EDUCATION

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching’s new classification system ranks MSU, with nearly $100 million in research spending last year, among the top 94 universities in the nation with a very high level of research activity, Gamble said.

It’s the only university in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming or the Dakotas so honored, and it puts the Bozeman campus in elite company with Yale and Harvard, he said.

The book offers information on how community colleges can more effectively integrate the arts, design and culture into programs to build creative economies and contribute to economic development; highlights successful programs both nationally and internationally; and suggests actions for community colleges.

The program started in 12 New York state high schools in the 1997/1998 school year, and is currently used in more than 1,300 schools in 45 states and the District of Columbia.

"If we are to adequately prepare our students to effectively compete in the global market place, we must transform how they learn and how teachers teach," Governor Rendell said during his tour of the middle school.

Montanans should find little comfort or satisfaction in graduation rates that exceed the national average. An 85 percent graduation rate means 15 percent or one in every 6.6 students fail to meet the most basic measure of success in our school system. Even if that were the best in the nation – and it’s not – it’s a dismal statistic.

“Technology plays a critical role in almost every aspect of our lives, especially in learning. We want to help provide Montana CTE teachers and students with opportunities to showcase how technology can be used more effectively in the classroom, said Rick Hays, President Qwest Montana.