In return, the teacher was kicked out of Howell High School in Michigan for a day — suspended without pay for violating the student’s free speech rights.

The incident has sparked intense debate in Howell, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) northwest of Detroit, over defending civil rights without trampling the U.S. constitution’s right to free speech. It’s gained far wider attention since a local newspaper released video of a 14-year-old gay student from another city defending McDowell at a Howell school board meeting.

On Oct. 20, McDowell told a student in his classroom to remove a belt buckle with the Confederate flag, the symbol of the southern confederacy that seceded from the United States over slavery, kicking off the Civil War in the 1860s.

She complied, but it prompted a question from a boy about how the flag differs from the rainbow flag, a symbol of pride for the gay community.

“I explained the difference between the flags, and he said, ‘I don’t accept gays,’” said McDowell, 42, who was wearing a shirt with an anti-gay bullying message.

McDowell said he told the student he couldn’t say that in class.

“And he said, ‘Why? I don’t accept gays. It’s against my religion.’ I reiterated that it’s not appropriate to say something like that in class,” McDowell said Monday.

McDowell said he sent the boy out of the room for a one-day class suspension. Another boy asked if he also could leave because he also didn’t accept gays.

“The classroom discussion was heading in a direction I didn’t want it to head,” McDowell said.

McDowell soon received a reprimand letter from the district that said his actions violated the students’ free speech rights as well as school policy. It also said he “purposefully initiated a controversial issue” by wearing the T-shirt featuring the anti-gay bullying message.

“I thought it was a really great, teachable moment,” McDowell said of his decision to remove the student from class.

Graeme Taylor is among those who agree. The 14-year-old, who does not go to Howell schools, says he is gay and attended a recent school board meeting to praise a teacher who “finally stood up and said something.”

“I’ve been in classrooms where children have said the worst things,” the boy told the board. “The kinds of things that drove me to a suicide attempt when I was 9 years old.”

Video of Graeme’s comments had been viewed on YouTube more than 13,000 times as of Monday evening, when Howell schools held a community diversity forum that district spokeswoman Kim Root said was meant to be a step forward.

“We can learn some things from this episode,” she said, adding the district hoped to receive recommendations from the public to improve “the tolerance of the district and enhance diversity efforts we already have in place.”

Jay Kaplan, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan’s LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) Legal Project, credits McDowell for trying to create a “welcoming environment for all students.” But Kaplan said the “teachable moment” would have come if the students stayed in the classroom.

“We believe, based on those statements — as offensive and upsetting as they were — they were protected speech,” Kaplan said. “The only way we’re going to create a better environment in schools is to start talking about this.”

Kaplan said Howell schools have expressed interest in accepting the ACLU‘s offer to provide in-person training to students, faculty and staff. He said such training could provide a better understanding of what can be said and done.

McDowell has filed a complaint against the district over the discipline he received, but said Monday he primarily wants to “force the school to look at itself.”

“I want to force adults to look at what situation we’ve created,” he said. “I would really like us to be more aggressive in our policing of harassing and bullying.”

Michigan teacher suspended over anti-gay punishment

Hearst Magazines chairwoman Cathie Black will become the first female chancellor of the city’s 1.1 million-student school system, replacing Joel I. Klein, who has served as chancellor since 2002. Klein is leaving to become an executive vice president at News Corp.

Bloomberg praised Black, a Chicago native who spent eight years at USA Today as president, publisher, board member and Gannett Co. executive vice president, as a “world-class manager.” The billionaire mayor, who often eschews traditional resumes for government posts, said Black’s business skills make her an ideal leader of educators and students.

“She understands that we have to make sure that our kids have the skill sets to partake in the great American dream,” Bloomberg said. “In the end, I picked somebody who I have confidence is the right person for this job at this time.”

The appointment will require a waiver from the state Department of Education because Black is not a certified teacher. The mayor said Klein will stay on until the end of the year.

Black attended parochial schools in Chicago and sent her own children to private boarding schools in Connecticut.

She has been on Fortune magazine’s “50 Most Powerful Women in Business” list and is the author of a book called “Basic Black: The Essential Guide for Getting Ahead at Work (and in Life).” She will be the first woman to lead the New York City school system.

At Hearst, she oversees titles including Esquire; Good Housekeeping; O, the Oprah magazine and Popular Mechanics.

Black’s appointment reflects Bloomberg’s view that success in business translates to similar achievements in public service.

“There is no one who knows more about the skills our children will need to succeed in the 21st century economy,” Bloomberg said at a City Hall news conference with Klein and Black.

Before Klein joined the Bloomberg administration, he was with media conglomerate Bertelsmann AG. Previously, he was an assistant attorney general in the Clinton administration. He headed the U.S. Justice Department‘s antitrust division for nearly four years, where his work included launching the case to break up Microsoft Corp.

Unlike Black, Klein grew up in New York City and attended public schools.

As chancellor, he often clashed with unions and with parent groups that complained of being denied a role in running the schools.

