Wednesday, March 9, 2005

Two recent columns caught my eye and are worth posting.

Teresa Méndez asks the question, How do the new teachers measure up? It's a discussion about "fewer "high-aptitude" women...becoming elementary and high school teachers."

The second article, A tale of two schools by Andy Gammill, is an excellent look at two very different schools in the same district that serve different populations and face very different challenges.

Saturday, March 12, 2005

Utah Approves Vouchers for Disabled Students

Utah Governor John Huntsman, Jr., signed legislation Thursday that allows students with disabilities to attend private schools at state expense. In State's school-voucher program is under way, Ronnie Lynn tells that the bill is funded by the state's general fund, rather than the school fund, to avoid constitutional problems. The measure covers students with "mental retardation; traumatic brain injury; autism; specific learning disabilities; serious emotional disturbance; or hearing, speech, language, visual, orthopedic or other health impairment.," and "five- to 8-year-olds with a developmental delay."

The measure provides "scholarships" ranging from $3,450 to $5,700, based on the severity of their disability. Not stated in the column is the consistent voucher problem that the amounts stated probably will not cover full tuition at quality private schools, limiting the effectiveness of the measure to more affluent families able to make up the difference.

IM and E-mail and the New SAT

The Christian Science Monitor's Christina McCarroll takes a different look at the new SAT in Teens ready to prove text-messaging skills can score SAT points. McCarroll looks at the possible effect of informal writing by students on the test's writing section. She writes: "Though plenty of adults grumble about e-mail and instant-messaging (IM), and the text messages that send adolescent thumbs dancing across cellphone keypads, many experts insist that teenage composition is as strong as ever - and that the proliferation of writing, in all its harried, hasty forms, has actually created a generation more adept with the written word." The folks at FairTest.org have a bit of a different view of the new SAT.

A Different View on Apple's Assault on First Amendment Rights

An ABC News commentary by Michael S. Malone, Silicon Insider: Apple Springs a Leak, suggests "if you are an employee, supplier or distributor for Apple Computer, and you care more about the First Amendment than the Little People's Republic, you might think about dropping a dime on Apple, and help pre-announce everything the company's got in the works for the next five years."

The commentary relates some of Malone's first person experiences with news leaks when he was with Hewlett-Packard and later as a journalist. He write about first amendment rights and corporations:

The moment a company goes public it can no longer complain about invasion of privacy. If an employee violates his or her employment contract by passing a document to a reporter, that's the employee's problem. The First Amendment (thank you Mr. Madison) protects me from being forced to give up the name of that employee. And a good thing too, otherwise some of the most shameful acts in American business history would never have seen the light of day.

An Old Acquaintance

While surfing Heng-Cheong Leong's MyAppleMenu yesterday, I noticed a posting by John Koetsier. John and I worked together years ago on a now defunct web site. He's an excellent journalist who now maintains a blog, gilgamesh.ca. The posting that caught my eye was Apple’s Safari Mistake: Choosing KHTML over Firefox. It's good to see John posting online again.

PRISM is for Special Education, Too!

My work related travels this week took me to the Indianapolis Public Schools Assistive Technology Fair. The event was held at the NCAA Conference Center in downtown Indianapolis. My theme for the day was "PRISM is for special education, too!" While PRISM was originally conceived for Indiana middle school teachers of math, science, and computer skills, it's effectiveness extends far beyond the original grade level and subject specifications. One pre-school teacher at the fair looked a bit despondent when she realized PRISM was a "middle school web site." I asked her about some of the things they are working on in the classroom, and one was "bugs." So we did a search for "insects" on the PRISM site, and she went away with three links she planned to use with her students in the next week or so! Her experience was like that of many of the attendees. Most of them were special education personnel, but almost all who stopped by the PRISM "booth" went away with something they planned to use in their classrooms in the future!

PRISM is developing followings all around the nation. We have two major areas of users that we can't seem to track down from our web stats, other than the hits originate in Plano, Texas, and Provo, Utah. If you're part of an educational group in either of those areas using PRISM, please use the link below to let me know who you are!

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