2012年9月25日 星期二

哈佛大學的迷思

The School Ranking List Harvard Doesn't Top
By Nick Carbone
No matter how many accolades Harvard rakes in, its graduates are paling in comparison to their peers at lesser institutions in one crucial field: starting salary.

ABOUT K-12
RACE TO TOP WINNERS PUSH TO FULFILL PROMISES
As the 12 Race to the Top winners reach the midpoint of their four-year, $4 billion federal grant program, states are shifting their work from the planning stages to what is perhaps the more difficult part: implementing new programs and school improvement efforts in the classroom. This critical midpoint comes as President Barack Obama, who considers the initiative one of his signature domestic-policy achievements, campaigns for a second term. Race to the Top became a bragging point in several speeches at the Democratic National Convention this month, while some of its components took a beating at the Republicans' gathering last month.  Race to the Top was even invoked last week during the Chicago teachers' strike because revamping teacher evaluations to include student performance—a key sticking point between the union and the district—is also a focus of the grant competition. The article is in Education Week.
MARCUS WINTERS ON THE STRUGGLE TO REFORM TEACHER EVALUATIONS
There is widespread agreement that one of the most reliable ways to improve the quality of K-12 instruction in the United States is to increase average teacher quality. But this raises two crucial and interrelated questions: (1) how should we measure teacher quality? And once we agree on (1), (2) how should we actually go about increasing average teacher quality? Conventional measures of teacher quality include years of experience and attainment of advanced degrees. These are the indicators that are entrenched in salary schedules in school districts across the country, and that have been adamantly defended by teachers unions. Yet as Duke University economist Jacob Vigdor has found, the value of additional years of experience increases rapidly in the first few years before leveling off and advanced degrees appear to have no impact on effectiveness in the classroom. The article is in the National Review Online.

ABOUT HIGHER ED
WHERE IS TECHNOLOGY LEADING HIGHER EDUCATION?
The rush to create large, free online classes has generated anxiety at universities around the country. With finances already tight and with a surge of movement toward online learning, universities are being forced to move quickly to change centuries-old models of learning. Terms like historic, seismic and revolutionary now pop up in descriptions of the challenges that higher education faces in the coming years. Many institutions have been preparing for these changes for years, building infrastructure and expertise, experimenting and recruiting, and integrating online learning into long-term strategies. Many others, especially traditional research universities, have been caught flat-footed as education has transformed around them. This point of dramatic — and traumatic — change didn’t swoop in unannounced. Rather, it crept in like a series of streams meeting in a roiling confluence. Only by stepping back and looking in panoramic fashion can we truly understand how we’ve arrived at a point of transformation and how we might deal with it. The article is in MindShift.
REPORT: CREDIT-HOUR MODEL OUTDATED, INEFFICIENT
Colleges and universities are holding back a competency-based credit hour system in higher education, even as the federal government has signaled support for the nontraditional credit-earning model, according to a report that supports the growing opposition to the credit hour status quo. The New America Foundation’s “Cracking The Credit Hour” is the latest critique of the long-held belief that college credit should be judged solely on hours spent in a classroom, whether it’s in person or online. Penned by the foundation’s director of higher education, Amy Laitinen, the foundation’s report points out that traditional universities have stuck with the seat-time credit hour model despite the U.S. Department of Education’s definition of credit hours, which was based on 1,200 comments from educators and includes three ways to measure learning outcomes. The article is in eCampus News.
ETS STUDY OF HIGHER EDUCATION OUTCOMES ASSESSMENTS SHOWS STUDENT MOTIVATION HAS SIGNIFICANT IMPACT ON RESULTS
With increasing pressure for accountability in higher education, outcomes assessments have been an important resource in evaluating learning and informing policy. Today, a report produced by ETS researchers titled "Measuring Learning Outcomes in Higher Education: Motivation Matters" provides evidence that simply modifying the pre-test instructions to increase motivation has a significant impact on scores on a commonly used higher education outcomes assessment, the ETS® Proficiency Profile. The report has been accepted for publication in the journal, Educational Researcher. "The findings in this report provide institutions with strong empirical evidence that motivation matters. The report also demonstrates various practical strategies that, at low cost, could improve student performance by increasing motivation," said David Payne, Chief Operating Officer of the Higher Education Division at ETS.  "The ETS Proficiency Profile has an established history of measuring program effectiveness and assessing student proficiency in core academic skill areas through its multiple choice format." The article is from PRNewswire via COMTEX and available in MarketWatch.
 
ABOUT K-12
TEACHER EFFECTIVENESS 'HERE TO STAY'
Fawn Johnson reports in the National Journal’s Education Experts blog on the recent Carnegie Foundation forum, Revisiting Teacher Evaluation: The day after Chicago public school teachers returned their classrooms, a group of educators and researchers from around the country convened in a sunny conference room in Washington D.C. to ponder the very questions that had so recently vexed the Windy City. Where are we as a nation with teacher evaluations? Are we evaluating the right things? What role should student data play in professional development? What about employment decisions?
WHAT DO TEACHERS DESERVE? IN IDAHO, REFERENDUM MAY OFFER ANSWER
In the struggle to fix the nation’s public schools, the old red-state, blue-state idea is looking as dated as Dick and Jane. You can hear the change in the voice of Gov. C. L. Otter, a Republican here in one of the most deeply conservative corners of the country, when he expresses a brotherhood bond with Rahm Emanuel, the Democratic mayor of Chicago and former Obama administration chief of staff. Chicago’s fight may be over, but in Idaho, where a three-part proposition on performance pay, tenure and technology in the classroom is roaring toward Election Day, the debate over schools has morphed into a harsh discussion about whom the voters should trust. And as Mr. Otter’s attack line shows, the political and social battle lines are blurred — neither predictably conservative nor liberal, and often tinged with emotion about what schools can and might be. The article is in The New York Times.
MEASURING ACCOUNTABILITY WHEN TRUST IS CONDITIONAL
Michael J. Feuer writes this commentary in Education Week: Teachers have become the target of our toughest scrutiny. The basic proposition is that they have substantial authority in their classrooms, and that entrusting them with our children entitles us to evidence of their performance. Anxiety about the condition of education has been translated into rigorous but, to many observers, onerous and unfair efforts to measure and publicize teacher quality. Even if the metrics are new and the way teachers are at times subjected to public shame and ridicule is hideous, the basic idea is familiar. We have held teachers and schools accountable at least since the common-school reforms of the early 19th century. No profession is granted automatic autonomy or an exemption from evaluation. The challenge is where to set the dial between blind trust at one extreme and stifling control at the other, which is why the choice of metrics and the fairness of evaluation processes is so important. Just ask the teachers who went on strike in Chicago.