“Many parents will be glad to see Joel Klein leave as chancellor, who had no respect for their views or priorities,” said Leonie Haimson, who leads a parent advocacy group called Class Size Matters.

Ernest Logan, the president of the union that represents New York City principals, said Klein “had a rocky road” as chancellor but learned on the job.

Logan said he knows little about Black. “I’m now going to read her book,” he said.

Teachers union head Michael Mulgrew said: “I look forward to working with Ms. Black. As a teacher, I will help in any way I can to improve the education for the children of New York.”

Black told reporters she has had “limited exposure to unions” in her previous jobs.

Klein was appointed chancellor after Bloomberg won control of the school system and disbanded the Board of Education. Bloomberg and Klein have touted the progress that students have made under their watch, but the state Education Department said last summer that rising scores on standardized tests had been overstated because the tests had become too easy.

Black will likely serve no longer than the three years remaining in Bloomberg’s term.

“She’s had a career, so maybe she can have the ability to devote the next three years to public service,” Bloomberg said.

Publishing exec named new NYC schools chancellor

The settlement, which must be approved by a judge, would shield up to 45 underperforming schools from teacher layoffs for budget reasons. It also stipulates that vacancies be filled as quickly as possible, and contains a commitment to explore incentives, such as bonuses, to recruit and retain teachers and principals at poorly performing schools, with additional incentives if the school’s academic performance improves.

The agreement stems from a lawsuit by American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California over teacher layoffs at three inner-city schools. The group had filed a class-action suit against the Los Angeles Unified School District in February, saying that mandated seniority-driven layoffs led to the three schools shedding some two-thirds of their teachers, which left students largely in the hands of substitutes.

The ACLU said students were being denied their state constitutional right to a fair and adequate education. It won a temporary injunction in May that prevented more layoffs of first- and second-year teachers who form the bulk of faculties at these schools in improverished areas, which more experienced teachers tend to avoid.

“Any principal wants a mix of new and experienced teachers, you don’t want any schools skewed,” said John Rogers, director of the Institute for Democracy, Education and Access and the University of California, Los Angeles. “You need a set of measures to keep teachers at a school. If they had done this, seniority-based layoffs wouldn’t have been an issue.”

With the recession spurring teacher reductions across the nation, the issue of how layoffs are determined has become especially contentious. Teachers’ unions have fiercely opposed most moves to change seniority policies to a system based on performance and other factors.

Some education reformers lauded the proposed settlement because it seeks to correct the root problem: a lack of ways to keep more experienced teachers at schools, which leads to high turnover and thus staffs largely new to the profession.

“The reform train is moving,” said Emily Cohen, district policy director of National Council of Teacher Quality. “Districts aren’t as afraid of unions anymore.”

But the city’s teachers union, United Teachers Los Angeles, said it would be meeting with the school board and the ACLU to review the terms of the proposed settlement and to voice its objections. “When the district makes a long-term policy that’s detrimental to students, we are obligated to challenge it,” it said.

The settlement shields teachers from layoffs at the city’s 25 lowest ranking schools according to the Academic Performance Index, a state score based on standardized tests, and another 20 chronically underperforming schools showing improvement, with the idea being that layoffs would set back advancement at these schools instead of boosting them, said LAUSD Deputy Superintendent John Deasy.

Other schools would not be disproportionately affected because layoffs will be capped at the district average for each school.

The union said it was concerned that the agreement would leave low-performing schools with a higher concentration of less experienced teachers. It also said “state law already gives schools districts flexibility in layoff procedures to best meet the needs of students” and “the settlement does nothing to solve ongoing staffing problems at hard-to-staff schools.”

California is one of a handful of states where seniority-based teacher layoffs are mandated by law. LAUSD’s settlement takes advantage of a loophole that allows seniority to be circumvented to meet special staffing needs and to meet the state constitutional right to a fair and adequate education.

Seniority-based layoffs are especially thorny in urban districts, where teachers often burn out early at tough, inner-city schools.

In Connecticut, the Hartford Public School System has asked the state board of education to change the seniority-driven layoff mandate because the young teaching staffs at its schools in high-povery areas are being decimated. The teachers union has accused the district of “union-busting.”

The issue “focuses the question on whether these students are less deserving of a stable set of teachers than students in a more affluent school,” said Mark Rosenbaum, chief counsel for the ACLU. “It’s about fairness and equality.”

The “last hired, first fired” layoff model has long been a sacred cow for the vast majority of teachers’ unions. In a study earlier this year, the National Council on Teacher Quality found that of 100 large school districts, only 25 considered factors other than seniority in teacher layoffs. In 16 districts, performance carries more weight than seniority.

Two bills to eliminate seniority-based layoffs in California died in the past year. Moves in other states have succeeded: Arizona approved a law prohibiting seniority-based layoffs, while Rhode Island said layoffs at low-performing schools must be determined by school need, not seniority.

Analysts said LAUSD’s settlement is important because it will give other districts a model to follow.

“It’s a good compromise,” said Cohen, of the National Council on Teacher Quality in Washington, D.C.

