Entrepreneurship education increasingly popular.
The Christian Science Monitor (6/19, Khadaroo) reported on “The Pitch,” in which teams of “juniors at Fenway High School in Boston” develop plans for potential businesses, which they then present “to a panel of professional adults, the hypothetical investors.” The program “carries into senior year with career exploration and an internship,” and is “one of many ways students here connect with the world beyond high school and practice the skills they’ll need.” Local businesses also give employees time to mentor the students. The Monitor noted, “Entrepreneurship education is gaining popularity as a way to motivate students to master everything from math to public speaking.” Because of the demands of NCLB, “it’s hard for many schools to make room for entrepreneurial classes in their schedules.” However, “groups that promote these classes, particularly in urban settings, are convinced that a curriculum about creating, financing, and owning a business can also nudge up test scores and graduation rates.”
In the Classroom
University of Hawaii program teaches youths STEM skills.
Hawaii’s Honolulu Advertiser (6/19, Miura) reported that “[m]ore than 100 kids…are taking part in a new summer program” called Kids on Campus “at the University of Hawaii (UH),” where they will learn about “science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM subjects.” The program is part of a broader effort by Gov. Linda Lingle (R) “to expand STEM education in Hawaii, said Kari Nettel, an education specialist at the Hawaii Center for Advanced Communications (HCAC).” According to the Advertiser, the students are “led by mentors from the three sponsoring programs,” who teach them “scientific methods and engineering skills as well as programming, hydrodynamics and robotics.” For example, the students “began by making cars or land robots,” and “moved to designing boats using Lego Mind Storm kits and micro-computers.” Magdy Iskander, director of the HCAC, said that the Kids on Campus program is also “part of the Research Experience for Teachers program at HCAC,” which “strives to ‘enable and empower’ teachers by finding out what they need to stimulate interest.”
Indiana high school gains approval for PLTW biomedical courses.
Indiana’s Shelbyville News (6/20, Jacques ) reports that Triton Central High School (TCHS) in Fairland, Ind., “will begin its sequence of Project Lead the Way (PLTW) biomedical science courses this year.” The Shelbyville News explains that PLTW “developed a biomedical sciences course sequence to prepare students for careers in the field of biomedical sciences and augment college preparatory programs in science and math.” According to the Shelbyville News, “This fall, about two dozen students are enrolled in the first course in the biomedical sequence, Principals of Biomedical Sciences.” A second course is planned in 2009, called “Human Body Systems, followed by the third and fourth course, Medical Intervention and the capstone course, Science Research.”
Changing classification of Pluto affects education.
Space.com (6/19, Bryner) reported that the changing classification of Pluto — from planet to dwarf planet to plutoid — “has teachers, parents and educational publishers struggling to keep up.” But a “cursory” survey of a large bookseller’s stocks “revealed three out of four books published in 2006 or later were updated, with Pluto designated as a dwarf planet and the solar system said to include just eight planets.” And, “[e]ven as scientists are arguing over the ‘plutoid’ designation, with some saying they won’t use the term, educators are already latching onto it.” Gerry Wheeler of the National Science Teachers Association explained that a terminology change is “a teachable moment for science teachers, because it shows the dynamic nature of science.” Space.com noted that a number of major textbook publishers have made the transition to “the dwarf planet concept,” but eventually “may need to re-update material,” as some “astronomers are vowing to pursue a reinstatement of Pluto as a planet.”
Oregon college, industry partner to offer welding training center.
Oregon’s Portland Observer (6/19) reported that the “manufacturing industry needs more qualified, trained welders to meet demand,” and “Portland Community College (PCC), in partnership with Vigor Industrial, is helping to meet that need.” PCC and Vigor Industrial have teamed “to open the Swan Island Training Center,” which “provides welding training opportunities that support the local manufacturing industry.” According to the Observer, the “training center offers an evening shift of classes that are exactly the same as what is offered through the welding program at the Rock Creek Campus.” One student per year will receive a “one-year scholarship in [the] name of Vigor Industrial.” The Observer noted that “[s]killed welders are a key labor component for manufacturing companies and, locally, there is a shortage of well-trained workers” in the trade.
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Kentucky STEM academy, university offer early college program.
Indiana’s Madison Courier (6/20, Rand) reports that some Kentucky juniors and seniors attend the Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science at Western Kentucky University (WKU) to receive college credit while still in high school. “Gatton Academy is similar to high school but is geared toward those with an interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).” The classes are “taught [at] the Bowling Green-based university, where” the high school students intermingle with “WKU undergraduates.” The Courier explains that this year, Gatton Academy “has enrolled 120 students, 60 males and 60 females,” out of 500 applicants. Gatton “requires students to take a class load significantly more challenging than that of high school courses, along with performing 15 community service hours.” Students will earn “60 hours of college credit” before graduating, “and if choosing to continue their education at” WKU, they “will be automatically admitted in the honors program.”
On the Job
Ohio conference focuses on improving public education, work skills.
