UNIVERSITY SYSTEM – NEWS
CSU responds to low rating on national survey of teacher education program
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/2013/06/19/2551027/columbus-state-university-responds.html
The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer
June 19, 2013
By Mark Rice
A national survey that ranked Columbus State University’s teacher education program on the lowest level used “questionable methodology,” the school’s spokesman said Wednesday. John Lester, CSU’s assistant vice president for university relations said in an email that Tuesday’s release of the National Council on Teacher Quality report “confirms the fears and concerns we had long heard rumored about this process. “We respect NCTQ’s interest in assessing the quality of teacher preparation programs; however, Columbus State University joins the University System of Georgia and other private, independent teacher preparation programs who are concerned with the quality and rigor of this ‘study.'”
UWG questions teacher training report
http://www.times-georgian.com/news/article_82e6a29a-d94b-11e2-b5b2-001a4bcf6878.html
The Times-Georgian
June 19, 2013
A much-anticipated and hotly contested independent review has concluded that the University of West Georgia College of Education is not designed so that teachers are adequately prepared. The National Council on Teacher Quality’s Teacher Prep Review, released Tuesday after more than two years of preparation, awarded UWG’s secondary education education program two out of four stars and its elementary education program zero out of four stars.
Rankings on teacher training stir controversy
http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/section/6/article/85172/
Gainesville Times
June 20, 2013
By Carly Sharec
A study released Tuesday shows that preparation for teaching jobs is lacking across the country, including in Georgia. But the results are not without some controversy and disagreements, as representatives from the University of North Georgia and Brenau University illustrate. “I kind of wonder, if this were done in another profession … would it be OK for doctors to be evaluated by someone that isn’t their professional evaluation group?” asked Toni Bellon, UNG assistant dean of the graduate education program.
Blinded by HOPE: Increasing tuition pattern makes students wary
http://www.redandblack.com/ugalife/blinded-by-hope-increasing-tuition-pattern-makes-students-wary/article_240261ce-d92d-11e2-bac3-001a4bcf6878.html
Red & Black
June 20, 2013
By Randy Schafer
…In the last year for in-state undergraduate students, tuition and fees [at UGA] have increased $213; rising from $3,823 tuition and $1,098 in fees to $4,017 tuition and $1,117 in fees for Fiscal Year 14. Possibly a small number for some, but on a five-year scale the amount has increased a staggering 70.2 percent since 2008, from $2,428 tuition and $587 in fees. And it seems many students are unaware of the change, whether it be five years or one.
UNIVERSITY SYSTEM – VALUE
As deadlines approach, downtown master planners march forward
http://onlineathens.com/local-news/2013-06-19/deadlines-approach-downtown-master-planners-march-forward
Athens Banner-Herald
June 19, 2013
By Nick Coltrain
With less than a month before a draft of the downtown master plan is scheduled to make its way through local governing boards, its chief continued making rounds this week to community groups. University of Georgia College of Environment and Design Professor Jack Crowley gave the most recent look at the plan he and his team of students have spent a year developing, with the hopes of inspiring a “cookbook” of ideas — and how to accomplish them — for downtown Athens.
UNIVERSITY SYSTEM – RESEARCH
Bacteria Live at 33,000 feet
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-06/bacteria-33000-feet
Popular Science
June 19, 2013
Earth’s upper atmosphere—below freezing, nearly without oxygen, flooded by UV radiation—is no place to live. But last winter, scientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology discovered that billions of bacteria actually thrive up there. Expecting only a smattering of microorganisms, the researchers flew six miles above Earth’s surface in a NASA jet plane. There, they pumped outside air through a filter to collect particles. Back on the ground, they tallied the organisms, and the count was staggering: 20 percent of what they had assumed to be just dust or other particles was alive. Earth, it seems, is surrounded by a bubble of bacteria.
Pindrop Security raises $11M to reinvent caller ID
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/blog/atlantech/2013/06/pindrop-security-raises-11m-from.html
Atlanta Business Chronicle
June 19, 2013
Pindrop Security, an Atlanta startup that aims to reinvent Caller ID, has raised $11 million from Andreessen Horowitz and Citi Ventures. Pindrop’s technology, based on research developed at the Georgia Tech Information Security Center, analyzes phone call audio signals to identify the caller’s location and calling device type. It then creates a unique fingerprint which can be used to match the caller to other calls they’ve made, regardless of attempts to mask identity and calling activity. Pindrop helps financial institutions and other companies detect malicious callers and prevent them from conducting attacks on customer accounts.
OPINION, COLUMNS, BLOGS, EDITORIALS
10 Dubious Claims About Higher Ed Decline
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2013/06/20/challenging-10-claims-about-higher-educations-decline-essay
Inside Higher Education
June 20, 2013
By Arthur M. Hauptman
A large number of recent reports and articles have heralded the demise of American higher education, either with regard to inadequate financing of the system or the eroding scope of the enterprise. But a closer analysis of the data behind these reports indicates that many of the statements are at best misleading and, more often, half true or simply untrue. Below is further analysis of 10 of the most prominent of these statements.
Apple and Google’s Underutilized Higher Ed Power
http://www.insidehighered.com//blogs/technology-and-learning/apple-and-googles-underutilized-higher-ed-power
Inside Higher Education
June 19, 2013
By Joshua Kim
…Google has leveraged a business model built on search advertising and scale to radically drive down the cost of information. Can that business model extend to education? Apple has changed how we think if the interaction between hardware (especially mobile devices) and software, building ecosystems that facilitate an elegant and seamless experience. Can that same aesthetic and expertise integrating hardware and software be translated to education?