ABOUT HIGHER ED
CALIFORNIA'S COMMUNITY COLLEGES STAGGERING DURING HARD TIMES
Demand is up but funding is down for California's community colleges. Many students are shut out of needed classes, making it harder to get their degrees or transfer. This is the new reality for about 2.4 million students in the nation's largest community college system. The system is the workhorse of California's 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education, which promised affordability, quality and access to all. In reality, the state's two-year colleges are buckling under the stress of funding cuts, increased demand and a weak record of student success. The situation can be seen on all 112 campuses — students on long waiting lists, those who take years to graduate or transfer and others so frustrated that they drop out. Most of them enter ill-prepared for college-level work. Eighty-five percent need remedial English, 73% remedial math. Only about a third of remedial students transfer to a four-year school or graduate with a community college associate's degree. The article is in the Los Angeles Times.
MOOC BRIGADE: BACK TO SCHOOL, 26 YEARS LATER
Technology writer Harry McCracken reports in TIME: I’m participating in a TIME experiment in which several staffers are signing up for massive online open courses, or MOOCs. These are free classes, often taught by accomplished university professors, that take place entirely on the Web and are open to anyone who registers and does the work. Once again, I have to attend classes, take tests and submit written assignments, all of which I can do from any location that has an Internet-connected computer. I’m two weeks in and it’s been fun, interesting and challenging. Parts of it still leave the same butterflies in my stomach that I remember from the mid-1980s. Then again, even if I blow this course, it won’t be a life-changing fiasco — just an embarrassment that I’ll be forced to share with you here. Students who get at least a 70 will receive a certificate, but this isn’t a true college class and doesn’t provide credit toward a degree. I’m taking a six-week course on gamification, the practice of applying gamelike techniques to things that aren’t games, such as marketing efforts and business processes. It’s being conducted on a site called Coursera by Kevin Werbach. Among other things, he’s an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, where he co-organized the first university course on the subject.

2012年9月22日 星期六

Some of the News Fit to Print




Some of the News Fit to Print
ABOUT K-12
RESEARCH ALLIANCES LINK SCHOLARS, EDUCATORS
Long-term partnerships, rather than one-off studies, may become the new norm for researchers looking for access and districts looking for answers. A forthcoming study commissioned by the William T. Grant Foundation, of New York City, finds more districts are developing long-term, structured relationships with researchers. It says the trend is driven by tight local budgets and an increased federal focus on making education research usable. In one model, school districts, particularly in rural areas, may create "improvement communities," providing a larger study sample for researchers while being able to quickly test and share best practices among schools with similar demographics or problems. Those partnerships focus on quick, intensive cycles of research testing and tweaking, which can produce answers to instructional questions in a matter of months rather than years. The article is in Education Week.
WHO GOT STIMULUS DOLLARS?
The 2009 federal economic-stimulus package also launched the bulk of President Obama's education agenda, in the form of new competitive grants like Race to the Top. But a new federal report finds these competitive grants funneled stimulus money to states that had both big budget gaps and top-flight students. The post is from Education Week’s Inside School Research blog.
ABOUT HIGHER ED
ADVANCING TO COMPLETION
WASHINGTON— Nationwide, college graduation rates are far too low, particularly among students of color, a fast-growing demographic in America. But two reports released by The Education Trust show that it doesn’t have to be that way. “Advancing to Completion: Increasing degree attainment by improving graduation rates and closing gaps for African-American students” and “Advancing to Completion: Increasing degree attainment by improving graduation rates and closing gaps for Hispanic students” spotlight colleges of all types that are producing better results by improving graduation rates and/or narrowing the graduation-rate gaps on their campuses.
ONE IN SEVEN YOUNG PEOPLE ARE NOT WORKING OR IN SCHOOL
One in seven people between the ages of 16-24 are not in school or working, a new report finds, and it cost taxpayers $93.7 billion in government support and lost tax revenue in 2011 alone. The report found 5.8 million young people fall into this "disconnected youth" category. The rate of African-Americans out of school and not working is 22.5%, nearly twice the national average. The article is in the Huffington Post.
WHO’S IN CONTROL?
Robert Shireman has long criticized colleges and lawmakers for not doing enough to protect lower-income students. But now that he's back in California, after a stint battling for-profit colleges for the U.S. Department of Education, Shireman has found a new opponent: faculty leaders at the state's community colleges and an approach to shared governance he says created the mess at City College of San Francisco. The article is in Inside Higher Ed.
CAN MOOCS HELP SELL TEXTBOOKS?
For the moment, providers of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) encourage professors not to require students to buy texts, in order to keep access as open as possible. So publishers can't count on MOOC's to generate a course-adoption sales. But online courses do have recommended-reading lists, and enrollments in the tens of thousands. If even a small percentage of those online students buy books, the sales could add up to a nice boost for a textbook.The article is in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

