“Governance Divide: A Report on a Four-State Study on Improving College Readiness and Success “
This recent report released by The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education uses the systems and programs in place in Florida, Georgia New York and Oregon to examine the current policies, problems and inadequacies facing students who are transitioning from K-12 to postsecondary education. The report outlines some of the problem areas, highlights successful strategies and offers recommendations to improve and smooth the transition. Read the complete report (PDF).
The November 28 issue of Newsweek has a very interesting article on the value of teachers. The author discusses the mental stresses and poor wages that go along with teaching our nation’s youth. “The Wages of Teaching” is a must read for anyone in the field of education.
Saturday mornings in the 1970’s would not have been complete without Schoolhouse Rock. These short snippets of math, history and english taught a generation the importance of conjunctions, interjections, how a bill becomes a law , the Preamble to the Constitution, etc. Now this entertaining and educational collection is available on DVD at the Miller Library DVD 371.33 S372 2005.
Earlychildhood.com is a wonderful tool for anyone in the field, or studying early childhood education. It focuses on curriculum planning and arts and crafts. It also provides articles that promote professional development.
Joe Williams’ Cheating Our Kids 379.73 W724c 2005 is a wake-up call to parents, teachers and principals to become committed to children first. According to Williams politics are destroying our public school system and it’s time to take it back.
Hispanic Students & Public High Schools
A new report from the Pew Hispanic Center finds that Hispanic students are more likely to attend large public high schools and are plagued by problems associated with these large schools. “The High Schools Hispanics Attend” by Rick Fry, identifies and examines the gap between Hispanics and other students pointing to higher student-to-teacher ratios, poorer funding, lower achievement and higher dropout rates.
The National Association for Single Sex Public Education’s website, www.singlesexschools.org,offers some interesting information on the benefits of single sex education. This concept stems from the belief that boys and girls learn differently because they have different brains. It even provides a list of single sex schools in the U.S.