From cbrown at osrhe.edu Mon Oct 10 15:28:11 2005 From: cbrown at osrhe.edu (Brown, Cynthia) Date: Tue Oct 11 16:08:40 2005 Subject: [Okepas] FW: Nominations Sought for Academic All-State, Medal for Excellence Awards Message-ID: FYI, Cindy Dayna Rowe Communications Specialist Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence 120 N. Robinson, Ste. 1420-W Oklahoma City, OK 73102 Phone (405) 236-0006 - FAX (405) 236-8590 OKLAHOMA FOUNDATION FOR EXCELLENCE SEEKING NOMINATIONS FOR 2006 ACADEMIC ALL-STATE SCHOLARS, OUTSTANDING EDUCATORS EMBARGOED FOR SUNDAY, SEPT. 25, 2005 CONTACT: Brenda Wheelock Communications Director (405) 236-0006 OKLAHOMA CITY - The Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence, a non-profit organization that recognizes and encourages academic excellence in Oklahoma's public schools, is seeking nominations for its 2006 Academic Awards Program. Scholarships and awards totaling $191,500 will be presented at the foundation's 20th annual Academic Awards Banquet May 20, 2006, in Tulsa. The event, which is attended by nearly 1,000 state education supporters, is broadcast statewide on public television. The 20th anniversary banquet will feature a special keynote address by David L. Boren, founder and chairman of the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence. "We know that education is the best investment our society can make for the future," Boren said. "If we make all of the right policy decisions in every other area but fail to adequately educate the next generation, we will imperil the future of our society. By working together to give outstanding students and educators the recognition they deserve, we send a strong message to our state and to the nation that Oklahomans value academic excellence." Nomination forms are available on the foundation's web site at www.ofe.org . Nominations are being accepted in the following categories: 1. Academic All-State, which honors 100 public high school seniors with a $1,500 scholarship. Students must be nominated by their superintendents or principals. Schools are encouraged to nominate all eligible students. To qualify, students must meet at least one of the following requirements: a composite ACT score of at least 30; a combined SAT critical reading and math score of at least 1350; or be selected as a semi-finalist for a National Merit, National Achievement or National Hispanic Scholarship. 2. The Oklahoma Medal for Excellence in Teaching and Administration, which honors four educators (a public school elementary, secondary, and college/university teacher and an elementary/secondary administrator) with a $7,500 cash award and a glass sculpture. In addition, the school, department or school system of these four award winners will be presented a $1,000 cash award. Both individuals and schools are eligible to nominate educators for these awards. 3. The Oklahoma Medal for Excellence in Alternative Education, which honors the public school alternative education program judged to be the most effective. The winning program receives $7,500 and a glass sculpture. Any person familiar with the program is eligible to make the nomination. All Medal for Excellence nominations must be postmarked by Nov. 28, while Academic All-State nominations must be postmarked by Dec. 2. Scholarship and award recipients are chosen by an independent selection committee, chaired by Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice Marian P. Opala and comprised of business, education and civic leaders, as well as former All-Staters and Medal for Excellence winners. Since 1987, the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence has awarded $2.1 million in scholarships and presented an additional $680,000 in Medal for Excellence Awards. In addition, the foundation has awarded $24,000 to Medal for Excellence recipients' schools or school districts. For more information, visit the foundation's web site at www.ofe.org or call (405) 236-0006. ### -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.onenet.net/pipermail/okepas/attachments/20051010/b0beffd1/attachment.html From cbrown at osrhe.edu Tue Oct 18 18:39:59 2005 From: cbrown at osrhe.edu (Brown, Cynthia) Date: Tue Oct 18 18:40:06 2005 Subject: [Okepas] FW: OHLAP grade question Message-ID: This issue came up at the Oklahoma City workshop. I thought that all of you might be interested in Carol's response. If any of you have additional questions related to any of the issues discussed at our workshops or related topics, please feel free to email me and I'll get a response to you. If I promised to get an answer to you and haven't, please email the question to me as I likely have forgotten the question. Cindy Brown [cbrown@osrhe.edu] -----Original Message----- From: Alexander, Carol Sent: Monday, October 17, 2005 1:43 PM To: Brown, Cynthia Subject: RE: OHLAP grade question Cindy, The information you received is correct, however let me add some additional information to help explain our position that you can forward to the counselors. OHLAP has two gpa requirements: the overall gpa and the OHLAP 17 unit core curriculum gpa, both of which must be a 2.5. In order to calculate the core gpa, we must have grades with point values. If there is a P and no other indication of a test score or grade, then we assign a D. Based on the information we have, all we know is that the student passed, we have no idea how well the student did. Most of you are probably aware that this is how the NCAA scores a P grade as well. Please keep in mind that this practice is not disqualifying students from receiving the OHLAP scholarship. From the transcripts I have seen (and believe me, I've see a lot!), the majority of students taking courses for high school credit before the 9th grade are not struggling with their grades, and therefore assigning a D is not even an issue. For those students who are borderline 2.5 and this would make the difference in qualifying for OHLAP, we will call the school and request a grade or test score to use in calculating the core gpa. Now, the student could be disqualified if, in fact, the P grades are Ds and this puts them below the 2.5 gpa. Some schools have chosen to replace the P with an actual grade on the transcript. Personally, I prefer this so that we can have a more accurate core gpa, however this is ultimately up to the school district and their transcript grading policy. One last thing, sometimes students are submitted as qualifying and after our evaluation we determine differently. In these cases a denial letter is sent to the student with a curriculum checklist detailing our findings, and a copy of all of this information is mailed to the contact person so that you will stay informed or correct us if necessary. If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact us at ohlapinfo@osrhe.edu. -----Original Message----- From: Brown, Cynthia Sent: Monday, October 17, 2005 11:12 AM To: Alexander, Carol Subject: OHLAP grade question Carol, We just completed our regional EPAS workshops with the final one at Oklahoma City Community College on Thursday. We had many good questions and interactions most of which I could handle. However I need assistance with an OHLAP issue. A counselor who read transcripts for us last summer indicated that a "P" on a transcript becomes a "D" in the GPA calculation. Other counselors were very concerned about this practice. Can you shed any light on the issue for us? Cindy Cynthia Brown, Ed.D. Director of Student Preparation Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.onenet.net/pipermail/okepas/attachments/20051018/13988061/attachment.html