NSFGRANT2004
Folks: (Something to consider)
Published: January 26, 2005
Bush Plan Worries the Voc. Ed. Community
President's Call for More High School Testing Could Mean Shift in Funding
By Sean Cavanagh
The Bush administration’s recent unveiling of its plan to extend accountability and other academic measures into the nation’s high schools has caused backers of vocational education to worry that the proposal may squeeze their programs out of the federal budget.
Advocates for career and technical education in recent weeks have launched a pre-emptive strike to urge members of Congress and other influential parties to help them stave off potential cuts to their funding—even though the administration’s fiscal 2006 budget is not expected to be released until next month.
In particular, their goal is to preserve funding in the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act, the federal government’s primary vehicle for career-oriented school programs, which currently receive about $1.3 billion annually.
Concerns about next year’s budget spiked earlier this month, after President Bush spoke publicly about his secondary education proposal—and about changing the way the federal government provides aid for high schools. The plan calls for testing students in 9th, 10th, and 11th grades in reading and mathematics; expanding incentives to teachers working in high-poverty schools; and analyzing the academic records of incoming 9th graders to determine if they need help. The proposal carries an estimated $1.5 billion price tag, though the White House did not specify how much of that money would be new, as opposed to existing funding.
Speaking at a high school in Virginia two weeks ago, the president also called for consolidating some high school programs—though he did not specifically say cuts to vocational programs were on the way.
The Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment on the vocational community’s concerns.
"The problem is they’re like silos," Mr. Bush said of federal high school programs. "They’re prescriptions that may not meet the needs of the local high school, or the school district—you know, a program to promote vocational education, or to prepare for college, … or to encourage school restructuring."
Not long after that speech, the Association of Career and Technical Education sent an alert to its 30,000 members, voicing concerns about the proposal’s effect on vocational education. A second organization, the National Association of State Directors of Career and Technical Education Consortium, issued a similar notice around the same time.
"Our greatest fear is that all, or most, of our budget would be cut to fund the president’s high school proposal," said Christin M. Driscoll, the senior director of public policy for the Alexandria, Va.-based ACTE.
Vocational advocates note that during the past two budget years, the administration has called for bringing higher academic standards to the federal vocational program—while seeking to cut its funding from $1.3 billion to $1 billion. That money was later restored by Congress. In 2002, proponents went public with fears that the White House was planning to eliminate the Perkins program or move its functions into the Department of Labor, speculation that was dismissed by the administration. (
"Advocates Warn Voc. Ed. Cuts May Be Afoot," Nov. 27, 2002.)
"They’ve dropped enough bread crumbs," said Kimberly A. Green, the executive director of the Washington-based state consortium, in summing up her concerns.
Congress at Work Again
That budget speculation also emerges as Congress prepares to reauthorize the Perkins Act, a process that federal lawmakers failed to reach agreement on before adjourning last year. Two reauthorization bills were introduced last year, in the House and the Senate. Because this is a new Congress, those proposals would have to be reintroduced if they are to become law.
Rep. Michael N. Castle, R-Del., who led House reauthorization efforts last year, expects new legislation to closely follow last year’s bill, and hopes to have the measure approved by the House education committee by April, said his spokeswoman, Elizabeth B. Wenk. The lawmaker does not favor paying for the president’s high school plan through cuts to other education programs, such as vocational education, she said.
Sen. Michael B. Enzi, the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, issued a statement praising the president’s plan, while noting the importance of continued vocational funding "as a critical component of high school education."
The Perkins legislation introduced last year in both chambers would have established various incentives and mandates for states to improve local vocational programs. The bills also would have created new indicators to judge the effectiveness of high school and college programs.
Yet some critics, such as Ross Wiener, the policy director for the Education Trust, say those bills need "substantial modifications" and lack the teeth necessary to force state and local programs to improve their academic rigor.
Mr. Wiener points to the findings of last year’s congressionally mandated National Assessment of Vocational Education. While that report indicated that the percentage of students taking core academic courses in English, mathematics, and science has risen in recent years, it also concluded that "secondary vocational education itself is not likely to be a widely effective strategy for improving academic achievement or college attendance without substantial changes to policy, curriculum, and teacher training." (
"Vocational Students Lag In Achievement, Report Says," July 14, 2004.)
Although the vocational community has fought off significant changes to their federal programs in recent years, that position leaves them vulnerable when federal officials—including the Bush administration—start pushing for changes in high schools, Mr. Wiener said.
