Bullying has been around since the dawn of civilization, but in today’s constantly connected world, students are no longer able to leave it at school. A rash of bullying on social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace has pushed several teens over the edge. Perhaps the most troubling thing about it: teachers, friends, parents, and school officials knew about the bullying and allowed it push these kids to do the unthinkable. Dubbed “cyber-bullying”, this problem needs to be addressed immediately and with harsh consequences.

The Cyber-Bullying of Alexis Pilkington

Alexis was a 17-year-old from West Islip, NY. She was taunted online on a newer social networking site called formspring.me. This young woman was a successful high school soccer player who’d already landed herself a scholarship for her abilities. Her parents are downplaying the role that cyber-bullying had in her suicide, which brings me to my first point:

• This must be taken seriously. Many adults consider social networking sites to be more of a diversion, giving it the kind of weight that they might give to video game violence. The fact of the matter is, though, that these students grew up with these sites. Clearly, the teens who’ve taken their own lives felt strongly about their reputation on these sites. For them, it’s not a matter of simply deleting an account or ignoring emails. Whether or not you agree with how they felt doesn’t matter; anything that can affect someone like this must be taken seriously and dealt with immediately.

Perhaps more horrific than Alexis’ suicide is the fact that the taunting continues after her death. Photoshopped pictures of her with a noose around her neck have been posted to her profile page, and hate-filled messages continue to roll in. The police are monitoring her various pages, but unfortunately, being an evil sociopath isn’t considered criminal activity.

• Where are the parents? It’s true that kids today are more connected than ever before, with the ability to post from any computer, anywhere, but this doesn’t let parents off the hook. No parent wants to be despised for being overbearing, but come on, people, your little monsters are murderers. If you are a parent, check out your kid’s page now and again, read the comments and posts, check out the pictures. Letting your children run wild all over the Internet is like letting them loose in a Lord-of-the-Flies-meets-Clockwork-Orange pornography shop. Your job doesn’t stop when your kid logs on; it’s just getting started.

Phoebe Prince: Nine of Her Peers Are Facing Felony Charges

Phoebe’s family had recently moved from Ireland, which, as one of her fellow students states, was “probably one reason why they chose [her].” And just what was it that they chose her for? The list of felony charges faced by her cruel classmates includes statutory rape, harassment, stalking, and violation of civil rights with bodily injury. Local district attorney, Elizabeth D. Scheibel said that “The investigation revealed relentless activities directed toward Phoebe to make it impossible for her to stay at school,” and that the conduct of those charged, “far exceeded the limits of normal teenage relationship-related quarrels.” The real kicker? Ms. Scheibel noted that “The actions of these students were primarily conducted on school grounds during school hours and while school was in session.”

• Where are the responsible adults? Teachers usually have a pretty good idea of what’s going on at school. The gravity of the situation might now always be apparent, but it’s almost always clear that something is going on. If a teacher finds out that a student is being abused by an adult at home, they are obligated to report it. Why, then, didn’t the teachers involved in these cases feel at the very least morally obligated to put a stop to the bullying? If there’s ever been a good argument for homeschooling, this is it. When educators, the very people we trust to take care of our children while they’re at school, drop the ball like this, it’s offensive, horrific, and should be punishable by law.

After Phoebe’s death, another parent came forward, reporting a similar situation with his daughter and one of the girls being charged in Phoebe’s case, one that went on for three years and, thankfully, did not end in suicide. The school district is awarding the family $50,000 and has issued an apology that came with a promise for increased training, saying that “they should have handled it differently.” Talk about an understatement. That bully should have been expelled and sent to a juvenile detention center. It took the death of one of her victims to finally have something done, and frankly, that makes me sick.

These Are Not Isolated Cases

Jon Carmichael, 13, hanged himself because of bullying at school just last week. In 2007, Megan Meier, 13, hanged herself because a fake online boyfriend created by neighbors turned abusive; the whole thing was done by adults looking for revenge because Megan had stop being friends with their daughter. The list goes on.

