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31 May, 2010

The Public Education Spending Binge Must Stop

On Wednesday, Education Secretary Arne Duncan tried to publicly shore-up support for the $23 billion “Education Jobs Fund” being considered by Congress. Flanked by union heads Dennis Van Roekel (President, National Education Association) and Randi Weingarten (President, American Federation of Teachers) and Representatives Dave Obey (D-WI) and George Miller (D-CA), Secretary Duncan pleaded for additional taxpayers dollars:

School boards and state legislatures are finalizing their education budgets for the upcoming school year and many face tough choices about whether to retain teachers and continue programs that are vital to their ability to provide a world-class education for their students. We must act quickly and responsibly to provide schools the resources they need so they don’t have to make choices that would not be in the best interests of their students and teachers.

But the Washington Post today editorializes against Congress’ plans for another public education bailout, suggesting that the doom-and-gloom picture painted by the administration is overblown:

The unions predict layoffs could go as high as 300,000. It’s hard to imagine losing that many teachers without some damage to learning.

But that many teachers almost certainly are not going to lose their jobs. For technical reasons, school districts must send notices in the spring to more teachers than they actually expect to let go in the fall. What’s more, the unions’ 300,000 estimate includes not only classroom teachers in kindergarten through 12th grade but also support staff and college professors. The bill would distribute money to states according to their population, not expected layoffs; states where no layoffs are imminent would get checks anyway, and the majority of states would receive more than they could possibly need to avoid layoffs. The Senate version of the bill permits them to spend the excess on other things.

The Post hits the nail on the head. For the past several decades, states have acted like a hungry child at an all-you-can-eat buffet. When the economy was good and state revenues were plush, school districts increased staff roles. And more recently, with eyes bigger than their stomachs, a seemingly endless buffet of federal funding has enabled states to continue bloating their staff roles even when state budgets needed trimming. In particular, states piled up on non-teaching staff positions. In the mid-20th century for example, public schools employed about 2 teachers for every non-teacher on their rolls; today, only half of those people employed by public school districts are teachers.

But the billions in additional taxpayer dollars the administration seeks will continue to support a decades-long hiring binge by states. From the 1997–98 school year to the 2006–07 school year, student enrollment in public schools increased 6.8 percent. Over the same time period, the number of teachers in the classroom increased 15.8 percent.

The Post suggests that, if intent on spending another $23 billion of taxpayer dollars on public education, Congress should press for long-term education reforms.

If the goal were to preserve the maximum number of good K-12 teachers at minimum cost, the bill would encourage states to lay off teachers according to ability, rather than seniority — as current rules, sacrosanct to unions, dictate… Many jobs could be saved if more teachers accepted wage and benefits restraint, as workers in other hard-pressed industries have done.

Last year, the Department of Education received an unprecedented $98 billion through the so-called stimulus. Although that money was supposed to span a two-year period, Congress and the Obama administration are already asking taxpayers for billions more to support unsustainable public education spending. Instead of coming back to taxpayers for another public sector bailout, states should work on cutting costs in areas that are long overdue for reform: age-old tenure practices, teacher compensation and pension reform. Not only would this prevent already overburdened taxpayers from incurring more debt, but it would put states on a path toward meaningful education reform.

SOURCE





Give peace a chance with government-free schools

by Jeff Jacoby

THE TEXAS STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION made headlines this month when it approved new curriculum standards for US history and social studies. The standards -- which dictate what will be taught in Texas public schools and incorporated in textbooks and achievement tests -- include teaching students about the "unintended consequences" of the Great Society, the link between McCarthyism and "Soviet agent infiltration of the US government," and how government regulations and taxes affect consumer prices. Critics (mostly liberal) blasted the new standards as a politicized travesty; supporters (mostly conservative) praised them as a long-overdue rebalancing. After months of debate, during which more than 20,000 people submitted comments, they were adopted on a party-line vote.

A new Arizona law, meanwhile, restricts what can be taught in ethnic studies classes in the state's public schools. The measure bars any courses that "are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group" or "advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals." The legislation was a pet project of state school chief Tom Horne, a candidate for attorney general and a vocal opponent of the Mexican-American Studies Program in the Tucson public schools. The new law was greeted with indignation from Hispanic activists and a protest outside the headquarters of the Tucson school district.

Such skirmishing over textbooks and classroom instruction is anything but new. It was 85 years ago last Tuesday -- May 25, 1925 -- that John Scopes was indicted in Dayton, Tenn., for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution. Scopes, a high school science teacher, was charged with violating a law passed by the Tennessee legislature and signed by the governor just two months earlier. His "monkey trial" that summer drew thousands of spectators and made front-page headlines nationwide. More than 80 years before that, a controversy over Bible reading in the Philadelphia public schools led to deadly riots, in which 25 residents were killed, more than 100 were wounded, and dozens of homes and churches were burned down.

"Throughout American history," writes Neal McCluskey, a scholar at the Cato Institute, "public schooling has produced political disputes, animosity, and sometimes even bloodshed between diverse people." Political fighting is neither rare nor anomalous: In the course of just one school year, 2005-06, McCluskey tallied almost 150 reported cases of public-school conflicts.

There were bitter battles that year over Darwinism-vs.-intelligent-design in Pennsylvania and Kansas, heated fights over books about Cuba in Miami-Dade County, Fla., and an emotional dispute in California over the portrayal of Hindus in history texts. In at least 13 states, controversies flared over what should be taught in sex-education classes. And in Lexington, Mass., a teacher's decision to read a story celebrating gay marriage to her second-grade class without notifying parents first triggered a fight that ultimately wound up in federal court.

Again and again, Americans find themselves at war with each other over public schooling. Yet furious conflict over religion in this country is almost unheard-of. Why? Why don't American Catholics and Protestants angrily attack each other's views of clerical celibacy or papal infallibility? Why is there no bitter struggle between Orthodox and Reform Jews to control the content of the Sabbath liturgy? Why don't American atheists clash with American believers over whether children should be taught to pray before going to sleep?

Americans presumably feel as strongly about religion as they do about education. So why does the endless variety of religious life in the United States lead to so little strife, while the strife over public schooling never seems to end?

The answer is no mystery. America is a land of religious freedom, in which people decide for themselves what to believe and how to worship. No religion is funded by government. No church or synagogue has a state-supported monopoly. Elected officials have no say in the doctrines of any faith or the content of any religious service. Religion flourishes in America because church and state are separate. And it flourishes so peacefully because no one is forced to support anyone else's faith, or to attend a church he isn't happy with, or to bring up children according to the religious views of whichever faction has the most votes.

Religion is peaceful because it is government-free. Liberate the schools, and they too would be at peace. Taxpayer-funded, one-curriculum-fits-all schooling makes conflict inevitable. There would be far less animosity if parents were as free to choose how and where their children learn as they are to choose how and where they worship. Separation of church and state has made America an exemplar of religious pluralism and tolerance. Imagine what separation of school and state could do for education.

SOURCE





Companies ignoring British graduates for jobs that need good language skills

British students let down by their educational system again -- but they all know how to "save the planet"

British employers are ignoring graduates from the UK, assuming that they cannot speak foreign languages. Managers of some leading companies, in research seen by The Times, admitted that they do not consider British candidates for jobs that need another language.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has received complaints from overseas businesses setting up in Britain about the lack of language skills among British graduates.

Research for Cilt, the government-funded National Centre for Languages, has uncovered the extent of the problem. Personnel managers from Boots, McDonald’s, Google, RBS and the law firm Slaughter and May, and medium-size businesses across a range of sectors, were among those interviewed. Cilt found: “Employers view the pool of those with high-level language skills as a global one, with the UK a relatively weak player. Candidates were more likely to come from outside the UK. Indeed, some employers feel our young people are falling behind, or at a disadvantage, in comparison to those from other countries.”

One respondent from a large company said: “We would look abroad if we wanted applicants with strong language skills.” There is growing demand for applicants who can speak another language, because more companies are international, the research suggested.

Businesses bringing investment to Britain, particularly those from Germany, France, Spain and the Netherlands, have complained to the Foreign Office about having to recruit engineers from their home countries or elsewhere. A source said they expected people in technical or management jobs to have a good grasp of the parent company’s home language, but that was missing among British applicants.

The number of teenagers taking a foreign language GCSE has dropped by a third since studying one stopped being compulsory in 2004, a trend reflected at universities.

Employers have noticed the difference. Keith Herrmann, deputy chief executive of the Council for Industry and Higher Education, said: “Increasingly, many of our member companies recruit globally and are looking for people who have a global perspective.

“Crucial to that is an expertise in languages. Graduates who have international experience are highly employable because they can demonstrate that they have drive, resilience and intracultural sensitivities, as well as language skills. Young people need to understand that they are not competing against their neighbour, but in a global marketplace.”

SOURCE



30 May, 2010

NY pols lift charter cap in big day for reform

The state Legislature yesterday passed a landmark measure to more than double the number of charter schools after a day of round-the-clock drama that included a powerful behind-the-scenes confrontation and a printing snafu that nearly derailed the effort.

Gov. Paterson will soon sign into law the measure -- lifting the cap from 260 to 460 charter schools -- along with related school reforms that will boost the state's chances of qualifying for up to $700 million in federal "Race to the Top" funding. The flurry of action will enable the state to file its application by Tuesday's deadline.

Approval of the bill comes on the heels of The Post's six-month campaign urging the state to authorize more charter schools.

In addition to raising the cap, the law requires charters to enroll more needy students and be subject to auditing. It also bans for-profit firms from running charters and creates committees to resolve space problems when charter schools share facilities with traditional public schools.

Mayor Bloomberg called the charter-school expansion "great news for the 40,000-plus children currently on waiting lists," as well as for all 1.1 million public-school students who benefit from the competition.

The pro-charter-school campaign also garnered crucial backing from President Obama's education secretary, Arne Duncan; former President Bill Clinton; and state Attorney General and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo.

Passage of the legislation came after intense negotiations involving Mayor Bloomberg's office, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and the United Federation of Teachers.

UFT president Mike Mulgrew said the bill incorporates reforms sought by the union bolstering oversight, banning for-profits, making charters more "open to the neediest children" and ensuring "a real voice for parents" in traditional public schools.

More here






British exam regulator to 'fix' High School exam results

This controversy is largely an effect of the absurd British practice of basing university entrance on predicted exam results rather than actual exam results. That in turn results from the misalignment of the university and school years.

In Australia, pupils do their final high school exams in early December and the university teaching year begins early in the following March -- which allows ample time for university admissions to be based on actual high school exam results. Why the Brits cannot arrange something similarly rational remains an abiding mystery

Exam chiefs have been accused of "fixing" this summer's A-level results to restrict the number of pupils who are awarded the new A* supergrade. Examination boards have been told to make secret predictions for the number of candidates who will get the top grade when it is handed out for the first time this summer.

In documents obtained by The Sunday Telegraph, Ofqual, the exam regulator, warns the boards that the percentage of A* grades actually awarded must be within two per cent of those predictions.

If, once this summer's tests have been marked, the results show that pupils have done better or worse than expected, then the boards may be told to change grade boundaries in order to bring the proportion of A* grades into line with what was predicted.

Critics have claimed that the instruction from the regulator amounted to "grade fixing". Academics called it an attempt to "preset" the results while head teachers accused Ofqual of manipulating the grades to stop too many A* grades being awarded.

The row broke out as 300,000 sixth formers across the country begin to sit new, harder A-level papers.

Professor Alan Smithers, the director of the centre for education and employment research at Buckingham University, said: "This is presetting the results. "It almost obviates the need for taking A-levels if results are based mostly on predictions using data such as GCSE scores.

"There is a desperate and futile desire to claim consistency in exam results from your to year but when you change the nature of the assessment, such as make papers harder, you should get changes in the results. "Otherwise you lose any authenticity in the system.

"Ofqual is fooling itself by fixing the results like this. A-levels are essentially used for distinguishing within a group. It should not be about shoving the raw scores in to a mould so they fit in with results last year or in previous years."

Andrew Grant, headmaster of St Albans School and chairman of the Headmasters and Headmistresses Conference, which represents independent schools, said: "Ofqual is basically trying to depress any tendency for a high proportion of higher grades. They just don't want too many A*s to be given out. "It is manipulation of the marking and grade boundaries to ensure candidates results are within narrow tolerance bands.

"Ofqual have learned from what happened in the 2002 grading scandal when they attempted to fix results after the event. Now they are stacking the cards in favour of control downwards before the results."

The document, entitled Awarding the new A level A* grade in Summer 2010, was written by Dennis Opposs, Ofqual's head of standards, and presented to the Ofqual committee meeting in January. It reveals that exam boards have provided Ofqual with estimates of how many pupils will achieve A*s and other grades at A-level, based on achievement in GCSEs taken two years ago.

If, after A-level papers are marked and grade boundaries are set, the proportion of pupils gaining the real grade is 2 per cent below or above the prediction, exam boards will have to justify the results. If the proportion of A* grades on a particular paper looks too high, Ofqual can ask for grade boundaries to be raised. If average ability pupils find the new, harder papers too difficult, grade boundaries at the lower end can be reduced so more candidates pass.

The document said: "In summer 2010 we will require awarding bodies (exam boards) to report A* outcomes against predictions for A*, in addition to reporting at grades A and E.

"We have agreed a 'reporting threshold' of +/- 2 per cent from the predictions. If awarding bodies outcomes at each grade are within 2 per cent of the predictions, it is likely that the regulators will take no action.

"If outcomes are 2 per cent or more from the predictions, we require an explanation of the reasons for this ... We will consider these 'out of tolerance' outcomes in advance of the results and we may ask an awarding body to reconsider a particular decision."

The reliance on statistics showing pupils' prior achievement when deciding how exams should be graded has been criticised by exam experts. Tim Oates, the head of research at Cambridge Assessment, said: "If you are a young person and you are working really hard and you think that what happens on that exam paper really counts, it is quite wrong that the system behind the scenes doesn't actually pay much attention to what you have done."

Ofqual is keen to avoid a replay of the 2002 grading scandal. In that year, the exam boards were threatened by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority with an inquiry if the proportion of A grades resulting from the introduction of new modular A-levels was too high.

Under pressure from the watchdog, the boards deflated grades in some subjects by making unprecedented changes to the grade boundaries on some papers. It meant that some straight-A grade students received U grades.

Independent head teachers have warned that changes to this year's A-level, including the A* and a cut in number of modules making up the qualification from six to four, risks a repeat of the 2002 scandal.

A spokesman for Ofqual said: "During the summer we will be monitoring the awarding process and the outcomes so that people can be confident that results are a fair record of the candidates' achievements, are in line with those of previous years and have been awarded fairly across awarding organisations.

"Where the difference between the statistical indicators and the outcomes exceeds the agreed thresholds, we will obtain an explanation and may then ask the awarding organisation to reconsider the grade boundaries. "Any such requests will be based on the evidence and made in the interests of fairness to learners."

SOURCE







Australia: More criticism of proposed national history curriculum

Since the curriculum was designed by a well-known Marxist and former member of the Communist party, this was all foreordained. Macintyre's extreme Leftism has of course given him a charmed life in academe but the Leftist Federal government knew all that when he was appointed by them

THE new draft national history curriculum has been attacked by leading historians and educators as "politicised", "dumbed down" and pushing an agenda. The Opposition said it was a Labor-designed manifesto in the latest salvo in what has become a fresh break-out of "history wars". Its creators said the curriculum reflected changing values in society.

Prof Geoffrey Blainey said the draft curriculum appeared to represent a "left-wing view of Australian history". Prof Blainey said he was uneasy about the curriculum's treatment of Aboriginal Australians. He said it did not address the failures of pre-settlement Aboriginal society.

Education consultant and former history teacher Dr Kevin Donnelly said the new curriculum had put indigenous and Asian content and perspectives ahead of Australia's Anglo-Celtic tradition, the debt we owe to Western civilisation and the importance of our Judeo-Christian heritage. Dr Donnelly said the curriculum contained 118 references to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, culture and history - with grade 5s studying White Australia and grade 9s Aboriginal massacres and displacement. There is just one reference to Parliament and none to Westminster or the Magna Carta.

Curriculum chief Prof Stuart Macintyre said the new course was not politically motivated.

Last week, this newspaper quoted a historian by the name of Andrew Garvie about the history curriculum. Andrew Garvie is a pen name used by senior Australian academic Dr Ian Pringle, who now works in sensitive parts of Asia as a teacher and consultant and is an economic history expert.

SOURCE





Australia: Creationism to be taught in Queensland classrooms

Well, Queensland IS bigger than Texas

CREATIONISM and intelligent design will be taught in Queensland state schools for the first time as part of the new national curriculum.

Creationists dismiss the science of evolution, instead believing that living things are best explained by an intelligent being or God, rather than an undirected process such as natural selection.

The issue of creationism being taught in schools has caused huge controversy in the US, where some fundamentalist religious schools teach it as a science subject instead of Darwin's theory of evolution.

In Queensland schools, creationism will be offered for discussion in the subject of ancient history, under the topic of "controversies".

Teachers are still formulating a response to the draft national curriculum, scheduled to be introduced next year.

Queensland History Teachers' Association head Kay Bishop said the curriculum asked students to develop their historical skills in an "investigation of a controversial issue" such as "human origins (eg, Darwin's theory of evolution and its critics"). "It's opening up opportunities for debate and discussion, not to push a particular view," Ms Bishop said. Classroom debate about issues encouraged critical thinking – an important tool, she said.

Associated Christian Schools executive officer Lynne Doneley welcomed the draft curriculum, saying it cemented the position of a faith-based approach to teaching. "We talk to students from a faith science basis, but we're not biased in the delivery of curriculum," Mrs Doneley said. "We say, 'This is where we're coming from' but allow students to make up their own minds."

But Griffith University humanities lecturer Paul Williams said it was important to be cautious about such content. "It's important that education authorities are vigilant that this is not a blank cheque to push theological barrows," Mr Williams said. "I would be loath to see it taught as theory. "It's up there with the world being occupied by aliens since Roswell."

Ms Bishop said there were bigger problems with the national curriculum.

History teachers are planning to object to repetitive subject matter, such as World War I being a major part of the Year 10 course and repeated in Year 11.

SOURCE



29 May, 2010

Economic segregation rising in US public schools

The share of public schools with high concentrations of poor students jumped from 12 to 17 percent in eight years, a federal report shows. Economic segregation is tied to the persistent achievement gap

More than 16,000 public schools struggle in the shadows of concentrated poverty. The portion of schools where at least three-quarters of students are eligible for free or reduced-price meals – a proxy for poverty – climbed from 12 percent in 2000 to 17 percent in 2008.

The federal government released a statistical portrait of these schools Thursday as part of its annual Condition of Education report. When it comes to educational opportunities and achievement, the report shows a stark contrast between students in high-poverty and low-poverty schools (those where 25 percent or less are poor).

Economic segregation is on the rise in American schools, and that “separation of rich and poor is the fountainhead of inequality,” says Richard Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, a public policy research group in Washington. High-poverty schools “get worse teachers ... are more chaotic ... [have] lower levels of parental involvement ... and lower expectations than at middle-class schools – all of which translate into lower levels of achievement.”

Cities aren’t the only places facing this challenge: Forty percent of urban elementary schools have high poverty rates, but 13 percent of suburban and 10 percent of rural elementary schools do as well. In some states – Mississippi, Louisiana, and New Mexico – concentrated poverty affects more than one-third of K-12 schools.

Hispanic and black children make up the majority of students in high-poverty schools – 46 percent and 34 percent, respectively, compared with just 14 percent white and 4 percent Asian/Pacific Islander.

In tests of reading, math, music, and art, students from high-poverty schools routinely score lower than their peers in low-poverty schools.

“There have been gains in achievement in high-poverty schools over the last decade or so ... but what we don’t see in most cases is a closing of the gap,” says Daria Hall, director of K-12 policy at the Education Trust in Washington, which aims to eliminate such gaps.

In graduation rates, there’s actually been a backward slide. In 2008, high-poverty schools reported that 68 percent of seniors graduated the previous year, compared with 86 percent in 2000. For students in low-poverty schools, the rate remained about 91 percent.

Solutions have been hard to come by, but there are some hopeful signs, Ms. Hall says. The attention to the subgroup of low-income students is relatively new, and some schools and districts are showing success in bringing up their achievement. “The willingness of educators to learn from these schools is heartening,” she says.

To address the gaps, education reformers are trying to connect stronger teachers with the most disadvantaged students. In 2008, about 21 percent of teachers in high poverty schools had less than three years of experience, compared with 15 percent in low-poverty schools. And fewer teachers in high-poverty schools have master’s degrees and standard certifications.

Since 2006, the federal government’s Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) has been aimed at helping districts improve teacher quality, particularly in high-needs schools. The Department of Education will distribute an additional $437 million in TIF grants this fall.

While efforts to improve high-poverty schools are valiant, they’ve haven’t worked very well, Mr. Kahlenberg says. He advocates reducing the number of high-poverty schools altogether, by giving families more opportunities to choose schools outside of poor neighborhoods, for instance.

About 70 school districts have plans to draw a mix of income backgrounds to different schools, Kahlenberg says, and there are indications that low-income students achieve better in mixed-income settings.

Cambridge, Mass., for instance, strives for income balance in all its schools through a magnet school system. It has similar graduation rates for low-income students as for all students combined (about 85 percent), and outpaces the state average for low-income students (67 percent).

SOURCE




Australia: Black educational handicaps CAN be beaten

With disciplined instruction and enthusiasm -- NOT with currently conventional methods

If you want to see a real Education Revolution then you should go to the remote Cape York town of Aurukun, where Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson has imported a radical teaching program into a school in which more than half of the students were barely reading at kindergarten level, if they could read at all. In terms of indigenous disadvantage, Aurukun was at rock bottom, with NAPLAN test results 70 per cent below the national benchmark, and every year the achievement gap widening.

The social dysfunction of the Cape's most violent town, driven by gambling, drugs and alcohol, was being played out in the schoolyard. But Pearson says the children's backgrounds has always been used by principals, teachers and education department bureaucrats as an "alibi for schooling failure". His philosophy is that if a student is at school and ready to learn, "a learning failure is a teaching failure".

Already, after just one-and-a-half terms, the American-designed Direct Instruction program in which teachers deliver scripted lessons, according to a strictly prescribed, methodical program in literacy and mathematics, has surpassed even Pearson's extraordinarily high hopes. It is a program on which he has staked his reputation, forced into being against the will of much of the educational establishment, and on which his legacy will be judged.

This week, the 17th week of the DI program, a year 4 girl named Imani Tamwoy became the first in the school to have caught up to her grade level in reading. The grade 5 to 7 students managed to master 76 per cent of the kindergarten program in the first 11 weeks, and the prep - or pre-kindy class of four-year olds - is already 40 per cent through the kindergarten language program.

"I'm surprised," Pearson said on Thursday, during a visit with his five-year-old son Ngulunhdhul, aka Charlie, to Aurukun school, two hours by charter flight from his Cairns home. "I thought in Aurukun we'd have a hell of a time with behaviour … I thought Aurukun would be special case, with the notoriety of the school and the community. But it hasn't been, and the great thing is we're doing it with your stock standard Education Queensland teacher. This is the biggest surprise and they're doing a bloody great job."

Pearson travelled to Oregon last year to meet the architect of DI, Professor Siegfried Engelmann, and after a series of bruising negotiations, and entrenched opposition from some teachers and bureaucrats, installed a $7 million three-year trial in Aurukun and Coen schools at the beginning of the year, with the cautious support of the Queensland Education department.

The new principal, Geoff Higham, 59, drafted early this year to replace his less than enthusiastic predecessor, remembers how students in years 8 and 9 used to bring iron bars to school. "The senior boys were out of control. They were reading at kindy level and they hated everything about school," he says. "It's hard to believe the transformation in just 15 or 16 weeks. "This is a wonderful system. All the children are put into ability groups so no one is failing. The teachers aren't failing. The children aren't failing … It's a magnificent successful educational experiment."

Having taught in hardscrabble schools from Kenya to Thursday Island, the former Victorian describes himself as an old-fashioned "chalk and talk" teacher. His previous schools have been described as places where "even the grass sits up straight". He says DI accords with his educational philosophy, that every child can learn, given a disciplined routine and effective instruction. But even in his wildest dreams he hadn't known how effective DI could be.

"I have no doubt the pupils will be at the national level in maths and English in three years' time, and many children will be one, two or three years above that level."

Walking through the collection of modest white buildings nestled among stringybark and palm trees at the school of 250 pupils, you see everywhere, on teachers' shirts, on banners and in classrooms, the motto Pearson has coined for his education revolution: "Get ready. Work Hard. Be Good."

In Sarah Travers's kindy class, she wears a microphone around her neck to amplify her voice for children with chronic ear infections. It seems to work, because her 10 five-year-old students sit attentively on the floor, calling out sounds as she points to phonetic symbols in a book. At 1.45 pm at the tail end of a busy school week, their concentration and focus is remarkable.

In another classroom, children are sounding out words as the teacher clicks her fingers rhythmically to speed up their voices so that the sounds soon join up to become a fluent word.

Colleen Page, a 24-year-old teacher from the Sunshine Coast, in her third year at Aurukun, says the change DI has had on her pupils is marked. "They thrive on it. It's really good to compare the last two years with this year … Previously the kids would be running around your classroom … not listening. Now they're confident about participation in class."

She tells the story of the eight-year-old boy who came to her one morning proudly telling her how he had applied his previous day's lesson. "Miss, I saw a frog, and I said, 'You are an amphibian. You are born in water and raised on land."'

An essential part of the DI program is weekly testing and data crunching. Every Thursday, 120 pages of detailed test scores and information about each student and class is faxed to a DI centre in North America to be analysed. The following Tuesday, the school leaders have a conference call with DI experts in Oregon, about any problems identified.

For example, the data may pinpoint a deficit in a particular child's understanding that came from a particular work sheet in a particular lesson that may have been taught six weeks earlier. The solution is prescribed and the process repeats itself.

The children seem to thrive on the organised routine. Even those difficult older children in years 9 and 10, who have not gone away to boarding school like most of their peers, and who were expected to be too far behind to reap many rewards from DI, have responded in a way that is heartening and heartbreaking, as you consider countless lost opportunities.

The next stage in Pearson's plan is to extend the school day to run from 8.30 am to 4.45 pm, with direct instruction of basic skills until 2.15 pm. Afternoons will be devoted to two crucial areas of learning: Club, which is physical activities such as Auskick, and Culture, which is devoted to learning their traditional Aboriginal culture and becoming literate in the first language of most Aurukun children, Wik-Mungkan.

With growing community delight in the new DI system at school, and the charismatic leadership of Pearson, there is a feeling of renewal in the air. Or, what Principal Higham calls a corner of light.

SOURCE





British university graduates 'preparing to take low-paid jobs'

Only a quarter of arts and humanities final-year students expect to start graduate jobs this summer, research has found

The majority of students leaving university in coming months do not expect to land decent jobs, it was revealed, as the recession continues to have a “profound effect” on the employment market.

Thousands of final-year degree students are preparing to accept low-paid work in bars, supermarkets and call centres, according to figures. As thousands of undergraduates take end-of-course exams this month, it emerged that only a quarter of those on arts and humanities courses were preparing to secure work in graduate professions.

The disclosure came in a survey of more than 16,000 final year students – a fifth of those nationally – by analysts High Fliers Research. It comes despite fears that graduates are facing record levels of debt this summer, with the average student being forced to repay £18,100 for a three year course. Debts rise to £25,700 in parts of London.

The jobs shortage was blamed on a “substantial backlog” in the number of jobless graduates from previous years – creating additional pressure on the employment market in 2010. Researchers said 8,000 extra job applications had been made to leading companies by the end of October as students attempted to steal a march on competitors.

It was also disclosed that thousands of students are preparing to take a postgraduate course as an alternative to finding a job. Some 26 per cent of students will remain in higher education after completing degrees this year, figures show.

Martin Birchall, High Fliers Research managing director, said students takings courses such as arts and humanities courses, such as fine art, drama, dance, music, history and geography, were likely to be hardest hit.

“The recession may be officially over, but with a record number of students due to complete degrees in the coming weeks and tens of thousands of last year’s graduates still looking for work, there is widespread concern on campus that competition for graduate jobs has never been fiercer,” he said. “The research highlights that students from arts and humanities courses and those who’ve had little or no work experience during their time at university are the least confident about the future.”

According to the study, 36 per cent of students believe they will start a graduate job – or start looking for one – when they leave university this summer. Numbers slump to 25 per cent among arts and humanities students.

Some 26 per cent of all students are preparing to move on to postgraduate courses, while a third will take “any job they are offered”, the study said.

This suggests large numbers of students will embark on low-paid jobs in shops, cafes, call centres and building sites – failing to use their degree for many years.

The disclosure comes despite mounting concerns over graduate debt. In 2010, the average debt being faced by students on a three-year degree was £18,100. Students preparing to leave Imperial College London were expecting to pay back as much as £25,700.

SOURCE



28 May, 2010

Charter schools forging ahead in NYC

It's not just in math and reading that charter schools are dealing out aces. New data obtained by The Post shows that charter-school kids outperformed traditional public-school kids in three of the four grades tested in science and social studies last year -- often by leaps and bounds.

The results are sure to lend ammunition to those who support the state's raising of the charter schools cap, which has been at the center of heated debate among Albany lawmakers for weeks.

According to the city's Department of Education, charter-school eighth-graders bested their public-school peers by 19 percentage points in social studies and by nearly 18 percentage points in science.

Additionally, more than 90 percent of charter-school fourth-graders aced last year's state science exams, compared with 80.3 percent of fourth-graders at traditional public schools.

Only in fifth-grade social studies did traditional public schools score higher -- with 77.1 percent of kids reaching proficiency on the state exams compared to 72 percent at charter schools. "It's more evidence that charters are providing city kids a good education, and it particularly points to the fact that they're providing a well-rounded education," said James Merriman, CEO of the New York City Charter School Center.

The city's charter schools also outperformed the regular public schools by nearly 9 points in both math and reading last year -- which led some critics to charge that those were the only subjects they focused on.

Merriman said charter schools are able to devote more time to teaching math and reading than traditional public schools, but not because they narrow their focus. "Their longer school day and longer school year and flexibility allows [charters] to do that but to not neglect other important subjects like science and social studies," he said.

Among the highest-performing charter schools in science was the state's oldest -- Sisulu- Walker Charter School in Harlem -- where 100 percent of fourth-graders were proficient on last year's state exam.

In social studies, 94 percent of eighth- graders at KIPP Infinity in Harlem aced the state exams.

But United federation of Teachers president Michael Mulgrew said the better scores stemmed from the type of students that charter schools serve. "It's nice to see charter students doing well, but hardly surprising, since compared to the average public school, charters have significantly fewer of the city's poorest children, English language learners, and special-ed students with the greatest needs.

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British education bureaucracy trimmed

The quango responsible for managing exams and the curriculum in England will be scrapped, the government announced today

Ministers said the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency would be axed as part of a plan to cut bureaucracy and slash spending across Whitehall to service the national debt.

The announcement comes just days after the coalition government announced the abolition of Becta, the technology agency for schools, in a move designed to save £65m a year.

Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, said work currently carried out by the QCDA would be handed to other organisations, including private exam boards.

The announcement follows widespread criticism of the quango two years ago when serious failings led to huge delays in the marking of Sats tests. Thousands of pupils were forced to wait months for results and some test papers were lost altogether.

In the wake of the fiasco, the National Assessment Agency – quango’s testing arm – was scrapped and then chief executive Ken Boston resigned.

In a letter to the organisation on Thursday, Mr Gove said legislation would be introduced in the autumn to “abolish the QCDA”. Ministers have already announced that £670m is being cut from the education budget.

But the latest move was condemned by teachers’ leaders. Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT, said: “The seemingly arbitrary way in which the QCDA and other bodies are being culled without any critical analysis of the impact of removing these functions is not acceptable.

“To put staff at the QCDA on notice of dismissal before the legislation to remove their function has been considered by Parliament is an arrogant and reckless way to conduct Government business.

“The decision is not supported by any detail of how core functions undertaken by the QCDA will be carried out in future and at what cost.”

The quango currently reviews exams such as A-levels, GCSE and diplomas, as well as controlling the administration of Sats tests for 11-year-olds. It is also responsible for updating the curriculum.

Mr Gove said the body would be expected to continue overseeing this year’s Sats, although this role is then likely to be taken over by the Department for Education itself.

He said the administration of GSCEs and A-levels should be left to England’s exam boards – privately run organisations already responsible for scripting tests and course syllabuses.

In a speech last summer, David Cameron said the QCDA "must go", and the body's chief executive, Andrew Hall, quit in March after less than a year in his post.

It is believed staff were told last week to stop work on "developmental projects" and to cut communication with anyone outside the agency

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New British education boss will have biggest fight against the enemy within

The education establishment will oppose reform every inch of the way

For me, Michael Gove's free schools policy was the most persuasive reason for voting Conservative in the recent election. Yesterday was, therefore, a good day: the Queen's Speech announced the Education and Children's Bill, which will enable parents, businesses and charitable groups to set up state-funded independent schools. It is scheduled for introduction after the summer recess.

Today, the Education Secretary will outline his planned reforms in detail. But, much as I do not wish to rain on Mr Gove's parade, I am the bearer of bad tidings. Because, as someone who has been advocating the gist of his policy for nearly two decades, I have to tell him that passing the Act is almost the least important step on the road to genuine school reform.

The forces opposing reform within the educational establishment are deep-seated, ruthless and near universal, and unless Mr Gove and his team are on top of them from the start, they – and free schools – will disappear down the drain of the well-intentioned but vanquished.

In 1995, I was working for the Fabian Society, the Labour think tank. I was naive enough to think that it was – to use the current buzzword – a progressive idea for all parents to have the power to choose how their children are educated; not just those wealthy enough to pay school fees.

My proposal to write a paper to that effect was greeted with the only act of censorship I have encountered in 20 years in and around think tanks. I was banned from writing it.

I was, of course, threatening the education establishment – the educationalists, teaching unions, bureaucrats and local education authorities who control everything. With a level of dogmatism and cunning that puts the Jesuits to shame, they resist all opposition to so-called progressive education and the bog-standard comprehensive. So my idea was stamped on as a matter of course. I took my paper elsewhere, published, and was indeed damned. Unless Mr Gove outmanoeuvres – for which, read "destroys" – that educational establishment, he will fail, because it will fight him. Relentlessly.

The miserable example of Education Action Zones illustrates how it behaves. In 1997, the then bright new schools minister, Stephen Byers, was keen to see if private providers could be enticed into education, with a view to taking over the functions of LEAs. The action zones were intended as a trial run, with a small number piloting some new programmes and gaining experience.

A fine idea, but doomed to fail for two reasons which are of direct relevance to Mr Gove today. First, the bidding process was drawn up by the Department of Education, and was – deliberately – so complicated that all but a tiny number of companies gave up. Second, the information on schools in any given area, which companies needed as a prerequisite to bidding, was held by LEAs – the very bodies threatened by the programme. So they obfuscated, dissembled, and wrecked it from the start.

As the Secretary of State sets to work at his desk in Sanctuary Buildings, he needs to look around. Because far from being his servant, the department of which he is head will be one of his greatest problems. It is a bastion of the education establishment, and has fought in the trenches to resist all reforms.

Regular diktats pour forth from the department entrenching the latest dogma. From the Whitehall centre, down to the LEAs, ideological enforcers ensure that challengers to the worship of comprehensives and progressive dogma are undermined by supposedly neutral civil servants.

