On Education: As Best Schools Compete for Best Performers, Students May Be Left Behind

“A lot of kids at Dewey cut class, hang out on the street,” Ms. Otero said. “Kids get jumped in the park.”

She worried that enrolling her daughter in a low-performing middle school like Dewey would relegate Aaliyah to a low-performing high school and then — well, both her older children had dropped out.

So last year when Aaliyah started fifth grade at Public School 24, Ms. Otero, a freelance graphic artist and a single mother, practically memorized the Education Department’s guide to middle schools. She attended the middle school fair for her district, District 15, and visited schools considered to be among the best.

Parents are supposed to rank their choices for the district lottery, but the guidebook is vague about what each school is looking for. Every school listing, under “Selection criteria,” says the same thing: “Review of grades and test scores.”

It is the guidance counselors who tell the parents how things really work. On both the state reading and math tests, the most selective schools generally want a raw score of at least 660 each — the equivalent of a 3 out of a top score of 4. Aaliyah was close; she had a 649 and 664.

Ms. Otero toured Middle School 51, one of the most coveted schools. “I heard the way they spoke,” she recalled. “Everyone was learning, sitting down, paying attention to the teacher.”

She also visited New Voices School of Academic and Creative Arts, which requires an audition. Aaliyah has never had a music lesson, but the family owns a guitar. “I’m just learning,” Aaliyah said. “I watch this TV channel — they have guitars, and I see where they put their fingers.” Asked how her audition went, she said, “A little messed up.”

Ms. Otero’s first choice for Aaliyah was M.S. 51, then New Voices; she listed Dewey last.

In mid-May, acceptance letters went out.

“Dewey,” Ms. Otero said. “A complete waste of my time. She could have gone straight into Dewey.”

Ms. Otero appealed.

Long before the Bloomberg administration, districts offered school choice. But in recent years the process has intensified. The reform movement has created an educational marketplace that presses schools to compete for students. This is good for the students selected for the strongest schools but not so good for children left behind and grouped as the weakest.

From 80 to 90 percent of pupils get one of their first three choices, according to an Education Department spokesman. But the better the test scores, the more in demand a child is, and the better the odds.

Christina Fuentes, the P.S. 24 principal, worries that children are being segregated by achievement, with students who earn 3s and 4s heading to one set of schools, and those with 1s and 2s to what is left over.

The 110 fifth graders at P.S. 24 are mostly poor with special needs (92 percent qualify for free lunch; for 46 percent, English is a second language; 19 percent are in special education, according to the most recent statistics on the Education Department’s Web site). They were accepted at nine different middle schools for the fall. The biggest group, 36, will go to Dewey.

Five will attend M.S. 51.

At Dewey, 90 percent of students qualify for subsidized lunches; for 39 percent, English is a second language; 21 percent are in special education.

Average language arts class size is 40.

At M.S. 51, 39 percent receive subsidized lunches; for 2 percent, English is a second language; 10 percent are in special education.

Average language arts class size is 29.

Academically, most children with 3s and 4s in elementary school continue to be 3s and 4s at M.S. 51, while the 1s and 2s continue to be 1s and 2s at Dewey.

At Dewey, 12 percent are proficient in language arts with a median state test score of 2.3; 20 percent are proficient in math with a median score of 2.4.

At M.S. 51, 82 percent are proficient in language arts with a score of 3.34; 83 percent are proficient in math with a 3.8 score.

E-mail: oneducation

@nytimes.com

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On Education: As Best Schools Compete for Best Performers, Students May Be Left Behind

“A lot of kids at Dewey cut class, hang out on the street,” Ms. Otero said. “Kids get jumped in the park.”

She worried that enrolling her daughter in a low-performing middle school like Dewey would relegate Aaliyah to a low-performing high school and then — well, both her older children had dropped out.

So last year when Aaliyah started fifth grade at Public School 24, Ms. Otero, a freelance graphic artist and a single mother, practically memorized the Education Department’s guide to middle schools. She attended the middle school fair for her district, District 15, and visited schools considered to be among the best.

Parents are supposed to rank their choices for the district lottery, but the guidebook is vague about what each school is looking for. Every school listing, under “Selection criteria,” says the same thing: “Review of grades and test scores.”

It is the guidance counselors who tell the parents how things really work. On both the state reading and math tests, the most selective schools generally want a raw score of at least 660 each — the equivalent of a 3 out of a top score of 4. Aaliyah was close; she had a 649 and 664.

Ms. Otero toured Middle School 51, one of the most coveted schools. “I heard the way they spoke,” she recalled. “Everyone was learning, sitting down, paying attention to the teacher.”

