Government Grants for All

Participation in Texas Schools’ Advanced Placement Program on Increase but Minorities Underrepresented

The rigorous coursework in the Advanced Placement (AP) program has proven to build a good foundation for high school students, who plan to attend college after graduation. Most college and universities give course credit for AP exam scores of three or higher — students score from one to five on the exam. Even students who score one or two on the exam have proven to be better prepared for college-level work, than students who do not participate in the program.

A report by the national College Board, which oversees the AP program across the nation, was recently released. It showed the number of students taking the exams and the diversity representation, though it concentrates only on Hispanic, African American, and Native American student groups.

For the Texas schools, participation in the AP exams has increased by 61 percent since the year 2001. Hispanics and African American students, however, were underrepresented in the AP exams.

Texas schools African Americans students had the biggest gap between total student population in the state and the percentage taking the AP exams. The African American students make up 13.5 percent of the total population, but only 6.8 percent took the exams — a disparity of almost half of the African American students opting not to participate in the AP program.

The Hispanic gap is closing in the Texas schools with 35 percent Hispanic students in the total population and 32.2 percent taking the exams.

The Texas schools have totally eliminated any gap for its Native American students with 0.3 percent of the population and 0.5 percent taking the AP exams.

Texas schools’ Commissioner of Education Shirley J. Neeley stated that they need to do a better job encouraging its minority students in middle school, so that they elect to take the AP classes and exams in high school.

The Texas schools students taking AP exams last year were 54,706 Caucasians, 34,976 Hispanics, 10,007 Asian Americans, 6,826 African Americans, 514 Native Americans, and 5,234 who marked “other” or gave no response for ethnicity. Minorities and “other” made up about 49 percent of the Texas schools testing population, as compared to the national average of 33.5 percent.

There were 204,403 AP exams taken by Texas schools students last year, many taking multiple exams. They scored three or higher on 99,428 of them. The Texas schools designated:

• 8,861 students as AP Scholars for scoring three or higher on three or more exams;
• 3,152 as AP Scholars with Honors for:
 An average score of at least 3.25 on all exams, and
 Scores of three or higher on four or more exams;
• 4,447 as AP Scholars with Distinction for:
 An average score of at least 3.5 on all exams, and
 Scores of three or higher on five or more exams;

The national College Board named 752 Texas schools students as National Scholars for earning an average score of at least four on all exams, with scores of four or higher on eight or more AP exams.

Though these results are impressive, the Texas schools know they must continue to expand the overall enrollment, as well as increase the diversity levels in the AP program. State incentives make the AP program more accessible to students by lowering the per exam fee by $30, so that no student pays more than $52 for an AP exam. Further, combined funding from federal, state and local subsidies reduces the per exam fee to only $5 for low-income students.

Additionally, the Texas schools have expanded its course offerings to entice more students to participate and used state incentives to train more teachers for the AP program.

With post-graduation success depending so much on a college degree, the AP coursework and exams are essential for all students to succeed in college. Minorities must be equally represented in Advanced Placement classes. The Texas schools still have work to do.

For more information on Texas schools visit http://www.schoolsk-12.com/Texas/index.html

Tags: Advanced, Increase, Minorities, Participation, Placement, Program, Schools, Texas, Underrepresented

Getting Scholarships

Going to college? Or, are you hoping to? The cost of universities and colleges has become outrageous. It takes a lot of money to get a solid education these days. But, one way of offsetting the cost of schooling is through the use of scholarships. The question is how you get them. While many people strive to get good grades or do well in their area of expertise, it is just plan simple that they will not get the scholarships they need unless they look hard for them. Here are some hints to get you started.

· Beginning early is so important. In fact, it will take you quite a while to learn what is out there and how to apply for it. It will take research, dedication and perseverance to get it accomplished.

· Use the internet as a source of help. You can find all sorts of opportunities out there that are at least referenced online. Many of the schools you attend will provide you with some help in finding them, but most of the research will be up to you.

· Think about the company that you work for. Many of the companies that young adults work for offer them the opportunity to get a good education on the company’s expense. Many companies will offer scholarships of one sort or another to help you get the degree you need while still maintaining the relationship with them. This helps down the road for them as well. They get a qualified, trained individual who is dedicated to their company.

