Sunday, December 22, 2019



Can colleges launch data science programs fast enough?

Higher ed has struggled to keep up with the surging demand for data scientists, but a new open-source curriculum from IBM could help.

When the University of California, Berkeley rolled out a new undergraduate data science program last fall, nearly 800 students immediately signed up for major, making it one of the most popular degrees on campus.

That move has positioned UC Berkeley to be a leader in producing data scientists, an in-demand and high-paying job that requires workers to be adept in topics such as statistics, machine learning and programming.

But colleges are largely struggling to add or expand their programs to keep up with the growing demand for such workers. More than 150,000 jobs requiring data science skills are unfilled, with particularly severe shortages in large cities such as New York City and Los Angeles, according to a 2018 report from LinkedIn.

"Data science is an incredibly hot area," said Susan Davidson, a computer and information science professor at the University of Pennsylvania, in an interview with Education Dive. "Yet there are relatively few places and resources that currently are available for teaching data science."

IBM is hoping to help. In September, the technology company announced it is working with the U of Pennsylvania and the Linux Foundation to create an open-source data science curriculum kit that any institution can use.

"There's tremendous need in the market for building something that will accelerate and will help academic institutions build their own programs," Ana Echeverri, IBM's AI Skills Learning and Certifications Lead, told Education Dive.

The kit, which is expected to be available on GitHub early next year, will be composed of independent modules that teach the core data science concepts. Each one will include slides, lecture notebooks and homework that instructors can use as is or alter to fit their needs.

U of Pennsylvania researchers are creating the curriculum by drawing from one of its own courses that teaches students the broad principles of data science, Davidson said.

Once those training materials are available, other universities will also be able to contribute their own open-source content to the project. An oversight committee will approve changes to existing material or new additions.

The aim, those working on the project say, is to help colleges get data science programs off the ground faster and to align them with industry needs. "It's great to have the view of, 'What are the skills that industry is actually expecting our people to have in order to do this job?'" Echeverri said.

A field 'in its infancy'

Creating a data science program from scratch can be tricky.

For one, it's still an emerging field. "Despite the expansion of data science activities that's really been driven by industry and now is being embraced by academia, … this field is in its infancy," said Julia Lane, executive director of the University of Chicago's Center for Data and Computing. The center, which opened last year, aims to help define the field, she added.

SOURCE 






Democrats love free college, until you offer them more options

Progressive policy ideas have dominated the early stages of the Democratic primary campaign. But as candidates gathered in Los Angeles for another debate Thursday evening, Democratic voters may be seeking more moderate options.

Only 1 in 4 Democratic voters said they would favor eliminating private health insurance and replacing it with a government-run plan — the centerpiece of the “Medicare for All” proposals put forward by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. And only 1 in 3 favors making public college tuition free for all Americans regardless of income, another idea shared by the two leading progressives in the race.

Those results, from a survey conducted this month for The New York Times by the online research firm SurveyMonkey, are striking because past polls, including those from the Times, have shown broad-based support for progressive ideas among Democrats. Last month, 81 percent of Democrats said they approved of Medicare for All; in July, 82 percent said they supported making public colleges free for all.

But those earlier surveys asked simple yes-or-no questions. The most recent survey offered respondents more options to choose from. And it found that Democratic voters consistently preferred policies that were well to the left of current law but were more moderate than those proposed by Sanders and Warren.

Most Democrats, for example — 58 percent — said they would like to make government-run insurance universally available while allowing people to keep their private insurance if they prefer it, a policy similar to the “Medicare for all who want it” plan proposed by Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., and a related proposal from former vice president Joe Biden. A further 15 percent said the United States should reform the health care system without adopting a government-run plan at all, or that the current system was working well. Only 25 percent said they would prefer a plan that eliminates private insurance.

The preference for more moderate policies cuts across age groups, races, education levels, and even ideology: Among Democrats who said they were “liberal” or “very liberal,” only 30 percent chose the most progressive option for health care reform.

The Times survey showed similar results when it came to “free college” proposals. About one-third of Democrats said that the government should make public colleges free to low- and moderate-income families but that the wealthy should still have to pay — again, a policy close to that proposed by Buttigieg. Another third said that college should be more affordable but that most families should have to pay something. The remaining third expressed the most liberal position, that college should be free for all.

Voters also sounded a note of caution about the cost of candidates’ plans: Half of Democrats said the United States should adopt progressive proposals only if they do not increase the budget deficit, compared to 38 percent who said they supported the plans regardless of their fiscal impact. Both Sanders and Warren said they will pay for their plans through higher taxes, not through borrowing more money.

In interviews, voters gave different reasons for their positions. Some said they thought the most liberal positions went too far or questioned whether they would work in practice. Others were more focused on political strategy, concerned that liberal positions would hurt Democrats in the general election next fall.

“I have a preferred idealistic position, which is Medicare for All,” said Carla Silvey, a tech worker in the San Francisco area. “I don’t know how feasible that is.” Silvey, 50, said she believed a government-run health care system was a near inevitability in the long run because the current system is too broken to last. But she is torn about whether Democrats should embrace that solution now. “I don’t know whether to go bold or to try to be in the middle,” she said.

