Could a Crowdsourced Language Program Translate the Web? - Education - GOOD

Could a Crowdsourced Language Program Translate the Web? - Education - GOOD:

Could a Crowdsourced Language Program Translate the Web?

by Liz Dwyer

In the 21st century, the wealth of information available through the internet democratizes learning in unprecedented ways. But an age-old problem still keeps people around the globe from acquiring knowledge: Access to information is restricted by the languages you speak.

That could all change thanks to Duolingo, a new free language learning site spearheaded by Carnegie Mellon computer science professor Luis von Ahn. The site enables users to learn a second language (or third, or fourth) while simultaneously taking part in a crowdsourced web translation effort.

How can you translate a language you don't know, you may ask? If you're an English speaker looking to learn Spanish, the site starts you off with simple lessons to teach you the basics. But unlike your high school foreign language classes, you get to apply and hone your newly acquired language skills immediately. Beginning speaker are asked to translate simple sentences. As you gain more fluency, Duolingo increases the complexity

The Year in Education: Seven Innovations Changing the Way the World Learns

by Liz Dwyer

This year's education innovations focused on technology, leadership, and creative thinking. From the expansion of free college courses to teachers becoming entrepreneurially minded leaders, these are the most important educational advancements of the past year—all of which are sure to impact schools well into 2012 and beyond.

Photo via (cc) Flickr user epSos.de

Final exams | Thoughts on Public Education

Final exams | Thoughts on Public Education:

Final exams

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Practice questions for high stakes tests

Posted on 12/23/11 • Categorized as Assessments, Tests

By Kathryn Baron

It’s not just any Friday; it’s the Friday before the biggest holiday week of the year. So if you’re reading this, you’re probably trying to escape from a) out-of-town guests, b) another tin of homemade cookies that reminds you about that resolution to join a gym, c) the annual office party that’s been downgraded by the economy from a formal soiree with a band and open bar to cheese Danish and coffee, or d) all of the above.

Hmmm, multiple choice. That gives us an idea for something that will keep TOPed in your thoughts next week while we take a break. We’ve compiled an array of questions, released by the publishers, from a variety of tests. Pour yourself a glass of eggnog – no scrimping on the nutmeg – power up your graphing calculator, and open your booklet.
[Click here for answers]

California High School Exit Exam

Mathematical Reasoning

Obama Education Policies Survive the Chopping Block; End Around of State Legislatures Continues | Truth in American Education

Obama Education Policies Survive the Chopping Block; End Around of State Legislatures Continues | Truth in American Education:

Obama Education Policies Survive the Chopping Block; End Around of State Legislatures Continues

by Shane Vander Hart

The Senate level-funded almost all of the education funding. The House increased funding for Title I and Special education, but eliminated 31 other programs including Race to the Top. The compromise spending bill was recently passed by the House, 296-121 this would fund several government programs until September 30, 2012. The Senate is expected to pass the bill as well.

EdWeek reported what survived in the compromise bill:

Under the compromise spending bill, Title I grants for districts would see a tiny boost of $60 million, bringing the total to $14.5 billion. And the $60 million increase will be divided among thousands of school districts, so it’s unlikely to make much a difference overall.

Special education would also see a teeny hike, to $11.6 billion, a $100 million increase. Advocates

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Jose Rico named to lead White House initiative

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Jose Rico named to lead White House initiative:

Jose Rico named to lead White House initiative

by Mike Klonsky

José Rico has been appointed as the new director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics. The Initiative is in charge of expanding academic excellence and improving educational opportunities for Hispanics.

Hispanics are the largest minority group in the public education system, comprising more than 1 in 5 students in the nation's elementary, middle and high schools, according to a report by the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics. The report shows that Hispanics will drive the growth of the labor force over the next several decades, accounting for 60 percent of the nation's growth between 2005 and 2050.

“Hispanic students have graduated at lower rates than others for a long time,

Lesson Planning for Engagement « The Whole Child Blog « Whole Child Education

Lesson Planning for Engagement « The Whole Child Blog « Whole Child Education:

THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG

Lesson Planning for Engagement

December 22nd, 2011 by ASCD Whole Child Bloggers

Post written by Fiona S. Baker, a teacher educator with an interest in responsive classroom professional development. She has more than 25 years of experience as a classroom teacher, workshop presenter, school consultant, and faculty member at universities and colleges, and she currently teaches at the Emirates College for Advanced Education in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Connect with Baker by e-mail at fbaker@ecae.ac.ae. This post was originally featured in ASCD Express.