Scholarships are offered by hundreds of companies, cities, schools, and many other establishments. Get your foot in the door by requesting information from many companies. Look to the government (city, state, county, and federal) for scholarships as well. There are many thousands of them out there, but to show that you deserve them, you have to find them!

Tags: Getting, Scholarships

College Scholarship Myths You Need To Know

There are several types of scholarship grants out there. And the best part is you can get it everywhere. You can get it from your school academic office, colleges and universities, local government, corporations, institutions, and the internet. But the bad thing is, in spite the availability of these scholarships, applicants seem to be discourage for certain reasons. Here are the common myths you need to know before getting discourage on applying for a college scholarship:

· Scholarships are for highly intellectual students only.

Most students are discouraged with the idea that all scholarship grants are reserved for ‘A’ students. This is 100% untrue. Although many scholarships offered everywhere have something to do with considering the academics performance of students, there are several factors that are also taken into great account. For this matter, scholarship grants can also be available for ‘B’ and ‘C’ students.

Many scholarships also have something to do with any field outside the norms of academic performance and grades. For example, there are scholarships for athletes, artists, performers, and so on. There are some scholarships that consider the weight of the applicants’ involvement in community development. The thing is you don’t have to be an Einstein to win a scholarship.

· Scholarships are only for the underprivileged

While there are many institutions that provide scholarships for the underprivileged, other scholarships do not fall on this condition. Many scholarships are granted for middle class or even for those who can afford. It is true that most scholarships are based on the need; there are some that aren’t. As a matter of fact, there are many scholarships that are based on the merits. This means that an applicant is not measured based on the financial capability but on academic proficiency and extracurricular activities.

· Scholarships involve money right at the application process

Yes, there are groups or institutions that will do all the work for you. They will find the most suitable scholarship for your need and they will process your scholarship application. Be warned that these might be scams. They do not intent to give you the scholarship you need but the money you earned. If you come across this, never give any payment.

· You cannot apply for several types of scholarships

The fact is you can always apply for several types of scholarships you think you are qualified into. Just make sure you give attention on the requirements and you are on the way in getting to a school you always dream of.

Tags: College, Know, Myths, Need, Scholarship

Sex, football, and algebra?

By David Shaw Sports Central Columnist

Let’s say that you and your significant other are out on the town. For our purposes, you are a man and you have brought flowers, chocolates, and maybe a small domesticated animal. The date moves to a fancy restaurant complete with dusty, old, expensive bottles of wine, and even dustier and older waiters.

Things progress, you make a witty remark, she laughs out of habit than anything else. Then, you come to that fateful moment, you and her outside her door, you lean in … only to see her reach for her calculator. Twenty minutes later, she tells you your score and leaves you frustrated and alone on her doorstep. Welcome to the world of college football and the math equation that governs it, the BCS.

Think that the situation above is unfair? So did Oregon and Colorado last year, but that was only the tip of the iceberg. This year has the potential to test the BCS more than it has ever been before. In the words of a top BCS exec, this what they’ve been monitoring as their worst case scenario.

A lot of ingredients have been thrown into the pot that has produced this quandary, things like fewer NCAA scholarships, longer seasons (now 13 games for some teams), and conference tournaments. All of these things have mixed in together to provide a college football landscape where parity is at an all-time, and undefeated season is getting less and less likely each minute.

So college football is more even now than it ever has been, what does that have to do with the BCS’ worst nightmare? Well, the BCS in each of its seasons have gotten at least half of the national championship game correct. The BCS has been able to hobble along the one good leg provided to them by an undefeated team, even if the other leg gets blown off by 3-4 angry teams come bowl decision time. The BCS may not be afforded that luxury any longer.

A very likely scenario this year involves any big team you want to think up only have one loss. It is not a stretch to say that Miami, Florida, Florida State, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Ohio State, and on and on and on all will have one loss when it comes time for the BCS to pump out its magic numbers. What does this mean?

Well, it means that this year, conference tournaments are more important now than they ever have been. Let’s say Colorado and Oklahoma end up meeting in the Big 12 championship game, each with one loss. My advanced football logic tells me that someone is going to take a loss in that one, and drop them far out of contention for any kind of big bowl.