She also visited New Voices School of Academic and Creative Arts, which requires an audition. Aaliyah has never had a music lesson, but the family owns a guitar. “I’m just learning,” Aaliyah said. “I watch this TV channel — they have guitars, and I see where they put their fingers.” Asked how her audition went, she said, “A little messed up.”

Ms. Otero’s first choice for Aaliyah was M.S. 51, then New Voices; she listed Dewey last.

In mid-May, acceptance letters went out.

“Dewey,” Ms. Otero said. “A complete waste of my time. She could have gone straight into Dewey.”

Ms. Otero appealed.

Long before the Bloomberg administration, districts offered school choice. But in recent years the process has intensified. The reform movement has created an educational marketplace that presses schools to compete for students. This is good for the students selected for the strongest schools but not so good for children left behind and grouped as the weakest.

From 80 to 90 percent of pupils get one of their first three choices, according to an Education Department spokesman. But the better the test scores, the more in demand a child is, and the better the odds.

Christina Fuentes, the P.S. 24 principal, worries that children are being segregated by achievement, with students who earn 3s and 4s heading to one set of schools, and those with 1s and 2s to what is left over.

The 110 fifth graders at P.S. 24 are mostly poor with special needs (92 percent qualify for free lunch; for 46 percent, English is a second language; 19 percent are in special education, according to the most recent statistics on the Education Department’s Web site). They were accepted at nine different middle schools for the fall. The biggest group, 36, will go to Dewey.

Five will attend M.S. 51.

At Dewey, 90 percent of students qualify for subsidized lunches; for 39 percent, English is a second language; 21 percent are in special education.

Average language arts class size is 40.

At M.S. 51, 39 percent receive subsidized lunches; for 2 percent, English is a second language; 10 percent are in special education.

Average language arts class size is 29.

Academically, most children with 3s and 4s in elementary school continue to be 3s and 4s at M.S. 51, while the 1s and 2s continue to be 1s and 2s at Dewey.

At Dewey, 12 percent are proficient in language arts with a median state test score of 2.3; 20 percent are proficient in math with a median score of 2.4.

At M.S. 51, 82 percent are proficient in language arts with a score of 3.34; 83 percent are proficient in math with a 3.8 score.

E-mail: oneducation

@nytimes.com

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Geography Report Card Finds Students Lagging

Over all, high school seniors demonstrated the least proficiency on a 2010 test, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the nation’s geography report card, with 20 percent found to be proficient or better, compared with 27 percent of eighth graders and 21 percent of fourth graders.

The average test score for 12th graders declined to 282 (on a scale of 500) from 284 in 2001 when the test was last given. It remained essentially unchanged for eighth graders during that period, though there were gains among the lowest-performing students. Fourth graders had the largest gains, with the average score rising to 213, up five points from 2001.

“Geography is not just about maps,” said David P. Driscoll, chairman of the National Assessment Governing Board, who expressed concern that students were not doing better in geography. “It is a rich and varied discipline that, now more than ever, is vital to understanding the connections between our global economy, environment and diverse cultures.”

The report found that boys scored higher than girls in all three grades, and that the average scores for black and Hispanic students in fourth and eighth grades were higher than in earlier tests.

Roger M. Downs, a geography professor at Pennsylvania State University who has studied the results, said that while he was encouraged by the improving test scores for fourth graders, and for low-performing and minority students, he was concerned that “geography’s role in the curriculum is limited and, at best, static.”

“That is ironic given the convincing case that can be made for the importance of geographic literacy,” Mr. Downs said. “But it is doubly ironic given a world in which adults and now children have smartphones and tablets that can download maps on the fly, provide directions to places, and give your location to your friends.”

The tests were given to a national sample of 7,000 fourth graders, 9,500 eighth graders, and 10,000 12th graders. The assessment program, which currently evaluates student progress in geography and eight other subjects, has also recently released scores in civics and history.

The geography test rated students’ knowledge as basic, proficient or advanced, based partly on knowledge of space and place — say, a particular place on Earth — as well as environment and society and spatial dynamics and connections.

It also assessed students’ cognitive skills through problem-solving questions. For instance, a fourth grader rated as proficient would be able to recognize factors that prevent soil erosion; one rated advanced would be able to use a map to understand city development, according to the report. A proficient eighth grader would be able to explain the effect of a monsoon in India.

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Surge in Number of Indian Students Heading to Canadian Colleges

Besides the country’s positive attitude toward outsiders, the chief attractions for Indian students are the lower costs for both tuition and living expenses, in addition to its lenient visa requirements, according to students and consultants who advise them about overseas study options.

The number of Canadian student visas issued in India jumped to more than 12,000 in 2010, from 3,152 in 2008.

