Monday, September 16, 2002

Adequate Health Care=Improved Education

Richard Rothstein tells of a California school district that has addressed community health issues to produce better attendance and test scores. Rx for Good Health and Good Grades is the story of how Chula Vista, its schools, and two hospitals provide health care for the economically disadvantaged and reap the benefit of improved attendance and grades.

Health care is one of those no-brainer issues that our national government refuses to effectively address. For schools, research studies have repeatedly shown significant academic gains when effective health care for student families is in place. While half of the citizens of the United States have no health care program, our Congress continues to resist taking effective action to address this problem, instead preferring to spend massive amounts on testing and accountability that would be better spent, and probably produce greater results, in caring for those with inadequate health care.

Okay, now that I've had my rant, I'll get on with other educational postings before I fall off my soap box and hurt myself!

Tutoring

The Boston Globe's Laura Pappano writes about tutoring for both the affluent and poor in Popularity of tutoring raises doubt. Pappano notes that the No Child Left Behind tutoring provision has raised "questions about just how much can and should be accomplished by tutors."

Teachers Run Out of Profession by Abusive Students

Teachers fighting abusive students is the sad story of teachers harrassed by students out of the profession. The Globe's Wendy Davis does a good job of chronicling cases around the nation where student harrassment and administrative indifference have ended teachers' careers early and in some cases, produced lawsuits against school corporations.

Home Schooling

A Washington Post column by Christina A. Samuels, Students Going Home Again -- for Learning, explores a home schooling network in the Washington, D.C. area, not tied to any religious group or affiliation.

Dealing with Racism and Prejudice

Another Post column, Crazy Glue for a New School Year, tells of one administrator's unique approach to dealing with racism and class prejudice at Annapolis High School (MD). Principal Joyce P. Smith organized a Team Day, held at nearby Sandy Point State Park, to help "students learn to be comfortable with other kinds of people." Post staff writer Darragh Johnson notes, "In eight years, this annual event has created a surprising track record of quelling the campus unrest."

End of Federally Supervised Desegregation in Little Rock

An Associated Press posting by James Jefferson, Desegregation Ends in Arkansas District, tells that U.S. District Judge William Wilson returned control to the school board of the Little Rock schools after 40 years of court supervised desegregation. The decision was not surprisingly condemned by civil rights lawyers and hailed by school district officials. Little Rock was one of the turning points in our nation facing racial segregation in the late 1950's. Federal troups were sent to supervise court ordered integration, while the Arkansas Governor at the time, "Orval E. Faubus used National Guard troops to keep nine black teen-agers out of Central High School." For some of us, the ugly scenes depicted nightly then on national televison are etched into our memory.

Possible Breakup of Los Angeles Unified School District

"Proponents of breaking up the Los Angeles Unified School District joined with district officials Friday to denounce claims by supporters of San Fernando Valley's secession, who say that cityhood would lead to a separate Valley school district." Both Sides of School District Breakup Effort Denounce Secessionists in the Los Angeles Times tells the unusual story of an area attempting to leave a city corporation and the efforts of others to also create a separate school system. "Seceding from the city of Los Angeles has nothing to do with the schools," said Stephanie Carter, the chief petitioner in an effort nine months ago to break up the school district."

More on Apple Education from Mark Marcantonio

Mark Marcantonio's column today on MyMacOnline, Apple in Education: Is Anybody Out There, runs the gamut from some timely suggestions for what ails Apple Education to an interesting description of his efforts in building a network at his school. I really think Mark is right on target in his evaluation of Apple's view of education.

Software Notes

I was trying to install and use Robin Landsbert's charming Mirror Paint freeware on a Power Mac 7200 I'm preparing as a student take-home unit this weekend, when I found a potential bug in the program. I was using the Classic version of the application under Mac OS 8.1 and kept getting a dialog saying the computer couldn't find "ControlsLib" when I attempted to launch it. I dropped Robin a quick email/bug report and got a response in less than 24 hours. Robin confirmed that the Power Mac version of Mirror Paint does require Apple's Carbon Library to be installed, which requires system 8.5 or better.

Two things came to mind from this experience. First, isn't it cool that a software programmer who makes nothing from a freeware application responds in such a timely manner! Second, I was pleased that Robin had compiled the application in versions for Mac OS X (188K), Classic (187K), and 68K (212K). I ended up using the 68K version which worked splendidly on the 7200.

Absence of Software Postings

Regular readers I'm sure have noticed the dearth of software news the last few weeks on Educators' News. There are several reasons for this. With my current classroom responsibilities, I'm limited on how much time I can devote to daily updates to the site. I'm currently not testing a lot of new software, but am trying to master some programs that were new to me last spring and summer for use in my classroom.

Educational Shovelware Comes to the Mac

A bigger issue is that of the quality of current educational software releases. A number of companies have moved into the Macintosh educational software market in the last few years. With the ease of programming that applications such as Real Basic brings, a few companies have flooded Version Tracker and MacUpdate with programs and frequent updates for educational software. Unfortunately, several of these companies are obviously spending little to no time in developing any task analysis of how learning progresses in the areas their software addresses. In other words, shovelware has finally arrived in volume on the Macintosh side.

Some time ago, I quit posting any links to several companies producing shovelware (for the Mac and in some cases, both the Mac and Windows platforms). I had repeatedly downloaded the demo version of their offerings, only to find that the applications merely threw random questions at students, rather than following any organized approach to teaching an item. Many of these companies offerings are also guilty of being shareware ripoffs of previously released educational freewares, with the only new features being compatibility with newer systems.