Nebraska showed us all last year that a late season loss is not a crippler, but this year it will be. The winner of the Big 12 may very well end up in the championship game, the runner-up might be camping out in front of 3,000 fans at the RandomWebsite.com Bowl.

That example may be pushing the impact of a loss a little too far, but it is a simple reality that an undefeated team this year will be very hard to come by. This puts all the pressure on a system that college football instituted to take the controversy out of the national championship game. Surprise, instead of 2-3 teams being angry this year for being slighted in the championship game, you might see a line of 10-12 head coaches waiting for a shot at the computer that robbed them of a title shot.

Remember all that talk about only allowing winners of their conference into the national title game after Nebraska squeaked in over Big 12 champion Colorado? Well, it didn’t come down the pipe in rule form, but this year may just deliver. With the importance of every game, especially that late in the season, conference championships will make or break national championship contenders, the way it should be.

The BCS is a lot of things: imperfect, impersonal, flawed, controversial, and it will be all those things times 10 this season. The luxury of an undefeated team is not something the BCS will be able to hang its hat on this year. Finally, the system will get to be truly tested.

Roses, chocolates, expensive dinners, or in our case, a difficult schedule, strong high-profile wins, and support from the polls does not a national championship always make. Let the festivities begin.

Got comments? Questions? National championship to relationship references I didn’t cover? Fill out the Write the Editor form and let me hear from you. Thanks.

Article courtesy of Sports Central.

Tags: algebra, Football

Scholarship Opportunity For All

There are thousands upon thousands of scholarships and institutions dedicated to give free education for all. The question however is: “With countless scholarships opportunities up for grab, are there enough for all?”

With is question at hand, let us look at several types of scholarship opportunities that would somehow give us the final view that there are enough scholarship opportunities for all.

Academic scholarship

The most popular type of scholarship grant is the academic scholarship. Here, applicants must be eligible to keep up with the academic requirements of the sponsor. Most applicants who take this type of scholarship can either be highly proficient in academics or an average person so long as grades can be maintained.

Athletic scholarship

Next to academic scholarship, the athletic scholarship is the second most popular type of scholarship that is up for grab. Applicants of athletic scholarship are usually chosen but it is still open for all. The opportunities here are endless since there are several types of activities you might be proficient with that would fall to athletic scholarship. However, since there are many athletes would want to finish college through athletic scholarship, there is a fierce competition between applicants.

Colleges and universities give both the academic and athletic scholarships but there are other institutions that give these types of scholarships.

Institutional scholarships

Here, the sponsors are groups or institutions who willingly devote themselves in providing students with the opportunities to finish college without worrying about the finances. Institutions can have their special groups to answer. There are institutions that grant scholarships to Hispanics, African-Americans, minorities, women, disabled, and Native Americans. There are also institutions that provide free education on a specific field such as Nursing, Engineering, Medicine, Law, Business, and Sciences among others.

Institutions would also refer to religious groups that could provide free education to their members who qualify for the grant. It would also include large corporations that stretch their services in providing students with free education. This does not stop here, after finishing a degree, the scholars will surely get an immediate job under the same company that gave then their free education.

Institutions can also include local governments. Like large corporations, becoming a local government scholarship would provide you an immediate job soon after you finish the degree.

Institutions would also include unions that provide free educational opportunities to children of their members.

All these could give each scholarship seeking every chance to get free education. The task, however, is to make sure that you get the right scholarship suited to your need.

Tags: Opportunity, Scholarship

Obama’s New Initiative – A Scholarship for Mothers Program

Mothers can go back to school now. Isn’t this good news for all those mothers who wanted to study further and make some great career You can support your family in a better way now by taking right job with right salary.

You all might be wondering how is all this possible Well, this has been made possible, thanks of our own President, Mr. Barack Obama and his Scholarship for Mothers program. He is very committed towards education and feel working mothers particularly have a torrid time pursing there educational dreams.

President Obama is aware about the obstacles which can stop working mothers from going to schools or colleges for completing there studies, and because of his commitment towards education, one of the main features of stimulus package was increase in Pell grant Program nearly by $1000. So the deserving candidates now may get up to $5100 per year.

