Along Came a Spider: News on the Web [April 2006 Archive]
It Takes a School to Make a Village
A recent study by the Rural School and Community Trust sheds light on the nature of schooling in rural America—and the importance of local schools. The study found that, despite recent initiatives to consolidate small districts, students in areas such as rural Oregon benefited from having smaller local schools. It wasn't just the students who gained, either: communities that lost their local schools were found to die out entirely in some cases:
www.ruraledu.org/site
Read an article about rural schooling here:
www.asbj.com/current/research.html
The Means to an End
That, according to this article in Edutopia magazine, is exactly what assessments should be: a means to understand students' progress and needs, not an end in itself. The article discusses the concept of authentic assessment, focusing on the importance of giving students the opportunity to put their knowledge to use, and of using assessment as an opportunity to adapt your teaching to the needs of the students:
www.edutopia.org/magazine/ed1article.php?id=art_1498&issue=apr_06#
The Not-So-Terrible Tweens
This collections of links from the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development gives insights on how to provide for a sometimes confusing, always challenging group: the "tweens", or middle-school-age students, on the cusp between being children and becoming young adults. Links include information on differentiation and emotional needs:
www.ascd.org/portal/site/ascd/index.jsp
No Right to Be Hurtful
A recent court case affirmed the right of students to be protected from hurtful messages in school, even if that protection limits others' right of free expression. A US appeals court has upheld a district's decision to ban T-shirts with insulting messages about other students' race, religion, or sexuality; the case in question involved a student who was required to remove a T-shirt with the slogan "Homosexuality is shameful" and who then sued on First Amendment grounds. The court ruled that this student's First Amendment rights did not include the right to insult other students based on "core identifying characteristics" in a school setting.
news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2628&ncid=2628&e=4&u=/nm/20060420/us_nm/life_dresscode_dc_2
Playing to Learn
A new video game, Discover Babylon, takes players on a tour of the ancient world. The game has garnered praise for its historiocity and in-depth approach to ancient Mesopotamian culture. Another exciting resource about this part of the world, available online, is the Theban Mapping Project—an ideal resource for students "discovering Babylon" through the game:
www.discoverbabylon.org
thebanmappingproject.com
Read an article about both resources here:
www.usatoday.com/tech/science/columnist/vergano/2006-04-16-discover-babylon-game_x.htm
Teaching to the Tech
A new study suggests that teachers are gaining confidence with technology—and finding that it helps to motivate the boys in their classroom as well. The survey, conducted in Britain, also found that computer technology was becoming an integral part of the classroom environment, and that many teachers enjoyed increased productivity because computers assisted with administrative responsibilities:
education.guardian.co.uk/elearning/story/0,,1746721,00.html
A Crisis Averted
In Singapore, schools are using online communications to support their students' learning in the event of a flu pandemic. Several schools have recently tested fully online learning environments, which allow students to continue learning and interacting with teachers and peers in the event that their physical school buildings are closed, as by a pandemic:
www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/201685/1/.html
Experimenting with Culture
In Michigan, a new pilot program is offering students the opportunity to learn Arabic alongside more "traditional" languages like French and German. The pilot program, which has federal funding, will support Arabic programs at all levels from K-12. President Bush has suggested that he considers the teaching of Arabic to be significant in improving national security.