For a brief moment, there was an alternative voice within the department when, in 1997, David Blunkett established the Standards and Effectiveness Unit, designed to shake up the culture. But with his departure, even that minor irritant was removed. In 2004, Charles Clarke abolished the unit; under Ed Balls things were worse than ever. So Mr Gove needs first to realise that, however amenable his civil servants may seem, they want him to fail. What he stands for is anathema to them. Before he does anything else, he should make one of his team Minister for School Reform. Not to fight for his plans in the outside world, but to do so within his department.

But the problem is far worse than a wayward department. The grip of the education establishment affects every area of education. The Training and Development Agency and the National College of School Leadership, for instance, first indoctrinate trainee teachers and then subject them to continuing inspection lest they stray from the ideology. Remember Ofsted? Under Chris Woodhead, it fought as a lonely insurgent, holding schools to account and speaking up for parents. Today, it is just another arm of the establishment.

LEAs [Local Education Authorities], the teaching unions, educationalists: they will stop at nothing to defeat Mr Gove. If you think that is an overstatement, consider this: for years, they ruined children's education as they pushed their ideology. What kind of teacher goes on strike to protest against a test designed to measure a child's achievement level? What kind of teacher goes on strike?

LEAs will plot to undermine Mr Gove. Unions will strike. All hell will break loose. But pre-warned is pre-armed. Mr Gove has been examining the history of British education, and will know what to expect. Now he has to stand strong and defeat the educational establishment.

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27 May, 2010

Books in the home and academic success

What this study probably shows is not remotely surprising: That high IQ people read more books -- and high IQ people do of course tend to have high IQ children. But you will find no mention of IQ below, of course. Right-thinking people reject any notion that academic ability is inherited, despite mountains of evidence to that effect. The fact that I have a Ph.D. and my son is working on one is mere coincidence

HOUSES full of books are clear indicators of the scholarly culture that grounds academic progress and can compensate for social disadvantage in some families according to a new study.

Children from households with 500 books were 33 per cent likelier to finish year 9 compared with those with none; they were 36 per cent likelier to graduate from high school; and 19 per cent likelier to complete university.

The findings were published this week in a paper titled Family Scholarly Culture and Educational Success: Books and Schooling in 27 Nations, in the journal Research in Social Stratification and Mobility.

Researchers at the University of Nevada, the University of California at Los Angeles and the Australian National University crunched the numbers from a variety of studies, some more than 20 years old, covering 70,000 cases across 27 nations, allowed for discrepancies and variables, and came up with an emphatically pro-book conclusion.

Australia rated well. Only 3 per cent of households had no books, 42 per cent had about 75 and 21 per cent had 500 or more.

Other strong performers included New Zealand, Canada, Norway, the Czech Republic, Latvia and Israel.

The researchers, led by Mariah Evans, now at the University of Nevada, but formerly of the University of Melbourne, are arguing the standard model of educational attainment should be extended to include scholarly culture, as measured by the number of books in the parents' home.

ANU's contributor to the study, Joanna Sikora, stressed the data was retrospective. So in the 1984 study, some of the respondents were already 65, while in the latter studies, in say 2003, some were quite young. "Every respondent was asked how many books they had in their house when they were 14 years of age," Dr Sikora said.

But the study doesn't allow for easy solutions to educational disadvantage. "The answer is not to get every household 200 books each and dump them on the doorstep and say 'problem fixed' - availability is not enough - we are talking about home library size as a base indicator. "Certainly, it's about reading but it's also about parents being around kids and enjoying and valuing books.

"Our study gives some insight into how upward social mobility occurs. Children from modest backgrounds with the advantage of a scholarly culture manage to move forward. Schools do their job too, of course."

While there is some cross-country variation in the study, results show there is no discrimination in terms of affluence, so scholarly culture confers as much, if not more, advantage in poor households in, say, China as it does in the US and western Europe.

The paper argues a book-oriented home endows children with the tools to succeed at school, from vocabulary to familiarity with good writing, from information to comprehension skills.

The study concludes children who grow up in a household with 500 books achieve, on average, 3.2 years more education than those who grow up with none.

"The difference between a bookless home and one with a 500-book library is as great as the difference between having parents who are barely literate and having university-educated parents," the study concludes.

What is more, a book-filled home turns out to be twice as important as the father's occupation. The largest gains were below university, at the years 9 and 12 levels.

Dr Sikora said the advent of the digital age, with electronic books, was no threat to the concept of scholarly culture.

"There will be an omnivore concept of literacy: all kids will be able to text and some will also have rich vocabularies and master various forms of expression," she said.

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British coalition pledge on 'slimmed down' national curriculum

The national curriculum will be overhauled under a government plan to restore vital “bodies of knowledge” to lessons

A major review of the curriculum will be launched this year setting out the subject content children will be expected to master at each stage of education.

It is likely to emphasise rigorous content such as more geometry and algebra in primary maths, a focus on biology, chemistry and physics as separate sciences and the study of classical authors in English.

History lessons are likely to be based around a narrative of the past, covering key periods, the kings and queens and the Empire.

The review forms part of the new Education and Children’s Bill announced as part of the coalition government’s legislative programme on Tuesday.

Government sources said that the “slimmer” curriculum would prescribe subject content but give schools more freedom to decide how to teach lessons.

The Bill will also introduce a new reading test for 600,000 six-year-olds in England every year – identifying those struggling the most. This follows research showing that children who fail to master reading at a young age fall much further behind by the end of secondary school.

Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, said an overhaul of the curriculum was vital to restore subject knowledge.

It follows controversy over Labour's last major review of the secondary curriculum which removed key figures such as Sir Winston Churchill and Hitler from history lessons and promoted a "skills-based" approach to education.

Speaking before the election, Mr Gove said that most parents supported a “traditional education” in which children learned the “kings and queens of England, the great works of literature, proper mental arithmetic, algebra by the age of 11 [and] modern foreign languages”. He said: “Our aim will be to define the knowledge that each child should master at each stage in their development before they can move confidently onto the next stage of learning.

“We will give teachers, parents and students an appreciation of the core knowledge that is required in ever year and make clear what knowledge children in other countries are mastering at the same sage. “The curriculum review, however, will focus on what should be taught. We will not return to detailed prescriptions of how things are taught.”

Under the Bill, Ofsted will also be cut back, with a new remit focusing on “core educational goals” such as raising achievement and closing the gap between rich and poor pupils.

But Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: “Schools don’t need a tougher Ofsted, and a more prescriptive but narrower curriculum. “I urge the Government to initiate a fundamental review of the way in which schools are accountable to ensure that support follows any inspection, rather than punishment."

A separate Academies Bill – also announced as part of the Queen’s Speech – will pave the way for all state schools rated “outstanding” by Ofsted to break free from local council control.

Under plans, as many as 2,000 schools will be able to convert into independent academies by this September, giving them power over budgets, buildings, staff, admissions and the length of the school day. For the first time, primary schools will be able to convert into academies, representing a radical departure from Labour.

Grammar schools will also be able to become academies – retaining their right to select by ability – although the new government insisted there would be no further expansion of the 11-plus.

The move has been branded “irresponsible” by teaching unions. Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said: “These proposals to turn more schools into academies are just irresponsible. They have not been properly thought through and could end up making a mess of education provision through their unintended consequences.”

Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT, said: “There is simply no evidence that academy schools perform better than traditional community schools. “It is staggering that a government which is committed to community empowerment is now seeking to disenfranchise democratically elected local councils who represent local people and deny them any say when proposals come forward to open new academy schools.”

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'Not acceptable:' Nearly one-third of Oregon high school students drop out

But no sign that anybody in the system is acknowledging where the problems are -- only talk about "shining a light" on schools that do better than average

Only two of every three students in Oregon's class of 2009 graduated from high school in four years, while more than 14,000 dropped out along the way, the state education department reported Tuesday.

State Superintendent Susan Castillo said she hopes the startlingly low success rate galvanizes Oregonians to provide -- and demand that schools provide -- more student support. She said she plans to shine a light on districts including Hillsboro and Tigard-Tualatin that, without extra funding, use systematic approaches to get standout results.

"As a state, this is not acceptable, absolutely not, and we have got to have a coordinated effort on this," she said. "Whether you have kids or not, this matters to you. When students are not getting the education they need, we all pay the price."

This year represented only the second time, and the first time that will count toward school performance ratings, that Oregon measured high school graduation rates in a new, more accurate way.

Under the old method, which allowed thousands of teens who didn't earn diplomas to slip away without being counted, Oregon would have posted an 85 percent graduation rate for the class of 2009.

Federal rules will require all states to use the new method for the class of 2011. Oregon is ahead in making the switch, so state-by-state comparisons can't be made yet.

High school dropout rates in Oregon are high. Portland Public Schools, graduated 53 percent of its students on time, one of the worst rates in the state. Nearly 100 students apiece dropped out from the class of 2009 at Wilson, Cleveland, Franklin, Marshall and Roosevelt high schools, and hundreds more quit alternative schools.

Among low-income students, the on-time graduation rate was 50 percent or so at Lincoln, Wilson, Cleveland and Grant, generally considered among the city's best high schools.

Low graduation rates are a primary reason that Portland Superintendent Carole Smith has called for redesigning the district's high schools.

"This is a sobering confirmation," said Zeke Smith, her chief of staff. "There isn't any (school) you can point to where we've got raging success. Seeing that low-income students, even in our highest-income school, are not meeting graduation rates anywhere near the levels we would want them to is a stark reminder of the inequities."

Getting a high school diploma matters, said Alex Madsen, a student in Oregon's class of 2009 who nearly dropped out of Portland's Benson High his junior year. He's completing a fifth year of high school at Alliance High, a district-run alternative school, and will get that diploma next month.

In Tigard-Tualatin, Oregon's 10th largest school district, 81 percent of students graduated in four years. That included 56 percent of students with disabilities, a sharply higher rate than in most districts

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26 May, 2010

UC Islam, I See Anti-Semitism

by Mike Adams

It now seems that the good Muslim citizens of The University of California Irvine (UCI) Muslim Student Union (MSU) lied when they repeatedly denied orchestrating systematic interruptions of an invited guest. That guest was Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren who readers may remember from my February 16th column “Welcome to UC Islam.”

Someone recently leaked MSU minutes and many detailed internal planning emails. The documents were leaked to the UCI administration, local law enforcement, and the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT). They reveal a mountain of evidence showing Muslim intolerance and antipathy towards free expression.

The IPT online article with links to MSU emails is an example of investigative journalism at its finest. This link from their website is well worth reading.

Either because he is a) one very busy man, or b) suffering from Islamophobia, UCI Chancellor Michael Drake has yet to condemn the MSU for its years of virulent anti-Semitism. Nor has Drake or any other UCI official condemned the group for its efforts to destroy free speech at UCI.

The UCI chapter of MSU recently completed its annual two week - formerly one week – anti-Semitic and anti-Israel hate fest. Throughout the entire fortnight, Chancellor Drake remained silent, despite his school’s feigned interest in ethnic and religious tolerance. The list of MSU speakers is worth examining. You can read about these speakers here. You may not want to do that if you suffer from high blood pressure.

It should go without saying that there was no effort by Jewish students to shut down the MSU anti-Semitic hate fest. But the MSU plans to disrupt Ambassador Oren demonstrate a considerable attention to detail, which reflects extensive experience in such matters. MSU leaders sent internal emails showing detailed planning, which included to-the-minute timing and contingency actions depending on what Campus Security and Ambassador Oren might do in response to the disruptions.

In order to "hijack" (this is official MSU terminology) the event, MSU leaders coordinated actions of the UCI MSU and UC-Riverside MSU members and MSU nonmembers. These students even knew to schedule the date, time and location of a debriefing meeting - and to lie after the fact about the MSU involvement in the disruptions.

Since my UC Islam column of February 16, California Assemblyman Chuck DeVore has written Chancellor Drake. He urged that the MSU be banned from UCI – a measure which I do not support.

California Congressman John Campbell has both written and telephoned Chancellor Drake. He has called for strict discipline of the violators and requested an investigation into the MSU activities and statements and its leaders – a measure which I do support.

John Campbell is at least the second U.S. Congressman who has contacted Chancellor Drake about MSU. Congressman Brad Sherman wrote concerning MSU's apparent fundraising for Hamas, a violation of federal law. Hamas' charter calls for Israel's destruction and opposes any negotiated solution.

Thus far, Drake has taken no action against the illegal fundraising – even though UCI has been “investigating” for a year.

But the Associated Students of UCI have bravely stepped forward (sarcasm = on). By a vote of 13-1-1, they opposed academic sanctions against the 11 so called students arrested for disrupting Oren's talk. In what must be pure coincidence (sarcasm still = on), the resolution was authored by someone named Hamza Siddiqui.

It's probably just a coincidence that UCI's anti-Israel, two-week hate week falls around May 14. This is the date Israel declared independence in 1948 - immediately after which five surrounding Arab countries attacked it. The attackers wanted one Arab state, not the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, which designated an Arab state and an adjoining Israeli state.

Unfortunately for the Muslims, they lost that war -- and a good amount of the land the UN had set aside for Palestine. No wonder Arabs call the first war “The Catastrophe.” They have lost every other war they started against Israel. Jehovah continues to kick Allah’s backside. And He always will.

After this most recent premeditated display of barbarism, racial (oops, I meant to say “radical”) Islam has lost another war – this time in the American court of public opinion. It could not have happened to a nicer bunch of students. And my sarcasm button is stuck in “on” position.

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Some British charter schools ("academies") doing well

Free schools can bring discipline, courtesy and rigorous teaching to all children, not just the wealthy. The new Conservative coalition government is encouraging ALL schools to become charters

By David Ross (founder of Carphone Warehouse)

I am one of the lucky ones — not only did I enjoy a privileged education, but I have the means to help other people to get one too. That’s why it took no persuasion for me to get involved when Lord Adonis, then the Schools Minister, asked me to become a sponsor of an academy.

I decided to put my money and faith into a failing comprehensive in the rundown old docks area of Grimsby. I was born in the town where my grandfather built a successful commercial fishing business; so it seems right that a lot of the pupils that go to Havelock Academy will have relatives who worked for my father and grandfather. The academy opened two years ago with a new head from the private sector, and already is making great improvements.

Yesterday’s Queen’s Speech gives an opportunity to extend the revolution in schools that started under Lord Adonis. It is a chance to redefine the way that we approach state education, which for too long has failed the most disadvantaged children in our society.

It is simply not the case that as a country we do not invest in or know how to deliver world-class educational opportunities. The finest of our schools and universities are testament to the fact that we do; their success, however, needs to be replicated on a grander scale.

The essence of the academies movement until now has been to allow poorly performing schools to contract out of the state system and to become free, independent schools within it. This independence is reflected in many ways — the curriculum, the selection of specialisms, uniforms and disciplinary policy. But the key to their success has been the setting free of hugely talented head teachers and their colleagues to achieve their vocation of improving the lives of pupils, not to follow the directives and bureaucracy of their local education authority.

As a result of this, genuinely inspiring people are achieving genuinely inspiring results. The Harris Academy network is based exclusively in South London and serves some indisputably disadvantaged communities. Yet if it were a stand-alone local authority it would have the second-best Ofsted rankings after Rutland. At these academies many of the traditional benchmarks of excellent education — pupil courtesy, smart uniforms, rigorous tuition in hard subjects such as maths, science, modern languages and Latin — are clear to see. The average improvement among the Harris Academies over the past three years has been three or four times greater than the national average. Additionally four of the six academies inspected so far have been judged outstanding by Ofsted.

At Havelock Academy attendance has improved from 89.8 per cent to 94.8 per cent in the two years that it has been open and GCSE results of A* to C, including English and maths, have increased from 23 per cent to 41 per cent. I hope to replicate these results when Malcolm Arnold Academy opens on the site of Unity College, Northampton, in September.

I was fortunate to have had the chance at school to play sport, act and go to concerts. But in the pared-down, national-curriculum-driven school environment kids are out of the door by 3pm. Not in the academies. At Havelock, children from pretty deprived backgrounds are thriving on the discipline and structure of the combined cadet force (CCF). Hundreds of children a week are enjoying after-school activities ranging from archery to an allotment club.

Under Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, and Nick Gibb, Schools Minister, the opportunities to set schools free in this way will increase exponentially. In the future, successful schools will be allowed to opt out. Existing acadamies will welcome them with open arms — and I hope they will consider joining forces to help drive up standards across the country.Likewise, the opportunity for parent groups to set up free schools can also be a catalyst for greater choice. Of course, some schools will fail. That concept has not been accepted in the educational sector until now but, sadly, it is an unavoidable necessity in the drive for reform and improvement.

There is now much more openness in the way that people and organisations can get in involved in schools, whether they are business people, educational organisations, church groups, charities, livery companies, parent groups or the independent school sector. From a personal perspective, the contribution I have been able to make through the Havelock Academy is one of my greatest sources of pride and inspiration. I try to visit once or twice a term, and speak regularly to the principal. While it would not be right to get involved in the minutiae of teaching, I see it as part of my role to push extracurricular activities such as Outward Bound or sport — “extras” that are part and parcel of a private education.

I am supported in my work by the Uppingham Collegiate network, which helps those academies (now five) that have been sponsored by alumni of the school. Much of the DNA of the Havelock experience — the house system, house dining and pastoral care — has been directly modelled on the educational philosophy of Edward Thring, the headmaster of Uppingham in the mid-19th century.

Wellington College has gone one step farther and put its own name to an academy in Wiltshire. But, to be honest, we are just scratching the surface of the contribution that the independent system can make. Protected over generations by their fantastic architectural endowments and charitable status, the independent sector needs to stand up and show how it can use this legacy for the greater good. Private schools need to take initiatives that are both brave and counter-intuitive. That will help Mr Gove to go into bat on their behalf to protect the advantages they gain from their charitable status.

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Condemnation of immigrants ruled not to be racist

Since immigrants are of many races. A major immigrant group in Britain is Polish people, who are VERY white

A prominent member of the British National Party who described some immigrants as “savage animals” and “filth” while working as a technology teacher has been cleared of racial and religious intolerance.

The General Teaching Council (GTC) yesterday said that it was “troubled” by some of Adam Walker’s comments but that they did not amount to intolerance. Mr Walker is unlikely to be struck off the teaching register although the GTC panel will consider sanctions against him for unacceptable professional conduct, after he made personal use of a school laptop during lesson.

Mr Walker, who is the first teacher to appear before the GTC accused of racial intolerance, used a school laptop to post comments on an online forum, in which he also claimed that parts of Britain were a “dumping ground for the filth of the Third World”.

He had been a teacher at Houghton Kepier Sports College in Houghton-le-Spring, near Sunderland, for more than six years but resigned in 2007 when the headteacher asked IT staff to investigate his use of the internet. Mr Walker, had used the pseudonym Corporal Fox to make the postings on the forum on Teessideonline.

Mr Walker, who has been a BNP candidate and is president of Solidarity, a trade union with strong links to the far-Right party, claimed in one posting that the BNP was popular because “they are the only party who are making a stand and are prepared to protect the rights of citizens against the savage animals New Labour and Bliar (sic) are filling our communities with”.

In another posting on the same day, he wrote: “By following recent media coverage of illegal animals and how they are allowed to stay here despite committing heinous crimes, I am, to say the very least, disgusted.”

In a statement to the GTC hearing yesterday Mr Walker stressed that he had not communicated his political thoughts and beliefs to staff or pupils. He said he should have expressed himself “more carefully and positively”.

The three-member GTC panel this morning said it was not satisfied that the “intemperate” views expressed by Mr Walker were suggestive of intolerance.

Delivering the committee’s verdict, its chairwoman, Angela Stones, said some of Mr Walker’s postings contained offensive terms and demonstrated views or an attitude that might be considered racist.

However she added: “The committee does not accept that references to ’immigrants’ are of themselves suggestive of any particular views on race.

“The committee accepts that immigrants to this country come all over the world. A negative comment about immigration to the UK of itself need not be indicative of racist views or racial intolerance since the race of immigrants is extremely varied.”

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Australia: Teachers get no incentive to improve

GOOD teachers are not recognised and rewarded while poor teachers are not penalised because methods to evaluate their performance at school are meaningless and ineffective.

A report by the independent think tank the Grattan Institute, to be released today, calls for a radical overhaul of the nation's systems for evaluating teachers, saying the profession believes they are meaningless and undertaken only to satisfy administrative requirements.

"Although all Australian schools have systems of evaluation and development in place, they clearly aren't working. Teachers believe that the systems are broken," the report says.

It adds that 92 per cent of teachers work in schools where the principal never reduces the annual pay rise for underperforming teachers, and almost three-quarters, or 71 per cent, say teachers with sustained poor performance are not dismissed.

The report uses data from the first international survey of classroom teachers, by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which found Australia was the fourth worst of 23 developed nations in recognising effective teachers.

Director of school education research at the Grattan Institute, Ben Jensen, said yesterday debate on the quality of teaching in Australia in recent years had been cast in terms of using student results in a merit pay scheme or in setting standards for teachers.

But Dr Jensen, who was involved in the OECD's survey, said almost all Australian teachers, 91 per cent, report the most effective teachers in their schools do not receive the greatest recognition, and they would not receive any recognition for improving their own teaching.

"When you consider the most important way to improve the school education system is to improve the quality of the teaching workforce, it's really a shocking finding that almost all teachers say under-performance is not addressed in their school," he said.

"Teachers are saying they want the most effective school education system we can have; teachers want school improvement, they want to improve themselves and they want to see their school improve."

The report notes that with an excellent teacher, a student can achieve in half a year what would take a full year with a less effective teacher, and the impact is cumulative.

Students with effective teachers for several years in a row outperform students with poor teachers by as much as 50 percentage points over three years.

Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard said the government was committed to a better system of assessing and rewarding teachers, and was developing the first national professional standards for teachers, and funding programs paying the best teachers top salaries to work in struggling schools.

"Unlike the opposition, we are putting our money where our mouth is," she said. "All of this will go if Tony Abbott is elected. The opposition has said they will cut funding to these programs."

Opposition spokesman on education Christopher Pyne said a Coalition government would move quickly to give school principals the autonomy granted their peers in non-government schools, with the power to hire and fire and to pay staff based on performance.

"If you don't have these mechanisms at work, then the findings of the Grattan Institute are completely unsurprising," he said. "That disenchantment and disappointment teachers have in their profession will only get worse until there is a real revolution in education, which introduces competitive principles and gives principals in schools autonomy."

Federal president of the Australian Education Union, Angelo Gavrielatos, said the union supported systems that recognised and further rewarded teachers who demonstrate higher quality skills.

"Teachers prefer to work with peers or their grade group in a collaborative environment in evaluating and assessing their teaching programs, and what's lacking in schools is the space, time and respect for teachers to do so," he said.

The Grattan report says previous research in Australia has shown that nearly all teachers receive satisfactory ratings under existing evaluation schemes, and progress in their careers, making their salaries dependent on their tenure, not the quality of their work.

Dr Jensen said a meaningful system for evaluating teachers was required that identified strengths and weaknesses, providing recognition, and room to expand on their strengths and programs to address their weaknesses.

The system should pay effective teachers more and have them running professional development programs for colleagues, while underperforming teachers should have access to programs to help them improve.

Failing that, they should be moved out of the profession.

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Australia: Streamline teacher firings, say parents

PARENTS want the state government to speed up the process of sacking underperforming teachers from schools, which they say is too long and needs to be reviewed.

The call follows the release of a report yesterday which said principals were failing to do anything about poor teachers and that the system for evaluating teachers was "broken".

The president of the NSW Federation of Parents and Citizens Associations, Dianne Giblin, said yesterday the procedure to remove underperforming teachers was "too long and complex". "Every parent wants a quality teacher in front of a classroom," she said. "There needs to be a review and the process of removing ineffective teachers should be quicker and more succinct.

"There is a lengthy period … where teachers are monitored and reviewed and often transferred to another school where the process starts again."

The state government has backed away from its decision in early 2008 to give principals the autonomy to hire and fire teachers, in response to pressure from the NSW Teachers Federation.

A spokesman for the Education Minister, Verity Firth, said every teacher deserved "due process". Teachers deemed to be underperforming were placed on a 10-week improvement program. If, at the end of the program, the teacher has not satisfied "specific quality benchmarks" he or she is "referred for … disciplinary or … remedial action, which could include dismissal," the spokesman said.

This year the NSW Institute of Teachers will begin evaluating teachers who apply for accreditation at the higher levels of "accomplished teaching" and "teacher leadership".

The head of the institute, Patrick Lee, said 350 experienced teachers had applied for evaluation under the new standards, with 150 more expected to apply by the end of the year.

Public school teachers who receive accreditation would not qualify for higher pay in the same way as independent school teachers, who earn an extra $6862 for achieving the new standards.

The NSW Association of Independent Schools has negotiated a scale of performance pay for teachers at 120 private schools, and the highest rate is more than $100,000. Public school classroom teachers earn a maximum of about $79,000.

The Catholic Education Office in Sydney will appoint teacher educators to 20 primary and 11 secondary schools this year. The educators will be paid about $110,000 to improve standards.

Gary Zadkovich, deputy president of the NSW Teachers Federation, said the government and Department of Education had failed to provide enough support and guidance for public school principals to implement teacher improvement programs.

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25 May, 2010

What’s a Diploma Worth?

Americans have always loved college and real estate. So why do these assets need government support?

Every schoolboy knows that education leads to worldly success and material reward. “If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him,” Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard advised. “An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.” To the Irish poet William Butler Yeats, learning was “not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire.” As Emil Faber, founder of the college in Animal House, put it, “Knowledge is good.”

Yet there’s growing evidence that faith in the value of book-learning may be as ill-conceived as faith in the value of another asset inflated by public funding: real estate.

The overall cohort default rate on student loans has increased by more than 50 percent since 2003. The media have focused on the portion of this growth coming from students at for-profit colleges: According to the Department of Education, more than 40 percent of loans granted from 2003 to 2006 to students at such institutions will go bad over time. But students at nonprofit four-year colleges are also projected to default at rates between 10 and 20 percent. And the trend will worsen: Among 20 to 24-year-olds, college graduates are doing slightly better than non-graduates in the job market, but they still suffer an unemployment rate of 8.4 percent.

But if the worth of the asset is questionable, the price has been going through the roof. In the last 25 years, college tuition and fees have increased by 440 percent, according to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. That’s more than four times the rate of inflation.

Early this year, students in the University of California system responded to tuition hikes with some half-hearted campaigns of campus unrest. The bankrupt Golden State—which has shielded generations of customers from the actual costs of maintaining a tenure-rich, administration-heavy public university system, but which can no longer keep up this impossible mandate—is an especially painful case. But Alabama, Wisconsin, Illinois, and more than 30 other states have experienced similar protests against price hikes at their state school systems.

Time was that a top school was considered impervious to these kinds of market forces. As recently as 2006, the College Board estimated that the wealthiest 10 percent of private four-year colleges and universities had an endowment cushion of $454,100 per student. But these nest eggs were raided in the great credit unwind. Harvard’s endowment has lost $10 billion, about 30 percent of its value, most of that under the leadership of current White House economic advisor Larry Summers. Yale’s endowment has lost $5.6 billion.

You can begin to see why experts at Forbes and The Chronicle of Higher Education have been warning for several years about a “higher education bubble.” But do we have the crucial ingredient, excessive leverage?

We do. Student borrowing has more than doubled since the end of the 20th century, according to the College Board, with $85 billion in loans in 2008, up from $41 billion in 1998. And as the rising rate of defaults indicates, borrowers in aggregate are not making the kind of money—i.e. twice as much as a decade ago—they would need to pay those loans back.

The government’s response to this bubble has been to get itself more deeply involved in the inflation. The administration has kicked in various types of assistance, such as a $100 million college prep program. And in March, President Barack Obama signed a bill eliminating the 45-year-old Federal Family Education Loan Program (which guaranteed student loans made by private lenders) and replacing it with a system of direct Treasury Department loans to students. The first part of these efforts is a straightforward waste of money. The second has the potential to be a marginal improvement on a system that shouldn’t exist.

So we have too much money going into an asset, not enough value coming out, a massive increase in leverage, and a large taxpayer liability for the difference. “Inflation in higher education continues apace,” says Joseph Marr Cronin, a former secretary of educational affairs in Massachusetts and the author, with New England College of Business and Finance president Howard E. Horton, of an influential 2009 Chronicle of Higher Education article on the bubble.

But while Cronin warns about the potential for an education crash, he is bullish about higher ed’s area of fastest growth: for-profit colleges, many of them with a substantial or exclusive element of online and distance learning. For-profits have seen their enrollments triple over the last decade, to 1.4 million students.

For-profits have been on an accreditation buying spree lately. In March, Nebraska’s Dana University was bought by a specially created for-profit. Last year, ITT Educational Services bought Daniel Webster College in Nashua, New Hampshire. The online for-profit Columbia Southern University bought Waldorf College of Forest City, Iowa. And San Francisco’s Heald College was acquired by Corinthian Colleges, Inc.

Accreditation buys access to your tax dollars, in the form of both subsidized loans and outright grants. That’s a danger for taxpayers, and it’s a liability for students who see tuitions ballooning as more free money flows in. A recent College Board survey found that a quarter of for-profit graduates had taken on $40,000 in debt to pay for their schooling—and the doors don’t exactly fly open when a job seeker flashes a University of Phoenix diploma.

But subsidies are distorting and inflating tuition costs across the board. At the for-profits, at least, the colleges’ no-frills approach is prompting a revolutionary shift in thinking about higher education. The traditional university of ivied walls, lecture halls, and full-dress balls is heading for a crisis. Non-traditional schools present an opportunity for millions of new scholars to consider what they want out of an education, and why. If diplomas are going to continue costing more and losing value, then at least the customers should have more choice when shopping around for them.

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Educators push a college alternative

What’s the key to success in the United States? Short of becoming a reality-TV star, the answer is rote and, some would argue, rather knee-jerk: Earn a college degree.

The idea that four years of higher education will translate into a better job, higher earnings, and a happier life — a refrain sure to be repeated this month at graduation ceremonies across the country — has been pounded into the heads of schoolchildren, parents, and educators.

But there’s an underside to that conventional wisdom. Perhaps no more than half of those who began a four-year bachelor’s degree program in the fall of 2006 will get that degree within six years, according to the latest projections from the Department of Education. (The figures don’t include transfer students, who aren’t tracked.)

For college students who ranked among the bottom quarter of their high school classes, the numbers are even more stark: 80 percent will probably never get a bachelor’s degree or even a two-year associate’s degree. That can be a lot of tuition to pay, without a degree to show for it.

A small but influential group of economists and educators is pushing another pathway: for some students, no college at all. It’s time, they say, to develop credible alternatives for students unlikely to be successful pursuing a higher degree, or who may not be ready to do so.

Whether everyone in college needs to be there is not a new question; the subject has been hashed out in books and dissertations for years. But the economic crisis has sharpened that focus, as financially struggling states cut aid to higher education.

Among those calling for such alternatives are the economists Richard Vedder of Ohio University and Robert Lerman of American University, political scientist Charles Murray, and James Rosenbaum, an education professor at Northwestern. They would steer some students toward intensive, short-term vocational and career training, through expanded high school programs and corporate apprenticeships.

“It is true that we need more nanosurgeons than we did 10 to 15 years ago,’’ said Vedder, founder of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, a research nonprofit in Washington. “But the numbers are still relatively small compared to the numbers of nurses’ aides we’re going to need. We will need hundreds of thousands of them over the next decade.’’

And much of their training, he added, might be feasible outside the college setting.

College degrees are simply not necessary for many jobs. Of the 30 jobs projected to grow at the fastest rate over the next decade in the United States, only seven typically require a bachelor’s degree, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Among the top 10 growing job categories, two require college degrees: accounting (a bachelor’s) and postsecondary teachers (a doctorate). But this growth is expected to be dwarfed by the need for registered nurses, home health aides, customer service representatives, and store clerks. None of those jobs require a bachelor’s degree.

Vedder likes to ask why 15 percent of mail carriers have bachelor’s degrees, according to a 1999 federal study. “Some of them could have bought a house for what they spent on their education,’’ he said.

Lerman said some high school graduates would be better served by being taught how to behave and communicate in the workplace.

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British children to debate 'rape myths' in lessons

Surely this is more likely to give the kids ideas

Children as young as 11 are being asked to debate myths surrounding rape – including claims that “women ask for it by wearing short skirts”.

A charity is distributing teaching materials to secondary schools as part of a campaign to end violence against women. The pack, which schools can buy for £100, covers subjects such as domestic violence, female genital mutilation, forced marriages, prostitution and human trafficking.

Rape Crisis said the lessons were intended to encourage mixed classes of boys and girls to discuss issues surrounding rape. In one class, pupils are asked to debate claims that “women enjoy rape”, while another lesson instructs children to discuss the myth that “women ask for it by wearing short skirts, drinking alcohol etc”.

Youngsters are also encouraged to act out a role play, including four-letter words, where a boy and girl recall a drunken encounter.

Resources have been produced by the charity’s Wycombe, Chiltern and South Buckinghamshire branch for use in secondary schools. Laura Colclough, the author, said teachers were expected to use their discretion over what was taught. “It’s not from an angle of supporting sexualisation or pornography but examining the link between those things and sexual violence,” she said.

She added: “Gone are the days when young people are not sexualised. Most if not all see the music videos, they see the culture, they surf the internet.”

But campaigners suggested that the lessons were “too explicit for schools”. Nick Seaton, of the Campaign for Real Education, said: "It is irresponsible because it is certainly not suitable for young children and probably not for older children either. "Just because these things happen does not mean that children need to have them rammed in their faces. “Sensible parents will be extremely perturbed that their children are being introduced to this sort of information at a young age.”

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24 May, 2010

Bring Back the Competition

In America’s free-market system, people are encouraged to shop around to find the best deals on car insurance or a home loan, but when it comes to education, many Americans are stuck sending their children to the neighborhood school.

Many parents have very limited options of where their child will attend school. Depending on state laws, options other than public schools may include private and charter schools. Some states also implement voucher programs, to help less fortunate students get the education they deserve.

“Students should come first in the education system,” says Bill Wilson, president of Americans for Limited Government (ALG). “Parents deserve options when deciding where their child should attend school.”

By providing more school options to choose from, more competition is introduced into the system. This means better education for all students.

Private Schools

There are a number of benefits to attending a private school, says Joe McTighe, executive director of the Council for American Private Education (CAPE). “One of them is the quality academics, and the second advantage of religious and independent schools is that they focus on the whole person, not just reading and math. They focus on physical education and reflect the student’s values,” he says.

In 2009, about six million students were enrolled in a private school, which is about 11 percent of all U.S. students.

Religion is the main reason parents enroll their child into a private school. Parents can know that the values and morals being taught to their child in school are the same as those taught to them at home.

Many parents are also concerned with the academic breakdown of some public schools.
“There is a concern about chronically underperforming public schools,” says Ron Reynolds, executive director of the California Association of Private School Organizations (CAPSO). “You can see it when parents are organizing for the passing of legislation for voucher programs.”

Cost is a big factor, and sometimes a hindrance, when deciding to send your child to a private school. Those parents who send their children to private schools know the benefits of the education the students are receiving. The Obama family would seemingly agree as their two daughters attend an elite private school in Washington, D.C.

Students enrolled in private schools consistently score well above the national average in every academic area. They are also more likely than public school students to complete a bachelor's or advanced degree by their mid-20s, according to research done by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

“Private schools are able to provide parents, through choice, a school that best meets their child’s needs,” says McTighe. “Parents make the match of how their child learns to how the school teaches.”

Charter Schools

The first charter school opened in Minnesota in 1992. The charter school movement has grown to 4,600 schools serving more than 1.4 million students, according to a report by the Center for Education Reform.

What makes charter school different than public schools? For one, it gives parents more options of where to send their child. Also, charter schools have more freedom from the many regulations of public schools. Charter schools allow students and teachers more authority to make decisions. Instead of being accountable to rules and regulations like public schools are, charter schools are focused on the students and academic achievement and upholding their charter.

