Extra Credit

Educators group to host parent workshops on Saturday

The National Alliance of Black School Educators (NABSE) is hosting a day of workshops for area parents as part of the group's 38th annual conference.

One workshop at the Parent Day Summit will cover what's new in special education and how to understand and monitor your child's Individualized Education Plan (IEP). Other workshops will cover topics such as parents' rights under No Child Left Behind, how to be engaged at school, Texas academic standards and student and family health issues.

Keynote speaker is Zollie Stevenson Jr., former director of student achievement and school accountability programs at the U.S. Department of Education, responsible for Title I and Title III programs. He is now an associate professor of educational leadership at Bowie State University in Maryland.

About 350 people are pre-registered for the event, from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Fort Worth Convention Center. Onsite registration begins at 8 a.m. Cost is $90 (includes lunch). The Summit was organized by NABSE board member Anthony White Sr., a retired administrator for Newark public schools who is now chief executive officer of Parental Involvement Exchange.

Jessamy Brown

Juniors taking SAT, ACT can get discount on Kaplan online test prep cost

So now that the Texas Education Agency has arranged for Lone Star State teens to take the SAT and ACT college admissions tests for free, the folks at Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions are sweetening the deal.

Juniors at any Texas public high school who are registered for the May or June exams can take Kaplan's interactive online prep course for $45, a huge discount off the regular cost of $499. The cost covers program materials and shipping costs, Kaplan spokesman Russell Schaffer said in a news release.

Practice your math skills --that's nine percent of the normal cost.

Using Kaplan's Live Online platform, students can take the live video instructor-led class from anywhere they can access the Internet. Students can ask questions and interact with a teacher and classmates using audio, instant chat, whiteboard, polling and screen-sharing functions.

To enroll through May 1: www.kaptest.com/college. The promotion codes are TXSATPREP for the SAT and TXACTPREP for the ACT.

Jessamy Brown

Dropouts affect North Texas economics big time, study says

If North Texas schools, including those in Dallas and Tarrant counties, could decrease their dropout rates by half, it could mean an additional $143 million in spending a year for the region, according to a new national report out this morning.
The Washington D.C.-based Alliance for Excellent Education analyzed data from 45 large metropolitan areas in an effort to illustrate how high school dropouts influence not only their own lives, but their community's economic health. The group, which promotes secondary school reform that results in more high school graduates, has done similar state level studies before, but none as specific as that released Tuesday.
The figures for North Texas, which were compiled for an area that includes Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington and 12 surrounding counties,show that 32 percent of students in the area didn't graduate from high school in four years and with a regular diploma. If just half of the dropouts in the class of 2008 had graduated on time, it could have meant as much as $197 million a year in average increased annual earnings for those approximately 14,500 students, according to the study, called The Economic Benefits from Halving Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington's Dropout Rate: A Boom To Regional Businesses. Even just 1,000 additional graduates could bring an add $1.3 million to local and state tax proceeds each year, the researchers estimated.

Educators in Tarrant County and throughout the state have put increased focus on keeping students in school in recent years, as their state accountability rankings have been tied to "completion rates." Those rates also give districts credit for students who come back for programs even though they didn't graduate in five years.

In Arlington, for example, officials tried to get students back this fall by doing home visits and offering freebies like Texas Rangers tickets to students who attended tutoring. In that district, 74.5 percent of the students in the class of 2008 graduated in four years. Another 14.3 percent came back the next fall for some kind of program, whether it was to re-enroll or take part in test preparations courses that would help them pass the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills exam.