ABOUT K-12
THE EDUCATION UPSTARTS
Education policy has long featured two players—the government and teachers unions. But in recent years, a new generation of activists has stepped up to lobby legislators and drive the conversation. The Atlantic provides a rundown of worthy upstarts.
WHY KIDS SHOULD GRADE TEACHERS
A decade ago, an economist at Harvard, Ronald Ferguson, wondered what would happen if teachers were evaluated by the people who see them every day—their students. The idea—as simple as it sounds, and as familiar as it is on college campuses—was revolutionary. And the results seemed to be, too: remarkable consistency from grade to grade, and across racial divides. Even among kindergarten students. A growing number of school systems are administering the surveys—and might be able to overcome teacher resistance in order to link results to salaries and promotions. The article is in The Atlantic.
REPORT SHOWS HIGH SCHOOL EXIT EXAMS IN TRANSITION
States are increasingly aligning their high school tests with career- and college-readiness standards, and many will replace their exams with ones developed for the Common Core State Standards, according to a new report. In addition, end-of-course exams are becoming increasingly popular as some states move away from the comprehensive exit exam. The article is in Education Week’s College Bound blog.
SEGREGATION PROMINENT IN SCHOOLS
The United States is increasingly a multiracial society, with white students accounting for just over half of all students in public schools, down from four-fifths in 1970. Yet whites are still largely concentrated in schools with other whites, leaving the largest minority groups — black and Latino students — isolated in classrooms, according to a new analysis of Department of Education data. The article is in The New York Times.
ABOUT HIGHER ED
SPENDING BILL ADVANCES WITHOUT CHANGES FOR HIGHER ED
WASHINGTON -- Congress drew near Wednesday afternoon to passing a stopgap spending bill that would fund the federal government through March 27, 2013, averting a government shutdown without making any changes to financial aid or research appropriations. The bill removes the threat of a government shutdown in the coming months. The Senate voted to expedite debate on the bill, which has already passed the House, and could pass it as early as today. The article is in Inside Higher Ed.
SHOULD COLLEGES LOOK AT OUTSOURCING REMEDIATION?
With a growing number of high school graduates unprepared to take on college-level work, more and more colleges and universities are forced into the position of providing remediation: expensive, credit-free courses meant to get students up to speed. According to a recent study by the ACT, only about one third of high-school seniors were able to meet the college-readiness benchmarks in science, and a majority failed to meet them in mathematics. According to Richard Vedder, who is the director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity and teaches economics at Ohio University, even in subjects like English and literacy, a substantial number of students don’t have the skills that would allow them to earn better than a C grade in a college-level course. The article is in EducationNews.org.

2012年9月17日 星期一

Carnegie Perspectives and The Futures of School Reform

R&D Ruminations

The Futures of School Reform

The Futures of School Reform, edited by Jal Mehta, Robert B. Schwartz, and Frederick M. Hess, is a collection of essays that try to push the boundaries of current education reform efforts in order to generate dramatic change through high leverage issues. In the second of the essays, “Building on Practical Knowledge,” Carnegie President Anthony Bryk, Senior Fellow Louis Gomez, and Mehta, who is at Harvard Graduate School of Education, advocate an approach to professionalizing the field of education by using the principles of a Networked Improvement Community. The authors argue that teaching is not a professionalized field, in which knowledge is shared and best practices are developed. The hierarchical and bureaucratic state of schools, districts, and state and federal governments results in the disregard of local learning and adaptation when creating standardization across schools and implementing policies. There is no formal system to develop teachers’ practical knowledge, training, or apprenticeship, resulting in a wide variation in teacher performance.
In addition, the authors write that traditional approaches to educational research—translational research and action research—are often divorced from practice and have failed to help further the improvement of teaching and student learning. Translational research uses innovation as a stage-wise linear inquiry process and generalizes solutions well, but fails to accommodate local insights. Action research, on the other hand, flows from practice and is improvement-based, but puts a low priority on generalizable mapping of cause and effect, resulting in an inability to scale successful changes.
The authors discuss a “third way”: a Networked Improvement Community (NIC), which is the Carnegie approach to problems of practice that Bryk and colleagues are attempting to integrate into the field of education research. Through the use of common targets, a shared language, and common protocols for inquiry, this “third way” uses improvement science to consider local contexts and networks to help generalize and scale solutions. Thus NICs can help contribute to professionalizing teaching by framing the profession around practice improvement, engendering routines that enable inquiry, and helping teachers feel part of a broader profession. NICs create a system to support a knowledge profession through the use of human capital building centered on practice, allowing states and districts to focus on providing an infrastructure for educational improvement, and creating policy that allows for a “greenfield” for social learning. Doing this will help improve performance, learning, and equity in our schools, the authors note.
In order to get there, the authors believe every actor has a role to play. School leaders should think of their institutions as areas that can learn, unions should free up teachers and schools to take responsibility, governmental actors need to move away from a focus on control and compliance and towards support and learning, and institutions need to act as focal points for large collective action problems. They conclude, “If all actors, throughout the system, began to conceive their jobs as transforming an Industrial Age compliance structure into a profession of competent, skilled, and continuously learning practitioners, collectively we might finally be able to move our education system into the twenty-first century” (64).
The chapter helps highlight the motivations and results of a well-functioning NIC. Carnegie’s two NIC-supported programs, the Community College Pathways and Building a Teaching Effectiveness Network, can not only directly help students become more successful, they can also help professionalize the teaching profession, thus accelerating improvement. Through the use of NICs,