“About 95 percent of charter schools are non-union,” says Mike Antonucci, director of the Education Intelligence Agency (EIA). This causes a lot of opposition from teachers unions.

“Unions lose members,” says Antonucci, whenever a new charter schools opens. “Every teacher in a charter school means one less union member and unions want more money. This can put a dent in union’s bottom line.”

Because of the opposition charter schools face, not all states allow them. According to Antonucci, 10 states do not have charter schools. “Unions keep them out,” he says. “The only reason you have them is because a democrat got them in in opposition to the unions or the unions got something in return—like putting caps on the number of schools allowed.”

Despite the opposition, many charter schools are doing very well and being renewed.

Voucher Programs

Maybe one of the most controversial programs of them all, education vouchers have recently been a topic dealt with by the Obama Administration. Nearly 2,000 students in the Washington, D.C., public school system have been recipients of the federally assisted voucher program. This program has allowed those students to attend a private school, which under normal circumstances would have been impossible. Now that program is coming to end after six years of a successful run.

“The D.C. voucher program benefitted disproportionately African American students and it was ended by our first African American president,” says Niger Innis, national spokesman for Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).

The opposition to voucher programs sees them as a threat to public schools. Innis sees the program as helping public schools. “Vouchers save public schools so they can compete,” he says.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has one of the oldest and most successful voucher programs. Milwaukee spends about $14,000 per public school student and roughly $6,400 per private student voucher. Those who have received vouchers are performing just as well if not better than their public school counterparts while causing more competition within public schools and saving taxpayer money.

With constant union opposition and a bureaucratic-run school system, vouchers have yet to be fully accepted into the education system, despite their proven success.

If the education system does not change, some parents may never have a choice when it comes to their child’s education. It is easy to see that all these education systems thrive when parents are given an option of where to send their children to school. Parents know their children best and should be allowed to pick the school best suited for them.

“The biggest solution is giving parents the opportunity to choose the best road for their children,” says Innis. “Who are we focusing on, the institutions or the children? Are these dollars that are earmarked for education going to the institutions or children? The dollars should follow the children.”

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Home School, Sweet Home School

As I addressed a home school graduation exercise the other day, I thought -- more than once -- ah, good old human nature at work once more.

It's what happens when institutions fail or give the distinct impression they're about to. Customers head for the exits: not all of them, maybe just a handful. Yet those who do flee, taking their hopes and their children with them, tend to be people of sharp and quick perception; the kind you want around as much and as long as possible. Their departure evacuates the institution in considerable degree of priceless qualities -- sense of mission, dedication to task, willingness to work and to sacrifice.

The public schools can't hold such people? More shame for those schools. Once upon a time, the great majority of us attended them. In the 21st century, their widely advertised shortcomings and deficiencies are driving out, or keeping away altogether, people whose presence in the classroom every half-sensible educator should crave.

The ceremony at which I spoke featured two -- count 'em -- two young men, supported by scores of parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, fellow church members and well-wishers in general. A public high school principal might shrug at the loss of a mere two students from his rolls. Too bad. C'est la vie.

The two in question, nevertheless -- Eagles Scouts soon to take flight, accomplished debaters, tireless readers, international lawyers in the making -- are the sort who clearly adorn whatever company they keep. The public schools want more such, not fewer. Yet fewer and fewer they get, as more and more Americans express their distrust of the public schools' ability to impart an education such as was fairly common up to the '60s.

With the '60s, a kind of sloth and indifference and arrogance and mendacity settled over public education like a blanket. General indictments never give general satisfaction. This one won't either, I confess. We all pretty much know, in any case, what happened. The quest for "social justice" -- busing for racial balance being one instance -- drew attention away from Bunsen burners and Wordsworth.

Late 20th-century demography hardly helped. Public institutions reflect public expectations. Expectations for the schools declined markedly. As divorce split up families and the job market siphoned off the achievement overseers generally addressed as Mom, families tended to see classrooms as holding pens for underfoot kids. Schools ventured into new terrain, such as sex education and the representation of the American story as a narrative of racist imperialism. God was advised rudely to get Himself off the school ground, fast. Teacher unions rated pay and benefits as more important to them than standards and teaching methods.

How fast did the customers catch on? Fast enough. Parents moved themselves and their broods to suburban districts. Private schools, especially religious ones, multiplied. Still other parents took on themselves the task of educating their children. By 2007, an estimated 1.5 million young people, 2.5 percent of all students, were learning at home. Networks arose to provide school opportunities and curricular materials.

To the charge that they were undermining public education, parents pled self-defense. What did the schools expect anyway -- that savvy parents were going to let their children's minds and prospects perish in second-rate settings or worse?

Home schooling isn't the answer for everybody. For one thing, it requires the oversight of highly motivated parents. The best thing to call it, I think, is an end-run around political and cultural obstacles to the flourishing of young people whose parents love them very much.

The two kids -- pardon me, young men -- I addressed on the occasion of their Going Forth into the World (by way of good universities) are individuals of high promise, imbued with ambition, drive, intelligence, sensibilities of various sorts and, not least important, religious instinct. The public schools might have had them but for the schools' perceived inability to maintain the right environment for success and the breeding of character.

Goes to show as a nation we may be smarter than our standardized test scores make us out to be.

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New law will bring shake-up of English schools in time for summer

The biggest shake-up in English education for a generation will be heralded tomorrow with legislation making it simpler for parents to set up “free schools” and a new wave of academies.

A short Bill will be introduced this week removing local authority powers to veto new schools, allowing charities or education providers to get state funding for each pupil they attract. The legislation is intended to be rushed through Parliament by summer.

It will also allow other state schools to become academies, enjoying similar freedom from local authorities but with a proportion of their budget — typically about 10 per cent — retained by councils for services such as admissions, transport and special needs.

The school reforms, drawn up by the Conservatives, survived largely intact in coalition talks with the Liberal Democrats and are to be implemented as a priority by the new Government.

The Liberal Democrats’ manifesto pledged to boost the role of local authorities, giving them powers over schools currently wielded from Whitehall and extending their remit to academies — but their plans were omitted from the coalition deal.

Separate legislation is likely to include provision to make it easier for community groups to aquire and convert public sector land and buildings as premises for “free schools”. Capital costs would be funded from money for a school rebuilding programme.

However, the most dramatic — and immediate — impact on state education may come from allowing existing state schools to convert to academy status, including primary schools for the first time.

Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, has predicted that hundreds and even thousands of schools would do so, and pledged that any school rated “outstanding” by Ofsted would be approved automatically. He wants a first wave of schools to convert to academy status by September.

Head teachers and governors may be prompted to take up the offer to protect their budgets from future spending cuts, John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said. An average secondary school with a budget of £5 million would gain £500,000 a year by doing so. Mr Dunford said: “The danger is that this could break up the system, with the better schools having more money and greater independence and the other schools finding life more difficult. We must avoid that polarisation of the system because the people who suffer in that situation tend to be the disadvantaged.”

A further piece of schools legislation, later in the parliamentary session, will include plans to slim down and re-write the national curriculum, overhaul Ofsted to focus inspections more tightly on the quality of teaching, and give heads greater disciplinary powers over disruptive pupils.

The Academies Bill on Wednesday will be followed by a Bill to repeal ID cards on Thursday as the coalition seeks to get off to a swift start in implementing its agreed programme. Parliamentary draftsmen have been working overtime to get the Bills ready.

The Bill will scrap identity cards and the national identity register, the database which was to hold biographical and biometric details on people applying for the card. Already 13,000 British citizens been issued with the cards, at £30 each.

The previous Government spent more than £257 million on preparatory work for the scheme, which was estimated to cost £4.5 billion over ten years. The Home Office has awarded four contracts together worth more than £1 billion, but compensation arrangements are likely to be complex because some also relate to improvements in producing passports.

The tenor of the Queen’s Speech will echo the “freedom, fairness and responsibility” mantra of the coalition programme unveiled by David Cameron and Nick Clegg last week. It will focus on tackling the deficit and reforming public services and politics. Mr Clegg has secured a slot in the speech for a Bill setting up a referendum on reform to the voting system, a major victory for the Lib Dems.

However, the Deputy Prime Minister made clear that he was ready to compromise over a fully elected House of Lords, another Lib Dem goal. Mr Clegg said that work on a new-look upper chamber would begin immediately.

There would be “lots or argument”, Mr Clegg told The Andrew Marr Show on BBC One. He remained ambitious, he said, but did not want to let a chance of reform founder by being dogmatic.

“I don’t want to make the best the enemy of the good. I think it should be a wholly elected House. I think any chamber that decides on laws of the land should be wholly elected. But I’m not going to die in the trenches on that.

“The one thing I want to avoid is that this Government ends up like every government over the last century that has talked about House of Lords reform and not delivered it.”

There will be further discussion on the contents of the Freedom Bill, for which Mr Clegg invited people to nominate laws they wished to see replealed.

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23 May, 2010

Texas board adopts new social studies curriculum

Texas schoolchildren will be required to learn that the words "separation of church and state" aren’t in the Constitution and evaluate whether the United Nations undermines U.S. sovereignty under new social studies curriculum.

In final votes late Friday, conservatives on the State Board of Education strengthened requirements on teaching the Judeo-Christian influences of the nation’s Founding Fathers and required that the U.S. government be referred to as a "constitutional republic" rather than "democratic."

The board approved the new standards with two 9-5 votes along party lines after months of ideological haggling and debate that drew attention beyond Texas.

The guidelines will be used to teach some 4.8 million students for the next 10 years. They also will be used by textbook publishers who often develop materials for other states based on those approved in Texas, though Texas teachers ave latitude in deciding how to teach the material.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said after the votes Friday that such decisions should be made at the local level and school officials "should keep politics out" of curriculum debates. "Parents should be very wary of politicians designing curriculum," Duncan said in a statement.

But Republican board member David Bradley said the curriculum revision process has always been political but the ruling faction had changed since the last time social studies standards were adopted.

"We took our licks, we got outvoted," he said referring to the debate 10 years earlier. "Now it’s 10-5 in the other direction ... we’re an elected body, this is a political process. Outside that, go find yourself a benevolent dictator."

GOP board member Geraldine Miller was absent during the votes.

The board attempted to make more than 200 amendments this week, reshaping draft standards that had been prepared over the last year and a half by expert groups of teachers and professors.

As new amendments were being presented just moments before the vote, Democrats bristled that the changes had not been vetted. "I will not be part of the vote that’s going to support this kind of history," said Mary Helen Berlanga, a Democrat.

At least one state lawmaker vowed legislative action to "rein in" the board. "I am disturbed that a majority of the board decided their own political agendas were more important than the education of Texas children," said Rep. Mike Villarreal, a San Antonio Democrat.

In one of the most significant curriculum changes, the board diluted the rationale for the separation of church and state in a high school government class, noting that the words were not in the Constitution and requiring students to compare and contrast the judicial language with the First Amendment’s wording.

Students also will be required to study the decline in the U.S. dollar’s value, including the abandonment of the gold standard.

The board rejected language to modernize the classification of historic periods to B.C.E. and C.E. from the traditional B.C. and A.D., and agreed to replace Thomas Jefferson as an example of an influential political philosopher in a world history class. They also required students to evaluate efforts by global organizations such as the United Nations to undermine U.S. sovereignty.

Former board chairman Don McLeroy, one of the board’s most outspoken conservatives, said the Texas history curriculum has been unfairly skewed to the left after years of Democrats controlling the board and he just wants to bring it back into balance.

Educators have blasted the curriculum proposals for politicizing education. Teachers also have said the document is too long and will force students to memorize lists of names rather than learning to critically think.

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Toddlers’ bad behaviour is always mothers’ fault?

That is certainly not so. Much bad behaviour is evident from the earliest ages and is clearly genetic. He is however right that a loving home is better for kids than institutional care. There have been some big studies on that.

Mothers already wilting under a barrage of contradictory advice about child-rearing are told that nurseries will damage their children, the naughty step is counter-productive and that toddler misbehaviour is all their fault.

The psychologist and broadcaster Oliver James has stomped on to sensitive terrain with a book that suggests mothers of toddlers should avoid working outside the home. In a work that has already provoked howls of anger, he argues that children should not be left in the care of others for long periods, and lays into the strict disciplining of young children by comparing it to training them “like a dog in a laboratory”.

He writes: “As a parent of a child of this age, you need to realise that if things go pear-shaped it is actually always your fault, in the sense that if you keep a close enough eye on them you can prevent atrocities.”

The author claims that young children “need to be in the presence of a responsive, loving adult at all times”, warning mothers who go out to work that daycare is associated with more boastful, disobedient and aggressive children.

Naughty step methods, according to James, “often result in repetition of the undesired behaviour, rather than successful management. If you are not careful, you are just creating a guaranteed method for your children to wind you up.”

In an attack on the methods of the former maternity nurse Gina Ford, he writes: “There is a great deal of evidence that very strict routines do lead to more insecure, and to more irritable and fussy, babies.”

He argues that while babies that are left to cry may be more likely to sleep through the night, “it is the babies whose needs have been met who become the secure, calm and satisfied children and productive schoolchildren, and adults — and the ones you might say were spoilt and indulged babies.”

How Not to F*** Them Up is a sequel to his 2002 book They F*** You Up, which argued that it is parenting, not genes, that shapes character. Drawing on his own unhappy childhood, James writes in the new work that therapy made him realise:“Yes, of course I was a bad boy, but it wasn’t my f***ing fault! My parents were very muddled and had caused me to be like this.”

Despite his arguments in favour of one-on-one childcare, James argues that he is “not remotely anti working mothers”. He says: “I really don’t want to make life more difficult. I’m really trying to make it easier.”

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Australia: DON'T expect students to learn about Australia's most important day in the new national history course

This is ridiculous. It proves that the curriculum has fallen into the hands of far-Left academics who hate all that Australia stands for. The Gallipoli landings are the foundation of Australia's most solemn day of remembrance: ANZAC day.

And in typical Leftist fashion, there is no consecutive history taught: Just disconnected episodes that Marxists like. They dread that students might get some idea of the broad sweep of Australia's history with its long record of positive achievement. We can't have kids being proud of their country, can we?

HISTORIANS say the new national modern history curriculum for schools reads like a Marxist manifesto that ignores popular aspects of our past and neglects Australia's role in world politics and war.

The course, designed for years 11 and 12, is heavily focused on revolutionary struggles, colonial oppression and women's struggle for equality.

It neglects Australia's British roots and institutions and its military history, with no mention of Gallipoli, Tobruk or Kokoda, the experts say.

The draft lists World War I as a potential case study in "investigating modern history". It lists "controversies surrounding ... memorial sites and commemorative events" as an area of study but does not mention Gallipoli or the battle of Fromelle.

In a topic headed "Australia 1880-1945", the draft lists "the formation of organised labour", "White Australia" and "wartime government controls, including conscription, control of the labour force, rationing, censorship and propaganda".

But it does not mention the settlement of Australia or the deeds of the first AIF in World War I.

The draft history course was released this week for public discussion, divided into five units: The nation state and national identity; Recognition and equality; International tensions and conflicts; Revolutions; and, Australia and Asia.

Historian Andrew Garvie said the course agenda should be altered to give a more balanced view of history. "This appears to be a very trendy, right-on curriculum. It looks heavily influenced by a Marxist view of history - there's lots about about revolution and struggles against oppression," Mr Garvie said. "But it lacks an appreciation of Australia's place in the world.

"There seems to be very little about our military history or our links with Britain. Gallipoli and Kokoda appear to be just footnotes to the whole thing."

He said the course also seemed to be organised as a "slice of life" approach to history. "It seems to me students will be given bits of history to study. They may not gain an appreciation of the whole of an era or century," Mr Garvie said.

Education consultant Russell Boyle said the history curriculum was too selective.

"The ancient history curriculum spans the period from pre-history to 500BC, while the period of investigation in the draft modern history curriculum is from the late 18th century through to the end of the 20th century," Mr Boyle said.

"There is much in the period in between that would deepen students' understanding of the events and issues that have shaped humanity and our contemporary world."

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22 May, 2010

$437 Million to Fund Performance-Based Compensation for American Teachers

Teachers, principals and other school personnel who agree to participate in performance-based compensation systems (PBCSs) can help their state or school district win funding under the newly opened $437 million Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF), the U.S. Department of Education (ED) announced today.

"Schools have a lot of flexibility in how they create these programs," ED Secretary Arne Duncan said in a conference call announcing the funding availability. "They can reward individual teachers and principals or the entire school, including librarians, custodians and cafeteria workers."

PBCSs generally provide school personnel with additional money - bonuses or higher salaries - as well as professional development support for raising student achievement at the school or classroom level.

TIF started in 2006 and currently supports 33 grant sites in 18 states. For instance, the Weld County School District in Fort Lupton, Colo., established the Fort Lupton Teacher Incentive Fund in 2007. It provides school-wide bonuses to staff based on district schools' progress on state-administered math, reading and writing tests. Philadelphia launched its TIF grant program in 2006 to provide performance-based staff development and compensation systems for teachers and principals tied to student achievement growth and classroom evaluations.

(A full list of grantees and project descriptions, and other information, is maintained by the Center for Educator Compensation Reform)

Officials say funding under this latest TIF competition - dramatically expanded beyond the planned 2010 level with additional money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act - will be awarded to PBCS programs that:

* Reward teachers and principals who improve student achievement using fair and transparent evaluations based on multiple measures that include student growth;

* Demonstrate a high level of local educator support and involvement;

* Plan for financial sustainability after the five-year grant ends;

* Implement PBCS as part of a "coherent and integrated strategy" for bolstering the education workforce; and

* Serve high-need schools.

From 40 to 80 TIF winners will receive grants of $5 million to $10 million each, officials said. Proposals are due July 6.

A TIF evaluation component will also be funded. TIF applicants that agree and are selected to participate in the evaluation can win another $1 million over the five-year grant period, officials said.

According to a notice of final requirements, which summarized changes from a previously released set of proposed priorities, ED adjusted the program in several ways. For instance, ED originally sought to restrict current TIF grantees from applying. ED now will give extra points to currently funded nonprofit TIF grantees who apply if they propose to work with a new group of state or local educational agencies, as long as those agencies are not TIF grantees.

In another change from the earlier notice of priorities, current TIF grantees are permitted to apply to cover new categories of staff so "current TIF grantees whose projects focus only on principals could seek TIF funding to expand their PBCSs to teachers and other personnel ... as well," officials say in the final notice of requirements, which will be published in the Federal Register May 21.

New applicants, however, will also receive extra points for that fact alone as will applicants that design programs to attract teachers to hard-to-staff subjects or specialty areas or to serve high-need students at high-need schools. Extra points will also be given to programs that use a "value-add" measure - a broader way to track student achievement beyond simply looking at test scores - to assess teacher and/or principal impact on pupils' academic growth.

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Why I've left the teaching profession - by a disillusioned British teacher..

"What is the nicest leaving present a secondary school English teacher could hope for on departing from her school for a change in her career? A small thank-you card? A box of tempting chocolates? A bunch of flowers (preferably not nicked)? Or, for her mobile phone to be stolen from her deliberately unappealing and scruffy backpack? Well, as you can probably guess, it was the latter that was gifted to me in the last week of my teaching career. And despite later receiving some wonderful cards and even flowers from a rather sweet year 11 boy (definitely not nicked, I hope), it was the taste of that last bit of criminal activity that I can’t quite get out of my mouth.

I've been a teacher for just six years, so it does feel a bit premature of me to bemoan of the falling standards of young people, the dearth of the teaching profession and schools in general. However, I must admit to having seen first-hand such seriously shocking and disrespectful behaviour displayed by pupils and even some adults (senior management included), that it is hard for me to comprehend that teaching was once a respected profession. Did we really once have the right to tell a child who was being really rude to “shut-up!”?

I loved teaching, although I did find it really hard, like many others I know, to balance work and life. As an English teacher (the worst subject for marking) and a bit of an overplanner anyway I felt the weeks and months slipping by too quickly, without seeing friends or family. Sometimes I cried in the loos out of the frustration that you can work so so hard for some pupils and/or staff and yet there's always more to do and abuse to take. Often you're dealing with kids who have no understanding of anything outside their little world.

When my phone was stolen I can honestly say that I wasn’t expecting much of a fuss - though I did hold out some hope that it might be found. Unlike my previous school, a brilliant but bonkers place, this school in a leafy area had a few more bob [more money], which meant decent CCTV and a possibility of catching the culprit. Sadly I was swiftly informed by management that there were actually “no cameras” covering this area - why would there be when there were 10 valuable computers nearby?

A few “trustworthy” pupils were questioned by management but “unfortunately” nothing turned up. Perhaps they could have tried the less-trustworthy ones? But that was that. Sadly I just felt it was another sign that teaching can be a woolly world, and that some schools are the kind of odd institutions which forget to look after its people on the front line, the teachers.

It is not that I hate teaching or kids at all, in fact I have really enjoyed my time and maybe one day I’ll be back. But, reflecting on my first day today at my new company, I am pleased and surprised that it did not include being verbally abused. Not at all, not once, not even in 8 hours. Of course I don’t mean to sensationalise the mental and sometimes physical torment that teachers endure daily (!) but teachers spend longer in the toilets than they should, either crying or trying to control their physical reaction to the nerves that period 2 with a group of Year 10s bring on. So, my message to parents is, please teach your children to respect their teachers, even if they seem annoying or petty or a bit panicked, because teachers are in some cases a dying breed, myself included."

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Australia: Bureaucracy eats third of school-building funds

Victoria is just as bad as NSW

ONE dollar in every three spent under the Building the Education Revolution scheme is being frittered away on needless bureaucratic costs, onerous documentation requirements and expensive building materials.

A preliminary assessment by Melbourne quantity surveying firm Swift Construction of the template library and classroom building used by the Victorian Education Department says the project management system for primary schools "ensures added cost for no discernible value adding to the project".

The report also says builders are required to hire a professional photographer to document every stage of construction.

The assessment of the template building intended for Berwick Lodge Primary School, in Melbourne's southeast, was handed to the head of the federal government's BER Implementation Taskforce Brad Orgill on a visit to the school yesterday. The school hired its own project management firm and, through it, commissioned an independent quote for the project and an assessment of the value for money of the template building it is receiving.

The report by Swift Construction claims the documentation required for primary school buildings under the BER is at a level required for $50 million projects, not $3m classrooms, causing "hurt money" to be added to the costs.

While the NSW government releases estimated costs for all its BER projects, the Victorian government has been criticised for its lack of transparency, and the Education Department failed to appear before the Senate inquiry into the program earlier this week.

Principal Henry Grossek has been a vocal critic of the BER program, and was one of the first to raise concerns about waste and inflated costs.

The school received $3m in the first round of the BER and successfully opposed the state Education Department to secure approval for a library and six classrooms, rather than an unwanted gymnasium, after the intervention of federal Education

Mr Grossek said the preliminary report from Swift Construction describes the template as "an architectural wank". Given the present management structure, onerous documentation requirements and the design and materials used in the template, the firm doubts the building can be completed for $3m.

But the report says the school could save $1m and complete the building for $2m by reducing bureaucracy and documentation and simplifying the template.

"The level of documentation associated with P21 (the Primary Schools for the 21st Century building program) is more in keeping with $50m projects rather than $3m projects and is either frightening off prospective builders and subcontractors or resulting in what in the industry is referred to as 'hurt money' costs being built into quotations, leading to overpricing," the report's summary says.

Examples of waste in the template identified by the quantity surveyor include the concrete slab costing twice what it should, unnecessary external recesses in the brick wall, stepdowns in toilets that are not needed, and nine different cladding systems when two or three would be adequate.

Mr Grossek said the report showed $1 in every $3 spent under the BER was being wasted and he called on Ms Gillard to freeze all projects yet to be tendered.

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21 May, 2010

The indestructible Head Start is rife with enrollment fraud

The evidence is that it does no permanent good but parents using it apparently like the childminding. Audio clips now reveal how children are fraudulently made 'eligible'. After 45 years, will this finally kill off the useless and expensive monster?

An undercover investigation into the federal government's Head Start program has found enough enrollment abuses to generate a report to President Obama and a major damage-control effort by the agency that runs the program.

At a hearing Tuesday, members of the House Education and Labor Committee heard dramatic audio clips of fraud being taken by Government Accountability Office (GAO) agents. In one clip, a New Jersey Head Start worker handed back a $23,000 pay stub to two agents who were pretending to enroll their children in the preschool program.

"Now you see it, now you don't," the Head Start worker said. The worker's decision to ignore the $23,000 in income meant that the agents' fictitious children, who otherwise would not have counted as "poor" under government rules, were enrolled in the program, possibly to the detriment of needy children who would have been put on a waiting list.

Fraudulent enrollment is "a blatant violation of Head Start's rules. … Our administration will not stand for it," Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a letter Monday to Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller, California Democrat. Mr. Obama "has been briefed on GAO's investigation," she noted in her letter.

In testimony presented to the House panel Tuesday, GAO special investigations official Gregory D. Kutz said that in at least eight cases, Head Start employees "manipulated" information to admit ineligible children.

Enrollment rules were so lax, he warned, that Head Start workers could easily "doctor" enrollment applications, and families could enter the program with "bogus" documents created at home.

Out of 15 visits, there was no evidence of enrollment fraud in seven places, including two in Washington, D.C., and one in Maryland, Mr. Kutz said in his testimony.

But in Wisconsin, one Head Start worker looked at the incomes of two agents posing as a grandpa and a grandma, and "picked" one of the incomes to report. "Who won … Grandma or me?" the agent asked on the audiotape. "Grandma … because she had the lower income," the worker said, laughing.

Other abuses included admitting a family who lived outside the Head Start service area, ignoring proof of employment, and admitting extraordinarily high numbers of "homeless" children. Under new rules, homeless children are automatically eligible for Head Start.

The audio clips are available at the GAO web site, www.gao.gov, listed under "reports and testimonies" for May 18.

The GAO also found two Head Start families who reported incomes "in excess of $110,000," and that 63 children were counted more than once to make centers appear fully enrolled.

This kind of behavior is "reprehensible and completely unacceptable," Mr. Miller said.

Carmen R. Nazario, HHS assistant secretary for the administration for children and families, told the committee that HHS would take swift action against misbehaving grantees, and was already in the process of upgrading integrity standards, reminding grantees of Head Start rules, and conducting unannounced visits to centers.

The National Head Start Association (NHSA), the trade group for grantees, said it was not privy to the details of the GAO investigation but would "do all we can" to help programs that are out of compliance.

Mr. Kutz said a complete GAO report on Head Start abuses will be issued in July.

Head Start, created 45 years ago as a "war on poverty" program, receives $7 billion a year. Last year, it received an extra $2 billion under the stimulus bill, and the Obama administration has requested another $1 billion for it for 2011.

Head Start's main purpose is to narrow the school-readiness gap by giving poor preschoolers free educational, medical, nutritional and social services. Early studies have showed that Head Start services pay off when the children start school.

But in January, a massive, 10-year study found that by the time Head Start children finish first grade, they score no better than non-Head Start children on most of 112 measures.

Head Start proponents have tried to downplay the devastating results, but the program's critics say they have heard enough happy talk about Head Start.

Mr. Obama has said he is willing to eliminate government programs "shown to be wasteful or ineffective," Heritage Foundation analysts David Muhlhausen and Dan Lips said after the Head Start Impact Study results were released. "Given that scientifically rigorous research demonstrates that Head Start is ineffective, Head Start is an ideal candidate for the budget chopping block," they said.

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Slow Learners at the Ninth Circuit

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is a stimulus package for the Supreme Court, which would rather not have one. The 9th Circuit, often in error but never in doubt, provides the Supreme Court with steady work: Over the last half-century, the 9th has been reversed almost 11 times per Supreme Court term, more than any other circuit court. This week, the Supreme Court should spank it again and ask: Is it too much to ask that you pay some attention to our precedents?

On Thursday at 9:30 a.m., the justices are expected to meet to decide whether to dignify the 9th's latest misadventure -- an impertinence, actually -- with a full hearing, including additional briefing and oral arguments, or whether to summarily reverse it. They should do the latter by 9:35 a.m.

The case concerns an Arizona school choice program that has been serving low- and middle-income families for 13 years. The state grants a tax credit to individuals who donate to nonprofit entities that award scholarships for children to attend private schools -- including religious schools. Yes, here we go again.

The question -- if a question that has been redundantly answered remains a real question -- is whether this violates the First Amendment proscription of any measure amounting to government "establishment of religion." The incorrigible 9th Circuit has declared Arizona's program unconstitutional, even though there is no government involvement in any parent's decision to use a scholarship at a religious school.

Surely this question was settled eight years ago in a decision that was the seventh consecutive defeat for the disgustingly determined people who are implacably opposed to any policies that enable parents who are not affluent to exercise the right of school choice that is routinely exercised by more fortunate Americans. It sometimes takes time for news of the outside world to penetrate San Francisco, where the 9th Circuit is headquartered, but surely by now that court has heard that in 2002, in a case coming from Cleveland, the Supreme Court upheld a program quite like Arizona's, but arguably more problematic.

It was created after Cleveland's school district flunked 27 -- out of 27 -- standards measuring student performance, and the state declared the district an "academic emergency." The program empowered parents to redeem publicly funded vouchers at religious as well as nonreligious private schools.

In an opinion written by Chief Justice Rehnquist and joined by Justices O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy and Thomas, the court held that Cleveland's program has the "valid secular purpose" of helping children who are trapped in the failing schools for which Cleveland is responsible. The court also held that the program satisfied the court's previously enunciated standard of "true private choice" because government aid goes directly to parents, who use it at their unfettered discretion.

So, Rehnquist wrote, public money "reaches religious schools only as a result of the genuine and independent choices of private individuals." Therefore any "advancement of a religious mission" is merely "incidental" and confers "no imprimatur of state approval ... on any particular religion, or on religion generally." These standards had been developed in various prior cases.

The Supreme Court has been splitting and re-splitting constitutional hairs about this for decades, holding, for example, that it is constitutional for public funds to provide parochial school pupils with transportation to classes -- but not to field trips. To provide parochial schools with nurses, but not guidance counselors. To provide religious schools with books -- but not maps. This last split hair caused the late Sen. Pat Moynihan to wonder: What about atlases, which are books of maps?

The court has ruled that public funds can provide a sign language interpreter to a deaf child at a religious school and can provide rehabilitation assistance at a religious college. The court has held that a state can offer tax deductions to parents paying tuition to religious schools. Can the 9th Circuit see a pattern here?

Scores of thousands of children have benefited from Arizona's scholarship program, which, unlike Cleveland's, does not involve any government funds that might otherwise go to public schools. Rather, Arizona's program infuses substantial additional funds into the state's K through 12 educational offerings.

Democracy demands patience. In its political discourse, repetition is required because persuasion takes time. But the Supreme Court should not have to cajole lower courts into acknowledging its rulings. So far this term, the court has issued 11 summary reversals. Thursday morning it should use its 12th on the 9th Circuit, a slow learner.

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More church-run schools for England

More faith schools will be opened under a sweeping reform of the education system in England, the coalition government has said. The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats said the new administration would allow religious organisations to run a new wave of primary and secondary schools funded at taxpayers' expense.

England already has 7,000 faith schools, the vast majority of which are Anglican and Roman Catholic.

Any expansion would be likely to lead to a growth in Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and Sikh schools as religious leaders push for other faiths to be more fairly represented in the state system.

David Cameron, who sends his daughter to a sought-after Church of England primary in west London, said he was a “strong supporter personally and politically” of faith schools.

But in a move seen as a concession to the Lib Dems, the coalition’s new policy blueprint says that these new schools would be expected to run “inclusive” admissions policies.

It is likely to lead to a tightening up of rules allowing schools to select pupils along religious lines, although the details are yet to be finalised.

The Lib Dems have previously called for faith schools to admit more pupils from families that refuse to support their religious ethos, as well as an end to rules that allow them to opt out of equalities legislation.

In an interview this year, Mr Cameron said: “I think that faith schools are a really important part of our education system and they often have a culture and ethos which helps to drive up standards. If anything, I would like to see faith schools grow.”

A document published on Thursday – outlining the principles of the coalition’s legislative programme – confirmed plans to allow new providers to open new schools funded by the taxpayer.

In a controversial move, any parents’ group, company, charity or teachers’ organisation will be able to run their own “free school“ to meet local demand.

It is understood that more religious groups will be encouraged to run more schools under this system. Faith schools currently make up a third of all state schools in England.

The coalition agreement also said schools would have more flexibility to alter the curriculum and run their own qualifications. It would give schools the power to offer courses such the International GCSE, which is currently banned in the state sector, despite being favoured in private schools.

The document also outlines plans to:

* Provide a “pupil premium” – extra money for schools educating children from the poorest backgrounds – funded by cuts from outside the schools’ budget

* Review Sats tests for primary school pupils

* Allow schools to pay higher salaries to good teachers, reforming the existing “rigid” national pay rules

* Introduce incentives to attract top science and mathematics graduates into teaching

* Create a new wave of technical schools that allow 14- to 19-year-olds to learn a trade alongside the basics of English, maths and science.

In the universities and skills sectors, the coalition pledged to abolish many of the quangos running further education. Extra money will be used to create more apprenticeships, internships and college places.

The government also said it would await the outcome of an independent review into tuition fees led by Lord Browne, the former head of BP.

The Lib Dems – which oppose a rise in fees – will be allowed to abstain from any Commons vote on the issue.

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20 May, 2010

Starving for Attention at UC Berkeley

When some 20 UC Berkeley students announced on May 3 that they were launching a hunger strike to protest the new Arizona immigration law, they also issued a set of "demands." They demanded that Chancellor Robert Birgeneau denounce the Arizona law, rehire laid-off janitors and drop disciplinary actions against students arrested after a violent protest.

You knew how the story would end before it ended. The administration would kowtow to student activists by agreeing to meet with them and behave as if their demands merited serious consideration. Most of the activists' impossible demands would remain unmet.

Then -- as happened after 10 days -- in order to save face, both sides would agree to act as if they had accomplished something important, and then congratulate themselves for, well, preening.

And once again, the public would see UC Berkeley less as an institution of higher learning and more as a camp for the politically correct.

Start with the student demand that Birgeneau denounce the Arizona law. _Forget all that high-minded talk about the free exchange of ideas. These students hold university solons in such low regard that they felt free to demand that university leaders parrot their political beliefs.

No worries. The chancellor happily caved. "I made it widely known last week to our campus community that I was horrified by this law," Birgeneau wrote May 7.

Why push a California university toff to make a statement on an Arizona law? Hunger striker Alejandro Lara-Briséno told me, "We don't abide by these geographical divisions." Did Lara-Briséno read Arizona Senate Bill 1070? "I've read parts of it," he answered. "I'm in the middle of my academic cycle."

It's only 17 pages long. He replied, "It may be 17 pages, but I also have many academic responsibilities."

Many have lauded Lara-Briséno for his personal sacrifice. Indeed, he says he will not eat until May 20, when he visits a sister in Arizona. (I hope he changes his mind for the sake of his health.)

I would be more impressed if he had read the bill and demonstrated an understanding of federal immigration law. But after two weeks of protest, it still hasn't occurred to him that he ought to be informed about the very law he is protesting.

There is some light in this dark tale. The university did not give in to the hunger strikers' demands on student discipline. But I don't see why Birgeneau released his Arizona statement or why he agreed to meet the students. "We were concerned about their health and welfare," spokeswoman Claire Holmes explained, "and also, they raised some important issues for key members of our community." And: "It was congruent with his values to take this very seriously."

Problem: This demandfest represents the sort of behavior an institution of higher learning should not take seriously -- unless the administration wants to pay to police more of the same.

