The New Hampshire Department of Education says that in the past decade there has been a 6 percent increase in the number of high school graduates continuing on to college, but also a five percent increase in the number of high schoolers leaving the state for college.
Mounting research has shown that the most important factor in a child’s successful education is not his or her socioeconomic status, class size, or even the design of the curriculum…. it’s the teacher. But teacher dropout rate is high and the highly talented teachers are too few, especially in Science and Math.
If you want to learn about the earth, you’re gonna have to get your hands dirty. That’s the philosophy of environmental educator David Sobel: senior faculty member at Antioch University New England, and author of the book "Beyond Ecophobia".
In 1862, Congress passed the Morrill Act, which paved the way for our system of public higher education. We’ll look at how America’s public and land-grant universities are faring today as they face budget cuts, aging resources, and, at times, criticism.
Guest:
Daniel Mark Fogel, professor of English at the University of Vermont, where he also served as president. He is co-editor of Precipice or Crossroads?Where America's Great Public Universities Stand and Where They are Going Midway through their Second Century.
Credit courtesy Louis Broad, via UNH Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space
Earth from 105,900 feet, as seen by a camera on the Project SMART craft. The little marks in the photo are pieces of the just-burst weather balloon that lifted the craft into space.
Time to add another page in the history of space exploration in New Hampshire. This week a team of high school students taking part in the Project SMART summer program at UNH sent a small craft 105,700 feet into the air – that’s over 20 miles up. And it came back down to Earth without a parachute.
It’s summer camp season – these days kids can spend a week on almost any activity they like, from sports and the outdoors to computers and robotics. Since the late 1960’s, kids who love music have been heading to Bennington, Vermont, which is home to a piano camp known as Summer Sonatina.
Jay Blake (left), who served in the Marines, rides the elevator with his fellow students at Sierra Community College in Rocklin, Calif.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Jake Chavez, who served with the Marines in Iraq, mans the help desk at the Veterans Resource Center in Sierra College's library.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
The resource program at Sierra provides help not only in how to navigate college classes on campus but how to apply for VA benefits and get the proper support from the GI Bill, as well.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Catherine Morris, who runs the program, talks with one of her veteran students. Morris, who served as a Marine, created the program after seeing little support for vets on Sierra's campus.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Blake (right) recites the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of a meeting of the Marine Corps Veterans Association in Sacramento, Calif. Blake joined the group to keep in touch with both old and young Marine veterans in the area who support one another.
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Michelle Johnson, an English professor at Sierra College, has been an avid supporter of the campus veterans programs. She started a "Boot to Books" class to give former members of the military the extra push they need as they transition to civilian life.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Blake (center) and Morris (right) talk with members of the Marine Corps Veterans Association in Sacramento.
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Morris walks across the Sierra College campus on her way to a meeting.
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Crystal Turner, a Marine veteran now attending classes at Sierra College, helps her 1 1/2-year-old daughter, Marley Rose, out of a car. Turner is balancing classes and working at the vets center on campus with being a full-time mother.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Marley Rose looks up at her mother while playing in the kitchen of their family home near Sacramento. Crystal Turner is mostly raising her two children on her own because her husband, who is also a Marine, lives two hours away near his base.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Turner holds Marley Rose while she comforts her 3-year-old son, Michael.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Marley Rose looks outside to the backyard for her mother.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Jay Blake (left), who served multiple tours in Iraq as a Marine, rides the elevator with his fellow students in the library at Sierra College in Rocklin, Calif. Blake, who has struggled since returning home, says he finally settled into his studies with the help of Catherine Morris, an academic adviser who works with the vets on campus.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Eric Theeler goes over some of his class assignments with veterans and student-athletes, who share a workspace in Sierra College's library.
Credit David Gilkey / NPR
Marine veteran Crystal Turner, a student at Sierra College, holds her daughter, Marley Rose, while she tries to coax her son, Michael, into finishing a walk in the park near their home in Sacramento.
Most American troops have left Iraq, and many have left Afghanistan. Now more than half a million of them have left the service — and they're going to college. Some vets say the transition is like landing on another planet, but they aren't the only ones struggling: The college staffs are, too.
