November 2005

I. Teachers and Teaching

1. Students are Granted More Say in School, but is it OK for them to Sack the Teachers?
The school authorities of Jinan No. 7 Middle School in east China's Shandong Province pioneered student assessments into the annual teacher evaluation. This determines who will stay in their posts the next academic year.

2. Peasant-teachers grappling with poverty
Education department figures say the 32,000 peasant-teachers in the northwestern province are teaching at least 1 million school-age children, one third of the province's total. But even the highest earner makes only 200 yuan (US $25) a month. They are only temporary teachers. They are not properly trained to be teachers but are better educated than the average villagers, which allow them to fill up, temporarily, openings undesired by college graduates.

3. New York City Teachers Ratify Contract
Teachers in the nation's largest public school system have ratified a new contract with the city that gives them 15 percent raises over four years, union leaders announced Thursday.

II. Learners and Learning

1. Imagination Helps Writing
The auditorium of Shenzhen Foreign Languages School was packed yesterday as nearly 300 students gathered for a discussion on literary writing with well-known Chinese writer and children's literature critic Cao Wenxuan. In response to questions on what the students should write and whether fiction should base on imagination or reality, Cao said he preferred imagination.

2. Children in China Celebrate Anderson's Tales
Joining the worldwide celebration of the 200th birthday of Hans Christian Anderson, hundreds of students of a Nanshan school were transformed into little mermaids, ugly ducklings and other fairytale characters in honor of the famous Danish writer and his immortal stories.

3. Students Ace State Tests, but Earn D's From U.S.
Discrepancies in state and federal math tests results have intensified the national debate over testing and accountability.

III. Leaders and Leadership

1. China to Provide Free Compulsory Education in 2015
China aims to provide free nine-year compulsory education in the rural areas in 2010 and for all the students across the country in 2015.

2. China on Track to Achieve Millennium Goal in Education
China will achieve the objectives of gender parity in primary and secondary education outlined in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as scheduled, according to a senior United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) official on November 27th, noting that China has been doing "very well." " China is on right track to achieve the 2005 and 2015 goals of gender parity in education and we're very optimistic," UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Rima Salah told Xinhua, when attending the November 26-27 global advisory committee meeting of the UN Girls' Education Initiative.

3. Inclusive Schools: Portraits of Excellence
Choctawhatchee High School, known locally as Choctaw, is situated between two military bases in the Florida Panhandle. Its nearly 2,000 students attend classes that are traditional in content and style—lecture format, rigorous lessons. The students with and without disabilities succeed.

IV. Curriculum

1. Ten Primary Schools in China Try Out US Textbooks
Grade-one students of ten experimental primary schools in China will try out US-edited scientific textbooks from autumn next year, according to sources with a recent international seminar on primary science education. The textbook "Science and Technology for Children" (STC) is designed for primary students from grade one to six, and covers 24 units of four subjects: life science, geo-science, material science, and technology design.

2. Program Offers Future for Rural Girls
About 6,000 girls who don't attend school in poor western regions will have the chance to develop specific skills next year, thanks to an explorative Sino-UK program to promote gender equality in rural areas. The program started five years ago in six counties in the provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan and Gansu, and will conclude at the end of next year, having received a combined fund of 2 million pounds (US $3.49 million).

3. University of Texas Center Hails Success of New Head Start Program
Sitting on a colorful rug, pint-size youngsters at the Spring Branch Head Start center are eager to identify and rattle off words like "family," "doctor," and "knee" that are written and pictured on the classroom's "letter wall" (Do they call it a letter wall? It’s traditionally called a word wall.)

V. Family and Community

1. Morals Matter More Than Grades
Parents in Shanghai are more concerned about their children's moral education than what type of grades they earn at school, a survey published by the Shanghai Women's Federation indicates.

2. It Takes Some Vigilance, not a Village, to Raise Readers
Literacy experts advise parents to start early and to make reading aloud a family affair.

3. Doubts on Value of Suspensions
if a child is suspended, professionals recommend that parents devise their own lessons to make sure that children realize they're not on vacation.