Race and student placement
I won’t recap the divergent opinions about yesterday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling limiting schools’ ability to use race in allowing students to transfer to schools.
Read the opinion here.
The e-mails, predictions, offering of expert sources, rhetoric and general babble about the decision started about a month ago.
On the surface, this looks like another of the reverse-discrimination cases that have appeared with some regularity since the Bakke case of 1978 in which a white student who was denied admission several times to the University of California-Davis medical school sued and ultimately prevailed in a split ruling from the Warren Burger Supreme Court.
What interests me as much as the ruling is the opposite histories of the defendents in this week’s case, against whom a divided John Roberts Supreme Court ruled.
The Louisville, Ky., district wasn’t far removed from court-ordered desegregation, while the Seattle district never faced such judicial intervention. The same could be said of any number of district across the South, including Tulsa, which faced lawsuits during the 1960s and 70s and finally scrapped race-based admissions at Booker T. Washington High School and Carver Middle School in 2003 only to find the schools’ demographics hardly changed.
The Louisville district (actually, Jefferson County Public Schools), which was hauled into court because of Brown v. Board of Education, decades later became the co-defendent in a pivotal case that critics of the ruling say will undermine Brown’s promise of equality.
In an editorial, The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal put it well:
“It declared impermissible the very same achievement of integration that those earlier jurists had so wisely required, with such profoundly gratifying results for our society.”
Despte the differences between the Louisville and Seattle districts, both promoted the idea of campus diversity though race-conscious student placement. Louisville spent 25 years under court order, which only ended in 2000. Afterward, schools had to keep black enrollment between 15 and 50 percent, The Courier-Journal reported.
“Yet while the justices affirmed the value of diversity, the decision took away one of the tools school districts commonly use to achieve it,” The Seattle Times reported.
Race was used as a “tiebreaker” in Seattle and more broadly in Louisville.
Some, no doubt, will see the ruling as a welcome reigning in of schools that have gone overboard with social engineering. Other will pity the districts for trying to maintain what they were ordered or, if not, strongly encouraged to do years ago to combat state-sanctioned segregation. Still others will see affirmative action’s death knell.
Housing patterns have largely guaranteed segregated schools for most students. To me, the bigger issue is not whether a school is integrated (although that is important for exposure to other people, cultures and ideas) but whether students are getting an equal education. The ruling doesn’t deal with these broad topics.
Our corner of the world has been a legal battleground over civil rights. Brown was a Kansas decision, while in Little Rock, Ark., in 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard and allowed the “Little Rock Nine” to enroll at Central High School over the objections of Gov. Orval Faubus. The Army’s 101st Airborne Division provided security for the students.
Yesterday’s ruling has little to do with us, other than sparking a debate.
Help Wanted
OSU Regents have launched a Web site giving details about their search for a new president.
You can check it out at http://osu.okstate.edu/presidentialsearch/news.html
The site doesn’t give information on specific candidates, but details search criteria, along with facts about the land-grant university and photos of every OSU president since 1891.
Also included is a list of all 33 members of the search committee.
Visitors to the site can send in suggestions or nominate their own candidates for president.
Regents hope to hire someone this fall. Provost Marlene Strathe has been capably leading OSU as Interim President since David Schmidly resigned in March.
Who would you nominate as OSU’s next president?
Susan Simpson
Education Writer
Good for Nothing?
You can count on Jim Purcell to liven up a statistical report.
Purcell is the numbers guru at the State Regents for Higher Education. He compiles detailed, informative reports about the status of students, colleges and education funding in Oklahoma.
At today’s Regents meeting, he started a presentation about education trends with excerpts from a message sent in 1744 from The Indians of the Six Nations to William & Mary College.
“Several of our Young People were formerly brought up at the Colleges of the Northern Provinces: they were instructed in all your Sciences: but, when they came back to us, they were bad Runners, ignorant of every means of living in the Woods, unable to bear either Cold or Hunger, knew neither how to build a Cabin, take a Deer, or kill an Enemy, spoke our Language imperfectly, were therefore neither fit for Hunters, Warriors, nor Counselors; they were totally good for nothing.”
Purcell went on to talk about college-going rates and employment trends, but his introductory tale sure made me chuckle.