Lesson learned: You can't go wrong making childish demands and flouting the rules at UC Berkeley. Intellectual rigor not required.

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British teacher cleared over glue stick ‘assault’

There is a British legal principle which says that the law does not concern itself with trivialities. One wonders how that got forgotten in the matter below

A teacher sobbed in the dock yesterday as a jury cleared her of assaulting an unruly pupil with a glue stick.

Lynda May, 54, an art teacher at a school in South Wales, was alleged to have injured the 12-year-old boy by slamming a Pritt Stick down on his thumb. She was cleared by a jury after less than three hours of deliberation.

Mrs May’s union questioned whether the case should ever have come to court. The prosecution at Swansea Crown Court is estimated to have cost at least £50,000, not including the eight months Mrs May was suspended on full pay.

Outside court David Evans, the secretary of the National Union of Teachers Wales, welcomed the verdict. He said: “The fact that Lynda has now been fully vindicated and cleared of the criminal charge is a great relief. But we need to consider whether this whole process was justified in terms of the evidence brought, the cost, the time and the expense and the personal cost to Lynda and her family in terms of anxiety and worry.”

During the three-day trial the jury heard that the boy had been reprimanded for himself slamming the glue stick down on a desk. Mrs May said that she imitated the action to demonstrate to the boy what he had done wrong, and caught his thumb by mistake. She did not find out that he was claiming to be injured until he made a formal complaint five weeks after the incident.

Before she was vindicated today Mrs May had to endure prolonged questioning by police officers and two previous court appearances.

Mr Evans added: “Of course all allegations, particularly when they are brought by children, must be investigated but it is the nature of the investigation and its processes and the fact that it should be pursued through to a crown court trial that must questioned.”

Mrs May whispered “Thank you” to Judge John Diehl when he told her: “You can leave the dock.” She then broke down in tears.

During the trial the jury heard that the pupil had a history of disruptive behaviour. Shortly before the incident he had told Mrs May “F*** off, I don’t f***ing have to” when she told him it was time to get some work done. The boy had learning and behavioural difficulties and had joined the school less than two weeks before the incident in Mrs May’s art class.

Patrick Griffiths, prosecuting, had admitted the boy was a demanding pupil. He said: “He was a child with special needs, in particular learning difficulties and behavioural problems. He can be very well behaved at times but on other occasions he is prone to have outbursts of temper. “When he has one of his outbursts he bangs his hand or fist down on the table or desk in front of him.”

Members of the jury were told that Mrs May had been assaulted several times in her 30-year teaching career but had never made a formal complaint. They were shown photographs of her badly bruised upper arm after she had been repeatedly bitten by an angry pupil in 2007.

Mr Evans said that an increasing number of teachers were facing the possible ruination of their careers because of false allegations by pupils. “Although Lynda has won this court case, we must never forget she is a victim. Lynda is not the only teacher who has faced or is facing such procedures,” he said.

“The vast majority of cases where allegations of this nature are brought get dismissed without further process. It is the very few that come this far. Fortunately, common sense has finally prevailed. “Lynda has asked me to particularly acknowledge the unwavering support she has had from her husband, family, friends and past pupils.”

Asked if she would return to the classroom, Mrs May replied: “I need a rest, I think I deserve it.”

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Australia: NSW school heater madness finally winding down?

They can only be used safely if the windows are wide open -- which means that almost all the heat escapes immediately, without warming the classroom! Only a government could be so stupid.

Coutts-Trotter is also the man most responsible for the vast waste of "stimulus" money in NSW schools. Coutts-Trotter should trot off into the sunset ASAP

The NSW government is being accused of a cover-up after refusing to release test results it admitted showed "health effects" from unflued gas heaters on children in public schools.

It insisted fumes from the heaters did not pose "major health dangers". But the Asthma Foundation of NSW attacked the government's "vague comments" and said the results of an unreleased study should be made public urgently in the interests of tens of thousands of students and parents.

"Existing scientific studies do not support the thesis that these heaters are safe to operate in NSW classrooms," said the Asthma Foundation's chief executive, Greg Smith.

The report the government is holding is understood to show significant correlation between the unflued heaters and respiratory illness in children. The heaters are banned in Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and the ACT, and in most developed countries, but 51,000 of them are used in NSW schools.

Draft findings from the government-commissioned report, which measured the health of students in 20 NSW schools, were presented to the NSW Education Department in March.

Some test results were emailed to researchers and public servants involved in the study, but they were followed immediately by another email asking them to delete the results.

It was not until a memo outlining the findings was considered by the NSW cabinet last week that the department quietly ordered a halt to the installation of 2500 new unflued gas heaters under the Building the Education Revolution program. The schools will now be fitted with heaters that are safer but in some cases at least twice as expensive.

The report, undertaken by the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research last winter, may be tabled in Parliament today after the upper house passed a NSW Greens motion calling for its release.

The director-general of the Education Department, Michael Coutts-Trotter, said he would not authorise the release of the report until it had been published in a peer-reviewed journal, even though the results the government had seen were enough to put the installation of new heaters on hold.

"What we had hoped was that the process of peer-review would be complete by now," Mr Coutts-Trotter said. The department's advice is that the heaters are safe as long as classroom doors and windows are left open, he said.

He said the results he had seen pointed to "health effects but not major health dangers".

The Asthma Foundation said the Woolcock study was paid for by taxpayers and the findings should be released now.

The NSW Greens MP, John Kaye, also said it should be made public. "It is overwhelmingly in the public interest that this report is in the public domain."

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19 May, 2010

Bigoted and offensive Missouri High School teacher

There’s nothing wrong with the fact Debra Blessman kept secret from her students the name of the film she would require them to watch and analyze during finals week at Francis Howell High School. Today, however, the teacher might be wishing she had not kept her superiors in the St. Charles, Mo., school district in the dark about her plans to base final exams on the Michael Moore film, “Sicko“, a trailer for which appears below.

Judging by the unedited plot summary below which Blessman distributed to students in her Senior Literature and Composition class, one might assume Blessman kept school district administrators in the dark about the controversial 2007 documentary on health care because she knew they might find the film objectionable:

In this documentary, the director/writer Michael Moore exposes the dysfunctional North American health care system, oriented to huge profits and not for their mission of saving lives. Further, he shows the corruption in the political system, with members of government and congress “bought” by the corporations and the situation of the average American citizens, including those that volunteered to work in the rescue mission of the September 11th. Then he travels to Canada, Great Britain and France to compare their systems showing their hospital, doctors, staffs and patients. Last but not least, he shows that the prisoners in Guantanamo have better medical treatment than the common people in USA, and he ends getting free treatment to the Americans that participate along the documentary in Cuba.

Apparently, however, Blessman did not expect any of her students to raise objections about the film. But one did.

On the morning of May 11, soon after learning about the film’s selection as the basis for the final exam in Blessman’s class, 18-year-old senior Celeste Finkenbine went straight to one of the school’s principals to raise her objections. Why? Because, based on her experiences with Blessman this semester and during a class three years earlier, Finkenbine didn’t think she would get very far pleading her case with the teacher she describes as a liberal. More on that later.

Unlike the vast majority of her classmates, Finkenbine is a politically-active conservative who spends many Saturday afternoons attending anti-socialism rallies at the intersection of Highways K and N in nearby O’Fallon, Mo. When she’s not in school or holding a sign on a street corner, you’re likely to find her working at a local nursing home in preparation for what she hopes will be a career as a geriatric physician.

Through a contact at the K and N Patriots, the group that holds the weekly rallies, I learned about Finkenbine’s objections to the film and, specifically, to being required to watch and analyze it as part of an assignment worth 50 percent of her total semester grade for the class. The video below is based on two recent interviews, one of which took place in the dining room of their St. Charles home, the other at a rally Saturday.

Finkenbine cited one primary reason behind her unwillingness to bring up points that back up Moore’s contentions. “My biggest issue with it is my principal said I can argue the conservative viewpoint, but that’s something that I have background with, that I’ve researched myself.

“Every other student in that class was only given the liberal viewpoint of it, and that’s exactly what teachers aren’t supposed to do, is lean toward one side or the other.”

When I contacted Dr. Renee Shuster, superintendent of the Francis Howell School District, she admitted the movie is not part of any district curriculum and that the teacher did not follow the process for having the film approved in advance. She also said that Finkenbine had been offered an alternative assignment that involves reading and analyzing the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 7,000-word essay, “A Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”

Does Finkenbine fear any repercussions for standing up for her conservative ideals?

“I’m hoping that, no matter what assignment I do, I can still get an ‘A’ on it. If I did feel like I was graded unfairly, it wouldn’t stop there.”

It’s somewhat ironic that Finkenbine’s alternative assignment relates to Dr. King, because it was during a recent class discussion that King’s name came up and, according to Finkenbine, her teacher laid her liberal cards out on the table.

Finkenbine said that, after she compared her participation in Tea Party rallies with the civil disobedience in which Dr. King participated, Blessman responded to her by saying, “Well, we all know you’re a ‘teabagger.’”

Afterward, Finkenbine recalled, the teacher started laughing and everyone in the class started laughing about Blessman’s use of the derogatory term, prompting the student to think, “Wow! Did she really just say that?”

Having heard this account of life in Blessman’s classroom, I contacted Dr. Shuster again.

In addition to wanting to find out how district officials would deal with the teacher for using a film that was not approved in advance, I wanted to know how they would address Finkenbine’s allegation that the teacher called her a “teabagger” in front of the class.

Schuster responded by e-mail, saying, “We would address this through the teacher evaluation process which hopefully leads to improvement but can lead to termination.”

Unfortunately, it appears all of the other students in Blessman’s class ended up having to watch and analyze”Sicko”.

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Affirmative action plan for top British universities

Under the new government, the plan is likely to remain a recommendation only

Teenagers applying to top universities face school and family background checks in a new drive to break the middle-class dominance of higher education.

Admissions staff will be handed a 'basket' of details on each applicant to consider alongside exam results - including social class and education levels in their local neighbourhood.

Elite universities will be expected to consider giving students from working-class homes or 'low-performing' schools a head start in the admissions race of up to two grades at A-level.
Oxford

Coveted colleges: Universities such as Oxford will be expected to give students from poorer backgrounds a head start in the application process

They also face being forced to set targets for increasing their intake of students from under-represented groups - and report progress publicly.

But the scheme, unveiled today, prompted warnings that bright pupils from good schools or middle-class homes could be 'penalised' for doing well and lose out on sought-after places.

Details emerged after an analysis showed how the social class gap at university has widened since the mid-1990s.

Students from the richest 20 per cent of families are seven times more likely to go to elite universities than the most disadvantaged 40 per cent.

Plans to give academically selective universities a range of 'contextual data' on each applicant emerged in a report by Sir Martin Harris, head of the Office for Fair Access watchdog, dubbed OfToff.

He revealed that the Russell Group of 20 elite universities has agreed a draft of a so-called 'basket' of 10 'contextual' statistics on each candidate.

Sir Martin was commissioned last year by then Business Secretary Lord Mandelson to draw up proposals for widening access to leading universities.

In his report today, Sir Martin said that improving students' attainment and aspirations from an early age was crucial to raising the number of working-class pupils studying at the likes of Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol and Durham.

He said bright students who are unlikely to go to university should be identified by the age of 14 and encouraged to go to summer schools and take part in activities that shake them from their 'social comfort zone'.

Sir Martin also called on universities to consider lowering entry requirements for candidates with less-than-stellar results who can demonstrate they have the 'potential' to succeed at university.

A study by Bristol University over three years concluded that students admitted on this basis would 'typically be as successful as their peers', said Sir Martin.

He also pointed the finger at league tables which encourage schools to play 'safe' by avoiding difficult subjects - which tend to be those sought after by universities.

Sir Martin denied the initiatives outlined in his report amounted to 'social engineering' or implied a dilution of academic standards.

But leading heads warned that universities were being forced to compensate for the failings of the education system.

Dr Martin Stephen, high master of St Paul's School, London, said: 'It would be an extraordinary world where we penalise pupils for being too successful.'

He added: 'The crucial point is these schemes tackle the symptoms not the cause. They give schools carte blanche to go on under-achieving and lets them off the hook.'

Universities and Science Minister, David Willetts, welcomed the 'very valuable' report.

'I look forward to discussing it in more detail with Sir Martin Harris. It provides a useful set of recommendations that I hope universities will consider carefully,' he said.

SOURCE






Entrepreneurship in education

The UK is getting a healthy dose of much-needed innovation as a number of schools take on lessons from the research of Professor Sugata Mitra. SOLE (Self-Organised Learning Environment) is a truly radical experiment that takes the pedagog out of pedagogy, relying instead upon children’s natural curiosity.

The hole-in the-wall experiments have been a phenomenon in India, across the developing world and now in Gateshead. It originates from when Professor Mitra decided to knock a hole in the wall of Delhi office, install a computer, hook it up to the internet and observe. As Professor Mitra explains, “Groups of Indian children were able to organise their own lessons using a single computer through unsupervised access to the world wide web.”

Now children living in some of the most deprived areas of the UK are benefiting: “When I tried a similar approach in Gateshead it worked even better, for the simple reason that English is their native language, so they don’t need to struggle to overcome that barrier before they can begin to learn from the web.” Mitra is a model entrepreneur. Before entering this exciting world where education and technology meet, he started the database publishing industry (particularly the Yellow Page industry) in India and Bangladesh. That he is also applying the skills to the UK, as Professor of Educational Technology at Newcastle University, is to be celebrated.

Professor Mitra’s findings show how children socialising around technology can have impressive results. There exists an unhelpful disagreement between those that are wedded to the ideals of a liberal or progressive education. Instead, we should be focussed on what works. The entrepreneurs who are working towards the spread of this technology are heralding an exciting future, in which many of the poorest and most neglected have access to the same raw information as those of the most privileged. And instead of learning on by rote, children engage and teach each other as part of a community of learners. We need more innovation of this type.

Sadly though, such entrepreneurship is the exception, rather than the rule. This will be the case until state schools are unburdened of their stultifying regulation, re-oriented through the profit motive towards success and are bring greater competition to bear on public and private schools.

SOURCE



18 May, 2010

Black Professor: Ethnic Studies "Never" Teaches Ethnic Solidarity

Newsflash for the either ignorant or deceitful Marc Lamont Hill, professor of--what else-- African American Studies at Columbia University, and is--according to his website--"one of the leading hip-hop generation intellectuals in the country." Wow! That's quite a feat considering the competition. But I digress.

If Marc Lamont Hill (can we please cut the three name thing) thinks these ethnic studies classes do not teach--in general--ethnic solidarity, victimhood, anti-Americanism, pro-leftism, etc., then I challenge you, the reader, to go to your nearest college and sit-in on a Woman's Studies, African American Studies, Chicano Studies, Environment Studies--anything that ends with "studies" class, and see if this separatist teaching method is universal or simply taught among the "outliers" and "rogue" elements, as Professor Hill says: "I've never seen that to be the case."

I attended college in Minnesota, New York, and California, and on every campus, there was a plethora of self-segregated graduations. Why? Who organized them? Where did this mentality come from? If you don't believe me, I challenge you to go or call your nearest university and ask them--considering that it's graduation time--when and where the Latino graduation will be held. While you are there, take a walk through the Chicano Studies, African American Studies, or Woman's Studies departments and faculty hallways and observe the "art" on the walls; listen to the conversations among the students and their professors. The mural painted by the Chicano Studies students at my California University consisted of a gang of "brown people" carrying an American flag upside down and a Fox News reporter with fangs that were dripping blood. This was three years ago--and it's still there despite calls for its removal.

I could go on with an example after example, but I am so sure that the separatist/ethnic solidarity method is taught and advertised daily on American campuses, that I want you to see it for yourself. Go to the website of any college in the country and look at the class listings and their descriptions under the "studies" section. The results of your "field trip" may shock you, but you will quickly learn to exercise more "tolerance" if you want to get an "education" without bringing trouble into your life.

BTW: Any college degree that ends with the word "studies" is an absolute joke and should be treated as such. Same goes for self-segregated graduation ceremonies.

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Fired RI teachers see the light

A school district that gained the support of President Barack Obama for promoting accountability after it fired all its teachers from a struggling school announced on Sunday it had reached an agreement with the union to return the current staffers to their jobs.

The two sides said a transformation plan for Central Falls High School for the coming school year would allow the roughly 87 teachers, guidance counselors, librarians and other staffers who were to lose their jobs at the end of this year to return without having to reapply. More than 700 people had already applied for the positions.

The agreement calls for a longer school day, more after-school tutoring and other changes.

"What this means is that they have come to an agreement about a reform effort and that will change the quality" of the education program at Central Falls, said Rhode Island Education Commissioner Deborah Gist, who applauded both sides for working together.

The board of trustees overseeing the school system in Central Falls, one of the poorest communities in the state, voted in February to fire the staff of one of the state's worst-performing schools. The school was under a mandate from the state to make improvements, and it opted for the mass firings after a breakdown in talks with teachers about other reforms that would have required more work, some without extra pay.

Obama, during a national address on education in March, said the firings were an example of the need for accountability over student performance.

"So if a school is struggling, we have to work with the principal and the teachers to find a solution," Obama said. "We've got to give them a chance to make meaningful improvements. But if a school continues to fail its students year after year after year, if it doesn't show any sign of improvement, then there's got to be a sense of accountability."

He continued: "And that's what happened in Rhode Island last week at a chronically troubled school, when just 7 percent of 11th-graders passed state math tests _ 7 percent."

Details of the agreement were to be released following a ratification vote by Central Falls teachers at a meeting Monday. The union and district had been working with a mediator since March.

"Both the school district and the union agree that while this has been a difficult process for everyone involved, the negotiations resulted in a newfound appreciation for shared responsibility, and a solid commitment to bring lasting solutions that will improve teaching and learning at Central Falls High School," said a joint statement from the union and the district.

Under the deal, teachers will need to recommit to their jobs and interview with the new principal. Other changes aimed at increasing student achievement include: a new evaluation system designed to inform teaching and learning, and targeted and embedded professional development.

Central Falls Superintendent Fran Gallo said she was pleased to be welcoming the staff back. She said that among the changes would be the reassignment of the high school principal and assistant principal to the middle school.

Central Falls Teachers Union President Jane Sessums said there had always been agreement that the sides wanted what was best for the students and that significant changes were needed.

"Working together, we and the district have arrived at a solid, forward-looking agreement that provides supports for our students and the tools our teachers need to help them succeed," Sessums said.

Senior Valerie Florez, who is set to graduate next month, said rehiring the teachers was a good idea. "It's not the teachers' fault that students don't want to learn," she said.

Florez said she used to be one of those students who didn't want to learn, skipping class and failing to do assignments, but her teachers helped her turn around.

Jonathan Beltran, a 19-year-old freshman at Roger Williams University who graduated Central Falls High School last year, had helped organize rallies and protests in support of the teachers. Beltran, who hopes one day to return to Central Falls as a math teacher, said he was happy about the agreement.

"I love the teachers at Central Falls," he said. "I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for them. I want to work side by side with them."

Antony Restrepo, who has two stepdaughters at the school, said he wanted to see improvements if all the teachers are to be rehired. But he said he wasn't sure that the problems were entirely the staff's fault.

"They just want to be in the streets," he said of some students.

SOURCE






A maze of mad allowances in British education

As it currently stands, anyone entering full-time higher education can receive financial support from the government in the form of Tuition Fee funding and Maintenance Loans, as well as the option of a means-tested grant. Additionally, if you have any form of disability or learning disorder, you are eligible for Disabled Student’s Allowance, which is available regardless of family income, and doesn’t have to be paid back.

Being dyslexic, my friend was delighted to discover that he was eligible for up to £5,161 worth of ‘specialist equipment’, and so applied for DSA. His experience is a prime example of inefficient and wasteful government.

After a needs assessment in September and the promise of a shiny new laptop, processing the case took over eight months. Nevertheless, the ‘essential’ technological support eventually arrived- in the form of a MacBook Pro, a printer and voice-recognition software. However, the delivery also included (amongst much more) a scanner, USB hub, a backpack, an ink allowance, and, strangely enough, an AA battery charger. Call me insensitive, but I simply cannot understand the necessity of all these items for a dyslexic university student.

My expressions of disapproval led to accusations of bitterness and jealousy. In fact, I was shocked that such items should be provided by the government, regardless of income- and without even being asking for. The response I received from my friend was, “But I’ve done nothing wrong- they’re free”. However, the gadgets weren’t free. They had been paid for by other people’s money –confiscated through taxation. They were funded with money that would have been put to better use were it allowed to stay in the individuals’ pockets, rather than paying for backpacks for dyslexics.

The country is saddled with a huge government deficit, and spending pressures are beginning to emerge: The Russell Group has warned that current higher education funding is unsustainable. Meanwhile, the Coalition government is keen to make savings through ‘efficiencies’ and will be unwilling to touch frontline services. However, the DSA appears to be something that could be seriously revised, without seriously disadvantaging the disabled in University.

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17 May, 2010

Many American public schools are so bad that even some on the Left are beginning to see the need for parental choice of schools

THE STORIED ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE, one of the nation's oldest civil-rights organizations, is fervent -- very fervent -- about the separation of church and state. It devotes an elaborate page to the subject on its web site. It files friend-of-the-court briefs when church/state issues come before the federal or state judiciary. Whether the controversy is over school prayer, religious displays in public, or the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, ADL argues with much passion for keeping the "wall of separation" between government and religion as high and impenetrable as possible. "The more government and religion become entangled," it has often warned, "the more threatening the environment becomes for each."

No surprise, then, that ADL takes a hard line against school-choice voucher programs, which give parents the wherewithal to rescue their children from failing public schools and enroll them in private schools instead. Since those private schools are often church-affiliated, ADL contended in an amicus brief the last time the Supreme Court took up the issue, vouchers have the unconstitutional effect of directing "government funding to religious schools for religious purposes."

That case was Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, a landmark decided in 2002, in which the Supreme Court disagreed with ADL. As long as vouchers enable parents to "exercise genuine choice among options public and private, secular and religious," the majority ruled, nothing about them offends the Constitution.

But ADL's opposition hasn't softened. When the Senate was poised earlier this year to vote on funding school vouchers for the District of Columbia, ADL signed a letter calling for the program be killed. "Instead of sending federal money to private schools," it urged, "money should instead be invested in the public schools." In a five-part essay posted online, ADL claims that "vouchers pose a serious threat to values that are vital to the health of American democracy" and "threaten to undermine our system of public education."

Needless to say, the ADL position, widely shared on the left, has plenty of critics on the right, including your humble servant. From the conservative editorialists at The Wall Street Journal to the libertarian litigators at the Institute for Justice, supporters of vouchers have frequently excoriated those who oppose them -- especially teachers unions and the politicians who genuflect to them -- for their willingness to keep poor kids trapped in wretched schools.

But while there may be nothing extraordinary about conservatives or libertarians embracing school choice, it takes real grit for liberals or Democrats do so. Especially when they do so from within ADL.

Three months ago, the executive committee of ADL's Philadelphia chapter voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution endorsing vouchers. Now it is urging the entire organization to follow suit.

"We believe school choice to be an urgent civil rights issue," the committee argued in a brief being circulated among ADL's 30 regional offices. Despite decades of increased spending on K-12 education, "the evidence that our public education system is failing to educate our children is staggering." ADL should reverse its longtime position "as a moral imperative," the Philadelphia leadership urges, and "issue a resolution in favor of school choice."

Pennsylvania State Senator Anthony Williams, bucking the teachers unions, is an outspoken champion of vouchers.
As it happens, the ADL regional board's isn't the only liberal voice in Philadelphia calling for greatly expanded school choice. State Senator Anthony Williams, a black Democrat and a candidate in Pennsylvania gubernatorial primary this week, is the founder of a charter school, a champion of vouchers, and an ardent believer in the power of competition to improve the quality of education. His position puts him sharply at odds with the state's largest teachers' union, which opposes choice and has endorsed his main opponent. But Williams -- like the local ADL leadership -- sees school choice as the great civil-rights battle of the day.

"Anybody who was for Brown v. Board of Education -- it baffles me that they would be against vouchers," Williams told me last week. "Brown condemned schools that were separate and unequal. Well, that's exactly what we're back to now -- schools that are segregated by income, by ZIP Code, by race."

Of the 20,000 children who annually enter Philadelphia kindergartens, Williams notes, almost half will drop out before finishing high school -- and fewer than 2,000 will go to college. The way to fix the dreadful public schools that produce these results isn't to shower them with more money, he says. It is to empower parents to pull their kids out and enroll them in better schools elsewhere.

Williams may not win Tuesday's primary. Philly's ADL chapter may not persuade the national board to follow its lead. But in swimming against the tide, both have set examples that will inspire others. Educational inequality persists. But thanks to some gutsy Philadelphia liberals, it has just lost a little more ground.

SOURCE





British School-leavers and graduates are lacking basic skills, says survey

School-leavers and even graduates lack basic literacy and numeracy skills, according to a survey of big employers published today.

More companies are having to provide remedial training to new staff, who cannot write clear instructions, do simple maths, or solve problems. Even those with degrees are failing to impress: one in seven firms said that graduates’ reading and writing skills were inadequate, and one in ten said that they had poor numeracy.

Both graduates and school-leavers were also criticised for their sloppy time-keeping, ignorance of basic customer service and lack of self-discipline.

The report by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said: “There is understandable frustration among business that they continue having to pick up the pieces to support those who left full-time education with weaknesses in the basic skills they will need in their working lives.”

It conducted a survey of senior executives at 694 companies, which between them employ more than 2.4 million people, or one in 12 of the workforce. Seven in ten companies said that action was needed to improve the employability of school-leavers, and this should be the top education priority of the new Government. Almost two-thirds of employers said that standards of numeracy and literacy should be tackled.

There were also weaknesses in the “soft skills” of graduates and school-leavers, such as time management or working in a team. “These personal competencies are not simply ‘nice to have’ but are a core factor in business success in a competitive market place,” the report said.

“General educational standards — including basic skills of literacy and numeracy — have long been concerns for employers. “Employers’ particular concerns over numeracy and literacy inevitably vary but there is broad agreement about how shortcomings in basic skills affect employees’ ability to perform everyday tasks.

“They can hinder employees in being able to draw out information effectively from basic texts, compose coherent written communications or work through basic arithmetic and percentages, such as working out a discounted price.”

The report added: “Only half of young people currently leave school having achieved the benchmark of an A* to C grade in English and maths GCSE. “And although this is the standard for which schools and students should aspire, it is not necessarily an accurate proxy for basic numeracy and literacy.

“But the large number of young people falling well below this measure is perpetuating the basic skills deficit among major sections of the UK workforce.”

The CBI found that 18 per cent of firms had invested in remedial training for workers in literacy and numeracy, up from 15 per cent in 2008. Its report added: “Employers do not expect schools, colleges and universities to produce ‘job-ready’ young people — they recognise it is their responsibility. But at the very least, young people must enter the labour market literate, numerate and employable.”

Of graduates, the report said that a quarter of companies were dissatisfied with their problem-solving skills and a similar number were unimpressed by their self-management. A fifth said that graduates had limited careers awareness. Job applications from young people were too often “slapdash, containing spelling mistakes, omissions and errors”.

Half of companies are not confident that they will be able to fill graduate-level posts in the next few years and a third are concerned about finding the right candidates for intermediate jobs [A-level equivalent].

Even though the previous Government strove to increase the number of young people taking science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) subjects, firms said that there was still a shortage. “It is of significant concern that despite lower recruitment and more applicants for each position, over two fifths of employers still struggle to find the Stem talent they need.”

Richard Lambert, director-general of the CBI, said: “As we move further into recovery and businesses plan for growth, the demand for people with high-quality skills and qualifications will intensify.

“In the future people with qualifications in science and maths will be particularly sought after, and firms say it is already hard to find people with the right technical or engineering skills. The new Government must make encouraging more young people to study science-related subjects a top priority.”

Employers rated business studies and maths A levels highest and sociology and psychology lowest.

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Education without innovation?

I recently traveled to Singapore to research their national education system. During my visit, I stopped by the campuses of the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the National Institute of Education (NIE)—Singapore's only teacher-training institute—to talk to professors, administrators, and students.

According to the Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings 2009, both universities rank in the global top 100. NUS is ranked 30th in the world. NIE is an autonomous institute of Nanyang Technological University, which is ranked 73rd in the world.

Singapore students are among the best in the world at math according to the results of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). First administered in 1995, the TIMMS has assessed the science and math performance of fourth- and eighth-grade students from several countries every four years.

In 1995, 1999, and 2003, Singapore students in both grades were in first place in math. In 2007, Singapore fourth graders were in second place and eighth graders were in third place. Fifty-nine countries participate in the 2007 TIMSS.

The math textbooks and workbooks used in Singapore have produced the best results in the world. Titled "Primary Mathematics," but often referred to as "Singapore Math," the book series is based on the national math curriculum of Singapore.

The focus of Singapore Math is on depth, rather than breadth; a few important concepts are covered in great depth so that students can master them. In contrast, the focus of the math curriculum in the U.S. is on breadth.

Singapore Math differs from the way math has been traditionally taught in the U.S. in several ways. Instead of teaching students how to apply formulas, Singapore Math teaches students different ways to solve problems. Rather than using paper and pencil, problems are often solved mentally. Rote memorization is replaced with understanding the "why" behind each concept. Concepts are taught once, not repeated year after year. Worksheets have no instructions so that students learn concepts in school rather than at home.

Because of the success of Singapore Math, many schools and homeschool parents in the U.S. have adopted the method.

Even with all their success in math, Singaporean educators are not content with their education system. Three years ago, the "Washington Post" published an article titled "Asian Educators Looking to Loudon for an Edge." The article was about educators from Singapore who visited classrooms in the U.S. to learn how to teach students to think more creatively. Apparently, the U.S. is admired by Singaporeans for its ability to produce scientific and technological innovations.

Even though American students do not score nearly as well as Singaporean students in math, they tend to be more innovative. The latter skill is more important than the former in our increasingly globalized world where moving up the value chain means transforming from an industrial-based economy to a knowledge-based economy to an innovation-based economy.

This is not to say that knowledge in math is not important, because it is. However, knowledge alone is not enough. It must be combined with the ability to apply knowledge in new ways. Applying knowledge in new ways is how innovation occurs, and innovation is critical to any nation's economic and national security.

Perhaps American students tend to be more innovative than Singaporean students because the societies in which they live are different. Americans enjoy much more freedom of thought than Singaporeans, and freedom of thought engenders a state of mind conducive to innovation.

Education systems do not operate in a vacuum; they are influenced by the societies they serve. In Singapore, freedom of thought is discouraged by the limitations posed on freedom of expression. For example, the Singaporean government severely restricts public speeches and censors the media.

If Singaporean educators want to learn how to teach students to think more creatively so the nation can increase its ability to produce scientific and technological innovations, then it would be useful for them to look beyond the classroom.

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16 May, 2010

Languages crisis is threatening a generation of British state school pupils

Only a narrow body of water separates Britain from many important countries that do not speak English -- so some familiarity with at least one of those languages would seem important -- both for business and for travel.

It was once important culturally too but, sadly, culture is "out" these days and there are very few English people who will ever have the pleasure of (say) enjoying Schubert Lieder in the original German.

"Wer reitet so spaet durch Nacht und Wind?/Es ist der Vater mit seinem Kind./Er hat den Knaben wohl in dem Arm,/Er fasst ihn sicher, er haelt ihn warm". ....

A terrible loss

A generation of state school children risks being left monolingual because of a looming crisis in language teaching. Labour’s efforts to entice children into choosing to study languages by switching from compulsory GCSEs to primary school classes have failed, experts say.

The number of teenagers taking a modern language has fallen by a third since that was scrapped as a GCSE requirement in 2004. Three quarters of schools no longer require pupils to take exams at 16 in French, German or Spanish.

Instead the focus changed to fostering a love of languages in primary school, so pupils would supposedly choose to study them at secondary level. But because the teaching of languages at primary school is patchy and variable, secondary teachers have to start from scratch at 11.

Researchers have told The Times that children who already know the language are repeating basic work, becoming bored and resentful, and dropping languages at 14 when they make GCSE choices.

They blame incoherence in language teaching, and claim that none of the main political parties will address the problem.

Universities suggest that the issue is starting to have an impact on their recruitment of state school pupils, and they are trying to address the situation with summer schools and language masterclasses.

Employers have also voiced concerns, and the trend has worrying implications for the future production of enough language teachers, who will be in increasing demand when teaching a foreign language becomes compulsory at primary school next year.

Academics say that British children are getting the worst deal in Europe. Sylvia Jaworska, a lecturer in German at Queen Mary, University of London, said: “For foreign languages not to be obligatory is uniquely British. Every secondary school in Europe ensures that pupils study at least one foreign language up to 18 years old.

“Here in the UK, languages are viewed as difficult subjects. Worryingly, some secondary schools don’t push students to take them, because they think it might affect their league table results.”

This was echoed by the Sutton Trust, a charity that tackles educational inequality. Lee Elliot Major, its director of research and policy, said: “They [state schools] focus on English and maths and vocational subjects to get better results, but it’s not necessarily what’s best for children.”

Dr Jaworska’s students are working with a local primary school in East London to interest them in languages. She said that the number of German language teachers had decreased by 300 in the past five years. “If fewer modern foreign language GCSEs are taken, we worry that ultimately our student intake will drop,” she added. “Our hope is to encourage school pupils to take up languages and then, as graduates, to become language teachers.”

Some prestigious universities require candidates to have a language GCSE, no matter what degree they are taking. Others that are striving to widen participation to pupils from varied backgrounds say that the decline in languages at state schools could hamper this.

The independent schools sector accounted for 15 per cent of all A-level entries in 2008-09, but its pupils took 34 per cent of the modern foreign language exams, and made up almost half of those achieving an A grade.

Wendy Piatt, director-general of the Russell Group of leading universities, said: “Knowledge of modern foreign languages is vital to the UK. The Russell Group and the wider higher education sector have been affected in recent years by changes in demand for language degrees and courses, resulting in part from changes to language provision in the school sector.

“In particular, we are concerned about the relatively low proportion of students who take modern foreign languages at A level within the state school sector.”

The CBI has said that more than a third of British businesses hire people for their language skills, but that they are increasingly forced to recruit from overseas to meet this need.

SOURCE





AA Shocker: More Blacks In College — But Fewer Graduate!

There are two basic problems with Affirmative action, the first is that people that shouldn’t be going to college are getting in, second, those that should be going are getting into higher ranked colleges than their grades would indicate, making them much more likely to drop out…

More Blacks Go to College, But Graduation Lags

President Obama delivered the commencement address today at Virginia’s Hampton University—his first as president to a predominantly African-American school. Fifty-five percent of African-American high school seniors go on to college these days, compared to 45 percent in 1970.

But graduation day is another story, as CBS News correspondent Russ Mitchell reports. *snip*

Since 2004, American universities have used a six-year standard to measure graduation rates; but even with the extended time, African-Americans still lag in obtaining degrees. Only 43 percent of African-Americans who enter college graduate—20 percent lower than the rate for whites. And for black men its more alarming, with only 36 percent who enter finishing college. *snip*

Hampton currently graduates 55 percent of its students within six-years. That’s better than most universities, but significantly lower than schools like Harvard (95 percent) and Yale (94 percent.). *snip*

But at predominately black universities where the concentration of first generation and low-income students is high, the challenge can be daunting. Seventy percent of students who drop out cite lack of finances Twenty percent of incoming students have to take remedial classes But, historically black colleges still produce 25 percent of the nation’s black graduates.