Are you already thinking about repayment of scholarship money after finishing your studies You don’t have worry about repaying now, as this is not an incurring debt. This grant is totally interest and tax free and the money is paid-in-full by the government in advance. And now you might be worried about leaving your kid at home or at relatives’ place for attending classes. Well, no need to worry about that either. You do have an option of selecting online schools so you can study from home.

Thanks to “Obama’s Scholarship for Mothers Program mothers can fulfill there educational dreams now.

Did you know you can get a $10,000 scholarship for Moms just for registering? Apply right now for free: Scholarships for Moms

Tags: Initiative, Mothers, Obama's, Program, Scholarship

Moms Facing Empty Nests Eligible for Obama’s 2009 Scholarship Program – Apply For Your $10,000

Raising a family is no easy task but children eventually grow up and leave the nest. Many women take the time to dedicate their lives to the tasks associated with raising children and leave corporate jobs to ensure that their family is provided the best possible full time care they can give.

If you are someone who has successfully raised one or more children who have just gone off to college or moved out, you may be feeling the symptoms of having an empty nest and wondering what to do next. The good news is that there are many great new scholarship programs designed for women who have taken a step back from the working world but now want to polish up skills and get back into the corporate arena.

Whether you are looking to get a first time degree or to take your studies to an advanced degree level such as a Masters or Doctorate, now that your children are grown you have the time and the government is willing to help you with the finances associated with furthering your education. Take the time to explore the ideas you may have and it’s highly likely that there’s a scholarship available to help you make your ideas a reality.

Taking your knowledge to the next level is an important investment in yourself; one that makes your more valuable to the working world and lets you add education to your list of accomplishment. Start planning to enjoy your empty nest with ways that edify you and make you feel good about who you are.

Did you know you can get a $10,000 scholarship for Moms just for registering? Apply right now for free: Scholarships for Moms.

Tags: $10000, 2009, Apply, Eligible, Empty, Facing, Moms, Nests, Obama's, Program, Scholarship

Searching For Free Scholarship

If you happen to search the internet for scholarships lately, you should have discovered that there are many out there waiting to be awarded. Actually, there are thousands of individual scholarship grants waiting to be awarded to qualified individuals. Meanwhile, a portion of these remains un-awarded either because there are few applicants or there are no applicants who qualified.

Because of this, you might ask: “How can I, as an aspirant, increase my chances of landing on the right scholarship at the same time, winning that scholarship?”

First and foremost, you need to start searching early. This means, you should start your search for possible sponsors during the beginning of your final year in high school. Or, you can even start searching in the middle of your high school years.

When searching, it is good to look for as much as scholarship grants as you can. In this way, you can have enough lists of potential sponsors that you can apply at. And since no one will hinder you to apply on each scholarship sites, you can increase your chances in getting at least one reply.

Searching early will give you clearer idea on what school to enter, at the same time, doing your search early will narrow down your list of scholarships to apply with reference to the compatibility to the course you are about to take and the school you are about to enter.

Staring your search early will also give you time to prepare yourself in the criteria of your targeted scholarship. In other words, if the type of scholarship you are targeting at requires applicants to have working experience, extracurricular activities, good grades, and others, you can prepare for it before you actually apply.

Knowing the types of scholarships will enable you to choose where exactly do you fit. In reality, there are several types of scholarships with several subs underneath them. Making sure you know what you want and what you are capable of will lead you to better chances of landing at the scholarship that is right for you. This in turn, will increase your chances of winning the scholarship.

These few things will bring you a long way in your search for free scholarship. Remember that scholarships range their grants from partial to full payment on whole college education. And since you wish to aim for the biggest amount, doing best on the application process will give you great advantage in winning your most wanted full scholarship.

Tags: Free, Scholarship, Searching

Labor Day Caps Recent Flurry of Activities Aimed at Improving People With Disabilities

This year’s holiday celebrations cap a recent flurry of summer activities aimed at improving meaningful employment options and outcomes for PwD.

Some signs of encouragement

In July, the nation celebrated the 20 year anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), one of the most significant pieces of civil rights legislation passed in the history of this country. ADA Title II & Title III (accessibility to public transportation and public accommodations) regulations are to be published in a week.