"They might have protected their program [into] irrelevance," said Mr. Wiener, whose Washington-based group promotes higher academic standards. "We have to distinguish between high-quality voc-ed and low-quality programs that don’t prepare students for today’s economy."
Folks:
I was wondering when I would ever get a chance to use this "new" buzzword ( although I had already put it in the trash where I think it still belongs........the word not the report).
Here goes............Globiate this............
http://www.cia.gov/nic/NIC_globaltrend2020.html
Best,
Jim
Folks:
A little something regarding the reinvention of Voc-Ed which is not dead provided by John Iras.
A smart path — that isn't 'college'
By Ben Brown
If we're so big on measuring results in education, isn't it time to get serious about an approach that links knowledge and training with good-paying jobs?
The time is ripe. Hardly a week goes by without another warning from a business or education-reform group that too many of our students graduate without the skills to compete in a global marketplace. And when the nation's governors meet in February for a National Education Summit, high on the agenda is a discussion of new strategies for helping students "build bridges between high school, college and work."
The trouble is, if you try to bring vocational education into the discussion, the first thing that enters many folks' minds are the guys in last-period shop class, the ones who seemto know their way around an engine block, but not algebra II. Fonzie in Happy Days, the 1970s sitcom set in the 1950s, was a voc-ed guy — cool, but not what parents hold up as a career role model. Everybody knew Fonzie wasn't headed to college. And college is the one sure path to the good life, right?
A skewed view of college
Well, yes and no. Yes, if you're willing to morph your concept of college to include other post-secondary educational opportunities, from community colleges to tech schools to professional- certification and workplace-training programs. Occupational certification has increased by 50% during the past decade, according to a recent study by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.
No, if you're talking about only four-year institutions, where a third of students don't qualify for degrees in six years.
"The last thing we need is another college dropout, saddled with student loans and looking for a job without a marketable skill," says Gerry Hogan, a volunteer advocate for vocational education and the chairman of Endurance Business Media.
Clide Cassity, director of Pinellas Technical Education Centers in Florida, adds, "Yet somehow we've gotten ourselves in the situation where we believe that college is all that counts, that nothing else matters."
Even though good jobs increasingly require what used to be college-level training, most still don't demand four-year degrees. Of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' estimates of the fastest-growing occupations between 2002 and 2012, the top 10 don't require bachelor's degrees. And many non-degree occupations crying out for workers are career fields with salaries that can support healthy families — provided employees have higher level skills.
Kay Martin, CEO of the Francis Tuttle Oklahoma Technology Center in Oklahoma City, says students who graduate in Tuttle's automotive program "after a few years can earn $100,000."
And there are similar career opportunities in health technology, the construction trades and public safety.
In an era of outsourcing, here's more good news: These high-skill jobs aren't going anywhere. You're not going to call someone in India to fix your car or your plumbing. And if your house is on fire in Ohio, help is not coming from Mexico.
A' real-world' advantage
Career and technical education — the term voc-ed pros have adopted to avoid the Fonzie factor — has the advantage of relevance. For many students, "academics suddenly make sense," says Robin White, president of the Great Oaks Institute of Technology and Career Development in Cincinnati. "Geometry makes more sense in construction technology than just drawing circles and squares on paper." And the best programs can tout real-world accountability.
Tom Applegate, executive dean of Austin Community College, says, "All our programs are labor-market driven. If employers don't want our grads, we don't want the program."
In Florida, Cassity has lines at both ends of some Pinellas Tech programs: Students wait for class slots, and companies wait to hire them. Two-thirds of Pinellas Tech students complete requirements for professional certification or state licensing, and 82% end up employed in their field of study.
So what's not to like about voc-ed? "It's the high schools that have run amok," says Phyllis Hudecki, executive director of the Oklahoma Business and Education Council, a non-profit education advocacy group. Even its defenders acknowledge that, in the past, voc-ed has been used "as an avoidance mechanism for kids who couldn't do academic work," Hudecki says. "And that's still out there. I want to make sure students are really learning, and then turn them loose" in voc-ed tracks.
Approaches such as the Southern Regional Education Board's "High Schools That Work" project have proved that integrating vocational education with academic courses can accelerate achievement at the high school level. The trick is combining a no-compromise academic program with vocational education that matches students with business mentors and that guarantees them career and academic counseling. That may be tough for stressed-out high schools, but it's doable.
Easier to model are proven post-secondary programs such as Cassity's in Florida and Applegate's in Texas. They fight for funding, yet they have track records business leaders and legislators should admire. So why not reward them for delivering what the market needs?
