SBCTC NEWS LINKS | Articles about – and of interest to – Washington state community and technical colleges
SYSTEM NEWS | OPINIONS
Community, technical colleges offer solid path to success
Commentary by John W. Walstrum, Clover Park Technical College president. The path toward the middle class must include some post-secondary education. The 70,000 students attending Bates and Clover Park technical colleges and Pierce and Tacoma community colleges don’t need convincing that they need cutting-edge, applicable skills to ensure their success in attaining positions in the post-recession economy.
The News Tribune, April 26, 2011
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/04/26/1640220/community-technical-colleges-offer.html#ixzz1KeWBXXCQ
Enumclaw's Jared Schiff named to 2011 All-USA Academic Team
Green River Community College engineering student Jared Schiff has been named to the 2011 All-USA Academic Team recently in New Orleans. Schiff is one of only 20 community college students from around the country named to the ALL-USA team. … He was named the state’s New Century Scholar by Gov. Chris Gregoire at a state ceremony last month.
The Enumclaw Courier-Herald, April 26, 2011
http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/south_king/ech/news/120720589.html
Longview School District puts the brakes on auto shop classes
Citing high costs, declining student interest and scheduling issues, Longview school officials plan to scrap the district's decades-old high school auto mechanics program at the end of the school year. The decision to cut the program comes six years after the school district and Lower Columbia College jointly built a $455,000 auto shop and classroom alongside Lower Columbia College's Don Talley building.
The Daily News, April 26, 2011
http://tdn.com/news/local/article_4faf8d0a-6fa4-11e0-b3cb-001cc4c002e0.html
Author who extends story of Huck Finn to appear in Port Angeles, Port Townsend
The story, which Sadie Watson tells her granddaughter Marianne as she ponders marriage, is set down in My Jim, one of the acclaimed novels by Peninsula College’s 2011 writer-in-residence, Nancy Rawles. The Jim in the title is the escaped slave Mark Twain immortalized 127 years ago in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Peninsula Daily News, April 26, 2011
TRENDS| HORIZONS | EDUCATION
On the Radar
Community colleges can no longer fly under the radar. Too many people have been paying too much attention to us lately, including the President of the United States. … Nor do we fear being held accountable for our stewardship of the public money we receive. I dare say we do more with less than any other sector of education in the country. We just want to be judged fairly, which means not being held to the same standard as four-year colleges. An institution with an open-door policy, accepting high-school dropouts with GED’s, students returning to school after 20 years, and non-native speakers, is simply not going to have the same output as an institution with highly selective admissions. … I worry that so much of the attention paid to community colleges has focused on “workforce development” — to the exclusion, I fear, of the liberal arts. Yet more than half of community-college students nationwide come to us with the intention of transferring to a four-year institution, which means that teaching the core curriculum — essentially, the liberal arts — is one of our primary missions.
The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 21, 2011
http://chronicle.com/blogs/onhiring/on-the-radar/28593?sid=cc&utm_source=cc&utm_medium=en
How Colleges Can Ensure Quality, Not Inequality
Our public-school system fails to teach basic skills to the poor and isolates them from other walks of life. Higher education can be different.
The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 24, 2011
http://chronicle.com/article/How-Colleges-Can-Ensure/127233/?sid=cc&utm_source=cc&utm_medium=en
Whose Top 10%?
The Aspen Institute College Excellence Program released a list of what it considers the 120 “best” community colleges in the country Monday, kicking off a multistep, data-driven process for identifying a single institution to receive its $1 million award for “community college excellence.”
Inside Higher Ed, April 26, 2011
POLITICS | LOCAL, STATE, NATIONAL
Murray ‘very concerned’ at education cuts
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., boosting federal worker training programs, said Tuesday she is “very concerned” at state cuts to community college spending and House Republican proposals to wipe out federal dollars. … She is working across party lines to “update, reform and reauthorize” the federal Workforce Investment Act that has invested in employment-related programs for youth as well as the adult workforce. Murray is also introducing a bill called “Promoting Innovations to 21st Century Careers,” aimed at encouraging public-private partnerships, in her words, to “bridge the gap from school to work” and help older workers upgrade skills.
Seattle PI, April 26, 2011
http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2011/04/26/murray-very-concerned-at-education-cuts/
Probst’s dropout prevention bill passes
A bill that would give cash awards to Washington schools and school districts that reduce their student dropout rates is headed for Gov. Chris Gregoire’s desk. House Bill 1599, the Pay for Actual Student Success Act, passed the Senate in the last hours of the legislative session.
The Columbian, April 26, 2011
http://www.columbian.com/news/2011/apr/26/probsts-dropout-prevention-bill-passes/
Compiled by the Washington State Board for Community & Technical Colleges
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