March, 2007

I. Teachers and Teaching

1. Free tuition for new teachers
Wednesday, March 7, 2007, from Shanghai Daily

Education majors at East China Normal University will have their tuition fees and other living expenses covered during their undergraduate studies in return for spending several years teaching in the country's underdeveloped western region. Once the program begins this fall, education students won't have the option of paying tuition and staying in the city after graduation. They will be forced to take the subsidies and work in the west. According to university officials, those who fail to teach in an underdeveloped area after graduation will be forced to pay back all of the money received as well as having a black mark added to their credit records. The policy is part of a national scheme involving six universities around the country. The university will cover all of the education and basic living expenses for four years of undergraduate study - about 50,000 Yuan (6,250 U.S. dollars) - before sending education majors to teach in western regions. The central government will reimburse the school, university officials said.

2. China to meet surging demand for Chinese teachers
Tuesday, March 20, 2007, from Chinanews.com

China is stepping up efforts of training more Chinese language teachers for foreign teaching positions because of the increasing popularity of the Chinese language. Each year, there are 10,000 vacancies for teaching Chinese as a foreign language across the world, but only 2,000 teachers are available. This year, quite a number of regular college graduates, no matter what they major in, will be recruited to attend a one-year training course for teaching Chinese as a foreign language. Currently, over 5,000 people have been certificated as Chinese teachers for foreigners and some of them will be selected to learn Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic for a year. They will then be sent to teach in Latin American and Arab countries. The office also plans to set up another 60 Confucius Institutes and launch "Confucius Institute on line" and "Confucius Institute over broadcast" this year, aiming at covering more overseas Chinese learners.

3. Many teachers see failure in students' future
Friday, March 30. 2007, from USA Today

In a wide-ranging survey being released Tuesday, nearly one in four teachers in urban schools paint a sobering picture of students there. They say most children "would not be successful at a community college or university." Even more say students "are not motivated to learn." In all, 23.6% of public school teachers at all levels say success in college would elude most students in their school. An additional 18% are unsure. The results are surprising even to the study's author, Brian Perkins, a professor of education law and policy at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, Conn. White teachers seem to have the bleakest view: 24.5% predict failure in college, higher than among black (22.1%) or Hispanic (17.6%) teachers. Administrators paint a rosier picture: Only 7% predict the same for their students. But 15.6% say their students "are not motivated to learn." Part of the problem could be a perceived lack of support from parents: 57% of teachers say parents "are supportive" of the school and its activities; 28% say parents aren't supportive.

II. Learners and Learning

1. School kids in need of more sleep
Monday, March 19, 2007, from Xinhua News

In a 2005 survey of 2,500 schoolchildren in six cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, it was found that about 66 percent of primary school students and 77 percent of high school students were short of sleep. In response to the findings, some cities, including Shanghai, subsequently cut their school hours to give children more time for leisure and play. In Shanghai's Luwan District, for example, primary and junior high school students now go to school 15 minutes later than they did previously. In a recent survey conducted by the China Daily website, almost 70 percent of the 1,133 respondents said they agreed with cutting school hours, while 22 percent disagreed and 10 percent had no comment.

2.Survey: Teachers and students stressed out
Tuesday, March 20, 2007 from Xinhua News

Depression and other psychological problems are rife among school students and their teachers in Guangzhou's Yuexiu District, a new survey reveals. The survey, conducted by the members of the district's political consultative conference, revealed 19.4 percent of the elementary students, 28.9 percent of the junior high school students and 36.8 percent of the senior high school students were so worried about their performance and lessons that they suffered sleeping disorders. Additionally, 41.7 percent of the senior high school students also report bouts of depression. The survey said those students in higher grades were more prone to serious psychological problems than those in lower grades. The situation is no better for their teachers, according to the survey. About 46 percent of the elementary and secondary school teachers suffer mental exhaustion because of their work and want to quit their jobs or retire early. Some 21.5% of them suffer from insomnia for high work pressure; 11% of them have the impulse to call their students names; and 26.9% of them feel misunderstood by others.

III. Leaders and Leadership

1. China spends more on rural education
Tuesday, March 6, 2007 from Xinhua News

China is working to establish a mechanism that guarantees compulsory rural education funding. The mechanism is designed to ensure that the cost of rural education is covered by central and local finances. China will invest a further 218.2 billion Yuan (27.28 billion U.S. dollars) in rural education in the 2006-2010 period, according to the Ministry of Finance. The money will be allocated from central and local budgets, according to the ministry on Tuesday. Educational investment in rural areas will total 223.5 billion Yuan this year, a rise of 39.5 billion Yuan year on year, said Premier Wen Jiabao while delivering a government work report at the on-going session of the National People's Congress, the top legislature of China. Wen said 10 billion Yuan will be allocated from the central budget to rebuild rural middle schools. Local governments will allocate support funds for the program.

