SBCTC NEWS LINKS | Articles about – and of interest to – Washington state community and technical colleges
SYSTEM NEWS | OPINIONS
BTC Awarded Grant For Hospital Employee Training Program
Bellingham Technical College is getting a big grant to continue helping local hospital workers move forward in their careers. The more than $570,000 grant from the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges will support BTC’s “Hospital Employee Education and Training” program
KGMI Radio, November 9, 2011
http://kgmi.com/BTC-Awarded-Grant-For-Hospital-Employee-Training-P/11427745
Low-income Running Start teens get break
The Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) voted at its Oct. 27 meeting to grant tuition waivers to low-income high school students who take more than 15 credits of college courses through Running Start.
The Herald, November 9, 2011
http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20111109/TWH06/711099926
Meeting today will discuss how to help students in times of budget cutting
Educators and state lawmakers will host a community forum at 6 p.m. today on how to serve the needs of students in public schools and colleges in times of budget cutting. State Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe, D-Bothell, and Reps. Derek Stanford, D-Bothell, and Luis Moscoso, D-Mountlake Terrace, are organizing the free event. Among those joining them are Eric Murray, president of Cascadia Community College; … and David Woodall, president of Lake Washington Institute of Technology.
The Herald, November 9, 2011
http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20111109/NEWS01/711099823
TRENDS| HORIZONS | EDUCATION
7 Community Colleges Open an Online Doorway to Better Grades and Graduation Rates
Its Online Student Portal learning system, a Web site, assesses the learning styles of at-risk students (whether they learn best through reading, hearing, or hands-on work) and helps them understand how their personality traits might connect to study and career choices. It also provides a ready link to college counselors and instructors, allowing them to send so-called "early alerts" Now Central Piedmont, with money from Next Generation Learning Challenges, a nonprofit group focused on improving college readiness and completion, is providing the technology, free, to six other colleges to see if the Web portal can produce similar results in other places. "We just had a 13-percent budget cut, and classes grew from 24 to 30 students," says Sue Olesiuk, interim dean for academic success at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, also in North Carolina, which started using the system this summer. "This technology makes it much easier for us to stay in contact with students." And frequent contact translates into successful students, she says.
The Chronicle of Higher Education, November 6, 2011
http://chronicle.com/article/7-Community-Colleges-Try-an/129605/
Former Gates Official to Lead WGU Texas
Mark David Milliron, who recently announced his resignation from a high-profile position with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has been named chancellor of Western Governors University Texas.
Inside Higher Ed, November 10, 2011
http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2011/11/10/former-gates-official-lead-wgu-texas
Gov't. effort: $10 Internet, $150 computers
A third of Americans don't have high-speed Internet service at home, and that can be a challenge as daily life, from schoolwork to job hunts, increasingly goes online.
Now, the federal government is trying to open up access to more people with a new initiative to provide $150 laptops to free- and reduced-school lunch-eligible families, and two years of $9.95 per month Internet service to free school lunch-eligible families. Executives and non-profit leaders from leading Internet service providers, technology companies, and non-profits have made in-kind commitments. "Connect to Compete" -- a national private and non-profit sector partnership run outside the government -- will implement the initiatives. Connect to Compete will launch national pilot programs beginning in the spring of 2012.
CBS News, November 10, 2011
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-502303_162-57321326/govt-effort-$10-internet-$150-computers/
Retaining the STEM Dropouts
A recent story in The New York Times highlights the high attrition rate among STEM majors. … According to the NYT, some 40% of students that enter college planning STEM majors end up switching to other fields or failing to get a degree at all. … Much of the focus on STEM education shortfalls has been on the failures of K-12 classrooms to adequately prepare students. But as the NYT points out, this doesn't begin to explain the whole story of what is happening, particularly at the college level. The students who are abandoning science and math majors aren't just those who've struggled in science and math; they are some of the brightest students, those with great aptitude, good high school backgrounds and strong AP and SAT scores. And they're also the students at some of the most prestigious and competitive schools in the country.
Inside Higher Ed, November 10, 2011
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/hack-higher-education/retaining-stem-dropouts#ixzz1dLiMsXeC
POLITICS | LOCAL, STATE, NATIONAL
For-Profits See Opportunity in Texas Higher Ed Woes
For-profit institutions see opportunities in the declining state support for public institutions, disappointing graduation rates, and questions about productivity and efficiency.
Such schools, often referred to as career colleges, have their own well-publicized problems, including steeper price tags than some public schools, higher student loan default rates than other sectors and lingering suspicions about quality. It’s not uncommon to see an exposé questioning a for-profit college on the evening news.
Texas Tribune, November 10, 2011
THURSDAY LITE NEWS
Who did it?
The trash can has been raided with the contents spread all around the kitchen floor. Who is the culprit?
Horizon Animal Hospital Videos, October 22, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaRtHs4_3fE&feature=related
Compiled by the Washington State Board for Community & Technical Colleges
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Sherry Nelson | communications and outreach associate
Washington State Board for Community & Technical Colleges
1300 Quince St SE · PO Box 42495 · Olympia WA 98504-2495
slnelson@sbctc.edu | p (360) 704-4308 | f (360) 704-4415 | c (206) 369-6509
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