In closing, I implore you to do what you can to stop this trend. Whether that means activating parental controls or talking to kids who seem depressed, you can make a difference and help stop this kind of thing from happening again. Our children rely on us; don’t let them down.

Beating out the District of Columbia and 38 other states, Tennessee and Delaware are in line for hefty education grants. At present, Tennessee and Delaware are slotted to get $500 million and $100 million, respectively. This money promises to be a part of some major overhauls in public education for the two states.

Race to the Top Round One Picks: Why TN and DE?

The question on the minds of those states that didn’t perform in the Race to the Top is: why Tennessee and Delaware? U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said that these two states had an amazing amount of support from educators, school districts, and even business leaders, showing that there’s a statewide commitment to excellence in education. These two states produced comprehensive plans to improve public schools and have even written new laws to support these plans.

Because of the emphasis on accountability and student achievement, Tennessee got extra points for their student data tracking system, which, for years, has enabled them to trace student achievement all the way back to individual teachers. Part of the TN proposal is to update and enhance this system in the 2011-2012 school year. Delaware also has a teacher evaluation system that will be getting a shot in the arm with the federal money.

Round Two: More than $3.5 Million Left to Dole Out

In round one, Georgia and Florida came in third and fourth, but they won’t be seeing a dime unless round two treats them better. Every state save the two winners is eligible to submit proposals for round two, which will be due June 1, 2010. With more then $3.5 million left to dole out, this multi-round tactic has states scrambling for the money.

The Department of Education took quite a bit of heat for choosing a full 16 finalists for round one, but I think they’ve handled the whole thing perfectly. Choosing 16 finalists got everyone excited. Rather than being a discouragingly low number of finalists, the choice to announce 16 finalists said to states: you can do it. Picking only two winners for round one followed that up with: but you are really going to have to work for it.

With school reform running rampant and new laws to facilitate it being created across the country, President Obama has even requested and additional $1.3 billion to continue the Race to the Top program into a third round. With that much money to dole out, it looks like we’re going to see a majority of states receiving at least some money. The message, though, remains clear: you won’t see a dime until you earn it.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan wrote an article for ESPN proposing to ban college teams that haven’t graduated at least 40 percent of their players from postseason competition and honors. With March Madness ramping up, this article stirred up quite a bit of controversy.

Boosting Graduation Rates and Academic Accountability in the NCAA

Secretary Duncan is calling for a “boost graduation rates for a number of NCAA tournament basketball teams with poor academic records and indefensible disparities in the grad rates of white and black players,” and the numbers he presents in the article are nothing short of compelling. Frankly, his argument just makes sense. If these colleges can’t graduate just two out of every five players on their team, we shouldn’t be deluding ourselves by calling it college ball–something more on the order of “College-Dropout Ball” or “People-with-Basketball-Skills-Who-Are-Currently-Enrolled-in-a-Few-Classes Ball”.

To put the whole thing in perspective, Duncan writes:

In this year’s NCAA tournament, 12 men’s teams–or about one out of five in the field that started play last week — have failed to graduate 40 percent of their players, based on the NCAA’s expansive graduation rate formula. The NCAA formula allows players six years to graduate–and it does not count transfers or players who leave early to go to the pros against a team’s graduation record, as long as the players leave in good academic standing.

And it goes on…

Five men’s teams in the tournament graduated 20 percent or less of their black players. Two teams–Maryland and Cal-Berkeley–have graduated zero percent of their black ballplayers who entered from 1999 through 2002.

And on…

In this year’s Sweet 16, Butler, Duke, Xavier and Cornell all graduate more than 80 percent of their men’s players. At the same time, four teams–Tennessee, Kentucky, Washington and Baylor–graduated less than 40 percent of their players who entered from 1999 through 2002.

