Literacy Expert Louisa Moats Draws Over 200 Teachers From Across the State

American College of Education announces that more than 200 Indiana reading and literacy teachers attended a professional development conference at the Indianapolis Convention Center on Oct. 24 featuring literacy expert Louisa Moats, Ed.D. The Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) and Wilson Education Center collaborated with the online college in sponsoring the day-long program, “Teaching Reading Is Rocket Science.”

Dr. Moats, founder of the LETRS(R) (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) Louisa Moats Literacy Academy, discussed code-based instruction, spelling phonology and teaching vocabulary, basing her presentation on Scientifically Based Reading Research (SBRR) and real-world experience.

Support for improved teaching methods includes statistics showing that 11 to 17 percent of children are affected by dyslexia, nearly 40 percent of fourth graders are at the national “below basic” reading level, and up to 80 percent of high poverty students are at risk of failing.

Recent data from the College Board further stresses the need for advances in teaching reading, reporting that scores on the critical reading portion of the 2011 SAT college entrance exam resulted in the lowest level on record. The cohort of test takers was the largest and most diverse in history.

“Teachers from across the state of Indiana were engrossed in the depth of Dr. Moats’ knowledge and her research-based presentation,” said Sandra J. Doran, J.D., president of American College of Education. “Her enthusiasm and commitment to enhanced teaching of reading and comprehension skills based on common core standards encouraged many teachers seeking to improve their students’ success.”

K-6 reading teachers have the opportunity to enroll in “The Foundations of Reading Instruction,” a five-week, graduate-level, online professional development course offered by American College of Education. Designed by Dr. Moats the course begins on November 28 and is the first in a new course sequence leading to a Master’s in Education in Curriculum and Instruction with a Louisa Moats Literacy Concentration. Teachers may enroll at http://wesc.k12.in.us/fotr.htm by November 21. For more information about this course and other graduate-level courses offered by American College of Education, visit American College of Education live chat or call 1-800.280.0307.

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About American College of Education: The mission of American College of Education is to deliver affordable, online degree programs that provide evidence-based content and relevant experiences to improve educators’ knowledge, skills and performance. American College of Education is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission and is a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (HLC/NCA). www.ace.edu

Virtual schools allow students to obtain or complete their education using modern technology such as the Internet. They are not for everyone but are another tool educators now have available to achieve the goal of an educated population. Virtual schools recognize the need to focus on learning outcomes regardless of how education is delivered.

Traditional one-size-fits-all teacher/classroom public education is as antiquated as the one-room schoolhouse. Modern public education has been evolving for a number of years, though it isn’t recognized as such by many people who are not educators.

In Jackson-Madison County, the public education system already is comprised of a number of specialized magnet schools that offer unique education opportunities. High schools offer dual-credit college courses that can give students a head start on higher education. A new Bridge Academy was established to accommodate non-traditional students. Pre-kindergarten classes are available throughout the school system to help prepare at-risk children for learning. Special programs exist to help special-needs students and students with advanced learning capabilities. The school system has an alternative school for students with discipline problems, though it still does not fully meet their needs.

Another development is a proposal to reconfigure the school system’s middle schools to address the special needs of those students. Research has shown that this age group is where many students begin to lag behind. Addressing their specific needs is a hallmark of modern, flexible, public education.

While not exactly public education, home-schooling programs exist to allow parents another alternative to educate their children. These programs meet state public education requirements and often are partly integrated with local public school activities.

Traditional classroom education still meets needs of many students. Increasingly, however, other alternatives are called for to help today’s students and families meet the challenges of a rapidly changing, high-tech world. Public education, too, must adapt to these needs with innovation and creative thinking. This calls for public education administrators, teachers and parents who embrace change. It also calls for public support as new methods are adapted and new ideas are experimented with.

The goal of public education is to turn out students prepared to meet a rapidly changing future. How we get them there is not as important as reaching the final destination.

Using brain scans, a team of UC San Francisco researchers have discovered that people over age 60 are less agile in switching from one neural network to another — which means that brief attention-grabbing interruptions can undermine their ability to recall the original task.

“A lot of us feel the need to respond really rapidly to an email or text message,” said Dr. Adam Gazzaley, director of the UCSF Neuroscience Imaging Center and senior author of the study, which was published in Monday’s issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

If we stop what we’re doing to send a reply, Gazzaley says, “there may be a price to be paid.”

While others have observed that aging adults experience difficulty completing a task after a distraction, no one had explored neurological science to learn why.

The problem is central to daily life as increasing numbers of digital distractions — such as electronic messages, alerts and feeds — demand our attention, interrupting the process of retaining information from deep learning.

The topic has growing relevance “especially as older adults stay in the workplace later “… and the societal expectations increase about how quickly we should respond” to interruptions, Gazzaley said.

In the study, the UCSF team compared two groups of healthy people, one averaging 24.5 years in age and the other averaging 69 years. Using “functional magnetic resonance imaging,” which reveals the activity of different neural networks, the team tracked and compared the blood flow in the participants’ brains.

