BOISE A new report takes aim at the nation's largest for-profit online education provider and finds students taking K12 Inc. classes in Idaho and four other states are falling more behind in math and reading than their traditional school counterparts.

The study was released Wednesday by the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado Boulder. Along with lagging test scores, the report says the rate at which K12 students graduate on time is far lower than in regular schools.

The study "into K12 Inc. raises enormous red flags," said center director Kevin Welner.

The group has previously issued reports critical of online learning. A study released by the center in October said school-choice advocates are pushing states to rush headlong into virtual education despite limited data on these programs.

The latest report looked at schools managed by Virginia-based K12 in Idaho, Arizona, Arkansas, Ohio and Pennsylvania and found that on average, they had a consistently lower proportion of their students meeting or exceeding state standards in reading, according to 2010-2011 test scores.

The report also said math scores were lower compared to the state average. The on-time graduation rate for K12 students was about 49 percent for that year, compared to about 79 percent for the states, according to the study. In Idaho, where K12 provides curriculum for the state's largest online charter school, state officials say students beat slightly the statewide average for graduation rates in the most recent year.

K12 has managed online schools in 29 states with mixed academic success.

The company contends that the report is flawed and fails to show the academic progress of students over time. The report finds K12 students are falling further behind in math and reading than students in regular schools, but doesn't provide evidence to back up that claim, the company said.

"To make such conclusions, one would need to know the academic starting point of the students, in this case, test scores from a prior school year when they were enrolled in a brick-and-mortar school," the company said. "That test data is largely unavailable and is certainly not included in the NEPC report."

The report relies on "static, end-of-the-year test data," said the company, which also noted that K12-managed schools tend to enroll students who are behind academically.

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Idaho for-profit online students lag in math and reading skills

Burke Catholic graduate Emily Stallings, left, goes through drills on Monday. She will likely be one of the key players off the bench when Marist takes on St. Bonaventure on Tuesday night.Photo provided

Times Herald-Record

Published: 2:00 AM - 07/21/12

Emily Stallings has those first-job kind of nerves as she preps for her first basketball coaching job.

The Burke Catholic graduate from Newburgh has accepted the graduate assistant coaching job at East Stroudsburg University in the fall.

"I'm excited to get into the coaching atmosphere,'' said Stallings, who graduated from Marist in the spring.

Stallings has long desired getting into coaching, and Marist assistant Meg Gebbia helped by informing her about a seminar in Denver where would-be coaches would be schooled on the fine points of the profession and make contacts.

"It's kind of like combining two things,'' said Stallings, who got a degree in education. "I've always loved teaching, so I get to combine basketball and teaching together and keep basketball a part of my life.''

Stallings said she's had a lot of positive coaching influences in her life, from Bob Turner at Burke, Al Viani with the AAU and Gebbia and head coach Brian Giorgis at Marist.

"I've had a wide span of coaches, a wide span of personalities,'' she said, "and they've given me good examples of how you should coach. I can choose what I like from different people " and see what works.''

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Burke grad preps for first coaching gig

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Health and Fitness Vlog 7-19-12 - Video

While the concept of retirement means you get to quit your job and do what you love all day, many retirees would love to earn a little income to ease their cash flow. One of the best ways to both feel retired and bring in some money is to find a way to generate cash from your hobbies. It may take a little extra effort to move something from a hobby to a small business, but with a measure of entrepreneurial spirit you can turn fun into profit. How much you can make depends a lot on the level of time you are willing to put into participating in your hobby and marketing your services or products. Here are some examples of potentially profitable hobbies.

SalesSelling Items on eBay If you have a vast collection of antique toys, record albums or clothing that you no longer want, you can sell them on eBay to the highest bidder to turn a profit. Some entrepreneurial types turn eBay skills into a business by buying low and selling high. If you have special expertise in a particular area or simply want to gamble a bit on something like sports tickets, you can spend hours making bids and then reselling items on other websites.

Selling Books and CDs on Amazon Another option for people with the storage space for books and CDs is to sell your own collection through Amazon.com. You can haunt flea markets and thrift stores for bargain priced books and CDs and then resell them, but you'll have to take into account shipping costs and the hassle factor of storing and sending the items.

