Febuary, 2008

I. Teachers and Teaching

1.A different kind of home schooling

February 25, 2008 from Los Angeles Times

Teachers work with immigrant parents to help them help their young students catch up. One goal is to prevent future dropouts. The lack of early parental help, educators say, is a major reason so many children of immigrants eventually drop out. If youngsters are unprepared for the basics as they enter school, they are likely to fall further behind as reading becomes essential to learning. The son of poor laborers in rural Mexico, Ocario Gonzalez doesn't remember his parents ever helping with his schoolwork. Gonzalez and his wife, Maria Arellano, wanted to help her but didn't know how. But then the couple attended a workshop at the school designed specifically for immigrant parents. There, kindergarten teachers taught parents simple ways to help their children and reinforce what they were learning in class: tracing numbers in salt on cookie sheets, making letters with Play-doh or simply conversing with them about their day.

2. Teachers Embrace for Online Tools
Market for K-12 Course-Management Systems Expands

February 22, 2008 from Education Week

Tech-savvy teachers are finding new ways to integrate innovative course- management systems into their lesson plans. Moodle, an online course- management system that is stored on the El Paso,Texas, school district’s computer server, with access controlled by student passwords, is now gaining increasing popularity around the country. Through Moodle, teachers now post reading passages and links to Web sites that are related to her lessons, set up popular online chat rooms for students and posts homework assignments online, a feature that students as well as some parents have embraced. Moodle now is perhaps the most popular rival to the course-management system sold by Blackboard Inc., the dominant company in the U.S. market for e-learning tools in higher education. The for-profit Washington-based company is trying to expand its foothold in what Blackboard officials call the emerging K-12 market.

II. Learners and Learning

1. Larger Share of Students Succeed on A.P. Tests

February 14, 2008 from The New York Times

A higher percentage of students in public high schools are taking and passing Advanced Placement exams, according to a report issued Wednesday by the College Board. The gap between the performances of black and white students, however, remains large. Advanced Placement courses, which offer college-level study in 37 subjects, are prepared by the College Board and have been widely seized on as a good route to increasing the rigor of a high school education. The exams are scored on a five-point scale, and some colleges offer course credit to students who pass, earning a score of 3 or above. The proportion of students taking the courses has grown slowly but steadily over the last five years, as has the percentage of students with a score of 3 or higher.

2. Come back to college, UW says

February 26, 2008 from JSonling.com

Faced with a lackluster number of college-educated adults in the state, University of Wisconsin System officials have their eyes on what they say is an under-served market: adults who have some college credits but never finished four-year degrees. The UW Colleges and Extension already are set to get $2.5 million in state funding this summer to deepen the reach of a two-year-old program that has drawn at least 500 new adult students into college courses. That program - the Adult Student Initiative - aims to add about 1,250 more students throughout the system in the next two years through an increased focus on online and accelerated classes. The focus on adults is part of a systemwide and national push to boost per-capita income in a job market that increasingly requires bachelor's degrees. The need is particularly sharp in Wisconsin, which lags some neighboring states.

3. Chinese Authority: 10 "Suitable" E-games for Teenagers

February 9, 2008 from www.chinaview.cn

China's Ministry of Culture has recommended ten cyber games that are suitable for minors to play as part of its drive to purify the on-line environment for the young. The ten cyber games published have been selected by the ministry's on-line games censorship committee from scores of games recommended by the Chinese public. The games are all domestic products. They include five role playing games (RPG), four recreation and chess games, and one educational game, including "Warring States II Online", "Rainbow Island Online," and "Wonderlands of learning and games." These games have made their way into the final recommendation list because they are deemed "healthy" and can "enhance intelligence," according to the ministry. The ministry hoped the list could serve as guidance for parents to better direct their children in the winter vacation, which usually lasts nearly two months from January to February each year.

III. Leaders and Leadership

1. Judge orders homeschoolers into government education

February 29, 2008 from WorldNetDaily.com

A California court has ruled that several children in one homeschool family must be enrolled in a public school or "legally qualified" private school, and must attend; sending ripples of shock into the nation's homeschooling advocates as the family reviews its options for appeal. The ruling came in a case brought against Jonathan and Mary Long over the education being provided to two of their eight children. They are considering an appeal to the state Supreme Court, because they have homeschooled all of their children, the oldest now 29, because of various anti-Christian influences in California's public schools.