- Traci Shurley 

Arlington's Bowie High School gets AVID funding

Arlington’s Bowie High School has become one of six schools nationwide to receive a grant from the Citi Foundation that is aimed at encouraging African-American male students to enroll in honors level classes and prepare for college, the district said.
The African American Male Initiative is part of a partnership between the Citi Foundation and AVID, Advancement Via Individual Determination. AVID is program to encourage college readiness in traditionally underserved high school students who are in the academic middle by providing guidance and support.
The grant Bowie received is for $24,235. Guidelines require the school to increase the number of black male students involved in the district’s AVID program by 25, which it has already done. Another goal is to increase the number of African-American college students tutoring at the school. Teachers are also participating in increased training.
Linda Rodgers, Arlington’s secondary special populations coordinator, said Bowie’s staff has done a great job of getting the grant program up and running. The high school’s commitment to the AVID program is an asset to the district, she said.
“Data has shown that we need to do a better job of creating equity for all of our students and, in particular, our African-American males,” she said. “The campus is just doing such a great job meeting that goal and meeting the students where they are and bringing them to where they need to be to be college ready.”

- Traci Shurley

College admissions test preparation founder Stanley Kaplan has died

Stanley H. Kaplan, who started the first student test preparation company in his parents' basement in Brooklyn in 1938 died at age 90 on Sunday, a news release said.

He started tutoring other students at age 14, earning 25 cents per hour. He later launched a business helping students get ready for college admissions exams such as the SAT.

"Rejected from medical school during an era of ethnic quotas, Mr. Kaplan believed that students should have access to higher education based on academic merit, rather than privilege," the release said.

Jessamy Brown

Baseball player pitching in to help Arlington student

Texas Rangers player Hank Blalock is offering Arlington school district juniors a $10,000 college scholarship, but those interested need to show some hustle. The deadline for applications is March 6.

In a press release from the district, Blalock said he wants the money to be awarded to a high school junior so they can "go into their final year of high school knowing that they have the ability to take their education to the next level, and not have to worry about how to pay for it."

An essay and letters of recommendation are required. To get an application go here or visit any Arlington school counselor.

- Traci Shurley

College students having more trouble paying bills

U.S. News & World Report has a story about college registrars noticing an increase in the number of students unable to pay their semester bills. It gives some good advice about how to cut out costs, communicate with school officials and points out that it's not to late to apply for federal financial aid.

- Traci Shurley

Heading to college in the fall? Make your application stand out.

It might be winter break, but many high school seniors are working on college applications while classes are out. Katherine Cohen, an expert on college admissions, today offers this advise on filling them out. She also has application information on her Web site.

Top five most common application mistakes:

1. Not following directions.

2. Redundancy.

3. Sending an incomplete application.

4. Sending too many items.

5. Not applying on time.

Top five tips for a great personal statement:

1. Make sure to structure your essay correctly.

2. Have a catchy first sentence.

3. Avoid cliches!

4. Singular subjects require singular verbs. Plural subjects require plural verbs.

5. Proofread, proofread, proofread!

Common and worst essay topics:

1. Declarations of love for your boyfriend or girlfriend.

2. Sincerely held religious beliefs.

3. Your political views.

4. Sex.

5. Sparkling SAT scores.

6. Schemes for world peace.

Jessamy Brown

For Fort Worth science teachers, time for summer school

A group of Fort Worth teachers is participating in a yearlong professional development experience to learn more about the environment and sustainable education. The program began Friday with an environmental academy at Texas Christian University.

TCU’s Andrews Institute of Mathematics, Science & Technology Education has been awarded two Teacher Quality Enhancement Grants to host the academy, which runs through Aug. 1. Nineteen teachers from South Hills High School, Rosemont 6th Grade Center and Rosemont Middle School and 15 teachers from elementary schools are participating.

At the academy, science teachers will experience an integrated, hands-on approach to learning and teaching techniques in outdoor settings and how to apply them in the classroom. Activities will emphasize using inquiry and outdoor spaces for teaching science. Topics will include lessons on exotic species, insect collecting, guided field hikes and a biology scavenger hunt. The academy will also include an overnight experience at the district’s Outdoor Learning Center.

-Patrick M. Walker

Reach higher than high school

Getting more students to graduate from high school is great! That's the goal of educators, businesses and educational researchers trying to stem the dropout crisis. But we need to do more to help workers continue their educations to meet the growing demands of the workplace. That's the conclusion of a just-released report by the National Commission on Adult Literacy being touted by the Southern Regional Education Board.

--Martha Deller