Some of the News Fit to Print
ABOUT K-12
TEACHERS, STUDENTS RETURN TO CHICAGO SCHOOLS
Delegates for the Chicago Teachers Union voted to call off its seven-day strike, sending some 350,000 public schools students back to class this morning and ending the daily scene of teachers dressed in red picketing their schools. The article is in the Chicago Tribune.
VALUE-ADDED MEASURES: A NEW APPROACH
Tulane Professor Doug Harris writes in the Huffngton Post: President Obama and other Democrats are challenging teachers unions and urging them to recognize the need for deep reforms -- a bold political move that we see only rarely among political allies. So, it took gall for Governor Romney, Jeb Bush, and others at the Republican National Convention to say that teacher unions control the Democratic Party. If that were true, there wouldn't be a strike. Despite its boldness, all might have turned out well for the Democrats if not for another seemingly small choice that the Obama Administration made in the design of its Race to the Top initiative. They smartly embraced the idea of multiple measures of teacher performance, but decided to lump all the various measures together into an index and use that as the mother of all measures -- to be used for all personnel decisions. The raging debate since then has been over what percentage of the index should be given to value-added versus the other measures.
BLACK MALE GRAD RATE STILL LAGS
The four-year graduation rate for black males has steadily improved over the last decade, but remains dismally low compared to the rate for their white male peers, according to a study released this morning. In its fifth biennial report on graduation rates for African-American males, the Schott Foundation for Public Education found that in 2009-10, 52 percent of black males graduated from high school with a regular diploma within four years. It’s the first time that more than half of the nation’s African-American boys did so, according to Schott’s report. The article is in Education Week.
ABOUT HIGHER ED
EFFICIENCY IN JOB TRAINING
Bachelor degree production isn’t a big problem in this country. Associate degrees and certificates are where the U.S. lags other industrialized countries, according to the latest study from Anthony P. Carnevale, director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. The article is in Inside Higher Ed.
MOOC HOST EXPANDS
Coursera continued its ambitious expansion in the growing market for MOOC support today, announcing accords with 16 new universities to help them produce massive open online courses — more than doubling the company’s number of institutional partners and pushing its course count near 200. The new partners include the first liberal arts college, Wesleyan University, to leap formally into the MOOC game, as well as the first music school, the Berklee College of Music. Coursera also announced deals with name-brand private universities, such as Brown, Columbia, Emory and Vanderbilt Universities; some major state institutions, such as the University of Maryland System, the Ohio State University and the Universities of Florida, and California at Irvine; and several international universities, such as the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and the Universities of British Columbia, London, and Melbourne. The article is in Inside Higher Ed.
CAN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES STILL COMPETE?
America’s public universities face unprecedented challenges. In the wake of the economic recession and the resulting budget crises, states have cut higher education funding. At the same time, the nation’s expectations for higher education have grown, with President Obama warning that our economic competitiveness will suffer unless our colleges and universities produce more graduates. College leaders are being asked to do more with less. In response to these new demands, most institutions have made small changes and battened down the hatches in the hopes that funding will return to normal. Public colleges have raised tuition to make up for lost revenue, made across-the-board cuts, and frozen hiring. These changes may help in the short-term, but they do little to prepare existing institutions for a “new normal” of tight budgets and high expectations. The article is from the American Enterprise Institute.
 

Some of the News Fit to Print
ABOUT HIGHER ED
STANFORD FOR ALL
Should Stanford encourage more of its faculty to produce these so-called massive open online courses, or MOOCs? Should anyone profit from their distribution? And if the University does invest more heavily in online education, how might that affect students—and professors—on the home campus? During the past year such questions have been the subject of intense debate. Many professors say they like the idea of mass online education for humanitarian reasons. Some believe high-quality online courses could enhance the University's prestige in the same way that faculty-authored textbooks do, and help Stanford attract and identify brilliant students from around the world. And some would be happy to replace their large lecture courses with a more engaging educational model—one that many plugged-in Stanford students prefer. Other professors loathe the idea of lecturing to a camera, or of trying to assess thousands of students online. The article is in Stanford Magazine.
WE MUST INVEST IN OUR PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES
UC Santa Cruz Chancellor George Blumenthal writes in The San Francisco Chronicle: Our public universities are in trouble. Nationwide, they produce 70 percent of our college graduates. Yet, from coast to coast, unrelenting state budget cuts threaten the quality of our leading institutions, even as they force students and families to dig deeper and borrow more to pay the tuition. As we begin another academic year, our top priority must be to develop a stable, long-term funding model for public higher education. We need a path forward that preserves excellence, protects access and affordability and puts the United States on track to regain our standing as having the highest proportion of college graduates in the world. Our decline from first to 16th place since the 1980s demands action.
THE BUDGET CUTS TO COME
WASHINGTON — If Congress does not agree on a long-term plan to reduce the deficit by the end of the year, most higher education programs will face deep cuts in the mandatory spending reductions that go into effect Jan. 1, according to a report released Friday by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget. For months, advocates for education funding (as well as those concerned about other budget areas) have braced for the cuts, known as sequestration. The article is in Inside Higher Ed.
STATE MAY RANK IOWA TEACHER COLLEGES, GRADUATES’ PERFORMANCE
Ranking Iowa's teacher colleges and tracking the performance of their graduates are among ideas being considered by the state's board of education. The potential changes are part of a larger effort to overhaul the accreditation process for teacher preparation programs, a reform that Governor Terry Branstad said would be crucial to improving the academic performance of the state's children. The article is in the Des Moines Register.
ABOUT K-12
IN SEARCH OF EXCELLENT TEACHING
The Chicago teachers’ strike was prompted in part by a fierce disagreement over how much student test scores will weigh in a new teacher evaluation system mandated by state law. That teachers’ unions in much of the country now agree that student achievement should count in evaluations at all reflects a major change from the past, when it was often argued that teaching was an “art” that could not be rigorously evaluated or, even more outrageously, that teachers should not be held accountable for student progress. Traditional teacher evaluations often consist of cursory classroom visits by principals who declare nearly every teacher good, or at least competent, even in failing schools where few if any children meet basic educational standards. As a result of this system, bad things can happen. High-performing teachers who have an enormous impact on student achievement go unidentified, and they often leave the district. Promising, but struggling, young teachers never get the help they need to master the job. And disastrous teachers who have no feel for the profession continue as long as they wish, hurting young lives along the way. The editorial was in The New York Times.
CPS FAILS TO GET COURT ORDER ENDING STRIKE
Lawyers for Chicago Public Schools were rebuffed today in their hopes of winning a temporary restraining order and immediately ending the teachers strike. A Cook County Circuit Court judge did not agree to hold a hearing on the matter today. Instead, Judge Peter Flynn raised the possibility of setting a hearing for Wednesday, but questioned if the legal issues wouldn’t be moot if the strike is over by then, according to Roderick Drew, a spokesman for the city’s Law Department. The article is in the Chicago Tribune.
START-UP HOPEFULS TEST IDEAS WITH EDUCATORS
Many entrepreneurs in K-12 believe technology can solve education’s problems, but don’t work to understand those problems before prescribing technology to solve them. That frustrates educators and can be a recipe for failure for fledgling companies. The founders of Imagine K12—Tim Brady, Alan Louie, and Geoff Ralston—made their fortunes working for some of Silicon Valley’s star companies, like Yahoo and Google. But they’re trying to change that dynamic by helping people who start education businesses understand what educators truly need and then create products to meet those needs. The article is in Education Week.
TWO VERSIONS OF COMMON CORE TEST
Instead of designing one test, the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium is planning to offer its states a choice of a longer and a shorter version. The pivot came in response to some states' resistance to spending more time and money on common core standards testing. States are confronting what is politically and fiscally palatable and how that squares with an in-depth approach to testing students on the standards. The article is in Education Week.
STUDY FINDS NO RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ED SPENDING AND RESULTS
A new study from State Budget Solutions finds that the approach that many have long considered a panacea to academic ills – more spending and increased financial resources – doesn’t actually translate to improvements in student achievement as measured by standardized test scores. Analysis of spending by the states between the years of 2009 and 2011 showed that states that spend the most on education as a portion of their total budget didn’t graduate students at a higher rate, nor did their students score better on the ACT than their peers. The article is from EducationNews.org.
 

the authors write that the field can take advantage of promising education reforms with the input of practitioners who, when working together, can help scale successful changes that will generate dramatic change.