Ohio’s Plain Dealer (6/19, Stephens) reported that “more than 300 educators, business chiefs, community leaders and parents will begin comparing notes…in a first-of-its-kind statewide summit on improving public education.” The summit, “which ends Saturday, is being grandly billed as ‘the Governor’s Institute for Creativity & Innovation in Education.’ But its purpose is plain: Identify what works in Ohio classrooms, and figure out how to replicate it.” Jim Mahoney, “executive director of Battelle for Kids, a Columbus-based not-for-profit group,” said that “much of the groups’ reform effort has been data-driven.” However, he added that “creativity and innovation are equally important.” Mahoney said, “It isn’t about who gets highest test scores. … Ultimately, students have to have the kind of skills important in the marketplace.” According to the Plain Dealer, “[a]nother participant, William Wendling, said he is hopeful the conference will address two of his areas of interest: Urban education and the community’s role in education.”
Aerospace contractor offers science training to teachers.
Industry Week (6/19, Katz) reported, “This summer aerospace defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. will host 20 elementary, middle and high school teachers as part of a fellowship program to build a workforce with strong math, science and technology skills.” The eight-week program pairs teachers “with an industry mentor” and “augments his or her science and math skills by solving real-world problems.” The teachers are expected “to use the experience to stimulate student interest in math and science.” This year, the fellowship “will focus on technical challenges associated with space-based programs…including satellite telecommunications, missiles, defense systems and other advanced technologies.”
D.C. schools chancellor fires 22 assistant principals, faces lawsuit.
The Washington Post (6/19, B2, Haynes) reported, “D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee fired 22 assistant principals this week, her second round of school administrative terminations, which came about a month after her dismissal of 24 principals.” According to Rhee, the “principals were dismissed because she differed on the direction in which they were taking the schools” — but she “offered no reason for firing the assistant principals.” Even though “administrative leaders work on year-to-year contracts and can be fired without cause under D.C. law, an official with the principals union said the action appears to violate the contract because many of the assistant principals were not given a required evaluation.” After the assistant principal firings, Aona Jefferson, executive vice president for the Council of School Officers, “the union representing principals and assistant principals,” said that “the union has filed a class-action grievance against Rhee.”
Law & Policy
House spending measure would eliminate Reading First.
Education Week (6/19, Klein) reported, “The controversial federal Reading First program would be eliminated under a fiscal 2009 spending measure approved unanimously today by a House Appropriations subcommittee.” Noting “results of a preliminary federal evaluation of Reading First,…which found that the program has had no impact on students’ reading comprehension,” Rep. David R. Obey (D-Wis.) added that the program “has been plagued with mismanagement, conflicts of interest, and cronyism.” Others, including U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and Rep. James Walsh (R-N.Y.), defended the program’s record. Spellings credited the program with helping “to crack the code on how to get kids to read.” Education Week noted that the spending measure also “includes a $604 million increase over fiscal 2008 for grants to help states cover the costs of serving students in special education,” and “would provide $15.1 billion in Title I grants for low-income children.”
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Massachusetts governor’s education plan would allow 16-year-olds to graduate.
The AP (6/19, Johnson) reported, “The school overhaul plan Governor Deval Patrick (D) is to unveil next week includes a proposal to allow high school students as young as 16 to take an international evaluation test that would allow them to graduate.” Currently, the state “has no set graduation age, but for all practical purposes, local and state education requirements dictate that most students stay in high school until they are 18 years old and have completed grade 12.” The goal of the governor’s Readiness Project “is to personalize education rather than continuing to rely on the more formulaic approach in which all students progress from elementary school through high school and undergraduate education,” the AP added.
Also in the News
Surgeon General calls childhood obesity numbers embarrassing.
The AP (6/20) reports that acting Surgeon General Steven Galson “said Thursday that the country should be embarrassed by the percentage of children who are overweight or obese despite a recent report showing their numbers are leveling off.” There are “9 million children over the age of six that are overweight,” a fact, Galson said, “that should be embarrassing to every parent, to every teacher and every leader in this community and all around the country.” Galson, who was speaking at an elementary school in Arkansas, “one of five states to win the national President’s Challenge,” also “praised steps that Arkansas took to address childhood obesity.” The state’s initiatives “includ[e] efforts to track the body mass indices of schoolchildren,” as well as setting “new nutrition and physical activity standards as part of the anti-obesity effort.”
NEA in the News
Education groups develop PSA aimed at U.S. presidential candidates.
eSchool News (6/19, Stansbury) reported that a number of associations, including the National Education Association, the International Society for Technology in Education, and the State Educational Technology Directors Association, “have teamed up to develop a public service announcement (PSA) campaign aimed at the presidential candidates.” The PSA will “emphasize the importance of education to the nation’s future and to drive home how much schools need to change in order to educate the children of tomorrow.” It also “calls on the next president to respond to the groups’ vision for a 21st-century learning environment.” The PSA particularly addresses issues surrounding the improvement and expansion of science, technology, engineering, and math education, arguing that “[s]tudent access to school technology, robust teacher technology preparation, and a renewed focus on 21st-century skills are…critical” to the nation’s future