Let The Games Begin!

Have you heard about the new way of testing students with technology known as Audience Response Technology?

ART clicking is sweeping the nation as schools in NY, California and more are investing in this fun and competitive way of testing all students, and not just those who dominate in the classroom.

The clickers are part of an increasingly popular technology which has been used for everything from surveying game show audiences to polling registered voters.

They record data from individuals and transmit that information through wireless technology to a computer program that can instantly display results, tally them and present them in elaborate spreadsheets and eye-catching graphics like spaceships or “Jeopardy!”-style boards.

This technology can also track the percentage of correct answers received for each question as well as the participation rate among all users.

What a great idea!

Fingerprinting The Answer?

In an effort to make schools safer, beginning Jan 1 districts around the state will require fingerprinting for all employees who have student interaction.

Currently teachers have already been undergoing this process as part of the employment requirement, however this new push means all employees who have student interaction must be fingerprinted, including teacher aides and cafeteria workers.

“Senate Bill 9 authorizes and requires greatly expanded criminal history information reviews for most classes of educators and school employees, including national criminal history background checks based on the submission of fingerprints, for all certified and currently employed educators, as well as all substitute teachers, whether or not certified ... hired after Jan. 1, 2008,” according to the Web site.

I think its time we do whatever it takes to keep our schools and our kids safe however, I'm just not sure fingerprinting everyone is really the answer.

Doesn't the application process with background check already cover employment and criminal background checks?

Why do we need fingerprinting?

Another thing, how will school districts fund this, as the state did not address the financial burdens nor supply monies toward this. The $60 fingerprinting cost seems like a lot for employees earning minimum wage.

What do you think?

Is fingerprinting non teachers and support personnel who work within the schools a good idea or is Big Brother working overtime?

A Stronger America.

With the Presidential race upon us, I can’t help but wonder how Education will really fare when the dust settles.

Candidates say they’re ‘all about Education’, but are they really? Is anything really going to change?

What are they going to do about the fact that:

• Seventy percent of eighth graders are not proficient in reading—and most will never catch up.
• More than 1.2 million students drop out of high school each year.
• 25% of high school students don't graduate on time.
• Many of those who do graduate are not ready for college, for the workplace, and for life.
• 65% of convicts are dropouts.

We in education know that America has an incredible struggle ahead. Each day we hear of teachers who “call it quits” blaming the Institution” and the seemingly lack of planning and vision for education today.

No Child Left Behind had great intentions but those of us on the inside quickly saw that this plan should have been more appropriately named “No Child Moves Ahead.”

It didn’t take long to figure this out.

But the current administration took so long to finally admit to the debacle. Most recently, they passed a bill that actually cut back the Reading First programs originally advocated under NCLB dropping from $1 billion to $393 million for 2008.

Plans for the same bill will provide just under $14 billion to the Title I program for disadvantaged students, about 2 percent less than what was originally proposed (and vetoed) back in November.

Under this bill:

• • $10.9 billion for K-12 state grants under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, a nearly 1 percent increase over the fiscal 2007 level of $10.8 billion;
• • $2.93 billion to help states improve the quality of their teachers, a 1.7 percent increase; and
• • $1.2 billion for career and vocational education programs, a 0.5 percent decrease.

This decrease, even though small, in career and vocational education programs worries me because these real-world programs serve as spring-boards for the world of work, college and/or technical training.

Our kids not only need a solid education in core academics, but they need technology skills and they need the technical training Career and Technology courses offer---before they graduate from high school.

We have a problem with Education and as I see it, we have a serious problem with America.

How can we plan for a stronger tomorrow if we do not address and succeed at the very core of educating and training the Americans that will run this country tomorrow?

We cannot be a strong America if we do not have and provide a quality and realistic Education for every American child.

I wonder about our candidates.

I wonder if any of them will actually be brave enough to tackle the Education crisis or should I brace myself for another state of no change?