Archive for July 01, 2007 - July 07, 2007

 Find out about IRA’s plans for co-conventions in 2009: the 54th Annual Convention West, to be held in Phoenix, February 21–25, 2009, and the 54th Annual Convention North Central, in Minneapolis, May 3–7, 2009. Begin with the list of Frequently Asked Questions, and watch for additional details to be posted as they become available.

The official 2006 graduation rate for Montgomery County, Maryland, public schools is 92%. But that number and the formula by which it was calculated are falling out of use in public education. For years, public educators in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, DC, have measured graduation rates based on the number of students known to have dropped out, and many dropouts are never counted. Now, educators are taking a closer look at attrition, the winnowing-down of a high school population over time, as the basis for a new, more accurate—and less flattering—way of calculating the graduation rate. Read more at The Washington Post website.

Allison Rabenau celebrated an inauspicious milestone on the otherwise unremarkable day of Oct. 18, 2004. Six weeks into her first year as a teacher, she finally taught a class. Rabenau had left a long career as a stage manager in the commercial theater to learn how to teach English as a second language to immigrant children in New York’s public schools. The only problem, she quickly discovered, was that the avalanche of paperwork and other assignments meant she actually got to teach only sporadically. See The New York Times online to learn about how those who teach ELLs are swamped by forms, evaluations, assessments, and reports.

Confucius, the 6th century B.C. Chinese philosopher, always told his disciples to study the outside world in detail. So he would have been delighted by the announcement yesterday that five state schools in the United Kingdom are to become "Confucius classrooms," dedicated to promoting the study of Chinese culture and language. For the schools, it will mean extra money to study the subject and the chance for their pupils to go on exchange trips and summer camps to China. The first 175 pupils and their teachers will leave the UK next week to attend a summer camp in Beijing. Read more at The Independent online.

Is there is something inherently wrong with a large chunk of one the sexes—or are primary schools simply letting boys down? Experts say girls brains are more wired up for communicating and reading emotions, while boys like moving, doing and solving practical problems. Elizabeth Morris, principal of the School of Emotional Literacy, a professional development organization based in Scotland, says: "Boys like doing things for a purpose and having things that are concrete and relevant to deal with. Girls will be happier with discussion, relationship building, team activities and reading." Read more about the different learning strategies for boys and girls at BBC NEWS.

Amazon, which made its name selling books online, is now entering the book-digitizing business. Like Google and, more recently, Microsoft, Amazon will be making hundreds of thousands of digital copies of books available online through a deal with university libraries and a technology company. But unlike Google and Microsoft, Amazon will not limit people to reading the books online. Thanks to print-on-demand technology, readers will be able to buy hard copies of out-of-print books and have them shipped to their homes. Read more at The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The seven-year-olds sit cross-legged on the carpet scratching their chins philosophically. These bright, young pupils have been asked to consider whether it is possible to step in the same river twice. Posing philosophical questions like these encourages the children to think in a different way than the one they are used to, says Peter Worley, philosophy teacher at Eliot Bank Primary School in Forest Hill, southeast London. “In philosophy instead of working out how to do a sum, we think about what math actually is.” A recent study suggested that children’s IQs are boosted by learning philosophy at an early age. Read more about it at BBC NEWS online.

Parents: Before you spring for that Nintendo Wii or other game system for your high schooler, consider this: Kids who spend a lot of time playing video games still socialize with friends, but don’t have a lot of time to spare to do their homework, according to a new University of Michigan study. Compared to non-gamers, kids who play video games spend 30% less time reading and 34% less time doing homework, the study showed. Read more of this article from the Detroit Free Press.

China's Ministry of Education will spend 50 billion yuan (US$6.5 billion) this year to help students from poor families. The money will go toward national scholarships, stipends, and student loans to ensure these students can continue their education, ministry spokesman Wang Xuming said July 2. The funds will cover more than 20 percent of college students and 90 percent of vocational students. Most students in vocational schools come from the rural areas, and their financial situations are worse than college students, Wang said. More than 4 million college students and 16 million vocational students will benefit annually. Read the article at China Economic Net.

 They all voted for it, but that was then. Democratic presidential candidates came out swinging Monday, not at each other but at the No Child Left Behind law. They spoke at the annual convention of the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union. Read more of this article from The Washington Post. In a related story, Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen argues that it requires more than money to fix our school systems. And the Washington Post's editors have urged Congress to talk about strengthening, not abandoning, the federal school accountability law.

In Glasgow, Scotland, schools are to adopt a zero tolerance approach towards pupils who fail to attain appropriate levels of literacy and numeracy. Disaffected youngsters creating problems may be sent away for a few weeks to new intensive support centers to help them get back on track. Headteachers could also be sent back to the classroom to improve their skills. Every teacher and member of support staff in every school will be expected to take responsibility for developing basic reading, writing and numerical skills of every young person. Read the article at BBC NEWS.

The inaugural issue of the Journal of Curriculum and Instruction, a peer-reviewed, electronic journal for articles focused on research, practice, and related issues relevant to teaching and learning in the preK–12 environment, now is available. The inaugural issue, Literacy: Best Practices in an Age of High-Stakes Assessment, features guest editor Terry S. Atkinson.

Garrison Keillor doesn’t see much that he likes among many of the candidates running for president. But he finds that a trip to the library, “one of the nobler expressions of democracy,” can cheer him up. Read more of Keillor’s view of the library as a temple of freedom in this article from The Salt Lake Tribune.

Ron Sims clearly recalled the day his father told him to do a book report on James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time after his high school teacher told him that “African Americans had no history worth reporting.” Sims, now the County Executive of the Martin Luther King Jr. County in Washington, said that moment led to the changing of the course of his life and allowed him to dispel the stereotypes of African-Americans and the ignorant perceptions of their history that even some teachers espouse. In a keynote speech at the National Newspaper Publishers Association’s Black Press Praise Breakfast, Sims stressed that the link to success is literacy. He challenged the Black Press to step up its critical role in making sure more youth are positioned for that success. Read more of this article from BlackPressUSA.com.

In the spirit of celebration of September as Hispanic Heritage Month, IRA is launching the eighth National Hispanic American Read-In Chain. IRA asks all councils to join in serving as hosts to create a chain of readers during September 15–18, 2007. The chain involves reading works authored by Hispanic American writers at community sites or in school building on one of these days. Get details.