WHAT IS A WORLD-CLASS EDUCATION?
In an article in UNESCO's Prospects magazine, Henry Levin writes that restricting the meaning of "world-class" education to the narrow criterion of test scores relies on the idea that higher scores are closely linked with a capable labor force and competitive economy. In fact, Levin argues, the measured relationships between test scores and earnings or productivity are modest and explain a relatively small share of the larger link between educational attainment and economic outcomes. Missing from these assessments are the effects that education has on the development of interpersonal and intrapersonal skills and capabilities -- non-cognitive skills -- that affect the quality and productivity of the labor force. Levin recommends that non-cognitive-skill areas and measures be incorporated into research on academic achievement, school graduation, post-secondary attainments, labor market outcomes, health status, and reduced involvement in the criminal justice system in conjunction with standard academic performance measures. At some point we will learn enough to incorporate specific non-cognitive measures into both small- and large-scale assessments, leading to a deeper understanding of school effects and school policy and a more inclusive framework for ascertaining what is, in fact, world-class education. This information is from the PEN NewsBlast.
ABOUT K-12
TEACHER EVALUTION DISPUTE ECHOES BEYOND CHICAGO
One of the primary issues at the heart of the Chicago teachers' strike is whether student test scores should be used to evaluate teachers and determine their pay. Mayor Rahm Emanuel is pushing that approach, as are other officials around the nation. But many teachers insist that it's inherently unfair to grade their teaching based on their students' learning. Just the fact that there's a growing discussion around teacher evaluations is a huge leap for the education industry. Historically, reviews have been haphazard, ranging from nonexistent to an annual classroom visit from the principal — often referred to as the "drive-by." The piece is from NPR’s All Things Considered.
THE STRIKE OVER STUDENT ‘GROWTH’: CHICAGO TEACHERS’ PROTEST REFLECTS NATIONAL TREND
Striking teachers in Chicago are fighting a contentious education reform that could overhaul how teachers are paid and evaluated, highlighting the difficulty of judging teachers by student performance. According to National Center for Teacher Quality data, new evaluation systems have been changed in at least 33 states since 2009 and more than two dozen states are relying on observations and student test scores. The article is from the Hechinger Report.
STRIKE TALKS IN CHICAGO MOVE TOWARD END GAME
More than 350,000 students remain out of their classrooms as bargaining to end Chicago's teachers strike dragged into Friday ahead of an afternoon union gathering where a vote could stamp needed approval on any deal. Rank-and-file teachers prepared to return to the streets for morning rallies to press the union's demands that laid-off instructors be given first shot at job openings and for implementation of a teacher evaluation system that is not too heavily weighted on student test results. The AP article is from NPR.
WHEN GREEN ISN’T GREAT
Recent findings by Richard Ingersoll at the University of Pennsylvania show that as teacher attrition rates have risen to 13 percent for first-year teachers, schools must hire increasing numbers of new teachers, USA Today reports. Between 40 to 50 percent of those entering the profession now leave within five years in what Ingersoll calls a "constant replenishment of beginners." The end result: a more than threefold increase in the sheer number of inexperienced teachers in U.S. schools. The 1987-88 school year, Ingersoll estimates, had about 65,000 first-year teachers; by 2007-08, the number was over 200,000. In 1987-88 the biggest group of teachers had 15 years of experience. By 2007-08, the most recent data available, the biggest group of teachers had one year of experience. Heather Peske of Teach Plus says the so-called greening of the profession doesn't necessarily mean families will find "fresh-faced 23-year-olds in every classroom." Many new teachers are career-changers with experience in functional workplaces. These teachers will expect adequate materials, and the chance to collaborate with co-workers. "I do think that's good for the profession," Peske says. But parents shouldn't be surprised if young teachers soon leave the classroom for better-paying jobs. With teachers moving around more, parents should also ask how the school keeps their replacements current on student progress. This information is from the PEN NewsBlast.
ABOUT HIGHER ED
GATES, MOOCS AND REMEDIATION
Early returns show that massive open online courses (MOOCs) work best for motivated and academically prepared students. But could high-quality MOOCs benefit a broader range of learners, like those who get tripped up by remedial classes? That’s the question the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation wants to answer with a newly announced round of 10 grants for the creation of MOOCs for remedial coursework. “We’re trying to seed the conversation and seed the experimentation,” said Josh Jarrett, the foundation's deputy director for education and postsecondary education. The article is in Inside Higher Ed.
COLLEGE COMPLETION OR COLLEGE ACCESS?
The latest trend in public university financing is to give colleges funding based on performance, generally the graduation rate. While different states are proposing slightly different policies, the consensus seems to be that some performance measures are useful for encouraging colleges to educate students well. Some advocates recommend focusing the Pell Grant program, which provides grants to low-income students to attend college, on completion. According to a recent study by Mark Kantrowitz, founder of finaid.org and an expert in college finances, however, the focus on college “completion” will likely reduce access to college for many poor students. The article is in Washington Monthly.
STATE EFFORTS TO MAKE COLLEGE MORE AFFORDABLE
A Senate hearing on efforts by states to make college more affordable highlighted several initiatives that Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chair of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said he hopes can be replicated more broadly. These initiatives are likely to receive more attention next year, when Congress begins to work on reauthorizing the federal Higher Education Act. At Thursday's hearing, Harkin expressed urgency in addressing the soaring cost of higher education. When it comes to increasing affordability, “states still have a primary role to play,” he said. The article is in Community College Times.
 