L.A. teachers union aims to prevent layoffs at ‘bad’ schools

The foundation, along with the National League of Cities, announced Monday that New York City; San Francisco; Mesa, Arizona; and Riverside, California, will each receive $3 million over the next three years for work designed to boost college graduation.

The foundation says its long-term goal is to double the number of low-income adults who earn a college degree or credential that meets job-market demands by age 26.

The grants announced Monday are for aligning academic standards between high school and college, strengthening data systems, implementing early assessment and college prep strategies and creating support systems to help students get through school.

In announcing the grants, the foundation pointed out the following statistics about the cities where the money will be spent:

— Low-income students who graduate from Mesa Public Schools and enroll at Mesa Community College have a 5.4% graduation rate.

— Ten percent of the students enrolled as first-year students at the City University of New York in 2006 had earned an associate’s degree three years later.

— Riverside City College has a graduation rate of 14%.

— About 27% of 9th-graders in San Francisco will go on to earn a post-secondary credential or degree.

“We know that in today’s economic climate and labor market, a high school diploma is no longer enough,” said Allan Golston, president of the U.S. Program at the Gates Foundation. “We must not only ensure that young people have access to college; we must ensure that they go on to complete college and earn a degree or certificate with value in the workplace.”

Since 2000, the foundation has spent $5 billion on its efforts to improve American public schools, send kids to college and, over the past few years, improve college graduation rates.

Gates Foundation gives $3M to 4 cities to boost college graduation

Those students will be “first in line for a job at IBM,” Bloomberg said in his announcement.

The mayor also renewed a proposal to do away with automatic teacher tenure and instead ensure it’s linked to classroom performance. He also said the city would work with the state to end “seat time” — requiring students to spend a certain number of hours in desks learning every subject — and would try to change a state law that requires schools to buy printed textbooks rather than use digital content.

“That may be good for the business textbook industry but it’s really a bad deal for our students in this day and age,” Bloomberg said.

The mayor also said the city will use a $36 million federal grant to enlist highly skilled teachers to work in low-performing schools and mentor fellow instructors.

“New York City is … laying the foundation to ensure that every child who graduates high school is ready to start college or a career,” Bloomberg said.

The mayor said the city wants to use a four-tier rating system to determine whether a teacher gets tenure, and said that beginning this year, only teachers rated “effective” or “highly effective” will be awarded lifetime job protection. Tenure would be awarded only if a teacher has made an impact on student achievement, he said.

“Just as we are raising the bar for our students through higher standards, we must also raise the bar for our teaches and principals — and we are,” the mayor said.

Bloomberg has proposed ending automatic teacher tenure in recent years. The state Legislature amended the law earlier this year to add student test scores and performance as criteria in evaluating teachers. Tenured teachers can be dismissed for incompetence or insubordination under the law but have due process rights.

“If the mayor wants to change seniority he will need to talk to the Legislature,” said Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, the city teachers’ union. Mulgrew said that tenure decisions are arbitrary. “Most teachers would welcome an objective tenure-granting process based on agreed-upon standards,” he said.

The partnership with IBM for a high school-college hybrid will build on work that the company is already doing in community colleges, said Stan Litow, vice president of corporate affairs for IBM.

“We have every confidence that large numbers of those kids would be able to assume entry-level jobs at IBM and other IT companies,” Litow said.

Earlier Monday, Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker said about $40 million has been raised so far to match the $100 million donation to the city’s school system from Facebook‘s founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Booker appeared in Manhattan with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Zuckerberg at NBC News’ “Education Nation” Summit.

CUNY, IBM to open high school-college hybrid

“She’ll need them,” her mother says.

“I don’t think so,” her dad counters.

Ariana, meanwhile, walks dreamily through the store, offering no opinion on this particular decision. She is, in fact, confident that she will have what she needs when she starts her freshman year at the University of Iowa.

She has mom, the family organizer, with her, and dad, the calm encourager. And they have “the list,” which mom printed from one of those “what-you’ll-need-at-college” websites.

New laptop. Check.

Comforter with matching sheets. Check.

Laundry detergent. Body wash. Antacid.

Check. Check. Check.

Mind you, Robin and Paul Kramer aren’t those crazy college parents — not like the mother who, as relayed by one dean of students at one California college, stayed in her daughter’s dorm room with her for four nights to help her adjust (until the daughter’s roommate complained).

Nor have they ignored barricades intended to keep parents from trying to register for classes for their children, or crashed student-only orientation events, which officials at universities across the country say happens more and more.

Still, even for average parents, the letting go is difficult — more so, they and many others say, than it was for parents of college-bound freshmen in decades past.

Robin Kramer recalls how her own parents, who never attended college, dropped her off with a trunk full of belongings at Drake University, also in Iowa, in 1978. She set up her room and attended orientation without them there. “It’s just what you did then,” she says.

It was much the same for Paul, whose father took him to the University of Wisconsin in 1977 and then went fishing. “It was a culture shock,” he says. “I wasn’t sure I was going to survive.”