Both groups were asked to view a natural scene, and hold it in mind for 14 seconds. But in the middle, an interruption occurred: a face popped onto the screen, and participants were asked to identify its sex and age. Then they were asked to recall the original scene.

Older people had more difficulty than younger people in maintaining the memory of the original image.

The brain scans showed why: Younger subjects could quickly disengage from the original image, respond to the interruption and then refocus their memory back onto the original scene. But older adults failed both to disengage from the interruption and re-establish the memory of the original scene. They continued to process the interrupted — and irrelevant — information, rather than suppress or forget it.

What’s to blame is not merely the memory, a problem familiar to many older adults, said Gazzaley.

Rather, it’s an impairment of the ability to shift between two neural networks: one for attention, and the other for memory.

“The impact of distractions and interruptions reveals the fragility of ‘working memory,’ ” he said.

Scientists speculate that the prefrontal cortex, which shrinks in volume as we age, may hinder the ability of the brain to “switch tracks” with agility.

It’s known that the brain retains a certain amount of plasticity in life — that is, it can be trained to respond to a faster pace. So there may be generational differences in our ability to multitask simply because younger people have more practice in handling interruptions, Gazzaley said. If so, perhaps older adults could be trained to better handle distractions, he said.

“We think that multitasking is a good thing, because it makes us more efficient,” he said.

“But this data suggests that performance declines when engaging in more than one thing at a time.”

However, Coleman, speaking outside a state House subcommittee hearing on public university budgets, declined to say whether the university will raise tuition to make up for the cuts. She said that decision was still under consideration.

Coleman was one of four university presidents who spent today before House and state Senate appropriations committees explaining the impact the cuts proposed by Gov. Rick Snyder would have on their institutions.

Oakland University President Gary Russi told a Senate subcommittee that previous budget cuts resulted in higher tuition hikes than he would have liked. “We’ve done a lot with what resources we have,” he said. “It is getting harder to address financial aid.”

The presidents argued against further cuts. “You’re going to make heart-wrenching decisions,” Ferris State University President David Eisler said. The state has made a “decade-long disinvestment in students,” he said.

The governor’s proposed budget would cut 15% from each university’s state appropriation. It would also shift funding from the general fund to the school aid fund.

Snyder has also proposed an incentive pool that would reward universities for holding tuition increases under 7%. That incentive would add back between roughly 5-10% of the 2011-12 appropriation amount based on the university’s average tuition/fee increase over the last five years.

John Nixon, the budget chief, told the House appropriations committee that a larger budget cut was necessary for the universities because of the state’s overall budget crisis, according to Nixon’s spokesman, Kurt Weiss.

The goal is “take the hit now and not just nickel and dime it,” Nixon told the committee.

Coleman reminded legislators that U-M has been through tough economic times before and has grown through them. That growth has helped the university continue to develop its value for students, she said.

“I will not allow its value to diminish under my leadership,” Coleman said. “We’ve shown great discipline in our fiscal management. In all our cost containment measures we protect our core mission – academics and research.

Coleman said U-M has cut more than $130 million in six years by scaling back on expenses ranging from utility costs to planting fewer flowers.

“When we look to reduce costs, it’s always with an eye to our academic mission,” she said. “Students and families see U-M as a value for their dollar.

U-M’s Board of Regents voted last July to lower the amount of the endowment it pays out to the general operations of the university from 5% of the total endowment to 4.5%.

Coleman said having that endowment, the second-largest of any public university in the U.S., has allowed it to weather a “horrific” investment market.

Effective Jan. 1, 2012, new regulations will establish more accountability on the behalf of insurance providers. Because University-sponsored insurance is mandatory for students, these new regulations will not affect students’ ability to obtain health insurance coverage.

In smaller ways, students may experience some benefits.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, insurance companies will not be allowed to levy lifetime coverage limits on student health plans, drop students’ coverage when a student becomes ill but has an error on an application, or deny coverage to students who are younger than 19 and have pre-existing conditions.

Before the health care law was enacted, many students were covered only under their parents’ plans until they were 21 years old, but the new act allows them to stay on until age 26. This means Washington University students will be able to use their parents’ insurance as secondary coverage in addition to the University-sponsored plan.

Virginia Wells, director of the health center at the College of William & Mary, a public university in Williamsburg, Va., attested to the health care law’s measurable benefits.

“When students require hospitalization or specialty care away from the confines of the University Health Center, their parents’ health plan becomes their secondary coverage, which helps offset the charges which may have exceeded the limits of their primary plan,” Wells said. “Before the affordable health care act, undergraduate and graduate students over the age of 21 would not have the option of this secondary coverage.”

Nearly 3 million college students participate in university-sponsored health plans across the country, according to recent studies, and more than 2,000 colleges and universities collaborate with insurance companies to provide students, faculty and staff with health care.

Washington University partners with Aetna to provide all full-time undergraduate and degree-seeking graduate students with health insurance. Some provisions included in the student health plan are a $500,000-per-year maximum, a $350 preferred-care deductible, a $10,000 out-of-pocket maximum and 80 percent coinsurance for covered expenses.

