Education Now for the week of March 28

Officials of the Los Angeles County Office of Education said they are committed to ensuring that International Polytechnical High School in Pomona is a continued success.

Although six of their certificated staff members received preliminary layoff notices, LACOE's interim Superintendent John Gundry said while he understands the concern for individual members of the teaching team, "the fact is LACOE is not making any cuts at iPoly and not one teaching position is slated for elimination in the 2011-12 school year."

The high school run by LACOE in partnership with Cal Poly Pomona, sent out the reduction-in-force notices to certificated staff earlier this month.

By law the notices had to be sent out by March 15 informing teachers, counselors, nurses and other certificated personnel that they may not have a job in the fall.

"However, other educational programs operated by LACOE are facing a decline in enrollment and are significantly overstaffed," Gundry said.

"This has resulted in a situation where we need to close teaching positions in these other programs in order to operate in a fiscally responsible manner with public funds."

Gundry's comments stem from a story last week when a student was quoted saying while he was happy they were receiving a new school, the school was also "about to lose one-third of our teachers."

On March 16, iPoly officials broke ground for a $20 million, two-story, 21-classroom building.

Gundry said although no teaching positions are being eliminated at iPoly, California law requires that "we retain teachers in the bargaining unit based on credential and length of service, regardless of their work location."

"Six iPoly teachers received reduction-in-force (RIF) notices because they have less seniority than others with appropriate credentials in their bargaining unit," he said.

"Despite any potential staffing changes, I am confident that the project-based approach to teaching and learning will continue to thrive at iPoly well into the future -- particularly as we look forward to the grand opening of a state-of-the-art facility for the school in 2012."

IPoly High serves 500 students from surrounding counties.

Thirty-eight San Bernardino County projects were crowned champions at the 22nd annual History Day competition on March 19 at Summit High School.

Among school districts, Upland Unified had the most county group and individual champions with 21, followed by Fontana Unified with seven.

Upland High had the most individual and group champions with 17.

The individual and group qualifiers advance to the California History Day competition in San Jose on April 28.

The county History Day event had as its theme "Debate and Diplomacy in History: Successes, Failures and Consequences."

History Day gives students a chance to compete in a variety of categories on a historical theme. The Elementary Division only has one category of competition, posters, according to a news release.

The junior and senior divisions compete in exhibit, documentary, performance, website and research paper categories.

Walnut Valley students named National Merit Scholarship finalists.

Forty-one Walnut Valley Unified School District seniors have been named 2011 National Merit Scholarship finalists.

These students first qualified as semifinalists for the 2011 National Merit Scholarship Program with their preliminary SAT scores, that were among the highest in the state.

Students advanced as finalists by completing detailed applications, meeting high academic standards, and other requirements for scholarships.

Walnut High students: Eric Bai, Aimee C. Chang, Tyrone Chang, Shulei S. Chen, Stephanie Chui, Sean Kow, Chih-Ying N. Lee, Bonnie R. Lei, Christopher L. Weng, Julia L. Win and Trish T. Yeh.

Diamond Bar High students: Asad Akbany, Ava Chang, Richard J. Che, Johathan Y. Chen, Joyi Chiang, Luke C. Chiang, Ping-Jung G. Chiang, Jacqueline J. Chow, Michael Z. Deng, Triet M. Do, Kenneth J. Han, Alexander Harvey, Amanda Ho, Gabrielle Ho, Matthew Im, Andrew John, Hanbiehn Kim, Michelle L. Koh, Justin H. Kong, Christopher Lee, Jover Lee, Manan P. Shah, Brandon K. Sim, I-Ju Soun, Liang-Kai Stotler, Ivan K. Teh, Emiley F. Tou, Curtis Y. Wang, Samuel Wang, Dennis Yuan, and Qun A. Zeng.

Vice President Joe Biden unveiled an administration plan last week to involve governors directly in efforts to boost college graduation rates while providing millions in financial incentives for colleges to do the same.

Speaking at an education summit in Washington, Biden suggested each governor hold a college completion summit, and he proposed a list of ideas to help them. President Barack Obama's goal for the U.S. to have the best college graduation rate in the world by 2020 is "a necessity," Biden said. "This is not an aspiration."