Perhaps that is part of what makes this “process of leaving,” as Robin calls it, more difficult.

It is, all at once, overwhelming and exciting for everyone involved. But some say it’s often hardest for parents, who remember the days of college when there were fewer support systems in place for students.

“I’m supposed to shed a few tears and then send her to the world, right?” the rational Robin tells her emotional self as she considers 18-year-old Ariana, the eldest of their two children.

That remains to be seen.

‘Cut the cord!’

So how did we get here, anyway? It’s not that saying goodbye was easy for parents of past generations.

But these days, moms and dads have gone from reading books that tell us how to raise The Happiest Baby on the Block to new handbooks such as The Happiest Kid on Campus: A Parent’s Guide to the Very Best College Experience (for You and Your Child).

YOU and your child?

Linda Bips, a psychology professor who advises parents on letting go, used to carry scissors into workshops.

“Cut the cord!” she would tell them.

It evoked the chuckles she was looking for. “But I don’t do that anymore, because no one would listen anyway,” says Bips, a professor at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pa., and author of Parenting College Freshmen: Consulting For Adulthood.

The process, she has learned, has to be gradual.

Marshall Duke, a psychology professor at Emory University in Atlanta, has been giving those kinds of talks for three decades and also has noted more parents struggling.

For one, they’re more connected than ever, by Facebook and text messages and, increasingly, online video chat. They’re also often paying huge sums of money on their children’s education.

“So they think that gives them license to intervene as they would in other investments,” says Duke, who also encourages parents to take a step back, even when it goes against the fiber of their very being.

He wants them, in effect, to let their children falter, to figure things out for themselves, to become adults.

For Ariana Kramer, it means giving up the comfort of what she freely calls the “bubble” she grew up in, the quiet home and highly ranked schools in suburban Chicago where her main task in life was to study hard and get herself where she is today.

In physical distance, it wasn’t so far from the working-class neighborhoods where her parents grew up.

The Kramers both marvel at the freedom they had as kids, riding city buses as preteens and able to stay out with friends until the street lights came on. That was their signal that it was time to go home.

They went to neighborhood schools. Their friends lived across the street. They walked home for lunch.

“When we were growing up, there were no Amber Alerts,” says Paul, who is 50.

After they finished college and married, the Kramers eventually moved to their current home. Paul worked his way into medical sales and Robin, who is 49, created an at-home job for herself by managing businesses of lawyers and other self-employed professionals.

It became apparent how different their children’s lives would be when they found themselves arranging “play dates” and driving them from activity to activity.

“You had to be so much more involved,” Robin says — partly because, like a lot of people, they had fewer children to focus on than the average family of generations past.

Ariana worked in the summers, eventually becoming a counselor at a Wisconsin camp she attended for years. That helped her become more independent, she says.

But even she’ll acknowledge that the thought of taking the train or bus into the city, as her parents did, is still daunting.

Over this past summer, she took on household duties — doing laundry, loading the dishwasher, learning how to write a check — to help prepare her for that real world she’s anticipating.

In August, she moved in to her dorm at Iowa on the first day possible, so she had extra time to get her bearings. “I like simple,” she says. “I need simple.”

Times are a-changin’

By many estimations, the Kramers are a low-drama family. But even they are having their prickly moments when they arrive in Iowa City, and that’s to be expected in this time of heightened emotions, experts say.

Ariana rolls her eyes, for instance, when her mom suggests that she put her class assignments in her BlackBerry calendar.

“Mom, I’m not like you. You’re way, too, uh …” — Ariana pauses and chooses her words carefully when she remembers her words are being monitored by a reporter — “better organized than I am.”

It’s all part of the subtle push and pull that has been happening all summer, her mother says.

One minute it’s “I can do it myself!” The next, Ariana is asking, “Mom, can you help me with this?”

Robin is having her own internal struggles, trying to step back but finding it a challenge.

“Let’s be real. As a mom, sometimes it’s just easier to do it yourself,” she says, as she stands amid boxes and unpacked suitcases in the room Ariana will share with a roommate.

It’s nothing fancy, your basic 1920s-era dorm room, upgraded with an air conditioner that is welcomed on a late summer day in muggy Iowa.

“Thank God I have you guys. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to do this,” Ariana says, as her mother deals out tasks.

Per Robin’s instructions, mother and daughter unpack her clothes first, as Paul sets up the clock radio, the portable telephone and the microwave.

For him, the dorm room and this whole visit make him a bit wistful: “I wish it were me,” he says.

That, too, is a normal parental response to this transition, says Bips, the Muhlenberg College psychologist who’s also a baby boomer and remembers “never trusting anyone over 30″ back in her own college days.

“Life is more serious as you get older. There’s more loss. There’s more responsibility,” she says

“So I would guess people in their 50s, who have to pay for college and worry about their jobs and the economy — yeah, wouldn’t it be nice to go back?”

