I. Teachers and Teaching

1. N.C. District lures new math teachers with $10,000 bonus
Wednesday, September 20, 2006, from Education Week
The Guilford County, N.C., school district has joined with a coalition of local foundations to offer an incentive program designed to lure some top-flight math teachers to eight of the district’s low-performing high schools. Under the plan, called Mission Possible, teachers who respond to the call will receive a one-time $10,000 bonus to bring their salaries in line with those of recent mathematics graduates who took jobs in the private sector. And if their students show a one and a half year’s worth of academic growth in one school year, the teachers will be eligible to receive an additional $4,000 performance-based bonus. A typical first-year math teacher would get $32,710 prior to the $10,000 incentive. The goal of the initiative will be not only to attract qualified candidates, but also to keep them in the schools through continuing financial incentives, mentoring, and professional development. If the program is successful, organizers say, it could be used as a model for how to use differentiated pay in certain subjects across the state.

2. China to dispatch more young volunteers to teach and serve abroad
Wednesday, September 6, 2006, from Xinhua Net
In September, China launched a new round of recruitment of young Chinese volunteers to provide services in Asian, African and Latin American countries. The organizers, namely the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China, the Ministry of Commerce and the Chinese Youth Volunteers Association (CYVA), plan to recruit 150 to 200 volunteers ages 20-35. According to the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China, which initiated the program to dispatch young volunteers abroad in 2002, 109 young Chinese volunteers have been dispatched abroad since 2002 to countries including Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Ethiopia to teach Chinese, sports, provide services in medical and health care, agricultural technology, give instructions on how to use a computer and international rescue efforts. He said the committee will actively, steadily and gradually push forward the work. The number of target countries, service areas and content of services will be expanded. According to the committee, applicants must have received college education, have no criminal record, and good health. Before leaving for their posts abroad, they shall receive training in discipline, principles of volunteer services, teamwork spirit, security, psychology, knowledge about the country they'll work in, professional skills and other subjects related to volunteer services

3. Four million Chinese-teaching jobs needed around world
Monday, September 18, 2006, from Xinhua Net
With Confucius Institutes flourishing around the world and interest in learning Chinese heating up around the globe, Chinese-teaching jobs are as hot as interest in China itself. It's said 4 million Chinese teachers are needed by 2010 worldwide, the Office of Chinese Language Council International (OCLCI) says. Currently, 30 million foreigners are learning Chinese around the world. Estimates by OCLCI suggest this number will reach 100 million by 2010. The number of Chinese teaching jobs available will swell by then. China is intensifying training more Chinese teachers for foreign students. Over 300 postgraduates of teaching Chinese to foreigners recruited by Peking University, Beijing Normal University and nine other universities in Beijing have started their new semester. They are expected to become excellent Chinese teachers who can teach on their own after four years' study. Teaching foreigners Chinese as a profession has a very promising future. Besides mastering extensive English and possessing excellent Mandarin, they also have to be familiar with Chinese linguistic culture and teaching methods for Chinese as a second language.

II. Learners and Learning

1. Panel points way to improving K-8 science learning
Wednesday, September 27, 2006, from Education Week
A new study released last week by the congressionally chartered National Research Council reports that students in elementary and middle school should be encouraged to master a relatively small number of crucial concepts, and gradually expand their knowledge of those topics to develop a strong understanding of science. Too often, students are presented with long lists of disconnected facts and ideas, leaving them with no sense of what is most important and a poor understanding of the overall rules of science. For years, educators have differed over whether students learn science more effectively through an emphasis on hands-on experimentation or a more straightforward recitation of facts from teachers to students. The study, “Taking Science to School: Learning and Teaching Science in Grades K-8,” says both approaches have merit, depending on the science topic. The NRC report seems to address the perceived shortcomings in public knowledge by identifying four tasks that all students should master. Students, the report says, should develop the ability to know and interpret scientific explanations of the natural world; generate and evaluate scientific evidence; understand the development of scientific knowledge; and learn to participate productively in scientific practices and discussions.

2. China lacks special education schools
Monday, September 18, 2006, from Xinhua Net
Up to 2005, 1,593 special education schools were founded in China to provide basic conditions for disabled children's rehabilitation. But some schools still lack appropriate educational facilities for training these children. Chen Xiaoya, vice minister of education, said at a conference on Sept. 14 that there are some 500 counties and cities with a population of 300 thousand or more that have no special education schools, and more than 400 of them are located in the western region. The Ministry of Education and State Development and Reform Commission should jointly launch reconstruction plans for developing special education schools in the whole nation and provide special subsidies for local governments in remote regions to guarantee the success of their development programs.

3. New education approach on horizon
Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2006, from Xinhua Net
A new child-centered approach known as the "Child-Friendly School" framework is likely to replace this traditional model and offer Chinese children a genuine quality education. The framework will affect about 1,000 rural primary schools in China's 10 western provinces and autonomous regions over the next five years, according to an agreement released yesterday between the Ministry of Education and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). The framework is designed to create a child-friendly learning environment where child-centered and activity-based teaching and learning processes help children fully develop their potential, according to the chief of the education and child development department of UNICEF China Office. The framework, first used in Thailand in 1997 and tested in China since 2000, also provides a specific definition of "quality education." According to UNICEF, child-friendly schooling consists of five broad dimensions: inclusiveness, academic effectiveness, health, safety and protection, gender-equality and the involvement of students, families and communities. At least 34 detailed measurements have been made, such as whether the school makes all children feel equal regardless of their socio-economic and cultural backgrounds; whether the school encourages children to practice observational skills, plan experiments and explore different answers to their own questions; whether the school has safe drinking water facilities and whether the school goes into the community to interact with community members. UNICEF will spend about US$20 million to promote quality education in China in the next five years. Training for teachers and head teachers will serve as a starting point for child-friendly schooling.

