Good morning, you’re listening to the Daily Apple, your source for the latest in Education News. I’m your host Jim Kent, the date is December 18, 2019. Before we get into the news of the day, I’d like to take a moment to thank our sponsor, VictoryXR. VXR’s award-winning content, helps kids experience science and engineering in a way that they have never been able to before, while making sure to cover everything within the NextGen Science Standards, and they’ve made it accessible on every kind of VR headset you can think of. To find out more, check out VictoryXR.com But now for the news.

Politico reports that congress is looking to increase education spending . The $72.8 billion in discretionary funding for the Education Department, part of an eight-bill "minibus," H.R. 1865 (116), marks an increase of $1.3 billion compared with enacted fiscal 2019 funding. The maximum Pell Grant award under the bill would be increased by $150, an increase of more than 2 percent from $6,195 to $6,345 for the 2020-21 school year. Title I grants would increase by $450 million.

Funding for grants under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act would get boosted by $410 million. The spending agreement offers $250 million in quality improvement funding, which includes a priority on addressing “the rise of adverse childhood experiences attributable to increased prevalence of substance use, economic hardship, home and community violence, and other traumatic experiences that can negatively impact child development and lead to disruptions in classroom environments.”

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-education/2019/12/17/education-department-in-line-for-a-13b-spending-bump-783766

According to reporting by the Daily Californian, The 2019 California School Dashboard report shows statewide improvement in graduation rates, college and career readiness and in English and math test scores.

Every year, the California Department of Education, or CDE, releases a report measuring statewide academic performance based on six main indicators: chronic absenteeism, suspension rates, graduation rates, college and career preparedness and English and math test scores.

The CDE uses the report to identify school districts that are in most need of assistance, based on student groups receiving extremely low rankings in two or more indicators. The number of school districts eligible for this “differentiated assistance” has gone down from 386 in 2018 to 333 in 2019, according to CDE spokesperson Scott Roark.

The only measure of academic performance in the report that saw a significant negative change from 2018 to 2019 was chronic absenteeism, with 10.1% of students missing 10% or more of the school year, a 1.1% increase from the 2018 report.

For the upcoming year, in order to further the educational progress seen this year, the ACOE will continue working on its Pathways to College and Career Department, as well as building more youth-led initiatives and investing in leadership development for teachers, Roberson said. The ACOE is also working on addressing the unique needs of at-risk student groups, such as homeless students.

https://www.dailycal.org/2019/12/17/annual-ca-education-report-shows-statewide-academic-progress/

American School & University Magazine reports that In fall 2019, overall postsecondary enrollment at U.S. institutions decreased 1.3 percent, or more than 231,000 students, from the previous fall.

The Fall 2019 Current Term Enrollment Estimates report compiled by the National Student Clearinghouse® Research calculated fall 2019 higher education enrollment at 17.9 million students.

Florida saw the greatest drop in year-to-year enrollment—52,328 students.

Fifteen states saw increases in enrollment, especially those in the South and the West. Utah had the greatest year-to-year increase—nearly 16,800 students or a 4.9% growth from last year.

California, with more than 2.4 million students, had the largest college enrollment among the states, nearly a million more students than second place Texas.

https://www.asumag.com/research/top-10s/article/21118631/states-with-largest-higher-education-enrollment-fall-2019

KOCO in Okahoma City reports that New requirements from the Oklahoma State Department of Education could nearly wipe out the four-day school week model, forcing schools across the state to go back to a five-day week.

Senate Bill 441 is designed to limit four-day school weeks, setting the standard that a minimum of 165 days must be spent in the classroom. To be exempt, a district must meet the Department of Education's guidelines, which a local advocacy group said are unattainable. The Oklahoma 4 Day School Coalition said the standards are so high that only 12% of all school districts in Oklahoma would meet them right now.

Gov. Kevin Stitt signed the Senate bill earlier this year. The exemption rules will go to the state Legislature for final approval.

https://www.koco.com/article/oklahoma-ag-says-hes-withdrawing-from-tribal-gaming-compact-negotiations/30259499

Inside Higher Ed reports that The proportion of all enrolled college students who took at least one online class continued to rise, edging up to 34.7 percent in fall 2018 from 33.1 percent the previous year. The rate of increase appears to be slowing ever so slightly, although online education remains the main driver of growth in postsecondary enrollments.

Western Governors University's aggressive expansion has catapulted it to the top of universities with the most students taking at least one online course. It is followed by Southern New Hampshire University, another fast grower (15.2 percent year-over-year growth and, like WGU, growing by nearly 73 percent over three years).

Southern New Hampshire and Western Governors were early movers among nonprofit universities to challenge the for-profit colleges that had largely captured the online market for adult learners in the 1990s and 2000s.

The list also shows significant growth by several large public universities in recent years, with institutions like Arizona State University (nearly doubling online enrollments since 2015), Florida International University (up 10 percent from 2017, and 44 percent since 2015), the Lone Star College system and the University of Texas at Arlington ascendant. Numerous other flagship institutions and public university systems are planning major investments in online learning, hoping to join the ranks of major national players.

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2019/12/17/colleges-and-universities-most-online-students-2018

Bloomberg is reporting that The owners of a struggling luxury dorm at the University of Oklahoma sued the college Monday for allegedly breaking a commitment to rent retail and parking spaces at a 1,230-bed complex at its flagship campus.

Provident Oklahoma Education Resources Inc., a non-profit that financed the $250 million project with municipal bonds, sued the university in state court, saying that if it had known the school would break its promise it never would have built the dorm, which includes a theater, a hair salon and a fitness center. Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based Provident is seeking more than $250 million in damages.

The project is suffering because the university doesn’t allow first-year students to live in the dorm, Provident said. The school also wanted suites without kitchens so students would eat at a university-run dining facility located in the dorm. However, upperclassmen overwhelmingly want in-unit kitchens, the lawsuit said. In addition, the university provided a flawed market study that didn’t include fraternity and sorority housing and another dorm traditionally occupied by upperclassmen that competes directly with the project, the lawsuit said.

The University of Oklahoma received $20 million from proceeds of the 2017 bond issue for the complex for a 50-year ground lease of the site. High ranking university officials, including its chief financial officer promised Provident it would rent the commercial and parking space every year over the life of the bonds, Provident alleged. The university also said it had obtained authorization to rent the space, which was later “exposed as patently inaccurate“ by the university’s Board of Regents, the lawsuit said.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-12-16/university-of-oklahoma-sued-over-struggling-luxury-dorm-project

According to Japan Times, The government Tuesday decided against adding open-ended questions for Japanese and math to the country’s new standardized university entrance exams due to start January 2021.

Education minister Koichi Hagiuda said issues such as the potential for errors to be made by private-sector graders, which includes student part-timers, and the difficulty for test-takers to be able to self-assess answers to open-ended questions could not be overcome.

Questions in the current standardized entrance exams are all in multiple-choice format. The scores determine which universities students choose to take further entrance exams.

However, the minister stressed the importance of including open-ended questions that evaluate logical thinking and a student’s ability to express themselves, and urged universities to put these types of questions on their own entrance exams.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/12/17/national/open-ended-questions-scrapped-university-entry-exams-japan/#.Xflhrh9INEY

And that rounds it up for todays headlines. Thanks again to VictoryXr for making this all possible. You can find the full transcript of today’s episode, along with links to the full stories, in the description of the episode. If you have any questions, comments, or stories of your own that deserve to be broadcast, let us know on social media at dailyapplepod or by email at dailyapplepod@gmail.comThanks for listening. We’ll see you tomorrow morning, bright and early