americans and Latinos in Oakland and Stockton and examined how they compare to racial and ethnic minorities in India, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, and Britain. His research often focused on why some groups are more successful than others. SOURCE OF THIS STORY

Oprah opens school in S Africa

TV host Oprah Winfrey has opened a new school she has funded in South Africa to give an education to girls from poor families. The school - in the small town of Henley-on-Klip south of Johannesburg - cost $40m (£20m) to build. Ms Winfrey herself interviewed many of the 3,500 South African girls from low income families who applied for an initial 150 places at the school. The academy selects girls whose family income is less than $700 a month. The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy will eventually cater for 450 girls who show outstanding promise but whose families cannot support their education.

Oprah Winfrey Opens School in S. Africa

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa Jan 2, 2007 (AP)— Oprah Winfrey's long-awaited school opened Tuesday, fulfilling a promise she made to former President Nelson Mandela six years ago and giving more than 150 girls a chance for a better future. "I wanted to give this opportunity to girls who had a light so bright that not even poverty could dim that light," Winfrey said at a news conference. Mandela was invited to be among the dignitaries at the opening of the lavish Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in the small town of Henley-on-Klip, south of Johannesburg. MORE ON THIS STORY

Minorities Going Ivy

Larger Numbers of Minorities Going Ivy 
More blacks going to majority white colleges
By Tennille M. Robinson

October 23, 2006 -- Racial diversity among first-year students is increasing at Ivy League institutions and other high-ranking, predominantly white colleges and universities. The number of first-year African American students for the 2005—2006 academic year increased at universities such as Vanderbilt, Princeton, and Columbia, according to "The Progress of Black Student Enrollments at the Nation's Highest-Ranked Colleges and Universities," a study by The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. MORE INFO

Plight Deepens for Black Men, Studies Warn

BALTIMORE — Black men in the United States face a far more dire situation than is portrayed by common employment and education statistics, a flurry of new scholarly studies warn, and it has worsened in recent years even as an economic boom and a welfare overhaul have brought gains to black women and other groups. Curtis E. Brannon of Baltimore with Curtis Jr., one of the four children he has fathered with three mothers. "I was with the street life," Mr. Brannon said, "but now I feel like I've got to get myself together."- Ryan Donnell for The New York TimesBlack Men Falling Behind, focusing more closely than ever on the life patterns of young black men, the new studies, by experts at Columbia, Princeton, Harvard and other institutions, show that the huge pool of poorly educated black men are becoming ever more disconnected from the mainstream society, and to a far greater degree than comparable white or Hispanic men. Especially in the country's inner cities, the studies show, finishing high school is the exception, legal work is scarcer than ever and prison is almost routine, with incarceration rates climbing for blacks even as urban crime rates have declined. Although the problems afflicting poor black men have been known for decades, the new data paint a more extensive and sobering picture of the challenges they face. "There's something very different happening with young black men, and it's something we can no longer ignore," said Ronald B. Mincy, professor of social work at Columbia University and editor of "Black Males Left Behind" (Urban Institute Press, 2006)."Over the last two decades, the economy did great," Mr. Mincy said, "and low-skilled women, helped by public policy, latched onto it. But young black men were falling farther back." Many of the new studies go beyond the traditional approaches to looking at the plight of black men, especially when it comes to determining the scope of joblessness. For example, official unemployment rates can be misleading because they do not include those not seeking work or incarcerated. "If you look at the numbers, the 1990's was a bad decade for young black men, even though it had the best labor market in 30 years," said Harry J. Holzer, an economist at Georgetown University and co-author, with Peter Edelman and Paul Offner, of "Reconnecting Disadvantaged Young Men" (Urban Institute Press, 2006). In response to the worsening situation for young black men, a growing number of programs are placing as much importance on teaching life skills — like parenting, conflict resolution and character building — as they are on teaching job skills.

These were among the recent findings:

The share of young black men without jobs has climbed relentlessly, with only a slight pause during the economic peak of the late 1990's. In 2000, 65 percent of black male high school dropouts in their 20's were jobless — that is, unable to find work, not seeking it or incarcerated. By 2004, the share had grown to 72 percent, compared with 34 percent of white and 19 percent of Hispanic dropouts. Even when high school graduates were included, half of black men in their 20's were jobless in 2004, up from 46 percent in 2000. Incarceration rates climbed in the 1990's and reached historic highs in the past few years. In 1995, 16 percent of black men in their 20's who did not attend college were in jail or prison; by 2004, 21 percent were incarcerated. By their mid-30's, 6 in 10 black men who had dropped out of school had spent time in prison.

In the inner cities, more than half of all black men do not finish high school.