III. Leaders and Leadership

1. Harvard drops early admissions
Wednesday, September 13, 2006 from Xinhua Net
In a change certain to shake up university admissions, Harvard University will ditch its "early action" round of applications on the grounds that it favors wealthier students over minorities and the poor. It called on other universities to follow suit. Starting next year, Harvard will eliminate its early round of admissions that allows high school students to apply by November 1 of their senior year and receive a decision accept, reject or defer by December 15. Applicants hoping to enter in the fall of 2008 will face a common application due date of January 1. Early admissions programs were designed to let students get the process out of the way once they had selected a university. Such programs also help schools like Harvard identify particularly enthusiastic applicants. Universities typically take a higher percentage of early applicants, though the applicant pool is usually stronger, too. Last year, Harvard offered admission to about 21 percent of its early-action applicants, according to university figures. But its overall acceptance rate was just 9.3 percent. Harvard's statement said the university would wait one year to implement the change in part to give other universities an opportunity also to drop their early programs. If other prominent schools follow, it could significantly change the admissions calendar and strategizing for high-achieving students.

2. China has "growing need" for Chinese professionals returning from overseas
Friday, September 22, 2006, from Xinhua Net
China has a "growing need" for overseas Chinese professionals who return to China to support their country's development, according to the State Administration of Foreign Expert Affairs (SAFEA). But Spokesman Liu Yongzhi insisted that foreign experts will not be completely replaced by Chinese returning from overseas. He said foreign experts have their own advantages, such as different cultural backgrounds and unique ways of thinking, and as economic globalization continues, the exchange of technologies and professionals between different countries is inevitable. Liu said that some foreign experts have been replaced by returned overseas Chinese but foreign experts with innovative thinking, technological expertise and excellent decision-making are still in urgent need in China and will be introduced from abroad in the following five years.

IV. Curriculum

1. Yale receives 50 million dollars for China programs
Friday, September 29, 2006 from Xinhua Net
Yale University has received a 50 million U.S. dollars gift to advance the University's collaborations with China in critical areas, Yale President Richard C. Levin said Thursday. Maurice R. ("Hank") Greenberg, through his family foundation, and The Starr Foundation are each donating 25 million dollars to Yale to create the Maurice R. Greenberg Yale-China Initiative, said the University in a statement. "We are pleased that the strong connections Yale has forged with China have given Hank Greenberg and The Starr Foundation confidence that the University will be a continuing force for positive intellectual, social, and economic change in China and around the world," Levin said.

2. Advanced programs offer students a global view: International Baccalaureate
Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2006, from The Arizona Republic
The International Baccalaureate program challenges a talented student with advanced course work that covers a wide spectrum of subjects taught from a global perspective. But IB programs are not for the faint of heart, particularly at the high school level where the more intense diploma program is taught. A student who enters an IB program that is offered to a select number of motivated students, and not an entire school, should have a desire to take part, said Elaine Jacobs, principal at Paradise Valley Unified's Vista Verde Middle School in Phoenix, which is seeking official authorization from the International Baccalaureate Organization. A student forced into the program by a parent will often rebel, she said. However, parents sometimes know what's best for their kids, who end up enjoying the program once their parents compel them to enroll. An IB diploma requires students to pass difficult exams, write a 4,000-word essay and commit to 150 hours of community service. Some high schools offer an IB certificate program, which is less rigorous but provides more students with a chance to participate, said Gregg Good, IB coordinator at Westwood High in Mesa, where the first class of seniors to earn IB diplomas at the school will graduate in the spring.

V. Family and Community

1. Getting behind early education: Business leaders to urge more investment at event
Saturday, September 23, 2006, from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Racine-Helen Johnson-Leipold is one of the top business executives in the country who values child development as an investment. The chairman and chief executive officer of Johnson Outdoors Inc., who's also chairman of Johnson Financial Group and of the Johnson Foundation, is also founder and chairman of Next Generation Now, a nationally accredited, community-based child development center in Racine for children as young as newborns and their low-income families. Johnson-Leipold subscribes to research indicating that early attention to a child's first years prevents bushels of troubles later in life, that children who enter kindergarten ready to learn are more apt to complete school and less likely to need special education, welfare, and correctional services. The business community needs to provide more leadership in promoting the upfront prevention of social problems through early child development, Johnson-Leipold said. On Monday, she hopes to exert her passion and influence on the matter at a southeastern Wisconsin economic summit at the We Energies Auditorium in Milwaukee. Johnson-Leipold said she hopes more businesses become aware of the benefits of early child development, of the potential for improving the next generation of workers and customers, of the more immediate payoffs of attracting and retaining talented employees through dependable and high-quality child care.

2. Students offered incentive to "go west"
Friday, September 15, 2006, from Xinhua Net
Students who rely on State loans to finish their university studies may have their loans waived if they go to work in China's western or remote areas, the Ministry of Education announced yesterday. The loan, up to 24,000 Yuan (4,000 U.S. dollars) per student, will be paid by the central government if the graduate promises to work at or under county-level units in western or remote regions for at least three years. The policy applies to all graduates from about 100 universities attached to the central government, including prestigious Peking and Tsinghua Universities, and the ministry has urged all provincial governments to make similar policies.