Bradley Stoner, associate professor of anthropology and medicine at Washington University, said that the University student health plan offers standard coverage that is comparable to insurance available to the general public.

“For a young, healthy student body, these kinds of limits and coverage should be pretty good,” he said.

According to Alan Glass, assistant vice chancellor and director of the Habif Health and Wellness Center, the University anticipates few significant changes to the student health insurance program for the 2011-2012 academic year.

For the 2010-2011 school year, the student health fee is $575. According to the Student Health Services website, this fee covers the Aetna health insurance policy, care and services rendered at the health center and the equipment used to treat patients. The insurance premium makes up 70 to 75 percent of the student health fee. The premium is guaranteed to remain the same despite projected increases in the student health fee.

“The student health fee for 2011-2012 will be no higher than $632 for the basic student plan,” Glass wrote in an e-mail to Student Life.

Earlier this year, University of Washington alumni formed a group, UW Impact, to push for more funding for the university. Both Washington State University and Western Washington University are following suit with groups of their own.

The newest group, the College Promise Coalition, was announced Tuesday. It’s an umbrella group that includes public colleges and universities, faculty and student groups, business leaders and education organizations. “This is a broader statewide coalition that will help play a coordinating role” among all the different groups, said spokesman Sandeep Kaushik.

The coalition plans to hold events and rallies in Olympia during the legislative session, Kaushik said, and “make some noise about higher education” and the cutbacks the state’s institutions face.

The coalition is concerned that Gov. Chris Gregoire is downplaying the size of the cuts to higher education proposed in her budget, Kaushik said. Gregoire has said her cuts would trim higher education by 4.2 percent, when tuition increases are taken into consideration.

The coalition says the cutbacks are closer to 8 to 12 percent. The higher number includes a proposed 3 percent salary reduction for state employees, and a proposal that would shift the burden of funding faculty and staff retirement plans to the colleges and universities.

The University of Maryland’s proximity to the nation’s capital has resulted in strong research partnerships with the Federal government. Many members of the faculty receive research funding and institutional support from agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Department of Homeland Security.

As of fiscal year 2009, the University of Maryland, College Park’s operating budget was projected to be approximately $1.531 billion. For the same fiscal year, the University of Maryland received a total of $518 million in research funding, surpassing its 2008 mark by $117 million. As of June 30, 2010, the university’s “Great Expectations” campaign had exceeded $750 million in private donations.

The university has been recognized as a “Public Ivy” and is currently ranked among the top national universities in the 2010 U.S. News & World Report rankings. It has been consistently ranked one of the world’s top 50 universities by the Academic Ranking of World Universities report (ARWU).

University of Maryland College Park

Motto Fatti maschii, parole femine (Italian)
Motto in English Manly deeds, womanly words
Established 1856
Type Public university, Land-Grant, Space-Grant, Sea-Grant
Endowment $457,420,743 (as of 2009)
President Acting: Nariman Farvardin, effective September 1, 2010 Incoming: Wallace Loh, effective November 1, 2010.
Provost Nariman Farvardin
Academic staff 3,996
Admin. staff 5,116
Students 37,195
Undergraduates 26,542
Postgraduates 10,653
Location College Park, Maryland, United States
38°59′17″N 76°56′41″W / 38.98806°N 76.94472°W / 38.98806; -76.94472
Campus Suburban, 1,250 acres (5.1 km2)
Colors Red, White, Black, and Gold
Nickname Terrapins
Mascot Testudo
Athletics NCAA Division I
Affiliations ACC, AAU, MAISA, Fields Institute, Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area
Website http://www.umd.edu

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Academically, the University of Toronto is noted for influential movements and curricula in literary criticism and communication theory, known collectively as the Toronto School. The university was the birthplace of insulin and stem cell research, and was the site of the first practical electron microscope, the development of multi-touch technology, the identification of Cygnus X-1 as a black hole, and the theory of NP completeness. By a significant margin, it receives the most annual research funding of any Canadian university.

The Varsity Blues are the athletic teams that represent the university in intercollegiate league matches, with particularly long and storied ties to gridiron football and ice hockey. The university’s Hart House is an early example of the North American student centre, simultaneously serving cultural, intellectual and recreational interests within its large Gothic-revival complex.

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University of Toronto
Latin: Universitas Torontonensis
Motto Velut arbor ævo (Latin)
Motto in English As a tree through the ages
Established March 15, 1827
Type Public university
Endowment C$1.286 billion
Chancellor David Peterson
President David Naylor
Faculty 2,551
Staff 4,795
Undergraduates 33,371
Postgraduates 11,638
Location Toronto, Ontario, Canada
43°39′42″N 79°23′42″W / 43.66167°N 79.395°W / 43.66167; -79.395Coordinates: 43°39′42″N 79°23′42″W / 43.66167°N 79.395°W / 43.66167; -79.395
Campus Urban, 71 hectares (176 acres)
Former names King’s College (1827–1849)
Colours Blue White
Nickname Varsity Blues
Athletics CIS, OUA, CUFLA
44 varsity teams
Affiliations AAU, ACU, AUCC, G13, IAU, URA, WUN
Website utoronto.ca