| March & April 2011 News Articles |
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The following news articles contain information on educational issues.The views in these articles are not
necessarily those of the Commonwealth Education Organization, but are posted for your information.
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March/April 2011
ASSAULT ON LEARNING (7 part series)
"This is a yearlong investigative series on violence in Philadelphia schools. The series won a Pulitzer Prize for public service."
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April 29, 2011
SAFE SCHOOLS CZAR COMPARES ANTI-GAY DISCRIMINATION TO SLAVERY AND RACIAL SEGREGATION
“Jennings, whose lecture was announced as being about bullying, discussed two cases of discrimination apparently involving homosexual students. He did not discuss bullying outside the context of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.”
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April 28, 2011
FOUNDATIONS JOIN TO OFFER ONLINE COURSES
“The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's largest philanthropy, and the foundation associated with Pearson, the giant textbook and school technology company, announced a partnership on Wednesday to create online reading and math courses aligned with the new academic standards that some 40 states have adopted in recent months.”
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Summer 2011
THE CASE AGAINST MICHELLE RHEE: HOW PERSUASIVE IS IT?
“If we take Rhee at her word, changing culture was what she was trying to do, and those falling absenteeism indicators suggest that she may have had an effect, even in a short period of time. It’s even possible that a change in the D.C. school climate accelerated learning gains. About that one cannot be certain when only two years of NAEP data are available. But one can be quite sure that a case against Rhee has yet to be established.”
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Spring 2011
WHY CATHOLIC SCHOOLS MATTER
Two articles where two authors discuss: “the best hope for poor, inner-city kids.”
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April 27, 2011
THE IMPACT OF SPEECH-LANGUAGE DISORDERS ON LEARNING
“The field of learning disabilities has made great progress over the years, including better assessments and the use of MRI brain imaging, allowing for earlier and more definitive identification of a child’s learning disabilities.”
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April 25, 2011
HIGH SCHOOL CLASSES MAY BE ADVANCED IN NAME ONLY
“Even though students are getting more credits in more advanced courses, they are not scoring any higher on standardized tests.”
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April 23, 2011
TEN STEPS TO A BETTER 'ESEA'
“As a condition of receiving federal Title I funds, require states to use a set of K-12 standards in mathematics, science, and English that have been judged to be internationally bench-marked by a state-level committee of discipline-based academic experts, chosen by presidents of colleges/universities in the state.”
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April 21, 2011
THE TOXIC INFLUENCE OF PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION SCHOOLS ON K-12 CURRICULA
“Constructivist theory recklessly assumes that racial, ethnic, gender-based, and sexual orientation-based subgroups learn what's truly important by absorbing teacher-led dissection of Western middle class knowledge and values. Constructivism holds that after such cleansing, the subgroups should be qualified to select study topics of their choosing.”
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April 20, 2011
FOR AP STUDENTS, A NEW CLASSROOM IS ONLINE
“The College Board says there isn't any significant difference in average test scores between students from traditional versus online classrooms. No rigorous, peer-reviewed studies have been done using control groups to compare large samples of online AP students with those in traditional classroom.”
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April 19, 2011
HARVARD STUDY SHOWS THAT LECTURE-STYLE PRESENTATIONS LEAD TO HIGHER STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
“A new study finds that 8th grade students in the U.S. score higher on standardized tests in math and science when their teachers allocate greater amounts of class time to lecture-style presentations than to group problem-solving activities. For both math and science, the study finds that a shift of 10 percentage points of time from problem solving to lecture-style presentations (for example, increasing the share of time spent lecturing from 60 to 70 percent) is associated with a rise in student test scores of 4 percent of a standard deviation for the students who had the exact same peers in both their math and science classes – or between one and two months’ worth of learning in a typical school year.”
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April 15, 2011
EDUCATION EMPLOYMENT GROWS BY LEAPS AND BOUNDS
"Clearly the enormous growth in education employment and spending is the result of the belief that education will improve with more resources. And just as clearly the data for the last decade proves once again the fallacy of that belief."
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April 14, 2011
TEACHERS PAY AS UNION CHICKENS COME HOME TO ROOST
“Unions are often criticized for putting their members’ interests above the needs of children. That’s true, but this e-mail reveals that the union puts its own financial interests ahead of the financial well-being of its members.”