While applications have increased at all levels, growth has been greatest at community colleges, which typically offer career-focused certificate and diploma programs, according to Simon Cridland, a spokesman at the Canadian High Commission in New Delhi.

“They offer very practical training that is very job-market focused,” he said, adding that courses range from highly technical subjects like aircraft maintenance and computer animation to sports management and hospitality.

Shreya Dasgupta, a recent high school graduate from New Delhi, plans to start studying economics and business at Simon Fraser University’s Burnaby campus this fall. Ms. Dasgupta, 18, said that while she did not have a strong preference for any one country, she found Canada’s relatively liberal visa rules attractive.

“I think it’s easier than the United States,” she said. “Plus, you do have job opportunities later on. In the U.S., it’s very expensive and it’s not sure that you’ll get a job.”

Kartik Rao, who has been admitted to an M.B.A. program at Concordia University in Montreal, also said that Canada is more welcoming. “Irrespective of my getting a job, I have a three-year work visa which will allow me to work, which will in turn allow me to pay back my loan,” he said.

Mr. Rao, 25, estimates that his business degree in Canada will cost 35 percent to 40 percent less than what it would cost in the United States or in Britain. Also driving his optimism is the belief that employment prospects in Canada are better.

“The financial downturn has forced people to look for new avenues,” he said. “Canada was not as badly affected, which really tilted people’s views about Canada.”

Also, warming political ties have raised the country’s profile in India. Among the agreements signed during a visit to Canada last summer by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was a pact on broadening ties in higher education. To promote this initiative, 15 university presidents from Canada visited India last November.

Last month, the heads of dozens of Indian universities participated in a high level meeting at Carleton University in Ottawa to explore possibilities for increased collaboration.

“There is increasing awareness of what kinds of experience and expertise are available in the Canadian higher education system,” said Gail Bowkett, the assistant director for international relations at the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. “Indian students can find pretty much any niche that they are looking for.”

As part of its effort to showcase the variety of academic programs, Canada has launched a program for Indian students to complete three- to four-month paid research internships at leading Canadian universities. In 2010, 105 students from the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology were chosen for the all-expenses-paid program. They travelled to British Columbia, Ontario and New Brunswick to conduct research.

Ms. Bowkett said the positive experience of these elite students has been a huge image booster. “The program exposes them to faculty and facilities, and those students are going back to India and it spreads like wildfire by word of mouth when they go back.”

Also, starting in 2009, the Canadian visa offices in India started to increase the promotion of community colleges. According to Mr. Cridland, the jump in applications to these institutions is a sign that Indians who normally send their children overseas for a university degree are now open to the idea of also sending them to community colleges.

For instance, a course in accounting or public relations “can be an additional qualification that complements a university degree, or it can be a stand-alone qualification, depending on the needs of the student,” he said.

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How Much Money Students Can Save By Renting Textbooks Online

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How to Get Loans for Students?

If you are a student and you need help then you must look up to the various facilities that the state can provide you with. Each and every student who is studying in a college or school might not have enough money to pay the fees.

There are lots of students who had to leave their studies because they could not pay their fees. But now you have a way with the help of which you can get some help for your college fees and hence complete your studies.

You might have heard that there are certain loans for students which can be helpful in this case. This is one of the most common financial aids which are offered by the government of US. There are certain steps which can ensure that you will get this financial help from the department of education of the US government.

College student loans have become quite popular these days and there are certain steps which you need to take before you get the aid. But while borrowing this money you need to remember certain facts.

Loans for students are not like grants or scholarships and hence it must be repaid. The credit rating of a person is usually affected with the repayment of this kind of a loan. Therefore before you opt for this loan you must be informed about the type of loan and methods of repayment.

To get the educational loans you first need to fill up a form which is a free application form for federal student aid. This form is usually supplied by the education department of the United States.

This is one of the loans which are offered to the unemployed persons and the interest rate of the loan is also quite low. These loans also have a deferred repayment schedule. Once you take admissions in a college you need to produce the confirmation of admission along with a letter to prove that you have been admitted to the college.

To get the loans for students you also need to have a cosigner along with the admission letter. Before you apply for the alternative student loans you need to make certain preparations.

It is very much important to have a discussion with your family. Other than this, it is also important to find out any kind of hidden costs as well as the visible cost from the college prospectus to make sure you apply for the right amount of loan.

If you are a good student and if you have been consistent in your performance then you might even apply for the best student loan. You must choose the best bank for availing the loan so that there are no hidden costs.

Are you wondering about where to seek for the best student loans or educational loans? Visit today.