Some parents also feel nostalgic as the realization hits that their role — one of their main purposes in life — is changing, says Duke, the Emory psychologist: “If it’s a first child — my gosh, that’s a sobering signal about the progress of life.”

Increasingly, colleges and universities have noted the support parents need in letting go, so much that they are starting to formalize the goodbye.

At St. Olaf College in Minnesota, incoming freshmen are shown a video with their smiling, crying parents waving goodbye as one big group. First-year students at the University of Chicago, meanwhile, walk their parents to the university gate as bagpipes play in what some university staff call the “parting of the seas.”

At Drexel University‘s LeBow College of Business in Philadelphia, a goodbye reception includes an unofficial “crying room,” set up with tissues and a counselor. It’s kind of a gentle joke, but one that’s meant to send a message.

“The idea was that we understand this is a major change for everybody,” says Ian Sladen, LeBow’s assistant dean of undergraduate programs. “It’s just as tough for parents — probably tougher, really.”

But in the end, the message from universities and colleges is the same: Parents, please go home.

At the University of Iowa, there is no formal goodbye ceremony. The university does, however, have an orientation and newsletter for parents and an advisory board, where any concerns are addressed.

Meanwhile, Ariana also is taking a class called “The College Transition,” a relatively new course that helps freshmen ease into college life. “I clearly need a course like that to survive,” she says, her eyes widening for emphasis.

Courses like these, often referred to as “University 101,” are becoming more common on college campuses. The aim is to turn out students who are independent and ready for the workplace — without their parents in tow.

“It was almost a badge of honor 30 years ago when students couldn’t make it,” says Sladen at Drexel. “No one would be proud of that today.”

And that should help put parents at ease, he says.

‘Make the most of it’

After nearly three days together in Iowa, the moment for Ariana to say goodbye to her parents and 16-year-old brother Chase finally arrives. Her parents get a little philosophical over sushi.

“If they ask you ‘What’s the best time of your life?’ I think everybody will say college,” her dad says. “So make the most of it.”

“Have fun,” her mom adds. “But don’t forget about the academics.”

As her parents say goodbye, Ariana takes on the role of comforter. “I’ll call you,” she says as she hugs her mom, who begins to tear up.

Ariana grabs dad and then her brother, who’s also starting to cry. She teases him: “If you break anything in my room, you’re in trouble.” They laugh.

Chase, of anyone, has seemed the saddest about his sister leaving: “I think she’ll be OK as long as she copes with everything,” he had said the day before.

“Oh, she will,” her mom assured him. “She’s a coper.”

And it is true, Robin and Paul have faith in their daughter.

“Basically, I think she’s very grounded and has a good head on her shoulders,” Robin says.

She pauses. “But I’ll still be thinking, ‘Did she remember to do X, Y and Z?’”

Ariana’s family departs, and the new freshman looks content, if not a little lost.

She leaves her door open (that’s how you meet people, her resident adviser said). She looks around her room.

“It’s weird,” she says. “What do I do now?”

It won’t be long before she phones home.

Start of college can be harder on parents than freshmen

The latest and most prestigious example is Northwestern University. By targeting local students in financial need, Northwestern is seeking to boost minority enrollment, strengthen local ties and stay competitive in the college admissions race at a time when many private schools are increasing aid based on student merit instead of financial circumstances.

“You may be thinking globally about your education curriculum,” David Warren, president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, said of such efforts. “But you’re increasingly acting locally with respect to students.”

Northwestern’s “Good Neighbor, Great University” scholarships will be awarded starting in fall 2011 to about 100 incoming freshman who graduated from high schools in Evanston, Ill., home to Northwestern’s main campus, and Chicago, site of its medical school. About 2,000 first-year students enroll at Northwestern annually.

Students whose families show financial need — there is no income cut-off — will be eligible for scholarships replacing loans and payments from work-study. The majority of students who qualify will receive enough aid to fully cover the cost of Northwestern’s $40,223 annual tuition and fees, said Michael Mills, associate provost for university enrollment.

The program was recommended by a university task force on diversity and inclusion, which was formed following racial tensions on campus, including a controversy last fall over two students who dressed up in blackface for Halloween.

After its black student enrollment peaked at nearly 10% during the Carter administration, Northwestern experienced a slow and steady decline, Mills said.

This year’s incoming freshman class is about 7.2% black, up from 4.5% three years ago, which Mills attributed in part to better outreach to Chicago Public Schools and waiving the $65 application fee for its students. The university expects to enroll 60 CPS graduates in this fall’s freshman class, up from 28 in fall 2008.

Turning again to Chicago for the new scholarship program seemed a logical step considering the city’s racial diversity and the strong Chicago connections of faculty and board members, he said.

Joshua Williams, 22, a 2010 Northwestern graduate who graduated from high school on Chicago’s South Side, sought Northwestern out rather than being courted. A debater and poet who was raised by his grandmother, Williams settled on Northwestern as a high-school sophomore, attended a summer debate camp there and won financial aid to cover tuition.

“Now we see a Northwestern that has a new face, that is more proactive, reaching out to public schools,” said Williams, who is African-American and served on the diversity task force.