The plan offers seven "low-cost or no-cost" strategies -- with specific examples of how each is already being used in some places -- to improve college completion:

Korea has the best college graduation rate, with 58 percent of its population ages 25-34 having finished college; the U.S. is in a four-way tie for ninth place at 42 percent, according to a study published last year by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

To regain the top spot, the Education Department projects the nation will need to hike its completion rate by 50<TH>percent, which translates to an additional 8 million students earning associate or bachelor's degrees by the end of the decade.

The department published data March 22 showing the percentage of college graduates in each state as of 2009, the number of grads needed for each state to have a 60 percent completion rate by 2020, and the number needed for a 50 percent increase in completion in that same period.

The Education Department that same day announced $20<TH>million in grants for innovations designed to improve success and productivity at postsecondary schools.

The administration has proposed another $123 million in competitive funds for programs that speed learning, boost completion rates and hold down tuition.

A second proposed program of $50 million would reward states and institutions for producing more college grads. Education Department data shows that about one-third of first-year college students nationwide had taken at least one remedial course in the 2007-08 school year. At two-year colleges, 42 percent had taken at least one remedial course.

Check out the report at www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/ files/college_completion_tool_kit.pdf.

The California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office launched its new website with a mapping tool that will provide information on the different areas of studies and degrees offered on their campuses.

The site will be the Chancellor's Office central portal for students, parents, business leaders, policymakers and members of the media to get information about academic programs, degree and certificate offerings, systemwide initiatives and specific college information, according to a news release.

The site: http://CaliforniaCommunityColleges.cccco.edu.

The mapping tool: "Find a Community College"

"The groundbreaking Find a Community College tool is a quick and efficient way for students to look at the diverse colleges in our system and then make an informed decision on which is the best fit," said California Community Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott in a news release.

"Whether the student's goal is to graduate with an associate degree, transfer to a four-year university or complete a workforce training program, this tool will help them define a clear academic path."

The Chancellor's Office communications team developed five main areas of information that are sure to be the site's most visited:

Additional content will be added soon to the Find a Community College tool that will allow users to drill down to courses available at each campus according to academic degrees and certificates.

Suzanne Middle School received the first place award in a Pilot School Recycling competition. 

The Walnut school won in the Targeted Materials - CRV Beverage Containers -- tonnage -- competition of the 2010 California K-12 School Recycling Challenge.

Suzanne Middle School received a $100 check as a reward for the hard work and excellent performance by students and staff.

Suzanne's 90-member Conservation Club heads up the successful recycling effort on campus. The club is comprised of sixth, seventh and eighth graders.

Each classroom on campus has a small blue recycling bin for paper and/or plastic bottles and cans, and eight recycling receptacles are available on campus. Members meet every Tuesday after-school to collect recyclables from classrooms and the containers located around the school. 

The California Recycling Challenge is a competition and benchmarking tool for K-12 school recycling programs to promote waste reduction activities to their school communities.

Over a one-month period, schools reported recycling and trash data which were then ranked according to who collects the largest amount of recyclables per capita, the largest amount of total recyclables or have the highest recycling rate.

Winners of the competition included three school districts and nine individual schools.

In total, more than 148,000 pounds of materials were recycled during the competition between 84 schools and four districts throughout the state.

The school recycling completion is sponsored by Keep California Beautiful, an educational nonprofit dedicated to finding ways preserve and protect California's natural resources for generations to come.

Information technology students will compete for $1,000 in cash prizes and showcase their talents to potential employers at the 15th annual Information Technology Competition on April 16 at Cal Poly Pomona.

In the competition, professionals write a case study exploring a problem in IT. Competitors work in a team and have two weeks or less to come up with a solution and present it to a panel of judges, all of whom work in industry, according to a news release.

General admission tickets are available online for non competitors and include complimentary breakfast and lunch. Prices are $15 for students and $20 for CPP faculty, staff and community members. Ticket prices increase by $5 for those who do not register for tickets online.

The top sponsors of this year's ITC are Hitachi Consulting, Cie Studios and Information Systems Audit and Control Association as well as KPMG and LunarPages.com.