Showing posts with label education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label education. Show all posts
Friday, December 8, 2017
Wednesday, August 16, 2017
Monday, April 3, 2017
The best and worst places to be a working woman
The Economist has published its fifth annual “glass-ceiling index”. It combines data on higher education, workforce participation, pay, child-care costs, maternity and paternity rights, business-school applications and representation in senior jobs into a single measure of where women have the best—and worst—chances of equal treatment in the workplace. Each country’s score is a weighted average of its performance on ten indicators.
The overall picture painted by the data is that the long trend of improving conditions for working women has flatlined within the OECD, a club of mostly rich countries. In 2005, 60% of women were in the labour force; ten years later, this ratio had edged up only slightly to 63% (it was 80% for men in both years). With relatively few women climbing the ranks, and strong old-boys’ networks helping men reach the top, female representation in well-paid and high-status jobs is closer to a third than half. And the gender wage gap—male minus female wages, divided by male wages—is still around 15%, meaning women as a group earn 85% of what men do.
These broad averages conceal wide variation between countries. The Nordic countries clearly lead the world on gender equality at work. The top four positions this year belong to Iceland, Sweden, Norway and Finland, just as they did in 2016 (though Sweden and Norway did switch places). Women in these countries are more likely than men to have a university degree and be in the labour force. They make up 30-44% of company boards, compared with an average of 20% across the OECD. And voluntary political-party gender quotas mean that women are well-represented in parliaments. In October, women won a record 48% of the seats in Iceland’s lower house. At around two-fifths, Scandinavian women’s share of parliamentary seats ranks in the top 10% globally.
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At the other end of the index are Japan, Turkey and South Korea. Women make up only around 15% of parliaments in these countries, and are underrepresented in management positions and on company boards. In South Korea, just 2% of corporate directors are female. Similarly, fewer women than men have completed tertiary education and are part of the labour force. Only 35% of Turkish women are working or looking for work, and a mere 16% have graduated from university.
Progress in gender equality has a tendency to build upon itself. In Iceland, which currently provides the most equal working environment for women according to our index, female workers staged a protest last October in which they marched out of their offices early to call attention to the country′s 14% gender pay gap. If Japanese women were to do likewise, they would be leaving much earlier.
Sunday, July 17, 2016
Friday, March 11, 2016
America's High School Graduates Look Like Other Countries' High School Dropouts
A new study confirms what many Americans already knew deep in their hearts: We're not good at math.
Not only that, but when it comes to technology skills, we're dead last compared with other developed countries.
The PIAAC study — the Program for International Assessment of Adult Competencies — looks at the skills adults need to do everyday tasks, whether it's at work or in their social lives.
"Clearly, we have some work to do in this country," says Peggy Carr, the acting commissioner of the government's National Center for Education Statistics. The study compared countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Japan and Finland led the group in literacy, math and technology skills, while the United States' performance was average or well below average in each category.
Literacy
Overall, Americans' everyday literacy skills were average. But if you zoom in and focus on just the young adults, a more complex picture emerges.
Americans who went to college and graduate school did well. They scored above their peers with similar degrees in other developed countries.
For young adults with a high school diploma or less, things did not look so good. These Americans performed significantly worse than those in other countries with the same education level.
"Postsecondary institutions should be happy," says Carr. "But on the other end of the continuum, we have young people coming out of high school — or not graduating from high school — that are struggling with everyday competencies."
Math
Carr says this pattern is even more obvious if you look at the math skills of young adults. This study found that Americans with a high school diploma performed about the same as high school dropouts in other countries.
"We need to think seriously about how to get them functioning better," says Carr.
She offers a sample math problem from the test: You go to the store and there's a sale. Buy one, get the second half off. So if you buy two, how much do you pay?
"High school-credentialed adults, they can't do this task — on average," says Carr.
Technology
When it comes to technology skills, the story gets worse. The U.S. came in last place — right below Poland.
The study looked at basic technology tasks: things like using email, buying and returning items online, using a drop-down menu, naming a file on a computer or sending a text message.
Across the board, Americans performed poorly on these tasks. However, there was a significant racial difference, with nonwhites scoring below whites.
"I don't think we were particularly shocked by that finding," says Carr. She points out that these racial differences are similar to what other national and international studies have found.
She says these findings should be concerning to everyone, especially leaders in the business community and in the K-12 school systems. npr
Professor's baby-friendly policy earns him admiration
Professor Sydney Engelberg, was unfazed when the child of a mother at his lecture on organizational behavior began to cry. The embarrassed mom tried to leave the class, but instead, the father-of-four and grandfather-of-five scooped the kid up and soothed him in his arms – without missing a beat in the lesson. He allows the mothers that attend his masters’ lectures to bring their children and even breastfeed. No mother should have to choose between a child and an education! cnn
Monday, August 10, 2015
The Life And Death Of The Summer Job
Summertime means summer jobs for many college students. But a summer job just doesn't have the purchasing power it used to, especially when you compare it with the cost of college.
Let's take the example of a working-class student at a four-year public university who's getting no help from Mom and Dad. In 1981-82, the average full cost to attend was $2,870. That's for tuition, fees and room and board.
The maximum Pell Grant award back then for free tuition help from the government was $1,800. That leaves our hypothetical student on the hook for just about $1,000. Add in a little pocket money, too — say $35 a week. That makes an extra $1,820 for the year on top of the $1,000 tuition shortfall.
Now, $3.35 an hour was the minimum wage back then. So, to make $2,820 meant working 842 hours. That's 16 hours a week year-round — a decent part-time job. It's also about nine hours a day for three straight months — a full-time, seven-day-a-week summer job. Or, more likely, a combination of both. In short: not impossible. Far from it.
