Educator

In a recent study of the grading practices at public vs private colleges and universities, it is noted that both types of institutions of higher learning are contributing to grade inflation, but that private universities are contributing more than their ‘share.’

In the 1950′s, the national average GPA was 2.52 and by 2005 this number had risen to 3.11. The research authors propose that perhaps this is why a disproportionate number of private college graduates populate the top medical, business and law school programs. An interesting related discovery is the abnormally low GPA for science fields as compared with humanities and social science fields, an inequality that may have existed for as long as forty years or longer. The authors postulate this could be the reason for the disproportionate numbers of foreign-born graduate students present in USA technical research fields.

The authors point out that the USA grading system is ad hoc, and this leads to grade inflation. Where, when and how will grade inflation end? Schools believe that doling out higher grades will give their graduates an advantage, and this, in turn, gives their school a better reputation. The better reputation results in more student enrollment, and the cycle continues. Higher GPAs means good business for institutions of higher education. And it seems increasingly that our colleges and universities emphasize that in order to stay afloat, they must be run like a business. Higher GPAs are good for business.

Teachers and students face it every day: a lack of funding and devastating budget cuts leave schools without the resources teachers need to help their students explore their potential and excel. The situation is so dire that dedicated teachers end up spending hundreds of dollars a year of their own money on classroom materials.

An exciting new nonprofit, ClassWish.org, offers an easy, rewarding and efficient solution:
• Teachers, administrators and PTA/PTO leaders visit ClassWish.org to create Wish Lists of the items they need to equip great classrooms, as easily as shopping online
• Parents, alumni, neighbors, churches, community foundations, local businesses and others see exactly what is needed and how they can help
• Visitors contribute online
• Donations are tax-deductible, and ClassWish provides a receipt
• Many companies match employees’ charitable donations, which can double their funding
• ClassWish has the items shipped directly to the schools at no cost to the school or teacher

The result? Teachers and schools get the support they need. Parents and communities are engaged in supporting schools and funding the things they care most about. And everyone is united in helping our children perform at their best.

The enthusiastic response to ClassWish.org can be seen in their outstanding Board of Advisors, which includes:
• Ellen Dempsey, President & CEO, Teachers Network
• Judy Nee, President and CEO, National Afterschool Association
• Nancy Pelz-Paget, Director, Education and Society Program, Aspen Institute
• Delia Pompa, VP of Education, National Council of La Raza
• Sharon Robinson, CEO, American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education
• Esther Wojcicki, Google Education, Creative Commons Board

Visit http://ClassWish.org to see how easy it is to get the resources your classroom, school and students need.

Please share word of this opportunity with others. One way to do it (and perhaps win free supplies for your own classroom) is to see their campaigns at http://win.ClassWish.org).

Educator fully backs ClassWish, and together we can make a powerful difference in the lives of millions of children!

Does your child’s school allow advertising on school grounds as a source of income for its regular budget? If not, it might just be a matter of time. With school budgets shrinking across the country, school districts are considering funding sources that would have been unacceptable just five years ago.

The latest districts to consider on-site advertising are in the Metro Detroit area of Michigan, where some districts have already laid off teachers, privatized janitorial and transportation staff, and closed some schools to stay afloat. Some see allowing advertising on school grounds as inappropriate, but in cash-strapped districts such as Metro Detroit, many parents and administrators are taking the attitude that the schools should do ‘whatever it takes’ to become fiscally responsible.

Most advertising will come from credit unions, car dealerships, banks and restaurants and the school has the final say on the advertising. Almost all of the advertising will be marketed toward the parents of high school students and will appear in places where the parents will be present, such as in the gymnasium for a basketball game or the auditorium to watch a student performance.

Many parents point out that students are already exposed to advertising while using the internet for school assignments, while driving by billboards, while going shopping and so do not feel that limited advertising at high schools would be detrimental to the high school students themselves. What do you think? Is this something that is being tried in your area? Is it working?

As an increasing number of public school districts consider a four day school week to trim budgets and save jobs, an increasing number of critics rise up to point out that longer school days will not help, but hurt, the students’ education.