With many of the Division I colleges graduating 100 percent of their players , Secretary Duncan is completely justified in calling out these colleges. The tragedy of the whole situation is that people are genuinely upset about his proposition. Some are suggesting that the players themselves should be banned, not the teams. I can see the logic in this, but the statistics Duncan brought to the table make it, for me at least, more than a little obvious that it isn’t simply the players.

Sure, punishing players by taking away their scholarships or banning them from games would negatively impact the teams with low education standards, but it would also make it possible for the colleges, coaches, and athletic programs themselves to shirk much of the responsibility for the failures. After all, they didn’t ban certain extremist athletes from competing in the 2008 Summer Olympics, they banned Iraq. Don’t hate the players; hate the multi-million-dollar industry that stops caring about them once they’ve done well in the game.

At first, it seems like a dream come true: you get to wear whatever you want to class and work at your own pace; there’s no commute because the classroom is anywhere you can get online–the list goes on. The truth is, earning a degree is never easy, it just gets a whole lot more convenient when you go online for your education. It’s this kind of misconception that leads people to think that all online colleges are diploma mills, which has been shown to be total nonsense time and time again. Postsecondary online education is just as serious as its campus-based counterpart, and if you don’t treat it that way, you could end up making one of the following classic mistakes.

The Three Biggest Online Education Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

1. Not Doing Your Research. This is the first big mistake that new online students make–and it’s the first one that’ll come back to bite you. Before you enroll in an online degree program, research the school. Find out whether or not you’ve got the Internet access and software required for the course. And if you aren’t all that tech-savvy, check to see if the college has a help desk that’s open when you have the time to call. Make sure that the college is accredited. Without proper accreditation, you won’t be eligible for the same financial aid and you may find that prospective employers won’t honor the degree.
2. Forgetting to Budget the Time. Working at your own pace is great, but you need to remember to actually do the work. Be sure to budget study time every week. With a full course load, that should come to about 10 hours per week. Don’t procrastinate! Again, just because it’s more or less your pace, doesn’t mean that there isn’t work involved. In fact, some online courses require a certain number of weekly posts to class discussion boards. If you put off posting until the last minute–right before that other paper is due and you have to take those quizzes in your other class–chances are high that your quality of work will suffer accordingly. Be realistic about your learning style. If you aren’t disciplined enough to keep up with your courses, you could end up making an expensive mistake.
3. Biting Off More than You Can Chew. Another common mistake is enrolling in far too many classes your first semester. This is another one that goes back to that myth that online education is easy. After all, if it’s easy, shouldn’t you be able take ten classes while working full time and trying to have a life? The answer, of course, is no. This one can be fixed easily–if you catch it early enough to get your money back when you drop a few of those classes. Wait too long, and you’ll end up losing your money and getting a black mark on your transcript.

When you start putting things off and life gets hectic, doing a half-hearted job, missing assignments, and even plagiarism get more and more tempting. Do your self a favor: take a measured approach to starting an online degree program. You’ll thank yourself.

If you haven’t gotten your taxes done yet, don’t worry. You’ve still got a few weeks, and you may even be eligible for more deductions and tax credits than you think. Nothing eases tax-season stress like getting your taxes done early, but getting more money back on your tax return is definitely a close second. Learn more about what you can deduct and what credits you have available to you.

Student Loan Tax Deductions: Yes, You Can Write That Off

Nobody likes paying interest on loans. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could get that money back at the end of the year? Guess what–you can… sort of. If you’ve taken the student loan out in your own name, writing it off is pretty straightforward. Here’s the cool part: you can write off the interest for loans that your parents paid for if you are legally liable for the loan and you aren’t claimed as a dependent. The IRS treats the money that your parents paid as if they gave you a gift that you used to pay off the loan.

Even if your parents aren’t involved in the financial side of things, you can write off up to $2,500 in student-loan interest.You don’t even have to itemize to take this deduction, making it that much easier.

