Education

The president of the University of Alaska is proposing a 2 percent tuition increase for the 2013-14 school year.

That means that undergraduate tuition would cost nearly $5,600 a year.

President Pat Gamble’s proposal will go before the UA Board of Regents in September.

Tuition currently makes up about 12 percent of the total UA budget. Gamble says if the 2 percent increase – the smallest increase in a decade – is approved adjustments will need to be made elsewhere to offset a lower-than-normal tuition hike.

“Our biggest concern was that there would be a large spike like 7 percent or more,” Alejandra Buitrago said.

Buitrago is the president of the Union of Students at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

In regards to tuition increases, Buitrago said the change should be reasonable and steady so students can plan on it, rather than having large spikes.

Last year, the regents approved a 7 percent increase.

“At least the news came sooner rather than later. [Gamble] could have waited until September to announce it,” Buitrago said. “I find it respectable that he put the word out that he was going to do this.”

Alaska’s 20 native languages are a generation away from disappearing. But a new effort is adding technology to the list of tools for saving the languages.

The Alaska Native Language Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks has joined Google in the Endangered Languages Project, a worldwide effort to collaborate on a website where users will find comprehensive information on endangered languages.

According to Google, more than 3,000 languages are in danger of disappearing. That’s roughly half of all languages in the world.

The site is designed to function as a social network, with users uploading speaking samples and videos, and interacting with each other. The project is encouraging speakers and language experts to share best practices for each language.

“It’s a great way to bring attention to the plight of native languages,” said Rosita Worl, president of Sealaska Heritage Institute. The institute is the cultural and educational foundation of Sealaska Corp., the Alaska Native corporation for people of Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian descent. Worl is Tlingit.

“Our language may never be spoken the way it once was, but the voices of our ancestors are not going to disappear,” Worl said.

The website will create an opportunity for Alaska Native communities to add language documentation to the site as well as comment on samples and documents uploaded by other users.

UAF linguistics professor Gary Holton is Director of the Alaska Native Language Archive which is part of the Alaska Native Language Center.

“So much language information is not housed in archives. It’s in minds and in shoe boxes of old recordings and in communities,” Holton said.

The last speaker of Eyak, the Native group of the Copper River Delta region, passed away in 2008. Marie Smith Jones worked with the Alaska Native Language Center to preserve her language.

Other languages range from having one or two speakers to thousands of speakers, like Central Yup’ik.

“It’s hard to count the number of speakers,” Holton said.

People move away or marry into different communities and while they may be able to speak the language, they don’t identify themselves as speakers of that language.

The goal of the Endangered Languages Project is to add real-time interactivity to the work that many language archives are doing. Archives already make materials available online and for download. This new project will be the first time people can upload their own materials and annotate the documentation of others.

Holton reminds people that the technology itself will not do the work.

“What this project provides is a platform. This is not a magic bullet for saving languages,” Holton said. “This is only as good as what people put into it.”

The center is encouraging local grass-roots efforts to contribute to the site. It’s also incorporating current programs, workshops and culture camps to contribute to the website.

“Documenting native languages is very different from restoring them,” Worl said. She emphasizes the need for immersive learning experiences that teaches the language by using it in school and home, rather than memorization.

“Unfortunately, I don’t think you can consider any of the languages of Alaska safe,” Holton said. “Most are in a situation of being one generation away from being lost. It’s only by sharing language and using language that we can save it.”

 

On average, it costs $10,615 to send a kid to public school for a year. That’s federal, state and local government spending combined according to the Census Bureau which released the reports today.

However, that one number masks a huge variation. Utah spends just over $6,000 per student; New York and the District of Columbia over $18,000.

Those reports show that average spending in Alaska is approximately $15,800 per student.

There are roughly 131,000 students enrolled in public elementary and secondary schools in Alaska.

Alaska is fourth in terms of states that spend the most per student. The District of Columbia is the most expensive at approximately$18,700 per student. New York and New Jersey are second and third.

Detailed figures and lots more data (including district-level spending) are available in a report the Census Bureau released today.

Three-hundred seventy Juneau high school seniors are looking forward to the next chapter of their lives.

Juneau’s three high schools held commencement ceremonies over the weekend, with 35 students graduating from Yakoosge Dakahidi Alternative School, about 205 from Juneau-Douglas High School, and 130 from Thunder Mountain High School.

Fifty-two JDHS seniors graduated with honors for having completed their four years with a GPA of 3.5 or higher. The class of 2012 from the downtown high school is one of the smallest in years. It has been steadily shrinking since TMHS in the Mendenhall Valley opened in the fall of 2008.

Listen to selections from the ceremony at JDHS. (Our thanks for the JDHS Video Club for the audio feed.)

One-hundred twenty-nine seniors, clad in blue and white gowns, graduated from TMHS. Twenty students wore Gold Honor Chords for receiving a 3.5 GPA or higher.

Their physical diplomas won’t be handed out until next month when all final grades are processed, but that didn’t inhibit the excitement for the first four-year graduating class from TMHS.

Volunteer Danny Peterson was there and produced this audio postcard.

Accreditation for the University of Alaska Southeast School of Education has been renewed.

The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education this week notified UAS that its education school would be accredited without qualifications.

NCATE accredits 623 institutions nationwide that produce two-thirds of new teacher graduates each year. The U. S. Department of Education recognizes the organization as a specialized accrediting body for schools, colleges, and departments of education.

NCATE was founded in 1954 by the teaching profession and the states for excellence in teacher preparation and development.

The state of Alaska requires NCATE accreditation. UAS is scheduled for accreditation renewal in 2017.

Contract talks between the Juneau School District and the union representing teachers have reached an impasse.

The Juneau Education Association bargaining team and school administrators mutually agreed to seek mediation at a meeting on Saturday, according to a release from the district. The two sides have been trying to work out a new deal since January.

JEA represents nearly 400 teachers, counselors, librarians and specialists such as psychologists and speech, physical and occupational therapists.

The current three-year contract expires June 30th.