Obama calls for more STEM teachers, longer school year

Obama: “Strengthening STEM education is vital to preparing our students" for the 21st-century economy. (AP photo)
Obama: “Strengthening STEM education is vital to preparing our students" for the 21st-century economy. (AP photo)

Barely into the new school year, President Barack Obama issued a tough-love message to students and teachers on Sept. 27: Their year in the classroom should be longer, and poorly performing teachers should get out. Separately, the president also announced a goal of recruiting 10,000 teachers over the next two years in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).

American students are falling behind some of their foreign counterparts, especially in math and science, and that’s got to change, Obama said. Seeking to revive a sense of urgency that education reform might have lost amid the recession’s focus on the economy, Obama declared that the future of the country is at stake.

“Whether jobs are created here, high-end jobs that support families and support the future of the American people, is going to depend on whether or not we can do something about these schools,” the president said in an interview on NBC’s “Today” show.…Read More

Putting our ideas of assessment to the test

 

How we evaluate students, and teachers, is at a crossroads.
How we evaluate students, and teachers, is at a crossroads.

 

Default Lines column, October 2010 issue of eSchool News—Here’s a pop quiz: What are the skills that today’s students will need to be successful in tomorrow’s workplace?…Read More

Study: Teacher bonuses failed to boost test scores

Students whose teachers were offered bonuses of up to $15,000 a year for improved test scores fared no better than those whose teachers were given no such incentives.
Students whose teachers were offered bonuses of up to $15,000 a year for improved test scores fared no better than their peers.

Offering big bonuses to teachers failed to raise students’ test scores in a three-year study released Sept. 21 that calls into question the Obama administration’s push for merit pay to improve education.

The study, conducted in the metropolitan Nashville school system by Vanderbilt University’s National Center on Performance Incentives, was described by the researchers as the nation’s first scientifically rigorous look at the effects of merit pay for teachers.

It found that students whose teachers were offered bonuses of up to $15,000 a year for improved test scores registered the same gains on standardized exams as those whose teachers were given no such incentives.…Read More

Superintendents turn to tech academies to boost skills

Administrators are seeking technology training to boost leadership skills.
Administrators are seeking technology training to boost their leadership skills.

As the need for tech-savvy students becomes more pressing, school leaders’ technology skills also must keep pace, and superintendents across the nation are enrolling in technology-focused professional development academies to ensure that their school districts don’t fall behind on technology integration.

The Technology Information Center for Administrative Leadership (TICAL) is a statewide education technology service funded by the California Department of Education. All TICAL resources are matched to California state standards, as well as the International Society for Technology in Education’s National Education Technology Standards for Administrators. Arkansas also has a TICAL branch, which is funded by the Arkansas Department of Education.

TICAL’s online portal offers categorized annotated tools and resources that relate to 21st-century leadership used by administrators. Resources address data-driven decision making, technology integration in standards-based curriculum, professional development, technology planning, systems operations and maintenance, and financial planning.…Read More

APQC: Process management can improve education

Process management can lead to more efficient educators.
Process management can lead to more efficient educators, APQC says.

An ambitious program aims to transform K-12 education outcomes, such as student achievement and smart spending, by focusing on the processes through which schools strive to achieve those outcomes–and it already has led to positive results (and millions of dollars in savings) among participating schools.

The North Star Project, spearheaded by the nonprofit American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC), focuses on process and performance management (PPM) as the driver of improvement.

APQC Chairman C. Jackson Grayson Jr. said he has a “simple but difficult mission–I want to transform the entire education system,” including state and federal governments, higher education, and private schools.…Read More

Study questions digital-divide efforts

Technology can have a detrimental effect on student performance if not coupled with educational programs. Copyright: Nevit Dilmen.
Technology can have a detrimental effect on student performance if not coupled with educational programs. Copyright: Nevit Dilmen.

Two researchers at Duke University have published a draft study that raises questions about the academic value of giving students home computers and broadband internet access. Their study has led to a flurry of media coverage, with some reports trumpeting the study’s findings as evidence that efforts to close the digital divide are counterproductive. But is that what their research really says?

The study, “Scaling the Digital Divide: Home Computer Technology and Student Achievement,” is the work of researchers Jacob Vigdor and Helen Ladd of Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy. It was published last month by the National Bureau of Economic Research as a working paper that was not peer-reviewed.

The study examined the reading and math test scores of more than 500,000 North Carolina public school students in grades five through eight from 2000-05. It sought to determine if differential access to computer technology at home compounds the educational disparities among students from various socio-economic backgrounds, and whether government provision of computers to middle school students would reduce those disparities.…Read More

How to survive the school budget crisis

School budget cuts are happening across the nation, as this demonstration in New Jersey makes clear. (AP)
School budget cuts are happening across the nation, as this demonstration in New Jersey makes clear. (AP)

Times are tough, and that’s especially true for education. A survey this past spring by the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) found that the school budget climate doesn’t reflect the recovery beginning to take hold in other sectors of the economy. In fact, school budget cuts will be noticeably more significant for 2010-11 than they were in the previous two years, the survey suggests.

