GSU Undergraduate Research Conference proposals accepted through January

Georgia State University undergraduates and their faculty advisors should start thinking about research and artistic projects they would like to enter into this spring’s Georgia State University Undergraduate Research Conference.

Proposals for the conference, to be held March 16, 2011 at the Student Center, are due on Jan. 28, said Deborah Garfin, faculty associate for undergraduate research. Work can include poster presentations, oral presentations or artistic displays. Proposals should be submitted online at http://www.gsu.edu/gsurc/22214.html.

“Students from all departments across the university are encouraged to submit proposals,” Garfin said. “GSURC provides a unique opportunity for students to participate in a research conference and discuss their projects with other students and faculty.”

Every presentation must have a GSU undergraduate student as the primary author or artist, and a Georgia State faculty sponsor. Work presented at a previous GSURC cannot be submitted for the 2011 conference.

Last year’s winners included:

• Provost’s Award and 1st place poster award: Julia Eidelman, biology

• 1st place oral award: Imani Mandela, African-American studies

• 1st place art and design: Emily Pidgeon, art and design (photography)

• 2nd place poster: Taiwannika Walker, sociology

• 2nd place oral: Keisha Parker, applied linguistics and ESL.

More information for presenters and faculty sponsors is available at www.gsu.edu/gsurc.

-----
Community News You Can Use
Click to read MORE news:
www.GeorgiaFrontPage.com
Twitter: @gafrontpage & @TheGATable @HookedonHistory
www.ArtsAcrossGeorgia.com
Twitter: @artsacrossga, @softnblue, @RimbomboAAG
www.FayetteFrontPage.com
Twitter: @FayetteFP

National Alliance for Public Charter Schools Hails Appropriations Conference Agreement

/PRNewswire/ -- National Alliance for Public Charter Schools President and CEO Nelson Smith issued the following statement on the Senate-House Conference agreement approved last night that will fund the U.S. Department of Education and the federal charter school programs for Fiscal Year 2010:

"The Conference Report agreed upon last night includes a $40 million increase over the current fiscal year funding for the federal charter school programs and marks a significant down-payment on President Obama's promise to double federal charter support during his term. It also includes significant innovations sought by the Administration and the Alliance that will speed the deployment of our highest-performing models to communities that need them the most.

"For the first time the Secretary of Education will now be able to reserve a portion of Charter School Program (CSP) funding for direct grants that support the replication and expansion of successful charter school models. This authority will give new hope to students in need of better options by putting high-achieving new schools in their communities. At the same time, the appropriations will continue to support the creation of innovative new schools by providing ample start-up and implementation funding to be distributed through state education agencies.

"We applaud Congress and the Administration for insisting that states use these new funds not just to start more charter schools, but to create high-quality schools that have the freedom to operate and are held accountable for results. This is the approach strongly advocated by the National Alliance and charter leaders in the states. Chairman Obey, Chairman Inouye, Chairman Miller, Chairman Harkin, and the Administration have worked to include these quality assurances in the bill, and we appreciate their efforts. They have put the needs of students above all else in this appropriations process."

This year's Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies bill includes $256 million for the federal charter school programs, the highest amount ever appropriated and a $40 million increase over FY2009. The total includes $50 million that can be directly competed by the U.S. Department of Education to support the replication and expansion of successful charter models; over $23 million to support the Credit Enhancement for Charter School Facilities Program and the State Facilities Incentive Grants; and up to $10 million dollars to support National Activities grants to further develop a sound infrastructure of support for high quality charter schools.

Additionally, $10 million dollars was included in the U.S. Department of Education FY2010 appropriation to support planning grants for the Administration's Promise Neighborhoods Initiative, a new program (in collaboration with the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Choice Neighborhoods Initiative) inspired by the Harlem Children's Zone. The Conference agreement also includes $400 million dollars for the Teacher Incentive Fund, a $303 million increase from FY2009, providing strong new support for performance-based teacher compensation programs.