Critics point out that tacking on an extra one and a half to two hours of instruction onto the remaining four days makes for tired, unfocused students who cannot learn as well as they can with a five day school week. Critics also point out that although teachers can be retained under this plan, the support staff are the ones who will bear the financial hardship – the bus drivers, janitors and cafeteria workers will have to take a cut in pay.

Parents are not enamored of the shorter school week, as it will not be easy for all parents to find extra childcare. Some parents simply cannot afford the childcare. The four day school week will be a burden on low income families who are ‘too rich’ to qualify for government assistance. And the shortened week will also demand increased funds for government assistance programs which subsidize childcare for families below poverty level.

But administrators are quick to point out that in these challenging financial times, their options are few, and that to continue to provide quality public education for all, the four day school week must be adopted. Parents and critics fear that a shorter school week, now seen as a temporary fix, might become a permanent situation.

Most students returning from study abroad report a common experience: an increase in self-confidence and maturity. Initial feelings of timidity and a lack of confidence give way to exploration and interest in new cultural values. Experience teaches what textbooks cannot.

Many of those life-changing experiences are gained from learning how to navigate in an unfamiliar environment. The skills needed for thriving in a foreign culture are valuable skills and the study abroad experience is very similar to accepting your first job after graduation. Young people who return from working or studying abroad have a unique set of skills and experiences to bring to their first professional job.

Study abroad programs are nothing new, but they have greatly grown in favor over the past decade. The latest statistics show a 77% increase in the number of students studying abroad. Study abroad programs are not cheap, but many agree that they are worth the expense. A semester abroad is always more expensive than a semester at your home campus.

Besides class fees there is the expense of traveling to and from the host country and the costs of being a tourist in the host country. Other things to consider are the daily expenses of the particular city in which you are placed – you could end up in a very expensive city. If you arrive in your host country with a budget and are good at sticking to budgets, then you should be able to survive, thrive and enjoy life as a study abroad student.

Recently educational DVD’s for toddlers have come under fire. Providing more evidence that toddler educational DVD’s are not effective is a recent study which purports that watching Walt Disney’s Baby Wordsworth DVD – a part of its Baby Einstein series – does not improve the language skills of toddlers.

This latest study found that there was no significant difference in the language development of toddlers who watched the DVD and those who did not. Both groups knew the same set of twenty to thirty words with or without the DVD. The Baby Einstein company points out that it does not make any claims that their products are educational. They do state that the video content can be a “useful tool for parents and little ones to enjoy together.” But this is exactly the reasons educational videos for toddlers are being criticized.

How many parents really sit down and watch the video with their child? Many parents use the DVD’s as a media babysitter. Pediatricians recommend no videos or television viewing for the first two years of life at a minimum. Researchers are beginning to conclude that watching educational videos under the age of two actually impedes social and cognitive development. For example, the earlier in age a child started watching Baby Wordsworth, the smaller his or her vocabulary became. What is needed is quality time between toddler and parent, not focused on a video, but focused on the child and his or her environment. More time together in the three dimensional world is what is needed to foster normal development.

Education, foreign policy and global business experts are bemoaning the news that thousands of public schools have dropped foreign language instruction within the last ten years. With one notable exception – the Chinese language.

Chinese language instruction has actually bucked the trend and is on the increase in all parts of the USA, due to financial backing from the Chinese government, who funds part of the salaries of native Chinese teachers abroad. It is estimated that across public and private schools in the USA, the number of schools offering Chinese language instruction has increased from 300 a decade ago to 1600 today.

China’s emergence as an important global trade partner has fueled the interest in the learning of the Chinese language all over the country. Previously it was mainly taught in cities with a significant Chinese population, such as on the East or West coast. But now Chinese language teachers can be found all across the nation.

Another influence upon the increase in Chinese language instruction is the popular school visit program, funded by the College Board and Hanban, a language council affiliated with the Education Ministry of the Chinese government, which subsidizes travel for US administrators and teachers to visit Chinese schools. Many Chinese language programs are initiated in the USA by the visiting educators upon their return.

