2012年7月18日 星期三

美國教育新聞 "Master Teachers Corps" 等等

Obama Wants $1 Billion For "Master Teachers Corps"

The new education initiative aims to incentivize quality teaching in fields where U.S. is lagging.

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Initially, the corps would include 50 top teachers in each field, though the administration hopes over the next four years it will grow to be 10,000 strong
Photo by Luke Sharrett/AFP/GettyImages.
The White House on Wednesday unveiled a proposal to create a national elite teachers corps that would celebrate the achievements of the nation’s top educators in science, technology, engineering, and math, Bloomberg reports.
The 50 top teachers in each field selected for the Master Teacher Corps would receive a stipend of $20,000 added on to their salaries and must commit for multiple years. The Obama administration plans to expand the corps to 10,000 over the next four years, with the ultimate goal that the elite group of teachers will pass their knowledge and skills onto their colleagues to help bolster the quality of teaching nationwide.
On the campaign trail, President Obama has pledged to protect and expand funding for education programs, particularly in science and math, and charges that Mitt Romney’s tax and spending plan would mean inevitable cuts in the field, the Associated Press notes.
Already, the administration has earmarked $100,000 for the program out of an existing fund to incentivize quality teaching, and plans to include $1 billion for funding the initiative in the 2013 annual budget request to Congress.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan hopes that the initiative will receive bipartisan support, saying it has "nothing to do with politics"—but House Republicans may not be so easily convinced. Republican Rep. John Kline, Chairman of the House Education and the Workplace Committee, pointed out to the AP that there are already more than 80 quality teacher programs supported by the federal government.


Some of the News Fit to Print
ABOUT HIGHER ED
STUDENT FOCUS GROUPS REVEAL BARRIERS TO COMMUNITY COLLEGE SUCCESS
Getting through community college is a struggle for millions of students. Balancing work and school is harder than many expected. Many arrive on campus surprised to learn they aren't academically prepared. And, without a clear goal or needed guidance, more often than not, students don’t make it to the finish line. To get at the heart of the college-completion challenge, researchers recently spoke directly with students—those currently enrolled in a community college, some who had completed a degree or certificate, and others who had dropped out. The resulting report, Student Voices on the Higher Education Pathway, is part of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s  Postsecondary Success Initiative, Completion by Design, in partnership with New York City-based Public Agenda and West Ed, a research and development agency. The post is from Education’s Week College Bound blog.
THE ROLE THAT GRIT AND PERSISTENCE PLAY IN EDUCATION
On July 1st, NBC's Andrea Mitchell discussed the role that character, grit, persistence and other non-cognitive skills can play in education with Dominic Randolph, Russell Shaw, and Paul Tough at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Aspen, CO.
ABOUT K-12
THINKERS OR TEST TAKERS?
The people of a large and mighty nation wonder why their schools can't do more to imitate those of another large, powerful nation across the Pacific Ocean. But this time it's not the United States seeking to emulate the schools of an Asian country — it's China seeking to emulate ours, at least to some extent. The article is in the L.A. Times.
MORE THAN HALF THE STATES HAVE NCLB WAIVERS
Reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act remains stalled in Congress, but the Obama administration continues to push ahead with big changes to the accountability system at its core, with more than half the states now having been approved for waivers from major mandates of the law. The article is in Education Week.


ABOUT HIGHER ED
UNIVERSITIES RESHAPING EDUCATION ON THE WEB
Because of technological advances — among them, the greatly improved quality of online delivery platforms, the ability to personalize material and the capacity to analyze huge numbers of student experiences to see which approach works best — MOOCs are likely to be a game-changer, opening higher education to hundreds of millions of people. The article is in The New York Times.
BETTER BY DEGREES: UNLOCKING THE POTENTIAL OF COLLEGE COMPLETION
Our current college attainment numbers are a long way from President Obama's vision of leading the world in college degrees by 2020, with a goal of reaching 60 percent college attainment. Despite the Department of Education's optimistic headline ("New State-by-State College Attainment Numbers Show Progress Toward 2020 Goal") annual half-percent increases certainly won't get us from here to there in the next eight years. The article is in The Atlantic.
THE CHANGE THAT NEEDS TO COME TO HIGHER ED
At some point soon, there has to be a game-changing development in the way higher education is delivered and priced. The market — students and parents — will demand it. The editorial is in the Denver Post.
COLLEGE BEYOND GRADES
Getting good grades in college is not as important as developing a creative, integrated and lifelong learning style, writes Ken Bain, a university administrator and professor, in What the Best College Students Do, which will be published next month by Harvard University Press. The article is in Inside Higher Ed.
ABOUT K-12
ONLINE TESTS AND THE DIGITAL DIVIDE: WILL POOR KIDS BE LEFT BEHIND?
Within three years, most states will start doing standardized testing online. The Hechinger Report has been examining potential benefits and problems that may arise when schools shift to testing on computers. One of the biggest concerns—even among advocates for online exams—is that the new tests could further disadvantage poor children who already struggle to keep up with their more affluent peers in school.

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