Congress must now approve this package and send it to the President for his signature before the current Continuing Resolution funding the U.S. Department of Education and other federal departments and agencies expires on December 18th.

-----
www.fayettefrontpage.com
Fayette Front Page
www.georgiafrontpage.com
Georgia Front Page

Model UN Conference comes to Georgia State

This week, Georgia State University welcomed more than 450 high school students to step into the shoes of United Nation's delegates and experience the inner workings of the world's most influential governmental organization.

The College of Education and the Department of Political Science hosted the 15th annual Model United Nations Conference on Wednesday (Nov. 11), and on Thursday (Nov. 12) in the Georgia State Student Center. The event was open to the public to observe, but students had to register by October to participate.

High school students from across the state, as well as their teachers and advisors, will be participating in the two-day conference. Each school will represent one or more delegation from the UN and will be assigned to a committee to debate issues being discussed at the United Nations. The committees will also discuss issues such as human rights, environmental issues, piracy, economic development and globalization.

"The Model United Nations conference at GSU provides a unique opportunity for high school students to learn through a hands-on simulation of the United Nations," said Joseph Feinberg, a Georgia State assistant professor of middle-secondary education and High School Model UN faculty advisor. "They develop and enhance important academic and real-world skills, such as negotiating with others, debating important topics, and supporting arguments."

As "delegates," high school students will make speeches, prepare draft resolutions, negotiate with allies and adversaries, resolve conflicts and navigate the Model UN conference rules of procedures. Prior to the conference, the high school students researched topics their committees will address and studied the policy and needs of their representative countries.

The Model UN helps extend what high school students learn in the classroom through a hands-on experience and gives them the opportunity to see international issues from outside the American perspective, Feinberg said.

Georgia State students and alumni, who will chair committees and help run the event, also benefit from the Model UN conference.

"The conference is a great learning tool for everyone attending. High school students are sharpening their skills in areas such as debating, negotiating policy, and research. College students leading the committees are advancing their leadership skills and learning how to run a conference" said Kyle Proctor, a GSU alum helping organize the conference.

Such skills will come in handy this spring, when the Georgia State students assume delegate roles and travel to the National United Nations Conference in New York, which is their most prestigious competition. The GSU team will once again try to take home the top prize for Outstanding Delegation, as they did last April.

-----
www.fayettefrontpage.com
Fayette Front Page
www.georgiafrontpage.com
Georgia Front Page

Youth Success Strategies Conference at Georgia Aquarium

The Georgia Mentoring Partnership, the Georgia Parental Information & Resource Center, and the Adolescent Family Life Project, in partnership with Communities In Schools of Georgia, are conducting a joint conference to provide resources and help participants better serve at-risk students. The event is open to anyone who wants to learn more about mentoring, parent engagement, dropout prevention and other youth development strategies. Participants will learn how innovative ideas and techniques can help establish and maintain effective school and community-based programs. Hot topics that are frequently in the news, with suggestions on how to manage, will also be discussed. Visit www.cisga.org for more details and registration information.

WHAT: Youth Success Strategies Conference
WHO: Individuals and organizations working with at-risk students
WHERE: Georgia Aquarium
WHEN: November 16-18

Event topic highlights and speakers include:

-- Games that Children Play, interactive session to help adults
understand the influence of Hip Hop music
-- Navigating the School System
-- In preparation for National Mentoring Month in January, Dr. Susan
Weinberger, known nationally as "Dr. Mentor," provides mentor/mentee
activities
-- How to Mentor Children of Prisoners
-- Byron Garrett, CEO of the National PTA, keynote luncheon speaker

-- Cathy Berger Kaye, Service Learning Expert


CIS is the nation's largest dropout prevention organization. CIS partners with local school districts and community organizations to connect needed resources and services to kids and families. In Georgia, 42 CIS local affiliates and 21 Performance Learning Centers(R) (PLCs) provide services to more than 160,000 students in 54 school systems. Key programs include mentoring, tutoring, parent education, literacy, after-school programs, youth leadership, and PLCs. PLCs are geared toward high school students who are not succeeding in the traditional school setting. Communities sponsoring CIS programs have seen an increase in their school graduation rates, a decrease in violence and disruptions, and an increase in attendance and academic achievement. For more information, visit www.cisga.org or call 404-897-2955.