Foreign language instruction is not stable in the USA, one survey notes. Many schools which offered Japanese language instruction in the 1980′s no longer offer it. It is anyone’s guess as to the longevity of this current trend to teach Chinese language in USA schools.

Started eight years ago as a ‘side project’ by Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia receives more than 300 million visitors each month, making it the fifth most popular website in the world. Yet its contributing authors, its very lifeblood, are leaving in droves.

Some reasons for this sharp decline in contributors include a lack of new topics about which to write, as well as new rules imposed to curb spamming and graffiti and infighting among contributors. The new rules take up more than a hundred pages of space at Wikipedia. Started to circumvent the normally extensive lag time inherent in putting an entire encyclopedia online, Wikipedia applied ‘crowdsourcing’ to the online encyclopedia model.

Crowdsourcing is the principle of combining contributions from multiple users from all over the world. Wales added the ability of contributors to edit articles, and this is when the controversy began…from the ‘get go.’ Ask your local librarian’s opinion on Wikipedia and you are likely to get sneers of disdain. Wikipedia has been called “a huge electronic printing house with no editorial staff, publishing scores of self-written books contributed by self-appointed authors holding no credentials.”

In an effort to bolster Wikipedia’s credibility, Wales states that improving the accuracy of articles is top priority. Wikipedia has increased the number of contributions from academics through an outreach program which explains the how and why of contributing articles. And the once free-wheeling Wikipedia is now seeing the wisdom in using editors. Perhaps it still has a chance of making it onto your local librarian’s list of reputable content sources.

As parents of college age students tighten up their budgets, colleges and universities are responding in some creative ways. One East Coast liberal arts college has taken on the slogan “Home of the Guaranteed Job” and gives free classes or student loan payments to any graduates who do not find work within their degree field within six months of graduation. Other institutions have reacted by eliminating courses of study with declining enrollment, such as philosophy, classical studies or French. Some universities now include classes on networking, resume writing and job interviewing skills as part of required coursework for graduation.

The downside, from the viewpoint of many colleges and universities, is that late-blooming students will find themselves about to graduate with a major in an area in which they no longer have interest. Students who specialize early in their college years miss out on the full process of self-discovery. When this process is short-changed, there is a propensity to become a “job-hopper” throughout one’s life. And this is the type of job candidate who is unlikely to be at the top of any hiring committee’s list. Although universities have always changed course offerings to meet the changes in society at large, the current unfavorable economic climate has accelerated this process.

Many universities are choosing to eliminate low-enrollment majors rather than reduce the operating budget across all majors. With less choice in majors being offered comes the increased possibility that college graduates as a group will be more homogeneous. This does not bode well for their “employability.” The majority of employers who participated in a recent survey on college specialization responded that there should be an emphasis on effective oral and written communication, critical thinking, analytical reasoning skills and innovation and creativity skills. These are just the types of skills that get less attention when an institution bends to meet the demands of families looking for immediate financial returns on college education expenses. Today companies are more demanding of employees than ever before, and these skills are highly rated by many companies, regardless of the type of industry.

President Obama has big plans for education in the US, and is banking on the ability of well trained teachers to make a difference. He recently announced a 250 million dollar initiative to train science and math teachers. The goal is to have US students ranked at the top internationally in these topics within this decade. One hundred teachers received awards for excellence in teaching and mentoring.

The President stated in the awards ceremony that teacher quality is the number one influence upon the performance of students in the four subject areas of science, technology, engineering and math, collectively referred to as the ‘STEM’ subjects. The current trend is a decline in the number of STEM subject area teachers, and the “Educate to Innovate” campaign will help reverse this trend by training more than 100,000 teachers and preparing 10,000 new educators over the next five years. Both public and private investments will be necessary to carry out the goals. Intel Corporation is but one of many entities expected to give support.

The President also challenged the 200,000 scientists employed by the Federal government to take concrete steps toward the goal by increasing young students’ interest in science through speaking engagements and hands-on projects all across our nation’s elementary, middle and high schools. The President also announced the White House would be doing its part to participate in the goals with its own Science Fair honoring winners of national student technology and science competitions.