Leaping Lawyers!
If you graduated from law school in 2006, then you probably are too busy working to read this post.
That’s because nearly 91 percent of grads gained employment within the first year.
The Association for Legal Career Professions says the employment market for new lawyers has remained relatively strong and stable for about a decade. (I’ll let you decide why that is … more lawsuits, more crime, more politicians?)
But not all the new attorneys are making big bucks. Only 14 percent were making more than $135,000 a year. Four in ten were earning $55,000 or less.
Here’s more:
* 75 percent got jobs for which passage of the bar was required.
* Just 2 percent were pursuing an advanced degree like an LLM
* The most common employment setting was private practice within a law firm.
* Public service employment, like public defenders and government jobs, accounted for 27 percent of jobs.
* Women were more likely to take government, judicial clerkship and public interest jobs.
What do you think? Do we need more lawyers, and do they get the respect they deserve?
Let me know at ssimpson@oklahoman.com
Susan Simpson, Education Writer
Oklahoma’s rural schools
After getting tipped off about a new U.S. Department of Education Report, “Status of Education in Rural America,” I did my customary search for mentions of Oklahoma before embarking on reading the entire report.
Interestingly, although the report doesn’t single out Oklahoma, and only mentions that state in lists with the other 50 (and the District of Columbia), Oklahoma largely stands alone in its proportion of city, rural, town and suburban students. Data are from 2003-04, which is a typical lag time for federal statistics to wind up in reports.
Oklahoma is in the low-middle in its percentage of city students. In terms of suburban students, its percentage is fairly low, although there’s a lot of spread. Its percentage of students in towns is fairly high, comparatively speaking, and its percentage of rural students
Admittedly, the definitions are complicated, but what the numbers show, to me, is clear. Although North Carolina comes fairly close overall, and Tennessee isn’t too far off, Oklahoma has fewer city, suburban and rural students than many southern states yet more students in towns.
According to the report’s appendices, a town is considered a territory inside an urban cluster (although not near a city of 100,000 or more) that is 10 to 35 miles from an urbanized area.
So, what does all this mean?
Oklahoma has a number of small, yet not too small, towns and hundreds of school districts. Although rural Oklahoma (by my definition, not the report’s) has lost people for years, it’s still educating a lot of kids and is perhaps healthier, from the perspective of school enrollment, than most other southern states.
But I could be wrong. That’s just my two cents.
Keeping track of your kids
Putnam City parents now can go online to check their children’s grades, attendance and more.
Among its bells and whistles, ParentCONNECT allows parents to check on a child’s assignments, receive an e-mail if he or she misses class or fails to turn in homework.
The service is free. It is password-protected and linked only to a parent’s child.
Going back to a conversation we had last week here on The Oklahoman’s eighth floor, getting your child’s whereabouts (or when he or she isn’t in class) beat implanting a microchip in the skin. Leave that for pets.
I like the idea of being able to check assignments, homework, etc., but the real draw to me of this service is the e-mails if a child skips class or doesn’t turn in something.
To sign up, visit https://parentconnect.putnamcityschools.org.
“We don’t expect or even want ParentCONNECT to take the place parent-teacher conferences, phone calls or any kind of interaction that takes place now between parents and school staff. We see ParentCONNECT as an added tool to make sure there is the strong school-to-home connection that helps students succeed,” Superintendent Jim Capps said in a press release.
Moo-ving to College
There’s a funny cartoon in this week O’Collegian, the student newspaper at Oklahoma State University.
It’s a drawing of a calf asking its mother the whereabouts of their livestock trailer.
The cow answers “Hauling the kid to Stillwater.”
Maybe I laughed because it struck home. Until about two years ago when I finally hired a moving company, I’ve used my family’s livestock trailer for every move I’ve ever made.
Moving to Stillwater as an OSU student, I didn’t even think it odd that my meager belongings got there in a trailer more suited to bovine. (The key here is making sure the trailer is cleaned very well before the move.)
I suppose if I had been moving to Norman, it might have drawn a few double-takes.
After all, OU offers valet services for some of its dorms. You can hire people to take your belongings from your moving van into your room. If you pay them even more, they’ll come clean your bathroom every week.
Maybe cash-trapped ranchers can start hiring out their trailers to students — a Cowboy moving company if you will. It may not be luxurious, but a little baling wire and some duct tape would keep your things secure.
What’s the strangest way you ever got your belongings from Place A to Place B? How will you be moving to college this summer?
E-mail me at ssimpson@oklahoman.com
Susan Simpson, Education Writer
College students drink? No!!!
