Learning Process

Lake Oswego School District ranks third on national list of best districts with affordable homes

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The Lake Oswego School District is the third best school district in the country with the most affordable homes, according to a recent report by ZipRealty.

The real estate brokerage company ranked school districts by coming up with a 1 to 10 score for schools — based on 2010 test scores and student-to-teacher ratio — and using the median price per square foot for a home in the district.

Lake Oswegos 9.6 school score combined with a median price per square foot of $167 netted it the third-place spot.

The majority of the districts in the top ten are suburban ones outside major cities.

The Westonka Public School District outside of Minneapolis came in first on the list, followed by the Geneva School District near Chicago.

Lake Oswego beat out one of Seattles affluent suburban school districts, Mercer Island, which received a school score of 9.3 and has a median price per square foot of $295.

— Victoria Edwards

Governor Jerry Brown’s revised budget plan offers more money for schools

SACRAMENTO — California schools would get $1 billion more than proposed in January to enact stringent new “common core” academic standards, plus almost a quarter-billion dollars more as part of his education-funding overhaul, under a revised but still-tight budget proposal Gov. Jerry Brown released Tuesday.

The added K-12 funding is made possible by a cash windfall of almost $4.6 billion that the state has enjoyed in the first 10 months of this fiscal year, mostly due to better-than-expected personal income tax revenue. Proposition 98, an education funding measure passed by voters in 1988, requires that a significant chunk of that money go to schools.

But the May revision also includes a downward shift in the short-term economic outlook, as the federal government did not extend the payroll-tax deduction that was in place for 2011 and 2012. That means forecasted personal income growth in 2013 has been almost halved, from 4.3 percent to 2.2 percent.

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Fun Activities for Children

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Finding fun activities for children is never…well…fun. This is because not all children are the same. One may like one thing, another may like another! However, this list of activities to do with children is fairly varied, which means you should be able to find something that they will like with ease! I am going to steer clear of those activities deemed to be unhealthy for long periods of time (such as Video Games and Television). Let’s jump in and look at what kids could have fun with this year.

Even if your child doesn’t love watching sports, they certainly will love playing them. You just need to find the right sport for them! Obviously this is an activity which is probably going to be best if you are working with large groups of children at the same time. You have a wealth of options here. You could opt for something simple like a game of Frisbee, or opt for something more competitive, such as basketball. Just choose whatever the children will find more fun!

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Jim Hwang, Zhiwei Peng Selected for Bhakta Rath Research Award

Materials science and engineering professor Jiann-Yang Jim Hwang and 2012 PhD graduate Zhiwei Peng have been chosen to receive Michigan Technological Universitys 2013 Bhakta Rath Research Award for their studies on the use of microwaves in steelmaking.

The award, endowed by Michigan Tech alumnus Bhakta Rath and his wife, Shushama, recognizes a doctoral student at Michigan Tech and his/her faculty advisor for exceptional research of particular value that anticipates the future needs of the nation while supporting advances in emerging technology. Hwang and Peng, now a research assistant professor, will share a $2,000 prize.

Peng and Hwang were nominated by Stephen Kampe, the St. John Professor and chair of the materials science and engineering department.

Kampe called Pengs work incredibly thorough in scope and rigorous in its approach. He noted that Hwang has researched microwave steelmaking for years and has become a renowned authority on environmental and sustainability issues within the materials processing industries.

This project represents an excellent fit with Dr.

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Put on your walking shoes. Get Schooled moved today

The time has come. I dragged my feet but I have now packed and moved to the newspapers new blogging home, joining my AJC colleagues in a platform more congenial to a mobile world.

Please move with me.

If the only way you read my blog is by clicking a link from the AJC home page, you won’t notice any difference until you arrive. But  if you have my blog bookmarked or new posts delivered through an RSS feed — and I highly recommend doing one or both, for the sake of your convenience and my readership numbers you will need these new links:

Blog:

RSS:

Some official details about the new blog platform:

•You must register an account.

•If you are active on the blogs, you have already done this and are well on your way to being the first commenter on this new blog something that seems to matter a lot to the posters over in sports. If not, you’ll need to click on the “Sign In/Register” link in the very upper-right corner of any page on ajc.com and create an account. It requires, a

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South Bay and Harbor Area schools make U.S. News’ list of top high schools

U.S. News & World Report released its widely anticipated list of the nation’s best high schools on Tuesday, and four schools from the South Bay and Harbor Area made California’s top 20.

Faring the best of the local schools this year was the Lennox Mathematics, Science & Technology Academy, which claimed the sixth spot statewide and 39th nationwide. Among America’s charter schools, it placed 10th.

Ranking 12th among all high schools in California was the Hawthorne Math and Science Academy. That charter school was closely followed by two other noncharter schools: the California Academy of Mathematics and Science in Carson, and Harbor Teacher Preparation Academy in Wilmington, which ranked 13th and 15th, respectively. Harbor Teacher Prep ranked 100th overall nationally.

Working in conjunction with American Institutes for Research, a nonprofit organization in Washington D.C., U.S. News collected data on 21,000 high schools to produce the report.

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