New plan would create more F schools

A new grading system ordered by lawmakers last spring -- intended to give a more well-rounded snapshot of high schools' performance and de-emphasize the FCAT -- is likely to have an unintended effect.

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Educators respond to media scrutiny

Following last week's column about my daughter's teachers and counselor who didn't seem to think their job description included communicating with parents, I've had a flood of responses from readers who are ...

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Stanford Engineering Everywhere

Stanford is making core courses in computer programming and engineering available for free to non-registered students. This offering is a fine opportunity for self-guided students and for students and instructors in other institutions to share Stanford's intellectual resources. ___JH (Thanks to Free Culture News for this reference.)
____

"For the first time in its history, Stanford is offering some of its most popular engineering classes free of charge to students and educators around the world. Stanford Engineering Everywhere (SEE) expands the Stanford experience to students and educators online. A computer and an Internet connection is all you need. View lecture videos, access reading lists and other course handouts, take quizzes and tests, and communicate with other SEE students, all at your convenience.

This fall, SEE launches its programming by offering one of Stanford's most popular sequences: the three-course Introduction to Computer Science taken by the majority of Stanford's undergraduates and seven more advanced courses in artificial intelligence and electrical engineering."

Example:

Introduction to Computer Science | Programming Methodology

Instructor: Sahami, Mehran

This course is the largest of the introductory programming courses and is one of the largest courses at Stanford. Topics focus on the introduction to the engineering of computer applications emphasizing modern software engineering principles: object-oriented design, decomposition, encapsulation, abstraction, and testing. Programming Methodology teaches the widely-used Java programming language along with good software engineering principles. Emphasis is on good programming style and the built-in facilities of the Java language. The course is explicitly designed to appeal to humanists and social scientists as well as hard-core techies. In fact, most Programming Methodology graduates end up majoring outside of the School of Engineering. Prerequisites: The course requires no previous background in programming, but does require considerable dedication and hard work.

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College application plans change as family budgets shrink

College application plans change as family budgets shrink
Financial aid becomes vital. Students consider the public Cal State and UC systems instead of private, out-of-state universities.

Since Laura Monte was a child, her parents had assured her that if she did well in high school, the family would find a way to pay for college. Now, things are not so certain.