In developing the new scholarship program, Mills said Northwestern also was searching for answers after watching too many accepted students take merit-based scholarships at comparable and lesser schools.

“You’ve got all the evidence in the world to show kids you’ve recruited are smart enough to get admitted and predisposed to attend Northwestern, then you watch them sort of get plucked away,” he said.

The program should help local families that traditionally have earned too much to get a free ride and too little to afford Northwestern, said Patrick Tassoni, college coordinator at Chicago’s Northside Preparatory High School.

“Many colleges are saying, ‘You’re accepted, please send your $20,000 check to …’” Tassoni said of the plight of middle-income families. “That’s when families really start to compare the different financial aid packages at schools. Maybe now, more moderate-income families will be less apprehensive to apply to Northwestern.”

Among other private colleges that are going local with new or expanded financial aid, some directly tied to students’ financial need and others not:

• Last fall, Davis & Elkins College in rural West Virginia started offering discounted tuition to freshmen from seven nearby counties to make its cost comparable to that of West Virginia University. The small Presbyterian college says it was seeking to both reach enrollment targets and deepen ties to the area, which has low median household incomes and college attendance rates. The freshmen class from those counties grew from 16 in 2009-09 to 87 in 2009-10, and this fall is projected at 122, officials say.

• Also last fall, the University of Evansville began offering up to $18,000 a year, for up to four years, to all high school graduates or permanent residents of Vanderburgh County, Ind., its home county. School officials say their main motivation is to get more students living on campus and fully experiencing college life. Living in campus housing is required.

•Boston University in 2008 announced expanded aid to Boston Public School students, replacing loans with grants to eligible students who meet academic targets and do 25 hours of community service per semester. The average family income of recipients is $68,000, said Laurie Pohlm, vice president for enrollment and student affairs. Along with keeping up local relations, Pohlm said BU is seeking a competitive edge for the best students in its primary markets — more important because the number of high school graduates nationally is projected to dip in the next five years.

• In Worcester, Mass., the red brick buildings of the College of Holy Cross literally loom over the city, seemingly out of reach of many working-class residents. So in 2008, the 2,700-student college began offering free tuition to city residents whose families earn less than $50,000 a year — also roughly what it costs to attend Holy Cross each year.

“Our local kids felt, ‘Holy Cross, ooh, that sticker price,’” said Lynne Myers, director of financial aid. “We wanted a clear understanding that we are your neighbor, we’re sitting right here on the hill, and we want to be accessible to you.”

Annie Le, raised by a single mother on disability and welfare, is one of 23 students who have taken the offer.

“I’m the first girl in my family to go to college. My mom didn’t want me to go away, and now she’s just a few minutes away,” said Le, who was also able to keep her job waitressing at a pancake restaurant. “It just made it a lot easier.”

Eric Gorski, a national writer for The Associated Press based in Denver, can be reached at egorski(at)ap.org.

Local students benefit from private colleges’ financial aid

Council members emerged from an hours-long closed session at midnight Friday and announced that they’d accepted the resignations of Chief Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo, Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia and Police Chief Randy Adams.

Rizzo was the highest paid at $787,637 a year — nearly twice the pay of President Obama— for overseeing one of the poorest towns in Los Angeles County.

Spaccia makes $376,288 a year and Adams earns $457,000, 50% more than Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck.

The three will not receive severance packages, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday. Rizzo will step down at the end of August and Spaccia will leave at the end of September. Adams will also leave at the end of August, after completing an evaluation of the police department, the Times said.

“I’m happy that they resigned but I’m disappointed at the pension that they’re going to receive,” said Ali Saleh, a member of the Bell Association to Stop the Abuse or BASTA.

Rizzo would be entitled to a state pension of more than $650,000 a year for life, according to calculations made by the Times. That would make Rizzo, 56, the highest-paid retiree in the state pension system.

Adams could get more than $411,000 a year.

Spaccia, 51, could be eligible for as much as $250,000 a year when she reaches 55, though the figure is less precise than for the other two officials, the Times said.

Saleh said the crowd applauded after the announcement but immediately yelled out questions about what would happen to the council members. Four of the five of them are paid close to $100,000 annually for part-time work. When the crowd’s questions were not answered, they shouted, “Recall!, Recall!”

Revelations about the pay in Bell has sparked anger in the city of fewer than 40,000 residents. Census figures from 2008 show 17% of the population lives in poverty.

Enraged residents have staged protests demanding the firings and started a recall campaign against some council members.

“Woo-hoo, the salaries. Wow. What can I say? I think that’s unbelievable,” Christina Caldera, a 20-year resident of the city, said as she stood in line at a food bank.

Caldera, who is struggling after recently losing her job as a drug and alcohol counselor, said she generally was satisfied with the way the city was being run but felt high-paid officials should take a pay cut.

“What are they doing with all that money?” she asked. “Maybe they could put it into more jobs for other people.”