Many Democrats appear to be making similar calculations. Warren, who surged into the top tier of the Democratic field over the summer, has fallen in the polls in recent weeks, while Buttigieg has gained ground. (Sanders and Biden have retained relatively steady support.)

Still, the Times survey doesn’t necessarily imply voters will abandon progressive candidates. Laura Wronski, a research scientist for SurveyMonkey, noted that many voters said they trusted Sanders and Warren on health care despite favoring more moderate positions than those candidates. “Are you voting for the policy or voting for the person?” Wronski said.

John Soderholm, a middle school guidance counselor near Minneapolis, doesn’t want to give up his private insurance and worries that the Democratic Party will alienate voters if it embraces too liberal a message. But he said Democrats also run a risk if they are too meek: Warren and Sanders have generated enthusiasm in part by being willing to take bold positions, even if not all their supporters believe their plans will come to fruition. “Who gets excited about incrementalism?” Soderholm asked rhetorically. “You’ve got to have some sizzle too.”

SOURCE 





Queensland private schools defend fee hike

40% of Australian teens go to private schools so this is of some concern

SOME of Brisbane's elite private schools have increased their school fees by up to double the inflation rate, as boarding schools freeze prices to stave off dwindling enrolments because of drought. One of the biggest increases was a 5.5 per cent hike in fees at inner-city All Hallows' Catholic School; where tuition costs will rise from $10,850 in 2019 to $11,450 in 2020; more  than double the inflation rate of 1.9 per cent

Parents will pay a staggering $27,542 to send their children to top-performing Brisbane Grammar School, a 3 per cent increase on tuition fees in 2019, while sister school Brisbane Girls Grammar's fees will increase by 3.5 per cent to $25,782 in 2020.

Brisbane Grammar School headmaster Anthony Micallef said the fees were all-inclusive and provided access to high-quality teachers, innovative teaching practices and wellbeing programs.

"The board strives to contain fee levels through careful long-term financial management and supports student diversity through a needs-based bursary program that assists over 50 boys", he said. "Brisbane Grammar School is non-selective and delivers the best academic outcomes in the state while educating boys to become thoughtful and confident men of character who contribute to their communities."

The Presbyterian and Methodist Schools Association's (PMSA) Brisbane Boys' College will raise its fees 3.5 per cent to $24,116 and sister school Somerville House will up its fees 3 per cent to $23,890.

Independent Schools Queensland executive director David Robertson said that independent school boards had been mindful of the current economic conditions, as well as the toll the drought was taking on many Queensland families, directly and indirectly. "Independent-school boards carefully consider the capacity of their parents to absorb even small increases in tuition fees when household budgets are under pressure from low wages growth and rising living costs," Mr Robertson said.

"Schools take a range of different approaches to support families with their education budget planning. "These include offering scholarships and bursaries, providing sibling discounts and discounts for fees paid in full at the start of the year, as well as developing all-inclusive fee packages and providing payment plans."

PMSA chief executive Sharon Callister said that the PMSA schools had increased fees in the range of 3 - 3.5 percent, which covered  increased school operating-costs and was slightly lower than the education-component of the CPI'. Our schools offer families various discounts, including discountS for upfront payments and discounts for siblings at the same or other PMSA schools, scholarships and flexible payment options," she said.

Prestigious boarding schools Stuartholme and St Margaret's have frozen their boarding fees at 2019 costs, and Anglican Church Grammar School (Churchie) is offering fee support to help students from regional and rural areas.

St Margaret's School principal Ros Curtis said that the increase was as minimal as possible at 3 per cent, "in recognition of the currently very difficult conditions being experienced' by our rural boarding families".

"Out of some 185 boarders this year, over 60 per cent are from rural Australia, many have been affected by drought to some degree and some by the floods earlier in the year in north-west Queensland," she said. "In addition to freezing boarding fees next year, some severely affected families were the recipients of boarding bursaries in 2019".

"Six current day families have banded together in a donor circle committing to an ongoing contribution to ensure boarding students have the means and opportunity to finish their education ... and two past students have established bursaries, which are helping to keep current students enrolled at St Margaret's in the face of financial hardship due to drought"

Matthew Flinders Anglican College principal Stuart Meade said the college was mindful of the economic situation that impacts on parents' capacity to pay independent school fees, and therefore
kept the increase to a minimum. "The fee increase for 2020 is 2.7 per cent, which maintains the trend of lower than education CPI increases," he said.

Mr Meade said the college fees included tuition, camps and library resources. "The college has a transparent levy structure that reflects the true costs of these items and charges," he said. "It is important to note that other schools may include items covered in the Flinders Tuition Fees in their levies. We encourage families to consider the total school fee when comparing schools

From the Brisbane "Courier Mail of 18 December, 2019

Amusing comment above that Brisbane Grammar School is non-selective. A fee of $27,542 is pretty heavily selective


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