...dedicated to...hmmm, we're still figuring that one out...
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Washington Post Education Special The Washington Post's Jay Mathews takes a good look at scripted teaching in Success for Some. He focuses on the the Success for All program, which has enjoyed tremendous growth, good press, and consistent government support from the Bush administration. He also does a good job of reporting the views of Success for All's many opponents, such as Alt SFA: Independent Information About "Success For All". Jay's column is part of a Post Magazine section, Education Review: July, 2002. Also included in the magazine special is an interesting column about kids and teachers going to a science camp, Where Learning Can Be Catching, and an excellent first person report by Jake Jeppson, Take a Break, Jake: What I learned from not going to college. Reading Help for Los Angeles Teenagers The Los Angeles Times Duke Helfand reports on the Los Angeles Unified School District's new $16 million remedial reading program for sixth through ninth grades in Teens Get a Second Chance at Literacy (free registration required). Helfand tells that students will give up elective classes to get as much as two hours a day of intensive remedial reading instruction. Helfand notes that the program has not been well received by many students so far, who feel they're being stigmatized. He also notes:
I've always been amazed that reading instruction in many school systems disappears when kids move into secondary education. We see many students with less than adequate reading skills barely pass, or be socially promoted into junior and senior high schools with no provision for reading intervention. When I student taught over 30 years ago in the hills of East Tennessee, I was amazed and pleased that our American History textbook came in two versions -- standard and easy reading. In the years since then, I've asked about dual texts, but have consistently been told textbook publishers aren't interested and schools can't afford them. It has seemed that secondary educators are cognizant of the need for secondary remedial reading, but administrators can't, or won't, fit it into the school schedule and budget. If the Los Angeles program is successful, or at least focuses sufficient attention on deficient high school readers, maybe things will change for those who haven't mastered basic reading skills by their teenage years. Special Educator's Nightmare A Boston Globe story by Anand Vaishnav tells of what could be a special educator's nightmare. Usually, when parents contest something in special ed, it's over non-placement or denial of services. In the Globe story, Boy's parents head to court on special ed, Vaishnav tells of a couple embroiled in a custody dispute over their second grade son. The mother and school are happy with the child's success since beginning to receive special services. The father, a psychiatrist, "has said some of the help that his son gets is for ''weak kids.''' The father's attorneys claim that special education harms the child. The case and the article point out the current national concern about over identification of students for special education, especially in the Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder category. In trying to find a decent review online of the final report of the President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education (and avoid reading the 90 page document myself), I was frustrated to find that almost no one has summarized the report adequately. The one listing I found that seemed comprehensive was from the site of an attorney who specializes in representing the rights of special ed students. A Few Comments By Reed Martin, J.D., is a good read, but if the "sharks" are the only ones reading this stuff in its entirety, special educators are in for a world of hurt! The full report of the President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education is available for download as a PDF document (266K) or a Word document (590K). And yes, I finally read it all, but wouldn't dream of trying to summarize it. New Science@NASA Posting Science@NASA has posted a new mini-lesson page, Summer Meteor Shower. The web page tells all about the Perseid meteor shower that occurs this year on August 12 and 13, but you've got to love writer Dr. Tony Phillips for his honesty:
I'm sure some of you are uttering an "Oh, yeah," remembering freezing while doing some kind of meteor watching. My worst war story on the subject comes from the early years of my teaching career when I took Astronomy 101 at Butler University. I was a grad student and was teaching sixth grade at the time, but was bummed out on my masters degree courses and took the astronomy course one winter just for the fun of it. It turned out that it was taught by an area high school teacher with whom I became friends, and we spent many happy, but freezing hours using the 32" reflector during and after class. I ended up in bed for a week with acute bronchitis, but the Astronomy course has probably done me as much good as a teacher as any other education course! Like Dr. Phillips, I enjoy comfortable astronomy. We used to take summer school groups camping. One of the nighttime activities was to take the kids to the pitch black basketball court at night, have everyone lay on their back (with all camp lights and flashlights out) until their eyes adjusted, and wait for the oohs and aahs as some kids saw the milky way for the very first time! Software Black Cat Systems has updated their periodic table application, Atomic Mac, to version 5.4. The new version "adds option for reduced window size" according to MacUpdate. RPN Calculator has been updated to version 1.8.4. Apple posted another security update, Apple Security Update X 7-18-02, last weekend. It's available both through the software update pane of OS X and by direct download (881K). Devotion For July 21-27, 2002 Zach Wood's weekly devotional for this week is The Inside Experience of His Presence. I hope it adds a bit of brightness to your week. Zach also maintains an archive of previous devotionals. If you have suggestions, news ideas, etc., please . |
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Robin Landsbert has released updates to all three of his (currently) freeware beta applications: Finderella; Flash Cards; and Mirror Paint. Bainsware has released version 4.2 of the Mac freeware Son of Weather Grok. Archive of Science@NASA Postings Bryan Walls was kind enough to answer a question I'd emailed him, despite the fact that the answer was right in my face. The Archive for Science@NASA stories is posted at the bottom of their home page as More Stories from Science@NASA. At the end of each story, it's at the bottom of the page with the astronaut graphic and link, More Headlines. New from the SchwabLearning.org New on the Schwablearning.org site this week is The Journey From Personal Advocacy to Systems Advocacy. A search engine has been added to the long-running series, The Expert Answers! Various respected authorities in the field of learning disabilities. As always, links to all of the new and updated SchwabLearning.org articles are available in the Schwab Learning Online Newsletter (link expires 7-28-02). Past newsletters are archived in the new SchwabLearning.org Email Newsletter Archive. Jay Mathews has an interesting follow-up column, Protecting Innocent Teachers With the Law, to the story he did in April about a substitute's horrible day, Teacher's Bad Day Paints a Bigger Picture. Jay tells of a teacher falsely accused, and what happens to both the accused and accuser in our current education and legal systems. It's not a pretty story for educators, but the Post also carries the unrelated story, 5-Day Penalty for Teacher Who Taped Boy to Chair, in the same issue. What a contrast! Kris Axtman of The Christian Science Monitor tells of various pressure groups and the current round of Texas state social studies text adoptions in Texas wrangles over bias in school textbooks. Axtman makes the point that textbook adoptions in Texas and California often influence what is available to the rest of the nation's schools, as textbook publishers often tailor their offerings to the biggest customers (states). Associated Press education writer Greg Toppo tells of cuts in summer school programs around the country and especially in Washington, D.C., in U.S. Schools Forced to Cut Programs. Elizabeth Auster reports on several Republican congressmen proposing a voucher program for Washington, D.C., in House GOP seeks voucher program for D.C. schools. In U.S. Agency Spreads Word of Funding, Greg Toppo reports that "An Education Department team is quietly traveling the country helping religious groups compete for more than $1 billion in federal grants for after school and tutoring programs." The Chimera X 0.4.0 cocoa-based OS X Mozilla browser was released yesterday. Unless something really earthshaking happens, I'm going to take a long weekend and not do another update of Educators' News until sometime next week. Hope you can take a long weekend, too.
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