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April 13, 2011
SEATTLE SCHOOL RENAMES EASTER EGGS ‘SPRING SPHERES’
“The Seattle elementary school isn't the only government organization using spring over Easter. The city's parks department has removed Easter from all of its advertised egg hunts.”
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*April 12, 2011
CALIFORNIA TEACHERS FEDERATION ENDORSES CONVICTED ‘COP KILLER’
“The California Federation of Teachers — a branch of the AFL-CIO — has adopted a resolution at its annual conference supporting convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal, the Daily Caller reports.”
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*April 12, 2011
SHOULD MAINE SCHOOL BE SPENDING $200K ON IPADS FOR 5-YR-OLDS?
“Kindergarten classes are supplementing crayons, finger paints and flashcards with iPads, a development that excites supporters but that detractors worry is wasted on pupils too young to appreciate the expense.”
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*April 12, 2011
CHICAGO SCHOOL BANS SOME LUNCHES BROUGHT FROM HOME
“To encourage healthful eating, Chicago school doesn't allow kids to bring lunches or certain snacks from home — and some parents, and many students, aren't fans of the policy.”
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*April 11, 2011
DISADVANTAGED STUDENTS
"The California State College System reported recently that 47% of their freshmen must take remedial reading courses before they can be admitted to regular college academic courses. The Diploma to Nowhere report of the Strong American Schools Project said that more than one million of our high school graduates are in remedial courses at our colleges each year."
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*April 10, 2011
DEEP RIFTS OVER NEXT NCLB
“U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and President Obama are confident that members of Congress will revise and reauthorize the No Child Left Behind law this year, just as when they put aside fundamental differences to pass the law in 2001. But Duncan and the president are deluding themselves, said two of three education insiders during a discussion of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), NCLB’s formal name, at a conference of education writers last week.”
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*April 10, 2011
WHY THE UNITED STATES IS DESTROYING ITS EDUCATION SYSTEM
"A nation that destroys its systems of education, degrades its public information, guts its public libraries and turns its airwaves into vehicles for cheap, mindless amusement becomes deaf, dumb and blind."
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April 8, 2011
WHAT STUDENTS LEARN AND DON’T LEARN
“If you are attending college to get teacher certification, you will probably be required to attend classes on "multicultural education." This is supposed to bring diversity to the classroom and prepare teachers to teach pupils of various ethnic or national backgrounds.”
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April 8, 2011
STUDY: THIRD GRADE READING PREDICTS LATER HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION
“A student who can't read on grade level by 3rd grade is four times less likely to graduate by age 19 than a child who does read proficiently by that time. Add poverty to the mix, and a student is 13 times less likely to graduate on time than his or her proficient, wealthier peer.”
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April 3, 2011
SINGLED-OUT L.A. UNIFIED TEACHER SHARES SKILLS WITH COLLEAGUES
“Miguel Aguilar was cited as among L.A. Unified's most effective in an L.A. Times article on the 'value-added' evaluation method. Since then, many at his Pacoima school have adopted his methods. But budget cuts threaten his job.”
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March 31, 2011
IS OBAMA ADMINISTRATION IGNORING GOVERNMENT STUDY IN D.C.?
“(T)he majority of U.S. House members voted to rescue children who are trapped in low-performing and unsafe schools in one of the worst performing districts in the nation–we are deeply disappointed that President Obama continues to stand against policies proven to increase graduation rates for at-risk students.”
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March 30, 2011
SCHOOL CHOICE: A REAL TEST AWAITS
That’s really what school choice is about -- giving kids a chance to learn in a safe environment with good teachers, so they can go on to achieve that success. Some day, people will “look back” on how today’s politicians responded to this crisis. What grade will they deserve?
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March 30, 2011
INDIANA HOUSE PASSES NATION’S LARGEST VOUCHER BILL
The Indiana House of Representatives today passed legislation that would become the nation's broadest voucher program, allowing low- and middle-income families to use taxpayer funds to send their children to the private school of their choice.
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March 29, 2011
EDUCATION SPENDING WON’T CREATE JOBS
“Why should taxpayers be forced to continue unaffordable deficit spending to send more kids to college when the evidence shows that our economy is not offering enough jobs for college graduates now?”
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March 29, 2011
OBAMA BASHES HIS OWN EDUCATION POLICIES
“President Obama, I loved the way you described the role of assessment. It should be occasional, not punitive, and used to help diagnose where students need help.”
