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Report gives failing grade to Canada’s education system
Troubling trends in the Canadian education system can be reversed if the country adopts national standards for learning, a report released Tuesday suggests. The Canadian Council on Learning, in its final report before it ceases to exist, says without a national oversight body for education, student achievement will continue to decline and undermine Canada’s economic competitiveness in the years to come.
“Canada is the only country that doesn’t have a national ministry,” says Paul Cappon, the council’s CEO. And the principal reason for this, the report says, is “that our governments have failed to work together to develop the necessary policies and failed to exhibit the required collective political leadership.”
Education falls under the responsibility of provincial governments, with limited federal involvement, but Cappon says that relationship shouldn’t get in the way of what’s good for Canadians, which, he says, is similar to the dynamics of Canadian health care.
“The dysfunctionality of the health-care system costs lives, every week and every month,” says Cappon. “And the dysfunctionality in the education and learning systems costs Canada prosperity, costs opportunities for the young and the not-so-young: so of course, you can only overcome (the divide) if you want to and if there is political will do it.”
The federal-provincial dynamic decreases the quality of education in Canada from early childhood education through to post-secondary schools, aboriginal and adult learning, the council argues. A change is needed to get governments of all levels to work together to avoid further declines in student outcomes, the council says.
General Gordon school to be torn down
A Vancouver school board decision to knock down a 100-year-old heritage school is “extremely disappointing,” but ultimately the fault of the provincial government, says a member of a group that has fought for five years to save the building.
Trustees voted Monday not to ask the provincial government for additional funding to save General Gordon elementary school, saying the heritage value isn’t high enough to warrant the expense.
“It seems such a shame we’ve come into opposition with the trustees who care about public education for the city,” Emily Pickett, a member of General Gordon’s Parent Advisory Committee, said Tuesday.
“We should have been able to join forces with them. I understand they’re trying to be cheap, cheap, cheap but ultimately it’s at the provincial level where the wrongdoing is happening.
“The province will pay $600 million for a retractable roof [for BC Place Stadium] but not $3 million [estimated cost to save one of the heritage facades on the school]. It seems so disproportionate and yet they’re squeezing the public school system to death.”
The Kitsilano school is just one of 48 schools in Vancouver that has to either be replaced or upgraded because they are considered unsafe in the event of an earthquake.
Click here to read the entire Vancouver Sun article.
THIS JUST IN: New Book @ Education Library –> Adolescent Literacy and the Teaching of Reading: Lessons for Teachers of Literature
Adolescent Literacy and the Teaching of Reading: Lessons for Teachers of Literature
Let’s face it: in this age of exploding literacies, all teachers of literature should be teachers of reading. Reading is interpreting; interpreting is reading, which is why it’s more crucial than ever to ensure that our students are able to make meaning as they read. But do we know how to integrate best practices in reading instruction into our classrooms?
In “Adolescent Literacy and the Teaching of Reading: Lessons for Teachers of Literature”, Deborah Appleman dismantles the traditional divide between secondary teachers of literature and teachers of reading and offers a variety of practical ways to teach reading within the context of literature classrooms. As part of NCTE’s Principles in Practice imprint, the book draws on research-based understandings emerging from Adolescent Literacy: An NCTE Policy Research Brief, woven together with practical lessons that will enrich the reading experiences of all students. Using real-world examples from diverse secondary classrooms, Appleman helps literature teachers find answers to the questions they have about teaching reading: How can I help students negotiate the complex texts that they will encounter both in and out of the classroom? What are the best ways to engage whole classes in a variety of texts, both literary and nonliterary? What does it mean to be a struggling reader and how can I support these students? How can I inspire and motivate the male readers in my classes? (via Amazon.com)
Click here to go directly to this item in the UBC Library Catalogue
The Importance of Physical Education
Five years ago, Richard Reiss, the physical education teacher at Public School 197 in Far Rockaway, Queens, went to the principal with a problem: not even the most athletic among his students, most of whom are poor and black or Latino, had enough endurance to run a mile.
The once-a-week physical education classes the school offered, far from what was needed to fulfill the minimum requirement set by the state, were not cutting it. Mr. Reiss suggested starting a walking club, then found out about something better: a free program led by New York Road Runners that is now operating in 450 schools across New York City and provides prizes based on miles logged.
P.S. 197’s 550 students, from prekindergarten through fifth grade, still have regular physical education classes only once a week, but 40 fourth- and fifth-grade pupils show up daily for the optional program at 7 a.m., 80 minutes before the first bell.
“When you’re given a limited budget, you have to ask yourself, ‘What’s the priority?’ ” said Christina Villavicencio, who took over as principal at P.S. 197 last month. “Should I hire another science teacher or a gym teacher?”
Most states mandate physical education from kindergarten through 12th grade, with New York and five others — Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Mexico and Vermont — setting minimum amounts of instructional time, according to a report by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education released last year.
New York requires 120 minutes a week through sixth grade, and at least 90 minutes a week for seventh and eighth grades, but a recent audit of 31 elementary schools by the city comptroller, John C. Liu, found that none of them were in compliance.
Principals and other education officials say the combination of budget cuts and testing pressures have relegated physical education to the dispensable category, despite city and federal efforts to combat obesity and improve health by promoting nutritious foods and frequent exercise.
But some teachers and principals have gotten creative to prioritize movement during the school day, stretching money, space and time to fit in exercise wherever they can.
Laptops in the Classroom –A Classroom goes Digital
MUNSTER, Ind. — Laura Norman used to ask her seventh-grade scientists to take out their textbooks and flip to Page Such-and-Such. Now, she tells them to take out their laptops.
The day all have seen coming — traditional textbooks being replaced by interactive computer programs — arrived this year in this traditional, well-regarded school district, complete with one naysaying parent getting reported to the police. Unlike the tentative, incremental steps of digital initiatives at many schools nationwide, Munster made an all-in leap in a few frenetic months — removing all math and science textbooks for its 2,600 students in grades 5 to 12, and providing a window into the hurdles and hiccups of such an overhaul.
The transformation, which cost $1.1 million for infrastructure, involved rewiring not just classrooms but also the mindset of students, teachers and parents. When teachers started hearing that “the server ate my homework,” they knew a new era had begun.
“The material we’re teaching is old but everything around it is brand-new,” said Pat Premetz, chairwoman of the math department at Wilbur Wright Middle School in Munster, who described the initiative as both “very overwhelming” and “the most exciting thing to happen in my 40 years of teaching.”
“This isn’t stressing out students,” Ms. Premetz added. “It’s stressing out teachers because of some of the technological problems, and parents who are wondering why their kids are on the computer so much.”
Munster is hardly the first district to go digital. Schools in Mooresville, N.C., for example, started moving away from printed textbooks four years ago, and now 90 percent of their curriculum is online. “It didn’t happen overnight for us — it was an incremental change,” said Mark Edwards, Mooresville’s superintendent of schools. “The competency is evolutional.”