-----
www.fayettefrontpage.com
Fayette Front Page
www.georgiafrontpage.com
Georgia Front Page

Foundations, Higher-Education Leaders Explore Models to Increase Access

/PRNewswire/ -- On this historic campus that is the original nineteenth-century home of Emory University, twenty invitees representing some of higher education's most respected institutions have come together to discuss an issue with important implications for U.S. education in the twenty-first century: how to make higher education available more broadly and equitably to current underrepresented groups while also maintaining academic excellence and addressing financial and policy concerns. The conference, "Transformative Models in Higher Education," was organized by the University of Michigan's Center for Advancing Research & Solutions for Society (CARSS), hosted by Emory University and funded by the Ford Foundation.

Groups participating in the conference, held June 18-19, were education researchers, higher-education administrators and foundations with a strong focus on education. Researchers came from the University of Michigan's CARSS, School of Education, Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education and the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching; the University of Virginia's Curry School of Education; Indiana University's National Survey of Student Engagement; and Wabash College's Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts. MDRC, a nonprofit education and social-policy research organization, was also represented. Higher-education administrators and foundations represented included the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Educational Testing Service, Lumina Foundation, Jack Kent Cooke Foundation and the National Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good. Also participating in the conference was Derek Bok, president emeritus of Harvard University, who gave the keynote address.

The focus of consideration was organizational and programmatic models that have fostered high levels of participation and academic success for students from underrepresented minority populations with the goal of identifying "active ingredients" in the programs' success. These were being examined in part because, following the 2003 Supreme Court decision in a case involving the University of Michigan, criteria used to promote minority participation in the past will not be as applicable in the future. The models presented included Lone Star College-CyFair Campus (Texas), the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill's C-STEP Program, the Posse Foundation and Oxford College.

Special attention was given to Emory's Oxford College. Located 38 miles east of Emory University's Atlanta campus, Oxford is one of Emory's nine academic divisions. One-fifth of the students in each Emory freshman class choose to begin their baccalaureate studies with Oxford's liberal-arts-intensive program, which spans their freshman and sophomore years. As juniors, they continue their studies on Emory's Atlanta campus. At Oxford, students have a smaller student body (approximately 750 students total), lower average class sizes (approximately 19) and faculty who, in the absence of academic majors and graduate programs, have the luxury of focusing primarily on classroom teaching. Forty-seven percent of students at Oxford come from minority populations, and many are the first in their family to attend college. These students enjoy high levels of academic success and degree completion at Emory. Oxford places great importance on teaching methods that produce active, engaged learning and, as a two-year course of study, offers unusual leadership opportunities for freshmen and sophomores.

"We were honored to assemble such a stellar group," said Earl Lewis, Emory University provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, who convened the conference. "Their discussion of the Oxford College program gave us invaluable feedback and analysis, and their enthusiasm helps fuel our efforts to make this now-unique model better known."

Conferees concluded that the Oxford model could be applied or adapted at a large number of research institutions. Organizers from CARSS are distilling the conclusions from the conference with the intention of identifying the possibilities for applying existing models and developing new ones.

-----
www.fayettefrontpage.com
Fayette Front Page
www.georgiafrontpage.com
Georgia Front Page

Teachers' Time to Learn

The University of West Georgia and the College of Education will host its annual Learning Festival on Wednesday and Thursday, June 3-4 at the Education Center. The festival is free and the community is invited to attend.

The two-day conference is an exceptional opportunity for administrators, teachers, parents, homeschoolers and community residents to learn and share a wide range of teaching experiences.