Selling Handmade Items on Etsy If you love to quilt, sew or make jewelry, Etsy.com can be your marketplace. The website makes it simple to market your crafts. You can even sell vintage clothing. So, if you have a trunk full of clothes in the attic this could be a goldmine and help you clean out your closet.

Sell at Flea Markets and Yard Sales Plenty of people love to spend their time looking for treasures and unique items at flea markets and yard sales. If this is your hobby, you can turn it into a business by snapping up bargain items and reselling them. You can also sell your handmade items, including jewelry, quilts and clothes at flea markets.

SEE: Amazing Yard Sale Finds TeachTeach or Tutor One of the fastest ways to earn money on your own schedule is to become a tutor or a teacher. Whether you excel at math or English, you can offer tutoring services through your own website or with advertising at local schools. If you speak a foreign language or want to help others learn English, you can also earn money by tutoring. Other skills that can bring in plenty of students include teaching voice lessons, art or a musical instrument. Be sure to think about whether you want students to come to you or if you want to meet at a library or in their homes.

Try eduFire.com An unusual option for tutoring is eduFire.com, a website that puts students and tutors together for one-on-one sessions or group classes via computer. You'll need basic computer skills and some credentials for marketing yourself to teach any subject you want.

SEE: 6 Careers You Can Do From Home OthersWrite If you've always wanted to write, look into the possibility of freelance writing for your local newspaper or for websites that specialize in something that interests you. Fiction writing is less lucrative, but if you are prolific and dedicated to submitting your work, you can make a little money with your poetry and prose.

Party Planning If you are the one everyone turns to when they're looking for a suggestion for a party theme or an interesting way to entertain guests, set up a party planning website and start charging for your advice.

Organizing If you love to organize your home, you may want to offer your services to others. Just be sure you can physically handle hauling papers around or clearing out someone's closet. You can start your own business or offer to assist someone who already has a thriving business as an organizer.

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Retirement Hobbies That Make Money

Calcutta News.Net Saturday 21st July, 2012

The humble flute, which in Hindu mythology was played by Lord Krishna to charm the maidens, birds and animals of Vrindavan and Mathura, is leading a new healing therapy called Bansi Yoga to beat lifestyle stress.

Bansi Yoga, created by the S. Vyasa Yoga University using a combination of traditional yoga, breathing exercises and flute melody, will get the official stamp of approval in the capital at the third World Flute Festival, "Raasrang 2012", Aug 9-12. The festival will be presented by the Ministry of Culture and the Krishna Prerna Foundation with support from flute maestro Hariprasad Chaurasia.

A team of experts will demonstrate the yoga and discuss its healing powers in 12 workshops over four days at Hotel Ashok in the capital, Arun Buddhiraja, the founder of the Krishna Prerna Foundation, said.

"Bansi Yoga is a combination of yoga and flute used as a deep relexation technique in 40 minutes of cyclic meditations. The practitioner moves his limbs in a cyclic pattern and the flute, played as an accompaniment, allows him to relax. The relaxation induced is equivalent to eight hours of sleep," Buddhiraja told IANS.

The flute was a symbol of love, peace and water, he said.

Explaining the dynamics of the Bansi Yoga, Buddhiraja said in some postures, the practitioner stands straight with his hands alongside at right angles. The practitioner then moves his hand in a cyclic manner to the music of the flute. The cyclic motion fans from the hand to the fingers and to the shoulders.

The meditation is followed by chanting of the words Ukara, Akara, Makara (u, aa, maa) - the essence of the word Omkara - to create magnetic sound resonance in the body, Buddhiraja said.

"It is a physiological and psychological clean-up," he said. The Bansi Yoga courses are designed for two groups of people - corporate executives and the common people.

Commenting on the power of flute and "Raasrang", writer and researcher Devdutt Pattanik said breath is the connection between matter and soul. When breath was rhytmic, there was music, Pattanik said about the cosmic power of the flute. "It draws one to the centre of existence," he said.

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Try flute yoga to beat stress

Colin Hendry has been appointed as first team coach at Blackburn Rovers.