In addition, President Obama signed an Executive Order on July 26 that will help transform the disability employment landscape within the Federal Government. It calls on all Federal departments and agencies to increase the numbers of people with disabilities hired and to improve retention and return-to-work of Federal employees with disabilities. This will hopefully reverse the trend of the last 20 years that has seen a steady decline in Federal employment for people with disabilities. If accomplished, it will achieve stated White House commitments from every administration since the Clinton Presidency towards a goal of having 100,000 Federal workers with disabilities in the government workforce.

People with disabilities are used to an uphill climb while seeking employment

In August, The U.S. Department of Labor announced a solicitation for grant applications for approximately $22 million to fund programs that will improve educational, training and employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities. In her comments regarding the achievement of ” No workers left behind”, Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis said that “To be truly competitive in the global economy, we must leverage and foster the professional skills and talents of every single worker, including the millions of working-age people with disabilities across our country.” The new Disability Employment initiative is a joint project of the Labor Department’s Employment and Training Administration and its Office of Disability Employment Policy. For those who have worked with Federal agencies, intra-agency collaborations are a too rare common sense occurrence.

Funds will be awarded to state workforce agencies, which will collaborate with workforce investment boards and local areas.Grant awards will range from $1.5 to $6 million each to be spent over a three-year period. Cooperative agreements will be used to foster service delivery through the public workforce investment system for job seekers with disabilities.Programs will build upon the Labor Department’s Disability Program Navigator initiative and other model service delivery strategies.

These grants are investments representing “new money” specifically targeted towards people with disabilities and is a positive step forward. They demonstrate a commitment to aligning the department’s goal of helping workers in low-wage jobs, or those out of the labor market, find pathways into the middle class. Improvements in employment services for people with disabilities through these grants will help combat the unacceptably low employment rates experienced by this group. My main concerns are that many states have either eliminated or curtailed their Disability Navigator programs (it is gone in Arizona), so linkage developments through state systems will have to be rebuilt just to ramp up to becoming operational. Also, with an average annual award of $500,000 per grantee and lack of business community commitments/connections, it is not clear as to what metrics will be considered when measuring the success of the initiative.

Another grant opportunity through the Office of Disability Employment Policy which announced in August, approximately $2.3 million to fund up to four cooperative agreements ranging from $500,000 to $625,000 in support of the Add Us In initiative. Add Us In is designed to increase the ability of minority-owned, operated and controlled businesses to employ adults and youth with disabilities. Grant recipients will develop and evaluate replicable models, strategies and policies to ensure that youth and adults with disabilities from diverse communities have access to a broader range of employment and mentoring opportunities. In addition, grantees will form and strengthen connections among targeted businesses, diversity-serving, youth-serving and disability-serving organizations thereby building a national and local network of experts skilled in serving individuals with disabilities from diverse communities. There is a lot riding on the future both of these grant initiatives which are kind of “one shot” propositions.

The bar to meet eligibility requirements is complicated, but also the right kind of formula as it puts together true community-based efforts that link the public and private sectors together around compatible common goals/objectives. The priority requires that consortia applying for the cooperative agreement must have representation from each of the following four organization types: 1) An association of targeted businesses, a business association located in a target population community, targeted business entities, association of targeted businesses, association of targeted business owners or other similar entity; 2) A disability-serving organization; 3) A Local Workforce Investment Board (LWIB) or other organization with demonstrated experience in providing employment and training services and employment-related support services (e.g., One-Stop center); 4) and Youth-serving organization. Once the grantees are announced, it will be critical to track the progress of their efforts to develop national models that are replicable and new data to substantiate the business case for hiring qualified people with disabilities as well as the abilities of the private/public sectors to cross utilize resources effectively. These outcomes will be critical to make the case for either sustained or increased funding.

Bucket of cold water-in-face reality check

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal shares with business readers the results of the government’s first detailed look at disabled workers’ employment. The articles conclusions: the report shows American workers with disabilities are far more likely than the overall work force to be older, working part-time or jobless. A couple of individual examples of otherwise qualified and unemployed professionals were used to illustrate the data from the reports and findings.
The WSJ stated that this is the first time the government has looked closely at the employment situations of such workers.

What are the best measures to establish who is most qualified?