www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060404/NEWS05/604040601
SAT Optional
In the wake of the unveiling of the new, longer SAT, as well as increasing concerns about the content of the essay section of the test in particular, a number of smaller liberal-arts colleges have gone to an SAT-optional admissions format. Those that have done so have often seen a dramatic increase in student applications. A spokesman for the college board suggests, however, that this may be more of a "marketing tool" by the colleges:
www.usatoday.com/news/education/2006-04-04-standardized-tests_x.htm
A Corporate Education
It's a win-win situation—or an investment with a guaranteed return: IBM is now offering its retiring employees the opportunity to train for a second career in the classroom, at company expense. The move comes in light of concerns on the company's part about the lack of highly able math and science students in the next generation of employees:
www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2006/04/04/ibm_helping_employees_move_into_classrooms
Virtually the First
Gifted education the virtual way: later this month, the first "cyberschool for the gifted", run by Stanford University, will open its metaphorical doors to students. Stanford has long been a leader in online gifted education, offering a range of courses in a variety of subjects—but not for high school credit. The new virtual high school, however, will allow students to receive credit for the work they do:
www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/living/education/14323350.htm
Quality Versus Quantity
A new study has found that birth order, long considered to have an impact on intelligence, is not significant when family size is taken into account. The study, which reexamined the hypothesis that later-born children tend to be less intelligent than first-borns, found that children within a family tended to be equally intelligent, but that those from smaller families tended to be more intelligent. Researchers hypothesized that larger families may have environmental disadvantages compared to smaller ones. Mother's age was also a significant variable, with children of older mothers having an advantage:
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/04/060411230021.htm
A Meeting of Minds
Recently, officials involved creating sex-ed guidelines have been getting joint advice from two groups previously at each other's throats: conservative Christians and gay-rights advocates. Groups from both sides worked with the First Amendment Center to craft policies that represented both viewpoints:
www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/1-03092006-624064.html
Virtually Bullied
As the number of young internet users rises, so does the number of young people bullying and being bullied online—whether through malicious gossip, threats, or even hacking. Many children and teens choose not to report such incidents because they fear that parents will simply stop their internet access, rather than trying to help to make their online experience safer and more pleasant.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4805760.stm
Studying the Whole Child
This report by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development examines methods and policies that may undermine our understanding of students as whole children, rather than solely in terms of scores on standardized tests. Implications of other policies are also discussed:
www.ascd.org/portal/site/ascd/menuitem
A Split in the Sciences
A recent study suggests that while boys and girls are both interested in the sciences, there is a significant split between their areas of interest within the sciences. Boys prefer to study "military" applications of physics and chemistry, while girls were more interested in biology and psychology. Neither group, however, found learning about famous scientists overly enthralling. The study suggests that separate curricula for girls and boys might motivate both groups to appreciate science more:
education.independent.co.uk/news/article350938.ece
A Talented Teacher Turns Kids on to Writing
Nancy Barile, a recent recipient of one of six grants from the College Board for excellence in teaching writing, shows you can do it all—her innovative approach to writing combines topics and genres of interest to students with basic testing standards. Barile plans to use the grant to restart her school's flagging literary magazine:
www.csmonitor.com/2006/0315/p14s02-legn.html
The Lost History of Slavery
Many Americans view slavery as synonymous with the ante-bellum South. But in fact, the slave trade extended to Northern states as well; in New York, the Amistad Commission (yes, named for that Amistad—the ship, not the movie) is working to educate students about the role that literal slave labor played in the history of New York:
www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2006/03/17/educators_shed_light_on_northern_slavery
Growing Pains for Advanced Placement
The original purpose behind the concept of Advanced Placement courses, administered by the College Board, was to give the best students an opportunity to get a head start on college. In recent years, however, AP courses have often been touted as a means of engaging and serving bright students in a more general way—a use arguably beyond the scope and design of the program. Both critics and supporters of AP courses question whether the program can be effective in such a broader role:
www.usatoday.com/news/education/2006-03-20-ap-main_x.htm
A Peek at Dante
One teacher, a handful of students, and a classic poem—not your average recipe for Saturday morning fun. But it's the highlight of the week for members of the Dante Club, an informal gathering of students from one high school in San Francisco, where a committed English teacher is working to give her students, many of them from culturally diverse or at-risk backgrounds, the opportunity to increase their cultural literacy. Dante's Inferno is the focus of their discussion, but their explorations of culture extend to theater and art as well—and they hope to travel to Italy next summer:
www.danteclub2006.com
Read an article about the group here:
www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/03/20/MNG01HQVP81.DTL&hw=schools&sn=009&sc=635
Bringing Global Citizenship Closer to Home
That's what one Philadelphia high school has done: taking up the challenge issued by the National Association of Independent Schools to consider a global issue that they can address in their community, they've built a partnership between the schools and hospitals in their community and those in a town in India. The focus of the project is the control of infectious diseases, with the Philly hospitals providing much-needed equipment to their overseas counterparts:
www.csmonitor.com/2006/0322/p16s01-legn.html
Research Freely
During the month of April, Thomson Gale, a provider of high-level library databases, is offering the general public free access to their databases! (The rest of the year, you need to access through an institution that has paid them for the privilege, such as a library.) The collection includes the Times Digital Archive, InfoTrac, and several historical and biographical databases. The collection can be accessed by clicking on "Other" at:
www.AccessMyLibrary.com
