posted on
Here’s what educators, advocates, wonks and policymakers are talking about today:
News & analysis
Unions still mulling Harkin ESEA bill
It’s too early to say whether NEA ultimately will put its seal of approval on the bill, [Manager of Federal Advocacy] Mary Kusler said, since the union is still sharing the language with its members and getting their feedback. Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, also said in a statement that AFT is still delving into the bill. And she singled out the evaluation language, although she did not take an official stance on it. (Politics K-12)
Revolution Prep Brings Learning to the 21st Century
…the United States is falling behind the average education levels of developed countries and failing to increase the proportion of citizens with higher education credentials, which independent analysts say will lead to a deficit in college educated workers as soon as 2018. Revolution Prep is making a business out of changing that. The company specializes in test prep for the SATs and ACTs—key hurdles in the college admissions process—but with an aim toward inculcating problem-solving skills, not gaming the test. Their innovative curriculum includes online and in-person learning. (GOOD)
Maryland: Howard County lawmaker drops hybrid school board plan
Del. Frank Turner withdrew a plan that would have changed the makeup of the board to include two appointed members and five elected by district. The board now has seven members elected at large. Turner said he did not plan to revisit the matter before the 2014 election. (Baltimore Sun)
New Jersey: Cherry Hill school officials unhappy about competing with planned charter school
Officials in one of southern New Jersey’s best regarded public school districts are upset that they will soon have to compete and share money with a new charter school. Regis Academy Charter School in Cherry Hill received approval from the state Education Department to open in September 2012. Students in Cherry Hill, Lawnside, Voorhees and Somerdale can enroll and the local school districts will have to contribute to the costs. The bill for Cherry Hill is expected to be $1.9 million a year. (Star Ledger)
New York: City must improve its services
New York City schools are broadly failing to meet the needs of many of their thousands of students who are still learning English, and they must improve or they may face sanctions, state education officials announced Wednesday. “Clearly the services are poor, and the best indication of that are the student outcomes,” John B. King Jr., the state education commissioner, said in a news conference by video link from Albany. (School Book)
Human tutoring versus computer tutoring: Who wins?
Computers are great for helping people learn what they want to learn. They’re not particularly good at getting someone to learn something they do not want to learn. For that, you need very skilled people (teachers and tutors) who can build relationships, use that to generate order and effort from kids, and then turn that effort into learning. A computer needs to start on “third base” — take effort and flip that into learning. (Starting an Ed School)
Opinion
Why education needs an “Occupy the Classroom” movement
Let’s evaluate our schools of education and propose a better balance between practice and theory. Let’s have higher expectations for ourselves and each other, from the first day we walk into the classroom to the day students graduate. We need not ask our colleagues to be perfect every day, but we ought to do our best to ensure every teacher does the best job possible, and we as teachers have mechanisms by which we can facilitate that. We ought to be more vocal towards administrators and higher-ups about our concerns and vocalize if there’s a dissonance between their policies and how that plays out in the classroom. (GOOD)
How to be a principal: 10 lessons in leadership
For two-thirds of my career, I was in leadership positions ranging from principal to deputy chancellor, and almost every station in between. During that time, I learned a great deal about myself as a leader, and about leadership itself. That learning can be distilled into the following 10 lessons in leadership… (School Book)