Archive for the ‘EDUCATION REFORM’ Category

Given the reactions by communities and schools, it seems we still have too many across this country that do not want well-educated, 21st Century global citizens. Instead, we want sheltered individuals that only see what they are told to see, only hear what they are told to hear, and only do what they are told to do. We want factory-like schools producing narrow minded students built by prescribed curriculum centered on content, tests, textbooks, and singular sources of information. We want rigor in the form of more work and compliance. We want surface level thinkers that look at issues through a lens of fear and ignorance. We want a place for kids to be monitored.

The amount of money allotted per student seems to vary widely from place to place. Obviously, funding differs between public and private schools, and homeschool operations where the parent is the teacher. In this instance there are no extra amounts for teacher salary, rent or mortgage of the property, taxes, insurance or utilities. The student is educated by a parent, in his own home where all of the necessities are already covered in the household budget; the parent receives no salary, so the real costs of the child’s education come down to actual teaching materials and services, supplies, transportation and fees for outings.

Some tears ago I became aware that teachers were spending out of their own pockets for classroom supplies not covered in their budget. A recent article in the Victorville Daily Press (Natasha Lindstrom, “Teachers spending more personal funds on classrooms”, 23 August 2009) indicates that this is no longer a matter of classroom decor, extra arts and crafts materials, motivational stickers and certificates, or the occasional popsicle to reward the class for a job well done. Teachers are now paying for basic teaching supplies that should be covered by school budgets: one teachers’ representative is quoted in the article saying some teachers’ allotted printing paper is only enough to cover the first two or three months of school.

Department of Education: Online Education Beats Classroom

This is the headline of an article about the use of computer assisted or online learning, that looks at a study (actually a meta-analysis of current research) conducted by the United States Department of Education. The article lists several key points from the research. Two that struck me were these:

* Students who took all or part of their class online performed better, on average, than those taking the same course through traditional face-to-face instruction.
* Instruction combining online and face-to-face elements had a larger advantage relative to purely face-to-face instruction than did purely online instruction.

We’ve had a dose of humour about school, with the help of Alice Cooper and the Muppets. That combination is a little like Labyrinth, isn’t it? Some people just aren’t sure whether it’s a good mix, or who the piece is aimed at – parents, or their kids? I’ll leave it to you to decide [...]