New York School Goes Fully Digital For Textbooks.

The AP (12/23, Fitzgerald) profiles Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains, New York, where “nearly every book—from freshman biology to senior calculus—is now digital, accessible on students’ laptops and tablets.” The article reports that the per-student cost of books dropped from $600 to $150, and notes that with some exceptions, “all the texts the school uses are part of a digital bookshelf kept on an Internet cloud.” The piece quotes Vice Principal Frank Portanova saying, “We went to digital because it makes for better learning. This is the way kids learn today. And the online content is a lot richer. You’ve got assessments, you’ve got virtual labs, you’ve got blogging.”

Philadelphia Taking Part In Early Literacy Campaign.

The Philadelphia Daily News (12/23, Leach) reports that Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and Superintendent William Hite have announced that the city “has signed on to take part in a national campaign to boost literacy in the early grades.” The piece explains that the goal of the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading is “to double the number of students reading at grade level by the end of third grade...by 2020.”

Missouri Legislator Calls For September To May School Calendar.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (12/23) reports on a bill in the Missouri Legislature to “ensure schools don’t start until September and end before June.” Moreover, the bill would “make summer school attendance mandatory for students who score less than proficient on statewide tests.”

Education Experts Concerned About GED Overhaul.

The Philadelphia Inquirer (12/23, Vitez) reports that as the GED test is overhauled at the beginning of the year, with a focus on promoting better job skills, “many experts fear thousands, especially older Americans, will have little hope of passing the new test.” The paper notes that there has been “a mad rush across the region of people trying to pass all five parts of the exam before it expires.”

California Struggles With Hispanic Achievement Gap.

The AP (12/23) reports that though Hispanics outnumber white Californians next year, many education experts say that California is “a model of what not to do” when educating students of color. The article says that California Hispanic students “in general are getting worse educations than their white peers,” with lower funding and higher class sizes. Moreover, while state test scores “have gone up in the past decade, the achievement gap hasn’t changed.”

California Struggles With Hispanic Achievement Gap.

The AP (12/23) reports that though Hispanics outnumber white Californians next year, many education experts say that California is “a model of what not to do” when educating students of color. The article says that California Hispanic students “in general are getting worse educations than their white peers,” with lower funding and higher class sizes. Moreover, while state test scores “have gone up in the past decade, the achievement gap hasn’t changed.”

New Mexico Testing Opt-Out Movement Grows.

The Las Cruces (NM) Sun-News (12/23) reports on the “new yet growing movement in New Mexico of parents who opt their students out of state standardized tests,” noting that parents of advanced students complain that the tests are not valid measuring tools, while others complain of the stress the tests bring or object to using student test scores to evaluate teachers.

Recession Leads To Low Staff-To-Student Ratio For Many Districts.

The New York Times (12/22, Rich, Subscription Publication) reports that districts that laid off teachers and other employees during the recession are now facing “unwieldy class sizes and a lack of specialists” for special-needs students. The article relates anecdotes of overworked teachers and counselors, noting that according to Department of Labor data, schools across the country “employ about 250,000 fewer people than before the recession.” The Times reports that these challenges come as “schools are raising academic standards and business leaders are pushing schools to prepare a work force with better skills.”

Recession Leads To Low Staff-To-Student Ratio For Many Districts.

The New York Times (12/22, Rich, Subscription Publication) reports that districts that laid off teachers and other employees during the recession are now facing “unwieldy class sizes and a lack of specialists” for special-needs students. The article relates anecdotes of overworked teachers and counselors, noting that according to Department of Labor data, schools across the country “employ about 250,000 fewer people than before the recession.” The Times reports that these challenges come as “schools are raising academic standards and business leaders are pushing schools to prepare a work force with better skills.”

Ohio Educators Concerned About Need For Keyboarding In Early Grades

The Coshocton (OH) Tribune (11/17) reports on the impact that the Common Core Standards will have on young students on Ohio, focusing on the need for students in the early grades to have keyboarding instruction in order to take Common Core-aligned tests. The piece notes that such changes have “education officials wondering whether students will be able to manipulate their fingers” to properly take such tests.