This isn’t the first time we’ve run across this phenomenon…

And sure enough, the enrollment and graduation data from the more than 6,700 postsecondary institutions that enroll just under 20 million students and that participate in Title IV student financial aid programs is indeed broken down by race, ethnicity, and sex, right there in plain view in Table 5 on p. 15. The data are not pretty. Graduation rates for both public and private 4-year institutions:

– Asians/Pacific Islander: 66.1%

– Whites: 59.3%

– Hispanic or Latino: 46.5%

– Black or African American: 38.9%

The numbers for black men were even more depressing, falling to 31% at public institutions.

More depressing reality…

What place does affirmative action have in this system? In 2007–2008, 12,152 Blacks took the LSAT. Their average score was 142.15 and the standard deviation 8.4. In a normal distribution only one in a thousand scores three SDs above the mean. Three SDs over the Black average is 167.35. We’ll round up to 168. Only a little over one in a thousand Blacks who take the LSAT each year scores that high, or 16 of them in 2007–2008. *snip*

Since in 2007–2008 there were only 16 Blacks nationwide who scored at 168 or above, that’s the number of Blacks that should’ve entered the top six schools. *snip*

So there are about 10 undeserving Blacks at the top six law schools for every one deserving case. This puts things in perspective for people who say that they oppose affirmative action because it stigmatizes African-Americans. Is it more rational to care more about the feelings of one Black out of 11 who gets where he is based on merit than the 10 Whites and Asians who lose their spot to a beneficiary of the system? Only if the self-esteem of one Black is worth more than the livelihoods of 10 non-NAMs!

Affirmative action is the nearest thing to pure evil I’ve ever seen. Not only doesn’t it do what it purports to do but, it poisons the water in any direction you look.

SOURCE






Monopolies + Public Schools = Failing Students

Out of all American high school seniors, only 35 percent are proficient readers and only 23 percent are proficient in math. This is according to The Cartel, a movie released this year exposing how throwing money at America’s education system is not helping anyone — least of all the students.

The U.S. Department of Education reports that about $1.1 trillion is being spent nationwide on education at all levels for school year 2009-2010. This amount includes federal, state and local funds as well as private donations.

Despite that dollar amount and the fact that spending on America’s education has increased 100 percent since 1971, graduation rates and test scores have flat-lined or even decreased over the years. Obviously money isn’t the cure.

How does a country that spends far more than an average of $9,000 per student, give rise to such a poor education system?

It is because the public school system in America is a monopoly. There is no competition and no incentive to better itself. Parents don’t often have a choice of which school their child attends unless they have an option of a charter school, can afford a private school or are able to enroll in a voucher program. And, depending on which state you live in, you may not have an option at all.

This is a bad deal for everyone involved — well, almost everyone. There is one group that greatly benefits from this monopoly, and that is the teachers unions. With competition between schools eliminated, some teachers that are members of a union enjoy a nice paying job, regardless of the performance of students and overall rating of the school depending on the school district and state laws.

In many states, it’s the teachers unions that rule over the majority, even swaying the votes of the politicians.

“Unions give a lot of money to candidates and teachers are politically active,” says Don Todd, who currently serves as Senior Research Director of Americans for Limited Government (ALG) and was the chief union oversight officer at the U.S. Department of Labor from 2001-2009. “That’s why they get what they want.”

Not only do these unions have a voice as the majority, they also make it nearly impossible to get rid of a bad teacher.

In one particular situation in New York, it took six years of litigation before they were able to fire a teacher who sent a sexually-oriented email to a 16-year-old student. Maybe worse, this teacher still got paid more than $300,000 even though he wasn’t teaching anymore during the firing process. The payment was required. It was in the contract. How is this right on any level?

In this kind of environment, it is no wonder America’s students as a whole are suffering in public schools.

“In the long run they will lose,” says Todd about the teachers unions’ self-interest battles. “Everyone I know wants what’s best for their children and they aren’t going to give up on that.”

Every parent wants their child to succeed and do well. Unfortunately many students get lost in the system and fall behind.

In an evaluation conducted in 2006 by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), 15-year-olds from 30 different countries were tested and measured by their understanding of basic science skills. The U.S. didn’t measure up very well — it ranked 21st, with a score well below average.

For a country that prides itself on innovation and technology, it is shameful that future generations may lack the skills needed to keep up with the rest of the world.

The aim of various state laws and teachers unions’ contracts is backwards. And it has been this way for too long.

Albert Shanker, once President of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), was quoted as saying, “When school children start paying union dues, that's when I'll start representing the interests of school children.”

Something is very wrong here. When asked to comment, the AFT and National Education Association (NEA) did not return phone calls.

It is the parent’s responsibility to ensure their children receive the education they need and deserve. “People judge the system by personal experience,” says Todd. “It’s a minority population that gets the short shrift and as long as they continue to vote for people that give them this short shrift, they are going to keep getting it.”

SOURCE



15 May, 2010

Despite 13 years of Labour party hot air and addled policies, Britain's State schools provide fewer opportunities for upward social mobility than ever -- and it shows

The article below uses "public-school" in the old British sense (non-government). "Comprehensives" are government-funded schools -- which are often chaotic and are usually geared to the lowest common denominator

So, if you ever doubted that you get what you pay for, take a look at the footage of David Cameron and Nick Clegg during their Downing Street rose garden love-in. Two slim, handsome, affable and articulate men in their mid-40s, quick on their feet and comfortable in the spotlight: has there ever been a better advert for a public-school education?

Indeed, watching our new Prime Minister and his Deputy chuckling in the sunshine on Wednesday, it was easy to see them in terms of public-school stereotypes.

On the right, Mr Cameron, the Old Etonian: dapper, upright, his iron ambition concealed by velvet manners. And on the left, Mr Clegg, the Westminster boy: relaxed, good-humoured, the very picture of effortless superiority.

But look again at the footage of our new masters in the rose garden and you will see not just the virtues of two first-class schools, but a damning indictment of the collapse of opportunity in modern Britain.

For as our new Government gets down to business, there is an inevitable contrast between the new Cabinet's rhetoric - austerity and hard work, pain and sacrifice - and their own life stories.

Of those men and women around the Cabinet table, a staggering 67 per cent went to top private schools, compared with just 7 per cent of the total population.

One response, trotted out by both Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg during the campaign, is that none of this really matters. 'What people are interested in,' Mr Cameron maintained, 'is not where you come from but where you're going, what you've got to offer the country.'

That may be true, but while Mr Cameron's predecessors, such as Michael Howard, William Hague, John Major and Margaret Thatcher, could point to their relatively modest backgrounds as evidence of their own hard work, there is more than a little truth in the assertion that our new Prime Minister and his Deputy have had everything handed to them on a silver platter.
Margaret Thatcher

And there is a deeper story here. After all, the Prime Minister is hardly the only former public schoolboy in the new Cabinet: as he looks around the table, he sees George Osborne (St Paul's), Chris Huhne (Westminster), Jeremy Hunt (Charterhouse) and Andrew Lansley (Brentwood), as well as his Old Etonian chum Oliver Letwin.

Indeed, if it were not for the defiant presence of a few grammar and comprehensive schoolboys such as Kenneth Clarke (Nottingham High School, which years later became a public school), Vince Cable (Nunthorpe Grammar) and William Hague (Wath-upon-Dearne Comprehensive), the weekly Cabinet meeting would look disturbingly like a lunch party at the East India Club, the gentleman's club in St James's open only to former public schoolboys.

And despite its occasional flirtation with the rhetoric of class warfare, Labour is not much better. For all his faults, Gordon Brown could hardly claim a privileged background: the son of a Church of Scotland minister, he went to his local state school, Kirkcaldy High.

But Tony Blair had the best education money can buy at Scotland's most prestigious public school, Fettes. And the party's current acting leader, Harriet Harman, went to St Paul's Girls, the expensive sister school to the new Chancellor's alma mater.

Even state-educated Labour MPs belong to a very particular political class. Both David and Ed Miliband, for instance, went to North London's Haverstock Comprehensive - which, because of its catchment area, is very successful - and then Oxford University. Ed Balls went to public school and Oxford, too, as did his wife, Yvette Cooper.

Indeed, it is hard to resist the suspicion that British politics has become an exclusive club, dominated by public schoolboys, and that an old school tie and Oxbridge connections are the passport to that club.

It hardly needs saying that there is nothing wrong with a privileged education: I should know, having benefited from one myself. And at one level, it is hardly surprising that so many public-school products end up running the country. After all, parents expect a lot for £150,000 - the total cost of putting a child through a top boarding school today.

And yet, even a former public schoolboy can see that there is something wrong with a system in which a privileged political class clogs up the corridors of power, especially since research conclusively shows that social mobility has stalled since the Sixties, preventing bright children from getting the opportunities enjoyed by their parents.

In many ways, the collapse in opportunity was one of New Labour's greatest failures.

According to a study by the Sutton Trust, those born in 1970 are much less likely to earn more than their parents than those born in 1958. And while almost half of children from the richest 20 per cent of homes get a university degree, only one in ten from the poorest 20 per cent does so. 'Shamefully,' the report concluded, 'Britain remains stuck at the bottom of the international league tables when it comes to social mobility.'

Other studies have made similar-findings. Only last year, a Commons all-party panel reported that 75 per cent of judges, 70 per cent of finance directors and 45 per cent of top civil servants went to private schools. Britain was still run, the panel concluded, by a 'closed shop'.

It bears repeating that there is nothing wrong with a private education in itself: at one level, these figures show that the public schools and Oxbridge still do a terrific job.

But given that both Labour and the Tories have boasted for years about being parties of opportunity, you wonder what happened to all those bright children from modest backgrounds.

On top of that, you wonder how David Cameron and Nick Clegg can possibly understand the anxieties of their fellow countrymen as the austerity years approach, given that their own lives have been so gilded.

Can politicians who spent their teenage years joining exclusive dining clubs, working as ski instructors and appearing in Noel Coward comedies really appreciate the struggles of ordinary British youngsters when the cuts begin to bite?

For Mr Cameron, the inevitable contrast is with his Tory predecessors. John Major, for example, was born to a garden-gnome manufacturer in Brixton, left school with three O-levels, spent a short period on the dole, and worked his way up the ranks from bank clerk to Prime Minister.

Whatever faults Sir John may have had, it could hardly be said that he did not understand the common man.

Margaret Thatcher, meanwhile, was born and bred a long way from the playing fields of Eton. The daughter of a Methodist grocer in Grantham, Lincolnshire, she won a scholarship to Kesteven and Grantham Girls, a local grammar school, where she first established a reputation for ferocious hard work.

Shamefully, critics often held her background against her: in the Eighties, the philosopher Mary Warnock mocked Mrs Thatcher's 'elocution voice' and 'neat, well-groomed clothes and hair, packaged together in a way that's not exactly vulgar, just low'.

But unlike the boarding school educated Baroness Warnock, Mrs Thatcher had worked for everything she achieved, her sheer grit and effort propelling her from Grantham to Downing Street. And her belief in the virtues of sheer effort, born of her Methodist faith and grammar-school education, lay at the heart of her political philosophy.

'I came to office with one deliberate intention,' she once said: 'To change Britain from a dependent to a self-reliant society, from a give-it-to-me to a do-it-yourself nation.'

Yet Mrs Thatcher was only one member of a generation of talented politicians from humble backgrounds at both ends of the ideological spectrum - people such as Edward Heath (Chatham House Grammar School), Harold Wilson (Wirral Grammar), Denis Healey ( Bradford Grammar), Roy Jenkins (Abersychan County School) and Enoch Powell (King Edward's, Birmingham).

Look again at the names of those schools and you will see that these men had one thing in common: they had all attended ordinary state grammar schools.

And leafing through their life stories, what is obvious is that those schools gave them something else in common: an almost fanatical belief in the importance of hard work.

When Harold Wilson went as a scholarship boy to Oxford, the idea of joining a swanky dining club would have been utter anathema. He spent his days at his desk, working an average of 10 hours a day. He had 'always been driven by a feeling that there is something to be done and I really ought to be doing it', he said later.

And when Enoch Powell won a scholarship to Cambridge, the thought of spending his summers backpacking around Europe - the typical recreation of public schoolboys like Messrs Cameron and Clegg - would have struck him as deeply shameful.

The importance of hard graft had been drummed into him so completely that when another Birmingham boy invited him to come and have tea on his first day, he replied: 'Thank you very much, but I came here to work.'

Of course, there are modern equivalents, from stateeducated, self-made Cabinet ministers such as Ken Clarke, Vince Cable and William Hague, to backbenchers like David Davis, brought up on a council estate by a single mother and educated at Tooting Bec Grammar School.

Yet the fate of David Davis's old school tells a wider and more depressing story. Bec School, as it was known, was founded in 1926. But in 1970 it was merged with another local school to form a big comprehensive, and the original buildings were demolished 15 years ago.

As with so many grammar schools, its proud history of educating bright children from working-class backgrounds had not saved it from the ideological fervour of self-styled egalitarians such as Anthony Crosland, Labour's Education Secretary during the mid-Sixties.

For while Crosland himself - a classic champagne socialist - had been educated at the prestigious, fee-paying Highgate School, he could not disguise his contempt for the grammar schools that had done so much for his Cabinet colleagues.

'If it's the last thing I do,' he told his wife, 'I'm going to destroy every f****** grammar school in England. And Wales. And Northern Ireland.' Only Scotland was safe: their schools, it turned out, did not come under his jurisdiction.

And Crosland was as good as his word. At their peak in the early Sixties, there were more than 1,200 grammar schools in England. Today, there are just 164, clustered in a few counties such as Buckinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Kent.

To her eternal regret, Mrs Thatcher failed to roll back the destruction of the grammar schools during her brief spell as Education Secretary in the early Seventies. But as she later pointed out, institutions like her beloved Kesteven and Grantham Girls had been a genuine force for social mobility.

'People from my sort of background,' she famously told the Tory Party conference in 1977, 'needed grammar schools to compete with children from privileged homes like Shirley Williams and Anthony Wedgwood Benn.' Yet the brutal reality is that more than three decades on, the chances of another Margaret Thatcher, or even another Ted Heath or Harold Wilson, rising through the ranks are smaller than ever.

Outside a few enclaves, the grammar schools are gone; the ladder has been kicked away. The result is that more than ever, power belongs to an old boy network of public schoolboys and Oxford graduates.

And even as David Cameron and Nick Clegg exchange smiles like love-struck teenagers, the dream of a genuinely fluid, open society, with opportunities for all regardless of background, seems more remote than ever.

SOURCE






Arizona now targets biased ethnic studies

Law infuriates liberals again

Arizona Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, already under fire for approving the nation's toughest illegal immigration law, has again run afoul of liberal activists, signing a bill Wednesday that targets ethnic studies programs in schools that critics say unfairly demean white Americans.

The law, which takes effect Dec. 31, would prohibit courses that promote resentment toward one race; that are designed for students of one race; that promote ethnic solidarity "instead of treating students as individuals;" and that encourage "the overthrow of the United States government."

The proposal was the brainchild of Tom Horne, Arizona state superintendent of public instruction, who has long battled with the Tucson Unified School District over its Mexican-American studies program, contending that it promotes "ethnic chauvinism" through the use of textbooks such as "Oppressed America" and at least one guest speaker who said, "Republicans hate Latinos."

Those who contend the law promotes racism are missing the point, Mr. Horne said. "It's the opposite of racism," said the Republican, who is running for state attorney general. "We're trying to get schools to treat students as individuals and not on the basis of race."

Still, reaction to the law has been swift. No less than a United Nations human rights panel issued a statement the day before the law was signed, warning that it violated Arizona's obligation to "promote a social and cultural environment conducive to respect for ethnic and cultural diversity."

Supporters of the ethnic studies programs have argued that enrolled students perform better than their peers who don't participate in the program. Two Oregon State University researchers released a statement Tuesday saying that the law "could negatively affect students' academic achievement and reverse academic gains made over the last several years."

Sean Arce, director of the Mexican-American studies department in the Tucson school district, said the district's ethnic studies program conforms to the law's guidelines. "In no way do we teach the resentment of any particular group of people," Mr. Arce told the Arizona Republic newspaper....

As for the ethnic studies law, Mr. Horne said, it does nothing to prevent schools from teaching about students' cultures. "We should learn about different heritages and languages, and I'm all for that," he said. "I'm just opposed to dividing students up and only teaching them about their own."

Among the Arizona schools that could be affected by the law are three charter schools run by Chicanos Por La Causa, a nonprofit group that bills itself as the state's largest community development corporation.

But spokeswoman Amanda Roberson said she doubted the schools would be in danger of losing funding. Schools that violate the law would lose a share of state education funds. "We don't think right now it's going to apply to us," said Ms. Roberson. "The language is very extreme - I mean, it talks about overthrowing the government - and we don't think it applies to us."

Mr. Horne has argued that the curriculum prods Hispanic students into believing they are oppressed by whites. He pointed to a 2006 talk by Hispanic activist Dolores Huerta, who told students, "Republicans hate Latinos."

He also cited the use of textbooks such as "Oppressed America," which quotes a Hispanic activist saying that Chicanos should "kill the gringo." Another textbook, he says, "The Mexican American Heritage," promotes the idea of Aztlan, the five Southwestern states that activists say should be returned to Mexican control.

SOURCE





Australia: New national curriculum less rigorous than existing State curriculum

The new national curriculum threatens to water down the content of some Higher School Certificate courses for NSW senior secondary school students, critics say. And they say the consultation period for the draft curriculum, which ends on July 30, is being rushed in an election year.

The highest-level courses in maths and English do not appear to extend students as much as existing courses, under the proposals for years 11 and 12.

NSW students will have to learn more about statistics in maths and the modern history of Asian countries under the draft curriculum for year 11 and 12 students. A strong focus on World War I in year 12 will be replaced with an emphasis on World War II, the Cold War and the modern history of Australia's Asia-Pacific neighbours.

Teacher associations fear many of the changes threaten the rigour of the HSC syllabus. The national curriculum specialist maths course covers only some of the more challenging areas of the extension two HSC course.

For most students studying English the focus will shift from literature to language and literacy. But a specialist literature course will be available for brighter students.

A spokeswoman for the NSW English Teachers Association, Eva Gold, said: "The problem for NSW is that all our top students, even those with an inclination towards maths and the sciences, engage in a rigorous study of literature and language. In the national curriculum, top students may not have the exposure to literature that we are used to."

The president of the Mathematical Association of NSW, Mary Coupland, said: "A lot of work needs to be done to make it anywhere near as good as what we have in NSW. I get a sense it is all being rushed."

Rob Randall, general manager curriculum for the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority, said the national curriculum courses would replace equivalent courses in each state and territory.

States and territories could continue to offer extension courses, he said.

Launching the draft curriculum at North Ryde Public School, the federal Minister for Education, Julia Gillard, said it was "important to our sense of being one nation". "It's important to those school kids who move from one state to another during school, and around 80,000 schoolchildren [do so] each year."

The state Minister for Education, Verity Firth, said that while she recognised that having eight curriculums was unsustainable, a national curriculum posed a problem. She believed the national curriculum would not water down the high standards of NSW but raise them everywhere.

SOURCE




Australia: A very expensive way of providing new school buildings -- courtesy of both Federal and State governments

More abuse of "stimulus" money. Neither Leftist government involved seems even to have heard of cost control or contract supervision. Waste is normal to Leftist governments. They just don't care about it. It's not their personal money that they are wasting

PARENTS at a NSW school are furious that the cost of a new library funded under the Rudd government's Building the Education Revolution program has blown out to be almost three times the manufacturer's price.

Last year, Cattai Public School, in the Hawkesbury region north of Sydney, was told it would be given a $678,000 library and a $202,000 shade structure under the federal government's $16.2 billion schools stimulus program.

At the time, Parents & Citizens Association president Helena Bark raised serious concerns over those costings, as the pre-fabricated "cookie-cutter" designed library cost just $341,000 from the manufacturer.

Further, the school had 18 months earlier built a covered outdoor learning area, or COLA, twice as big as the proposed new structure for $70,000, just one third of the proposed price.

Now, not only have the school's concerns gone unanswered, but they have been told the cost of the library has blown out to $920,000 - more than the school's entire original budget - and plans for a new shade structure have been scrapped.

"We have been told we cannot have the COLA anymore because the library has gone over-budget," Ms Bark told The Weekend Australian yesterday. "We had asked for amendments to the building design because it was too small but we were told we couldn't change anything because it was all pre-designed and pre-determined by the NSW government. "But now we're told one thing has changed, and that's the price."

Ms Bark said the school's repeated requests for information regarding how the price of the prefabricated building had soared by more than one-third in the past year had been unanswered by the NSW government and the managing contractor handling the scheme, Brookfield Multiplex.

"Our unanswered question remains: how can pre-fabricated, standard government-designed buildings simply soar in price for no apparent reason?" she said.

The issue of vastly inflated prices of pre-fabricated "cookie-cutter" designed buildings delivered under the scheme is becoming a key focus of wastage under the BER.

Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard has attempted to explain away scores of examples of public schools receiving poor value for money under the BER compared with private schools and industry costing standards by claiming such examples do not compare "apples with apples".

However, under the BER the standard design, pre-fabricated libraries, school halls and classrooms are manufactured by the same companies that were building those identical structures before the BER.

The manufacturers traditionally deliver and fully install those buildings - at a total cost of between $400,000 and $500,000. Under the BER in NSW, managing contractors take control of the buildings and install them, typically charging about $900,000.

Those manufacturers interviewed have been outraged by the enormous prices being charged for those buildings, but say they are unable to speak out for fear of losing key contracts with the NSW government.

SOURCE



14 May, 2010

Illinois School Nixes Basketball Team's Trip to Arizona Over Immigration Law‏

Apartheid for Arizona?

Parents in Illinois are outraged over a move by a local high school to scrap its girls basketball team's trip to Arizona over the Grand Canyon State’s new immigration law.

The Highland Park High School varsity basketball team has been selling cookies for months to raise money for a tournament in Arizona.

Now, after winning their first conference title in 26 years, the girls are being denied the opportunity to play in the tournament due to uncertainty over how a new Arizona law that makes it a crime to be in the country illegally will be enforced -- and because the trip “would not be aligned” with the school's “beliefs and values,” Assistant Superintendent Suzan Hebson told the Chicago Tribune.

Parents said there was no vote or consultation regarding the decision, which they called confusing, especially since they say no players on the team are illegal immigrants.

“I’m not sure whose values and what values and what beliefs they’re talking about, we were just going to Arizona to play basketball and our daughters were very disappointed to find out the trip had been canceled,” Michael Evans, a father of one of the players told Fox News.

Evans said if for some reason a player was worried about her safety, she could always opt to stay home from the December tournament without forcing the entire team to do the same.

“This tournament was voluntary, so students could decide not to go if they thought they were at some sort of risk of some sort of harm to themselves, but to penalize all the other girls because of some potential risk? I don’t understand it,” he said.

Evans said he also failed to understand why the school allowed so many other trips, but not this one. “The school has sent children to China, they’ve sent children to South America, they’ve sent children to the Czech Republic, but somehow Arizona is more unsafe for them than those places,” he said. “The beliefs and values of China are apparently aligned since they approved that trip,” he added.

One player, who said she is against the Arizona law, told Fox News she didn’t see how the tournament was related. “It’s ultimately the state’s decision, no matter what I think. Not playing basketball in Arizona is not going to change anything,” she told Fox News.

But for now, Hebson says, Arizona is off limits. "We would want to ensure that all of our students had the opportunity to be included and be safe and be able to enjoy the experience," Hebson told the Tribune about the tournament. "We wouldn't necessarily be able to guarantee that."

SOURCE





Climbing trees and snowball fights 'should be encouraged by British schools'

Pupils are losing the ability to think for themselves after being banned from climbing trees and taking part in snowball fights, it is claimed. Graham Gorton, chairman of the Independent Schools Association, called for a return to a “common sense approach” to education to reignite children’s self-awareness and sense of adventure.

The comments come amid continuing concerns that the compensation culture and fears over so-called “stranger danger” are stopping children playing outside, undermining their long-term development.

Last year, Play England warned that the lives of children had become “much more restricted and controlled” over the last 30 years and the amount of time young people spent playing alone in local neighbourhoods had "decreased noticeably". In some cases, it was claimed that play areas were being made too safe because of "fear of litigation and a wider blame culture".

In a speech to the ISA conference in Bournemouth today, Mr Gorton said that schools should allow children to “flourish” instead of “constantly judging their development against a target driven educational system”.

“What happened to the ‘common sense’ approach to education and the bringing up of children?” he said. “At my last school the pupils were allowed, and even actively encouraged, to climb trees within the grounds of the school. “They were told which ones were the best to climb and how to climb safely, but were then ‘left to explore’ with adults close at hand but not prohibiting them from discovering their own limits and extending their climbing abilities.

"Some prospective parents would ask if there were many accidents around this pastime. The answer was a most definite ‘no’. "In the eight years that I was at the school we had one sprained ankle from a pupil who was a little too high up a tree to jump down. "When we spoke to his parents about the injury their response was, 'Well next time perhaps he’ll be a little more careful'. How refreshing."

Mr Gorton, headmaster of fee-paying Howe Green House School, Hertfordshire, added: “Through the winter months it saddened me to hear of schools not allowing pupils out at break times after a fall of snow for fear of litigation should someone be injured. "I see such behaviours as robbing children of valuable and special childhood occasions and memories which cannot be appropriate.

“At my school I send a letter out to the parents at the beginning of the winter season stating that if there should be snow then we will be out playing in it. "I state that the pupils will be well supervised but will be encouraged to build snowmen and throw snowballs on the grassy areas.”

Addressing the ISA, which represents 300 private schools, Mr Gorton said that the best schools allowed children to think for themselves, act independently and “make inspired choices”. “They built up confidence by ensuring that we felt it was okay to be wrong and to learn from our mistakes,” he said.

“As a nation we feel uplifted when we see such inspirational leaders working amongst people on the big screen and on television, so why are some afraid to allow abundant creativity to pervade our classrooms and schools?”

The comments follow claims from one expert earlier this year that parental fears over child safety meant many young people were becoming “entombed” in the home instead of being allowed out to play.

Anthony Thomas, chairman of the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom, a charity established last year to promote school trips, said: “You are seeing a decline in youngsters actually using parks and playgrounds. “We are becoming entombed with our homes. Part of it is about security – parents worried about youngsters – and part of it is about the inclination of youngsters themselves.”

SOURCE





Australia: Cheating teacher admits changing test results

Another teacher who just can't face being judged by his results

A teacher at an Adelaide primary school has been suspended after admitting to altering national literacy and numeracy test results.

Another teacher at St Leonard's Primary School at Glenelg North dobbed in the teacher when she saw year seven NAPLAN test results being altered. It is not yet clear whether the teacher will be sacked.

South Australia's Education Minister Jay Weatherill says the students will be tested again to ensure the integrity of the controversial NAPLAN testing.

"An equivalency test is available. That test will be available to be administered next week. Parents will be advised this afternoon of the incident that has occurred at the school and the fact that every effort will be made to ensure that their students, their children are not disadvantaged," he said.

"On any objective view of the professional obligations of a teacher, this behaviour is utterly unacceptable. I think any teacher would understand that, even this teacher I think must be fully aware of the consequences of the action.

"This teacher has been stood down from duty and the disciplinary process will now take its course."

SOURCE



13 May, 2010

California school officials investigate alleged oral sex act in classroom

There are some standards in Californian schools? Only when something gets publicity

A US teacher is accused of ignoring two students engaged in a sex act in the middle of a packed classroom. KTLA said the incident at Haydock Intermediate School in Oxnard, California, took place in the middle of a packed classroom while other students watched a film.

An eighth-grade boy and a seventh-grade girl were reportedly involved.

Students allegedly filmed the act on their mobile phones and also took photos. The teacher who reportedly ignored the incident has been placed on paid administration leave while investigations take place.

The two students at the centre of the controversy are still attending the school.

A parent, Sylvia Ramirez, who also works at the school cafeteria, said she had seen a video of the act. "It sickens me," she said. "This is serious, very serious, and they didn't take it seriously. I don't recall signing school documents that told me I was going to sign up for a live sex show in the classroom."

Assistant Superintendent Sean Goldman said school officials were tipped off about the alleged encounter, which took place in early April, when they were investigating a parent’s complaint about a bullying issue.

SOURCE





Catholic school won't admit lesbians' son

A Catholic school that stands up for Catholic teachings! Rather rare

A ROMAN Catholic school in Massachusetts has withdrawn its acceptance of an eight-year-old boy with lesbian parents, saying their relationship was "in discord" with church teachings, according to one of the boy's mothers.

It's at least the second time in recent months that students have not been allowed to attend a US Catholic school because of their parents' sexual orientation, with the other instance in Colorado.

The Massachusetts woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of concerns about the effect of publicity on her son, said she planned to send the boy to St Paul Elementary School in Hingham in the (northern)autumn.

But she said she learned her son's acceptance was rescinded during a conference call on Tuesday with principal Cynthia Duggan and the parish priest, Father James Rafferty.

"I'm accustomed to discrimination, I suppose, at my age and my experience as a gay woman," the mother said. "But I didn't expect it against my child."

Father Rafferty said her relationship "was in discord with the teachings of the Catholic Church", which holds marriage is only between a man and woman, the woman said.

Father Rafferty and Ms Duggan did not respond to requests for comment.

Terrence Donilon, a spokesman for the Boston Archdiocese, said it learned about the school's decision yesterday. He said the archdiocese is now in "consultation with the pastor and principal to gather more information". Mr Donilon said the archdiocese does not have a policy prohibiting the children of same-sex couples from attending its schools.

SOURCE





Student Group Disbanded After Blacks-Only Field Trip

The Michigan school district investigating whether an elementary school field trip that excluded white students was illegal has disbanded the black-students-only academic support group that participated in the outing two weeks ago. “We have essentially put it on hold while we wait for the final determination on the investigation into possible violation of the State's Proposal 2,” Ann Arbor School District spokeswoman Liz Margolis told FoxNews.com.

Thirty members of the Dicken Elementary School’s AA Lunch Bunch, a support group designed to bridge the gap in test scores between white and black students, were taken on a field trip two weeks ago to meet Alec Gallimore, an African-American rocket scientist who is an aerospace engineering professor and propulsion lab director at the University of Michigan.

The school principal, Mike Madison, who is black, helped organize the trip, saying he hoped to encourage the students to pursue a career in the sciences. Hoping to quell rising tensions over the black-students-only outing, Madison sent a lengthy letter home to parents in which he explained the reasoning behind the trip.

He admitted, however, that it could have been “approached and arranged in a better way.” “The intent of our field trip was not to segregate or exclude students, as has been reported, but rather to address the societal issues, roadblocks and challenges that our African-American children will face as they pursue a successful academic education here in our community,” Madison wrote.

But instead of quashing tensions, the letter fueled a week of controversy and an onslaught of parental complaints that culminated late last week in the school district’s launch of an investigation into whether the field trip violated Proposal 2, a new state law that bans racial favoritism in public schools.

The investigation is ongoing, and the Lunch Break will be out to lunch until it's wrapped up. “It is likely this lunch program will be reworked to serve more students who are not testing at proficient or above on the state assessment tests,” said Margolis, who last week told FoxNews.com that the principal's motives were not in question.

“Except for the final advice from our legal on the Proposal 2 issue and working with the school parents, staff and students on some further conversations and plans around the school's assessment, there is nothing else to decide.”

SOURCE



12 May, 2010

The Harvard Way of Life

Let's not forget that Harvard was solidly pro-Nazi in the 1930s. They are just as far outside the American mainstream today

She's more likely than not to win confirmation to the Supreme Court. Thus, the really big question about Elena Kagan is blunter: How and when does the United States as a whole get out from under the sway of an alien enterprise such as her university, Harvard?

That the Kagan nomination positions one more Harvard graduate to tighten the Harvard-Yale vise on the court no more than reintroduces the consideration that Harvard isn't notably fond of the American Main Street. Out of Harvard, on a nonstop basis, pour some of America's worst ideas, such as that government has all the answers, old moralities have to go, and racism and sexism infest America -- though not Harvard, you better believe it! -- from top to bottom.

The old chestnut of a Harvard joke turns out to have merit: You can always tell a Harvard man, but you can't tell him much. It's because he -- and these days, she as well -- doesn't need to be told the rest of us are wrong about many things.

Back to Kagan, whose Harvard career underscores with splotches of crimson paint the Harvard community's intellectual and emotional remoteness from America.

Among other topics, the Kagan confirmation hearings will also bring to mind her and her university's long and deep resistance to allowing U.S. military recruiters on campus. Let us think that one through. The dean of the Harvard Law School is against affording her country's government a facility to meet with potential leaders of the very forces pledged to guarantee her country's freedoms. True, by the time she became law school dean, the Bush administration had threatened to take away Harvard's federal money if it persisted in resisting recruiters. Kagan submitted reluctantly to the new order. "I abhor the military's discriminatory policy," she said.

That was the matter in a nutshell: the military's "don't ask, don't tell" rule respecting gay and lesbian personnel. The policy violated Harvardian sensibilities. The military shouldn't judge its own policies for maintaining discipline -- not when Harvard could do the job better. Dean Kagan agreed in essence. Senators will certainly quiz her on this point at the confirmation hearings.

Anyway, here was -- is -- characteristic Harvard know-it-allness at work. Harvard knows what's good for us: thereby saving common folk the time it takes to make up their own minds. That Harvard takes an advanced view on the gay rights question doesn't surprise. Not Harvard's viewpoint alone, but that of pretty much the whole Northeast, is that enlightened people, many of them residing in faculty and magazine offices, have settled the question in our behalf.

Where once the great unwashed thought legitimate sexual relationships were those involving partners of the opposite sex, all that old stuff has been declared null and void, not to mention rural and out-of-date.

Here's what's really interesting with respect to "don't ask, don't tell": The big question, for Harvard, wasn't how Harvard can help the military meet its professed needs. No, it was why doesn't the military acknowledge that, look here, when Harvard talks, America listens? Or sure better!

The military might or might not have judged aright of its position on how well gay and straight soldiers function at close quarters. Was it for Harvard (other liberal universities, it must be pointed out, made the same judgment) to demand that issues of military effectiveness and public safety give way to the single, burning imperative of sexual preference rights? At Harvard it was fine. Nothing else seems to have mattered.

Red State and Blue State America: you can call them smears on the map, yet they embody large realities. The two Americas are seriously at odds: "Reds" perpetually put off by the perpetual condescension of "Blues" unwilling to entertain the backward viewpoints of outsiders. Comes now yet another "Blue," headed for the highest bench in the land -- a wonderful vantage point for putting down the preoccupations of Americans screwy enough to believe not every Great Idea was born in 1965.

Can we hardly wait?

SOURCE





Low High School standards entrenched in America

To cite a cliché, the more things change the more they remain the same. This applies to many areas of life, but arguably it is the essence of educational reform.

Recently the ACT, an independent organization that provides assessment, research and program management in broad areas of education, issued a statement on the “essentials for college and career readiness.”

What it found is precisely what evaluators of education in the United States have been saying for decades. Despite an enormous per capita national expenditure for education, exceeded only by Switzerland, “high school learning standards are still not sufficiently aligned with postsecondary expectations.”

Across the curriculum, college instructors and high school teachers differ on the level of preparation for college assignments with many more high school teachers than college instructors reporting that graduates are prepared. At the same time, while college math and science instructors agree that reading is one of the most important skills needed for success in this century, “overwhelming majorities of them report spending little or no time teaching reading strategies in their courses.”

Apparently findings indicate that students are shortchanged in high school and post secondary courses, despite the fact many high school teachers believe their students are adequately prepared for higher education study. There is simply a huge disparity between skill level and performance expectations.

To address this concern the ACT contends high school standards should focus on fewer – but essential – college and career readiness conditions and a rigorous core curriculum should be mandated for all high school graduates. These are sensible recommendations that have been advocated for at least half a century. The key question is why haven’t these recommendations been put into practice if everyone – or almost everyone – knows what should be done.