I’m resisting the urge to make fun here, but it’s soooo hard.
A new study from the University of Missouri shows freshman and sophomore college students under 21 years old who possess fake IDs often — wait until you hear this — drink!
The study examined fake ID ownership (Mental note: Can you ever really “own” something that is both fraudulent and illegal?) and “heavy” alcohol consumption, according to a Mizzou press release.
Over two years, the number of students with fake IDs more than doubled. Students belonging to fraternities or sororities were more likely to own a fake ID.
“The biggest finding is that having a fake ID is a risk factor for additional drinking – drinking that might not otherwise be occurring,” said Kenneth J. Sher, professor of clinical psychology. “The other piece is how ubiquitous it is – how many underage drinkers have a fake ID. Basically, being a heavy drinker predicts the likelihood that someone will obtain a fake ID, and having a fake ID predicts that someone will be a heavy drinker.”
Research included more than 3,700 students. Researchers assessed the drinking habits of participants in the summer prior to entering the university and during their first four semesters, asking about how often students drank five or more drinks in a setting, felt high on alcohol or got drunk on alcohol.
The study, “Fake ID Ownership and Heavy Drinking in Underage College Students: Prospective Findings,” was published in the American Psychological Association journal Psychology of Addictive Behaviors.
“Currently, around the nation people are concerned about underage drinking,” researcher Julia Martinez said. “One of the big issues is how are these kids accessing alcohol. One of the ways to get alcohol is with a fake ID, and that has been understudied.”
One week left
The First Book contest to win 50,000 books for Oklahoma children at risk for low literacy is almost over.
The state is in first place, but Texas, Louisiana and Nebraska are gaining.
Including today, there are only nine more days in the contest, so organizers ask that you vote every day through July 31. To vote, click on http://www2.firstbook.org/whatbook/index.php. You’ll be asked what book got you hooked on reading, and why. To select Oklahoma as the recipient of 50,000 books, pull it down from a drop-down menu.
According to literacy advocate First Book, which is sponsoring the giveaway, the majority of children from low-income families have no books in their homes or classrooms; as a result, direct access to books for these children is limited.
Middle-income children have a book-to-child ratio of 13 to 1, while there is one age-appropriate book per 300 children in low-income neighborhoods.
More than 80 percent of preschool and after-school programs serving low-income children have no age-appropriate books. Children from low-income families have been exposed to an average of 25 hours of one-on-one reading, compared to 1,000 to 1,700 hours for middle-class children.
No Child Left Behind scores from 2005 show 36 percent of all 4th-graders scored “below basic” in reading proficiency. Fifty-four percent of 4th-graders eligible for the school lunch program scored below basic in reading.
From 1992 to 2005, middle school students’ reading scores remained virtually unchanged.
Get out there and vote!!!
Study Break
It’s time to study. For lawmakers, at least.
The Oklahoma Senate has announced 35 interim legislative studies, and several are tied directly to education.
Here are the topics — some rather broad — along with the Senator who requested the study and committee it was assigned to:
Graduation and drop out rates; GED requirements and rules; Thunderbird Youth Academy; Sen. Kathleen Wilcoxson; Education committee
Academic Performance Index; Sen.Kathleen Wilcoxson; Education committee
“Weighted” students, “at risk” students, and the proportion of funding schools receive; Sen. Judy Eason-McIntyre; Education committee
Funding mechanism for (OSU) Extension Services; Sen. Jeff Rabon; Appropriations committee
Review of the higher education funding formula as it relates to two year and regional institutions; Sen. Kenneth Corn; Appropriations committee
Higher Education funding formula with respect to institutional peer groupings; Sen. Susan Paddack; Appropriations committee
Review the constitutional and statutory requirements for serving on the Oklahoma State Board of Regents for the Agricultural and Mechanical
Colleges; Sen. Patrick Anderson; Education committee
What are your thoughts on this list? Do you think anything will come of the committee studies?
E-mail me at ssimpson@oklahoman.com
Susan Simpson, Education Writer
The race to go global
State Superintendent Sandy Garrett’s speech and a video that preceded it had some sobering information we all ought to consider.
Garrett’s speech came during her annual leadership conference.
Read Garrett’s speech here.
See the video here in QuickTime format and here in Windows Media Player format.
A few excerpts:
- If you’re one in a million in China, there are 1,300 people just like you.
- The 25 percent of Chinese people with the highest IQs exceed the population of North America.
- China will soon become the number one English-speaking country in the world.
Now, the heady stuff.
- Today’s student will have 10 to 14 jobs by age 38.