From Kenneth Beare, your Guide to ESL

Using the Whole Brain There are many ways to learn a language as there many types of understanding. You can understand something musically, visually or intellectually, as well as emotionally or even through smell. This Mind Map reading comprehension lesson provides a number of exercise to help students use this visual technique for longer reads. Read more

Describing a Scene The cowboy is riding into the sunset. He fought crime and caught bandits, as well as found love. He's going to become the sheriff in Dodge... The description above takes the final scene of a movie as the point of departure to write a description using a wide variety of tenses. Use this final scene lesson plan to help students develop stories based on sketches they make of movies they love. Other options include creating soap operas in class, or writing and acting out a script from a favorite movie. Read more Search Related Topics: lesson on films conversation lesson plans esl teaching techniques

Three Uses of "What are you doing?" The present continuous tense - for example, I am writing a blog post. - is used in three situations. The first is to express what is happening at the moment of speaking: The second to express what is happening around the time of speaking. In other words, the present continuous can express current projects. Finally, the present continuous may also express a future scheduled event such as a meeting. Learn more about tenses uses the visual guide to tenses.

Check Your Writing Online Finally! After many, many years there's an online service which checks English writing especially designed for English learners. I don't know how many times I've received an email asking for a recommendation for proofreading software especially designed for learners. 1Checker provides this help. Here's a correction for the following conjugation error in a sentence: ... you intends to say Subject-Verb Agreement Explanation The subject and the verb have to agree in number and person. Singular nouns in the subject require the singular form of the verb (either in the first or the third person), whereas plural nouns require the plural form of the verb. Examples Wrong: He walk alone. Right: He walks alone. 1Checker is free at the moment for the online version. I highly recommend you give it a try!

Philadelphia Rehiring 80 Counselors

The Philadelphia Inquirer (11/5, Graham) reports that the Philadelphia school district is recalling some 80 counselors who were laid off during the district’s “brutal budget crunch,” noting that officials hailed this as “good news,” even though it was “not enough.” The piece notes that the hiring is being funded by “the $45 million Gov. Corbett released to the Philadelphia School District last month.” The piece notes that an indeterminate number of laid-off assistant principals, secretaries, teachers, and special education aides are also being recalled.

California Struggling To Assess Districts’ Testing Readiness

 

Southern California Public Radio (11/4) reports online that education officials in California are assessing districts’ readiness for “a new computerized field test” tied to the Common Core Standards scheduled for five months from now. However, “fewer than one in four have returned” a classroom technology survey.

ED, California Remain At Odds Over Testing

 

The San Jose (CA) Mercury News (11/5) continues coverage of the impasse between ED and California over the state’s decision to drop its STAR assessment in favor of a trial run of Common Core-aligned assessments. The piece reports that the logjam threatens “millions of dollars in funding to Santa Cruz County school districts,” noting that “an official” from ED “suggested California could lose at least $3.5 billion in federal aid next year if the state didn’t comply with federal rules.”

The Southern California Public Radio (11/4) reports online that Assistant Secretary Deborah Delisle warned that the state is risking $3.5 billion with its “new law to test public school students in only one of two federally-mandated subjects.” The piece quotes her letter saying, “By failing to administer a reading/language arts and mathematics assessment to all students in the tested grades, California would be unable to provide this important information to students, principals, teachers, and parents. In addition, because its new policy violates federal law, California now risks significant enforcement action by the Department.”

Duncan: No Federal Mandate On Teacher Evaluations

The Albuquerque (NM) Journal (11/5) reports that Education Secretary Arne Duncan last week praised New York’s teacher evaluation program, “which bases only 20 percent of its evaluation on student achievement.” The piece notes that Duncan, who was asked specifically in an interview about it, “did not mention New Mexico’s controversial” system, which bases 50% of a teacher’s evaluation on student test scores. Duncan said in the interview, a video of which has been circulated in New Mexico, “Well, first to be clear, it was never a mandate from us, never has been, never will be. What we’ve always said is that we should be looking at multiple measures for whether it’s teacher evaluation or principal evaluation or looking at districts or schools or, ultimately, states. You have to look at multiple factors.”

 

KOB-TV broadcast a report on the controversy over Duncan’s comments, showing him giving the above quote.