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Students in Poor Counties Get Creative Opportunities

Ms. Vela, the first in her family to go out of state to school, said she was not concerned about the academic challenges of college — she has been taking college courses since her sophomore year. By the time she graduates in the spring, she will have accumulated 30 college credit hours. Some of her classmates have double that.

Ms. Vela’s achievement is part of an initiative involving dual-credit courses that allows students to merge high school with college-level education to an unprecedented extent. Hidalgo’s school — once ranked among the worst performing in the state — is now one of the most successful.

An exceptional level of collaboration between local leaders in public and higher education has permeated Hidalgo for the last five years and is taking hold elsewhere in the Rio Grande Valley, which boasts some of the United States’ poorest counties, providing students with new opportunities.

In the 1980s, when Texas’ education-accountability systems were put into place, Hidalgo’s high school was ranked in the bottom 10 percent of the state’s schools in academic performance. The student population is 99 percent Hispanic, 89 percent of students are economically disadvantaged and 70 percent are considered “at risk” by the standards of the Texas Education Agency.

Today, Hidalgo students graduate at higher rates than the state average, and 98 percent — compared with 81 percent statewide — complete a recommended or distinguished curriculum as defined by the state.

At most high schools in Texas, students are permitted to enroll in dual-credit courses only after they have entered their junior year. Even then, they can enroll in only up to two at a time.

But such limits do not exist at schools in the Early College High School Initiative, a national program started in 2002 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The foundation’s idea was to finance small schools that, in partnership with local colleges, would provide an early introduction to the concept and rigor of higher education to up to 400 low-income high school students, 100 per grade.

In Texas, there are currently 49 such schools, financed jointly by the Communities Foundation of Texas and the Texas Education Agency.

But Hidalgo has taken that notion even further.

Daniel P. King was the Hidalgo Independent School District superintendent in 2005 when the local early college effort began. Mr. King liked the idea but thought it could be improved.

“Early college high schools were already outside the box,” he said. “We wanted to go outside their box.”

Many of the early college high schools were on college campuses, which was limiting. Hidalgo’s public high school serves more than 800 students, and Mr. King was not interested in reaching only half of them. Instead, he proposed leveraging two grants to convert his entire school to the early college model. He created the first “early college district” in the country, according to Joel Vargas, a vice president at Jobs for the Future, the Boston-based organization that coordinates the nationwide initiative.

Hidalgo’s first partner was the University of Texas-Pan American, a four-year university in Edinburg, 15 miles to the north. Later, Hidalgo joined with South Texas College, a community college in nearby McAllen, and Texas State Technical College.

Robert Nelson, president of U.T.-Pan American, said a side effect of the collaboration had been a need to increase the rigor of his school’s college courses to account for students’ increased preparedness.

Similarly, middle schools have increased their standards to prepare students for early college high school. At Jaime Escalante Middle School in nearby Pharr, Maria Valencia, a sixth grader, recently chose St. Edward’s University in Austin as her top college pick. Her next project is preparing to take the PSATs.

The middle school is in the 32,000-student Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Independent School District, where Mr. King now serves as superintendent. He is trying to replicate the success of the Hidalgo model in a district 10 times the size, and he is quick to leverage any sources he can to reach as many students as possible.

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Japanese Universities Draw Foreign Students With Manga

That is precisely the blend Mr. Wood, who grew up in the United States and is now studying at Kyoto Seika University’s manga program, is angling for.

Mr. Wood, a 25-year-old graduate of Stanford University in California, and students like him have gravitated toward the modern Japanese arts, feeling they may help them advance their careers in animation, design, computer graphics and the business of promoting them.

And as Japanese universities work harder to attract students to fill their classrooms while the country’s birth rate declines, more are offering degrees in manga and animation.

“I like it here because you get totally immersed in the skill training” of manga and animation, Mr. Wood said. “It has turned out to be a lot of fun.”

Once they are armed with unique technical and industry knowledge, many international students are eager to gain work experience here upon graduation before heading back home.

Li Lin Lin, 28, a student from northeastern China who attends Digital Hollywood University, a school in Tokyo that specializes in animation and video games, said that upon finishing her degree, it would probably be “easy” to find a job in the animation field in China. The real trophy, she said, was getting job experience in the country of manga. Ms. Li is especially interested in working for a Japanese animation studio.

“I think you can do almost anything back home once you get a degree and animation working experiences in Japan,” said Ms. Li, emerging from her class on digital animation coloring one Saturday afternoon.

Hidenori Ohyama, senior director of corporate strategy at Toei Animation, said it was possible that international students could end up at Japanese companies like his. “If they apply, take our tests and pass, they will become employees just like anyone else,” he said.