- One out of four workers currently works for a company with whom they have been employed for less than a year.
- Former Education Secretary Richard Riley predicts the top 10 jobs in 2010 didn’t exist in 2004.
- One out of every eight couples who married in the United States last year met online.
- The number of text messages sent and received every day exceeds the planet’s population.
- A week’s worth of The New York Times contains more information than a person was likely to come across in a lifetime in the 18th century.
Now, the stuff that gives me hope and nightmares at the same time.
- By 2013, a supercomputer will be built that exceeds the computational capacity of the human brain.
- By 2023, a $1,000 computer will exceed the brain’s computational capacity.
- By 2049, the $1,000 computer will exceed the computational capacity of the human race.
Say what you will (and many people have) about Garrett’s push for longer school days and school years. The video is stark and speaks for itself.
A clean bill of health
Four schools recently received awards from the state Department of Education for their excellent financial accounting.
Having seen school district accounting from the inside — uncertain finances at budget time; uncertain actions from the Legislature, Congress and the courts; and a budget process that seems to begin shortly after it ends — I appreciate the complexity of school finance and the need for solid numbers.
The Norman district was so passionate about receiving the award that it worked with state education officials to go over everything it had been marked down on last year.
The result was a stellar score.
The Norman district received the award for the large district category.
Other recipients were:
- Tishomingo Public Schools (Johnston County)
- Mason Public Schools (Okfuskee County)
- Brushy Public School (Sequoyah County)
Cheating news
I received another e-mail today from my favorite test-security experts, Utah’s Caveon Test Security. This stuff is never boring, folks. Caveon reports:
1.) TIME
(Vietnam) …In recent years, entrance-exam fraud has been highly publicized in local media. Last year, two dozen students were caught being fed answers through Bluetooth headsets concealed under wigs. Earlier this month, police busted a ring issuing fake IDs to university students who were to take the test for struggling prospective scholars. The price? $2,500 — more than twice Vietnam’s average annual wage. In response to concerns over cheating, authorities have beefed up security, calling in local police and even the Public Security ministry to guard exam sites….
2.) San Francisco Chronicle
…More than 30 years ago, Donald Campbell, an eminent social scientist, warned about the danger of measuring effectiveness by a single influential metric. The more any quantitative indicator is used for decision-making, he said, the more subject it will be to corruption and the more it will corrupt the very process it is intended to monitor. The use of high-stakes testing is precisely the kind of process that Campbell’s Law unwittingly foresaw. When attention is focused on standardized test scores to the exclusion of other factors in evaluating educational quality, the stage is ideally set for unethical behavior. Uprep, however, is not alone. And neither are charter schools….
3.) Institute for War and Peace Reporting – London
(Kazakhstan) …According to the press service, the man was arrested as he attempted to sell a compact disc for 1,300,000 tenge (around 10,600 US dollars) containing 10,000 codes of correct answers to UNT questions. During a subsequent police raid prompted by the arrest, NSC employees found large sums of money – 25,000 dollars, and over 2 million tenge (around 16,000 dollars) – said to have been received for assistance in passing the UNT….
4.) Inside Bay Area – Oakland, Calif.
…This year, Padia said, investigators found 2005 algebra and geometry test booklets at the school — a major security breach. As a result, he said, Uprep’s standardized test scores for 2007 will be invalidated as well. “This is pretty serious, in terms of having actual copies of the test,” Padia said. State education officials have asked Oakland school district officials to take over the investigation and to handle the administration of future state tests at the school, Padia said….
5.) ArmyTimes.com – Springfield, VA
…Thomas was a test examiner for the Office of Personnel Management when, between September 2000 and February 2002, she received a total of about $1,500 in cash for boosting ASVAB scores for about 70 applicants, according to court documents. The documents also state that Thomas conspired with Guard recruiters when determining which test scores to manipulate….
6.) SFGate.com – San Francisco
…Now, eight former teachers assert in a 27-page report to state and local education officials that a culture of cheating exists at the school. And they say it’s done at the top level. The teachers claim: — Students’ grades are frequently falsified. — Course titles don’t always match the easier content tested. — Low-scoring students are barred from taking state-required exams in an attempt to keep them from lowering the school’s scores. — Discipline is arbitrary and intimidating….
7.) Naples Daily News – Naples, FL
…The number of students taking online courses is surging, which is making things very difficult for educators who want to prevent cheating. “We have gone from testing with paper and pencil to almost exclusively online,” said John Pribanic, a testing specialist at Edison College in East Naples…
What do you think about the test cheating and its prevalence? E-mail me below to let me know.
