Latest News and Comment from Education

Monday, January 3, 2011

Schools Matter: Answering Arne Duncan

Schools Matter: Answering Arne Duncan

Answering Arne Duncan

Answering Arne Duncan.

Stephen Krashen

Comment posted on Washington Post website.

Original article at: Arne Duncan, School reform: A chance for

Answering Arne Duncan, part 2

Answering Arne Duncan, part 2

Comment posted on Washington Post website.

Original article at: Arne Duncan, School reform: A chance for bipartisan governing

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/02/AR2011010202378.html?referrer=emailarticle

Arne Duncan claims widespread support for new tests.

Yes, we all want accurate ways of measuring student growth. But does this mean we must have new tests and more testing than has ever been done before? I think we already have a wonderful and accurate way of

Answering Arne Duncan, part 3

Answering Arne Duncan, part 3

Stephen Krashen

Comment posted on Washington Post website.

Original article at: Arne Duncan, School reform: A chance for bipartisan governing

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/02/AR2011010202378.html?referrer=emailarticle

Duncan thinks that "More and more, teachers, parents, and union and business leaders want a real definition of teacher effectiveness based on multiple measures, including student growth, principal observation and peer

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: NEW YEAR QUOTABLES

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: NEW YEAR QUOTABLES

NEW YEAR QUOTABLES

Two Americas
"'We're becoming two societies, two Americas,' [sociologist Robert] Putnam told me recently. There's a deepening class divide that shows up in many places. It's not just a matter of income. Education is becoming the key discriminant in American life. Family structure is part of it too."(Doyle McManus, L.A. Times)
More on China's test-crazy schools
"But don't the PISA results at least show that China's K-9 education is the best in the world, and that standardized testing, as U.S. President Barack Obama seems to believe, is necessary to

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: The Mayor's Race

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: The Mayor's Race

The Mayor's Race

Chicago's Louisiana Purchase?

Chicago mayoral candidate and Mayor Daley's hand-picked former school board prez, Gery Chico tried to think of something clever to say after rivalMiguel del Valle came out strongly against Daley's sell-off of the city's parking spaces. A spokeswoman for Chico issued a statement Friday saying:
“Gery thinks the parking meter deal was the worst since the Louisiana Purchase."
I don't know what beef Chico has with the Louisiana Purchase. I mean, the U.S. got all of present-day Arkansas

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Blog U.: Black Swans and Ed Tech in 2011 - Technology and Learning - Inside Higher Ed

Blog U.: Black Swans and Ed Tech in 2011 - Technology and Learning - Inside Higher Ed

BlogU

  • Black Swans and Ed Tech in 2011

    By Joshua Kim January 2, 2011 8:45 pm EST

    All of us love to think about the future. What ed tech trends will emerge in 2011? What new technologies will be introduced? What tech companies will merge? What new ed tech businesses will form?

    Some good ones:

    --Top 10 Ed Tech predictions for 2011 By Christopher Dawson
    --Ed Tech Forecasts for 2011 by Robert French
    --2011: My Predictions for Ed-Tech by Audrey Watters

    Can you add some more?

    My 2011 ed tech predictions come courtesy of Nassim Nicholas Taleb. CIO's of the world - please buy a copy of the The Black Swan for your direct reports, and schedule an hour over breakfast some time to bookclub. Ask everyone to come with the following two questions for discussion:

Recruiting by U.S. universities of Chinese undergrads is hottest new education trend - San Jose Mercury News

Recruiting by U.S. universities of Chinese undergrads is hottest new education trend - San Jose Mercury News

American universities are accelerating recruitment of undergraduate students from China, building an educational pipeline that delivered more than 40,000 undergraduates to the U.S. in the 2009-10 academic year, a 46 percent increase over the previous year. The newfound wealth of many Chinese and strong academic preparation make these students an admissions officer's dream.

Roots of British Student Unrest Unresolved - NYTimes.com

Roots of British Student Unrest Unresolved - NYTimes.com

Roots of British Student Unrest Unresolved

LONDON — Despite a growing wave of student protests in Britainover government plans to sharply raise university tuition fees that saw buildings occupied at campuses across the country, and battles in the streets between demonstrators and the police whose ferocity at one point even seemed to threaten the heir to the British throne, the year 2010 ended quietly, with students heading home for the holidays and university authorities once again in control of their premises.

Both houses of Parliament have now approved measures that allow the cap on tuition, currently set at £3,290, or $5,150, a year, to rise to £9,000 starting in 2012, at the same time as central government funding for university teaching in most subjects will be cut 80 percent. There would still be some government support for science, technology, medicine, nursing and “strategically important languages.” Government-


Briefly: Education: India Will Survey Colleges and Universities

India's government is preparing to conduct the country's first comprehensive survey on higher education.

Green Column: Bali School Makes Sustainability a Way of Life

The Green School is built with natural materials, has no air conditioning and includes vegetable gardens on site to instill the importance of sustainable living in its students.

Kan. school defends decision to kick out students - AP News Wire, Associated Press News - Salon.com

Kan. school defends decision to kick out students - AP News Wire, Associated Press News - Salon.com

Kan. school defends decision to kick out students

A junior college in suburban Kansas City is defending its decision to kick out four students who posed for photos with a human placenta.

One of the students, Doyle Byrnes, is seeking a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to force Johnson County Community College to reinstate her before classes resume Jan. 19. She had posted one of the photos on Facebook.

The school has said the students could seek readmission in the fall and finish the program a year later in May 2012. But Byrnes is getting

School Tech Connect: Get On The Horn, Illinois Educators and ESP's

School Tech Connect: Get On The Horn, Illinois Educators and ESP's

Get On The Horn, Illinois Educators and ESP's

This is how I will react to chitchat tomorrow.
I'm seriously over chit-chat tomorrow. I will NOT allow it and neither should you.

Tomorrow, don't let your colleagues sit around talking about what they did over their winter vacations. Instead, drag themover to the phone, and ask them to make a call to Springfield and as Karen Lewis says, "speak from the heart."

Seriously, you're not doing yourself any favors by letting people off the hook. Get them on the phones. IFT is asking members and others to call Springfield on Monday and let them know you're opposed to some serious crap that might be moving quickly through the legislature.

Update: New Posts on Parents 4 democratic Schools


New Posts on Parents 4 democratic Schools


The Forgotten Mythos of Reason | Lefty Parent

The Forgotten Mythos of Reason | Lefty Parent

The Forgotten Mythos of Reason

In my previous piece, “Got Mythos?”, inspired by Karen Armstrong’s book, The Case for God, I concluded that…

Our country has a great principle of separation of Church and State, which acknowledges a role for both. How about agreeing as well on some sort of principle of the separation of logos and mythos, and acknowledging the value of both as well? If religion stayed in what [Karen] Armstrong describes as its original realm of a vibrant and non-discredited mythos, would people be expressing so much hate and acting with such violence in the name of religious “truth”.

Months later now and finally getting back to Armstrong’s book, I finished reading chapter 3, “Reason”, where she talks about the origins of the kind of principled thought, discourse and learning, developed in Classical Greece

Education Report: Should teacher layoff rules be rewritten? - Inside Bay Area

Education Report: Should teacher layoff rules be rewritten? - Inside Bay Area
Education Report: Should teacher layoff rules be rewritten?
A new study concludes that laying off the most junior teachers -- rather than the least effective employees -- is likely to have negative consequences for students.