The demand for trained — and retrained — workers is only going to increase, perhaps in unexpected ways.
"Our fastest-growing group of students by percentage," Applegate says, "is those with master's degrees."
Ben Brown writes for Southern Living and its sister magazines, and he is a member of USA TODAY's board of contributors.
Folks:
This just in THANKS to Paul Briercheck.
How
WE Learn
January 16, 2005
By ALISON GOPNIK
So here's the big question: if children who don't even go
to school learn so easily, why do children who go to school
seem to have such a hard time? Why can children solve
problems that challenge computers but stumble on a
third-grade reading test?
When we talk about learning, we really mean two quite
different things, the process of discovery and of mastering
what one discovers. All children are naturally driven to
create an accurate picture of the world and, with the help
of adults to use that picture to make predictions,
formulate explanations, imagine alternatives and design
plans. Call it ''guided discovery.''
If this kind of learning is what we have in mind then one
answer to the big question is that schools don't teach the
same way children learn. As in the gear-and-switch
experiments,
children seem to learn best when they can
explore the world and interact with expert adults.
For example, Barbara Rogoff, professor of psychology at the
University of California at Santa Cruz, studied children
growing up in poor Guatemalan Indian villages.
The youngsters gradually mastered complex skills like preparing
tortillas from scratch, beginning with the 2-year-old
mimicking the flattening of dough to the 10-year-old
entrusted with the entire task. They learned by watching
adults, trying themselves and receiving detailed corrective
feedback about their efforts. Mothers did a careful
analysis of what the child was capable of before
encouraging the next step.
This may sound like a touchy-feely progressive
prescription. But a good example of such teaching in our
culture is the stern but beloved baseball coach. How many
school teachers are as good at essay writing, science or
mathematics as the average coach is at baseball? And even
when teachers are expert, how many children ever get to
watch them work through writing an essay or designing a
scientific experiment or solving an unfamiliar math
problem?
Imagine if baseball were taught the way science is taught
in most inner-city schools. Schoolchildren would get
lectures about the history of the World Series. High school
students would occasionally reproduce famous plays of the
past. Nobody would get in the game themselves until
graduate school.
But there is another side to the question.
In guided discovery -- figuring out how the world works or unraveling
the structure of making tortillas -- children learn to
solve new problems. But what is expected in school, at
least in part, involves a very different process: call it
''routinized learning.'' Something already learned is made
to be second nature, so as to perform a skill effortlessly
and quickly.
The two modes of learning seem to involve different
underlying mechanisms and even different brain regions, and
the ability to do them develops at different stages.
Babies are as good at discovery as the smartest adult -- or
better. But routinized learning evolves later. There may
even be brain changes that help.
There are also tradeoffs: Children seem to learn new things more easily than adults.
But especially through the school-age years, knowledge
becomes more and more engrained and automatic. For that
reason, it also becomes harder to change. In a sense,
routinized learning is less about getting smarter than
getting stupider: it's about perfecting mindless
procedures. This frees attention and thought for new
discoveries.
The activities that promote mastery may be different from
the activities that promote discovery. What makes knowledge
automatic is what gets you to Carnegie Hall -- practice,
practice, practice. In some settings, like the Guatemalan
village, this happens naturally: make tortillas every day
and you'll get good at it. In our culture, children rich
and poor grow highly skilled at video games they play for
hours.
But in school we need to acquire unnatural skills like
reading and writing. These are meaningless in themselves.
There is no intrinsic discovery in learning artificial
mapping between visual symbols and sounds, and in the
natural environment no one would ever think of looking for
that sort of mapping. On the other hand, mastering these
skills is absolutely necessary, allowing us to exercise our
abilities for discovery in a wider world.
The problem for many children in elementary school may not
be that they're not smart enough but that they're not
stupid enough. They haven't yet been able to make reading
and writing transparent and automatic. This is particularly
true for children who don't have natural opportunities to
practice these skills, learning in chaotic and impoverished
schools and leading chaotic and impoverished lives.
But routinized learning is not an end in itself. A good
coach may well make his players throw the ball to first
base 50 times or swing again and again in the batting cage.
That will help, but by itself it won't make a strong
player. The game itself -- reacting to different pitches,
strategizing about base running -- requires thought,
flexibility and inventiveness.
Children would never tolerate baseball if all they did was
practice. No coach would evaluate a child, and no society
would evaluate a coach, based on performance in the batting
cage. What makes for learning is the right balance of both
learning processes, allowing children to retain their
native brilliance as they grow up.