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March 28, 2011
BILL WOULD PROVIDE APPROVAL OPTIONS FOR STATE CHARTER SCHOOLS
“One lawmaker likens the charter school approval process in Pennsylvania to the cutthroat fast-food industry. ‘It's almost like saying McDonald's gets to say whether Burger King gets to franchise in their area,’ said state Rep. Tom Killion, R-Delaware County.”
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March 27, 2011
HOW TO RAISE THE STATUS OF TEACHERS
States around the country are looking to trim their budgets, and public school teachers are feeling unfairly attacked. At the same time, the United States continues to fall behind other countries in student performance rankings.
Education leaders discuss the subject:
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March 27, 2011
THE COST OF SMALL CLASS SIZE
Small class size is one factor in academic success. The question, then, is whether the educational benefits of class-size reduction justify the costs. Some proponents contend that because research shows reducing class size is beneficial, spending on this should be prioritized over anything that is unsupported by research. That’s a neat rhetorical trick but unsound logic. The absence of research on, say, teacher salaries doesn’t prove that we should pay the minimum wage to teachers to dramatically reduce class size. Research should guide spending decisions only if it measures the benefits per dollar of spending on all alternatives.
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March 26, 2011
IN FLORIDA, TEACHER PAY NOW TIED TO PERFORMANCE
The law creates an evaluation system that relies heavily on student test score data to judge teacher quality. For new teachers, it also creates a performance-based pay system and ends tenure-like job protections.
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March 26, 2011
EDUCATION NOMINEE PLANS TO RESHAPE SYSTEM
“Gov. Tom Corbett's administration will attempt to reshape public education during the next four years, enacting an aggressive agenda that focuses on school choice and competition, according to Ronald Tomalis, the governor's nominee for secretary of Education.”
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*March 25, 2011
MORE MONEY NOT THE ANSWER FOR SCHOOLS
“Taxpayers have invested a lot of money in our public schools. Instead of asking for more money for the children, parents and policy makers should focus on allocating existing resources to boost student performance. More money is not the answer.”
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March 25, 2011
NYC SCHOOL TO SAY PLEDGE AFTER PARENTS COMPLAIN
“A Brooklyn elementary school that wasn't having students recite the Pledge of Allegiance will change course after a child's parents realized she didn't know the oath. City and state rules mandate the pledge in public schools, but many school in the nation's largest school system ignore the law, according to the Daily News.”
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March 25, 2011
DEWEY’S DISCIPLES: FROM MADISON TO MARYLAND AND BEYOND
“We see the spirit of Dewey in the constant experimentation that prevails in the classroom, the never-ending, always-changing search for new methods, programs, terms, fads and fashion, and ‘research’ into ‘improving’ education.”
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March 24, 2011
VOTE FOR NON-UNION, SINGLE-SEX CLASSROOMS
“So, in non-unionized charter schools, kids do better. Single-sex classrooms, where the teachers are specifically trained to deal with how girls and boys learn are superior. If you don't have access to those, then try homeschooling. Notice how you teach your sons and daughters differently, because you know how to get their attention, and it's different with each gender.”
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March 23, 2011
U.S. EDUCATION SECRETARY CALLS FOR OVERHAUL OF NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND
“U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan called Tuesday for an overhaul of the federal No Child Left Behind law and urged Los Angeles school management and teachers union leaders to negotiate a new contract that strengthens teacher evaluations.”
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March 2010
BLUEPRINT FOR REFORM
Obama administration’s plan for the reauthorization of “No Child Left Behind”.
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March 23, 2011
PA SENATORS PROPOSE BROAD SCHOOL MANDATE RELIEF
“The 18 bills sponsored by members of the Senate Education Committee include requiring a two-thirds vote by a school board to increase property taxes, allowing teacher furloughs for economic reasons without regard to seniority, a two-year moratorium on requirements that teachers engage in continuing education… and end the blanket provision that teachers have 10 paid sick days a year and paid sabbatical leave.”
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March 22, 2010
MOTHER HOPES OTHERS WILL OPT OUT OF STANDARDIZED TESTING
“A Pennsylvania mother has decided she does not want her two children to take the two-week-long standardized tests given by her state as part of the federal No Child Left Behind law. And she hopes other parents will do the same.”
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March 22, 2011
SCHOOL LEADERS TESTIFY ON THE BURDEN OF FEDERAL INTERVENTION
“Washington has continued to send burdensome mandates and regulations to local schools… yet politicians are not the ones who have to deal with the consequences.”
