9/11/2014 – Real Leadership For Education Progress
September 10, 2014 Subscribe
THIS WEEK: U.S. Teachers Work Harder For Less … We’re #1 On Cutting Education Spending … Anti-Testing Movement Grows … Teaching In Ferguson … Government Partnering With College Debt Collectors
TOP STORY
Recognizing Real Leadership For Education Progress: Mayor Bill de Blasio
By Jeff Bryant
“Despite all the interest, access to high-quality early education opportunities for every child … remains elusive … Politicians seem incapable of coming up with the money. Mayor de Blasio is the exception. Not only did he make campaign promises to expand pre-k programs, but he has proven that a capable leader can make those promises reality.”
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NEWS AND VIEWS
American Teachers Spend More Time In The Classroom Than World Peers, Says Report
The Huffington Post
“American elementary school teachers spend more hours actually teaching students than peers in any other surveyed country … American middle school and high school teachers spend more time educating students than peers in every OECD country except Chile … In addition to classroom time, U.S. teachers are required to be at school for more hours than most of their international peers. Despite the long hours, American teachers aren’t well compensated … While U.S. raw teacher salaries are high compared with the rest of the world, the pay lags behind that of similarly educated American workers.”
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U.S. Is Often An Outlier In Global Education
AAAS
“The United States cut back on education spending after the Great Recession, whereas the government of the United Kingdom poured more money into its schools. Those two contrasting data points are part of a massive new analysis of the state of education around the world … The U.S. remains the world leader in overall education spending … Even so, spending dropped by 3% in real terms for the 3 years after the global financial meltdown in 2008. Only five other countries chose to go that route … The data on education mobility – whether an adult child completed more education than his or her parents did – are sobering. Along with Germany, the U.S. sits in the bottom tier of countries when it comes to giving the next generation a leg up the skills ladder. Only 30% of U.S. adults no longer in school, and 25% in Germany, have surpassed their parents in the classroom.”
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Anti-Testing Movement Growing, Finding Success Around Country
The Washington Post
“A new report on growing resistance to high-stakes standardized testing around the country finds that the movement is growing and meeting some success in numerous states where officials have decided to cut back on the numbers of tests students must take and/or the consequences for students and educators … A national look at how states are responding to growing resistance … found … States repealing high school graduation requirements and rolling back other test requirements … States postponing the consequences of Common Core testing … Successful, high-profile protests in the form of opt outs, boycotts and other actions … Opinion polls showing shifts in public attitudes against high-stakes testing … Candidates winning office by speaking out clearly against high-stakes testing.”
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Teaching In The Shadow Of The Ferguson Shooting
Education Week
A teacher from Michael Brown’s school district writes, “Even before the shooting and the dramatic aftermath broadcast around the world, our district was accustomed to being and bearing bad news. Normandy is a poor, predominantly African-American community beset by challenges in housing, employment, and access to social, emotional, and physical health care … Now, factor in the shooting … There is the unspoken but ever-present awareness, especially among the boys, that life can end in a flash, even for the kids – like Michael Brown – who manage to navigate the system and graduate. So how do you tell a 14-year-old about the value of staying in school, given what happened here? Believe me, I’m trying. The other day, I watched a group of my students – all boys, unprompted – wordlessly re-enact the shooting from beginning to end, using a fistful of my newly sharpened pencils as the cigarillos Michael allegedly stole before he was gunned down … I’m one adult alone in a room with other people’s children in the heart of a community in pain.”
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The Education Department’s Problematic Billion-Dollar Partnership With Debt Collection Agencies
BuzzFeed
“A new report … claims that the $1 billion per year partnership between the Education Department and private loan collectors leads to abuse and hurts students borrowers because of its ratings system and compensation structure for debt collection … Because those private agencies are driven by profit … they often act in their own financial interests, rather than those of borrowers … Under their partnership, the government pays sizable, percentage-based commissions to debt collection agencies if borrowers pay down their balances or have their wages garnished, but pays out only small administrative fees if borrowers switch to income-based repayment plans or have their loans cancelled because of disabilities … The system also makes it less likely that borrowers receive services like disability or bankruptcy discharges.”
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