Why is it that after all the teacher’s diligent lesson planning, classroom learners are often disengaged and

Parent outcry forces Rahm to leave desegregated La Salle alone. « Fred Klonsky

Parent outcry forces Rahm to leave desegregated La Salle alone. « Fred Klonsky:

Parent outcry forces Rahm to leave desegregated La Salle alone.

by Fred Klonsky

It became an embarrassment to the Mayor.

La Salle Language Academy, one of the first magnet schools in the city, established as a result of a court ordered desegregation plan thirty years ago, was about to be demagnetized. Located in Rahm’s own upscale neighborhood, Rahm’s plan would turn the school from being 30% white to 60% white.

The outcry was loud and sustained. And in the end, CPS CEO J.C. Brizard sent an email to parents saying he

The Educated Reporter: Rise in Homeless Students Strains School Safety Net

The Educated Reporter: Rise in Homeless Students Strains School Safety Net:

Rise in Homeless Students Strains School Safety Net

by Emily Richmond

I met an elementary school counselor in Henderson, Nev. a few years ago, who was looking for a good deal on sleeping bags.

The economic downturn has struck southern Nevada harder than almost any other region in the United States. The local schools are struggling to help thousands of students and their families facing dire economic

Steering Clear of "The New Stupid" :: Frederick M. Hess

Steering Clear of "The New Stupid" :: Frederick M. Hess:

Steering Clear of "The New Stupid"

by Frederick M. Hess • Dec 23, 2011 at 9:15 am
Cross-posted from Education Week

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Note: This week, I'm giving RHSU readers a look at my essay from Educational Leadership entitled "The New Stupid." For days one and two, see here and here.

If you see warning signs of the new stupid, what should you do? There are at least four keys to avoiding the new stupid.

First, educators should be wary of allowing data or research to substitute for good judgment. When presented with persuasive findings or promising new programs, it is still vital to ask the simple questions: What are the presumed benefits of adopting this program or reform? What are the costs? How confident are we that the promised results are replicable? What contextual factors might complicate projections? Data-driven decision making does not simply require good data; it also requires good decisions.

Second, schools must actively seek out the kind of data they need as well as the achievement data external

Charter schools group urges closure of four Sacramento-area campuses - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Charter schools group urges closure of four Sacramento-area campuses - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee:

Charter schools group urges closure of four Sacramento-area campuses

dlambert@sacbee.com

PUBLISHED FRIDAY, DEC. 23, 2011

A list of 10 schools the California Charter Schools Association would like to see closed – including four in the Sacramento area – has caused an uproar within the charter school movement.

CCSA officials say closing low-performing schools demonstrates that charters are willing to be held accountable. The schools on the list do not meet the minimum criteria the organization has established for academic achievement, said Jed Wallace, president of CCSA.

"We thought it necessary for the well-being of the students attending the schools, as well as for the charter school movement," Wallace said of the recommendation.

But other charter school proponents say the association's criteria are flawed and that it is overstepping its authority.

"We already have laws on how this is supposed to work in California," said Eric Premack, president of the Charter School Development Center. "For a third-party group like CCSA to

Florida’s Tax Credit Scholarship a “Travesty” and “Part of the Agenda” to Weaken Public Schools | Scathing Purple Musings

Florida’s Tax Credit Scholarship a “Travesty” and “Part of the Agenda” to Weaken Public Schools | Scathing Purple Musings:

Florida’s Tax Credit Scholarship a “Travesty” and “Part of the Agenda” to Weaken Public Schools

by Bob Sikes

So says Seminole schools Superintendent Bill Vogel:

Florida’s tax-credit scholarship program for low-income students is “a travesty” and “part of the agenda” to weaken public schools, Seminole County education leaders say.

Their main complaint: There’s little known about what the nearly 38,000 students in the program are learning in exchange for the $175 million spent this year to send them to private — most often religious — schools

Such public criticism of the scholarship program, which is very popular among conservative

Schools Matter: Three Kinds of Charter Schools: Largely Segregated, Intensely Segregated, and Apartheid

Schools Matter: Three Kinds of Charter Schools: Largely Segregated, Intensely Segregated, and Apartheid:

Three Kinds of Charter Schools: Largely Segregated, Intensely Segregated, and Apartheid

by Jim Horn

If a charter school in the leafy suburbs of Georgia or North Carolina offers no federal breakfast or lunch program and no transportation for kids, can poor parents choose this school for their children who will, otherwise, not have breakfast, lunch, or a ride to and from school?

