Is Reading is Fundamental doomed?

A change in the way that the federal government is planning to allocate funds to increase literacy may severely hamper some non-profit organizations who are currently running literacy programs the best known of which is the Reading is Fundamental or RIF program. As is reported in the NY times article "U.S. Plan Threatens Free-Book Group", RIF stands to lose all of its federal financing, which accounts for roughly 75 percent of its annual revenues through this change. RIF is mainly involved with giving out free books to under-privileged children to enhance their literacy.

And the Winners Are

Delaware and Tennessee were the only two states awarded some of the Department of Education's Race to the Top Funds. According to the New York Times article "U.S. Names Education Grant Winners" Delaware will be awarded approximately $100 million and Tennessee about $500 million. One prominent feature of Delaware’s proposal was a new state law that allows teachers rated as “ineffective” for three years to be removed from the classroom, regardless of whether they have tenure or not.

Kids Maths Scores Up, Reading Scores Flat

Children's Math scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress or (NAEP) test have been increasing over time while reading scores are stagnant. The NY times article "Reading Scores Lagging Compared With Math" reports that Math scores increased 20 points for eighth graders and 27 points for fourth graders from 1990 to 2009. Readings scores however, changed little. Eighth graders scored 264 (500-point scale) in reading in 2009, compared with 263 in 2007. Fourth graders scored 221 on the 2009 test, which was the same average score as in 2007. Across the nation only 33 percent of fourth graders scored at or above the proficient level based on the most recent NAEP test.

State Education Profiles

For state level information on measures such as student/teacher ratios in elementary & secondary education, total expenditures on elementary & secondary education etc. see the NCES website

http://nces.ed.gov/programs/stateprofiles/

It also has state level info on post-secondary education.

Proposed Increase in Pell Grants

On Thursday Congressional Democrats announced legislation that would provide 36 billion in additional funding to Pell grants. The NY times article "Bill Proposes Increased Aid to the Needy for College" reports that the bill proposes to increase the maximum Pell grant to $5,975 in $2017 which is a $625 increase from what it currently is. The increase in Pell grants would be funded by eliminating subsidies to private banks who make student loans.

Komitmen LASKAR SENEBY

"Semakin TEAM Kita Bekerja Keras, Semakin Sulit TEAM Kita Menyerah"

ECON 252: Financial Markets

Lecture 2 - The Universal Principle of Risk Management:

Pooling and the Hedging of Risks

Overview:

Statistics and mathematics underlie the theories of finance. Probability Theory and various distribution types are important to understanding finance. Risk management, for instance, depends on tools such as variance, standard deviation, correlation, and regression analysis. Financial analysis methods such as present values and valuing streams of payments are fundamental to understanding the time value of money and have been in practice for centuries.

Reading assignment:

Jeremy Siegel, Stocks for the Long Run, chapter 1 and Appendix 2 (p. 12)

Class lecture:

Resources:

PowerPoint slides from screen - Lecture 2 [PDF]

Problem Set 1: Probability [PDF]

Obama announces plan to raise academic standards

As reported by The Washington Post article "Obama proposes to raise academic standards by linking them to state benchmarks," President Obama announced his plan to require states' benchmarks for reading and mathematics to be such that students are college or career ready. State could verify that its benchmarks meet the expected level by either adopting standards developed through a consortium of states or by certifying, in a process to be developed with universities, that their existing standards are high enough. To insure compliance, $14.5 billion in annual education aid for students from poor families would be tied to states' action on standards. The plan is part of Obama's envisioned modifications to NCLB.