The 46-year old former Ewood Park skipper has been added to Steve Kean's coaching staff ahead of the 2012/13 season and is looking forward to helping his old club and again being involved so closely with the game.

"I'm very excited for myself and my family," Hendry said. "It's a shot in the arm for me. I'm looking forward to it.

"When you've been in the industry for as long as I've been, like a lot of people have, I suppose you're a bit like a fish out of water.

"You keep your hand in as much as you can, I've done a lot of media work, but it's nothing like being involved in the game itself. It's the next best thing after playing.

"I've had offers, one or two from abroad, and it's well versed what's happened in my life. It had to be right, not just for me, but for the family as well."

Click here to reach the No1 destination for hard news and exciting gossip on Blackburn Rovers

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Hendry delighted with Blackburn coaching appointment

Tim Clive, the longtime girls soccer coach at Sauquoit Valley, was busy living his life earlier this year, secure in a perspective shaped by his 65 years.

Then, life tapped Clive on the shoulder and reminded him how fragile it all is.

Cancer has a way of altering the landscape.

You think youre doing OK and life is going on merrily on its way and all of a sudden nothing is more important than seeing the sun come out, he said. Seriously. I have 10 grandchildren, and when they talk to me and give me a hug, it means so much.

Last winter, Clive was diagnosed with melanoma, a type of skin cancer that was found initially near his right shoulder.

He first noticed some discomfort when he tried to carry a large bag of soccer balls. When he no longer could ignore the problem, he went to a doctor. Two procedures and many moments of worry later, Clive received good news: the tumor had not spread. The result, he said, is a miracle, considering the size of the mass.

And for awhile, sports and coaching were set aside, but now hes back on the sidelines, perhaps as a slightly different version of himself.

I would say he has always been open and accessible, Sauquoit Valley assistant coach John Del Buono said. But since this has happened hes starting to open up more. I feel like now hes smelling the roses more.

Clive, who will be 66 in October, is coaching Sauquoit players in a summer league and he plans to be with the Indians for his 18th season this fall.

Sauquoit has won sectional titles in two of the last three years, and the team made consecutive appearances in the state finals in 2009 and 2010. Clive is not about to skip out on a chance to guide Sauquoit back to state-level competition. The diagnosis, though, moved athletics and coaching into a different place.

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Cancer diagnosis gives Sauquoit coach perspective

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Everlasting Restored Health and Fitness - Video

As smartphone adoption increases and mobile technology becomes more powerful, its changing the way in which people interact with health information. The popularity of health and medical apps has begun to explode, and the amount of health data along with it, much of it thanks to those increasingly wearable and user-friendly gizmos that use smart sensors to capture and transmit all shades of biometric data. Smartphones now tap into these health devices, turning our phones into heart monitors and cancer screeners, all with the goal of helping us live longer, healthier lives.

You may not be familiar with them by name, but Azumio is one of a number of young startups tapping into this hot trend, leveraging smart mobile technology to get us making better and more informed health decisions. Thanks to the popularity of its biofeedback apps like Instant Heart Rate, Azumio has attracted 20 million downloads of its iOS and Android apps in less than two years. And today, the Palo Alto-based company is adding to that total and beginning to round out its product set by scooping up SkyHealth, the creators of Fitness Buddy, the top-ranked paid health app on iTunes.

While the terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, the eight-old SkyHealth has seen 5 million downloads thanks largely to Fitness Buddy and Glucose Buddy, its $1 fitness and diabetes trackers. As a result of this and the fact that SkyHealth was one of the early movers in health development for iOS, the startup has been able to bootstrap its way to profitability.

Azumio, on the other hand, chose to go the venture route, raising $2.5 million from Founders Fund, Accel and Felicis (to name a few) last year. The founders tell us that the deal was a combination of cash and equity, and weve been able to learn from other sources that in fact the deal leaned more towards equity, as this war more of an acqui-hire, with SkyHealth founder and CEO Tom Xu joining Azumio as a partner and head of product development, along with the startups three main developers.

For Azumio, the acquisition more than doubles its product portfolio, bringing SkyHealths 15 health and fitness apps to its platform, while SkyHealth now has access to a larger audience and more resources as part of the Azumio team. But, really, both teams said that they share a similar vision, and joining forces gives them a better shot at making that happen. The team wants to create a mobile health and fitness platform that gives users a complete profile of their health, using each piece in the teams collective product suite.

