QUOTE OF THE MONTH

“In five years, I think the majority of students will be using digital textbooks.”
William M. Habermehl,
Superintendent of the 500,000-student Orange County schools

READING, ’RITING (?),’RITHMETIC

“We are witnessing the death of handwriting.” So says Claire Suddath in a recent Time magazine article. She hypothesizes that students today haven’t learned how to write neatly because no one has forced them to. “If something isn’t on a standardized test, it’s viewed as a luxury.” With keyboards replacing pens and pencils, will handwriting go the way of classroom recitations? Will personal signatures become outmoded as other identity modes pop up? Will future students be able to read the Declaration of Independence in its original form?

MATH/SCIENCE TEACHERS PLEASE APPLY

The country will need 280,000 additional mathematics and science teachers by 2015. Many school districts today have to hire uncertified or underqualified teachers in these fields simply because there is such a shortage of highly qualified teachers.  Since most college graduates who majored in math or science seek employment in the business sector, schools may need to provide incentives to draw them into the education field.

WHEN BILL TALKS…

Addressing the 5,500-member National Conference of State Legislatures, Bill Gates said that the $100 billion in economic recovery funds earmarked for improving education should be used to: create more effective charter schools; hold teachers accountable for student performance; enforce strong common standards; spread knowledge through online learning; and develop better assessment tools to evaluate individual schools, pupils, and teachers.

NO MORE PENCILS, NO MORE (TEXT)BOOKS…

The California State Board of Education won’t approve new textbooks for kindergarten through eighth grade until January 2016 at the earliest. California school districts spent at least $633 million on new books in 2007. More recent numbers are not available, but a representative of one publishing house who asked not to be identified said that sales in the state are off by 50% or more.

TECH TESTS

Three of the largest technology companies—Cisco, Intel, and Microsoft—are collaborating on an assessment of technology skills that could be incorporated into international comparison tests, such as the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA. In the U.S., students’ technology skills will be gauged using the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) exam starting in 2012.

HOW LOW CAN YOU GO?

F is the universal mark of academic failure. But Simon Fraser University in Canada is instituting a grade worse than F—FD, or “failure with academic dishonesty,” to address those students who cheat using online sources. Because of the Internet, students now have in their possession the availability of Sparknotes, Wikipedia, and online essay-writing companies, as well as sources who will write term papers for students—for a price, of course.

SCHOOL YEAR TOO SHORT?

The Obama administration supports extending the school year, and more U.S. schools are adopting year-round calendars. The number of school days in South Korea is 220 compared with 180 in most U.S. schools. The challenge would be, of course, how schools would find the funds to elongate the school year.