Quote of the Month

“Our states and our communities must reserve the right to decide how we educate our children and not surrender that control to the federal bureaucracy.”

Texas Governor Rick Perry in announcing that Texas will not compete for up to $700 million in federal grant funding for schools

THE RACE TO THE TOP

The current Race to the Top program is funded by $4 billion in one-time money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the economic stimulus package passed by Congress last year. Grants will be awarded to those proposals that promise bold and innovative reforms.  Forty states and the District of Columbia have applied for the first round of funding competition. The 10 states that did not apply were Alaska, Maryland, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, Washington, and Texas. First-round finalists will be asked to send a team to D.C. in March to make an in-person pitch to the reviewers—a high-stakes interview that will be factored into the point total before the winners are announced in April.

ANY WALL AN IWB?

In a move that could shake up the interactive whiteboard (IWB) market, two projector manufacturers have just released new products that can turn virtually any surface into an IWB. Epson Electronics’ BrightLink 450Wi, introduced January 13, can be mounted to any classroom wall.  The entire projector area is the interactive area—it’s every size of whiteboard in just one projector.  BrightLink is priced under $2,000.  Another company, Boxlight, introduced a similar product, the ProjectoWrite2/W, which also turns any surface into an IWB.  Its price is also under $2,000.

CHALLENGE TO TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY SKILLS

The Partnership for 21^st Century Skills, known as P21, has recently faced a vocal chorus of detractors, primarily from advocates for a liberal arts and sciences curriculum. Some among them accuse the initiative of being a veiled attempt by technology companies—that make up the bulk of the group’s membership—to gain more influence over the classroom. Education historianDiane Ravitch, a critic of P21, thinks that it must be willing to engage in greater depth on issues of curriculum and pedagogy.  She scorns, for instance, its recently released “skills map” for 12^th grade English, which suggests having students reduce dialogue from Shakespeare to a series of text messages.
LOL

$$ FOR STEM

Amid growing concern that the United States may be losing the technological edge that fueled its economy in the 20th century, President Obama has sought to make STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) a national cause. He recently announced a $250 million public-private effort to improve STEM instruction, aimed at helping the nation compete in key fields with global rivals.  The funding will come from high-tech businesses, universities, and foundations to prepare more than 10,000 new math and science teachers over the next five years.  Separately, the government spends about $700 million a year on elementary and secondary education in STEM fields through agencies such as NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Education.

MEDIA-CRITY

The Kaiser Family Foundation recently released a report on the use of media by children 8–18 years old.  According to its findings, the amount of time young people spend consuming media has risen within the last five years to an average of 7 hours, 38 minutes a day, or 53 hours a week—more than a full-time job.  This huge increase can be attributed to the explosion in the availability of mobile devices such as cell phones and iPods and the popularity of social networking.  It is estimated that 74% of teens now have a page on Facebook or a similar site.

Spending this increased time with media has had a negative impact on school performance—47% of heavy media users (more than 16 hours/day) got only “fair” or “poor” academic grades compared with 23% of light media users (less than 3 hours/day).

THE MIGRATION TO DIGITAL

Twelve schools in the Indianapolis Public Schools are participating in a pilot program where traditional social studies textbooks are being replaced with digital content from Discover Education. The program also includes curriculum alignment services, professional development, and hardware.

A similar pilot program to test online social studies textbooks is being conducted in Charleston, West Virginia.

The Open High School of Utah, an online (distance) public charter school, is believed to be the first in the nation (perhaps the world) to use learning materials that are freely available for anyone’s use, remixing, and redistribution.  Because the materials aren’t produced by commercial publishers, they can be tailored to meet individual students’ needs, free of copyright or licensing restraints.

Faculty and parent volunteers at several Cherry Hill, New Jersey, public schools have launched a collaborative effort to digitize children’s books and other learning materials and make them available free on the Internet so that parents and students can access them at home.  All the materials have received prior permission from the publishers or are in the public domain.