Attempts to leave messages seeking comment from Rizzo and Spaccia failed because their voicemails were full. A message left for Adams was not immediately returned.

The county district attorney’s office is investigating to determine if the high salaries for the council members violate any state laws. The City Council also intends to review city salaries, including those of its own members, according to Councilman Luis Artiga and Mayor Oscar Hernandez.

“We are going to analyze all the city payrolls and possibly will revise all the salaries of the city,” Artiga said.

However, both men said they considered the City Council pay to be justified.

“We work a lot. I work with my community every day,” the mayor said, as he shook hands with and embraced people leaving the food bank Thursday.

Council members are on call around the clock, and it is not uncommon for them to take calls in the middle of the night from people reporting problems with city services, Artiga said.

Though many residents are poor, Hernandez said they live in a city they can be proud of, one with a $22.7 million budget surplus, clean streets, refurbished parks and numerous programs for people of all ages. He pointed proudly down a street to a park filled with new exercise equipment.

When Rizzo arrived 17 years ago, Hernandez said, the city was $13 million in debt and on the verge of bankruptcy. Rizzo obtained government grants to aid the city, the mayor said.

Rizzo was arrested near his home in Huntington Beach in March and charged with misdemeanor drunken driving. He pleaded not guilty and is due back in court for an Aug. 5 hearing, said Farrah Emami, a spokeswoman for the Orange County district attorney’s office.

The Los Angeles Times reported the salaries last week, prompting a large protest Monday at City Hall in which residents shouted and demanded that Rizzo be fired.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown said his office has launched an investigation in conjunction with the state’s public employee retirement agency into pension and related benefits for Bell’s civic leaders.

Calif. council accepts resignations of 3 over salary flap

School districts from Lawndale to Glendale are seeking to earn thousands of dollars a day from renting their campuses as locations for movies, TV shows, commercials, and even truck parking.

The money is being used to save teachers’ jobs, upgrade school facilities and replenish districts’ dwindling funds.

“Schools have historically been reluctant to make themselves available, but now they’re falling over themselves,” said Scott Graham, leasing director for the sprawling 1,000-school Los Angeles Unified School District.

Officials at FilmLA, the Los Angeles film promotion nonprofit, say they’ve had a flurry of inquiries from cash-strapped districts in recent months asking how they can market themselves to production companies.

The spike of interest from schools is coming at an opportune time. Youth networks such as the Disney Channel and MTV are moving away from reality shows to scripted programs that often feature kids at school, said Trisha Edgar, FilmLA’s property management manager.

To serve the increased demand from both schools and producers, FilmLA recently rolled out a new website featuring photos of campuses and a description to make it easier for location managers to find what they’re looking for, whether a football field, classroom or cafeteria.

Hollywood has filmed at some of Los Angeles’ architectural standout schools for decades.

Viewers have seen the classic red brick-Ivy League look of El Segundo High School in the 1955 drama “Blackboard Jungle,” and the TV sitcom that launched Will Smith, “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” Torrance High School’s graceful Spanish-style arched walkways served as backdrop for TV shows “90210,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Medium.”

In West LA, University High School starred in the romantic comedy “Valentine’s Day,” released earlier this year, and the 2003 Jim Carrey comedy “Bruce Almighty.”

Not all schools allow movie shoots because of the disruption a crew can bring to campus. But with state education cuts resulting in thousands of teacher layoffs and furloughs for the third year in a row, filming is looking more appealing for Los Angeles-area schools.

“Any additional revenue is more critical than ever,” said John Vinke, associate superintendent of Lawndale Unified School District, which has had sporadic productions at its nine schools through the years but is hoping to land more regular gigs through FilmLA.

School officials who permit movie shoots say it nets them big bucks. They get paid location fees ranging from Los Angeles Unified’s $3,100 per day to Torrance’s $5,500, plus sundries such as cleanup.

With more schools signing up for filming and ramped up promotion through FilmLA, Los Angeles Unified has earned the most it’s ever made from filming this school year — $1.5 million from last July through March.

FilmLA takes a 16% commission for arranging the deals, the host school keeps three quarters of the remaining amount and the district takes the rest.

With movie money paying for everything from pools to playgrounds to some teacher salaries, some schools go to considerable lengths to accommodate filming.

El Segundo High Principal Jim Garza removed the school’s palm trees so the campus would look less “Southern California” and fit a wider location demand.

At University High in Los Angeles, interiors and exteriors were painted, floor tiles replaced, landscaping overhauled and classes and lockers moved for “Drillbit Taylor.” The school earned $90,000 for the 2008 comedy starring Owen Wilson.

But allowing film crews on campus is not all glitz and glam.

University High students and teachers complained in the school newspaper that the “Drillbit Taylor” crew blocked access to classes and took over the parking lot. They also resented security guards stopping them from moving about campus.

Similar complaints about the filming of “90210″ several years ago prompted Torrance High to restrict filming to outside school hours. “It was a distraction to students and the learning environment,” said Mitchell Tabaldo, site supervisor, who now gets three or four inquiries a month but few takers after producers hear the restrictions.