None of the litany of problems that young black men face was news to a group of men from the airless neighborhoods of Baltimore who recently described their experiences. One of them, Curtis E. Brannon, told a story so commonplace it hardly bears notice here. He quit school in 10th grade to sell drugs, fathered four children with three mothers, and spent several stretches in jail for drug possession, parole violations and other crimes. "I was with the street life, but now I feel like I've got to get myself together," Mr. Brannon said recently in the row-house flat he shares with his girlfriend and four children. "You get tired of incarceration." Mr. Brannon, 28, said he planned to look for work, perhaps as a mover, and he noted optimistically that he had not been locked up in six months. A group of men, including Mr. Brannon, gathered at the Center for Fathers, Families and Workforce Development, one of several private agencies trying to help men build character along with workplace skills. The clients readily admit to their own bad choices but say they also fight a pervasive sense of hopelessness. "It hurts to get that boot in the face all the time," said Steve Diggs, 34. "I've had a lot of charges but only a few convictions," he said of his criminal record. Mr. Diggs is now trying to strike out on his own, developing a party space for rentals, but he needs help with business skills. "I don't understand," said William Baker, 47. "If a man wants to change, why won't society give him a chance to prove he's a changed person?" Mr. Baker has a lot of record to overcome, he admits, not least his recent 15-year stay in the state penitentiary for armed robbery. Mr. Baker led a visitor down the Pennsylvania Avenue strip he wants to escape — past idlers, addicts and hustlers, storefront churches and fortresslike liquor stores — and described a life that seemed inevitable. He sold marijuana for his parents, he said, left school in the sixth grade and later dealt heroin and cocaine. He was for decades addicted to heroin, he said, easily keeping the habit during three terms in prison. But during his last long stay, he also studied hard to get a G.E.D. and an associate's degree. Now out for 18 months, Mr. Baker is living in a home for recovering drug addicts. He is working a $10-an-hour warehouse job while he ponders how to make a living from his real passion, drawing and graphic arts. "I don't want to be a criminal at 50," Mr. Baker said.  According to census data, there are about five million black men ages 20 to 39 in the United States. Terrible schools, absent parents, racism, the decline in blue collar jobs and a subculture that glorifies swagger over work have all been cited as causes of the deepening ruin of black youths. Scholars — and the young men themselves — agree that all of these issues must be addressed. Joseph T. Jones, director of the fatherhood and work skills center here, puts the breakdown of families at the core. "Many of these men grew up fatherless, and they never had good role models," said Mr. Jones, who overcame addiction and prison time. "No one around them knows how to navigate the mainstream society." All the negative trends are associated with poor schooling, studies have shown, and progress has been slight in recent years. Federal data tend to understate dropout rates among the poor, in part because imprisoned youths are not counted. Closer studies reveal that in inner cities across the country, more than half of all black men still do not finish high school, said Gary Orfield, an education expert at Harvard and editor of "Dropouts in America" (Harvard Education Press, 2004). "We're pumping out boys with no honest alternative," Mr. Orfield said in an interview, "and of course their neighborhoods offer many other alternatives." Dropout rates for Hispanic youths are as bad or worse but are not associated with nearly as much unemployment or crime, the data show. With the shift from factory jobs, unskilled workers of all races have lost ground, but none more so than blacks. By 2004, 50 percent of black men in their 20's who lacked a college education were jobless, as were 72 percent of high school dropouts, according to data compiled by Bruce Western, a sociologist at Princeton and author of the forthcoming book "Punishment and Inequality in America" (Russell Sage Press). These are more than double the rates for white and Hispanic men. Mr. Holzer of Georgetown and his co-authors cite two factors that have curbed black employment in particular. First, the high rate of incarceration and attendant flood of former offenders into neighborhoods have become major impediments. Men with criminal records tend to be shunned by employers, and young blacks with clean records suffer by association, studies have found. Arrests of black men climbed steeply during the crack epidemic of the 1980's, but since then the political shift toward harsher punishments, more than any trends in crime, has accounted for the continued growth in the prison population, Mr. Western said.

By their mid-30's, 30 percent of black men with no more than a high school education have served time in prison, and 60 percent of dropouts have, Mr. Western said.

Among black dropouts in their late 20's, more are in prison on a given day — 34 percent — than are working — 30 percent — according to an analysis of 2000 census data by Steven Raphael of the University of California, Berkeley.

The second special factor is related to an otherwise successful policy: the stricter enforcement of child support. Improved collection of money from absent fathers has been a pillar of welfare overhaul. But the system can leave young men feeling overwhelmed with debt and deter them from seeking legal work, since a large share of any earnings could be seized.

About half of all black men in their late 20's and early 30's who did not go to college are noncustodial fathers, according to Mr. Holzer. From the fathers' viewpoint, support obligations "amount to a tax on earnings," he said. Some fathers give up, while others find casual work. "The work is sporadic, not the kind that leads to advancement or provides unemployment insurance," Mr. Holzer said. "It's nothing like having a real job." The recent studies identified a range of government programs and experiments, specially education and training efforts like the Job Corps, that had shown success and could be scaled up. Scholars call for intensive new efforts to give children a better start, including support for parents and extra schooling for children. They call for teaching skills to prisoners and helping them re-enter society more productively, and for less automatic incarceration of minor offenders.

In a society where higher education is vital to economic success, Mr. Mincy of Columbia said, programs to help more men enter and succeed in college may hold promise. But he lamented the dearth of policies and resources to aid single men. "We spent $50 billion in efforts that produced the turnaround for poor women," Mr. Mincy said. "We are not even beginning to think about the men's problem on similar orders of magnitude."

By ERIK ECKHOLM

Published: March 20, 2006
NY Times

City of Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Philadelphia on Thursday opened a public high school where students work on wireless laptops, teachers eschew traditional subjects for real-world topics and parents can track their child's work on the Internet. Called "The School of the Future" and created with help from software giant Microsoft, it is believed to be the first in the world to combine innovative teaching methods with the latest technology, all housed in an environmentally friendly building. The school, which cost the school district $63 million to build, is free and has no entrance exams. The 170 students in the inaugural ninth-grade class were selected by lottery from 1,500 applicants.