So, if you see an educational title posted on one of the major software update sites, it may be that I just didn't have time to download and test it. But...it also may be that it is produced by one of the increasing number of bottom feeding programmers looking for a quick buck from unsuspecting educators. Some of the stuff has the potential to do real harm in the classroom by inaccuracies in the approach and/or task analysis, or by just turning kids off to learning oriented software.

Devotion For September 15-21, 2002

Zach Wood's weekly devotional for this week is Long Way From Home. Zach also maintains an archive of previous devotionals.

If you have suggestions, news ideas, etc., please .

Wednesday, September 18, 2002

Paige Attacks NEA

Bush Administration Secretary of Education Rod Paige yesterday attacked the National Education Association, saying in effect that it was responsible for the current teacher shortage. Referring to the teachers' union as one of the "guardians of mediocrity," Paige suggested the current teacher shortage could be alleviated by using qualified non-educators in the classroom if the NEA would stop opposing such a move.

• Detroit News -- Education secretary calls teacher shortage contrived -- by Fredreka Schouten
• USA Today -- Non-teachers suggested for U.S. shortage Education secretary urges alternative certification -- by Laurence McQuillan

Internet Filters

USA Today has a good column on how internet filters block access to way too much material in Schools install Internet filters to receive federal money. To qualify for many federal grants, the Children's Internet Protection Act required schools to install filtering software to prevent student access to pornography. The USA Today column cites a number of instances where the software makes the internet nearly useless for research.

At my school, many relevant educational sites are now blocked. I've found that even Version Tracker for Mac OS X and MacUpdate were initially blocked by the filtering software because of violence and/or weapons content. Educators' News was also initially blocked by such software as a "hate site." I've found the new filtering software makes use of the internet at school for students an unreliable teaching tool.

Charles Haddad on Apple Education

Charles Haddad weighs in on the current round of dismal numbers for Apple Education sales in Apple, the Saddest School Dropout. While Haddad briefly mentions Apple's premium pricing of its products, he feels "Apple is getting trampled by a herd mentality" of the Windows majority. Haddad doesn't see the falling numbers as a death knell for Apple or Macs in schools, but also doesn't foresee Apple reversing the situation in the future.

More Inequities of No Child Left Behind

Richard Rothstein writes this week about the inequities in the No Child Left Behind law in How U.S. Punishes States With Higher Standards. Rothstein relates that many states and school systems that score well on the National Assessment of Educational Progress also have some of the highest numbers of students eligible for school transfer away from "failing schools."

Special Education Advice for Parents

The September Family Matchmakers Newsletter offers suggestions for parents in how to prepare for a special education case conference.

Parents Prefer Outside SpEd Services in LA

David Pierson's Parents Fight Changes in Special Ed in the Los Angeles Times tells of parent objections to plans by "the Los Angeles Unified School District to offer special education services at public schools rather than pay for care at more costly private schools and agencies."

New from SchwabLearning.org

The new column this week on the Schwablearning.org site is Answers to Questions about Special Education Protections: FAPE, LRE, IEE, Due Process. As always, links to all of the new and updated SchwabLearning.org articles are available in the Schwab Learning Online Newsletter (link expires 9-22-02). 

Friday, September 20, 2002

Hey! Do we get a prize?

Another week of the 2002-2003 school year is history.

Carnegie Proposes Med School-like Teacher Training

In the same week as Secretary of Education Rod Paige accused the NEA of being responsible for the current teacher shortage by insisting teachers be properly trained and certified, the Carnegie Corporation of New York released a report advocating more rigorous teacher training and certification requirements. In Rigorous teacher training proposed, the Richmond Times-Dispatch's Paige Akin writes:

That's why, according to Carnegie's researchers, teaching should be treated as a clinical profession, with educators completing a residency requirement similar to a hospital residency for doctors. Education school graduates would receive a teaching license but would still be required to complete a two-year, supervised induction period before becoming fully accredited.

Is This 4 U

On the lighter side, the New York Times story Nu Shortcuts in School R 2 Much 4 Teachers tells about increased woes for English teachers due to students using internet shortcuts in formal writing.

Vallas Visits Poorer Schools

Philadelphia Daily News reporter Mensah Dean reports that new Philadelphia schools chief Paul Vallas has been touring city schools with ACORN, a grassroots community group. In Vallas gets a close look at contrasting schools, Dean tells of Vallas seeing the disparity between "have" and "have not" schools.

Guha on Apple Retaking the Education Market

Adam Robert Guha has a good column today on Low End Mac, Taking Back the Schools. Adam briefly chronicles Apple's fortunes in educational sales from the Apple II to the present. Adam writes, "While Dell can sell a decent PC for $700, Apple charges $1,000 for their low-end eMac."

Software Note

Matthew Jacques wrote to say that his Physics 101 Mac freeware is now available through the Info-Mac HyperArchive. Matt had previously used the "free for life" Mac.com iTools page for his downloadables (which now costs $99 annually). I guess Matt and I are two previous iTools users who aren't part of the 100,000 willing to pay for a .Mac address.

Other Software

Jaguar (Mac OS 10.2, not the automobile) users can now download the 10.2.1 update from Apple via the Software Update preferences panel or as a conventional download. Windows XP users can download the Windows XP Service Pack SP1 from Microsoft.

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