Innovate+Educate Blog

Four New Mexico schools on Forbes 2010 ‘America’s Best Colleges’ list

August 20, 2010

St. John’s College and the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology rank highest among four New Mexico schools listed in Forbes magazine’s annual ranking of the nation’s 610 best colleges.

The annual ranking compiled by Forbes and the Center for College Affordability and Productivity rates 610 undergraduate programs out of 6,600 accredited U.S. colleges based on the quality of the education they provide, the experience of the students, and how much they achieve.

“Appearing on our list at all is an indication that a school meets a high standard,” the magazine released in a statement.

St. John’s College in Santa Fe ranks 217th, with a student population of 511 and a cost $50,513. New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro ranked 334th, with a student population of 1,767 and a cost of $22,424.

New Mexico State University (354th) and the University of New Mexico (422nd) were the other two New Mexico schools in the ranking. NMSU has a student population of 17,239 and a cost of $26,924. UNM’s student population is listed at 25,754 with a cost of $27,138.

Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., took the top spot, replacing last year’s top pick, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., which fell to No. 4.
Also in the top 10:

  * No. 2: Princeton University.
  * No. 3: Amherst College.
  * No. 4. United States Military Academy.
  * No. 5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
  * No. 6. Stanford University.
  * No. 7. Swarthmore College.
  * No. 8. Harvard University.
  * No. 9. Claremont McKenna College.
  * No. 10. Yale University.

Twenty-five percent of the Forbes ranking is based on student evaluations of courses and instructors as recorded on the website RateMyProfessors.com. Another 25 percent is based on post-graduate success, based on listings in Who’s Who in America as well as average graduate salaries as reported by Payscale.com. And 20 percent is based on how low the average student debt is after four years, which is one reason why the nation’s tuition-free service academies tend to rank high.

In a separate ranking of America’s 100 “best college buys,” those on Forbes best-colleges list that have low tuition and fees, none of the four New Mexico schools made the list.

New Mexico receives $74.4 million in federal broadband grants

August 17, 2010

Two entities in New Mexico rejoiced on Tuesday after receiving Broadband Recovery grants from the federal government through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

The North Central New Mexico Economic Development District received $10.6 million from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to help deploy a “middle-mile” project across three counties and five tribal areas.

The middle-mile is the sector of the network that connects last-mile facilities such as telecom company local interconnection points (central offices) with the commercial Internet and with national and global advanced research networks. These projects aim to expand the availability of broadband interconnections to companies and organizations that offer service to end-users.

This award will fund the deployment of high-speed Internet infrastructure across the counties of Rio Arriba, Los Alamos, and northern Santa Fe, and to five Native American tribal communities. The project plans to directly connect 123 community anchor institutions, 19,227 homes, and 1,332 businesses to broadband service in order to support distance learning, telemedicine, and improve public safety communications.

The project also intends to promote energy efficiency by enabling “smart grid” applications for regional rural electric cooperatives. In addition, local Internet service providers will be able to utilize the new infrastructure to deploy new or improved high-speed Internet service to consumers and businesses.

“High-speed Internet access is increasingly important for communities to thrive in the 21st century economy,” said NTIA Deputy Administrator Anna M. Gomez. “This Recovery Act investment will create jobs, support advances in education and healthcare, and help lay the groundwork for sustainable economic growth.”

The second grant awarded on Tuesday was for $63.8 million from the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to fund the Kit Carson Electric Cooperative Fiber-to-the-Home Project.

This project will deliver affordable broadband service to 29 communities comprised of 20,500 households, 3,600 businesses, 183 critical community institutions, two Native American Pueblos, and rural underserved areas in Taos, Colfax and Rio Arriba counties. The network spans 2,400 miles. In all, $63.8 million in Recovery Act funds will be invested in the project. An additional $600,000 will come from private investment sources.

“This project will give rural New Mexico residents access to the broadband they need to attract new businesses, jobs, health care and educational opportunities,” said RUS Administrator Jonathan Adelstein. “It will enable Kit Carson to deploy cutting-edge, smart grid technology that will help cut electric bills and permit sustainable energy development.”

The ARRA appropriated $7.2 billion and directed RUS and the NTIA to expand broadband access to unserved and underserved communities across the U.S., increase jobs, spur investments in technology and infrastructure, and provide long-term economic benefits.  The result was funding of the RUS Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP) and the NTIA Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP).

BIP makes loans and grants for broadband infrastructure projects in rural areas. BTOP provides grants to fund broadband infrastructure, public computer centers, and sustainable broadband adoption projects.  Of the $7.2 billion, $4.7 billion was allotted to the NTIA to award grants. The remaining $2.5 billion went to the U.S. Department of Agriculture to make loans and grants to companies building out broadband infrastructure in rural areas.

Tuesday’s announcements are part of the second round of Broadband Recovery awards nationwide, which will continue on a rolling basis. The NTIA and RUS must make all awards by Sept. 30. Thus far, the NTIA has announced 114 BTOP grants in communities throughout the country, and RUS already has been able to provide loans and grants to construct 260 broadband projects in 45 states and one territory.