Guest speakers include State Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox, 2008 National Teacher of the Year Michael Geisen of Prineville, OR, and 2009 State Teacher of the Year Leanne Maule from Cartersville High School.

Learning Festival 2009 will offer participants a conference-style program on reading and math pedagogy in the classroom with approximately four concurrent sessions available throughout the day.

Topics include Creating and Using Building Profiles of ELL Student Proficiency to Support Instruction, molecular mechanics and civic projects for middle and high school students.

PLU and graduate credits will be available to participants. A PLU is a unit of credit granted to Georgia educators based on 10 contact hours of formal instruction or its equivalent.

Coordinators hope classroom teachers will realize their contribution to the quality of life in area schools and their communities as well as be inspired and renewed.

Registration is ongoing. For more information or to register, go to www.westga.edu/~festival.

-----
www.fayettefrontpage.com
Fayette Front Page
www.georgiafrontpage.com
Georgia Front Page
www.artsacrossgeorgia.com
Arts Across Georgia

Special education expert, consultant highlight CSSE Summer Institute June 8-9

University of Illinois special education professor Lisa Monda-Amaya and educational consultant Ron Walker will be the keynote speakers at the first Communication Sciences and Special Education Summer Institute June 8-9 at the University of Georgia.

Nearly 200 early interventionists, speech-language pathologists and special educators from around the state are expected to focus on topics such as intervention and treatment skills, working with children and families of diverse backgrounds and collaboration.

“By connecting research and practice, this inaugural event will provide cutting edge information pertinent to an interdisciplinary audience of professionals interested in individuals (ages birth through school-age) with developmental disabilities and special needs,” said Laura Clark, project coordinator for UGA’s SPECTRUM (Special Education Training and Mentoring on the Web) program.

The conference’s break-out sessions include topics such as Strengthening Partnerships: Effective Collaboration and Co-teaching; Stimulating Language in Bilingual Infants and Toddlers; The New Wave: What Special Educators Need to Know about the Law; and Teaching the Many, While Disciplining the Few.

Monda-Amaya, an expert in strategies to keep students with disabilities in the general classroom, has coordinated teacher preparation programs in the department of special education for nearly 18 of her 20 years at the University of Illinois and has published her research in journals such as Exceptional Children and Special Education.

She has been heavily involved in teacher preparation and certification activities at the state level and has worked to influence policy decisions in Illinois. She has served as an officer on the National Board of the Teacher Education Division of the Council for Exceptional Children for four years and in the Illinois Teacher Education Division for 14 years.

Walker is president of Walker Educational Consulting, Inc., which is the educational consultant for the National Professionals’ Consortium on Attention Deficit Disorders.

Walker’s career in education spans three decades and began in the classroom where he taught at both elementary and secondary levels. He was an administrator at Woodward Academy in Atlanta, where he directed a program for college-bound learning disabled students; he was a middle school principal; and he directed both day and boarding programs for the DePaul School in Louisville, Ky. Walker has spent the last 15 years working with more than 700 school districts in more than 30 states, giving workshops, providing school consultation and speaking at conferences.

The two-day conference, a special College of Education Centennial event hosted by the department of communication sciences and special education, will be held at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education Conference Center and Hotel.

Registration costs $275 and the deadline is June 1. For more information or to register, see www.georgiacenter.uga.edu/conferences/2009/Jun/08/csse_summer.phtml.

-----
www.fayettefrontpage.com
Fayette Front Page
www.georgiafrontpage.com
Georgia Front Page
www.artsacrossgeorgia.com
Arts Across Georgia

UGA to host conference on state/federal roles in education policy May 1

Nearly 100 state policymakers, school administrators and University of Georgia faculty will gather to hear about and discuss how the nation’s new Congress and administration may re-shape the federal role in education policy at a Friday, May 1 conference hosted by the UGA College of Education.

The conference, titled, Changing Horses or Paddling Harder? Reconsidering the State/Federal Relationship in Education Policy, will feature faculty and student research that critically examinesthe programs and policiesof the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (currently the No Child Left Behind Act).