Tax Credits for Students

Deductions are great, but credits are better. While deductions just reduce the amount you’re taxed on, credits actually cut down what you pay–dollar for dollar.

• Parents going to school (even working parents who aren’t in school) can qualify for a child-care tax credit. From Kiplinger:

If you pay your child-care bills through a reimbursement account at work, it’s easy to overlook the child-care credit. Although only $5,000 in expenses can be paid through a tax-favored reimbursement account, up to $6,000 (for the care of two or more children) can qualify for the credit. So, if you run the maximum through a plan at work but spend even more for work-related child care, you can claim the credit on as much as $1,000 of additional expenses. That would cut your tax bill by at least $200.

• The Hope Credit is in the process of being replaced by the American Opportunity Tax Credit for the 2009 and 2010 tax years. Both of these credits help you get back some of what you spent on books, tuition, and other school fees, and this year you can pick the one that works best for your situation. The $1,800 Hope Credit has been expanded and improved, thanks to the economic stimulus package. With the new American Opportunity Tax Credit, you can qualify for a rebate of up to $2,500 for the first four years of college for qualifying students (a nice change from the Hope Credit’s only covering the first two years of school). There are still some income limits on this credit, but they’ve been raised to $80,000 or less for individuals and $160,000 or less for married couples filing jointly–after that, the credit is reduced or completely eliminated.
• The Lifetime Learning Tax Credit is very similar to the Hope and American Opportunity Credits, but it can be used for nearly any kind of postsecondary education. If you qualify, you may be able to claim $2,000 per tax return–up to $4,000 total. If you’ve already taken advantage of (or don’t qualify for) the aforementioned credits, this one is for you.

Tax Tips for Students

There are a few little things that can help you out when it’s time for taxes.

• For school-related expenses, keep those receipts!
• Get your taxes done now, not later–midterms are way harder when you’ve got taxes looming
• Don’t feel guilty; write it off!
• When in doubt, talk to the professionals

This year in particular, there are plenty of tax credits for students, parents, first-time home buyers, and a host of others. Chances are, you fall into at least two categories, so make sure you do your tax homework before filing.

At a few online universities, students are taking matters into their own hands and creating clubs. This comes in response to one of the biggest downsides of online education: a lack of student groups, clubs, and organizations. If you’re the shy type, this isn’t that big of a deal, but for those students jonesin’ to work together with peers, this is just the ticket.

Debra Ann Mynar, 39 and an online psychology student is quoted in the Inside Higher Ed article on the subject as saying, “When you’re on campus, you have opportunities to engage your faculty and your peers. When you do distance education, you don’t have those similar opportunities unless you make them.” And that’s just what students are doing.

Student Clubs Online: It’s About Time

There are a few challenges facing online students, not the least of which is the amount of time they have to spend outside of class. Online education is probably the best way to fit earning a degree into a busy schedule. With online enrollment up a full 17 percent from fall 2007 to fall 2008, more and more students are finding that they do have some time for extracurricular activities, and they’ve certainly taken the initiative.

Another major hurdle is time zones. If your study buddy lives in a different country, an actual meet-up for live chat is difficult to schedule. To get around that, guest speakers upload video lectures and answer questions that roll in electronically, much like online ed professors.

Student Retention: No Student Is an Island

“We see retention improved through the use of any social networks,” John Bourne, executive director of the Sloan Consortium, a major online education research and leadership organization, told Inside Higher Ed. “Clubs tend to form social networks, and those increase communication among students and thus retention. Less isolationism leads to [a greater] feeling of belonging.”

Not only that, but these groups help generate professional connections. With so many online students already working day jobs in fields related to their degree programs, the ability to find out about job openings as they come up is a big draw for many members.

You may not yet be able to join virtual sports teams at your online college, but these clubs are the next best thing for students looking for a traditional college experience without the price tag or rigid schedule.