His company, a leading animation company that has produced “Dragonball” and “Slam Dunk” films, has Romanian and Korean producers, among other foreign citizens, Mr. Ohyama said.

None of the animation-themed Japanese university programs seem to be on the international radar yet, said Kison Chang, a training manager at Imagi Studios, an international animation production studio based in Hong Kong.

But he said students studying in Japan who ended up with solid work experiences at Japanese studios could be prime candidates for international recruitment.

“They would certainly be a great benefit to our professional line,” he said. “They might bring in some kind of spirit which we may not know, or something we didn’t realize that would be a benefit to us,” he said.

Such individuals are not yet on his teams, nor at any of his rivals, he said.

Another possible reason that the programs have not received international attention is that the language of instruction is Japanese.

Tomoyuki Sugiyama, president of Digital Hollywood University, conceded that language might be a serious barrier, especially for Western students.

“If we had an English-based program at the graduate level, for example, we would be inundated with Western students almost instantly,” he said.

Nevertheless, at Kyoto Seika University, which established the country’s first manga program, the number of foreign students in it has risen to 57 currently out of a total of 800 students in the program from just 19 in 2000.

Since it was founded in 2005, Digital Hollywood University has seen its international students grow to 84 this year, roughly 20 percent of its student body, from just one when the school began.

“I want to see it grow to 50 percent of the entire students in the very near future,” Mr. Sugiyama said.

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Shanghai Schools’ Approach Pushes Students to Top of Tests

“Who in this class can tell me how to demonstrate two lines are parallel without using a proportional segment?” Ms. Li called out to about 40 students seated in a cramped classroom.

One by one, a series of students at this medium-size public school raised their hands. When Ms. Li called on them, they each stood politely by their desks and usually answered correctly. They returned to their seats only when she told them to sit down.

Educators say this disciplined approach helps explain the announcement this month that 5,100 15-year-olds in Shanghai outperformed students from about 65 countries on an international standardized test that measured math, science and reading competency.

American students came in between 15th and 31st place in the three categories. France and Britain also fared poorly.

Experts said comparing scores from countries and cities of different sizes is complicated. They also said that the Shanghai scores were not representative of China, since this fast-growing city of 20 million is relatively affluent. Still, they were impressed by the high scores from students in Shanghai.

The results were seen as another sign of China’s growing competitiveness. The United States rankings are a “wake-up call,” said Arne Duncan, the secretary of education.

Although it was the first time China had taken part in the test, which was administered by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, based in Paris, the results bolstered this country’s reputation for producing students with strong math and science skills.

Many educators were also surprised by the city’s strong reading scores, which measured students’ proficiency in their native Chinese.

The Shanghai students performed well, experts say, for the same reason students from other parts of Asia — including South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong — do: Their education systems are steeped in discipline, rote learning and obsessive test preparation.

Public school students in Shanghai often remain at school until 4 p.m., watch very little television and are restricted by Chinese law from working before the age of 16.

“Very rarely do children in other countries receive academic training as intensive as our children do,” said Sun Baohong, an authority on education at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. “So if the test is on math and science, there’s no doubt Chinese students will win the competition.”

But many educators say China’s strength in education is also a weakness. The nation’s education system is too test-oriented, schools here stifle creativity and parental pressures often deprive children of the joys of childhood, they say.

“These are two sides of the same coin: Chinese schools are very good at preparing their students for standardized tests,” Jiang Xueqin, a deputy principal at Peking University High School in Beijing, wrote in an opinion article published in The Wall Street Journal shortly after the test results were announced. “For that reason, they fail to prepare them for higher education and the knowledge economy.”

In an interview, Mr. Jiang said Chinese schools emphasized testing too much, and produced students who lacked curiosity and the ability to think critically or independently.

“It creates very narrow-minded students,” he said. “But what China needs now is entrepreneurs and innovators.”

This is a common complaint in China. Educators say an emphasis on standardized tests is partly to blame for the shortage of innovative start-ups in China. And executives at global companies operating here say they have difficulty finding middle managers who can think creatively and solve problems.

In many ways, the system is a reflection of China’s Confucianist past. Children are expected to honor and respect their parents and teachers.

“Discipline is rarely a problem,” said Ding Yi, vice principal at the middle school affiliated with Jing’An Teachers’ College. “The biggest challenge is a student who chronically fails to do his homework.”

While the quality of schools varies greatly in China (rural schools often lack sufficient money, and dropout rates can be high), schools in major cities typically produce students with strong math and science skills.

Shanghai is believed to have the nation’s best school system, and many students here gain admission to America’s most selective colleges and universities.

Bao Beibei contributed research.

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