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Articles of Interest
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The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia has posted a survey to help the agency create a new strategic plan for higher education across the state.
Officials say the survey covers a number of crucial areas including policy, programs, funding, and the future direction of Virginia's postsecondary system.
In Fairfax County kindergarten classes, school system’s future comes into focus
Washington Post
June 28, 2014
The kindergartners of the Class of 2026, who finished their first year in Fairfax County schools Wednesday, constitute the largest and one of the most ethnically, culturally and socioeconomically diverse groups of students the county has seen, a fact that school system administrators say could pose significant challenges in the decade to come.
Long an enclave of predominantly white, middle-class families with a top-class school system, Fairfax has experienced a dramatic demographic shift in recent years that is nowhere more obvious than in the county’s kindergarten classrooms. The white student population is receding and is being replaced with fast-growing numbers of poor students and children of immigrants for whom English is a second language.
Expert on poverty addresses Southwest Virginia educators
Bristol Herald Courier
June 26, 2014
About 500 educators from across Southwest Virginia immersed themselves Thursday in concepts of how to better educate children who live in poverty.
Teachers from 19 divisions ranging from Radford to Lee County attended a three-hour program featuring Ruby Payne, an internationally recognized speaker, author and educator.
Federal Policy
The Promise of Education Information Systems American Progress, June 26 2014
As districts wrestle with tighter budgets and higher academic standards, a different kind of technology might create game-changing transformation in the education sector: management technology. As the name suggests, classroom technology aims to improve what goes on in the classroom. Management technology, on the other hand, is more indirect: Management technology helps school and district leaders make better decisions, run leaner organizations, and target funds to programs that help kids the most. In short, it helps those in charge of districts and schools manage better.
This report, which looks closely at the use of management technology in education, finds that most school districts fail to use these tools to improve their outcomes.
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As we head into the 4th of July weekend, educators may be interested in some lesson plans compiled by Education World for celebrating the American independence struggle. In introducing the plans, the site notes that in 1997 a survey found that 1/3 of Americans don't know what the country is celebrating on July 4th (i.e. independence from Great Britain). Or if you're just looking to stay inside where it's cool and watch some movies, Forbes.com has a "top 10 movies for the 4th" list.
This week's poll snapshot looks at views among Virginians on the quality of higher educaton in the commonwealth and contrasts that with an Upshot article on how the U.S. higher ed system has a reputation for greatness that may be a little undeserved.
Dr. Bosher's also offers his thoughts on the need for punishing fighting in schools and we excerpt Dr. Vacca's look ahead at the Ed Law issues around teacher cyber-bullying.
Looking ahead, we should also note that Compass Point will be on vacation for the week of July 9th. Enjoy the holiday weekend!
Sincerely,
CEPI |
Poll Snapshot: Perfomance of Higher Ed
The Upshot blog at the New York Times has a recent post on the split reality of higher education performance. On the one hand, they write, the U.S. boasts 18 of the top 25 institutions of higher learning on the planet (or 19 depending on which ranking you use). On the other, based on a recent test of adult numeracy and literacy problem solving skills designed to test how well people are equipped for the 21st century demands of the working world, the U.S. doesn't look so great - Americans with bachelors degrees were below average compared to other OECD country's college grads in math skills and Americans, on average, were fighting for last place with Spain and Italy in math skills. Americans faired better in literacy and tech problem solving skills, but still were only mediocre. Upshot concludes that while the dominant narrative is that K-12 schools in the U.S. are troubled but that higher education institutions are world-class, the two are likely much closer, on average, to each other, and trailing, on average, a number of other developed countries.
The recent CEPI Commonwealth Education Poll asked Virginians how they felt Virginia colleges and universities do at preparing students in a variety of ways. In general the impression people have is pretty good (see chart below).
But like Upshot's observation, Virginians also show a similar split perception between the readiness of students for the working world as they leave high school (only 33% agree that these grads are ready for the working world) and college (68% agree to some extent that college grads are ready). This probably reflects the fact a college degree is still seen as a valuable indicator of underlying skills, but whether those graduates are ready to compete with Japanese and Finnish college graduates for globalized jobs is an interesting question.
To read the full results of our poll, visit our website.
The questions related to the charts above are #18 and 21.
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Issues to Watch in 2014-15: Cyber-bullying
"Cyber Bullying.
Suffice it to say we live in what is called “the digital age.” Cell phones, Texting, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, et al., are common place and dominate the scene among today’s youth. Coupled by the rapid paced development and use of new technologies, this past year’s school system - wide policies dealing with in - school use by students are most likely out dated.
The one area of school system policy where issues will continue to abound involves student discipline. More specifically issues involving students who anonymously use technology as means of bullying and harassing school administrators and staff, as well as other students. In 2014-2015, in addition to other potential issue producers, one main area of difficulty in drafting and implementing workable school system policies deals with bullying and harassment activities — especially those developed, initiated and transmitted by students off-school property using their own (not school owned) technology (especially cell phones). Making a causal link between outside school private behavior and in-school threats and/or disruption will dominate the scene."
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