Susan Simpson
Education Writer
Why kids take AP classes
Maybe this is a no-brainer, but I found a Peterson’s survey about why students take AP courses interesting.
Although College Board oversees the AP program and wasn’t involved with the survey, Peterson’s is well-known for its education guidebooks and test preparation materials.
According to the approximately 300-student survey:
-AP courses are becoming ever more common.
-Last spring more than 1.2 million students around the globe took 2.1 million AP exams.
“This is no surprise considering the variety of benefits derived from taking AP courses and performing well on tests: earning college credit, demonstrating college-level proficiency to an admission committee and in-depth study of a subject. The powerful combination of these benefits was found to be the impetus behind taking AP courses for nearly half of college-bound students,” according to a Peterson’s press release.
Furthermore:
-Almost one-third of college-bound respondents said they take AP classes primarily because it will look good on their transcripts.
-The best time- and money-saving benefit—earning college credit with a high score on the AP exam—was the primary reason for less than one in five students.
-Love of subject matter was indicated only by a few as a sole reason for taking AP classes; less than one in ten students selected it as the primary factor.
Interestingly:
-Of students exploring seeking a graduate degree, four out of five took AP courses in high school. Of the remaining 20 percent who did not take AP courses, two-thirds wished they had.
-Likewise, nearly 50 percent of students looking into continuing education took an AP course in high school, and more than half of those who didn’t wish they had.
Outstanding foundations
Three public school foundations have been selected as recipients of the 2007 Outstanding Program Awards for Local Education Foundations from the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence.
Recipients are the Century Club Campaign sponsored by the Bixby Educational Endowment Foundation; the Principal for a Day Program sponsored by the Edmond Public Schools Foundation and the Academic Quest/Leadership Training Program sponsored by the Poteau Schools Education Foundation.
The awards, which recognize innovative programs of public school foundations in Oklahoma, will be presented at the Fall Forum for Local Education Foundations on Oct. 23 at the University of Oklahoma.
The Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence is a nonprofit organization that recognizes and encourages academic excellence in public schools. OFE provides free training and resources to new and established local education foundations across the state.
“We wanted to honor these programs for the positive impact they have in promoting academic excellence in their communities,” said Karen Rose, director of Local Education Foundation Outreach for the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence. “In addition, we want to recognize these amazing programs at our Fall Forum so that other public school foundations in Oklahoma can be inspired by their success and perhaps develop similar programs in their own districts.”
The new super
Incoming Oklahoma City Public Schools Superintendent John Q. Porter will begin his duties July 1.
I caught up with Porter on his cell phone while he was attending an education conference.
He has been busy since he was introduced in April as the district’s next superintendent. Porter probably has tallied some decent frequent flier miles commuting between the Washington, D.C., area and the middle of the country. He even has attended at least one school board meeting.
Lawyer Porter previously was a deputy superintendent for the 140,000-student school system of Montgomery County, Md.
Interestingly, Porter graces the cover of the inaugural issue of Education Week’s Digital Directions magazine. This isn’t the first time he has been on the cover of an education-related magazine.
Digital Directions conducts a Q&A with Porter. He describes how fellow information officers at school districts have contacted him for advice on how to ascend to the top job. Porter also explains how he expected to return to private industry when he ended his stint with Montgomery but fell in love with education.
“But over time … I became hooked and developed a great passion for education. I felt I had something to give back, and when I was promoted to deputy [superintendent], it gave me the opportunity to really see the breadth of what it meant to be overseeing a school district,” he told the magazine.
Best of luck to the new super, who seems ready to hit the ground running. Keep an eye on The Oklahoman for a profile of Porter.
Meanwhile, check out the OKCPS press release announcing his selection.
Books, backpack, umbrella
It’s been a soggy walk to class for many Oklahoma college students this summer. In some areas, it’s rained nearly every day since classes started leading to sodden papers, muddy flip-flops and washed-out sidewalks.
At Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Weatherford, the heavy rains have caused up to $100,000 in damages. While classes haven’t been interrupted, a retaining wall near the tennis courts collapsed, and Upward Bound offices, the Commuter Lounge and some basements flooded so the flooring must be replaced.
I asked OSU Interim President Marlene Strathe last week how the Stillwater campus landscape is fairing.
She said it’s a challenge just keeping the grass mowed, and some areas of campus are starting to get overgrown, along with water collecting in low-lying areas.