Stimulus money helps offset health insurance premiums for N.M. educators

August 16, 2010

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said Monday that public school teachers, administrators and teacher’s aides will benefit from $2.5 million in federal stimulus funds meant to offset the costs of increased insurance premiums and to expand professional development opportunities.

Roughly $2 million will go toward helping 33,400 teachers and school employees across the state pay their insurance premiums, according to a news release issued by the governor’s office.

The stimulus dollars will reduce insurance premiums by an average of 2 percent for the 2010-11 school year.

The remaining $500,000 will go toward professional development for roughly 2,000 educational assistants in Albuquerque Public Schools.

“New Mexico’s teachers and school employees are dedicated public servants and I am committed to helping them through the current recession,” Richardson said in the release. “Our teachers, educational assistants and support staff are on the front lines of school reform every day, and they’ve been subject to rising health care costs in recent years. I am pleased that these Recovery Act funds will help us offset some of those costs.”

The award comes from a discretionary fund made available to the governor as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

The $2.5 million is separate from and in addition to the $65 million New Mexico is supposed to receive after Congress passed the Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act last week to help the state during the recession. President Barack Obama signed that $26 billion bill into law last Tuesday.

Schools fall behind in offering computer science

July 30, 2010

(Editor’s Note: This story originally was published by Erik Robelen in Education Week on July 13 to highlight the efforts underway on many fronts to raise the status of STEM in public education. Read original story by clicking here or read the snippet below and check out the selected topics additionally covered.)

This is a good read…

Given the ways computer technology—from the iPhone and YouTube to uses in medical research and national security—is changing so many facets of life, you might imagine that schools have been stepping up students’ exposure to computer science to help drive the digital revolution.

But recent data suggest otherwise. One survey indicates a sizable drop in the availability of even introductory computer-science courses in public and private secondary schools since 2005. Participation rates for Advanced Placement courses in computer science have been relatively flat for years, while the rates have gone way up in traditional science and mathematics disciplines, such as calculus, chemistry, and biology.

“We’re an order of magnitude off from these other courses,” said Janice E. Cuny, a program officer at the National Science Foundation, who argues that high-quality computer-science instruction is all too rare in public schools.

Representation of female and minority students among those studying computer science in high school and college is seen as especially low.

National statistics indicate that computing will be one of the fastest-growing areas for employment in coming years, but experts say the U.S. educational pipeline is expected to fall far short in producing college graduates in the field.

Read more on additional topics covered in this piece such as Recent Initiatives, the ‘Big Confusion’, Promising Career Field, and Georgia Computes.

New Mexico again misses cut on Race to the Top

July 28, 2010

New Mexico once again has missed the cut in the Obama administration’s Race to the Top contest, which is doling out federal dollars to states that propose and adopt innovative approaches to K-12 education.

New Mexico was among 35 states and the District of Columbia who applied for the second round of Race to the Top after failing to win in Round 1 back in March. Including the 36 applications for the second round, a total of 46 states and the District of Columbia applied for either the first or second rounds – or both.

New Mexico had hoped to win $75 million.

The second-round finalists announced on Tuesday were: Arizona, California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and South Carolina.

Tennessee and Delaware were the only states that won money in the contest’s first round.

Scoring and feedback on New Mexico’s application won’t be available until after the winners of the second round are announced in late August or early September.

Race to the Top is a $4.35 billion federal education program that is the largest pool of discretionary education money in U.S. history. The grants reward school systems for finding ways to strengthen academic standards, recruit better teachers, collect data on student performance, and turn around failing schools that can be replicated across the country.

Innovate-Educate was a strong supporter of both applications.

The good news is that even though New Mexico didn’t win the money, the state is planning to continue pursuing the education reforms spelled out in its 200-page application, according to Gov. Bill Richardson’s new education secretary, Dr. Susanna Murphy.

Those reforms included “linking teacher and principal evaluations to student growth” and new “collaborations aimed at improving low-performing schools throughout the state.”

“While I am disappointed that we were not chosen as a finalist, we will not let up on our efforts to implement these education reforms,” said Murphy in a prepared statement. “Teacher unions and major stakeholders agreed when the application was submitted that we would continue with these reforms even if we did not receive the federal funds.”

Murphy also said the current administration has made education reform its number one priority, and as a result, New Mexico has seen consistent improvement over the past seven years. She added, “This process has only strengthened that commitment, and we will continue to build on those initiatives to benefit students and the state’s economy.”

The Race to the Top program, part of President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus law, will funds to states that are implementing ambitious reforms aimed at improving struggling schools and closing the achievement gap. Many states also passed significant reform laws that allowed for the development of more charter schools and tightened teacher accountability and tenure requirements in order to increase their chances of winning a grant.

Nine of the states that submitted applications last time did not reapply in Round 2.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan acknowledged that not all of the finalists would be awarded grants from the almost $3.4 billion remaining in Race to the Top. President Obama has requested 1.35 billion for the program in the administration’s fiscal 2011 budget.