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• In a trend largely motivated by the Great Recession, most incoming college freshmen now say their primary reason for going to college is to be able to get a better job, according to a survey by higher education researchers at UCLA. The trend represents a radical departure from pre-recession years, when most incoming freshmen indicated that their primary reason for going to college was to learn more about things of interest. Specifically, in 2006, before the current recession, the report states, 76.8 percent of incoming freshmen indicated that learning about things that interested them was a very important reason to go to college, whereas only 70.4 percent indicated the same for getting a better job. Now, 85.9 percent say getting a job is very important, whereas 82.9 percent said learning more about things of interest was very important. The American Freshman: National Norms Fall 2011 was prepared by the Cooperative Institutional Research Program, or , at the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA.

Behind twin 1,000-point scorers McKenna and Mary Kate Rushton, the North Hall girls have rolled to the top seed in 8-AAA Division A, clinching with a win last Friday over Franklin County. Mary Kate scored 12 points in North Halls win Tuesday over Stephens County. Interesting coincidence: North Hall coach Kristi House has twin sons. If the Rushton twins have fans and foes doubting their vision (they reached 1,000 within a week of each other), so too might the Lady Trojans 17-7 record. Since a blowout loss to Wesleyan in early December, their other six losses have all been by 10 points or less, and just one came against a Class AAA team.

Gritty Grady: The Grady Grey Knights notched win No. 20 Tuesday by beating St. Pius 45-31, the 11th opponent in their 23 games theyve held under 50 points. The 45 points was the second fewest scored by the Knights, who nonetheless won for their ninth straight game and set up a showdown with Washington Friday night with the top seed from 5-AAA Division A on the line.

Just call her “Wall”: Oconee Countys Gabby Bevillard scored 22 points in the Lady Warriors 54-46 win over Jefferson Tuesday night, but it was her defense – she tallied 16 blocks – that made the difference. The Oco

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I recently ran some workshops to prepare students to be peer mentors and to mentor younger students with Kodu. The method I suggest is to have mentors show students some small steps and then let the students try. The latest version of Kodu has some really nice step by step lessons that students can do on their own or with a peer. After a lesson we encourage the students to try the same things on their own from where the lesson leaves off. For example adding a second character and having that character do something similar but slightly different from what was done in the lesson. I also encourage students to explore a little as well. They keep discovering things and sharing them with partners or others in the class. The general pattern of show a few things followed by experimentation with those things and repeat seems to work very well.

It can’t be all lecture/demo or students get bored. <

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Connecticut’s new education commissioner is proposing a reorganization of his agency, saying it is part of efforts to provide more support to struggling schools and reduce red tape for high-performing districts.

Stefan Pryor started as education commissioner last fall. He has said he wants to streamline the state Department of Education so it can work more closely with local districts and others on reforming Connecticut’s schools.

He is scheduled to present his new organizational plan to the state Board of Education on Wednesday and to ask for the appointment of a chief operating officer.

That person’s identity and details of the proposed reorganization were not released Tuesday.

Pryor has visited dozens of school districts and attended professional organizations’ meetings statewide for suggestions on how the department could be improved.

Top 10 Higher Education State Policy Issues for 2012

Presented here are the top 10 issues most likely to affect public higher education across the 50 states in 2012, in the view of the state policy staff at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities . This briefing is informed by an environmental scan of the economic, political and policy landscape surrounding public higher education, as well as a review of recent state policy activities and trends. Some issues are perennial in nature, while others reflect attention to near-term circumstances.