Alison Gopnik is co-author of ''The Scientist in the Crib''
and professor of psychology at the University of California
at Berkeley.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/16/education/edlife/EDSCIENCE.html?ex=1106973113&ei=1&en=5e14c718e2b159eb
Folks:
This may be the last/first word on the subject...........but it is only the beginning of the end as we knew it. Now on to the doing on behalf of the true customer who has suddenly become the catalyst for change in K-12 education. And he/she is formidable!
Innovation & Biology
http://www.fastcompany.com/resources/innovation/watson/080904.html
National Education Technology Plan 2005
http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2005/01/01072005.html
VoIP / Video over Internet Protocol
http://www.campus-technology.com/article.asp?id=10406
SMART MONSTER
http://www.campus-technology.com/article.asp?id=10412
Folks:
A little something on the how we might do the new horizon, vision, planning, entrepreneurial thingy........
http://www.campus-technology.com/tomorrow/index.asp
Best,
Jim
If teachers are "seldom" or "never" visionary, it's most likely because they are being held captive by the constraints imposed by an administrator or a maintenance person. These are the two groups that would prefer that, at the end of any given day, nothing had really changed.
No educator is more aware of the perils of navigating a bureaucracy than a teacher...it is generally the greatest obstacle to their real success.
Hear, Hear!
Best,
Jim
Folks:
"Knowledge at Lightspeed" says the billster........with Windows at the center of his universe.....
MIKE WENDLAND: Gates' TV vision: Everything on demand (Even Education?)
BY MIKE WENDLAND FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
January 7, 2005
LAS VEGAS -- Get ready for another high-tech acronym: IPTV.
Since Wednesday night, when Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates started using the term during his keynote speech so casually you'd think we all knew what it was, it's become almost a catchphrase of the Consumer Electronics Show.
IP stands for Internet Protocol, the system by which data is sent over the Internet. And TV, of course, is television.
IPTV will use the Internet to deliver TV programming to your home in DVD-like quality. You'll get so much content that today's choices will seem anemic.
You'll have on-demand everything. Movies for rent as downloads from an online store that offers thousands of choices to be delivered to your TV hard drive. Multiplayer video gaming. Live video telephone calls with Grandma. Cable shows, local news and who knows what else -- all of which can be programmed from your cell phone to record or activate or relay anywhere you want: to other computers, televisions and even your car.
Gates, of course, sees his company's software running it all, part of what he says is a "Windows ecosystem." He apparently likes that phrase a lot, because he slipped it in three times during his talk.
To be fair, Gates has been humming the mantra of all functions in one device for six years now at CES. He deserves the credit for getting the entire industry to embrace his vision. And this year, it's IPTV that has the buzz.
SBC Communications is a huge player, with $5.5 billion committed this year alone to its so-called Project Lightspeed effort to build the nationwide fiber-optic network that such services demand.
It's not pie-in-the-sky stuff, either, with service promised to 18 million households by 2007. The first trials will launch in selected markets later this year.
Gates even yielded time on the CES keynote stage to Lea Ann Champion, SBC's IP operations and services senior executive vice president, who demonstrated the project.
She showed how IPTV will allow channel changing with no delay. A program guide will show live picture-in-picture previews of every program available, instead of just the show title.
Major League Baseball is in on the deal as well, and produced a demo to show how IPTV will let consumers control what camera image they want to see, even zooming and tilting between shots -- all enhanced by ever-changing stats and on-screen data reports.
Several of the Microsoft show-and-tells were plagued by technical glitches, including the dreaded Windows Blue Screen of Death that appeared on one of the Windows Media Center TV sets, indicating it had run out of memory.
That prompted comedian Conan O'Brien, who appeared with Gates on the stage at the Las Vegas Hilton, to quip with mock disgust: "Who's in charge at Microsoft?" Gates just grinned sheepishly.
Even if all the bugs haven't yet been conquered, video clearly has emerged as the star of this year's show. The PC and the TV have converged into a single media-centric device that has implications for every technology company, no matter what their traditional area of expertise.
Cable is in on the act, too. Now cable companies want to send their TV programming to your car.
Comcast announced a new partnership with Troy-based Delphi Corp. to transfer video from TV set-top cable boxes to DVD players in vehicles. That's expected to be ready sometime in 2006.
With that, you won't have to carry along a glove box full of DVDs on the next vacation: Just push a button on the Comcast box on top of your television, and a video hard drive on a Delphi radio in your car will download what you want.
