Some of the News Fit to Print

Some of the News Fit to Print
ABOUT K-12
TEACHER-PREP PROGRAMS ZERO IN ON EFFECTIVE ‘PRACTICE’
The Match Teacher Residency is a teacher education program run by the Boston-based Match Education, a nonprofit charter-management organization that requires candidates to practice and master a repertoire of specific competencies before they lead a full classroom. It is an approach to student-teaching that does away with much of the trial-and-error that often characterizes the experience. It is one of a small number of teacher-preparation programs focusing on what's coming to be called "practice-based" teacher education. The approach is growing in popularity among charter groups and beginning to emerge in university-based programs as well. "The principle underneath it is that this is not a sink-or-swim model," said Morva McDonald, an associate professor of curriculum and instruction at the University of Washington, in Seattle, which runs traditional and alternative teacher-education programs. The article is in Education Week.
SPARKING CREATIVITY BY BUILDING A SCHOOL IN THE CLOUD
TED Talk winner Sugata Mitra says: From Plato to Aurobindo, from Vygotsky to Montessori, centuries of educational thinkers have vigorously debated a central pedagogical question: How do we spark creativity, curiosity, and wonder in children? But those who philosophized pre-Google were prevented from wondering just how the Internet might influence the contemporary answer to this age-old question. Today, we can and must; a generation that has not known a world without vast global and online connectivity demands it of us.
CALIFORNIA VOTERS SPLIT ON BROWN’S SCHOOL PLANS
SACRAMENTO — California voters have yet to strongly embrace Gov. Jerry Brown's controversial plan to shift money from rich schools to poor ones, an ominous sign as he works to win support for the idea from skeptical lawmakers and the state's powerful teachers unions. A new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll found that 50% of respondents agreed with such a move, to help school districts that serve low-income children and English-language learners. But a significant minority, 39%, opposed the plan, which is embedded in the governor's budget blueprint and is the centerpiece of his education agenda. Brown has described his bid as "a classic case of justice to unequals." The article is in the L.A. Times.
ABOUT HIGHER ED
YOU’RE DISTRACTED. THIS PROFESSOR CAN HELP
Professor David M. Levy hopes to open a fresh window on the polarized cultural debate about Internet distraction and information abundance. At its extreme, that debate plays out in the writing of authors whom the critic Adam Gopnik has dubbed the Never-Betters and the Better-Nevers. Those camps duke it out over whether the Internet will unleash vast reservoirs of human potential (Clay Shirky) or destroy our capacity for concentration and contemplation (Nicholas Carr). On college campuses, meanwhile, educators struggle to manage what the Stanford University multitasking researcher Clifford Nass describes as a radical shift in the nature of attention. The article is in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
FOR THE COLLEGE BOUND, ARE THERE ANY SAFE BETS?
Once, a graduate degree in a practical field like law or medicine was seen as a ticket to a stable career. Now they’re no sure bet. So in today’s economy, what should ambitious young people pursue? Which majors and careers have a reliable “return on investment”? The New York Times invited six experts to respond.