There are several factors that account for this state of affairs. One, student readiness is not related to faculty compensation. In fact, merit pay, which could be related to readiness, is consistently opposed by the teachers’ union. Second, relatively little time is spent on “hard subjects” such as math and science. The curriculum is, to some degree, a mirror on national social conditions. If there are fatalities on our highways, driver education is encouraged. When rates of illegitimacy rise, sex education is emphasized. As rates of drug abuse assail us, drug education is introduced. And, of course, political correctness is a time consuming theme that crosses all disciplines, even the sciences.

There are, in most high schools, pep rallies prior to the Friday night football game. There are announcements of various kinds during the school day and, of course, the required weekly assembly program.

In addition, distractions prevail. Texting is the nemesis of concentration. There are video games, e-mails, Facebook, sororities, fraternities, parties, television programs that trump serious study. It is also the case that high school teachers are among the most marginal students in their college classes. Although there are superb teachers, the profession lacks the status and prestige that accompany other professions.

Last, perhaps most noteworthy, is the nation’s dysfunctional social life. Divorce, illegitimacy and various forms of social deviancy have disrupted home life so that mom at the kitchen table with cookies and milk at 3 pm is as rare as two dollar bills. Mom is probably working; no one is there to guide Johnny and Mary when they return from school except Oprah Winfrey. Homework is for autodidacts and, most teachers do not count on homework assignments, a bygone vestige of education in another era.

The “Leave It To Beaver” family is interred and with it have gone attention to student performance. Parents may retain expectations for their children, but the conditions necessary to achieve these goals are lacking. Now schools do not concentrate on subjects that matter, distractions make learning a chore and the mediating social structures that aided educational attainment are in trouble.

Clearly the ACT should be commended for pointing out what should be done to improve educational performance, but I’ve heard all the claims before. Until there is recognition of what ails us, there will be many more reports in our future, but little progress in student attainment.

SOURCE






School reform in Britain: The model for the revolution

Fraser Nelson is spot on. No matter what is given up in the negotiations between the Conservative Party and Liberal Democrats, Michael Gove’s school reforms are too important to be subject to political compromise. Fraser Nelson has championed this policy for a while now. In fact, for a good introduction to what is at stake, take a look at this excellent article from 2008.

There are going to be tough times ahead. Needs must when the devil drives; there is no getting around the fact that there are going to be substantial cuts in government expenditure. The Conservative Party, with or without the Lib Dems, are going to have to play the villains.

This is of course familiar territory, they had to pick up the pieces when the Labour Party last drove the country into the ground. Thatcher managed to (re)empower people through various means, most notably through offering the ‘right-to-buy’ for council tenants, but as with all governments, the momentum of reform slowed down and she had a penchant for centralising power, that was being abused, without dispersing it back to the people. In consequence, the Conservative Party have been caricatured as a party only of slash and burn.

Forced once again to sort out the mess left by Labour's mismanagement and profligacy, if the Conservative Party is to avoid being tarred with the same brush they need, unlike Thatcher, to also offer an alternative contemporaneous narrative. Rhetorical guff like ‘the big society’ just won’t cut the mustard.

School reform could and should form the key-stone of this narrative. Assuming it is done properly, Sweden’s success can be replicated in the UK. They will also need to be radical on health, welfare and pension reforms. In all cases, they should allow taxpayers more choice and focus any exemptions/ welfare/ top-ups/ exemptions at only the most vulnerable.

SOURCE (See the original for links)



11 May, 2010

La.: Teacher sues over right to flunk her students

Sheila Goudeau, by all accounts, was a good teacher. In fact, she was the only nationally certified teacher at Riveroaks Elementary School, and she was a nominee for teacher of the year. But that didn’t qualify her to grade her students, according to a suit she has filed against the East Baton Rouge, La., school and its administrators.

According to the civil rights suit filed in federal court in Baton Rouge, Goudeau was asked to teach fourth grade last year by the school’s principal, Shilonda Shamlin, in order to help raise grades and have students prepare for the state mandated Louisiana Educational Assessment Test (LEAP), which all students in the state must pass to move on to the next grade.

After she took the job, the suit alleges, Shamlin ordered that no student was to get a failing grade and that teachers were not to record any grade lower than a "D."

Goudeau’s attorney, Craig Sterling Watson, said the suit doesn’t specify why Shamlin gave the orders, and he said Goudeau still doesn't know. He said Goudeau complied with the orders and didn’t fail students, but she complained about the orders and filed a grievance with the school district. At that point, the suit claims, Goudeau was monitored, harassed and disparaged in front of her students. She has since transferred to another elementary school in the district.

The suit seeks unspecified damages for Goudeau's severe and extreme mental pain, suffering, and anguish; physical pain, suffering and anguish; loss of sleep; loss of quality of lifestyle; loss of reputation and standing in the community; humiliation and embarrassment; medical expenses; counseling; wages; and loss of earning capacity from the principal, the school district, and current and former school superintendents of the district.

Principal Shamlin did not reply to repeated requests for comment. Domione Rutledge, general counsel for East Baton Rouge Parish School Board, said the school district couldn’t speak about the allegations “because it still hadn’t been served with the papers.”

Lawsuits like the one Goudeau filed are rare, said Perry A Zirkel, a professor in education and law at Lehigh University says. He explained that while courts generally agree that a teacher's right to grade is protected by the First Amendment, they also find that administrators have the same right and can change grades as they like. “So the teacher wins the right to give a D and the school has the right to change it to an A,” he said.

But the suit has already served one purpose. It brought about a wave of criticism aimed at the principal and school administrators and showed that the school staff was bitterly divided. When a story about the lawsuit appeared in The Advocate, a Baton Rouge daily, a chorus of complaints charged that Shamlin ruled the school with a heavy hand and demanded regimentation of studies and classrooms.

“It's a crippling work environment at Riveroaks and the school's reputation is well-known throughout the parish," wrote an anonymous poster to the newspaper's website. "Just consider the teacher turnover at the school. There is almost an entire new staff hired each year. This year won't be any different.”

But another responded, "Mrs. Shamlin has done more to improve the quality of education at Riveroaks in the last four years than any other principal. Ask any parent that has had more than one child there over the years. She cares about the students and has high standards for them and the teachers."

The case is unlikely to go to trial for some time, Watson said.

SOURCE





British teachers hate being assessed too

They know that exam results give some idea of how good their teaching is

Tens of thousands of primary children missed Key Stage 2 tests yesterday as head teachers took direct action and refused to hand out papers.

Despite preparing themselves all year for the tests, formerly known as Sats, 10 and 11-year-old children across England learnt yesterday that they had been cancelled. They were due to start with reading tests while writing, spelling and maths papers were due later this week. However, the tests remained sealed, boxed and locked away in many schools, where heads and teachers took unprecedented action after a year of sabre-rattling.

They claim that pressure to teach to the tests narrows the Year 6 curriculum, and puts undue stress on children, teachers and head teachers whose careers depend on the results, which are used to judge the school’s performance.

Ed Balls, still in place as Schools Secretary, recently raised the stakes by telling governing bodies and local authorities they had a duty to try to ensure the tests went ahead, and suggesting they could suspend heads who failed to comply.

Yet the boycott, organised by the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) and the National Union of Teachers (NUT), went ahead in more than half of schools in some areas.

In Hartlepool, all 31 schools took action, as did about three quarters of schools in Calderdale. Other areas involved in the boycott include Manchester, Reading, Stoke-on-Trent, Norfolk and several London boroughs.

In Barnsley, West Yorkshire, about three fifths of schools refused to administer the tests. At Athersley South Primary School, children cheered when it was confirmed at 9am that their tests would not be taking place.

The art room had been prepared, with rows of tables and a pencil and wooden ruler for every child. Vibrant art work and colourful pottery were covered with black paper or tablecloths, as pupils are not supposed to sit the tests in an atmosphere that could inspire or distract them, the head teacher Steve Iredale said.

“We had to sterilise the room, which makes it quite scary for the children,” Mr Iredale said. “I will offer the unopened packet of tests back on Friday when Parcelforce come to collect the papers. If they won’t take them, they will gather dust in the store cupboard.”

Mr Iredale, an executive member of the NAHT, told the children that they might not sit the tests, and wrote to all parents explaining why. He claims to have received 100 per cent support.

His school assesses all children’s progress, with local officials acting as external monitors, and will provide information on what academic stage each pupil has reached to the local authority and the Government.

This, Mr Iredale says, is more accurate than the Key Stage tests, because a school’s results can be skewed by one clever child being off sick or having a bad day. “You live or die by a set of good or bad results,” he said.

His Year 6 children were instead immersed in drawing pictures and designing a woodland garden for the school grounds.

One girl said of the tests: “If you’re doing a writing test you have to do a detailed plan before you write anything, you have to use an introduction, paragraphs and a conclusion. It’s a lot of pressure and because of that you might get a lower mark because you’re feeling nervous.”

Her classmate said: “My dad didn’t like it because I used to go home and ask him things like what the biggest mountain in the world is. All I’ve been saying this year is what level I’m at. We haven’t done much geography this year. I liked doing geography and history especially learning about the Second World War.”

Teachers complain that, not only is most of the last year of school geared toward the tests in May, but also that the last two months of term are wasted as children’s behaviour and concentration wanes afterwards.

Mr Iredale said heads would be keeping up the pressure on whoever comes to power, to ensure the tests were abandoned. “This isn’t over,” he said. “We need to know very quickly what is happening for next year.” He said head teachers felt frustrated. “This isn’t a militant group of people — we are school leaders: conservative with a small c, but we’ve been driven to this.”

The tests are normally taken by about 600,000 children each year. Christine Blower, general secretary of the NUT, said enough schools had taken action to scupper the primary school league tables drawn up from the test results, which was a key aim of the campaign.

“There are reports from many areas that a significant majority of primary school pupils will not be sitting Key Stage 2 tests this week. I am delighted that so many schools have taken the brave step of taking part in the boycott, despite the many pressures not to.”

SOURCE






Australia: Surveyor rejects 'insane' school building costs

THE nation's most respected construction costs surveyor will exclude the "insane" cost of school buildings delivered under the $16.2 billion schools stimulus program from its cost calculations because they would distort its data.

The principal of Rawlinsons in Australia, Paul McEvoy, said the group, which publishes the renowned industry costing guide Rawlinsons Construction Handbook, would discard the high cost of buildings delivered under the scheme as "anomalous".

As revealed by The Weekend Australian, state governments are charging public schools as much as $5800 a square metre for basic school halls being erected across the nation -- more than three times the amount Rawlinsons reports those buildings should cost.

"We produce this handbook each year and we have people undertaking cost research all year round to ensure its accuracy," Mr McEvoy said. "We discard anomalous projects where it looks like something is erroneous. We would never say it is going to cost $5000 (per sq m) to build a school hall. "We have so many examples of projects where buildings are consistent with our cost estimates; we would simply not use this (scheme) information."

Mr McEvoy said level-one or two primary school buildings typically cost between $1300 per sq m and $1400 per sq m to build, plus "professional services" fees of no more than 12 per cent.

Those costings allowed for contingencies for cost overruns and the full cost of preliminaries, substructure, superstructure, finishes, fittings, and services such as plumbing, electrical, fire and mechanical.

Mr McEvoy said he had no idea why school halls and libraries in NSW were being delivered at $5400 per sq m and $5800 per sq m respectively. "I can offer no explanation for such a high figure," he said."Insanity comes in many forms".

Education Minister Julia Gillard has been unable to explain why public schools are being charged so much for buildings under the BER, except to claim media reports were not comparing "apples with apples". "I often find when these figures are used in the newspapers there isn't a clear apples-to-apples accounting," Mr Gillard told Sydney radio host Alan Jones this week.

The high cost of buildings delivered to public schools under the BER has caused anger among school principals, with buildings delivered by state governments twice as likely to be viewed as poor value for money compared with those delivered independently.

The Australian National Audit Office's report into the schools stimulus, released on Wednesday, found 82 per cent of schools that were self-managing projects -- almost exclusively private schools -- believed they had received value for money compared with 40 per cent for other schools. Private schools have been obtaining buildings within industry standard costings, delivering them for far better value for money than their public peers.

The International Grammar School in the Sydney suburb of Ultimo is building an architect-designed four-level building, complete with arts and crafts centre, library and rooftop deck -- for $3.9 million. That equates to $2785 per sq m for the multi-level complex, less than half the cost by area of the modest school halls being given to public schools.

The Mount Evelyn Christian School in Melbourne's west is building a 1600sq m architect-designed hall to house two basketball courts, a rock climbing wall and a stage, for $2.27m. That equates to $1420 a square metre.

Mr McEvoy said CBD banks were among the most expensive type of buildings covered by Rawlinsons, and cost $5030 per sq m.

SOURCE



10 May, 2010

Harvard Law has fallen into the hands of intellectual Fascists. Free enquiry is dead

Their feminist dean has all the respect for facts and logic that one expects from a committed feminist

Late last month, controversy erupted at Harvard Law School after a private email written in November was leaked to the law school community. In it, a third year student, clarifying her views after a dinner conversation with two close friends, explained to them that she wanted to understand the science and research on whether intelligence may have a genetic component and whether African Americans may be “less intelligent on a genetic level.”

Harvard Law School dean Martha Minow promptly responded by issuing a statement condemning the email and reminding students and faculty that the right to free speech comes with responsibilities. Unfortunately, the dean also reinforced the most common and serious prejudice at American universities today, which targets those who think, or who merely wish to examine critically, nonconforming or disfavored thoughts.

Dean Minow’s statement, moreover, failed to honor the scholar’s duty to restate accurately a view one is criticizing. According to Minow, the student’s email “suggested that black people are genetically inferior to white people.” That’s an incendiary revision.

What the student actually wrote is that she couldn’t “rule out the possibility that African Americans are, on average, genetically predisposed to be less intelligent.” Then, in the very next sentence, she entertained the possibility that there is no genetic variation in intelligence between the races: “I could also obviously be convinced that by controlling for the right variables, we would see that they are, in fact, as intelligent as white people under the same circumstances.” The student went on to speculate that “cultural differences” are probably “the most important sources of disparate test scores.” And the student elaborated at length an argument from Harvard Law School professor Randall Kennedy that in the student’s judgment deftly showed, despite the absence of “quantifiable data,” that racial disparities for violent crimes were rooted in culture. In sum, the student clearly expressed the desire to set aside conclusions of the heart, and instead examine the scientific data and consider reasoned analysis concerning the genetic basis of intelligence.

Minow’s rewriting of the after-dinner email, however, turned the student’s competing hypotheses and interest in the scientific evidence into a crude racist claim about people’s relative moral worth. Unless, perhaps, Dean Minow assumes that interest in some empirical propositions is inherently racist. Or was it the dean’s even more illiberal and antidemocratic assumption that human moral worth is a function of IQ that justified her condemnation of the student?

Furthermore, the dean implicitly encouraged members of the law school community to regard the student as a pariah when she added that “circulation of one student’s comment does not reflect the views of the school or the overwhelming majority of the members of this community.”

While devoting the longest paragraph of her brief statement to praising the Black Law Students Association for the way it handled “the hurt” caused by the email, Minow did not counterbalance her distancing of the law school from the email’s student author by offering even a hint of reproach for the gross violation of the student’s privacy involved in distributing the email, or a word of caution about the difficulties in interpreting private comments that become fodder for public controversy.

In a statement posted on their website, the Harvard Black Law Students Association echoed Minow’s misrepresentation of the student’s views, further contending that the student’s characterization of African Americans as genetically inferior to white people was “racially inflammatory,” “deplorable,” and “offensive.”

By this time, as Dean Minow noted in her statement, the student had already issued an unequivocal apology: “I am deeply sorry for the pain caused by my email. I never intended to cause any harm, and I am heartbroken and devastated by the harm that has ensued. I would give anything to take it back.”

This saga has followed the same dispiriting trajectory as that of the Lawrence Summers affair. In 2005, the then president of Harvard University spoke at a private off-the-record seminar organized by the National Bureau of Economic Research to explore why women, who had made great strides throughout most of higher education, remained significantly underrepresented in sciences and engineering. One of the hypotheses that Summers considered—which he hedged with caveats while insisting that more research was needed—was that fewer women than men were born with the extremely high levels of abstract theoretical intelligence that graduate study of science and engineering requires. Although he explicitly rejected it is as the chief factor, Summers’s tentative discussion proved too much for MIT biology professor Nancy Hopkins. She set off a national controversy by walking out of the meeting, informing the Boston Globe that if she hadn’t, “I would’ve either blacked out or thrown up,” and suggesting that Summers had argued that women were genetically inferior to men.

The controversy presented Summers with an opportunity to instruct Harvard and the larger public about the university’s proper mission. He might have begun by pointing out that he had participated in the meeting because of his devotion to equal treatment for women and had argued that the most important factor explaining women’s underrepresentation in the sciences is probably that many young women with the requisite intellectual gifts rationally choose to go into law, business, or medicine, which allows them to establish careers and begin families in much less time than in the sciences. And he should have concentrated on arguing that it is the special task of the university to expose a range of hypotheses, including unpopular ones, to rigorous analysis.

Instead, Summers issued one groveling apology after another, endorsing his critics’ view that his remarks were false and insensitive. This was to no avail. He lost a no-confidence vote in the faculty of arts and sciences and within a year was ousted from Harvard’s presidency.

It is not to be expected that a third-year law student, publicly accused by her dean of making hurtful, racist comments, would step up to defend herself in light of the university’s proper mission. But it is to be lamented that Dean Minow, who sought to turn the controversy into a teachable moment, taught the wrong lesson.

For Minow, the lesson is that members of the university community must learn to be more sensitive. For fear of offending each other and causing hurt, students and faculty must not mention, even in private correspondence, a proposition that “resonates with old and hurtful misconceptions,” even if the proposition itself—concerning the biological basis of intelligence—can be proven false through empirical investigation. This, though, is an intellectually stultifying obligation. In a complicated world, everything resonates with everything.

Contrary to Dean Minow, our students and faculty need to learn to be less sensitive. Instead, they need to develop the virtues of toleration and intellectual humility. The cultivation of sensitivity sharpens antennae for hurtful words and ideas, and encourages complaining whenever they sting. In contrast, toleration, particularly at universities, means suffering with equanimity the expression of disagreeable, even odious, opinions, provided that they are subject to reasoned analysis. The cultivation of humility fosters respect for others and their opinions and a willingness to follow logic, evidence, and experience—to consider that one might be wrong and to find in others’ errors the occasion for improving one’s own understanding.

The question of race and IQ is explosive. It has an ugly history, and it has been tied to cruel injustice. But the nefarious use of opinions about the biological basis of intelligence is no reason to denounce a student who advocates submitting competing claims to systematic inquiry.

In her statement to the Harvard Law School community, Dean Minow ought to have proclaimed that free speech on campus is very broad, that it is rooted in the freedom and equality of all human beings, and that its purpose is to protect the robust examination of ideas, including controversial ones, in order that the truth may emerge. She ought to have reminded students and faculty who cherish free inquiry that it is their responsibility to confront views that they deplore with better evidence and stronger arguments.

If Dean Minow’s principle that hurtful opinions must go unspoken and unexamined were taken seriously and applied impartially, then law schools and universities would be obliged to close down the dispassionate investigation of an enormous range of important public issues, from the morality, law, and politics of abortion, affirmative action, and same-sex marriage to the causes of the financial crisis; from the efficiency and justice of health care reform to the rules governing the detention, interrogation, and prosecution of enemy combatants; from Middle East politics to immigration.

And that’s no way to run a law school or a university.

SOURCE

Powerline has an incisive summary of the matter






Plan to shut alleged philosophy course condemned by British academics

Good riddance to Marxist rubbish

Plans to shut one of the world’s leading university philosophy courses have sparked outrage among academics. Professors claimed that a decision to phase out teaching of the subject at Middlesex University would seriously undermine future research into the humanities.

The move has already led to a 12,000-strong petition and a “sit in” protest by students at the university’s north London campus.

The decision comes amid widespread cuts announced at higher education institutions across the UK after it was revealed university budgets would be slashed by almost £500 million next year.

The University and College Union estimate that more than 15,000 jobs – the majority academic posts – could disappear in the next few years.

Cutbacks are being made at institutions including King’s College London, Westminster, Leeds, Sheffield Hallam, Hull, Cumbria, Wolverhampton and the University of the West of England.

Middlesex has decided to close its philosophy teaching programme, insisting that the number of BA students has hit “unsustainably low” numbers, at 12 a year.

But some of the world’s leading philosophers have said that the move is of “national and international concern”. In a letter to Times Higher Education magazine, it was claimed that the decision would threaten subjects such as critical theory, aesthetics, Marxism and psychoanalysis. [Philosophical rubbish, in other words]

The letter – signed by more than 20 academics – said: “Middlesex is widely recognised as one of the most important centres for the study of modern European philosophy anywhere in the English-speaking world.”

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Obama blames computer games for educational failures

How pathetic can you get?

President Barack Obama told college graduates on Sunday the era of the iPod and the Xbox has not always been good for the cause of a strong education.

Obama made the point in a commencement speech to more than 1,000 graduates and thousands of their family and friends gathered on the football field at Hampton University, a historically black college in southeastern Virginia.

Obama said today's college graduates are coming of age at a time of great difficulty for the United States. They face a tough economy for jobs, two wars and a 24/7 media environment not always dedicated to the truth, he said.

Added to the mix are the distractions offered by popular electronic devices that entertain millions of Americans. "With iPods and iPads; Xboxes and PlayStations -- none of which I know how to work -- information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation," Obama said. "All of this is not only putting new pressures on you. It is putting new pressures on our country and on our democracy," Obama said.

Wearing a colorful ceremonial robe, Obama stressed the importance of a good education to adapt to what he called "a period of breathtaking change."

Obama, the United States' first African-American president, said black students face more difficult headwinds than others and are typically outperformed by their white classmates.

He urged the Hampton graduates to be role models and mentors to younger people to teach them the importance of education and personal responsibility.

Obama also said an education can help people sift through the many voices "clamoring for attention on blogs, on cable, on talk radio" and help them find the truth. "Let's face it, even some of the craziest claims can quickly gain traction. I've had some experience with that myself," said Obama.

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9 May, 2010

The North Dakota degree factory

Not the best way to gain respect for your degrees

North Dakota State University will set another record this spring for the number of doctoral degrees awarded. NDSU anticipates presenting 46 doctoral degrees this week, a 53 percent increase over the 30 degrees awarded at last spring’s graduation.

A recent survey shows that North Dakota leads the nation for growth in graduate degree production. North Dakota increased doctoral degree production by 226 percent between 1998 and 2008, compared to 25 percent nationally, according to the Council of Graduate Schools.

Dave Wittrock, dean of NDSU’s Graduate School, said the large increase is in part due to the limited number of doctoral programs available in North Dakota in 1998. Since that time, NDSU has added 26 doctoral programs. “We did not have as many opportunities within the state for students to get doctoral degrees,” Wittrock said.

However, the survey also affirms that universities in North Dakota have been successful in enhancing their missions. In all, NDSU will award about 252 graduate and professional degrees this spring.

Wittrock anticipates that graduate education will continue to increase at NDSU. “Graduate education needs to be an important part of where we move in the future,” he said.

The University of North Dakota estimates it will award 104 doctoral degrees for this academic year.

UND family medicine

The University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences tops a list of medical schools that have a high percentage of students entering family medicine.

The American Academy of Family Physicians recognized UND and nine other schools that graduated the greatest percentage of students who choose family medicine during a three-year period. UND had 20.4 percent of graduates entering family medicine.

The University of South Dakota ranked third with 16.9 percent, and the University of Minnesota ranked sixth with 16.3 percent.

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The End of a Good Run for Chicago School Choice Bill

In a disappointing turn of events, the Illinois House has rejected a school voucher bill that would have enabled up to 30,000 children to escape the underperforming Chicago public schools to attend a private school of their choice. But the story here – that a monumental school choice program was introduced by a Democratic Senator, passed through the Democrat-controlled Senate, out of the House Education Committee on a 10-1 vote, and seriously considered in the Democrat-controlled House, is something the Democrats who currently control the House and Senate in Washington should take note of.

The Chicago Tribune reports this morning: "A measure to let students in Chicago’s worst-performing and most-overcrowded elementary schools use taxpayer-funded vouchers to attend private schools was defeated in the Illinois House on Wednesday, giving teachers unions a major victory."

The landmark legislation would have made Chicago Public Schools the site of what experts said would be the nation’s largest voucher program. Up to 30,000 of the district’s 400,000 students could have left the weak schools they now attend, setting up competition for public schools.

For school choice advocates nationally, the prospect of a voucher program in Illinois was electrifying, made all the more so by the fact that it is home to national office-holders who have blocked the door for educational opportunity in the Nation’s Capitol: President Obama, Senator Durbin, and Secretary Duncan. The irony was palpable.

The school choice proposal was introduced in the Senate by Rev. Senator James Meeks, a Democrat. The proposal passed the Senate back in March, and proceeded through the House education committee with 10 committee members to 1 voting in favor of the bill.

Yesterday’s vote in the House was the last stop before heading to Governor Pat Quinn’s desk for approval. The voucher program would have enabled up to 30,000 elementary children in Chicago’s worst performing public schools to escape to a private school of their choice.

According to the Illinois Policy Institute, 37 out of the 48 schools that make up the lowest 10 percent of performers (those schools in which children would be eligible for vouchers) have been under federal and state sanctions for at least 9 successive years. Students in severely overcrowded schools (numbering approximately 20) would have also been eligible to receive a voucher under the new school choice program. Like similarly-structured programs in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Cleveland, Ohio, and Washington, D.C., parents would have received a voucher (for approximately $4,000 in Chicago) and would have been responsible for the balance of what remains in private school tuition.

The Chicago Sun-Times editorialized favorably about the school choice bill, writing: "One argument is that vouchers siphon off better students from public schools, leaving the educational environment poorer. This is truly a bankrupt notion — the idea that the kids are there to service the schools. No, the schools are supposed to serve the children and when they fail to do that, Meeks rightly demands the state afford parents the opportunity of choice — something the middle class enjoys by virtue of moving to suburbs with good schools or reaching into their pockets for private education."

It is indeed a “bankrupt notion” to believe that children are at the mercy of the public school system. Unfortunately, it still seems to have currency with the Obama administration. That school choice should not just be available to those who can afford to pay private school tuition on top of the taxes they pay for public school, as Obama did in choosing to send his children to private school. Or as Senator Durbin – who crafted the original language to kill the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program – did when he enrolled his children in parochial school. Or as Education Secretary Duncan did when he purchased a home in Northern Virginia to avoid sending his child to D.C. Public Schools.

When asked in an interview with Science about where his daughter attends school and how that decision was made, Duncan stated: "She goes to Arlington [Virginia] public schools. That was why we chose where we live, it was the determining factor. That was the most important thing to me. My family has given up so much so that I could have the opportunity to serve; I didn’t want to try to save the country’s children and our educational system and jeopardize my own children’s education."

Yet, the Education Secretary, certain members of Congress, and President Obama – despite exercising school choice for their own children – have allowed the lights to dim on the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. A program that has improved academic achievement, kept children safe and has the support of more than 70 percent of District residents. A program that at $7,500 per scholarship is half the per-pupil expenditures in the D.C. Public School System.

Who would have imagined that the land of Durbin, Duncan and Obama would have been on the threshold of enacting one of the largest voucher programs in the country? While yesterday’s decision in Illinois delivers a blow to the hopes of families trapped in underperforming public schools, it sends a strong signal to school choice proponents that the fight is well worth it and gaining ground – in the Windy City and across the country.

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British government price controls and regulations driving childcare centres out of business at a great rate

The number of childcare places has plummeted since the start of the year, according to official figures. Some 11,000 places have been lost as hundreds of nurseries and registered childminders are forced out of business.

Data from Ofsted suggested that a sharp drop in numbers over the last two years has continued into 2010, raising doubts over a Labour pledge to expand free childcare and offer parents greater flexibility.

Critics have blamed the recession combined with a rise in the number of regulations aimed at early years care.

A new funding formula to address the concerns of private, voluntary and independent sector nurseries – caring for the majority of children – was due to be introduced last month. But it was delayed for a year after state-run nurseries warned it could divert funds away, leaving them facing budget cuts or closure.

The Conservatives have pledged to allow private nurseries to charge top-up fees amid claims they are already being shut at the rate of almost 1,000 a year, but this has been heavily criticised by Gordon Brown who claimed it would hit low-income families.

According to new figures, the number of nurseries registered with Ofsted dropped by 248 in the three months to the end of March. Some 2,603 childminders have also been forced out of business.

In all, 11,288 childcare places have been removed, although it represents a small proportion of the 1.3m total nationally. Some 56,881 childminders remain in England and numbers have been falling year on year since the late 90s. Government figures show the number of registered childminders in England has now dropped from 102,600 in 1996.

Critics have blamed the Government’s Early Years Foundation Stage – a compulsory “curriculum” taught by all nurseries, pre-schools and childminders.

Under rules, which were introduced in September 2008, children are expected to meet a series of 69 targets focusing on literacy, numeracy, social development and problem-solving by their fifth birthday.

Childminders, who look after very young children in their own homes for as little as £3 an hour, must now draw up plans of what activities they will carry out with those in their care, monitor their progress in meeting the goals and write reports when they go on to nursery.

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8 May, 2010

Bigot Principal Under Fire for 'Blacks Only' Field Trip

Mike Madison, the principal of Dicken Elementary School in Ann Arbor, Mich., is lashing out at his critics and defending a field trip the school organized for black students to visit a rocket scientist. According to Madison, the trip was merely a part of his school's efforts to close the achievement gap between whites and blacks.

In a letter addressed to parents, Madison wrote, "In hindsight, this field trip could have been approached and arranged in a better way." (Uhh, ya think?) But, Madison says, the opportunity for the black children to be "in the presence of a renowned African American rocket scientist... gave the kids an opportunity to see this type of achievement is possible for even them."

"It was not a wasted venture for I know one day they might want to aspire to be the first astronaut or scientist standing on the Planet Mars," he wrote.

Despite singling out black students in this trip and talking about how achievement is possible for them, Madison insisted the intent of the field trip "was not to segregate or exclude students... but rather to address the societal issues, roadblocks and challenges that our African American children will face as they pursue a successful academic education..."

Such a nice sentiment. Now, who is going to address the challenges the kids will face after having such a doofus for a principal?

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One teenager in five leaving British schools unable to read or do maths

A similar proportion to the USA. Most will be blacks going by the U.S. experience

One in five teenagers leaves school illiterate and innumerate despite two decades of education reform, research shows. More than 100,000 lack the basic skills needed to function in society.

A study found there has been little or no change in the last 20 years in the proportion of youngsters rendered unemployable because they have such a poor grasp of words and numbers.

About 17 per cent of 16 to 19-year-olds are functionally illiterate, according to the study led by Professor Greg Brooks from the University of Sheffield.

'People at this level can handle only simple tests and straightforward questions on them where no distracting information is adjacent or nearby,' the study said. 'Making inferences and understanding forms of indirect meaning, e.g. allusion and irony, are likely to be difficult or impossible. 'This is less than the functional literacy needed to partake fully in employment, family life and citizenship and to enjoy reading for its own sake.'

Some 22 per cent of 16 to 19-year-olds are essentially innumerate, according to the study. This means they have 'very basic competence in maths, mainly limited to arithmetical computations and some ability to comprehend and use other forms of mathematical information'.

The study adds: 'While this is valuable, it is clearly not enough to deal confidently with many of the mathematical challenges of contemporary life.'

Levels of functional innumeracy are even higher among older age groups, the research claims.

The Tories claim Labour has been too slow to embrace the 'synthetic phonics' method of teaching children to read, which has been credited with virtually wiping out illiteracy where it has been used. The technique, which involves teaching children the sounds that make up words, was only made mandatory four years ago.

The failure to get to grips with the basics early on is thought to increase pupils' disaffection with school, leading to them becoming alienated and dropping out.

Teachers said a 'long tail of underachievement' had long been a feature of English education.

John Bangs, head of education at the National Union of Teachers, said the Government should offer one-to-one tuition for pupils, support for parents and more training for teachers. But he added: 'There are no magic solutions.'

The study, which analysed decades of evidence, found that the average reading scores for 13 to 19-year-olds improved between 1948 and 1960 but remained 'remarkably constant' between 1960 and 1988.

They rose 'gently' until 2004 before a further plateau. Writing performance has been relatively static since 1979.

The study was published by the Times Educational Supplement as it emerged that one in three primary schools are failing to meet a Labour performance benchmark and facing greater scrutiny from local authorities and Government. About 6,000 primaries are deemed to be under-achieving or 'coasting' because they are failing to improve results fast enough.

Labour has spent billions on a string of initiatives aimed at raising standards of basic skills. This has included giving teachers extra training in grammar and maths and making them follow prescribed lesson plans.

A 'functional skills' exam for 16-year-olds was devised to tackle employers' concerns, but plans to make passing this a pre-condition of good GCSE results were dropped.

Labour embraced the Conservatives' primary school literacy hour in 1997 and introduced a similar initiative for maths, before extending the drive to secondary schools. But it dropped the prescribed daily literacy and numeracy hours following numerous updates to the programmes and evidence that test results were stalling.

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Australian Federal government forced teachers to call off boycott of tests

Julia Gillard has stared down the teachers' unions and forced them to drop their plans to boycott next week's national literacy and numeracy testing in schools.

The Australian Education Union yesterday called off the proposed boycott of the NAPLAN tests after the Education Minister agreed to set up a working party to examine student performance data.

But Ms Gillard did not agree to remove any information from the controversial My School website, concerns about which prompted the union's boycott threat.

A meeting of the union's federal executive yesterday decided to lift the moratorium on administration of the NAPLAN tests. Before the AEU had time to make its backdown known, Ms Gillard angered some in the union by publicly praising its decision.

It is understood Ms Gillard had struck a deal with the union in the past few days and was told the executive would support a backdown by 11am yesterday. Ms Gillard's statement was sent out before the meeting ended.

AEU federal president Angelo Gavrielatos said Ms Gillard had offered to set up a working party to provide advice on the use of student performance data and indicators of school effectiveness.

"The working party will provide a way to advance and address the profession's educational concerns relating to the misuse of student test data including school league tables," he said.

"It will also provide an opportunity for teachers and principals to engage in a genuine dialogue with the government on a sound approach to school accountability and improving results."

Mr Gavrielatos said the working group provided a resolution to the impasse, which had led state governments to seek casual or relief teachers to oversee the tests.

Ms Gillard said the government would ask the Australian Curriculum, Reporting and Assessment Authority to set up a working group with literacy and numeracy specialists, principal organisations and representatives of the Independent Education Union and the AEU.

The AEU had threatened to boycott the tests because it believed the results published on the My School website were misleading for parents.

Ms Gillard said the tests would proceed next week without disruption, saying the union had made a sensible decision.

She denied she had made concessions to the unions. "The government has always said we were committed to the My School website, that all of the information on the My School website would stay and be updated."

Ms Gillard said the working group would help provide advice on the use of student performance data that would be used to improve the My School website.

School principals welcomed yesterday's resolution, but remained cautious about the proposed working party.

The president of the Australian Primary Principals Association, Leonie Trimper, said she hoped it would prevent misuse of the My School website.

The NSW Teachers Federation executive late yesterday endorsed the decision to abandon the boycott.

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7 May, 2010

"For profit" college does well

American Public Education Inc.'s (APEI) first-quarter profit rose by nearly half as enrollment continued to soar, and the company raised the high end of its full-year earnings forecast.