Universities across the country are starting to offer three-year bachelor’s degrees. Now, this might sound like a sham, like some kind of bachelor’s lite, but really it’s just a clever way to repackage summer school and heavy course loads. All of the requirements and classes are staying the same, leaving me to wonder just what the big deal is–and it is a big deal to many. Everyone, from senators to heads of major education groups, is weighing in on the three-year degree.

The Reality of the Situation

I earned an old-fashioned four-year degree. It took me five years, two schools, and three different majors.This isn’t uncommon. Nearly all of the friends I made that first year as an electrical engineering major have switched career paths at least once, and none of us made it out in four years. According to the U.S. Department of Education, only 36.1 percent of first-time undergrads who began school in 2000 managed to graduate in four years, and only 57.5 percent made it out in six. In six years, you could finish two of these fantastic “new” three-year degree programs. Unfortunately, two out of every five students can’t manage to finish the one four-year degree.

So, why is this being touted as higher education’s knight in shining? Former U.S. Secretary of Education, Senator Lamar Alexander, compared these three-year degrees to “higher ed equivalent of a fuel-efficient car,” following that nugget of wisdom up by running with the metaphor and calling the traditional option a “gas guzzling four-year course.” Alexander C. McCormick, director of the National Survey of Student Engagement and the voice of reason in this debate, said “it would be nice if institutions actually provided four-year degrees [...] before we think about accelerating.” Amen, brother.

Allowing students to work harder and without vacations does not a new degree make. Sure, you can save some money by getting out in three years, but only if your school charges a flat rate for all the classes you can eat, er, take. If this isn’t the case, you still get to pay for all of your credits.

And will this degree come with some special distinction? Is it an honors program? It certainly has requirements that smack of an honors program. Many universities are requiring participants to enter with at least 12 credits and maintain a 3.0 GPA. Without any clearly stated benefit other than less time in school (meaning less money), this sounds a little like Tom Sawyer extolling the virtues of whitewashing fences.

A new survey from tax, audit, and advisory service provider KPMG has found that today’s college students are entering the job market with an uncharacteristic trepidation. While it makes perfect sense because of this little recession we’ve had, it doesn’t jibe with the characteristic Generation-Y attitude. Depending on who you talk to (and their mood) Gen Yers can be described as everything from optimistic and passionate to lazy and cocky. As Generation Y graduated from college and began to enter the workplace a few years back, companies panicked. Who were these computer-savvy young adults, and why did they think it was okay to show up late to work wearing flip-flops? Would they do any work?

It’s turning out that Generation Y has a great work ethic and brings quite a bit to the table. Bruce Tulgan of RainmakerThinking identified these five characteristics:

• High expectations of self: They aim to work faster and better than other workers
• High expectations of employers: They want fair and direct managers who are highly engaged in their professional development
• Ongoing learning: They seek out creative challenges and view colleagues as vast resources from whom to gain knowledge
• Immediate responsibility: They want to make an important impact on Day 1
• Goal-oriented: They want small goals with tight deadlines so they can build up ownership of tasks

Another characteristic of Gen Yers: they don’t expect to stay in a career for very long–at least they didn’t. The recession has taken its toll on this group.

Priority Shift: Job Security Topping the List

Generation Y first started entering the workplace when things were great. There were plenty of jobs; the world was their oyster. The jump in unemployment over the past year or so has changed their tune. The KPMG survey found that, of the more than 350 students polled, 75 percent said that job security was their top priority when searching for a job–trumping pay and benefits. Not only that, but a full 69 percent of those surveyed said that are more likely to go into graduate school to avoid the harsh hiring conditions.

For a group formerly so concerned about a flexible work environment, balancing work and life (with scales tipping towards the latter), and what an employer can do for them rather than the other way around, this is a notable jump. Whether this priority change will hold remains to be seen, but the general consensus is that when the job market improves, Gen Yers will be up to their old tricks again.