In the next few weeks, the team (now at 13 people) plans to launch a fitness dashboard, which will take readings for each of their applications in an effort to give users a more complete report on their health. With SkyHealths additions, Azumios apps now span heart, stress, and sleep monitoring to fitness and glucose tracking. If Azumio opens that dashboard up to aggregate data from other health devices and apps as well, it could really be a game changer.

The future of bringing mobile health applications to a wider audience is here, and starts by creating a single source for the best mobile health and fitness solutions, said Xu, Azumios new head of product. Consumers can now use their phone to monitor heart rate, stress level, improve workout routines and sleeping behaviors, and even control blood sugar levels. Combining forces, we think that we have the resources and experience to create a mobile health and fitness platform that can have a much wider impact.

For more, find Azumio here.

Azumio, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based developer of a biofeedback app for smartphones.

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Mobile Health Developer Azumio Acquires SkyHealth, Makers Of Top-Ranked Fitness App

PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwire -07/20/12)- Azumio, a pioneer in mobile biofeedback technologies and personal health applications, announced today that it has acquired SkyHealth, the award winning developer behind Fitness Buddy, the number-one ranked Health and Fitness paid app on iTunes, and Glucose Buddy, the most downloaded diabetes app in the world. The acquisition will bring SkyHealth's product portfolio of more than 15 leading mobile Health and Fitness applications to the Azumio platform, and provide the company with key developer talent. As part of the acquisition, SkyHealth CEO Tom Xu will join Azumio as a partner and head of product development.

Azumio is one of the fastest-growing mobile health developers in the world, offering users a one-stop-shop for health, wellness and fitness applications. As the leading developer of mobile biofeedback technologies, Azumio's mobile technology solutions enable smartphones and tablets to gain valuable, user-specific information through utilizing the existing sensors and hardware found within current and next-generation smartphones.

"The future of bringing mobile health applications to a wider audience is here, and starts by creating a single source for the best mobile health and fitness solutions," said Xu. "Consumers can now use their phone to monitor heart rate, stress level, improve workout routines and sleeping behaviors, and even control blood sugar levels. Now, with Azumio, we have the resources and experience to create a mobile health and fitness platform that will impact hundreds of millions of consumers."

"Smartphones are playing an increasingly important role in helping people improve their health and wellness, but success pivots around ease of access to new solutions -- mass adoption will only result from building apps that catalyze motivation and increase user commitment to their health and fitness goals," said Bojan Bostjancic, Azumio CEO. "Both Azumio's and SkyHealth's mobile apps have seen massive adoption because we have been among the first to provide a simple solution to live a more healthy lifestyle, directly from your smartphone."

Azumio's Instant Heart Rate, Stress Check, Stress Doctor and Sleep Time apps, along with Fitness Buddy and Glucose Buddy, will see new features and integrations rolled out in the coming months.

To Read More About Azumio's Product Offerings, Please Visit the Following Links: Instant Heart Rate: http://www.azumio.com/apps/heart-rate/ Stress Check: http://www.azumio.com/apps/stress-check/ Stress Doctor: http://www.azumio.com/apps/stress-doctor/ Sleep Time: http://www.azumio.com/apps/sleep-time/ Fitness Buddy: http://fitnessbuddyapp.com/ Glucose Buddy: http://www.glucosebuddy.com/

About AzumioAzumio is a leading developer of consumer health applications with more than 25 million downloads to date. Azumio is dedicated to improving people's health and wellness by motivating and influencing behavior through the development and use of innovative biofeedback technologies.

Azumio's innovative mobile technology solutions enable smartphones and tablets to gain valuable, user-specific information through utilizing the existing sensors and hardware found within current and next generation smartphones. The venture-backed company is at the forefront of the rapidly growing mobile health app movement, which is expected to impact more than one-third of smartphone users by 2015.

For more information, visit Azumio.com or follow http://twitter.com/azumioinc.

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Azumio Acquires Mobile Health and Fitness Developer SkyHealth, Makers of the Number-One Ranked Fitness Buddy and ...