|
Goodbye exit exams? Preventing Another Va. Tech Is No Child Left Behind working? Cal State University salaries money money money money Holding back freshmen School officials' hidden talents Is your handwriting young or old? Easter break on Fox News Grading schools and the achievement gap November 06 December 06 January 07 February 07 March 07 April 07 May 07 June 07 July 07 August 07 September 07 October 07 November 07 December 07 January 08 February 08 March 08 April 08 May 08 June 08 July 08 
RSS 2.0    |
|
|
Texas is getting rid of its exit exam ... sort of.
This is from the Austin American-Statesman:
"The Legislature has ordered educators to stop giving the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) in high school and replace it with 12 end-of-course exams. They'll be similar to final exams in a class, but they will come from the state instead of local teachers. ...
End-of-course exams will differ from the TAKS in two significant ways. For one, students must average a passing...
I thought this was kind of interesting ...
The UC Davis Police Department will will hold training sessions starting Monday to "help members of the campus community increase their likelihood of surviving a shooting incident, like Virginia Tech's," according to a UC Davis press release.
The new community training will include how to:
-- escape, take cover and hide
-- make your body a smaller target
-- recognize opportunities to seize a weapon or overpower a gunman
-- make...
Today, the Center for Education Policy released a report, "Answering the Question That Matters Most: Has Student Achievement Increased Since No Child Left Behind?" The report is about 98 pages, but here are its five main conclusions (No Child Left Behind is federal legislation that requires all schools to have 100 percent of students reading and doing math on grade level by 2014. Schools are expected to make a certain amount of progress each year toward the goal and some...
The California State University Board of Trustees is scheduled to vote on a new contract for faculty Wednesday. Here are the terms, in case you ever wondered what CSU professors make:
"The four-year agreement covers budget years 2006/07 through 2010/11 and will cost the CSU more than $400 million.
Under the new contract, projected average salaries for full professors will be $105,531; for tenure track faculty (all ranks combined) will be $90,593; and for part-time lecturers...
I was off yesterday, but came in today to many dueling press releases about Gov. Schwarzenegger's newly revised budget plan. Below, according to a press release from his office, is what his proposals mean for K-12 education.
Also, I got many press releases from other education groups/people about how they feel about the revisions. In the interest of saving space, here are excerpts from of a few of those:
Kern County Superintendent of Schools Larry Reider: "Governor...
In today's story, I spelled out what this new Kern High School District policy of holding back failing freshmen means. I'll attach that story to the end of this post.
When I go to schools to talk to students and parents about the new policy, there seems to be a lot of support. I have, however, gotten several anonymous or semi-anonymous letters and phone calls criticizing the policy.
Here are some excerpts from those letters:
"The motivation of the principals in recommending...
Here are some funny/interesting tidbits from Monday night's Kern High School District meeting you won't see in the paper:
Jim Burke Education Foundation Teacher of the Year Michael McQuerrey of Liberty High said a few words to the trustees:
McQuerrey (a music instructor) congratulated district Assistant Superintendent of Personnel Bill Jones for his "excellent baritone" voice. Apparently, he knows this from a church choir. He also remembered trustee Joel Heinrichs as student...
A colleague sent me this very interesting article on how handwriting and the teaching of handwriting is changing with the advent of technology:
http://news.com.com/Is+the+...
I especially like the "featured gallery" off to the side where you can see two handwriting samples and guess which one was written by the young person and which by the older one.
Note* -- The story was on Fox's Web site Monday morning but was gone as of about 4:15 in the afternoon. If anyone finds it again, let me know where. Thanks!
Fox News is now reporting on the Kern High School District's decision in December to change the names of winter and spring breaks to Christmas and Easter breaks. You can find a Web version of the story here:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/i...
(look for the picture of Ken Mettler next to the headline "What's in a name?")...
Where does your school rank?
Each year, the state gives all schools rankings based on test scores. Schools can rank from 1 to 10, with 10 being the best. To find out how your school did go here:
api.cde.ca.gov/reports/page2.asp
You can also see there how groups of students within your school did (i.e. African American, Hispanic, white, Asian, students with disabilities, socioeconomically disadvantaged students). If you look at those API numbers, you'll see the much talked about...
|