If you think education reform isn’t a big issue, think again. New data shows that the U.S. is still losing ground. It’s estimated that the average Canadian 15-year-old is more than a year past the average American 15-year-old student in school. In fact, out of the more than 30 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) “only New Zealand, Spain, Turkey and Mexico now have lower high school completion rates than the U.S.,” according to Andreas Schleicher, a senior OECD education official.

The Big Question: Why Are Our Students Slipping Behind?

Well, it isn’t just our schools, which makes things a bit trickier. The students themselves are more difficult to fix. According to Charles Butt, CEO of a supermarket chain in Texas, who spoke in front of the Senate Education Committee, “Schools are inheriting an overentertained, distracted student.” Tom Harkin, who leads the committee, picked up on those words, saying, “Overentertained and distracted–that’s right. The problem lies with many kids before they get to school, and if we don’t crack that nut, we’re going to continue to patch and fill.”

Short of showing up at homes across America and unplugging the myriad electronic distractions, what are we to do about this? Has anyone thought about a parenting reform initiative? Cutting kids off from their video games, computers, and cell phones can be tough, but, frankly, parents are holding all of the cards here. It still bothers me that we require a full series of tests and licenses for driving, but you don’t even have to fill out a form to make a baby.

Perhaps a series of mandatory parenting classes would help solve some of these issues. It could be like traffic school–your kid gets in trouble or fails a few classes, and you have to complete parenting school. It wouldn’t take much to get an online course up and running to this end. It wouldn’t have to be long, just a reminder that parenting is your duty just like obeying the driving laws. If you don’t want to drive safely, you don’t get to use our roads or highways. If you don’t want to be a good parent, you don’t get to use our public school system. Here’s the clincher: your kid still has to go to school (thank you, truancy laws), but now you have to pay for a private school or learn to love home schooling the monster you created.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan spoke today in Selma, AL. The occasion was the 45th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the day in 1965 when hundreds of voting rights protesters were beaten by state troopers. Sec. Duncan spoke from the bridge that the civil rights protesters had marched across on that tragic day.

His overall plan is to tighten and toughen civil rights enforcement on campuses across the country. Before his speech, Duncan told reporters that “Despite how far we’ve come as a country over the last 45 years, we know there are still ongoing barriers to equal educational opportunity in this country.”

Civil Rights in Education: Why Now?

Hardly a year passes without a major civil rights issue in one of our many schools making the news. This might lead a casual observer to think that we’re doing just fine, as many of these issues are resolved positively. It’s the thousands of unreported civil rights violations we don’t hear about that are the problem. “This is the civil rights issue of our generation,” says Duncan. Some shocking statistics highlighted in the Associated Press article on Duncan’s speech:

• A quarter of all students drop out before their graduation, and half of those come from 12 percent of the nation’s high schools. Those roughly 2,000 schools produce a majority of the dropouts among black and Latino students.
• Black students without disabilities are more than three times as likely to be expelled as white students, and those with disabilities more than twice as likely to be expelled or suspended — numbers which Duncan says testify to racial gaps that are “hard to explain away by reference to the usual suspects.”
• Students from low-income families who graduate from high school scoring in the top testing quartile are no more likely to attend college than the lowest-scoring students from wealthy families.

Clearly, we aren’t doing the best job we could. Russlynn Ali, assistant secretary for civil rights in the Education Department, said, “For us, this is very much about working to meet the president’s goal, that by 2020 we will regain our status in the world as the number one producer of college graduates.” This explains the timing of the new push, and it makes perfect sense. By keeping the disenfranchised youth in school, the Obama administration is beginning the process of stacking the educational-attainment deck in their favor. With more students making through high school, we’ll have more students applying to college–let’s just hope they stay in.

What’s Next for Education Reform?

As higher education suffers from massive budget cuts across the country, hope is springing up in K-12 schools. The Race to the Top competition is nearing its finish, and this new civil rights agenda is promising to say the least. It leaves me wondering what will be next in education reform. Hopefully, we’ll see some funding being dumped into our higher education infrastructure.