UA professor’s education book winds up on best-seller list
Al.com – May 9
University of Alabama Professor Wayne Urban’s book “Leaders in the Historical Study of American Education” recently made the American Education Research Association’s Sense Publishers Top 12 Best Selling Book List for 2012. The book was released in November 2011 after Urban took 2 1/2 years to complete it. The professor and associate director of the education policy center in the UA College of Education edited 26 autobiographical essays by leading historians of American education to piece it together. “[The success of the book] has certainly been gratifying,” said Urban, according to a university press release. The book focuses on educators who came from diverse backgrounds that have animated their scholarly careers in compelling ways, Urban said…Urban’s next project will be a biography on former Harvard University President James Bryant Conant. Along with co-author Jennings L. Wagoner of the University of Virginia, Urban has a textbook, “American Education, the History” going into its fifth edition. He has also authored or co-authored 10 books.
SaveFirst students help families save $1.5M in tax preparation fees
Al.com – May 9
Impact Alabama’s free tax preparation initiative SaveFirst saved $1.5 million in fees in total for more than 5,100 families this tax season, according to the organization. More than 450 trained students from 11 Alabama colleges including the University of Alabama and Auburn University participated in the program in its sixth year. Students prepared returns for more than 5,100 families who claimed $9.2 million in tax refunds, saving $1.5 million in commercial tax preparation fees. The service helps families eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit, an income tax credit for low to moderate income working individuals and families. According to UA Center for Ethics & Social Responsibility, a sponsor of the program, SaveFirst is “the largest campus-based volunteer income tax assistance initiative in the country.” SaveFirst students worked with more than 200 community partners to operate 16 sites in 13 cities across the state. The number of families involved in the initiative increased by 19 percent over 2011, when students helped 4,300 families who were able to secure more than $8.2 million in tax refunds and saved them more than $1.3 million in preparation fees.
Albertville grad balances chemistry, entrepreneurship at Alabama
Sand Mountain Reporter – May 10
Whitney Hough decided to become a chemist after her skin turned green in middle school. “It’s a strange story,” said Hough, a 2002 graduate of Albertville High School. It starts when Hough was diagnosed with the skin disease psoriasis. “The medication would react with makeup and turn your skin green,” she said. “People would ask if you were sick. I had this battle between wearing makeup and the prescribed medication. I thought this can’t be rocket science. “So literally, in middle school, I thought I’m going to be a chemist and develop a cosmetic line for people who have skin disorders. I kind of stuck with that.” She more than “kind of” stuck with the idea of becoming a chemist. Since January, Hough has worked as a research engineer in a start-up company called 525 Solutions, an operation incubating on the University of Alabama campus that includes CEO Gabriela Gurau, a post-doctoral researcher at UA, and Leah Block, a first-year chemistry graduate student. The company’s laboratory is located in the Alabama Innovation and Mentoring of Entrepreneurs (AIME) building. Hough, 28, and her company colleagues are extracting chitin, a naturally occurring compound from shrimp shells, and using it to develop a new type of bandage that contains anti-bacterial properties along with vitamins and minerals to promote healing.
Academic achievement gap narrowing in Oxford schools
Anniston Star – May 10
Small-group instruction is an almost-daily occurrence for the Oxford Middle School students and they are hardly alone. The school system has pushed similar teaching methods for its elementary and middle school students for the last few years. The result: a narrowing of academic achievement gaps among white, black and low-income students in math and reading — placing Oxford among the top 20 best-rated school systems in the state…Jim McLean, dean of the Department of Educational Studies in Psychology, Research Methodology and Counseling at the University of Alabama, said improving academic achievement gaps among students is pivotal for the state. “When you look at prisons, you tend not to find people with good educations and you find people who dropped out of school,” McLean said. “You’ve gone from producing a good citizen to producing one you have to support.” McLean said small class sizes are important when trying to improve test scores and lower achievement gaps.
OPINION: ‘Bad-food’ taxes will clog our economic arteries beyond repair
Bradenton Herald (Fla.) – May 10
Proponents of an American Nanny State have a plan to improve your health: tax sugar and “junk” food so you will eat less of it. Subsidies for broccoli and beets are close behind. These plans for bureaucrats and politicians to remake your diet are bad news for four reasons. First, it is no one’s business but yours what you eat. The freedom to eat a slice of apple pie might not sound quite as stirring as freedom of speech, but the ability to choose how to live our lives is the most fundamental freedom. What you eat is no one’s business but yours. Second, even if the government has a role to play in guiding our dietary choices, efforts at restructuring Americans’ lives via the tax code are fundamentally flawed….(Andrew Morriss is a professor of law and business at the University of Alabama.)
Brewpub planned for George Barber’s free downtown lot
Birmingham News – May 10
George Barber may finally have a taker for the piece of downtown property he’s been trying to give away for several years. Barber Cos. has a deal with Trim Tab Brewing Co., a new business owned by Harris Stewart, a third-year student at the University of Alabama School of Law. A Tuscaloosa native who went back to school after working in solar panel sales and other endeavors, Stewart plans to build a brewpub called Trim Tab Brewhouse & Hot Chicken Kitchen on the lot. In a conversation held on the property Monday, Stewart said he’s a life-long foodie and a serious amateur brewer who decided midway through law school that he wanted to do something different. He’s going to finish law school, he said, but he intends to build and run the brewery and restaurant instead of practicing law. “I kind of had a moment of clarity,” he said of the change of direction.