If a charter school in Memphis or Minneapolis offers, as the only option to a crumbling public school, a chain gang charter that mimics the total compliance KIPP behavioral and cultural neutering programs, can middle class parents ever be expected to choose to enroll their Seths and Caitlins there?

So no, the new segregation via charter school in America is not accomplish through legal mandates but by willful

Daily Kos: Words to consider

Daily Kos: Words to consider:

Words to consider

by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)

Consider these words

... the modern era, replacing the arbitrary rule of men with the impartial rule of law, has not brought any fundamental changes in the facts of unequal wealth and unequal power.

Or these:

If law and order are the only ways of making injustice legitimate, then the "order" on the surface of everyday life may conceal deep mental and emotional disorder among the victims of injustice. This is also true for the powerful beneficiaries of the system, in the way that slavery distorts the psyches of both slave and master. In such a case, the order will only be temporary; when it is broken, it may be accompanied by a bloodbath of disorder - as in the United States, when the tightly controlled order of slavery ended in a civil war and 600,000 men died in a country of 35 million people.

Or these:

When our history books get to the 1920s, they dwell on the Teapot Dome scandals of the Harding administration, while ignoring the far greater reallocations of wealth that took place legally, through

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Parents beat back Rahm's re-segregation at LaSalle Academy

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Parents beat back Rahm's re-segregation at LaSalle Academy:

Parents beat back Rahm's re-segregation at LaSalle Academy

by Mike Klonsky

LaSalle Language Academy

When Arne Duncan was Chicago schools CEO, one of his first goals was to eliminate the city's court ordered desegregation plan. The fight was carried on under Mayor Daley's regime by Duncan's successor, Ron Huberman, who finally got a federal judge to liquidate the consent decree. Rahm Emanuel's attempt to carry on Duncan's tradition and re-segregate one of the city's few remaining integrated magnet schools has been beaten back by protesting parents.

Emanuel tried to phase out LaSalle Language Academy Magnet School,

Education and Inequalities in the U.S. (Sean Reardon) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Education and Inequalities in the U.S. (Sean Reardon) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Education and Inequalities in the U.S. (Sean Reardon)

by larrycuban

Sean Reardon is a professor at Stanford University. This piece appeared in the Boston Review, December 1, 2011.

Education has long been the primary pathway to social mobility in the United States. The American Dream—the idea that one’s family origin is no barrier to economic success—is plausible to the extent that we believe that our schools provide all students with equal opportunity to develop skills that will enable them to succeed in our complex society. Without such opportunity, hope for social mobility dims.

So when we ask whether America is becoming more or less equal, we should ask not only whether income and political power are becoming more unequally distributed (they are), but also whether the opportunity for social

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Chicago communities rally to save their schools

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Chicago communities rally to save their schools:

'

Chicago communities rally to save their schools

by Mike Klonsky

Board pushes longer school day on the high schools

Marquette Elementary School supporter Florence John son, center, with Southwest Youth Collaborative, rallies Thursday with parents, teachers, community activists and students who oppose a “turnaround” project at the Southwest Side school. (Heather Charles, Chicago Tribune / December 22, 2011)

On a day when teachers, parents and students rallied to protest closings or turnaround projects at eight public schools, school district officials responded by announcing they would extend the high school day by 36 minutes beginning next fall. At Marquette, which has been on academic probation for seven of the last eight years and

The Mix Tape Metaphor - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher

The Mix Tape Metaphor - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher:

The Mix Tape Metaphor

by Nancy Flanagan

When I was growing up, my family's (exceedingly modest) Christmas record collection was composed of LP compilations, the kind you get at the Marathon station--ONLY 99 CENTS WITH FILL-UP!! I loved those albums and played them over and over, listening to Johnny Mathis back-to-back with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the banality of the Mitch Miller Singers followed by the massive chords of the New York Philharmonic. To me, the records always seemed like the musical counterpart to the actual experience of December: a little sacred, a little commercial, a touch of rock and roll--a glorious mess.

When I left home, my mother gladly relinquished those albums, and I started building my own collection. In 1984, I created a mix tape of my "greatest holiday hits" and gave it as a gift to my teacher colleagues. It became an annual tradition, a built-in excuse to buy lots of new music every year, and drive my family nuts auditioning