LESSONS FROM CHICAGO: IT TAKES THE CAKE, AND THE TRULY DISADVANTAGED NEED EXTRA FROSTING
Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute, blogs in Working Economics: As the Chicago public schools teachers strike continues, with no resolution of the  conflict in sight, the mayor and CEO might do well to reflect on two key lessons imparted by a scholar whose research on Chicago school reforms is universally hailed as in-depth, groundbreaking, and unimpeachable. Anthony Bryk is the creator of the Consortium on Chicago School Research and current president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Bryk and his CCSR colleagues’ 2010 book, Organizing Schools for Improvement: Lessons from Chicago, has become a bible for evidence-based education policymakers across the country.
CHICAGO STRIKE COULD INFLUENCE TEACHER EVALUATION DEBATE
The debate over teacher evaluations that's taken center stage in the Chicago schools strike could have major effects on the issue in the future, an education expert says. "Chicago absolutely matters," said Elena Silva, senior associate for public policy engagement at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. "I think what happens here will substantially matter for what we see happen with teacher evaluations nationwide," she said. In the last three years, 21 states have passed have legislation or implemented new regulations designed to highlight teacher accountability, according to a report by Bellwether Education Partners, a consulting firm. The article is from CNN.

posted Sep 13, 2012 10:15 am

Daily News Roundup, September 13, 2012


Some of the News Fit to Print
ABOUT K-12
CHICAGO STRIKE PUTS SPOTLIGHT ON TEACHER-EVALUATION REFORM
While wages and benefits have played important roles in the ongoing dispute between the Chicago Teachers Union and the city’s school district, the issue about which the two sides have remained most entrenched in their opposing views is teacher evaluation. In that respect, the flare up in Chicago is, in many ways, reflective of broader tensions about changes to evaluation policies being rolled out across the country. The article is in Education Week.
CAN NAEP PREDICT COLLEGE READINESS?
If you want to know which states are closing black-white achievement gaps in grades 4, 8, and 12, the National Assessment of Educational Progress can show you. If you want to find out how many 8th graders understand how to translate decimals to fractions, "the nation's report card" can help with that, too. But after nearly a decade of effort, educators and policymakers are still trying to figure out whether NAEP can predict how likely a state's students are to start college without needing to take remedial courses, not to mention whether they are prepared for careers. And researchers' struggles with the federally administered NAEP may highlight the uphill battle that awaits the developers of common state assessments or anyone else trying to tie school performance to the post-high-school world. The article is in Education Week.
ABOUT HIGHER ED
COLLEGES AREN’T GOOD AT REMEDIAL EDUCATION
More than 2 million U.S. college students this fall will be spending a good bit of their time reviewing what they were supposed to learn in high school or earlier. They are taking “remedial” education courses. A recent study issued by ACT Inc., a testing organization measuring “college readiness,” found that less than one-third of graduating high-school seniors met benchmark standards for science, and a majority failed to meet them for math. Even in English and reading, a large minority of students were below a level that would mostly earn a grade of C or better on college-level work. The results are depressing. In science, most students don’t come close (within three points) of meeting the ACT benchmark standards. The student at least partially unprepared for college is the rule, not the exception. The commentary, by Richard Vedder of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, is in the Columbus Dispatch.
CALIFORNIA NEEDS A NEW MASTER PLAN
California State University Chancellor Charles Reed (who is retiring this year) writes in the L.A. Times: California's public higher education system, once the envy of the world, is struggling. To survive in a way that continues to fulfill its mission, we need to break the mold on how it operates. State budget cuts have stripped our universities to the bone. And the promise of nearly free, accessible higher education has all but disappeared as cuts have forced tuition increases. What was once a rite of passage for all qualified young people is increasingly becoming untenable for many prospective students. Some lucky people may have the option to simply choose another university, perhaps a private institution. But many more students, particularly those from low-income and traditionally underserved backgrounds, may have no choice but to forgo a university degree.
MOOCS, REPUTATION, AND CREDIT RATINGS
Recent developments in online higher education will likely benefit the credit ratings of brand-name and niche institutions while possibly threatening for-profit institutions and smaller, regional colleges and universities, according to a new report by Moody's Investor Service. In a report that elides the potential implications of massive open online courses (MOOCs) and the continued growth of conventional online programs, Moody's analysts predicted that well-reputed institutions will band together around online offerings to reduce operating costs. Meanwhile, there could "eventually be negative side effects on for-profit education companies and some smaller not-for-profit colleges that may be left out of emerging high reputation online networks," the report said. However, the analysts suggested that well-known institutions that rush too heedlessly into MOOCs could sacrifice their reputational footing. "[T]he rapid pace of the MOOC movement presents the possibility of brand dilution as universities rush to join the trend without controlling the quality of the product/content being posted," they wrote. The article is in Inside Higher Ed.

東海大學新生訓練 2012 請籌設醫學院




上個月,跟羅時瑋談,我認為東海應該在第二校區設醫學我雖然是醫療業的外行,不過這20年來對這美國第一大產業以及台灣的情形,也有一定的了解。今天在紐約時報看到這篇,又讓我想起這想法。或許可參考: America's Health Worker Mismatch  By KATE TULENKO
We need to improve the state of our schools for health professionals, to fill needs at home and reduce the flood of imported health workers, who are needed in their own countries.

TUAA NEWS 2012-09-18
東海大學校友總會通訊
希望之夜,校方以真理、信心、行動三部曲,帶領師生進入時光隧道,
當路思義教堂外琉璃瓦在夜光中閃閃發亮,琉璃牆成為巨型的投影 - - -
自由時報 : 進入東海門 得先學會爬樹