Throwing Books at Each Other
http://www.insidehighered.com//blogs/library-babel-fish/throwing-books-each-other
Inside Higher Education
June 17, 2013
By Barbara Fister
…Public libraries, more so than academic libraries, select books to be removed from the collection on a regular basis because they add them constantly and have only so much space. This process – oh, heck, let’s call it by its common-or-garden-variety name: weeding – is generally done on the basis of a constellation of factors …
Is anyone surprised at a critical review of how we train teachers? Are teachers?
http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/get-schooled/2013/jun/19/anyone-surprised-negative-reviews-teacher-training/
AJC.com
“Get Schooled with Maureen Downey
June 19, 2013
I have been inundated with comments and links to academics and educators protesting the National Council on Teacher Quality’s ratings of teacher preparation programs, which were released yesterday to hisses and boos from many respected education experts around the country. (subscription required)
HIGHER EDUCATION NEWS
New Model, Familiar Face
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/06/20/new-online-learning-portal-profit-veteran
Inside Higher Education
June 20, 2013
By Paul Fain
A veteran of for-profit higher education has built a new online learning portal, this time a nonprofit. And Michael K. Clifford’s DreamDegree.org, which went live last month, already offers 27 courses that can lead to college credit at many colleges.
Online Classes Fuel a Campus Debate
The New York Times
June 19, 2013
The announcement last month that Coursera, which offers free college classes online, had signed agreements with state universities enrolling more than a million students made it plain that such courses, virtually unheard-of two years ago, are now part of the higher education mainstream. But along the way, a rancorous debate has emerged over whether such courses will lead to better learning, lower costs and higher graduation rates — or to the dismantling of public universities, downgraded or eliminated faculty jobs, and a second-class education for most students…
Universities in Consortium Talk of Taking Back Control of Online Offerings
http://chronicle.com/article/Universities-in-Consortium/139919/
Chronicle of Higher Education
June 19, 2013
Colleges looking to expand their online course offerings have often enlisted help from education-technology companies. A college might buy a learning-management system from Blackboard, e-tutoring software from Pearson, and so on. Coursera, the Silicon Valley-based company that specializes in massive open online courses, recently became the latest technology firm to offer services aimed at credit-bearing online programs at large universities. Now the provosts in a consortium of major research universities are considering whether their group should build its own online infrastructure that would enable the universities to share courses, digital resources, and data without ceding control to outsiders. (subscription required)
Is Summer Selling?
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/06/20/colleges-discounting-tuition-attract-students-during-summer
Inside Higher Education
June 20, 2013
By Lauren Ingeno
Summer school is on sale at Montclair State University, where students at the New Jersey public institution can take classes for up to 17 percent off the regular tuition price, housing fees are reduced, and parking is free. …But the experience of some other institutions suggests that, despite the perks, many students still are not buying.
Education Dept. Is Assailed Over Handling of CUNY’s “Black Male Initiative”
http://chronicle.com/article/Education-Dept-Is-Assailed/139913/
Chronicle of Higher Education
June 20, 2013
An activist who challenged as illegal a City University of New York campaign to help black male students is accusing the U.S. Department of Education of having rejected and hidden a CUNY proposal to alleviate his concerns in order to keep discriminatory elements of the campaign intact. In a news release being issued on Thursday, the activist, Michael Meyers, executive director of the New York Civil Rights Coalition, alleges that the department’s Office for Civil Rights buried a proposed settlement agreement offered by CUNY’s top lawyer in order to give itself time to construct a rationale for holding that CUNY’s Black Male Initiative, and programs undertaken as part of it, did not violate federal laws against discrimination based on race or sex. (subscription required)
5 Years After Scandal, Education Dept. Fails to Enforce Preferred-Lender Law
http://chronicle.com/article/5-Years-After-Scandal/139917/
Chronicle of Higher Education
June 20, 2013
When administrators at Columbia College Chicago were weighing whether to provide students with a list of recommended lenders, they began digging for information on a five-year-old federal requirement that colleges submit annual reports justifying their choices. Finding none, Brooke Kile, a college official, turned to an e-mail list for the student-aid profession. “I see what information would need to be included, but I can’t seem to find where or how this information needs to be provided,” she wrote in a posting last month. “Are we still waiting on guidance?” (subscription required)
The Bennett Hypothesis Returns
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/06/20/bill-bennett-writes-new-book-whether-college-worth-it
Inside Higher Education
June 20, 2013
By Libby A. Nelson
… now [William J. Bennett is] opining on higher education again, with a book released in May bluntly titled Is College Worth It? The conclusion of Bennett (and his co-author, David Wilezol, an associate producer on Bennett’s television program, “Bill Bennett’s Morning in America”) is a qualified yes — more or less the same answer the Brookings Institution reached in a paper this year that asked the same question. A four-year college degree is worth it, Bennett said during a panel discussion about his book at the American Enterprise Institute on Wednesday, for students who study “the right subject at the right place for the right price.”
OTHER NEWS
Ga. job growth continues, but unemployment rate inches up
http://www.accessnorthga.com/detail.php?n=262737
Access North Georgia
June 20, 2013
The Georgia Department of Labor announced Thursday that Georgia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased to 8.3 percent in May. The rate was up one-tenth of a percentage point from 8.2 percent in April, but it was down eight-tenths of a percentage point from 9.1 percent in May a year ago. “The rate increased primarily because more jobseekers entered the labor force looking for work,”…