What it all means is that television is once again the king in consumer technology, be it for games, music, movies or data. And it's coming to cell phones, handheld video gaming consoles, cars and computers.
There will be no escaping it.
Contact MIKE WENDLAND at 313-222-8861 or
mwendland@freepress.com.
Folks:
And besides it was sooooooooooo 20th century........
School will be more than just auto shop
Web-posted Jan 7, 2005
By DAVE GROVES
Of The Daily Oakland Press
A group of local educators and state industry advocates will sign documents Wednesday that could change the way many area youths look at high school.
Rather than a place where they prepare to make a career choice, high school might become a place where students pursue a career they've already chosen.
Lawrence Technological University, Ferndale Public Schools and Michigan Future Inc. have worked together to create University High School - a schools-of-choice facility that will welcome up to 500 students interested in automotive and high-tech industry careers.
"Our whole effort has been trying to help Michigan make the transition from the industrial age to the information age," said Lou Glazer, president of the nonprofit, Ann Arbor-based Michigan Future Inc.
"We're all very excited about this," he added. "It's meeting the notion of an integrated high school and higher education experience geared toward the new economy."
Steve Ragan, vice president for university advancement at Lawrence Tech, said the kind of partnership the university is creating with Ferndale schools is unique.
University High School will be overseen by a management committee comprised of automotive industry leaders and Lawrence Tech and Ferndale Public Schools educators.
Teachers will use a hands-on approach to math, science, language arts and social studies lessons. The curriculum will highlight how course content is applied in engineering, design, planning, manufacturing, purchasing, logistics, marketing, sales and service careers.
"As kids go through this program, they'll always be thinking about career opportunities in the auto industry or in high tech," said Gary Meier, superintendent of the Ferndale schools. "We want the kids to have as many practical experiences as possible."
Michigan Future Inc. is offering more than $1.1 million in seed money to support school operations in the first two years.
University High School is expected to open its doors to ninth- and 10th-graders this fall. The facility will be in a presently unoccupied Ferndale Public Schools building, though which building is yet to be determined.
Opportunities to obtain college credit while in high school will be available, and students successful in the program will be guaranteed admission to Lawrence Tech.
Meanwhile, students will have access to an array of traditional noncore content courses such as foreign language, music and fine arts.
Ragan said that because Lawrence Tech will play a central role in shaping its curriculum, University High School could become the private university's largest feeder school.
Michigan's schools of choice program allows students to apply their state school funding allowance to any public school accepting students outside its district boundaries. University High School will be open to all Oakland County students, as well as those in neighboring counties.
Program partners acknowledge that school operating costs likely will exceed student enrollment revenues. These will range between $6,700 and $12,000 per pupil, per year depending on each student's home district allowance.
Still, University High School representatives are confident that a successful program will attract funding through industry sponsorship, educational foundations and other sources.
"If this works, and we're confident it will, we believe there will be many, many funders out there who'll want to be part of this kind of initiative," Meier said.
Ferndale schools has distributed thousands of postcards announcing creation of the school to area families with 12- to 14-year-old students. Additional marketing is planned in the near future.
"We're already getting parent inquiries about this, so I think it's going to generate a lot of interest," Meier said.
Folks:
Shudup and/or get otta here................
Videoconferencing in Education
A videoconferencing initiative at Eastview Middle School has students interacting with people from all over the world right from their classrooms.
By Jody Howard-KennedyJan 1, 2005 5:00 AMURL:
http://www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=55300827) is a site developed by teacher Mike Griffith, who is devoted to helping other teachers make natural curricular connections with resources throughout the world. Mike Griffith states, "Incorporating an awareness of global issues into the curriculum, and developing innovative classroom resources and strategies, encourages an understanding of world issues and interdependence. We hope to provide a framework from which our students can become active and effective world citizens. By making the curriculum more topical and global, it becomes more relevant to the lives, experiences and interests of pupils, now and in the future. A global dimension can help to demystify the unfamiliar and to enrich the learning process in linguistic, subject specific and cross-curricular ways."
The Youth Summits for Global Harmony project, founded by teachers from the St. Wilfrid’s School in England and teachers from Eastview Middle School is a good example. During the 2003- 2004 school year, 12 schools from 10 countries have participated in collaborative projects. The goal was to guide our students in pondering universal essential questions, and these questions have guided our international work. This work will encourage students to participate in dialogues, debates, presentations and performances as schools from around the world share their knowledge, experiences and ideas with each other. Students become their own experts and each other’s audiences. Examples of these collaborative partnerships include foreign language exchanges with classrooms in Mexico, Costa Rica and Canada, cultural exchange presentations including dance performances with partner schools in New Zealand and Argentina, and dialogues about personal challenges, world perceptions and discrimination with students from Kosovo, Afghanistan and South Africa.
