Friday, March 26, 2010

Education - Everything you need to know about the world of education.

Education- Everything you need to know about the world of education.


Agreement on teacher raises coming together


D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee (TWP).




















Why students get rejected from college

My guest is Jerome A. Lucido, vice provost for enrollment policy and management at the University of Southern California.. He is also executive director of USC’s Center for Enrollment Reserach, Policy and Practice.

By Jerome A. Lucido
March Madness is more than a basketball tournament. It also represents life in the admission office as final decisions about the incoming class are made, and it equally applies to life at home for applicants and their families as they eagerly and anxiously await the decisions.

By April 1, applicants across the nation will know the news. With acceptance rates at selective schools, by definition, at 50 % or less, 25% at my own University of Southern California, and with a rare few hovering near 10%, it’s small wonder why students tremble with fear and parents hold candlelight vigils while they await the admission decision.

Step into my office for a brief counseling session on dealing with college rejection. Frankly, it’s like the tried and true break-up line: “It’s not you; it’s me.” Only this time, the line is true. The truth is that there is always a reason that colleges accept a student, but very often there is not a reason that they don’t. It’s truly nothing you did--or even didn’t do.
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What does authentic learning mean, if anything?

Those of us who wallow in educational jargon have all heard the term "authentic." It seems to mean lessons that connect to the real world, like a physics class visiting a nuclear power plant or an English class performing a play by Edward Albee.
But like all fashionable terms, its meaning can evolve, or be distorted, depending on your point of view. I often use it to describe the powerful effect of telling Advanced Placement students in inner city schools that they are preparing for the same exam that kids in the richest school in the suburbs are taking. That makes their studies seem more authentic. Am I misusing the word?
How do you use it? Is it important in schools? Or is it just another buzz word gone bad?
I raise this intriguing issue, which had not occurred to me before, because of an email from Carl Rosin, an English and interdisciplinary/gifted class teacher at Radnor High School, 12 miles west of Philadelphia:
"Could you weigh in on the much-ballyhooed idea of having the classroom attempt to attain authenticity? I don't use ballyhooed to disparage the idea, only to point out that it's a term that is thrown around often, as glittering generalities are in such a politicized age. The idea of the authentic played a prominent role in the 21st-century technology-based initiative "Classrooms for the Future," which swept Pennsylvania two years ago, helping my school and hundreds of others get much-needed technology upgrades."
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Parker: New contract ready after spring break

Washington Teachers' Union president George Parker e-mailed and robo-called members late Wednesday night to say that he hoped details of the long-awaited labor pact with DCPS would be available as early as their return from spring break on April 6. (Break begins Friday).

There have been numerous "peace is at hand" declarations throughout the tortured two-year-plus course of talks between WTU and D.C. Public Schools, but this looks like the real deal. Both sides have been discussing the details of a roll out strategy, and Parker said in the e-mail that informational sessions will be set up for teachers to ask questions about the accord, which is expected to give Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee more latitude to replace ineffective teachers and set up a limited pay-for-performance system.

Ed Buzz: The Nation




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