Child care workforce increasingly diverse, as are children served

Key Points: This article brings together four concerns: early education, diversity, inequalities, and educators/caregivers. It is an important article to analyze our current state/debate/ concerns regarding education and diversity together.

Published: OregonLive- April 28th, 2015

Intended Audience: Educators, Caregivers, Parents, State Government

Relevance: The relevance of this article is to bring to the surface issues with diversity, cycles of socio-economic classes, and early childhood education. It is an important topic to discuss because we need to address diversity and make changes to our society that keep people within a "class". Education is where we can better ourselves and without that early foundation it is difficult to make improvements.

URL: http://www.oregonlive.com/education/index.ssf/2015/04/child_care_workforce_increasin.html

Snapshot on SBAC

Smarter Balanced test gets a thumbs-up from these Beaverton students
Oregonian
Article by Wendy Owen
Audience: Public, Parents and Educators
Link: http://www.oregonlive.com/beaverton/index.ssf/2015/04/beaverton_students_like_smarte.html#comments
I know that there are many more stories and perspectives out in the schools, but I have to think this is a heavily biased report. This seems like a snapshot, but by no-means a mosaic. It will be interesting to see after the SBAC
is administered what the new realities will be versus the pre-test anxieties of parents,

Smart video games can assess kids

Smart video games can assess kids better than standardized tests, a new book saysBy Valerie Strauss April 21, 2015

link


Greg Toppo is releasing a book about using gaming technology to assess our students. It's called, " The Game Believes in You:  How Digital Play can make our Kids Smarter"  and it's being released tomorrow.
Toppo, who was a teacher for 8 years before becoming a journalist, has put his interest in technology and gaming together in this book.

This article briefly describes the book and includes an article written by Toppo himself .

The article is intended for educators, parents and administrators.

School Size and Spending per Pupil in the Nation's Capitol

D.C. Schools budget includes wide range in per-student spending

Washington Post, April 23,2015

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-schools-budget-includes-wide-range-in-per-student-spending/2015/04/23/4e1027f0-e919-11e4-9767-6276fc9b0ada_story.html?wprss=rss_Copy%20of%20local-alexandria-social&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Key Points:

• D.C. schools vary in per pupil spending from $16,467 to $8,312
• A parent group has made a website to track spending data by school in order to hold administration officials accountable
• The trends largely reflect the economy of scale that makes larger schools less expensive/student
• This data also allows correlation between funding and program offerings

Intended Audience:

• Practitioner Educators, Parents, twitter followers, readership

Relevance:

• The role that funding plays in education, and specifically in which types of schools we choose to teach in is a relevant consideration.  I am grateful for the parent’s gathering of data to root-out inappropriate funding allocation,
• I am curious to do more research on the policy implications of larger schools.  Could larger, more efficient schools free up money spent on maintenance or overlapping responsibilities be better spent to provide smaller classes, broader enrichment opportunities?

Teach for America (or Britain, Haiti, Lithuania...)

Teacher Recruitment, High-fliers in the Classroom.

The Economist. February 14th, 2015.

http://www.economist.com/news/international/21643146-programmes-place-bright-and-ambitious-graduates-poor-schools-are-spreading-around

Key Points:

• The article asserts that problems in education are, at least in part, a result of the low-caliber of teacher recruits
• Teach for America is lauded as a solution, with discussion given to similar international organizations.
• Statistics provided in support: %50-%70 of TFA (and similar) participants stay in education after their two-year commitment.

Intended Audience:

• The regular readership of this broad spectrum magazine devoted to free trade, laissez faire government, and the dismal science.  

Relevance:

• With high likelihood of encountering teachers, administrators, and policy makers who began in TFA it is beneficial to understand a perspective in support of the program.
• I am curious about teacher education abroad, and certainly open to “copy-cat” models in countries with severe education needs.
• This particular perspective is problematic to the degree that it portrays these “high-fliers” as heroes who are the only hope for otherwise hopeless masses. Ivy-league success does not a culturally-competent public servant make.  

Is Common Core Tougher on Special Education Students?

Is Common Core Tougher on Special Education Students?
CBS News
April, 16, 2015

   This video shows a mother's perspective on how inappropriate it is for her child with special needs to be held to the same standards as his peers because he gets individualized instruction all year at his level. It also shows a classroom teacher who agrees that it seems like the standards are set too high for most children right now but thinks that raising the standards is "ultimately a good thing." He states that in his experience most students will rise to the occasion and often do better than you would expect them to.
 

Toddlers prepare for their first big interview

Toddlers prepare for their first big interview
By Helier Cheung

April 23, 2015BBC News, Hong Kong
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32040752

This article talks about how parents in Hong Kong are preparing their children at a young age to get into a good nursery in hopes of that leading to getting them into a good kindergarten. "The best nurseries and kindergartens are seen as a gateway into the best primary schools - which in turn, parents believe, pave the way to the best secondary schools and universities."
These parents are paying a lot of money to take their toddlers to interview classes to sharpen their interviewing skills so that they are more likely to pass their interview and get accepted into these nurseries. The interviewers are also watching how the parents interact with the child to see how much of their skills come naturally or if they seem to be rehearsed. The children are evaluated on social interactions with peers, level of eye contact, manners, and fine motor skills. 
I found this article interesting because these children are so young but they are already being prepared to meet high standards. It's sad to me because it seems like their childhood is being cut too short. It may be just a matter of time before we see this happening in America.