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March 20, 2011
U.S. CHARTER-SCHOOL NETWORK WITH TURKISH LINK DRAWS FEDERAL ATTENTION
“(F)ederal agencies - including the FBI and the Departments of Labor and Education - are investigating whether some charter school employees are kicking back part of their salaries to a Muslim movement founded by Gulen known as Hizmet, or Service, according to knowledgeable sources.”
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March 16, 2011
COLORADO SCHOOL BOARD ENACTS VOUCHER PILOT PROGRAM, MAKES HISTORY
“On Tuesday night the Douglas County R-1 Board of Education unanimously approved a wide-ranging set of reforms that expand school choice, including the adoption of a groundbreaking program that will provide publicly-funded "choice scholarships" to cover or defray private school tuition.”
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March 16, 2011
DIVORCE BETWEEN TEACHERS AND PARENTS
“Parents, I tell you, used to like teachers. Teachers liked parents in return. There was a kind of compact between them. Back us up, the teachers said, and we'll deliver the goods. The parents nodded their heads. OK. That was until the compact came apart and society as a whole withdrew its support from the teacher: the teacher as authority figure anyway.”
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March 16, 2011
FED INSTRUCTS TEACHERS TO FACEBOOK CREEP STUDENTS
“Education Department officials are threatening school principals with lawsuits if they fail to monitor and curb students’ lunchtime chat and evening Facebook time for expressing ideas and words that are deemed by Washington special-interest groups to be harassment of some students.”
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March 15, 2011
LONGTIME EDUCATORS’ SALARIES GARNERING INCREASING ATTENTION
“Local government and school board watchdogs said the increases could force districts to cut educational programs in favor of salaries and pensions down the line. Pensions are determined by a teacher's salary -- the higher the salary, the higher the pension.”
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March 14, 2011
MORE SCHOOLS LIKELY TO FALL SHORT OF STATE ACHIEVEMENT STANDARDS
“With students set to take Pennsylvania System of Student Assessment exams this week, educators warned that the number of schools failing to meet tougher math and reading standards likely will rise, and the burden to fix problems will lie largely with school districts.”
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March 14, 2011
CORBETT WANTS TO GRADE SCHOOLS, PAY TEACHERS ON MERIT BASIS
“When Gov. Tom Corbett released his budget proposal, no one was surprised that it rolled back government spending. And with education making up a third of the state budget, it made sense that public schools and colleges would take a hit.”
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March 13, 2011
WHEN TEACHERS USE THEIR CLASSROOMS AS BULLY PULPITS
“Many of the signs at the recent Wisconsin protests against Gov. Scott Walker’s efforts to scale back public union power reminded us that ‘if you can read this sign, thank a teacher.’ But they should read, ‘If you see a student holding this sign, shouting obscenities at Republican lawmakers, or drumming to drown out opposing voices, thank a teacher.’”
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Related article: This is about available "resources" for teachers to use in their classrooms
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March 12, 2011
ARNE DUNCAN’S BRAVE NEW WORLD: DEPARTMENT OF ED WANTS YOUR KID’S BLOOD TYPE?
“Among other creepy things. Duncan's DoE appears to be doling out federal funds intending to push aside state and local school boards, establish federal curricula, and gather all sorts of personal data. (Birth marks? Really?)”
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March 11, 2011
MEMORIZATION PROMOTES LEARNING, RESEARCHERS FIND
“(A) new study finds that teachers who don't provide students frequent opportunities to practice retrieving information from their memories are denying them a valuable learning tool. It turns out that tests or other forced recall exercises aren't just passive evaluation tools. They actually help people learn, and are more effective than a number of other common study techniques.”
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The study: Retrieval Practice Produces More Learning than Elaborative Studying with Concept Mapping |
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March 10, 2011
BULLIED TEACHERS: 145,100 PUBLIC-SCHOOL TEACHERS PHYSICALLY ATTACKED BY STUDENTS
“What was not discussed at the White House conference was the massive number of American public-school teachers who, according to the Department of Justice and the Department of Education, have reported being physically attacked or threatened with injury by their students.”
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March 10, 2011
82 PERCENT OF SCHOOLS COULD FAIL NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND
“The Obama administration estimates that 82 percent of the nation's public schools could fall short of federal standards this year, grades that are not only embarrassing but also mean government intervention for some of them.”