At El Segundo High, opposition came from outside the school. Neighbors complained to the City Council about trucks occupying streets, noise from generators and crewmembers running through their yards. Over the school district’s protests, the council last year limited filming at any city location to 20 days per year.

Principal Garza said the clampdown has virtually stopped the phones ringing at a time when the school year is being shortened because of lack of money to pay teachers.

Still, school administrators say they welcome the money and sometimes they can work in perks, too. As part of a $400,000 deal to lease Hollywood High School’s football field for the summer, Disney hired students to work at a “Toy Story 3” mini-amusement park set up there.

“In a terribly difficult environment, it’s wonderful,” said Graham, LA Unified’s leasing director. “They’re going to get almost six teachers funded.”

TV, movies shoot ‘on location’ at L.A. schools needing funds

Instead of simply moving kids from one grade to the next as they get older, schools are grouping students by ability. Once they master a subject, they move up a level. This practice has been around for decades, but was generally used on a smaller scale, in individual grades, subjects or schools.

Now, in the latest effort to transform the bedraggled Kansas City, Mo. schools, the district is about to become what reform experts say is the largest one to try the approach. Starting this fall officials will begin switching 17,000 students to the new system to turnaround trailing schools and increase abysmal tests scores.

“The current system of public education in this country is not working” said Superintendent John Covington. “It’s an outdated, industrial, agrarian kind of model that lends itself to still allowing students to progress through school based on the amount of time they sit in a chair rather than whether or not they have truly mastered the competencies and skills.”

Here’s how the reform works:

Students — often of varying ages — work at their own pace, meeting with teachers to decide what part of the curriculum to tackle. Teachers still instruct students as a group if it’s needed, but often students are working individually or in small groups on projects that are tailored to their skill level.

For instance, in a classroom learning about currency, one group could draw pictures of pennies and nickels. A student who has mastered that skill might use pretend money to practice making change.

Students who progress quickly can finish high school material early and move forward with college coursework. Alternatively, in some districts, high-schoolers who need extra time can stick around for another year.

Advocates say the approach cuts down on discipline problems because advanced students aren’t bored and struggling students aren’t frustrated.

But backers acknowledge implementation is tricky, and the change is so drastic it can take time to explain to parents, teachers and students. If the community isn’t sold on the effort, it will bomb, said Richard DeLorenzo, co-founder of the Re-Inventing Schools Coalition, which coaches schools on implementing the reform.

Kansas City officials hope the new system will help the district that’s been beset with failure. A $2 billion desegregation case failed to boost test scores or stem the exodus of students to the suburbs and private and charter schools. The district has lost half its students and will close about 40% of its schools by the fall to avoid bankruptcy.

Covington wants to start the system in five elementary schools in hopes of spreading it through the upper grades once the bugs are worked out.

“This system precludes us from labeling children failures,” Covington said. “It’s not that you’ve failed, it’s just that at this point you haven’t mastered the competencies yet and when you do, you will move to the next level.”

As it plans for the change, Kansas City teachers and administrators have visited and sought advice from a Denver area school district that uses the reform.

Adams County School District 50 has about 10,000 students this past school year its elementary and middle students made the shift. The reform will be phased into the high schools starting in the fall.

Count 11-year-old Alex Rodriguez as a convert to the new approach. He used to get bored after plowing through his assignments. He had to bring books from home or the library if he wanted a challenge because the ones at his old school were one or two grade levels too easy.

“I liked school,” he said. “But it was hard sitting there and doing nothing.”

His parents transferred the high achiever and his three younger siblings to the Denver area district after learning it was trying something new. His father, Richard Rodriguez, has been thrilled with the turnaround.

“I wish school was like this when I was growing up,” he said.

There also is growing interest in Maine, where six districts, with a combined 11,248 students, are transitioning to the reform, starting with staff training and community meetings and gradually changing what happens in classrooms.

“It is incredible what is happening in the classrooms in Maine that are trying it,” said Diana Doiron, who is overseeing the effort for the state’s education department.

Education officials in Kansas City, Maine and elsewhere said part of the allure is the success other districts have after making the switch.

Marzano Research Laboratory, an educational research and professional development firm, evaluated 2009 state test data for over 3,500 students from 15 school districts in Alaska, Colorado, and Florida. Researchers found that students who learned through the different approach were 2.5 times more likely to score at a level that shows they have a good grasp of the material on exams for reading, writing, and mathematics.

Greg Johnson, director of curriculum and instruction for the Bering Strait School District in Alaska, recalled that before the switch there were students who had been on honor roll throughout high school then failed a test the state requires for graduation.

Now, he said if students are on pace to pass a class like Algebra I, the likelihood of them passing the state exam covering that material is more than 90%. He’s proud of that accomplishment and said teachers love it.

“The most die-hard advocates for our system are our teachers because, especially the ones who were back with us before the change, they saw where things were then,” he said. “They see where things are now and they don’t want to go back.”

Some schools grouping students by skill, not grade level