2012年9月15日 星期六

反之亦然的偏見


本篇的一些建議都事老生常談另外一面都説得通


南韓總統李明博,力勸高中生捨棄唸大學、先找工作
南韓歷經數十年的快速成長後,企業發展的腳步逐漸減緩,已無法釋出足夠的工作機會,大學畢業生的失業率更是逐年提高,連南韓總統李明博也跳出來,力勸高中生捨棄唸大學、先找工作。
據《法新社報導》,南韓總體失業率低,僅3%,但25歲至29歲的年輕人,失業率比總失業率高出一倍,而今年南韓大畢業生失業總人數就高達37.3萬人,人數遠高於失業的高中生,而此現象更是韓國10年首見。
報導指出,在去年,即使是擁有韓國頂尖大學博士學位的青年,仍有近30%找部到工作,比2年前高出2倍左右,而韓國勞工部也於近日發表一份報告,表示南韓到了2020年,進入職場的大專畢業生人數將會遠超過企業的需求,人數恐達50萬人,但高中畢業的人力則會缺32萬人。
因此,南韓政府鼓勵高中生直接踏入職場,不需上大學,並力促企業聘請高中畢業生,南韓總統李明博也提出南韓有「教育膨脹」的問題,為減緩大學生過剩的現象,他不僅建議設定企業聘用高中生的人數,鼓勵年輕人在高中畢業後進入職場,並提倡以技職學校取代大學教育的方式,希望年輕人不要在還沒「明確目標」前就進入大學。
▲南韓總統李明博勸高中畢業生先找工作,不用急著進大學(圖/翻攝自《韓聯網》
對於大學生失業率逐年上升的問題,南韓總統李明博則呼籲大學生降低求職標準,先從知名度較低的公司找起,不要一開始就應徵大公司。
經過南韓政府的努力,各大企業也逐漸打破學歷的偏見,開始聘僱高中畢業生,光是今年,30大企業招聘人數就上看4.1萬人,包括韓國4大集團三星、現代汽車、SKLG等企業,也新招聘2萬名高中畢業生,顯示企業正逐漸擴大高中畢業生的聘僱規模。


















企業:學生把時間浪費在便利商店.
點評:多數老闆也是一毛不拔....

生活中心/綜合報導

教育部長蔣偉寧21日與工具機及零組件廠商舉行產學座談。業界指責,學校的教育教材、設備和技能檢定,與業界需求嚴重脫節;上銀科技更抱怨前來應徵的學生,超過50%不符公司需求,健椿工業更說大學生只把重心放在便利商店及加油站打工。

行政院政務委員管中閔日前曾談到,政府再不積極解決人才流失問題,在近年就會淪為三流國家。究竟造成人才危機最大禍首是誰呢?蔣偉寧在聽取業界心聲後坦承,台灣的人力培養確實出了問題,他說,學校與業界間的落差「完全超出我的想像!」

▼人才流失,到底是誰的錯?
上銀科技總經理蔡惠卿指出,公司今年規畫要招募1千多名人力,但目前進度嚴重落後,除了不景氣之外,來應徵的學生中,就有超過半數的人不符合公司需求。

健椿工業董事長葉橫燦不客氣地說,不少學生都把課餘時間浪費在便利商店、加油站及其他場所打工,學到的只有「歡迎光臨、謝謝光臨、多少錢」這是浪費人才資源的最大區塊。他建議,大學校外實習最好每年有3個月的時間,這樣才能充分達到產學連結的效果。

蔣偉寧說,教育部目前已經計畫成立產學策略聯盟,讓企業及學校定期進行交流與互動,希望儘快找到問題的所在,把人才斷層接起來。

教育部21日與台灣區工具機暨零組件公會舉行產學座談,公會理監事全數出席;大學則有台北、勤益、屏東、雲林、虎尾、南台、高雄、建國等科技大學校長。

2012年9月12日 星期三

"College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be


書評

教師力量的全部秘密


安德魯·德爾班科(Andrew Delbanco)一定是一位偉大的老師。他長期任教於哥倫比亞大學,致力於把他的學生培養成獨立的人,他認識到他們的在校時間應該有助於他們的成長: “徹底的自私可能會阻礙他們擴展同情心,影響他們負起公民的責任。”他跟大多數獻身於教學的教授一樣,興趣不在於告訴本科生該思考什麼,但他確實希望他們 擁有對現狀的懷疑精神和對自然界的好奇心。他告訴我們,大學時光真正該學習的是:“把看上去風馬牛不相及的現象聯繫起來”、從他人的角度看待事物、培養道 德責任感。現如今很多人想要縮減學院歲月,將其改造成順應經濟競爭的培訓期。而在此時,德爾班科提醒讀者,不要忘記民主教育的理想。

在《大學:過去,現在,以及應當怎樣》("College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be")一書中,他追溯了這一理想在英國和美國新教中的根源。在美國,教育從來不只是傳播信息。它一直包含着性格養成——使靈魂離開對自我的關注,轉向群 體。德爾班科引用了愛默生(Emerson)關於這種轉向的敘述:“教師力量的全部秘密在於,相信人是可以改變的。人確實如此。他們希望覺醒。”哪怕是世 俗的老師也在努力“把靈魂喚醒,從她慣常的沉睡中喚醒。”
德爾班科在書中寫道,到19世紀末,對性格培養、持久的“好奇與謙卑”的信奉跟對職業化的信奉產生了尖銳的衝突。大學正在變成綜合性的,這意味着它們將偏向科研。群體讓位給了專家,過去學校只致力於本科生教學,現在要通過發展研究生和專業學校來贏得聲譽。
想獲得大學學位的學生越來越多,人們期望大學能夠提供的專業也增加了,“共同的學習經歷”的夢想褪色了,更受歡迎的是大量可供選擇的課程。現代大學 就是要通過專業化來生產知識,大學獎勵教師的辦法通常是“減輕”他們的教學任務。我們最好的大學擅長把資源分給最多產的研究者,本科生的課程只得到一堆漂 亮話。“只有非常少的學院告訴它們的學生該思考什麼,”德爾班科指出:“大部分學院甚至不願意告訴學生什麼值得思考。”

奇怪的是,在精英大學忽視他們的核心任務的同時,進入大學的競爭卻變得非常瘋狂。學習和性格養成的慾望好像已經激勵不了大學的申請者(或他們的父 母)了,但進入排名最高的大學的慾望卻能夠鼓動他們。挑剔的大學能賦予學生更高的地位,它們的畢業證書被認為會帶來更高的收入。有錢人更有機會顯得符合錄 取條件;有錢人的高中知道如何把簡歷打扮得更漂亮,以及如何提高SAT(學術能力評估測試)分數。在很多大學,所謂的擇優錄取日益成為複製經濟不平等的借 口。德爾班科寫道,階級差異越來越大;有錢人和窮人的“相互了解越來越少”。
這就難怪右翼政客們正在利用人們對高等教育的不滿,雖然他們自己的經濟政策會加深收入的不平等。大學向它們的學生灌輸優越感,變成了強化階層差異的同謀:你能入學是因為你配得上,一旦我們肯定了你的天才,你就有權得到你將來能夠積累的財富。