For today's public university student, the numbers have all changed in the wrong direction.
Here's what we calculated based on last year's numbers.
"The minimum wage has also gone up more slowly than the cost of college. It's $7.25 an hour. At that rate, a student would have to work 1,771 hours to get by. That's 34 hours a week, every week of the year. To cover today's costs with just a summer job, a student would have to lose a little sleep, working almost 20 hours a day for three straight months. And that would still leave no money for books, travel home, pizza or a trip to the movies."
This year, based on the new full cost of attendance, things are even worse.
In 2014-2015, the school year just ended, the total of tuition, fees and room and board for in-state students at four-year public universities was $18,943. The maximum Pell Grant didn't keep pace with that: It was $5,730. That left our hypothetical student on the hook for $13,313.
A student would now have to work 35 hours a week, every week of the year, to get by. To cover today's costs with a low-skilled, minimum wage summer job? Over 90 days, a student would need to work 20.24 hours a day.
Plus side: if you're working that much, you don't need to pay rent because you're hardly sleeping.
There's also this: Research shows that when college students work more than 20 hours a week their studies suffer. If they're working full time, many will take longer to finish ... and end up paying even more.
No wonder students are borrowing so much these days.npr
Let's take the example of a working-class student at a four-year public university who's getting no help from Mom and Dad. In 1981-82, the average full cost to attend was $2,870. That's for tuition, fees and room and board.
The maximum Pell Grant award back then for free tuition help from the government was $1,800. That leaves our hypothetical student on the hook for just about $1,000. Add in a little pocket money, too — say $35 a week. That makes an extra $1,820 for the year on top of the $1,000 tuition shortfall.
Now, $3.35 an hour was the minimum wage back then. So, to make $2,820 meant working 842 hours. That's 16 hours a week year-round — a decent part-time job. It's also about nine hours a day for three straight months — a full-time, seven-day-a-week summer job. Or, more likely, a combination of both. In short: not impossible. Far from it.
For today's public university student, the numbers have all changed in the wrong direction.
Here's what we calculated based on last year's numbers.
"The minimum wage has also gone up more slowly than the cost of college. It's $7.25 an hour. At that rate, a student would have to work 1,771 hours to get by. That's 34 hours a week, every week of the year. To cover today's costs with just a summer job, a student would have to lose a little sleep, working almost 20 hours a day for three straight months. And that would still leave no money for books, travel home, pizza or a trip to the movies."
This year, based on the new full cost of attendance, things are even worse.
In 2014-2015, the school year just ended, the total of tuition, fees and room and board for in-state students at four-year public universities was $18,943. The maximum Pell Grant didn't keep pace with that: It was $5,730. That left our hypothetical student on the hook for $13,313.
A student would now have to work 35 hours a week, every week of the year, to get by. To cover today's costs with a low-skilled, minimum wage summer job? Over 90 days, a student would need to work 20.24 hours a day.
Plus side: if you're working that much, you don't need to pay rent because you're hardly sleeping.
There's also this: Research shows that when college students work more than 20 hours a week their studies suffer. If they're working full time, many will take longer to finish ... and end up paying even more.
No wonder students are borrowing so much these days.npr
Monday, January 26, 2015
no small children
It's not unusual for kids to wear a T-shirt to school with their favorite band on it. But at Oakwood Elementary in North Hollywood, Calif., that T-shirt may also have a picture of their teacher - actually, three of their teachers.
The punk band No Small Children formed two years ago when Joanie Pimentel moved to California to play with two elementary teachers — her sister, Lisa Pimentel, and Lisa's coworker Nicola Berlinsky.
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
CDC Considers Counseling Males Of All Ages On Circumcision
In the past 15 years, studies in Africa have found that
circumcision lowers men's risk of being infected with HIV during heterosexual
intercourse by 50 to 60 percent. Being circumcised also reduces men's risk of
infection with the herpes virus and human papillomavirus.
Those health benefits prompted the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention's proposed recommendation that doctors counsel parents
of baby boys and teenagers, as well as men, on the benefits and risks of
circumcision.
"The compiling of the different data sources may really
be sufficient for someone who is a heterosexual male to consider the benefit of
circumcision," Dr. Susan Blank, a pediatrician and chairwoman of the
American Academy of Pediatrics' circumcision task force, told Shots.
In 2012, the American Academy of Pediatrics said for the
first time that the benefits of circumcision outweigh the risks, and that
insurers should pay for the procedure. npr
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Friday, December 27, 2013
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Saturday, October 19, 2013
Thursday, October 17, 2013
The World’s Most Beautiful Wastewater Treatment Plant
Let this wastewater treatment plant show you how to live.
This may sound crazy, but it is exactly why the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies in Rhinebeck, New York constructed their Omega Center for Sustainable Living (OCSL), also known as the Eco Machine. We can learn some valuable lessons from this building.
The Omega Center for Sustainable Living may be the most beautiful wastewater treatment plant in the world. It is powered by solar and geothermal power, so it requires no additional power to operate. Unlike other wastewater treatment plants, the OCSL does not use chemicals to treat the water, but rather mimics the processes of the nature world, such as using a combination of microorganisms, algae, plants and gravel and sand filtration to clean sewage water and return clean drinkable water back to the aquifer.
In addition to doing all of this, the OCSL also functions as a classroom, to help educate and inspire people about the power of nature to provide solutions…
(read more: TreeHugger)
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Thursday, January 31, 2013
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