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March 8, 2011
CHOICE PLAN PUTS KIDS FIRST
“Expanding school choice in Milwaukee is also good for taxpayers and should be offered to Wisconsin parents in every major city. School choice saves taxpayers big bucks.”
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March 8, 2011
EDUCATION LEAKED MEMO REVEALS WHITE HOUSE DISTRESS
“A leaked internal White House memo reveals the Obama administration is scrambling to ramp its ‘Race to the Top Commencement Challenge,’ facing a serious shortage of applicants less than one week before the deadline.”
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March 8, 2011
PA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: INVITIATION TO CHILDREN’S PARTY OK…UNLESS HELD AT A CHURCH
“Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund filed a lawsuit against Pocono Mountain School District officials Friday on behalf of a 5th-grade student who was prohibited from distributing fliers that invited fellow Barrett Elementary Center students to a Christmas party at her church. District policies prohibit any student speech promoting Christianity.”
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March 7, 2011
FOCUSING ON TEACHER EFFECTIVENESS
Various experts and leaders weigh in on this important issue.
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March 6, 2011
SCHOOLS SEEK OK PERMITTING THEM TO BYPASS TAX CAPS
“Skyrocketing expenses, falling revenues and uncertainty about state funding have led a third of area school districts to apply for exceptions to a state law that was intended to put the decision to raise taxes above a state-imposed cap in the hands of voters.”
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March 7, 2011
HEY, NATIONAL CURRICULUM STANDARDIZERS: STOP LYING TO US
“You want this to be truly voluntary? Then you'd better keep federal money, especially for such things as "implementation support," out of it. But by all indications national standardizers don't want this to be truly voluntary. They just want us thinking they do.”
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March 4, 2011
PA MAY ALTER TEACHER FURLOUGH LAW
“State law allows school districts to furlough teachers only if there is a multi-year drop in student enrollment, or as part of a school consolidation or the alteration or elimination of educational programs. Legislation recently introduced in Pennsylvania's House and Senate would change that, allowing school districts to furlough teachers solely for economic reasons.”
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March 4, 2011
‘SEX TALK’ IN U.N., THANK THE NEA
“’Oral sex, masturbation, and orgasms need to be taught in education,’ Diane Schneider told the audience at a panel on combating homophobia and transphobia. Schneider, representing the National Education Association (NEA), the largest teachers union in the US, advocated for more ‘inclusive’ sex education in US schools, with curricula based on liberal hetero and homosexual expression. She claimed that the idea of sex education remains an oxymoron if it is abstinence-based, or if students are still able to opt-out.”
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Caution: Video on this link has offensive language and shows adults acting like immature children
March 3, 2011
TO SURLY, WITH LOVE
“According to Department of Education statistics, in 2007-2008 (the latest year available), full-time public school teachers across the country made an average of $53,230 in 'total school-year and summer earned income.' That compares favorably to the $39,690 that private school teachers pulled down.”
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March 3, 2011
WHEN IT COMES TO CLASS SIZE, SMALLER ISN’T ALWAYS BETTER
“What that research tells us is this: Smaller classes are better, but only if the teacher is a very good one. In other words, class size matters, but teacher effectiveness matters more.”
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March 2011
LOSING THE BRAINS RACE
“America is spending more money on education while producing worse outcomes.”
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March 2011
CLUELESS: READING AS DETECTIVE WORK
“All the techniques taught in Whole Word basically involve collecting clues in order to solve an endless series of little puzzles. Kids search frantically from letter shapes, to context, to pictures, to predictions made initially, to new guesses, and back around again. Their eyes bounce about like dice on a craps tables. All this takes time. Many puzzles are never solved.”
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Winter 2010
ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AND DEMOGRAPHIC TRAITS OF HOMESCHOOL STUDENTS:
A NATIONWIDE STUDY
“The body of research on home-based education has expanded dramatically since the first studies and academic articles of the late 1970s that dealt with the modern homeschool movement. Numerous researchers have examined the academic achievement of home-educated children and youth, their social, emotional, and psychological development, and their success into adulthood, and various aspects of homeschool families in general. Researchers have also explored myriad other aspects and issues related to home education in disciplines such as philosophy, sociology, and law. Only a handful of studies, however, have looked closely at a large nationwide sample of home educators and their children in the United States, and the last one of this nature was conducted about a decade ago.”
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