Schools: August 2008 Archives

With a slumping economy and a spike in financial-aid applications, college student Tiffany Dorgan found getting help for school was so tough this year that she had to use her credit card to pay for tuition. Connie Llanos in the Daily News.

"It is risky," acknowledged Dorgan, a physical-therapy graduate student at California State University, Northridge.

"But I had to. This is a product of this horrible economy."

Schools across the country are seeing a tremendous increase in demand for student aid this year, fueled both by the slumping economy and rising tuition costs.

As Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's school partnership takes over 10 of Los Angeles' lowest-performing schools, his ambitious reform plan is being met on the campuses with both skepticism and hope.George Sanchez in tDaily News.he

Seven of the 10 schools' principals decided they didn't want to be part of the mayor's experiment and asked for transfers to other campuses just months before classes started.

The others remained, and the mayor has now brought in his own administrators to implement his vision. But while some of those who left said they were just looking for a different challenge or planning to retire soon anyway, others said they didn't have faith in the mayor's vision or methods.

It arrived on campus in a plain white, No. 10 envelope, mixed in with the daily collection of invoices, fliers and other junk in the regular mail. Connie Llanos in the Daily News.

Inside the envelope: a check for $5 million.

The gift mailed to California State University, Northridge recently is one of the biggest the campus has ever received - and nobody knows who sent it. The anonymous donor, using a bank based in Scottsdale, Ariz., simply requested that it be used for student assistance and scholarships.

Despite ongoing efforts to boost test scores and achievement, Los Angeles Unified students showed only slight gains in state results released Thursday and continued to lag below statewide averages.

And more than two-thirds of the Los Angeles Unified School District's Latino and African-American students fell even further short in math and English standards, triggering renewed calls to end the "achievement gap" facing minority students. George Sanchez in the Daily News.

The LAUSD's Latinos and African-Americans also fell short of their minority counterparts statewide in California's Standardized Testing and Reporting, or STAR, program, which measures proficiency in English, math, science, reading and writing.

"There's a gap, and it's not closing fast," said Ford Roosevelt, president of Project GRAD, a nonprofit group with the motto "Graduation Really Achieves Dreams" that is helping northeast San Fernando Valley students graduate from high school and move on to higher education.

After operating as a traditional Los Angeles Unified school for more than 50 years, Colfax Avenue Elementary will switch to a charter this fall after a frustrated staff voted to break with the district's rules. George Sanchez in the Daily News.

The school's staff voted nearly unanimously for the switch earlier this year, saying they wanted to have more freedom to choose curriculum and from the district's ability to switch school administrators at whim.

Still, teachers at a school that converts to charter risk losing years of accumulated district benefits, so the staff chose to become an "affiliated" charter - a hybrid approach that offers a degree of freedom but still lets teachers retain district benefits.

Colleges across the Southland are expecting a surge in international students this year, part of a nationwide trend that many experts attribute to a weak dollar.Connie Llanos in the Daily News.

At the University of Southern California, applications for international students grew by 10 percent this fall. Loyola Marymount saw a 33 percent spurt and University of California, Los Angeles, reports a 25 percent increase.

Nationwide, the government issued 10 percent more student visas this year, and colleges across the country are reporting increases in international student applications.

The backpack Evangeline Arafiles slings across her shoulder each morning holds the tools of her trade: a lilac-color stethoscope, thermometer, oximeter, penlight and stopwatch. Susan Abram in the Daily News.

There isn't a Band-Aid in sight.

As a school nurse at Lowman Special Education Center, Arafiles oversees about 150 students, and there often is another registered nurse with her on site.

State funding to build new charter schools would increase sixfold in four years - to more than $100million - under a clause tucked into a larger bill that has won strong support from traditional charter-school opponents.George Sanchez in the Daily News.

The influx of cash would significantly boost the growing charter-school movement in California as proponents have aggressively lobbied for more funding and space amid growing demand for the schools.

The provision for charter funds was added to legislation to provide more funding for multitrack year-round schools. An earlier version of the bill was vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who pushed for the plan to instead include more charter funding.

After long negotiations, last-minute changes and criticism from members of its own bond oversight committee, the Los Angeles Unified School District board unanimously decided Thursday to put a $7 billion bond measure on the November ballot. George Sanchez in the Daily News.

The bond would be the biggest in LAUSD history and would bring local charter schools an unprecedented source of wealth.

It is expected to cover 10 years of growth, although it only represents a dent in the some $60 billion in construction that district officials say will ultimately be needed over the long term.