德爾班科考察了這個可悲的領域,但他知道這還不是全部真相。在過去40年間,許多非常挑剔的大學都強調要培養各種各樣的本科學生,因為它們相信這會給學生帶來更深入的教育經歷。通識教育(Liberal arts education)放棄培養同質的學生,轉而創造這樣的校園:在其中人們能夠從他們的差異中學到東西,同時發現新的交往方式。這跟政治正確或身份政治無 關。它是要讓學生準備好做一個終身學習者,以便畢業後能夠在一個混雜的世界中暢行並有所貢獻。

挑剔的學院和大學應該是培養學生的校園社區,將本科生走出自己的舒適地帶、從最出乎意料的源頭學習的能力達到最大化。為了達成這個目的,同時為了兌 現關於理想的承諾,我們必須維持強勁的資金援助,結束學費的飛漲。欲使大學變得更加上得起、更負責任,我們必須把錢用於學生的學習而不是購買威信。

德爾班科強調,“學院理念的核心洞見之一”是“幫助別人就是幫助自己,使自己獲得使命感,從而克服所有人——無論年輕還是年老——都會有的孤獨和無 所事事心理。”他像約翰·杜威(John Dewey)那樣,知道教育是“一種社會生活方式”,我們通過與他人的合作來學習。他像威廉·詹姆士(William James)那樣,珍視那些“侵略性的學習經歷”,正是這種經歷讓我們得以暢享“生命的果實”。德爾班科寫道,美國學院太重要了,“不能允許它們放棄理 想”。他追溯了這些理想的歷史,凸顯了其價值。跟偉大的老師一樣,他鼓舞我們努力去實現這些理想。



Michael S. Roth是衛斯理大學(Wesleyan University)校長。他最新的著作是《記憶、創傷和歷史:論生活在過去之中》("Memory, Trauma, and History: Essays on Living With the Past")
本文最初發表於2012610日。
翻譯:貝小戎
 live with 此處翻譯錯誤
 Living With the Past 與過去"和平相處" "共生" (妥協點).....

live with
(1) ⇒(自)1(2) …を受け入れる, に甘んじる live with double-digit inflation二けたのインフレをなんとかしのいでいく.
live with oneself
自尊心[品位]を保つ.




 "College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be
 

Andrew Delbanco

Andrew Delbanco, Winner of the 2011 National Humanities Medal
Cloth | 2012 | $24.95 / £16.95 | ISBN: 9780691130736
240 pp. | 5 1/2 x 8 1/2
eBook | $24.95 | ISBN: 9781400841578
Where to buy this ebook

Google full text of this book:
 
Play lectures.
(3-part public lectures at Princeton University)


Andrew Delbanco on camera
 

As the commercialization of American higher education accelerates, more and more students are coming to college with the narrow aim of obtaining a preprofessional credential. The traditional four-year college experience--an exploratory time for students to discover their passions and test ideas and values with the help of teachers and peers--is in danger of becoming a thing of the past.
In College, prominent cultural critic Andrew Delbanco offers a trenchant defense of such an education, and warns that it is becoming a privilege reserved for the relatively rich. In arguing for what a true college education should be, he demonstrates why making it available to as many young people as possible remains central to America's democratic promise.

In a brisk and vivid historical narrative, Delbanco explains how the idea of college arose in the colonial period from the Puritan idea of the gathered church, how it struggled to survive in the nineteenth century in the shadow of the new research universities, and how, in the twentieth century, it slowly opened its doors to women, minorities, and students from low-income families. He describes the unique strengths of America's colleges in our era of globalization and, while recognizing the growing centrality of science, technology, and vocational subjects in the curriculum, he mounts a vigorous defense of a broadly humanistic education for all. Acknowledging the serious financial, intellectual, and ethical challenges that all colleges face today, Delbanco considers what is at stake in the urgent effort to protect these venerable institutions for future generations.

Andrew Delbanco is the Mendelson Family Chair of American Studies and the Julian Clarence Levi Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University. His many books include Melville: His World and Work (Vintage), which won the Lionel Trilling Award and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times book prize in biography. He is a recipient of the 2011 National Humanities Medal for his writing that spans the literature of Melville and Emerson to contemporary issues in higher education.
Reviews:
"At a time when many are trying to reduce the college years to a training period for economic competition, Delbanco reminds readers of the ideal of democratic education. . . . The American college is too important 'to be permitted to give up on its own ideals,' Delbanco writes. He has underscored these ideals by tracing their history. Like a great teacher, he has inspired us to try to live up to them."--Michael S. Roth, New York Times Book Review
"The book does have a thesis, but it is not thesis-ridden. It seeks to persuade not by driving a stake into the opponent's position or even paying much attention to it, but by offering us examples of the experience it celebrates. Delbanco's is not an argument for, but a display of, the value of a liberal arts education."--Stanley Fish, New York Times
"A lucid, fair, and well-informed account of the problems, and it offers a full-throated defense of the idea that you don't go to college just to get a job. Delbanco's brevity, wit, and curiosity about the past and its lessons for the present give his book a humanity all too rare in the literature on universities."--Anthony Grafton, New York Review of Books
"[I]nsightful and rewarding. . . . Delbanco's evocation of these nineteenth-century precedents is of central importance, for they allow him to demonstrate that liberal education, far from being an elite indulgence, is inseparable from our nation's most cherished and deeply rooted democratic precepts. In the face of today's hyper-accelerated, ultra-competitive global society, the preservation of opportunities for self-development and autonomous reflection is a value we underestimate at our peril."--Richard Wolin, The Nation
More reviews
Table of Contents:
Preface xi
Introduction 1
Chapter One: What Is College For? 9
Chapter Two: Origins 36
Chapter Three: From College to University 67
Chapter Four: Who Went? Who Goes? Who Pays? 102
Chapter Five: Brave New World 125
Chapter Six: What Is to Be Done? 150
Acknowledgments 179
Notes 183
Index 215