How is your campus managing the abundance of tropical weather? E-mail me at ssimpson@oklahoman.com
Susan Simpson
Education Writer
Wanna book?
I am turning into a micro-library here at my cubicle on The Oklahoman’s eighth-floor newsroom.
In recent weeks, my unsolicited additions have included:
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Massage
What’s there to say about this except, why me? Not only am I single, but my hands tire quickly. That, and a lack of patience, were why I never learned to play the beautiful guitar I still have in my closet. A masseuse or rock guitarist I am not. However, the book, like the other idiot’s guides I have seen, is complete and useful.
The Insider’s Guide to the Colleges 2008 Edition
Well, I began college long enough ago to not want to share when that was. Can’t let the interns hear that there are thirty-somethings in the building. They might reconsider their career choice.
The staff of the Yale Daily News writes the annual compendium, which purports to tell future students what they really want to know about their colleges from students there. It’s also a pretty impressive book. I just wish I cared enough to read it. If I were going to college or had a college-age child, it likely would be one of several books I would use for a varied perspective before spending tens (even hundreds) of thousands of dollars.
It’s description of my alma-mater, the University of Tulsa, was a bit cheerleaderish but nevertheless a pretty good look at the school. I had a good enough experience there.
Buzz
OK, this is great. I’m gonna hate having to part with it at our book grab. It’s a book about bugs, and three “Squash Me!” critters on the front — look to be a bee, mosquito and grasshopper — make bug sounds when you push the button. This is definitely a great way to elicit confused looks from co-workers.
The book’s pictures and ways to engage children are adorable (If you were an insect, what kind would you be? Check out the book to find out.), and it’s full of interesting facts about bugs. Did you know that one square yard of forest floor can contain as many as 1.5 million bugs. Sure, some of them are tiny and live in the soil, but they’re still there.
Buzz may have been intended for someone else here, but I got it and I’m holding onto it, at least for a little while.
This doesn’t include the Copy Editing for Dummies that I received a month or two ago and gave as a joke to a departing co-worker. Or the education policy books I often receive.
So, send me your books! New ones, please. Preferably ones that make noises.
Just the Facts
Hot off the presses today is the Southern Regional Education Board’s 2007 Fact Book for Higher Education.
Despite the long title, there are lots of interesting statistics about Oklahoma in the publication, which notes that across the region, college is becoming less affordable at the same time as population changes continue.
In Oklahoma:
* Enrollment of women increased 20 percent from 1995 to 2005, and the enrollment of black and Hispanic students went up 51 percent. Forty-six percent of Oklahoma freshmen who enrolled in public four-year colleges in 1999 graduated by 2005.
* The Hispanic population represented 47 percent of the state’s population growth from 1996 to 2006. By 2018, Hispanic students are expected to rise from 5 percent to 17 percent of Oklahoma’s public high school graduates. Black students are projected to decrease slightly from 9 percent to 8 percent of the state’s public high school graduates, and white students are expected to decline from 67 percent to 49 percent. American Indian students are expected to increase from 17 percent to 23 percent of graduates.
* For students in the middle fifth of family incomes, the cost of tuition and fees alone for one year at a public four-year college went from 5 percent of annual income in 2001 to 8 percent in 2006.
Read more at www.sreb.org
Susan Simpson
Education Writer
Double Digit Dilemma
OSU Regents, meeting today in Tulsa, are recommending tuition and fee hikes of 9.9 percent — which for the sake of simplicity, we’ll just call 10 percent.
For an Oklahoma student working toward their bachelor’s degree, the increase equals about $500 a year.
That’s a lot, or not much, depending on your situation. I don’t know a lot of college students who want to spend half a grand more on tuition. That money could pay for a Spring Break trip to the beach, buy an X-box 360, get 100 pizzas from Little Ceasar’s or hire a private tutor or two so they don’t have to take calculus AGAIN.
But then again, would those students rather that OSU keep tuition the same and not be able to give 3 percent raises to faculty, or pay higher health insurance premiums? If top faculty leave because they can get better jobs elsewhere, the quality of student education will certainly suffer.
It’s quite the dilemma and I’m glad I’m not making the tough choices. It reminds me of the adage, “A cheap education is not good, and a good education is not cheap.”
Susan Simpson
Education Writer