UGA Regents Professor Jeremy Kilpatrick, one of the nation’s most renowned scholars in mathematics education and keynote speaker at the conference, will deliver a luncheon address titled, “Education Policy in Transition: The White Papers Project of the National Academies.”

Over the past year, Kilpatrick has co-chaired a committee on mathematics and science education for the National Academies’ “Education Policy White Papers Project,” an initiative to help policymakers in the new administration and Congress better understand key education issues and help them create more effective policies by providing them with independent, research-based information.

Kimberly Robinson, an associate professor at Emory University Law School, will open the conference with an address titled, “A New Theory of Education Federalism: How Collaborative Federalism Would Reinvent the Federal Role in Ensuring Equal Educational Opportunity.”

Robinson teaches education law and policy, and civil procedure and has extensive litigation experience from her work for the Office of the General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Education and Hogan & Hartson, L.L.P., in Washington, D.C.

Elizabeth DeBray-Pelot, an associate professor and associate director of UGA’s Georgia Education Policy and Evaluation Center, will follow with an address titled, “Reflections on Congress, the New Administration, and the Institutional Environment.”

The conference also will include three panels of UGA education faculty and students which will provide multiple perspectives on a range of topics including the impact of No Child Left Behind, federal legislation and the needs of subgroups, and policy design and resource allocation.

The conference, which will be held from 8:45 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Rooms K-L at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education, is sponsored by EPEC in conjunction with the Georgia Assessment Center, the Learning and Performance Support Laboratory and the Center for Latino Achievement and Success in Education, all based in the UGA College of Education.

It is the second statewide spring conference on education policy hosted by EPEC. The center also hosted its first State of the State of Education Conference last fall.

-----
www.fayettefrontpage.com
Fayette Front Page
www.georgiafrontpage.com
Georgia Front Page
Follow us on Twitter: @GAFrontPage

Georgia Aquarium Hosts Education Conference September 22-24

Education Conference for nonprofit organizations working with at-risk students
Georgia Aquarium
September 22-24, 2008

PRNewswire-USNewswire -- The Georgia Mentoring Partnership (GMP) and the Georgia Parental Information & Resource Center (GA PIRC), in partnership with Communities In Schools of Georgia, are conducting a joint conference to provide resources and help participants better serve at-risk students. The event is open to anyone who wants to learn more about mentoring, parent engagement and other dropout prevention strategies. Participants will learn how innovative ideas and techniques can help establish and maintain effective school- and community-based programs. Hot topics that are frequently in the news, with suggestions on how to manage, will also be discussed. Visit www.cisga.org for registration information.

Event topic highlights and speakers include:

Financial literacy for youth provided by the FDIC

Gang awareness, what to look for, and how to minimize it (including a separate session on the infamous most dangerous gang, MS-13 and its infiltration in the southeast)

Dr. Susan Weinberger, known nationally as "Dr Mentor"

Susan Taylor, former editor of Essence magazine and now with the National Cares Mentoring Movement

Ron Clark, founder of the Ron Clark Academy

CIS is the nation's largest dropout prevention organization. CIS partners with local school districts and community organizations to connect needed resources and services to kids and families. In Georgia, 50 CIS local affiliates and 29 Performance Learning Centers(R) provide services to nearly 135,000 students in 66 school systems. Key programs include mentoring, tutoring, parent education, literacy, after-school programs, youth leadership, and PLCs. PLCs are geared toward high school students who are not succeeding in the traditional school setting. Communities sponsoring CIS programs have seen an increase in their school graduation rates, a decrease in violence and disruptions, and an increase in attendance and academic achievement. For more information, visit HYPERLINK "http://www.cisga.org/" www.cisga.org or contact Catherine Broussard at 404-897-2955 (w) or 404-788-9044 (c).

-----
www.georgiafrontpage.com
Georgia Front Page
www.fayettefrontpage.com
Fayette Front Page