2. Clinton criticizes funds for tutor firms
Friday, March 30, 2007 from Associated Press

Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday criticized the Bush administration for outsourcing teaching to private tutoring companies, arguing that many firms have close ties to Republicans. The 2002 No Child Left Behind Act requires school districts to provide free tutoring in math and reading to poor children in schools that repeatedly fail to meet state testing standards. Clinton said that amounts to $500 million a year being paid to tutoring companies and other supplemental service providers that aren't held accountable. Clinton, who voted for No Child Left Behind, said she had concerns with the bill from the start but thought it was worth taking a risk to see a greater investment in education. "It hasn't been funded properly. It hasn't been administered correctly. It hasn't been implemented appropriately," she said. "It's all stick and hardly any carrot, and it's driving teachers and parents and everyone who cares about education a little bit crazy." The law's focus on testing ignores the fact there are many ways to learn, she said, recounting a pivotal moment in her own education. When her high school staged a mock debate before the 1964 election, she was prepared to play Republican Barry Goldwater and was shocked when her teacher assigned her to portray Democratic President Lyndon Johnson. But the assignment opened her mind in a way a lecture wouldn't have, said Clinton, who grew up in a conservative Republican home.

IV. Curriculum

1. All Singapore's primary schools to offer Chinese, Malay lessons in 2012
Wednesday, March 7, 2007 from Xinhua News

Singapore announced Wednesday that within five years all primary schools will offer conversational Chinese and Malay lessons for students. According to Minister for Education Tharman Shanmugara said in Parliament, the efforts are aimed at preparing young Singaporeans for a globalized future and strengthening Singapore's identity as an open, diverse and cohesive society. Ministry of Education (MOE) will be providing schools with additional resources to implement these programs," said Shanmugara, adding, "It is envisaged that within 5 years, all primary schools will be able to offer simple conversational Chinese and Malay as enrichment programs." Bilingualism is a key feature of the city-state's education system. Singaporeans competence in both English and the mother tongue languages gives Singapore a competitive edge in the world.

2. States stress benefits of pre-kindergarten programs
Wednesday, March 14, 2007, from CNN.com

Nationwide, children typically enter school at around age 5, when they're ready for kindergarten. But research highlighting the importance of early learning is prompting more and more states to add pre-kindergarten programs. A report being released Wednesday finds states spent at least $3.3 billion last year on pre-kindergarten. That doesn't include money from federal and local governments, which contribute to the state programs. The state funding is up from $2.8 billion in 2005, according to the report by the National Institute for Early Education Research at New Jersey's Rutgers University. In all, nearly 1 million children, or 20% of the country's 4-year-olds, were in state pre-kindergarten last year -- up from 17% the previous year, the report found. About two-thirds of 4-year-olds are in private preschools child-care programs or in-home childcare, the study said. About one in 10 is enrolled in Head Start, the federal pre-kindergarten program for poor children, the report said. The $6.8 billion Head Start program covers only about half of all eligible children. About 7% of the nation's 3-year-olds also participate in Head Start. According to Steven Barnett, who wrote the report on state pre-k spending, the federal No Child Left Behind education law probably has something to do with the trend. One of the law's goals is to eliminate achievement gaps between low-income and wealthier students, but studies show the gap begins before children enter school. The research generally shows low-income students get more out of pre-k than higher-income children.

V. Family and Community

1. Shanghai's blind school seeks textbook funding
Monday, March 5, 2007, from Shanghai Daily

The Shanghai Blind Children School is asking city residents to donate money for needy blind students to cover the cost of Braille textbooks, a heavy burden that is usually neglected by other charity programs. Blind students in the city use the same textbooks as other children, but the school, which is the only institute for blind children in Shanghai, has to translate them into Braille and have them specially printed. Due to the high cost of printing Braille books, each textbook costs about 40 times the price of normal textbooks. While the city government covers much of the cost of basic education for blind students, it doesn't offer enough money for textbooks, especially for students studying for the national college entrance exam. The school has allocated one million Yuan (128,866 U.S. dollars) to subsidize the cost of printing the textbooks, but students still have to pay 20 percent of the price themselves. The school used to encourage students to recycle their books by passing them on to younger students, but that has become impractical due to the constant change in books used.

2. Testing companies struggle to meet NCLB demands
Wednesday, March 28, 2007 from CNN.com

To motivate juniors on last April's assessment exams, Springfield High School offered coveted lockers, parking spaces near the door and free prom tickets as incentives for good scores. But the incentives at the central Illinois school went unclaimed until earlier this month, when Illinois finally published its 2006 test scores -- more than four months after they were due. Critics pounced on Harcourt Assessment Inc., which lost most of its $44.5 million state contract over delays -- caused by everything from shipping problems to missing test pages and scoring errors that made Illinois the last state in the nation to release scores used to judge schools under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. But experts say the problems are more widespread and are likely to get worse. A handful of companies create, print and score most of the tests in the U.S. and they're struggling with a workload that has exploded since President Bush signed the education reform package in 2002. When Education Sector surveyed 23 states in 2006, it found that 35% of testing offices in those states had experienced "significant" errors with scoring and 20% didn't get results "in a timely fashion." To meet NCLB requirements, states administered 45 million reading and math exams during spring 2006. By the end of the 2007-2008 school year, they will give about 56 million tests because they must add a science exam at the elementary, middle and high school levels. Complicating the issue, each state has its own test, and many want them customized, said Michael Hansen, chief executive officer of Harcourt Assessment, which no longer administers Illinois' tests but still is involved in developing and grading them. The NCLB testing industry is dominated by four companies: Harcourt of San Antonio, Texas; CTB/McGraw-Hill based in Monterey, California; Pearson Educational Measurement of Iowa City, Iowa, and Riverside Publishing of Itasca, Illinois. Both state education departments and testing companies are "overtaxed and bursting at the seams," said Becky Watts, former chief of staff at the Illinois State Board of Education.

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