The for-profit college now expects earnings to grow by 36% to 39%, up from its previous view of 36% to 37%. American Public still anticipates revenue growth of 36% to 39%.

American Public, like other colleges, has benefited from the economic downturn as more adults return to school to beef up their resumes. The company, parent of online-only American Military University and American Public University, has also grown from word-of-mouth referrals within tight-knit military circles, to which it appeals with course offerings like intelligence and homeland security. More than half of the company's revenue in the most recent period was derived from students who received Department of Defense tuition assistance.

For the most recent quarter, American Public reported a profit of $7.65 million, or 40 cents a share, up from $5.24 million, or 28 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue jumped 43% to $47.3 million. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected per-share earnings of 38 cents and revenue of $46 million. Operating margin edged up to 27.8% from 26.3%.

Net course registrations climbed 39% from a year earlier to 64,900, with new student registrations up 26%. Enrollment rose 42% to 70,600 as of March 31.

American Public expects net course registrations to increase 35% to 38% for the full year. The company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it expects seasonal fluctuations to become more pronounced as overall growth begins to decline, which could affect overall operational results.

American Public has been a darling of many on Wall Street as its low tuition allows students to attend school without needing to secure additional, high-interest private loans. American Public, which for years has catered to military-affiliated students and their families, has in the past couple of years targeted a more general learning public with its business, history and criminal justice courses. In the most recent period, one-fifth of revenue came from non-military Title IV federal student loans, up from 16% a year earlier.

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N.J. education chief plans 'merit pay' evaluations for teachers

Promising to make New Jersey’s public education system "the best in America," state Education Commissioner Bret Schundler yesterday said he plans to introduce a package of reforms next week that will include merit pay for teachers.

"Student achievement will be part of the evaluation process for teachers," Schundler said after giving the keynote address at a in Princeton on urban schools.

During his address, Schundler spoke of the need to "focus on accountability" with "the learning of children ... becoming the yardstick.

Schundler said that in New Jersey, the job of providing a thorough and efficient education is the Legislature’s responsibility and promised to release reforms to reflect that. "You’ll see a proposal very shortly," he said. "The governor and I will support reforms that will make the (state’s) public education system the best in America,"

The commissioner’s list of reforms also includes giving parents more school choice and closing failing schools. He also alluded to possibly tenure reform, saying the state should have a system where ineffective teachers can be more easily replaced.

The measures, he said, will be part of the state’s new application for Race to the Top, a competitive grant program that could award New Jersey up to $350 million for education reform. Schundler said he hoped a merit pay bill could pass the Legislature by June 1, when the grant application is due. "If we do, it will make our (application) extremely competitive," Schundler said at Princeton University, after a conference on urban school reform.

The New Jersey Education Association, the state’s largest teachers’ union, has long opposed merit pay and tenure reform. The union refused to sign on to the state’s last Race to the Top application, which did not win funding.

NJEA spokesman Steve Wollmer said the union has requested a meeting with Schundler to discuss Race to the Top, and plans to meet with him this afternoon. He declined to discuss whether NJEA will soften its positions on teacher evaluations and other issues. "Hopefully, that’s the beginning of a dialogue," Wollmer said. "We are going to bring some new approaches in. We also have some new ideas we want to share."

Since taking office in January, Gov. Chris Christie and the NJEA have battled almost daily. The governor, who regularly attacks the union as "greedy," has dramatically cut state aid to schools, reined in pensions for new hires and supported tax breaks to companies that sponsor poor children going to private schools.

The NJEA says he is lying about most of the issues.

Merit pay proposals generally use data system to support instruction, tying student performance on test scores to teacher evaluations and compensation. Both Delaware and Tennessee, earlier Race to the Top winners, included such measures.

Delaware’s new law on teacher/principal effectiveness, for example, says no educators can be rated as "effective" unless their students demonstrate satisfactory levels of growth; teachers rated "ineffective" for 2 to 3 years can be removed from the classroom, even if they have tenure.

Schundler’s call for changes in teacher pay and tenure policies came on the same day the New Jersey School Boards Association called for new laws to eliminate rules it says give unions the upper hand. The association wants lawmakers to streamline the tenure system, enact an anti-strike law and overhaul seniority and bumping rights so districts making layoffs can retain employees that school leaders see as most qualified, rather then being forced to keep those with the most longevity.

Frank Belluscio, spokesman for the association, said his group is scheduled to meet with the commissioner today to discusss merit pay and other proposed reforms. Belluscio said the association "always thought there is a lot of potential with merit pay," and favors tenure reform. "If he is going to take on the ‘T’ word, we’re all for it," Belluscio said.

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More freedom for British schools, no matter who wins in election aftermath

Schools will be given more power to control their affairs under one of the biggest overhauls of state education in a generation. All three main parties have pledged to bring in private companies, charities and parents’ groups to run schools in England in a move designed to promote competition and cut red tape.

In a sign of consensus between the parties, local councils are expected to lose a significant amount of direct control over schools as power over admissions, staff pay, buildings and the curriculum is increasingly devolved to head teachers.

Labour is committed to expanding the number of academies – independent secondary schools sponsored and run by private organisations – beyond the 200 opened in the past decade. It also wants to accredit organisations to run “chains” of primary and secondary schools.

The Liberal Democrats want all schools to have the “freedom to innovate”, although academies will be replaced by “sponsor managed schools”, giving councils the power to appoint organisations to run them.

Conservative plans have attracted the most controversy. They go significantly further than the two other main parties by giving all high-performing primary and secondary schools the power to become academies – removing local authorities’ right of veto. In a hugely contentious move, the Tories would also allow parents, teachers and other organisations to set up and run their own “free schools” at taxpayers’ expense. The plans, which are modelled on programmes in Sweden and the United States, could dramatically expand the number of providers stepping in to run state education.

But while debate over school structures has dominated the election campaign, the future of qualifications, the curriculum and league tables have also been key battlegrounds. Next week, thousands of primary school head teachers in England will boycott Sats tests for 11-year-olds amid claims that they promote a culture of “teaching to the test” and ruin children’s education.

The Lib Dems have pledged to scrap Sats, but they will be retained in the short-term by both Labour and the Conservatives, putting the parties on a post-election collision course with heads.

Qualifications for teenagers will also be overhauled, irrespective of the election outcome. Labour will expand the number of diplomas, which combine practical training with traditional classroom tuition, while the Lib Dems will create a general, overarching diploma, swallowing up all vocational and academic qualifications under one heading.

In a further nod towards school freedom, the Conservatives will allow heads to offer any qualification, including the International GCSE, which is currently favoured in private schools but banned in the state sector. The National Curriculum is also likely to face a significant restructure.

The Tories have pledged to redraft it completely, outlining the core content with a particular focus on the basics of English, maths and science.

The Lib Dems want to introduce a slimmed down “minimum curriculum entitlement”, while Labour will enforce a new primary curriculum, stripping away traditional subjects to allow schools to focus on six broad “areas of learning”.

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6 May, 2010

‘Emergency Education Jobs Bill’ is Really a Union Dues Bailout Bill

The National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union, and its counterpart, the American Federation of Teachers, are ramping up attention on Senate Bill 3206, introduced by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), which would create a $23 billion “education jobs fund” to hire or retain “150,000 or more” school employees for the next school year. The NEA is engaged in a “massive, 24/7 lobbying campaign” to pass Harkin’s bill, according to its president Dennis Van Roekel.

That’s $153,333 spent per job just to “retain” them. The most recent data from the American Federation of Teachers concluded the average teacher salary is $51,009. Where is the other $100,000 per job going?

Nevertheless, in a recent Senate committee hearing, Harkin cited the “emergency” for creating the fund. Note he didn’t say teachers, he said “education jobs.” That’s because in many states, like Michigan, teachers unions are losing members that are custodians or food service workers.

Just for the record, billions of dollars have already been spent on “retaining” school jobs. The NEA claims 325,000 public school jobs were “saved” under the stimulus bill.

The NEA released a YouTube video with a title which pretty much sums up the union’s entire existence: “The issue is JOBS.” Of course: the issue is not accountability or test scores or huge amounts of fiscal waste. It’s simply jobs and therefore union dues.

What would Sen. Harkin’s bill mean for the NEA and AFT in terms of revenue? Let’s do the math. The NEA has about three-quarters of unionized school employees within its fold. Its 2010 dues are $162 per full-time member, according to the Indiana State Teachers Association, an NEA affiliate. AFT’s annual dues are $184.20, according to union financial documents found at AFTexposed.com.

Using the membership ratio breakdown, it is estimated an “education jobs” bill would result in a savings of $18.2 million for the NEA and $6.9 million for the AFT.

Surely this never dawned on the two unions when they decided to push for this bill.

There is a direct correlation between the loss of public school jobs – whether warranted due to declining enrollment or because of a money shortage – and the teachers unions’ income. If the NEA and AFT can pass an “education jobs” bill, it will also equate to a huge windfall for Big Labor. Just what the unions put this Congress in to do, right?

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British private schools the victim of class war

Leading public schools are victims of a class war being waged by 'bitter' critics who are fixated with privilege, the headmaster of Eton College warned yesterday. Such schools are being forced to operate under a 'deadly cloud' of class obsession, added Tony Little.

He warned that boarding schools such as Eton were too often smeared by 'political posturing' and commentators peddling the outdated claim that they are 'bastions of privilege'.

Mr Little's remarks yesterday will be seen as a veiled swipe at Gordon Brown who claimed last year that Tory tax policy had been 'dreamed up on the playing fields of Eton'.

In a wide-ranging speech at the Boarding Schools' Association annual conference in Torquay, the headmaster also warned that independent schools were coming under increasing pressure from pushy parents whose actions were 'little short of harassment'.

Parents were keen to see 'immediate tangible returns' for their fees and increasingly sought 'go as you please' boarding facilities, exam cramming and more lenient discipline.

Mr Little called on fellow heads to take a tougher line on pushy parents to avoid compromising boarding schools' distinctive ethos and educational principles. Boarding schools 'should not be a pick-and-mix counter of unrelated choices', he said.

'These days boarding schools are highly professional institutions - parents are paying us for our professional expertise. We should not hold back from telling them so.'

Mr Little criticised a continuing 'fixation' among some commentators with class. While lauded abroad, British boarding schools were too often 'unheralded' in their own country, he said.

'For some, the associations with class run deep. They see boarding schools as bastions of privilege. 'It is remarkable given the intensity of public scrutiny, that boarding numbers are as healthy as they are.'

Mr Little called on the next government to revive the old assisted places scheme to send disadvantaged children to boarding school. The schools could act as an antidote to the so-called 'broken society' and should be opened up to children from poorer homes, he said.

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Like teachers worldwide, Australian teachers hate anything that might enable their competence to be evaluated

Eve and Katsuya left Sydney at 7.30am and drove home, arriving at 12.30pm. Eve drove for the first two hours at an average speed of 60km/h. Katsuya drove the rest of the way, averaging 90km/h. What was the average speed of the whole journey? a) 67km/h; b) 75km/h; c) 78km/h; d) 84km/h.*

This is an example of the sort of innocuous question that will appear next week in the national NAPLAN tests, which are causing World War III in education circles.

It's hard to believe teachers' unions would stoop so low as to threaten casual and retired teachers brought in by schools to supervise the tests for years 3, 5, 7 and 9.

But their bully-boy tactics are there in black and white on the NSW Teachers Federation website: "You should be aware that if you [supervise the tests], you may quickly find yourself in a hostile environment where the teachers . . . have refused to administer NAPLAN 2010. These teachers and principals will not thank you for your intervention."

It's just part of union attempts to sabotage the popular tests, which are an important tool to improve education, especially for disadvantaged students. We see from last year's NAPLAN tests, for instance, that NSW schools fared disproportionately well, especially in primary reading, which shows former premier Bob Carr was justified in defending the curriculum from the worst educational fads. We can learn from some of the surprise successes, such as Macquarie Fields High School in the oft-maligned south-west suburb, which ranked in the top 100 schools in the country in numeracy.

But the militant ideologues of the Australian Education Union and the NSW Teachers Federation are determined to boycott the tests, ostensibly because they object to the possibility they might be used to rank schools in "league tables".

The only logical explanation for this madness is the unions are frightened of information. They don't want Macquarie Fields to be hailed a success or become a model for other schools in impoverished areas. They want to hide failures and condemn another generation of young Australians to illiteracy.

Even if the union campaign is only slightly successful, it will have contaminated this year's results. As this will be the second national test for students who sat the first test in 2008, it is crucial to measure their progress. It is the children who will suffer from this unseemly squabbling of grown adults.

To their credit, federal Education Minister Julia Gillard and NSW Education Minister Verity Firth are standing firm, determined to introduce transparency and accountability to the nation's classrooms. But it seems those good intentions only go so far. When it comes to a small software company that has turned the test into an easy online tool for schools and students to take regular snapshots of academic progress, education departments have resorted to the same intimidatory tactics as the unions.

David Johnson owns Naplan Online and AUSSAT Online, websites that allow students and teachers to take tests online, with immediate marks, and to track their results over time. He says he is being driven out of business by bullying bureaucrats.

Over the past nine months, he says the NSW Department of Education and Training and the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, have sent him five threatening legal letters alleging copyright infringements and demanding he hand over his domain name and logo and stop people from doing the tests online. On Sunday night, he was intimidated enough to shut down the free online testing site, despite having "tens of thousands" of parents registered.

"We're just a small software business trying to make a dollar," he says. "The schools absolutely love [the website]. It cuts out the bureaucrats and empowers classroom teachers and principals. There is nothing like it available in Australia."

He says inefficient education bureaucracies have spent millions of dollars on IT departments that have not been able to create any comparable tool. Instead, they have trademarked the NAPLAN name and are trying to shut him down. "Why are government bureaucracies trying to operate like businesses? If everyone could use the NAPLAN assessment papers other people could develop new products and services that benefit everyone," he says.

An IT expert married to a schoolteacher, Johnson, 43, came up with the idea for the website after his eldest son sat the first NAPLAN tests in 2008 and he saw the flaws. "It was all paper-based, expensive and controlled by big bureaucracy." The tests are in May but results are not returned until September, giving little time to correct problems.

"If a child is struggling you need to know as quickly as possible so that you can act," he says. He worked out how to overcome the inefficiencies with software, which he patented, and has already sold to 300 schools, to use as a supplement to NAPLAN. His paid subscription service allows teachers to test students several times a year, giving them several data points from which to judge progress.

While NAPLAN is a useful tool for education departments to allocate resources to under-performing schools, in the classroom teachers still need ways to assess the progress of individual students. More data points help them identify where a child is faltering or progressing and to communicate to parents what value has been added over the year.

All the information Johnson uses is publicly available. He has just been more efficient than education bureaucracies at making it useful. There are plenty of commercially available NAPLAN guides in print form that help teachers and parents prepare children for the tests.

As Johnson says: "If our site disappears, someone somewhere will build another site to replace it." But he is running out of money and is now thinking of giving up and taking an IT job overseas. He has shown how private enterprise can solve problems more efficiently than bureaucracies. But his travails show how innovation is crushed when those bureaucracies run out of control.

SOURCE (There is now some talk that the unions will back down under threat of losing pay)



5 May, 2010

Race to the Top follows tortuous, imprecise course

The Race to the Top is beginning to resemble a marathon with bizarre twists and turns that take runners in divergent directions with differing degrees of difficulty. Critics of varied political persuasions are warning of grievous flaws in the process and calling for the Race to be scrapped or changed dramatically.

Perhaps the most devastating critique comes from the Economic Policy Institute, a center-left research organization based in Washington, DC.

In an April 20 paper, “Let’s Do the Numbers,” retired marine engineer William Peterson and longtime New York Times columnist Richard Rothstein argue ObamaEd’s 500-point rating system for judging states’ applications for a share of a $4.35 billion stimulus stash “presents a patina of scientific objectivity, but in truth masks a subjective and somewhat random process.”

Forty states and the District of Columbia entered RTTT. Sixteen became finalists, and Delaware and Tennessee were designated in March as the sole winners of the first round, winning $100 million and $500 million, respectively. The Education Department hired 49 anonymous reviewers at $5,000 apiece to evaluate applications according to weighted metrics reflecting Secretary Arne Duncan’s priorities.

States received points for assorted “success factors,” such as approval by teacher unions and school boards, committing to national standards and assessments, using test data to evaluate teachers and principals, adopting federal turnaround strategies for the lowest-achieving schools, and welcoming high-performing charter schools.

Delaware scored 454.6 out of 500, and Tennessee 444.2, but the EPI study found the seeming precision in such marks was a sham. It concluded the selection of those two states was “subjective and arbitrary” and “more a matter of bias or chance” than proof of stellar reform efforts.

The analysts pointed to the dearth of scientific support for the points Duncan assigned to various factors. For instance, why should “Improving Student Outcomes” have a weight of just 5 percent (25 points out of 500), and why just 4 percent for “Using Data to Improve Instruction,” 6 percent for “Using Evaluations [of principals and teachers] to Inform Key Decisions,” and 3 percent for “Ensuring Equitable Distribution [of principals and teachers] in High-Poverty or High-Minority Schools”?

The entirely reasonable decision to increase each of those factors by just 3 percent (with weights of 25 other indicators reduced by just a half-point each to keep the total at 100 percent) would have resulted in Georgia beating out Tennessee. The analysts also showed that if Pennsylvania had been fully credited with its initiatives in early childhood and science education (both supposedly Obama priorities, though slighted in RTTT), the Keystone State would have been the big winner.

Some of the most egregious bias affected Massachusetts, which ranked 13th among the 16 finalists despite topping all states in rigor of standards and achievement on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

Massachusetts received scores higher than or equal to Tennessee on half of the 30 metrics. Why no prize? Massachusetts declined to commit to adopting the Obama administration’s national standards by next August. State leaders preferred to have public hearings on whether to embrace the national version. It was docked 15 (out of a possible 20) points on “Adopting Standards.”

“In sum,” the EPI analysis notes, “Massachusetts’ willingness to permit the public to comment on its academic standards, combined with a few quirks in the weighting system, cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars.”

States can apply for future rounds of RTTT grants after amending their policies to conform more closely to the Obama/Duncan game plan. But such conformity would encourage more standardization under centralized authority as opposed to innovation and empowerment of education consumers in communities.

The one positive result of the Race to the Top has been to demonstrate that the federal government lacks the competence to influence elementary and secondary education for the better. Of course, the U.S. Department of Education has been proving that very point since its establishment 30 years ago. How many more years before the general public realizes Ronald Reagan had the right idea in seeking to close this monstrosity and return power and taxing authority to the local level?

SOURCE





Britain's blackboard jungle

What the Leftist horror of discipline has wrought

Dylan stands up, dashes across the room to snatch his friend’s pencil case and promptly tosses the contents into the air. When I order him to sit down, he laughs, climbs on to the window ledge and begins to hiss.

Some of the other children in the class of 14-year-olds join in. As I attempt to persuade Dylan to get down, another pupil, Richard, grabs his neighbour Rory by the neck and wrestles him to the floor. ‘Stop it, Richard,’ I shout, trying to pull them apart. His response is to reply: ‘Oi, Miss, you ain’t allowed to touch us. That’s assault, that is.’

His victim, meanwhile, scrambles back to his chair. The hissing has become jeering and a paper ball sails across the classroom, closely followed by someone’s PE kit.

It is a chaotic scene, but don’t be fooled into thinking it is in any way unusual. Like it or not, this is life in the average classroom of an average comprehensive.

And during the ten years that I’ve been teaching in state secondary schools, I can honestly say that the standard of behaviour has imploded.

You may shrug off bad behaviour as being down to a teacher’s inability to control their class but believe me, these days every state school teacher I know, regardless of ability, has been subject to swearing, physical fighting and constant disruption on nearly a daily basis.

What’s more, there are incidents of physical violence towards us too. I, personally, have been shoved aside by one 15-year-old pupil, who was annoyed at being kept for detention. I’ve had coins and pencils thrown at me and colleagues of mine have been bitten, kicked in the stomach and on the legs.

None of the children who assaulted us was expelled. These are the reasons why I am now seriously considering spending at least £9,000 a year to send my four-year-old daughter to private school when the time comes.

As a staunch supporter of the state system, this is something I never believed I would even consider. But my ideals of equality have been well and truly trampled under foot. Behaviour in many schools is now so appalling that I just cannot risk my daughter having to witness the things that as a teacher I have grown depressingly accustomed to...

You may think back to your own schooldays and recall pupils being cheeky and showing no enthusiasm for learning.

But, believe me, long gone are the days when disobedience amounted to a crafty fag behind the bike sheds or reading a magazine under the desk instead of copying out notes on Macbeth. Now, shouting and swearing at staff is commonplace, and you can utter a perfectly reasonable request to be met with a fury that beggars belief.

Ask a pupil to sit down or be quiet and chairs might be kicked over, desks sent flying — followed by the obligatory foul-mouthed tirade.

Over the past ten years, I have been an English teacher in three state secondary schools in the South-East. Last year, for the first time in my career, I walked out of a classroom.

Halfway through the lesson, in a school classed by Ofsted as ‘good’, I packed my bags and left because the behaviour in that room was so dreadful that had I stayed I would have either burst into tears or thumped one of my 15-year-old pupils.

That day, my carefully prepared handouts had been screwed up and thrown around the room as children ran about jumping on chairs and chucking one another’s bags around.

One of the boys, Mark, a persistent troublemaker, refused to sit his place. He plonked himself down in someone else’s chair, feet on the desk and whipped out his phone.

When I tried to confiscate it, he simply laughed at me. ‘**** off! You ain’t having that,’ he jeered.

When another boy, Andrew, started chucking paper aeroplanes across the room and the rest of the class started whistling and chanting raucously, I walked out. I’d had enough. I was at breaking point.

It might not sound as if anything particularly outrageous occurred that day. But what had broken me wasn’t the bad behaviour, but the personal nature of it.

Children have always been mischievous, and teachers can cope with that, but what’s new is the proliferation of swearing and deliberate attempts to humiliate us.

The first time a pupil swore at me was five years ago. It was a girl — don’t be fooled, they can be just as bad as boys — and I had asked her to leave my classroom as she wasn’t supposed to be in my lesson. The response was: ‘F*** off, you sad b****!’

I was frozen to the spot with shock. But now I can honestly say that perhaps three days in every five I’m sworn at or personally insulted in some way or another.

You might wonder why we teachers stand for it, but largely our hands are tied. Take this example — one pupil swore at me, hit a fellow pupil over the head, tipped pencil cases to the floor, called another a ‘w*****’.

I complained to the head teacher, only to be told the pupil in question is attending anger management classes. When I pointed out that their behaviour was preventing all of her classmates from learning, I was told that there was nothing anyone could do. We just had to curb the behaviour as best we could.

So how have we descended to this level? In my opinion, the Government’s policy of inclusion — whereby even extremely disturbed and aggressive children are taught in mainstream schools — is largely to blame.

Special schools — where children with severe emotional and behavioural difficulties were educated in tiny classes by teachers trained to deal with their complex needs — have been closed. Now, those children are educated in mainstream comprehensives by people like me, who just aren’t equipped to deal with them.

I’ve grown accustomed — as have my colleagues — to watching groups of teenagers in hoodies marauding around the school, banging on classroom windows, opening the doors and shouting insults into lessons.

Sometimes they even beckon other children out of classes to have a fight or disrupt someone else’s lessons....

In the past few years, schools have started to spend tens of thousands of pounds employing counsellors to teach youngsters ‘anger management’. Inclusion in this nebulous group gives pupils carte blanche to behave in any way they please, without having to take the slightest responsibility for their actions. And what of the parents?

Complain to them about their children’s behaviour and it’s quite likely that you’ll be met with a shrugging indifference. On one occasion, I rang a mother to complain about her daughter’s abusive language and was told to ‘lighten up’.

Other parents become angry and foulmouthed themselves. My friend Joanna, a tiny woman of five foot, was screamed at and threatened in her classroom by an enraged father. She’d kept his daughter in for a detention and was accused of ‘picking on’ the girl. With role models like that, it’s little wonder that so many of our children are violent thugs.

As for expulsion, schools are loath to do this to unruly pupils because there are financial penalties.

And the policy of inclusion has meant that children expelled from one comprehensive on Friday afternoon will just turn up on Monday morning at another one five miles down the road. It is no wonder that a survey of more than 1,000 teachers carried out by the teachers’ union ATL in March found more than 50 per cent had experienced verbal abuse this academic year and almost 40 per cent had been intimidated.

These figures, shocking though they are, I believe, underestimate the problem. Many teachers don’t like to admit that they’ve been abused and intimidated, feeling that somehow it reflects badly on them rather than on the pupils who push, shove and swear their way through the school day.

My friend, Carol, confides that violence in the classroom has got much worse. ‘I was knocked over by some boys shoving their way out of the room after I’d tried to keep them in for a lunchtime detention. One of them punched me hard on the arm first,’ she tells me.

She is now considering quitting the profession after 15 years. Even more shockingly, another colleague, Mary, was punched in the face after a 13-year-old lost his temper when she confiscated his mobile phone.

I’ve worked in schools that Ofsted has deemed to be failing, and the behaviour was atrocious. I’ve also worked in schools that like Peter Harvey’s were rated ‘good’ by Ofsted, and the behaviour was equally dreadful. Many of my teaching colleagues admit almost shamefacedly to educating their children in the private sector.

For those of us who’ve spent our lives teaching in comprehensives, there is a sense that we are letting the side down by turning to private schools for our own children. But we see what’s happening in our classrooms and we are left with little choice.

Hence my plans for my own daughter. The difference is that no private school would tolerate behaviour even half as bad as that now taken for granted in state schools...

SOURCE





British Private pupils are ten times as likely to gain top high school passes

The gulf in standards between state and private schools has been laid bare by figures showing fee-paying pupils are nearly ten times more likely to gain top GCSE grades demanded by elite universities.

Just one in 45 pupils educated at a comprehensive gains five A* grades at GCSE - the benchmark increasingly demanded by universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol, Durham and Edinburgh.

In contrast, one in five pupils who went to a private school achieved the five A*s standard which is required before the universities even consider A-level results.

The figures triggered renewed concern that bright pupils are being failed by the comprehensive system. An independent school head who uncovered the figures warned that clever state school pupils were being 'disenfranchised'. Richard Cairns, head of Brighton College, called for greater use of setting and streaming in schools.

The figures were originally released by the Department for Children, Schools and Families following a Commons written question from the Tories.

They show that in 2007, the last year for which figures are available, just 2.2 per cent of comprehensive pupils - or 12,094 - gained five A*s at GCSE. This compares with 20.5 per cent of independent school pupils - or 9,575. The figures suggest the gulf has widened slightly since 2003.

Elite universities including many in the prestigious Russell Group increasingly demand a string of As and A*s at GCSE.

Mr Cairns warned that state schools are too focused on making sure pupils get the C grades needed for the school to do well in league tables, rather than pushing them on to get A*s. He said the Government should not put the trends down to academic selection at private schools, since many were not as selective as is widely thought.

'What's striking is that the percentage achieving five A*s in comprehensive schools was low when Labour took over, and remains low,' he said. 'Young people are being disenfranchised. State schools are not focusing enough on the brightest. The whole education system is too focused on the C/D borderline. 'A lot of bright children are not being pushed to get those A*s they actually need.'

Michael Gove, Tory education spokesman, said: 'The current education system is unfair. 'Richer parents can buy a good education via private schools or by paying for an expensive house in the right catchment area. Too often the poorest pupils are left with the worst schools.'

SOURCE



4 May, 2010

Florida’s unheralded school revolution

Two weeks ago Florida Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed a bill that would have ended teacher tenure and established merit pay. His action was widely criticized and effectively ended his primary race for the U.S. Senate as a Republican.

And yet last week, Mr. Crist signed an education bill that will dramatically expand the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program. It has attracted little attention, but this legislation could revolutionize K-12 education in the Sunshine State.

The tax credits support private school choice for low-income children by encouraging businesses to donate money for their education. A business's tax liability is cut by a dollar for every dollar it donates to a nonprofit scholarship organization. The nonprofits use the funds to help poor families pay private school tuition.

Currently, there is a $118 million cap on the program. This year nearly $100 million was donated in the program, which as of February translated into scholarships for 27,700 students. But the new law raises the caps on the value a scholarship (eventually to $5,500) and on the total amount of money that can be donated in the program to $140 million in fiscal year 2011.

It also allows the program to rise 25% annually and expands the tax base against which credits can be taken. That used to be limited to corporate income and insurance premium taxes. Now credits can be taken against taxes on oil and gas production, self-accrued sales tax liabilities of direct pay permit holders, and alcoholic beverage taxes on beer, wine and spirits.

This change could prove dramatic: In 10 years the program could raise $1.3 billion and support over 8% of Florida's students. In 15 years it could approach $4 billion and support more than a quarter of the state's students. A girl born in Florida today might find that a third or more of her peers are being educated in private schools by the time she sets foot in high school.

But will the state's politicians and special interests allow that transformation to take place? Looking at how the reform legislation fared in the state's Republican controlled legislature, it seems the answer is already in. The bill passed both houses overwhelmingly, including support from 42% of Democrats and 52% of the legislative black caucus. (Nearly every Republican voted yes.) That is a remarkable turnabout for a program that received one Democratic vote when it was created in 2001. Why the shift?

Money is part of the answer. On average, public schools in the state spend over $11,000 per student, far more than the scholarships. Therefore the state gains $1.49 in savings for every $1 it loses in tax revenue in the program, according to a 2008 fiscal analysis by the state Office of Program Policy Analysis & Government Accountability. The state Senate Ways and Means Committee estimated the program's expansion will save $20 million over the next four years.

But money is far from the only reason Democrats support this program. State Rep. Bill Heller, the top Democrat on the House Education Policy Council, wrote recently in the St. Petersburg Times, "To me, a scholarship option for poor, struggling schoolchildren is in the greatest tradition of our collective commitment to equal educational opportunity."

There is also clear evidence that many private schools outperform public schools academically. The first children to enter the Washington, D.C., voucher program, for example, now read more than two grade levels above students who applied for the program but didn't win the voucher lottery.

Researchers from Northwestern University will soon release a study on how competition from Florida's education tax-credit program is impacting the performance of children who remain in public schools. The preliminary evidence is that school choice lifts the performance of public-school students significantly.

Florida's scholarship program appears to be the first statewide private school choice program to reach a critical mass of funding, functionality and political support. As an ever increasing number of students in Florida take advantage of the scholarship program, other states will find it hard to resist enacting broad-based school choice.

SOURCE






Charter schools threaten to sue D.C. for funding

Parity pursued across nation

D.C. supporters of charter schools are among a number of national proponents who are turning toward litigation to get charter students their fair share of public education dollars.

In North Carolina, a charter coalition has filed a federal complaint alleging discrimination after winning a funding lawsuit in February. In Missouri, St. Louis charter schools and parents claim that the school district owes them millions of dollars that the public school system failed to distribute after receiving the money from the state.

D.C. advocates say they will sue if Mayor Adrian M. Fenty fails to increase the per-pupil allocations for charter students. The Washington Times broke the news about the threat on its website Friday after a daylong D.C. Council hearing on school budget discrepancies, teachers salaries and a new union agreement.

At the hearing, Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray cited a draft proposal by charter advocates that spells out several demands, including aligning charter schools per-pupil allocations with those of traditional schools. The funding concerns stem from a tentative union agreement that includes five years worth of raises and a much-heralded merit-pay package.

"If Mayor Fenty does not agree to modify the per-student funding formula to include the impact of this new proposed compensation structure, it is the charter communitys intent to take the city to court in order to ensure parity and equity in accordance with D.C. Charter School laws and regulations," according to the four-page document titled "Draft Charter School Position Paper on Salary Increases," a copy of which was obtained by The Times.

Funding for charter schools varies from state to state and, like public schools, they receive a combination of local, state and federal money. Many school districts and states base their funding for charters and traditional public schools on a per-pupil formula, which is then "weighted" to factor in such additional costs as special education and transportation.

But the mayor and schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee strayed from that formula, which is mandated in the School Reform Act, by brokering a union deal that excludes charters from receiving additional funding, said a spokesman for Friends of Choice in Urban Schools.

Like their public school counterparts, charters view funding as key to their operations, and as competition for those dollars grows, so do legal actions.

The St. Louis Charter School filed a lawsuit last year claiming that St. Louis Public Schools had shortchanged its funding by $3.86 million over four years. The state put a preliminary estimate at $1.5 million. If the states calculations are applied to across the board, the dollar amount could reach as high as $20 million for the city's dozen charters.

In North Carolina, the Association of African American Charter School Administrators filed a discrimination complaint last week with the U.S. Department of Educations office of civil rights.

The complaint claims a state Board of Education policy approved in December is biased against charter schools because it mandates that a charter be revoked if less than 60 percent of a charters students pass standardized tests in two out of three consecutive years and if students fail to meet or exceed expected growth based on those tests.

Traditional public schools are granted more leeway, the complainants said.

"Our concern is we just want the support and the same treatment," Eugene Slocum, principal of Alpha Academy, told the Fayetteville Observer.

Friends of Choice in Urban Schools spokesman Barnaby Towns made similar remarks to The Times, pointing to the D.C. mayor's budget plan for fiscal 2010 and 2011.

"Any additional public funding needed for DCPS teacher pay increases should be put through the funding formula. … [The] inequity in public funding could be legitimately pursued in a lawsuit."

SOURCE





Nothing is so harmful to our children’s futures as education

Michael Deacon reports on a series of initiatives to banish risk from British classrooms

Many schools are no longer teaching dissection in biology, according to a report. This is apparently for various reasons concerning health and safety, one of which is that badly behaved pupils might steal the scalpels and use them in fights.

This seems unlikely, given that most pupils today are already equipped with their own knives, but I'm sure we all agree that there is nothing so harmful to our children's futures as education, and that the less they receive of it, the better. These days, rather than doing dissection themselves, pupils watch it carried out on video, or a computer simulation.

You will no doubt be as pleased as I am that school authorities have passed the following equally positive measures to safeguard pupils.

• Owing to the threats posed by compasses, protractors and pencils, children will no longer study mathematics. Instead, they are to be shown videos of children studying mathematics, or a computer simulation of someone counting.

• Because of their sharp edges, scissors are to be removed from all school first-aid kits. For similar reasons, the popular game Scissors, Paper, Stone is to be renamed Paper, Paper, Paper.

• The obvious risks associated with gym equipment, flying footballs and physical movement mean that all pupils will now be automatically excused PE. Any child wishing to do PE will require a note from his or her parents.

• The tug of war will remain a part of school sports day. However, to avoid muscle strain, all competitors must pull from the same side.

• Running is prohibited in school corridors, the playground and during the 100m sprint.

• To avoid grazes resulting from falls, school playgrounds must be made of rubber. To reduce the risk of tripping on them, all marbles should be cuboid. Playing tag is acceptable, provided that it is non-contact.

• All potentially dangerous elements are to be removed from the periodic table. It will henceforth consist of oxygen and tin.

• Schools are permitted to keep pets, on condition that they are not alive.

* Excellent political news: all three main parties have agreed to a Meaningless Phrase Amnesty, effective from Friday. On that day, specified buzzwords and clichés are to be handed in, no questions asked, to a specially created Drivel Depot in central London, where they will be decommissioned.

Among the phrases to be taken permanently out of use are these: "a new politics"; "changed the political landscape"; "hard-working families"; "relish the opportunity to get out and meet real people"; "these two old parties"; "our national dialogue"; "take money out of the economy"; "my vision of Britain moving forward"; "Gordon Brown".

* Mills & Boon plans to publish a series of throbbing romances about inhabitants of National Trust houses. I'm worried about this, because my father both works at and lives on a National Trust property. I hope they're not drawing a character in his image. I also hope nobody will accuse me of unkind stereotyping if I say that few of the National Trust members I have met struck me as thrusting Casanovas.