Scott Hamilton’s oft quoted statement”the only disability in life is a bad attitude” -meant to serve as his inspiration in recovering from cancer-sees a reverse twist in many of the reader responses for this article. In brief, the majority of respondents see nothing contradictory or unusual when they say that having disabilities means your career will automatically be limited due to you not being as productive as other workers who do not have disabilities (objection to the term “automatically limits” career potential) . I read comments that believe that this lack of productivity on the part of a PwD is just a natural discrepancy, and high levels of un/underemployment should not be viewed as discrimination (except when you are not even able to get an interview or promotion when disclosing). Other reader’s expressed that having a disability is not a temporary condition, and in these days of high unemployment with other similarly qualified workers available with no disabilities, why should we hire you? (We are a problem because we want “unreasonable considerations” or expect to be hired based on charity). When one writer reminded those expressing this opinion that we are not the disabled, but people with disability, the response was that after businesses being screwed by EEOC on race, gender, etc. the business community will not be forced by PC ideologues to make any more hiring preferences.

Still chasing the dream

These are all arguments and viewpoints expressed before (with greater or lesser degrees of vehemence), and show how much work is still to be done to provide proof that people with disabilities look for the same reasons to be hired as anyone else- they are the best available and most qualified candidates for a job, promotion, or retention. It is getting past the unreasonable bias and barriers of people who have not been convinced to think beyond the meanings of labels we use to create the categories of who is/isn’t a capable employment candidate. Community advocates and employment collaboratives must put out a consistent message that talks about building business confidence through empowering employers with best/next HR practices- not by doing charitable tokenism”favors”. The business leadership roundtables who are experiencing workplace success must redouble their efforts to share that workforce development exemplified in hiring people with disabilities strengthens their double bottom line. It is both the right thing and the smart thing to do

Tags: Activities, Aimed, Caps, Disabilities, Flurry, Improving, Labor, People, Recent

Here’s a Quick Way to Get A Scholarship

Not all of us is aware of the process you have to follow in order to get a scholarship and in their confusion many parents or significant others simply fail to save on thousands of dollars spent on the education of their children. Financial aid like scholarships and grants are basically money gifted to students or pupils to help them get through college or university and can be in various forms. They are different from student loans in the sense that they don’t have to be paid back.

This kind of student financing can be paid either directly to the student or paid to the university or college to make up for the fees. Numerous agencies award scholarships including government, clubs, charities, businesses, schools and even cooperative organization. Students as well as parents should be aware it is not only the top performing students who are eligible for such student financing. Actually, almost every student can get scholarships depending on which abilities they posess.

Another misconception about this way to finance your education is it is available only to high school students who are seeking admission in college. Fact is such financial grants are available to all levels of college or university studies, right from freshman years to graduates and even PhD students.

Scholarships can be applied for on a variety of reasons right from your abilities to your following a certain religion. The range of this study financing option available include athletic scholarships, scholarships for students in a particular field of study or even scholarships for students living or studying in a particular city or state. The sources for scholarships are also literally unlimited – even a simple internet search would reveal numerous sources.

To get the scholarship you want you need to do some grunt work first. The first step is to take the initiative and apply for it. Look for scholarship grants where their criteria match your position and after you find them, contact the provider and ask for an application form. Many scholarship providers allow you to download their application forms from their website while others require you to send a self-addressed stamped envelope.

It is important to follow all the deadlines set by the scholarship providers – for filling in and submitting the necessary forms, providing all your necessary documentation and appearing for an interview if they call you for one. If you are staying organized in your scholarship applications and keep all documents including reference and recommendation letters as well as course transcripts ready at hand, you will not be bothered with the stress that follows when you have to run around for them at the last minute.

Always make copies of all your completed applications before submitting them and file them properly with all necessary details for easy reference. If your mail copy is lost by accident, you can always send in a follow up copy from the one you made. Last but not least, stay positive about yourself and your chances of getting a scholarship. The hard work you put in and the time you spent towards searching for scholarships will definitely bring you decent results.

Nic Haffner wants to learn people how to utilize scholarship money. You can go to the-scholarship-portal.com for information about different kinds of college scholarships and lots of more hot scholarship and grant stuff.

Tags: Here's, Quick, Scholarship