...dedicated to...hmmm, we're still figuring that one out...
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The U.S. House of Representatives has approved the House-Senate compromise version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. It now goes to the Senate, with approved expected as early as Tuesday. AP's Greg Toppo describes the action in House Passes Bush Education Plan. San Francisco Chronicle staff writer C.W. Nevius has a good column in Faces of teaching: Whether public or private, today's schools pose different challenges - and rewards - for those who teach in them. He begins, "It is always 6:07 in Gordon Robertson's English class at McAteer High School. The clock is stopped dead." He proceeds with an interesting description of victories and loses in several classrooms. The New York Times Sana Siwolop describes the struggle of parents to keep up with college costs in Nest Eggs Have Shrunk. But Tuition Bills Haven't (free registration required). If you have or have had kids in college, you already know. If your kids haven't gotten there yet, get ready! In a testimony to its popularity, links to the GraphicConverter 4.2 update have remained swamped all weekend since the Friday release. Mirror AusMac.net has updated its links for OS X (3.9 MB) and PowerPC (4.3 MB) versions, but still lacks a 68K download link. Need a surefire school fundraiser? AP describes the calendar of Sexey's School in Somerset, west England, and the surrounding controversy in Topless School Calendar Too Sexy for Some. The Washington Post describes a possibly less controversial, but still unique fundraiser in School Fundraiser Is No Hard Sell. Finding the Wrongs in Naming Rights explores the naming of school facilities with commercial brand names. Dale Russakoff tells of the ShopRite of Brooklawn Gymnasium (NJ). If you have suggestions, news ideas, etc., please . As expected, the U.S. Senate has approved the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Central to the act are provisions for accountability of schools via testing "every student in grades three through eight in reading and math each year." While the bill provides increased funding for some low income schools, test scores will "affect how much federal funding a school gets - and how school officials can spend it." Those who crafted the compromise, now approved by both the House and Senate, hailed the bill as "a blueprint for progress in all of the nation's schools" (Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.), including "standards that...are rigorous but realistic'' (Sen. Evan Bayh, D-IN), and as "creating opportunities for local school districts, states and especially parents, to take advantage of using their federal dollars in a more effective way of educating the low-income child'' (Sen. Judd Gregg, R-NH). President Bush is expected to sign the bill into law within a few weeks. He released a statement saying:
Others, such as Vermont independent Senator Jim Jeffords said the bill does not give enough money to schools, especially for programs to help disabled students. Jeffords stated:
National Education Association President Bob Chase said, "Despite broad and deep bipartisan support to lift the unfunded mandate of special education, education bill conferees rejected the will of the majority in Congress to fully fund special education. This action is simply irresponsible and misses the opportunity to truly leave no child behind." Other major education groups have also expressed their disapproval of the new measure, saying it will cost more to implement than benefits or federal funding derived from the new law provide.
Speaking editorially, it appears to me the politicians of America have passed a very bad education reform bill that makes them look very good for the moment, without addressing the root causes for the problems in public education. Absent from the dialog about education reform has been intelligent discussion of the problems beyond schools control, such as poverty, neglect, abuse, community violence, low parental and community involvement and expectations, and parents who just don't care. Problems such as the above seem to defy solution. Politicians don't get elected by framing seemingly unsolvable problems. It's much easier to pass a bad bill that appeases the current national lust for education bashing. It's also too bad for our students and public education in general. What's going to happen when America discovers that this dog won't hunt either? The Schwablearning.org's summary page of new listings for this week is now available. Items of note include:
Thomas Tempelmann has released Joliet Volume Access 2.0 (699K). The Joliet Extension allows Macs to read full file names form Windows CDs using Joliet format. Version 2.0 is a $15 shareware that adds RockRidge support, a control panel to set many options, support for additionally installed script systems, and full access to multi-session and hybrid CDs, mounting any ISO volume on them. The version 1.4.2 freeware also remains available from the author's web site. I recently found the Joliet Extension necessary when copying an IEP installer CD that used long file names. Copying the CD on my Mac without the Joliet Extension produced a CD with truncated files names that incapacitated the installer!
Marc also sent word today that his new A-N-I-M-A-L-S From Letters & Sounds to Reading! (1.2 MB) demo is now available. A-N-I-M-A-L-S "uses the computer to make words, letters and some of the rules for combining them in meaningful ways come alive." While I liked the concept of the game demo (full version to be ready soon), it still needs some serious work on the initially taught sounds for vowels and some consonants. Looking around for shareware reading programs for the Mac (or Windows, for that matter) can be a pretty disappointing experience. Marc's made a good start at what must be a daunting task and I hope he can bring it to the market with the same care and accuracy maintained in his other projects. Microsoft has released Internet Explorer 5.1 (5.4 MB) for Mac. The Microsoft Mactopia site describes IE 5.1 as "much lighter on its feet, with plenty of bug fixes and impressive new stability and versatility." From just a quick test run, I agree! IE for Windows still stands at version 6.0 with various patches also available (and necessary for security). piDock, mentioned on Educators' News last week, has been updated to version 1.4.4 (920K). According to IDG News, Apple Computer is again using words such as "revolutionary" and "innovative" to describe a product to be announced at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco on January 7. Rightonmac's John Richter makes some interesting comments on Apple's repeated over hype of new products in New Apple product "innovative, revolutionary, and different". I just paid off my G3 minitower this week. I suspect I'll be waiting for a few more rounds of "revolutionary, innovative, and different" to come and go before I get out my checkbook again. Computerworld reports that Federal Judge J. Frederick Motz has delayed ruling on the settlement of class action suits against Microsoft until after January 10, 2002. The delay is to give the parties involved time to try to work out a settlement with the remaining dissenting groups of the class action suit. The original settlement agreement was to include about a $1 billion contribution of software and hardware by Microsoft to schools serving economically disadvantaged students. David Leishman of Workingmac.com sent along a link to an interesting Washington Post column about Saxon Math, A Daring Choice for a Mathematics Textbook. Author Jay Mathews examines the decisions of several school systems across the country to blackball Saxon from their textbook adoption process for rather vague reasons. In other districts, teachers have actually been forbidden to use the unique series. Mathews had previously written a similar column, Not on the Same Page: Some Educators Say Saxon Math Books Are Great Teaching Tools, but Many School Systems Refuse to Use Them, to which I'd linked last September. While I don't use Saxon as my primary math instructional tool, it is the adopted math series for the elementary school where I teach. It's a good series, with strengths and weaknesses, just as any other series has. I do get to work with some kids using Saxon in a support setting (Someone else does the initial instruction and I do the follow-up.). I've not seen anything in the series worthy of its being blackballed from consideration. Some possible shortcomings include the difficulties experienced by kids who move in midyear who are not used to Saxon. Also, the fast paced review included in Saxon, a strength of the series in my opinion, often is too much for some of my learning disabled kids. Travis East has released version 1.1.1 of his freeware fraction calculator, FractionCalc. Fractioncalc is available in several versions: Mac OS X (495K); PowerMac (412K); 68K Mac (285K); and Windows (346K). Marc Moini continues his string of releases this week with a system 9.2.2 compatibility update for Startup Doubler. Startup Doubler 2.6.2 (119K) is a $20 shareware for accelerating startup in Power Macintosh computers. The controversy over the proposed state takeover of the Philadelphia schools continues. I've resisted making a posting concerning the issue, as it seems to change daily. A quick read of the week's headlines sorta tells the story:
Version Tracker for Windows carries several important security updates for Windows XP and 98/Me.
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