Read a little. Learn a lot. • Tightly-written news, views and stuff • Follow us on Twitter • Be a Facebook Fan • Tumble us!

23 Jul 2010 17:48

tags

U.S.: D.C. schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee drops hammer on teachers

  • 261 teachers were fired just before the new school year
  • 165 were cited for having poor classroom performance
  • 737 more educators are on thin ice for the next year source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

16 Apr 2010 17:32

tags

U.S.: “A little soap opera”: Thousands of images in school spying case

  • Apparently, they were using the webcam-equipped laptops for constant surveillance. The Lower Merion, Pa. School District, currently facing a class-action lawsuit for its role in a webcam surveillance scheme, reportedly took photos of plaintiff Blake Robbins while he was sleeping, chatting, and so on – as many as 400 images of Blake alone over a two-week period. (Just imagine how that worked for all the other kids with school-issued laptops.) Administrators reportedly loved the service, which has now been disabled, and Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter has introduced legislation to block usage of surveillance software for this purpose (smart idea, dude). source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Mar 2010 21:49

tags

Culture: Twitter remembers Jaime Escalante (not Edward James Olmos)



Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Mar 2010 21:42

tags

Culture: Stand and remember: Teaching legend Jaime Escalante dies

  • The subject of iconic ’80s flick “Stand and Deliver,” Escalante took his innovative teaching techniques to a rough-and-tumble East L.A. school, and got 14 students to pass a super-tough AP Calculus exam – a feat so incredible the students were accused of cheating. In reality, dude built a math program so amazing that, even though he didn’t get along with the administration, teachers across the country studied his techniques. The Edward James Olmos portrayal was just icing. He died of cancer today at 79. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Mar 2010 10:42

tags

U.S.: No Child Left Behind doesn’t mean their reading scores get ahead

  • fourth After a modest increase in 2007, reading scores for fourth graders stalled in 2009 on a national level; some local schools did better, others did worse.
  • eighth While reading scores increased
    for eighth graders in 2009, there’s been no change in score since the “No Child Left Behind” law was enacted in 2002. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Mar 2010 09:29

tags

U.S.: California universities throw tons of cost-cutting options on the table

  • one Encourage students to take summer classes and graduate in three years.
  • two Double the number of out-of-state students in the university system to 10 percent.
  • three Charge more for the most popular campuses – UCLA and UC Berkeley particularly.
  • four Increase online classes offerings so people don’t have to look at each other. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Mar 2010 21:37

tags

Tech: At least one publisher gets how awesome iPad books can be

  • The iPad represents the first real opportunity to create a paid distribution model that will be attractive to consumers. The psychology of payment on tablets is different to the psychology on a PC.
  • Penguin Books CEO John Makinson • Regarding what he sees as the future of books. What’s that future of books? Well, in the case of the children’s books he used as an example, a really fun, educational experience, the kind of thing everyone was hoping for with the iPad when it was first suggested (but Apple forgot to show when announcing it). This looks really awesome, Penguin Books. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

01 Mar 2010 21:21

tags

U.S.: Obama’s willing to help your school as long as it doesn’t suck

  • $900 million the size of the grants Obama wants to offer to schools
  • no
    losers     the prevailing rule around which schools get the grants source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Dec 2009 10:56

tags

U.S.: Education may be a good next step for former military

  • 12,000 troops converted into teachers source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Nov 2009 12:03

tags

U.S.: How big budget cuts screwed over the California university system

  • Dismantling this institution, which is a huge economic driver for the state, is a stupendously stupid thing to do, but that’s the path the Legislature has embarked on. When you pull resources from an institution like this, faculty leave, the best grad students don’t come, and the discoveries go down.
  • University of California-Berkeley dean of the College of Chemistry Richard A. Mathies • Describing how a $813 million budget cut has decimated the system, forced tuition hikes and created huge protests at universities throughout the University of California system. We’d straight-up say the budget cut was a terrible idea, but we just want to point out the level of gridlock getting ANY budget passed in California this year. The state’s jumbled constitution and laws have had the effect of screwing the state. Simple as that. • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
<< newer 
top tags
older >>