"Nicole," said Hugo, "I want to ask you something. Something important." Nicole's pulse quickened uncontrollably. Her knees turned to water. How she yearned for his masterful touch. "Anything, Hugo, anything," she breathed. He fixed on her his smouldering dark gaze, and spoke. "What do you think we should do about the greenfly on the lupins in Border M?"

SOURCE



Louisiana Teacher Sues Over "No Fs" Policy

(Baton Rouge, Louisiana) A fourth-grade teacher at Riveroaks Elementary School, Sheila Goudeau, has filed a lawsuit in federal court claiming that her school administrators ordered her not to assign any grade lower than 60 percent during grade averaging which has resulted in medical problems.

Ms. Goudeu contends that stress from "fear of being written up for insubordination or other baseless reasons gave her heart palpitations that caused blackouts."

Goudeau says that Louisiana law "prevents any school board member, principal, or other administrative staff members of the school or central staff of a parish or city school board from attempting, directly or indirectly, to influence, alter, or otherwise affect the grade received by a student from his teacher except as specifically permitted by law." […]

Goudeau says she developed a serious heart condition while teaching fourth grade at Riveroaks Elementary School after Principal Sholanda Shamlin forced teachers to violate the law by giving fourth-graders D grades even if they earned Fs.

Prior to the lawsuit, Goudeau filed grievances and allegedly suffered retaliation by Principal Shamlin. Goudeau seeks punitive damages.

Frankly, I suspect that the establishment of a minimum-grade policy is standard in some jurisdictions. How else could one explain a student graduating from high school without the ability to read? I've heard that it happens.



3 May, 2010

Time for Colorado House to act on tenure

Lawmakers need to reject union scare tactics and give nod to bill that ties teacher evaluation to student academic growth

The ferocious fight over a teacher tenure bill moves to the state House today, where opponents will try to portray it as a costly and hasty measure drafted with little input from teachers.

Such objections are merely a smokescreen designed to obscure the fact that the state's largest teachers' union has been in the loop for months and their input has led to significant changes to the bill.

Apparently, that isn't enough. It isn't enough, we suspect, because Colorado Education Association leaders never were truly willing to be a partner in reform. They were just acting the part.

But now that Senate Bill 191 has attracted the support of three former governors and Gov. Bill Ritter, as well as Dwight Jones, Colorado's commissioner of education, and a significant number of state legislators, it's becoming a real threat. It was easier for the CEA to marginalize it when it was merely the brain child of a freshman state senator, Michael Johnston, D-Denver.

SB 191 would restructure the way in which K-12 teachers get and keep tenure. It would tie half of a teacher's evaluation to the academic progress of that teacher's students.

A teacher would need three consecutive years of evaluations in which they were rated effective to get tenure. And a teacher with two consecutive years of "ineffective" evaluations would lose tenure.

It would recognize teachers who succeed, and provide help for those who need improvement. And, if a teacher cannot or will not improve, it gives school districts a way to move them along. Principals also would be evaluated under the bill.

It is the kind of game-changing reform that is necessary to begin addressing some of the vexing problems in education. One of the most influential factors in improving achievement is a terrific teacher.

We hope state representatives take the time to look carefully at the substance of SB 191. It is not an anti-teacher bill. It is not a hasty measure. It was not drafted without CEA input. And despite what the CEA might say about it being a huge unfunded mandate, the fiscal note on the bill pegs the cost at $480,000 over two years. If the state wins Race to the Top money, it will cover those costs.

The teachers' union has contributed to approximately 20 changes in the bill, Johnston tells us, including a lengthening in the implementation timeline and inserting an appeals right for teachers.

The bill represents a dramatic change from the status quo, in which teachers either receive or do not receive tenure after three years of employment. Now, tenure is a virtual lifetime guarantee of employment.

The bill is expected to be heard today in the House education committee, where we suspect it will get a rigorous hearing as it did in the state Senate.

We hope those legislators who are on the fence take the time to learn the details of the bill, the months-long process of consultation and the amendments made in order to address concerns.

This bill isn't the answer to all of our education ills, but there is a reason a consensus of policy makers and education leaders have come together to support the bill: It's good policy and it's good for Colorado's schoolchildren.

SOURCE






Punish parents who falsely accuse teachers, say British heads

Parents who make false allegations against teachers to win compensation should be fined, according to a leading head teacher. A new system of punishments is needed to stop mothers and fathers siding with “delinquent children to aggressively challenge and accuse” school staff, it was claimed.

Mick Brookes, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, warned that a minority of parents were motivated by a “lottery mentality”, as they attempt to sue schools and local councils to win cash.

The comments come amid growing concerns over a wave of malicious allegations of assault made against teachers. Figures published last year suggested as many as 4,000 complaints had been made against school staff in a 12 month period. As few as one-in-20 allegations ever results in a criminal conviction.

Addressing the NAHT annual conference in Liverpool, Mr Brookes said “precious little has been done to protect innocent staff from false accusation”.

The union has submitted a request to the Local Government Ombudsman, which has been given new powers to handle parental complaints, for a system of fines for parents who make unfounded claims of physical attacks or sexual assaults.

The suggestion was backed by the Conservatives who said children should "face the consequences" of their behaviour. “This is an offence against the law that insists that citizens are innocent unless proven guilty,” said Mr Brookes. “Accusers can make unjust claims with impunity – currently there is no redress."

In his speech, Mr Brookes criticised “a small minority of the parent population intent on siding with delinquent children to aggressively challenge and accuse”.

He acknowledged that children themselves could not be fined for malicious allegations, but suggested parents could be punished if they supported the false claim, often “with a view to screwing a bit of money out of the local authority”.

"At the moment, parents have carte blanche and there's no redress for making allegations which are malicious frivolous or actually have a pecuniary outcome," he said. "It is a lottery mentality."

Parents can already be fined up to £100 – and face imprisonment - for condoning truancy.

In a report last year, MPs said that ministers should consider giving accused teachers similar rights to anonymity as children or rape victims amid fears thousands of careers are wrecked every year.

The cross-party Commons Schools Select Committee warned that the "vast majority" of complaints made against school staff lacked foundation. In one year - 2006/7 - some 4,000 allegations were made against teachers in England, the report said. The Tories have already said they will give accused teachers the right to anonymity until they have been found guilty of an offence.

Last month, a trainee teacher was cleared of having sex with one of her pupils following a four-day crown court trial. Hannah McIntyre, 25, from fee-paying Merchant Taylors boys’ school in Crosby, Merseyside, was accused of seducing the 16-year-old after plying him with cider, but a jury took just 75 minutes to dismiss the youth's claims.

Speaking after the hearing, she said her career had been ruined but her accuser faced no consequences. “He has, with no accountability, made an accusation and I would like to see him have to realise the effect he has had on me," she said. She added: “Their anonymity protects them from any legal action. I can’t even put forward a private prosecution.”

SOURCE






More "stimulus" failures in Australia -- new school buildings unsafe

Buildings being constructed under the federal government's schools stimulus program are riddled with safety hazards, from slippery tiles and toxic carpets to poisonous fumes from unflued heaters.

Environmental scientists, building industry experts, health groups and the NSW Teachers Federation have raised concerns about the potential risks associated with buildings in the $16.2 billion program.

The NSW Integrated Program Office for the Building the Education Revolution program has maintained the buildings are of high quality, sometimes exceeding building code standards.

But schools have complained of dodgy workmanship, including incorrectly fitted light switches and fans, temporary foundations, leaking water tanks and lifting carpets.

With winter approaching, schools and health groups have raised the alarm about the installation of 3000 unflued gas heaters. Studies have shown that the heaters release a potentially poisonous stew of nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and formaldehyde. They are being phased out of schools in every state except NSW and Queensland.

"These are new buildings going up at significant cost to the taxpayer," NSW Teachers Federation president Bob Lipscombe said. "Heating is a very small component of the overall cost of building work. It would not cost a huge amount to put alternative heating in these new buildings. The Department of Education is not acting in a reasonable way at all."

The NSW Department of Education and Training says the heaters are safe, provided doors and windows are kept open to provide ventilation. Schools in cold-climate zones say this is impractical.

Berridale Public School, in the Snowy Mountains, has an unflued heater in its new $900,000 library. "We have been constantly told the library is of a very high standard," Berridale School Council's Fiona Suthern said. "It's a building that cost close to $1 million. An unflued gas heater is not a high-standard heating device. We're not asking for something flash - just something safe."

Richard Kalina, from the Campaign Opposing Unflued Gas Heating, said: "I feel it's bordering on criminal. When parents take their children to school, they should expect their children will be in a safe environment. They are not safe."

A 2007 Commonwealth health report on unflued heaters found exposure to the fumes they emitted causes increased respiratory symptoms in children with asthma, and were also associated with new asthma cases in children. About 11 per cent of children in NSW have asthma. The Asthma Foundation NSW has called on the Department of Education to remove the 51,000 existing unflued heaters in NSW schools and stop ordering new ones.

A NSW Department of Education spokesman said there was "no substantiated instances" of heaters causing illness when properly operated.

The combination of exposure to unflued gas heaters, as well as fumes emitted from paint, new carpet and building materials, could cause toxic overload in children, according to environmental scientist Jo Immig of the National Toxics Network.

"We are concerned about the overall toxic load," she said. "This is particularly important as far as children are concerned because they are much more sensitive to toxins than adults. "We recommended that schools undertake building work or renovations when children are on school holidays to minimise the risk of chemical exposure."

New buildings also posed a risk of volatile organic compounds being released from carpet, paint and new furniture, Ms Immig said. "Carpets are potentially one of the most toxic things in the indoor environment."

Professor Margaret Burchett from the University of Technology, Sydney, said it could take months for indoor air quality to improve. "If you smell that newness smell in a building it's a nice smell but it's also toxic."

Murdoch University environmental toxicologist Peter Dingle said the rooms should be allowed to air before being used. "If the teachers and kids walk into a new classroom or hall and there is a smell in the room they should not go into it," Dr Dingle said.

Tile supplier Richard Earp and slip resistance expert Carl Strautins have raised concerns about the type of tiles used in toilet blocks, canteens and entrances, which they say can lose their grip over a short time and become a slip hazard. A department spokesman said all floor tiles used were certified anti-slip in line with the relevant standard.

SOURCE



2 May, 2010

Can Louisiana education reform survive teachers unions' assault?

HAVING THWARTED efforts to revamp teacher evaluations in Florida, teachers unions are now aiming to block reform in Louisiana. An intense lobbying campaign is underway to defeat Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal's ambitious education reform agenda. State lawmakers should follow his lead in standing up for student interests.

Why should anyone outside Louisiana care? The debate taking place in Baton Rouge is echoing across the country. Many states are competing for a slice of federal funds from President Obama's Race to the Top competition. The reformers stress accountability -- saying teachers, schools and principals should be judged according to results. Unions retort that test scores are an unreliable and one-dimensional measure of student success and that it is unfair to judge teachers by how well their students do because other factors, such as a student's home life, affect performance.

We don't discount those arguments, but then neither do Mr. Jindal and other reformers. They are simply asking that test scores be one component of teacher evaluation. Louisiana has one of the country's highest dropout rates, and one-third of its students don't perform at grade level.

Yet nearly 99 percent of tenured teachers are, according to information from the state education department, rated satisfactory. Reform legislation would allow student achievement, including test scores, to be considered in teacher and principal evaluations, making it easier to dismiss those who fail repeated reviews, and it would give traditional public schools the autonomy and flexibility enjoyed by charter schools in seeking waivers from state policies.

The Obama administration has sent mixed signals in this debate. It said it would reward bold reforms in the Race to the Top competition, but in its first round it seemed to favor states with union buy-in. That seems to have emboldened state union efforts to block reform. Florida lawmakers were willing to shake up the status quo, but Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, launching an independent run for the U.S. Senate, rewarded unions with a veto. As recently detailed by Education Week, states from Massachusetts to Colorado are seeing unions yank their support for Race to the Top applications in a bid to temper education reform efforts. So pronounced was the trend that Education Secretary Arne Duncan in recent days has pointedly warned against states weakening their overhaul plans.

Collaboration is the ideal outcome, but not if it is built on watered-down reform. Mr. Jindal is right to push for meaningful change.

SOURCE






British Pupils lose a slice of real science as schools drop dissection

FOR decades it was an unforgettable part of school biology lessons, but dissection has now fallen victim to health and safety fears.

Schools, sensitive to squeamish pupils and the risks of their misusing scalpels, have abandoned cutting up frogs or animal organs and replaced them with computer simulation or plastic replicas.

Lord Drayson, the science minister, is known to be concerned about the decline in dissection and has commissioned the Society of Biology to devise an accreditation scheme to ensure universities teach it.

Lord Winston, the fertility specialist and broadcaster, is about to begin offering dissection classes for comprehensive pupils in a new laboratory at Imperial College London.

“At so many schools what pupils do is watch teachers dissecting, which means they are divorced from practical work,” Winston said. “Online doesn’t begin to compare. It is a bit of a cop-out — it is very convenient and you can do it en masse [but] practical work is what engages children.”

Schools contacted last week said they were increasingly using on-screen animations or demonstrations by teachers, while reducing dissection by pupils. At most, pupils are likely to dissect individual organs such as a kidney or an eye rather than, say, a whole rat. In addition to health and safety fears, schools cited changes to the curriculum which place more emphasis on issues such as the environment than on practical skills.

Mark Downs, chief executive of the Society of Biology, said: “The reason practical dissection is so important is that it doesn’t sanitise the process. If you have kids thinking of becoming pathologists, they are actually handling a heart — the feeling, texture and smell is a very different experience from a video.”

Downs said the decline of dissection in schools and even universities was so severe that pharmaceutical companies were recruiting hardly any new British graduates for their research units.

Robert Wicks, head of biology at the King’s school in Grantham, Lincolnshire, a boys’ grammar, said dissection had fallen because of changes to the syllabus and added that, elsewhere, “teachers have concerns over the use of dissecting equipment with problem pupils”.

Dominic Cheng, head of science at Cedar Mount school, a Manchester comprehensive, said teaching the skill had fallen dramatically. “There’s no call for it,” he said.

Helen Wright, headmistress of the private St Mary’s Calne, a girls’ school in Wiltshire, said her pupils were taught dissection once they reached the age of 15. Occasionally they worked with pickled rats or fish heads, but more often with pigs’ hearts and kidneys “usually sourced from a very nice butcher in Devizes”.

SOURCE





British school refuses to see severe bullying

It took the light of publicity to get any action at all

Emma and Ian Nagington took special care when trying to find a secondary school for their daughter. They were particularly concerned because Nicole, aged 12, is ‘moderately to severely deaf’ and needs to wear a hearing aid to keep up with lessons.

Knowing children can be cruel, they feared their daughter might be singled out, particularly because she was so hard of hearing her teachers had to wear special microphones.

But they were reassured when staff at the Phoenix School in Telford, Shropshire, told them about the safe, caring environment at the comprehensive.

So when Nicole stopped eating and became bad tempered within a fortnight of starting at Phoenix, Mr and Mrs Nagington at first thought she was just being a typical adolescent. It was only when she ran home from school in tears two months ago that they realised something was terribly wrong.

Nicole shook with fear as she told them she was being badly bullied – not because of her deafness, but because of her red hair. The final straw was a series of poison pen notes, one containing death threats.

The bullying began within days of the start of the school year, when 15 girls in her class began calling her names, including ‘ginger nut’ and ‘ginger bitch’. The nastiness escalated and in March she received a note reading: ‘I shall see you after school and I am going to kill you.’

Yet months went by and Nicole said nothing. ‘I didn’t want to be called a grass as well as everything else,’ she says. Instead she faked illness to try to stay at home and nagged her parents until they let her dye her red hair blonde in a desperate attempt to halt the daily verbal abuse. ‘When we finally discovered what was happening, and how petrified she was, I felt terribly guilty because I had been forcing her to go to school,’ said Emma.

Mr and Mrs Nagington immediately complained to the school, but say they were ignored for more than a week. Even when they managed to raise their concerns, they say senior staff tried to downplay the bullying. ‘We were fobbed off,’ said Ian. ‘The best response we got was that they had no evidence of bullying.

‘I can’t believe that not only did they take no action over the note, but that in all those months they didn’t see that something was going on.’

Nicole, who is pretty, polite and rather shy, started wearing a hearing aid when she was five. It did not cause any problems at primary school, she had lots of friends and her attendance record was 99 per cent.

When it came picking a secondary school, Phoenix School was only the family’s third choice. Nicole did not like it from the start. She said: ‘In my first week one of the girls in the class started calling me names. ‘Over the following weeks, other girls joined her until all the girls in the class were calling me names and telling me I was ugly. ‘Break times were terrible and one or other of them kept pushing me up against one of the walls or on to the ground, but none of the teachers seemed to notice.’

At home, she did not dare mention what was happening. Instead her behaviour deteriorated and she lost her appetite.

After the Christmas break the bullying continued and Nicole then persuaded her parents to let her dye her hair blonde. ‘It didn’t take all the red away and it didn’t stop the bullying. I had a note that said, “You are still a ginger ... All gingers should die”,’ says Nicole.

Meanwhile she kept faking illness to try to stay at home. In early March, a girl threw a plastic bottle of water at her during class, which hit her on the side of her eye, leaving a bruise. The class teacher saw what happened but, according to Nicole, was not surprised or cross. Girls also began leaving nasty messages on Facebook.

Then, during a class on March 17, Nicole was passed notes insulting her hair and lack of hearing. Then they said they would kill her after school. She took the threat literally and, when school was over, dashed home.

‘Nicole was crying and shaking from head to foot,’ Emma recalls. ‘I put my arms around her and asked her what was wrong. She was too upset to speak and instead passed me the notes. I couldn’t believe how shocking they were.’

The school maintains that it was unaware anything was wrong. But so far as Nicole and her parents are concerned, this is because no one at Phoenix took the trouble to listen.

Emma says she rang the school numerous times trying to speak to the deputy head, but kept being told she was in meetings. Nicole begged her parents not to send her back and a place was soon found at Wrockwardine Wood Comprehensive. But this meant the head or deputy head of Phoenix would have to sign a transfer form.

Ian said: ‘When the deputy head finally rang us she refused to sign, saying there was no evidence of bullying and therefore no need for Nicole to leave. 'I disagreed and told her Emma had read out the poison pen letters to the form head, but she said words to the effect that children will be children. ‘She asked me to come in and see her, but there was no point as we were determined not to send Nicole back.

'After six weeks, when I felt Phoenix had dragged its feet long enough, I told our story to our local newspaper and they got in touch with the deputy head for a comment. It might have been a coincidence but the papers were then signed.’

Nicole’s story looks as if it will have a happy ending. She has started her new school and things are going well. She said: ‘The girls in my form have been really friendly. I feel very happy and I can’t wait for the dye to grow out and to get my bright red hair back again.’

A Phoenix School spokesman said: ‘The school is committed to resolving bullying issues and supporting young people, has signed up to the anti-bullying charter and has robust systems in place.

'We are confident that when informed of alleged bullying we take suitable measures to deal with it. Unfortunately in this case, parents withdrew the pupil without reporting the concerns they have raised in the Press.’

SOURCE



1 May, 2010

MA: State considers watering down MCAS

Officials push back timeline to 2020 for higher scores

In an effort to boost the achievement of all students, Massachusetts education officials are considering a new benchmark that they hope will be more attainable than a nearly decade-old federal requirement that has fallen out of favor with President

Yesterday, a task force of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education recommended setting a goal that 85 percent of students score proficient or advanced on the MCAS test by 2020. That would represent a notable departure from a goal established under President George W. Bush that called for 100 percent of students to be proficient by 2014.

The new benchmark and longer timeline, state education officials say, reflect the enormous task the state confronts in raising achievement levels for all students, as well as specific categories of students, based on such factors as race and ethnicity, income levels, and learning disabilities.

Officials say more work needs to be done to overhaul underperforming schools and expand programs for English-language learners, two areas where test achievement lags. They also want to beef up, among other things, literacy programs for all elementary school students.

The task force on the “proficiency gap’’ believes that the proposed goal is more appropriate and reachable, said board member Jeff Howard, who chairs the task force.

“We were looking for something challenging but realistic that would mobilize people’s attention and resources to get it done,’’ said Howard, who is president and founder of the Efficacy Institute in Waltham, a national nonprofit that works with school districts on programs to boost the achievement of economically disadvantaged students. “A goal that is unrealistic has no mobilizing effect on anyone.’’

While some groups of students are somewhat near the proposed goal, others are far behind, according to the report by the task force on the “proficiency gap.’’

The federal goal, created about eight years ago under the No Child Left Behind Act, has been losing credibility with many educators, researchers, and education advocates across Massachusetts, as the state has targeted more than half of all its schools for improvement or radical overhauls because of a failure to make adequate annual progress in reaching the 2014 deadline. It is a sentiment that is prevalent in other states as well, prompting some to lower standards for proficiency.

It’s not entirely clear how Obama might replace the Bush-era goal. Obama has said he wants a more nuanced method of judging schools that would probably go beyond test scores. Ultimately, he wants school systems to graduate students who are ready for college or the workforce. Any changes would have to be approved by Congress.

The proposed goal in Massachusetts drew a mix of praise and skepticism. Thomas Scott, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, welcomed the change. “It’s a reasonable goal,’’ Scott said. “I think it has a more realistic chance of success than the federal objective had.’’

Glenn Koocher, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, called the new goal ambitious, but was somewhat skeptical about the state’s motives in establishing the new benchmark.

“Is this just another attempt to regulate and punish, or is it a sincere effort to get kids to proficiency and help districts get there?’’ said Koocher, who had not read the report. “This being Massachusetts, we have to read carefully into the fine details of the proposal, before drawing final conclusions.’’

It’s not clear whether the proposed goal would carry any sanctions against schools that fail to meet it.

The state board is scheduled to discuss the report at its next meeting.

Mitchell Chester, the state’s commissioner of elementary and secondary education, said he thought the new goal had a lot of merit but was not sure about the 85 percent mark. “I’m a believer of setting goals,’’ Chester said. “I like conceptually what’s been recommended.’’

SOURCE





“Free schools” won’t save British education

A Swede tells the Tories that they are wrong to get so overexcited about the Swedish free-school model

Traditionally it was left-leaning Brits who pined after Swedish models, but in this year’s General Election campaign it’s the Conservatives who are taking inspiration from the north. Party leader David Cameron, as part of his plan to build a Big Society, wants to allow parents, charities, churches and other groups to set up their own so-called ‘free schools’ - a hybrid of Sweden’s friskolor and American charter schools. It is time, Cameron says, to end ‘education bureaucracy’, give parents more choice, and infuse the school system with healthy competition in order to drive up standards.

New Labour says such reforms would threaten local education budgets as old state schools are likely to lose pupils, and therefore funding, to the new free schools (which would receive state-funding but would operate independently). Critics also say that the reforms will entrench inequalities, as children with parents who are willing to put in the time and effort needed to set up or ‘shop around’ for schools will benefit, while others will be left behind. For the Conservatives, however, competition is key. They believe that, as associations and interest groups set up schools according to certain children’s needs, all schools will have to up their game in order to attract pupils and funding.

But what has been missed out in the budget- and competition-centred debate around free schools is how this survival-of-the-fittest version of education devalues authority – the authority of teachers, of learning and of knowledge – and how it encourages young people to accept their lot rather than to challenge it.

Parent power vs teacher power

Like New Labour’s existing academies, free schools will also be out of local authority control and will promote parent choice. Already, by the end of last year, hundreds of parents had expressed interest in the Tories’ Swedish/American-style scheme, suggesting that there is, indeed, a lot of disgruntlement about the state of British education.

It is understandable that parents want to ensure their children get the best schooling possible and that they are willing to do everything they can to sort out the failings of the education system. The annual scramble for school places in the UK has revealed parents lying about where they live in order to pass the residency test for a particular school, or suddenly attending church each Sunday in order to fulfil the pupil entry requirements of faith schools. But while groups of parents with shared interests and visions could certainly come up with some good solutions for their children, such pockets of inspiring education will not address the failing quality of mainstream education.

Moreover, pushy parents intervening in the minutiae of everyday life at school can undermine the authority of teachers, who become duty-bound primarily to parents’ demands. A Swedish state-school headmistress interviewed for a BBC Newsnight report earlier this year indicated that parents don’t always know best when it comes to judging how children should relate to knowledge and their peers. In her view, parents sometimes cause disruption in schools, because following the extension of school choice in Sweden it has become easier for children to change schools. She related anecdotally how, when children encounter problems in lessons or with their mates – something every child goes through – parents now more readily pull their children out of the school. This, she said, prevents children from learning a crucial lesson: that ‘if there is a problem, you need to solve it’.

The devaluation of knowledge

The Tories’ free schools would, in reality, be a continuation of the specialist academies introduced under Tony Blair. Blair’s education tsar, Andrew Adonis, made study visits to Sweden long before the Tory shadow education minister, Michael Gove, went there for his Swedish lessons. The Blairite academies are shiny, funky, high-tech monuments to the devaluation of subject-based academic learning, which under New Labour has been dismissed as ‘elitist’ and ‘unnecessary’.

Young people are no longer encouraged to view education as edifying so much as necessary for strengthening their CVs. And judging from the Swedish experience, British free schools are likely to perpetuate the abandonment of the principle of learning for its own sake in favour of the acquisition of particular skills or attitudes. Swedish free schools offer programmes in everything from arts and media studies to agriculture, handicrafts and finance. The Tories are celebrating this kind of individualised learning, where parents and young people pursue their private interests in relation to schooling.

Yes, the bureaucratisation of education under New Labour – the much-maligned ‘targets culture’ – has weighed down education. But the move towards the privatisation of schooling is a sign that the political class has given up on the idea of the school as an institution that transmits universal knowledge to the whole of the next generation.

Inequality and segregation

The left in Britain and in Sweden have criticised free schools for putting children from educated, middle-class families at an advantage, solidifying rather than blurring the lines of segregation. There is choice in theory, but in practice the market has not reduced inequalities, critics say.

There are conflicting studies on the results of free schools and the extent to which their introduction has raised standards of education overall. As for individual students, Per Thulberg, director general of the Swedish National Agency for Education, told Newsnight that while Swedish pupils studying in new schools have higher results on average, this is probably a result of the fact that they are mostly from well-educated, middle-class families and are more likely to do better in school anyway. The fact that a majority of Swedish free schools can be found in Stockholm and Gothenburg, the two major cities, also suggests that they are a metropolitan phenomenon.

Others warn that, if Britain goes down the Swedish route, education will be tainted by business and will have to submit to the profit motive, so that pupils in new schools will become pawns of the market. A prime difference – for the moment – between the Tories’ vision for educational reform and the Swedish ‘education revolution’ (in social democratic Sweden, scaling back the state in favour of granting individual choice is still quite a novelty), is that the Tories will not allow British free schools to be profit-making. Three quarters of the 1,000-odd Swedish free schools are owned by private businesses.

But the primary way in which free schools can lead to segregation and social division is in how they encourage children to be educated in the manner deemed acceptable to that particular section of society to which their parents belong. Michael Gove has said that, in Sweden, young people from poor areas have been able to escape failing state schools. Certainly, reducing or scrapping residency requirements is a good thing – though in Sweden proximity, along with sibling attendance and application timing, is one of the entrance criteria for free schools, too. For upper secondary free schools, grades determine admission.

Yes, free schools offer certain opportunities to attend a school in another council area from the one you live in (a good thing), but in the end the free school system, rather than creating a more equal school system, will further separate people along the lines of school background. It offers liberal parents the chance to send their children to the same school, it allows religious children the chance to be educated in religious schools, working-class children to receive vocational training, and so on.

Creating a culture that values learning

There is nothing wrong with communities of interest, but neither is there any point in pretending that free schools are the answer to segregation. As Frank Furedi pointed out in a recent essay on spiked, in principle there’s nothing wrong with private education, but it is not the private status itself which guarantees success. Many of the institutions in Britain’s independent education sector, Furedi said, ‘are built on a legacy of significant cultural and intellectual capital. Their achievements are organically linked to a tradition of excellence, which is supported by generations of influential and privileged parents. Such schools cannot be cobbled together through parental ambition or the workings of the market.’

It would indeed be a great relief if, after New Labour’s constant tinkering with the curriculum and its devaluation of subject-based learning, the British school system could be freed from bureaucratic demands and philistinism. But while politicians should cut back on their meddling in everyday school affairs, they should also accept responsibility for providing a public school system that adheres to high standards for all.

SOURCE






Constant British government meddling in High School courses 'has made exams easier'

Constant meddling by ministers in GCSEs and A-levels is compromising standards and fuelling grade inflation, an exams chief warned yesterday.

Tim Oates, a senior figure in Cambridge University's exam board, said reforms to the content and structure of public tests has made it difficult to ensure quality is being maintained.

He claimed a series of changes could also be fuelling grade inflation, including the splitting of traditional two-year A-level and GCSE courses into bite-sized 'modules'.

Some pupils could be gaining higher grades 'without an improvement in the underlying standard of attainment', he warned.
Exams

Put to the test? Exams chief Tim Oates has warned that some pupils are gaining higher grades in GCSEs and A-levels 'without any improvement'. (Posed by models)

Mr Oates's intervention at a seminar in London called into question ministers' claims that education standards have risen since Labour came to power 13 years ago.

Although the Government has claimed a rise in the number of pupils gaining higher grades is down to children working harder and better teaching, Mr Oates, head of research at Cambridge Assessment, told delegates there was enough evidence of grade inflation to 'stimulate anxiety'.

His comments came a week after he said talking about grade inflation could be seen as a 'Ratner moment', a reference to the hapless jeweller boss Gerald Ratner, who in 1991 sent the value of his stores plummeting by calling one of his products 'crap'.

But Mr Oates insisted it was important to tell the public about the 'many and varied mechanisms' that could be behind rising grades.

'Frequent and contrary change' ordered by the Government was 'threatening standards', he warned.

'We have had a period of constant change in the structure and content of qualifications. If you effect continual, unnecessary and inappropriate change in qualifications, it makes holding any standard extremely difficult.

'Maintaining standards is one of the most challenging things an awarding body has to confront. We have to reduce the frequency and scope of change in qualifications. Arbitrary change is not helpful. Frequent arbitrary change is extremely unhelpful in terms of maintaining standards.

'Of course exams have to be updated, but unnecessary change threatens standards.'

And he claimed the exam system gave borderline pupils 'the benefit of the doubt', possibly leading to an increase in grades over time. Modules also had an 'impact'.

'It encourages boys who might perhaps leave everything until the last moment in terms of an examination to have to work right from the first few weeks of the course,' he said. 'They attain more and a higher number of higher grades will be the result.'

Mr Oates said schools, universities, employers and exam boards should devise exams - not the Government. The Mail revealed yesterday how Cambridge rejected 5,800 applicants with three-As last year. Just over a quarter of A-levels taken in the UK are graded A.

SOURCE





Primarily covering events in Australia, the U.K. and the USA -- where the follies are sadly similar.


TERMINOLOGY: The British "A Level" exam is roughly equivalent to a U.S. High School diploma. Rather confusingly, you can get As, Bs or Cs in your "A Level" results. Entrance to the better universities normally requires several As in your "A Levels".


MORE TERMINOLOGY: Many of my posts mention the situation in Australia. Unlike the USA and Britain, there is virtually no local input into education in Australia. Education is mostly a State government responsibility, though the Feds have a lot of influence (via funding) at the university level. So it may be useful to know the usual abbreviations for the Australian States: QLD (Queensland), NSW (New South Wales), WA (Western Australia), VIC (Victoria), TAS (Tasmania), SA (South Australia).


There were two brothers from a famous family. One did very well at school while the other was a duffer. Which one went on the be acclaimed as the "Greatest Briton"? It was the duffer: Winston Churchill.


The current Left-inspired practice of going to great lengths to shield students from experience of failure and to tell students only good things about themselves is an appalling preparation for life. In adulthood, the vast majority of people are going to have to reconcile themselves to mundane jobs and no more than mediocrity in achievement. Illusions of themselves as "special" are going to be sorely disappointed


Perhaps it's some comfort that the idea of shielding kids from failure and having only "winners" is futile anyhow. When my son was about 3 years old he came bursting into the living room, threw himself down on the couch and burst into tears. When I asked what was wrong he said: "I can't always win!". The problem was that we had started him out on educational computer games where persistence only is needed to "win". But he had then started to play "real" computer games -- shootem-ups and the like. And you CAN lose in such games -- which he had just realized and become frustrated by. The upset lasted all of about 10 minutes, however and he has been happily playing computer games ever since. He also now has a degree in mathematics and is socially very pleasant. "Losing" certainly did not hurt him.


Even the famous Marxist theoretician Antonio Gramsci (and the world's most famous Sardine) was a deep opponent of "progressive" educational methods. He wrote: "The most paradoxical aspect is that this new type of school is advocated as being democratic, while in fact it is destined not merely to perpetuate social differences, but to crystallise them." He rightly saw that "progressive" methods were no help to the poor


I am an atheist of Protestant background who sent his son to Catholic schools. Why did I do that? Because I do not personally feel threatened by religion and I think Christianity is a generally good influence. I also felt that religion is a major part of life and that my son should therefore have a good introduction to it. He enjoyed his religion lessons but seems to have acquired minimal convictions from them.


Why have Leftist educators so relentlessly and so long opposed the teaching of phonics as the path to literacy when that opposition has been so enormously destructive of the education of so many? It is because of their addiction to simplistic explanations of everything (as in saying that Islamic hostility is caused by "poverty" -- even though Osama bin Laden is a billionaire!). And the relationship between letters and sounds in English is anything but simple compared to the beautifully simple but very unhelpful formula "look and learn".


For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL schools should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the poor and minimal regulation.


The NEA and similar unions worldwide believe that children should be thoroughly indoctrinated with Green/Left, feminist/homosexual ideology but the "3 R's" are something that kids should just be allowed to "discover"


A a small quote from the past that helps explain the Leftist dominance of education: "When an opponent says: 'I will not come over to your side,' I calmly say, 'Your child belongs to us already. You will pass on. Your descendents, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time, they will know nothing else but this new community.'." Quote from Adolf Hitler. In a speech on 6th November 1933


I am rather pleased to report that I am a lifelong conservative. Out of intellectual curiosity, I did in my youth join organizations from right across the political spectrum so I am certainly not closed-minded and am very familiar with the full spectrum of political thinking. Nonetheless, I did not have to undergo the lurch from Left to Right that so many people undergo. At age 13 I used my pocket-money to subscribe to the "Reader's Digest" -- the main conservative organ available in small town Australia of the 1950s. I have learnt much since but am pleased and amused to note that history has since confirmed most of what I thought at that early age.

I imagine that the the RD is still sending mailouts to my 1950s address!


Discipline: With their love of simple generalizations, this will be Greek to Leftists but I see an important role for discipline in education DESPITE the fact that my father never laid a hand on me once in my entire life nor have I ever laid a hand on my son in his entire life. The plain fact is that people are DIFFERENT, not equal and some kids will not behave themselves in response to persuasion alone. In such cases, realism requires that they be MADE to behave by whatever means that works -- not necessarily for their own benefit but certainly for the benefit of others whose opportunities they disrupt and destroy.


Many newspaper articles are reproduced in full on this blog despite copyright claims attached to them. I believe that such reproductions here are protected by the "fair use" provisions of copyright law. Fair use is a legal doctrine that recognises that the monopoly rights protected by copyright laws are not absolute. The doctrine holds that, when someone uses a creative work in way that does not hurt the market for the original work and advances a public purpose - such as education or scholarship - it might be considered "fair" and not infringing.


Comments above by John Ray