BruDirect.com, 6 Apr 2010
Bandar Seri Begawan - The Permanent Secretary (Core Education) at the Ministry of Education, Datin Paduka Dyg Apsah binti Hj Majid yesterday received a courtesy call from Master Teacher Mdm Fadilah binti Isnin of the Malay Language Centre of Singapore (MLCS).
Mdm Fadilah was accompanied by six Malay Language teachers from Singapore who will attend an immersion programme of teaching attachments in various sixth form centres in Brunei Darussalam. Full Story
April 5, 2010
California's elementary school teachers feel much less confident in teaching science than reading or math, and there is both the need and the potential for significant improvement in elementary school teacher preparation, according to a new report by the California Council on Science and Technology (CCST).
Currently, 50% of California's students score at or below basic proficiency in science, with only Mississippi having a higher percentage of students below basic proficiency. Little science is taught in the state's elementary schools: in one recent survey, 80% of K-6 teachers reported spending 60 minutes or less per week on science; and 16% indicated they spend no time at all on science.
The Preparation of Elementary School Teachers to Teach Science in California: Challenges and Opportunities Impacting Teaching and Learning Science is an eighteen-month study funded by the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation. The report examines the state's process for preparing elementary school teachers to teach science.
Unlike secondary school teachers, who hold credentials that prepare them specifically to teach science or math, K-6 teachers hold a multiple subject credential, designed to equip them to teach all subject areas, including science, in their classrooms.
To complete the new study, CCST worked with the California State University Center for Teacher Quality (CTQ), which has conducted annual surveys of first-year teachers and their Principals/supervisors since 2001. The CTQ data over eight years indicate that K-6 teachers rate themselves as substa
The administration at San Francisco State University have replaced instructors with new staff who are not trained to properly prepare the students for taking the CSET exams since they do not have social science backgrounds or experience. A petition was signed that was presented to the University but no action was taken.
brandon wong | Staff Photographer
Southern California teachers march through Pershing Square in Los Angeles on March 4, 2010.
School districts had to notify teachers of their potential layoffs for next year by the deadline on March 15.
That day has come and gone, leaving many elementary and high school teachers with pink slips in hand. Layoffs have been particularly extensive in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), and the LAUSD has also announced a plan to cut five days from the academic calendar this year.
“By April, the schools should know their budget and bring [teachers] back in the summer,” Christina Giguiere, the multiple subject placement coordinator in the education department at UC Irvine, said.
Teaching jobs, traditionally considered stable, often come with the cyclical nature of state funding attached. According to Giguiere, pink-slipped teachers usually can expect to be rehired during the next school year.
With the current deficit however, preliminary pink slips will have a more final ring to them this year. Each district is millions of dollars behind in their budget, and a credentialed teacher, with salary and full medical coverage, costs about $80,000 a year. As a result, teachers, whose salaries make up 80
Recently, the Common Core State Standards Initiative, a group of 48 states organized by the nation's governors and chief state school officers, released draft K-12 education standards in English and mathematics.
As a former CEO of a Fortune 500 company, I know that common education standards are essential for producing the educated work force America needs to remain globally competitive. Good standards alone are not enough, but without them decisions about such things as curricula, instructional materials and tests are haphazard. It is no wonder that educational quality varies so widely among states.
English and math standards have so far mostly been set without empirical evidence or attention as to whether students were learning what they needed for college and the workplace. College educators and employers were hardly ever part of the discussion, even though they knew best what the real world would demand of high school graduates. Luckily, about five years ago, states began to raise the bar so that their standards would reflect college- and career-ready expectations.
The draft common core state standards build on this effort and are a significant improvement over most current state standards. The reaction to them has been positive from across the political spectrum, from teachers unions (the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers) to conservative governors such as Georgia's Sonny Perdue and Indiana's Mitch Daniels. They provide a grade-by-grade progression from kindergarten to high
Applications by international students to American graduate schools are up 7 percent over last year, reversing a three-year trend of slowing growth in overseas applicants, according to a reportreleased on Tuesday by the Council of Graduate Schools.
The admissions data in the report are welcome news after first-time enrollments of foreign students were flat last fall, raising questions about the reliance of American universities on international talent at the graduate level.
But while the report's author calls the figures "an encouraging sign," he cautioned that admissions data often are not a strong indicator of enrollment trends. Last year applications were up 4 percent, but enrollments remained unchanged, said Nathan E. Bell, director of research and policy analysis at the Council of Graduate Schools.
"In this survey, we're counting applications, pieces of paper," Mr. Bell said, "not actual students who enroll."
A variety of factors could influence enrollments, Mr. Bell said, including continuing worldwide
It's not often that one can describe a prominent politician as "sweet." But it's the word that comes to mind when one thinks of Al Rodda, a former state senator from Sacramento who died Saturday at age 97.
Rodda was a genuinely sweet man – modest, even diffident, in demeanor, high-minded and learned, painfully sincere – who nonetheless not only survived two decades in the rough-and-tumble ambience of Capitol politics, but rose to power.
A former teacher, Rodda championed public education as chairman of the Senate Education Committee and later the Finance Committee. He fashioned legislation that responded to the historic Serrano v. Priest decision on school finance, chaired the committee that crafted the bailout of schools and local governments after Proposition 13's passage in 1978, and wrote legislation creating a state community college chancellor's office and board of trustees.
The quintessential Rodda moment – one perfectly reflecting his all-too-rare traits – came in
Since being named a California Distinguished School in the late 1990s, Davidson's test scores have been among the poorest in the San Bernardino city school system, which had more failing schools than every district in the state except Los Angeles.
For more than a decade, district and schools officials have thrown every potential solution they could muster at Davidson, from extra teaching aides and individualized attention, to new technology and data-tracking methods.
Then last year, the school's standardized test scores - already far below state standards - fell another
In many ways, Davidson's experience illustrates the excrutiatingly difficult task faced by the teachers and administrators whose job it is to figure out why a school is performing poorly and get things fixed.
"I don't want to get anyone in trouble, but it's pretty obvious to me there should be more changes at this school if they are not doing well on test scores," said Kerrie Oestreich, whose 8-year-old son attends Davidson.
To put together the list - which included 188 schools statewide and 11 in San Bernardino - the California
| Obama's "Race to the Top" Rewards Disappointing | | Print | |
| WRITTEN BY RAVEN CLABOUGH |
| MONDAY, 05 APRIL 2010 13:52 |
President Obama’s Race to the Top program was intended to award states that implement “coherent, compelling, and comprehensive education reform.” Governors from a variety of states were excited at the prospect of competing for a share of the $4 billion set aside for the program, but the excitement very quickly transformed into disappointment when Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced that only two states would be receiving a share of the money: Delaware and Tennessee. Some school districts view Race to the Top as a wise and generous federal investment that will outdo the No Child Left Behind program, whose promises of federal money were unfulfilled. The purpose of Race to the Top is to award states who advanced reform in four primary areas: · Adopting standards and implementing assessments that would enable students to succeed in the workplace and compete in the global economy According to the White House website, Race to the Top “will go to States that are leading the way |
Recommend