Region briefs 1/30/08

Five-year education plan outlined at forum

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education hosted a forum at the Career and Technology Center on Tuesday to highlight the draft of a five-year state plan for career and technical education. The draft, available at dese.mo.gov/divcareered, outlines professional development options for teachers, establishes accountability standards, and lists ways funding will be determined. The plan is required by a law known as Perkins IV, which ultimately funnels about $26 million a year from the federal government to Missouri for career and technical education programs. The draft calls for 73 percent of funding to go to secondary schools and 27 percent to postsecondary institutions. The Missouri Community College Association has written a position paper calling for the funding split to be more along the lines of 60/40. DESE will continue to collect feedback through Feb. 15.

Black History Month radio programs planned

KRCU 90.9 FM, Southeast Public Radio, will run a program at 9 a.m. every Sunday throughout February to recognize Black History Month. On Sunday, "The Last Letter Home" will discuss the Tuskegee Airmen, America's first black military airmen who served during World War II. "The Little Rock Nine," to air Feb. 10, will feature an interview with one of the nine black students to attend an all-white school in Little Rock, Ark. Civil Rights Movement icons will be featured in "Memories of he Movement" on Feb. 17. The series will conclude with "Swingtime" on Feb. 24 with profiles of traveling swing bands.

New director named for Southeast office

Zahir Ahmed has been named executive director of the Office of International Education and Services at Southeast Missouri State University. He previously served as director of international education with State University of New York at Oneonta.

Post-Dispatch columnist to speak at Southeast

Sylvester Brown Jr., a columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, will speak at Southeast Missouri State University on Feb. 13 in honor of Black History Month. He will deliver the 13th annual Michael Davis Lecture, which recognizes accomplishments of blacks in the media. The talk, free and open to the public, will be at noon Feb. 13 in the Rose Theatre at Southeast. Before joining the Post-Dispatch, Brown published Take Five Magazine, featuring investigative, political and social stories. His lecture will honor Davis, a mass communications student at Southeast who was beaten to death in 1994 in a hazing incident.

-- From staff reports