2. China to set up national committee for educational inspection

February 21, 2008 from www.chinaview.cn

China plans to set up the National Committee for Educational Inspection to monitor the quality of education and ensure basic schooling for every child. According to the draft regulations on educational inspection that were made public on Thursday by the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council, China's Cabinet, to solicit public opinion, the committee is expected to ensure the implementation of the country's guiding education principles, policies and regulations. The organization will be responsible for carrying out inspections, mainly in compulsory and secondary educational institutions, to ensure popularization of the nine year compulsory education and fair distribution of educational resources. It also aims to guarantee teacher's proper working and living conditions, stop inconsistent fee collections in schools, and improve the overall quality of students instead of focusing only on their academic scores, according to the draft regulations. The committee will be comprised of a general inspector, deputy general inspector and state educational inspectors -- administrators who know the education laws, regulations and situations.

IV. Curriculum

1. New state law leads to more science classes at Dallas-area schools

February 18, 2008 from The Dallas Morning News

Students in Duncanville are exploring oceans and galaxies. In Irving, they're gathering crime-scene evidence. And in Coppell, kids are building and launching rockets. North Texas high schools are trying out new science classes to prepare for a change in state graduation rules. Starting with the Class of 2011, students need a fourth year of science to graduate with a standard diploma, up from three. Area districts already are approving courses such as forensics, aquatic science and medical microbiology to ensure the offerings are available when needed. Some districts already provide extra science classes, mainly as electives. The fourth- year courses must include a lab and teach students how to do research, but beyond that, districts can offer what they think will interest students. Advanced Placement courses meet the requirement, but many students not on AP tracks will be looking for classes beyond biology and chemistry. Officials trying to figure out what students want say TV shows like CSI and Forensic Files fuel demand for some courses.

2. Psychological education to cover half of China's rural schools by 2010

February 6, 2008 from www.chinaview.cn

China plans to incorporate psychological courses to the curriculum of 80 percent of schools in urban areas and 50 percent in rural areas by 2010, according to the Ministry of Health. By 2010, 40 percent of middle and elementary schools in cities will have professional psychological teachers and mental health counseling offices, and the figure for rural schools is estimated at 10 percent, according to an eight-year national plan on mental health work (2008 - 2015). In addition, mental health recovery services will be provided in 70 percent of cities, counties and regions across the country by 2010.

3. Beijing students to learn Peking Opera as new semester begins

February 25, 2008 from www.chinaview.cn

Students in Beijing's schools found their grandfathers' favorite Peking Opera pieces in their music class repertoire as the new semester began on Monday. "I am expecting my first music class to learn Peking Opera and I expect to wear the fancy facial makeup," said Zhang Yaoyin, a third grade student in Beijing No.2 Experimental Primary School on her way to the school. Peking Opera was added into music courses in 20 Beijing primary and secondary schools in order to promote traditional Chinese culture. "Peking Opera is very vivid and I like the melody best," she said, wondering whether her school has been chosen as a pilot. Zhang Suhan, her father, called the action a "must" in the preservation and revitalization of Chinese culture. Some parents voiced concern about the new content of the music classes and the impact on students' chances for university admission.

V. Family and Community

1. U.S. Universities Rush to Set Up Outposts Abroad

February 10, 2008 from The New York Times

The American system of higher education, long the envy of the world, is becoming an important export as more universities take their programs overseas. In a kind of educational gold rush, American universities are competing to set up outposts in countries with limited higher education opportunities. American universities — not to mention Australian and British ones, which also offer instruction in English, the lingua franca of academia — are starting, or expanding, hundreds of programs and partnerships in booming markets like China, India and Singapore. And many are now considering full-fledged foreign branch campuses, particularly in the oil-rich Middle East. Already, students in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar can attend an American university without the expense, culture shock or post-9/11 visa problems of traveling to America.

2. Plan to recycle schoolbooks gets mixed reception in China

February 27, 2008 from www.chinaview.cn

Chinese parents may have to stop urging their children to read not only with their eyes but also their hands, as they have done for years by relating how Chairman Mao wrote thoughtful comments in the margins of the numerous books he read. That's because many provinces, including Jiangsu, Shandong, Shanxi and Fujian, launched a textbook recycling campaign with the new semester that aims to cut paper use and raise students' awareness of preservation. If all the textbooks in China are reused for five years, the country can save an estimated 225 billion yuan (31 billion U.S. dollars). Under the program, primary and secondary schools distributed textbooks to students free of charge. The books will be collected at the end of the term for use by future students, so the books need to be kept in good condition. At least some students seemed receptive to the change. "I like the idea of recycling my textbooks and I will do my best to keep my books as new as possible," said Zhang Muge, a Grade Two student in the Primary School Affiliated to Tianjin Normal University in Tianjin Municipality. But parents were less enthusiastic, with some voicing concerns over cleanliness. "Recycled books may carry harmful germs from previous users," contended a father in southeastern Fuzhou City. "I prefer to pay for the new textbooks since they are not that expensive." Teachers also complained that recycling could deprive students of the chance to jot down thoughts in the margins of textbooks, just as Mao did.

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