World Education News

Marialena Rivera learned a lesson growing up in San Antonio, Texas, when her family struggled to make ends meet before her parents went to college.
“As soon as my parents got their degrees, everything changed for us,” said Rivera, 27, who’s seeking her Ph.D. in education policy at the University of California, Berkeley. “They got better jobs. We moved into a gated community. We had a pool in our backyard.”
Rivera’s studies come as the number of Hispanics with doctorates jumped 161 percent from 1990 to 2010, almost double the non-Hispanic rate of 90 percent, according to U.S. Census data. People of Latin American or Spanish ancestry have emerged as a powerful voting bloc, courted by President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney on job-creation and economic issues.
“The growth that we’re seeing in Hispanic doctoral degrees is largely a product of the growth in the Hispanic population generally in the last 20 years, and to a lesser degree reflects some improvements in the economic situation and opportunities,” said John Moder, senior vice president and chief operating officer at the San Antonio-based Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities.
Nationwide, the Hispanic population more than doubled to 50.5 million in 2010 from 22.4 million in 1990, according to Census data. Hispanics comprised 16 percent of the U.S. population in 2010, America’s largest and fastest-growing ethnic group because of high immigration and birth rates, according to an August 2011 report by the Washington-based Pew Hispanic Center.

Student Growth

Since 2000, Latinos and Asians have driven the growth among young adults going to college, said Richard Fry, senior research associate specializing in education trends at the Pew center. Hispanics with a college degree increased to 13 percent in 2010 from 10 percent in 2000, according to Pew.
“There’s growing evidence that more young Hispanics are eligible for college because more are finishing high school,” Fry said.
Hispanics tend to be concentrated in states hit hardest by the housing meltdown, including California, Nevada and Florida.
“For some young adults, they’d rather work than go to college but they can’t find work because of the recession,” Fry said. “The dropout rates have declined because jobs are not available.”
Latino students credit teachers and advisers with steering them toward higher education by helping them find fellowships and scholarships.

Research Career

“When I went to college, I did not even know that I could have much of a research career,” said Felix Perez, 27, who is in his fifth year of doctoral studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.
As an undergraduate at California State University, Fresno, a professor helped Perez get a fellowship with funding that allowed him to focus on research.
“For Hispanics, that’s where they need help the most, is to be exposed to the field,” Perez said in a telephone interview.
U.S. immigration exploded from 1880 to 1920 as the industrial revolution drew about 20 million foreigners seeking manufacturing jobs and economic advancement. After the 1960s, the bulk of immigrants shifted from Europe to Latin America and Asia, with Hispanics composing the largest group. In 2010, Mexican-Americans made up 63 percent of the U.S. Hispanic population, according to Pew.

Second Generation

Second-generation Hispanic-Americans are more likely than their immigrant parents to have college degrees, higher-paying jobs, and be homeowners, according to a 2010 report by the Center for American Progress in Washington.
While white students seeking Ph.D.s at Berkeley outnumber Hispanics almost 7 to 1, their numbers are going in opposite directions. There were 385 Latino students pursuing doctoral degrees in the fall of 2011, a 46 percent increase in 20 years, according to Berkeley data. White doctoral students fell 25 percent to 2,529 in the same period.
“You have a combination of population growth and an increase in the pool of students available to consider getting a Ph.D.,” Lisa Garcia Bedolla, chairwoman of the Center for Latino Policy Research at Berkeley, said by telephone.

PLEASANTON, CA, Jul 24, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — KlabLab, the company leading the education revolution one song at a time, today announced the upcoming release of its first album, “One Night in Cell City,” debuting on iTunes Aug. 21. The seven-song album features educational songs related to astronomy, geology, biology and physics. The first single, “Newton’s Laws,” covering Sir Isaac Newton’s three laws of motion, is available on iTunes now for 99 cents. Learning about the solar system, cellular structure or the scientific method can be fun and easy when singing along to KlabLab’s original rock, pop and hip-hop tracks.
About KlabLab KlabLab is leading an education revolution one song at a time. Through collaborative learning and a powerful mashup of educational content and contemporary music, classroom experience and online engagement, KlabLab creates a new way to inspire today’s hyper-connected, super social students. KlabLab engages students to actively learn, create new educational content, share it with their peers and get rewarded for their efforts. The angel-funded startup is located in Pleasanton, Calif. and on the Web at http://www.klablab.com

The report released in late September by the department’s Office of the Inspector General also singled out state education departments in California, Florida and Arizona for lax monitoring of what charter schools do with the funds and whether their expenditures comply with federal regulations.
The education department’s Office of Innovation and Improvement spent $940 million from 2008 to 2011 on charter schools, which are autonomously operated public schools. Most of the money is funneled through state education departments, although some is given directly to charter schools.
The funds are administered through competitive grants aimed at helping launch new charters and replicate successful charter models.
The inspector general said the innovation office has not given proper guidance to states on monitoring the use of the money and does not have policies to ensure that states corrected deficiencies when they were found.
Additionally, the audit, which was conducted by San Francisco-based education research company WestEd, found that the office did not review expenditures to ensure they met with federal disbursement requirements.
The office has agreed to beef up its procedures to track federal funds and ensure states are adequately overseeing charter schools, the report said.
WestEd also examined state charter oversight policies in California, Arizona and Florida, which collectively received $275 million in federal funds for charter schools from 2008 to 2011.
Among the findings:
— In California, which has received nearly $182 million in federal charter grants from 2008 to 2011, auditors found “significant weaknesses” in charter oversight, such as school reviewers being unqualified to conduct on-site school visits. One reviewer felt “awkward” conducting site visits because of a lack of knowledge and experience, the report said.
— In Florida, state officials had no records of which schools received federal grant money nor which schools received on-site monitoring and audits. Florida received $67.6 million.
— In Arizona, which received about $26 million, reviewers lacked a monitoring checklist and thus collected inconsistent data when they visited schools.
The office has agreed to beef up its procedures to track federal funds and ensure states are adequately monitoring charter schools.
California Department of Education spokeswoman Tina Jung said officials in Sacramento had just received the report and were reviewing it, but she acknowledged that the department had been aware of oversight deficiencies.
“Even before this review, we recognized the need to build our monitoring capacity, and that effort has already begun,” she said.