To help school leaders in this time of need, we’ve put together a special section at eSchool News Online, called “Surviving the School Budget Crisis.” This brand-new resource features a collection of the best articles we’ve published recently that can help you save money—or spend it wisely.

For instance, schools still had at least $15 billion in formula-based stimulus money remaining to be spent as of press time—and spending this money wisely could pay dividends down the road. In our special resource center, you’ll find five key ways to make smart education technology investments that will have a lasting impact for your schools.…Read More

Study reveals factors in ed-tech success

 

When properly implemented, technology can have a positive impact on student achievement.
If schools can afford to make only one key investment in education technology, it should be infusing their intervention classes with technology, the study suggests.

 

Schools with one-to-one computing programs have fewer discipline problems, lower dropout rates, and higher rates of college attendance than schools with a higher ratio of students to computers, according to the results of a major new study. But for one-to-one programs to boost student achievement as well, they must be properly implemented, the study found.…Read More

New system combines classroom audio, emergency alert

A new system could help campuses respond to emergencies much quicker.
A new system could help campuses respond to emergencies much quicker.

A new classroom product that combines sound amplification, lecture capture, and emergency alert capabilities in a single system could have a big impact on the safety of K-12 and higher-education classrooms.

The Safe Security system, from Panasonic and Audio Enhancement, features a button on a microphone worn around the instructor’s neck that, when pressed, sends a silent alarm to a school’s central offices and to administrators. Once alerted, school leaders have access to a live video feed courtesy of a networked camera inside the classroom, as well as to the audio feed captured on the microphone, and they can immediately assess what type of emergency is occurring in the classroom.

Jeff Anderson, president of Audio Enhancement, said many teachers wear wireless microphones around their necks as part of standard classroom audio systems, and incorporating a built-in security alert system was a logical next step.…Read More

Superintendent’s online-learning business raises concerns

Houston Public Schools (Minn.) Superintendent Kim Ross will resign when his contract expires on June 30.
Houston, Minn., Public Schools Superintendent Kim Ross will leave the district when his contract expires June 30.

The superintendent of Minnesota’s Houston School District is leaving amid concerns about his involvement with a private online-learning consulting firm.

Houston Public Schools spokeswoman Kelley Stanage said Kim Ross has announced he’ll leave the district when his contract expires June 30. Ross, who is currently on paid administrative leave, was named a Tech-Savvy Superintendent Award winner by eSchool News earlier this year.

In March, school board members expressed concerns about Ross’s role in Ambient Learning, which he created with Steve Kerska, another district employee.…Read More

Supremes: Stop (texting) in the name of love

Public employers can monitor their employees' communication on work-issued devices, the Supreme Court ruled.
Public employers can monitor their employees' communication on work-issued devices, the Supreme Court ruled.

The U.S. Supreme Court had a message June 17 for workers with cell phones and other devices provided by their employers: Use your own cell phone if you’ve got something to text that you don’t want your boss to read.

In a case with direct implications for employees at public schools and colleges, the justices unanimously upheld a police department’s search of an officer’s personal, sometimes sexually explicit, messages on a government-owned pager, saying the search did not violate his constitutional rights.

The court did not lay down any broad rules about the privacy of workplace electronic communications in a world of rapidly changing technology. But the opinion written by Justice Anthony Kennedy did make clear that public-sector employers can monitor their employees’ communications on work-issued devices to make sure employees are following the rules.…Read More

Wisconsin agency aims to transform education’s core

A group of 45 Wisconsin superintendents hopes to transform the state's educational practices.
A group of 45 Wisconsin superintendents hopes to transform their educational practices.

With support from all of its 45 superintendents, a Wisconsin regional service agency is determined to reinvent the very nature of public education so that all students are equipped with the 21st-century skills necessary to compete and succeed in a global workplace.

Among its many innovative strategies for transforming teaching and learning, the service agency is moving from age-based groups of students to progress-based groupings; dropping standardized practices in favor of customized learning plans; phasing out print textbooks in favor of dynamic digital resources; and shifting from teacher-led instruction to a blend of face-to-face and online approaches.

Southeastern Wisconsin’s Cooperative Educational Service Agency (CESA) No. 1 is one of 12 state regional service agencies and covers 45 school districts encompassing about a third of the state’s student population. It includes Milwaukee Public Schools, the largest urban district in the state, as well as the smallest K-12 schools.…Read More