The sheer power of this kind of communication medium was demonstrated when our eighth grade Health Studies students, learning about HIV and preventative awareness, were able to interview HIV-positive students in South Africa. Students were able to hear first-hand about the severity of this global issue as they ‘put a face’ on this epidemic that before was simply a distant abstraction. Students were moved from apathy into empathy as they began to form an emotional connection to the people on the other side of the world. So connected were these students that they took action and conducted a fundraiser for the Growing South Africa Foundation to sponsor a vegetable garden for a school in Johannesburg, South Africa. As educators these are the learning opportunities that we must strive to provide for our students. Careful planning and research will enable us to teach the child as a whole, and as an intellectual and emotional human being.
As with any new initiative we were faced with many challenges. Teachers needed training, we needed to gain district and community support and develop teaching materials that reflected curriculum. Patience and perseverance became our mantra throughout the last few years as we slowly began to address our needs. We developed turn-key training courses for our teachers. A committee of 13 teachers met frequently to discuss concerns and the development of our initiative, and we invited administrators, parents and board members in order to gain the support of our district. We even created several videos documenting our conferences for training and public relations purposes. The concept of videoconferencing in a classroom was difficult for many to imagine .We needed, therefore, to create a resource to help people visualize how it could be used as a teaching tool that added value to units of study.
Additional Uses of Videoconferencing
Videoconferencing saves time and money. Through the use of this technology, professional development opportunities that might otherwise be unaffordable for a school district became available to teachers and administrators. Ties with colleges and universities to take advantage of their resources such as trainings, certifications and career development opportunities, can enrich existing programs. Interviewing potential candidates, parent support workshops, sharing teachers between schools, and presenting at conferences are all other possibilities to explore.
Equipment
Based on our experience thus far, here are several key factors to consider when buying equipment for your school:
Select equipment you can grow into. There are two ways to make a connection: either IP (Internet) or through ISDN (telephone lines). Buy equipment that is capable of doing both even though your network might not be ready yet or you don’t have ISDN lines. Progress happens fast and you want to be ready.
Select your vendor carefully. When selecting a vendor it is imperative that you investigate their support and help-desk services. Teachers will need support, lots of it. Our vendor,
IVCi, has given us impeccable service, advice and on-demand support through their help-desk, and this has been critical to our success. They are also very experienced in this field and share their knowledge readily. They offer products and services for all of the leading manufacturers of videoconferencing units, including Tandberg and Polycom, and will help to supply an affordable unit based on your budgetary requirements.
The Human Connection
Human interaction and communication are basic human needs. Videoconferencing is a powerful communication tool that has the potential to change the way we deliver information to students. As globalization affects more of our society there is an increasing need to be globally aware and tolerant. As tomorrow’s generation, students need to develop an understanding of citizenship on national and international levels and practice exercising their rights and responsibilities as such. Schools are microcosms of the wider world. Videoconferencing is just one of today’s integrative technologies that help educators address these new educational challenges as they offer opportunities that empower students to prepare for their lives as responsible, integral contributors to society.
Email:
Jody Howard-Kennedy
Folks:
A confirming review is in regarding the need for the "urgent reinvention" of education in the State of Michigan. Now all we need to determine is what would it look like (begin with the end in mind)? Perhaps this may become the signal that the "tipping point" has begun.
LOCAL COMMENT: Michigan's call for more degrees is impressive -- and imperative
BY THOMAS BAILEY and JAMES JACOBS
January 3, 2005
With the recent release of the report of the Lieutenant Governor's Commission on Higher Education, Michigan attempts to define an important new standard for the level of education that states will regard as their responsibility to provide. This report calls for all Michigan citizens to strive for the completion of a post-secondary degree or credential "coupled with a guarantee from the state of financial support linked to the achievement of that goal."
No state has gone this far to make post-secondary education a commitment to its citizens. The report was developed as the result of deliberations of a 41-member task force of educators, business and labor organizations assembled by Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who has set a goal of doubling over the next decade the number of Michigan residents who have completed a post-secondary degree or another credential of value such as an apprenticeship.
Today only 37 percent of Michigan's 18- to 24-year-olds are enrolled in post-secondary education. That's more than 10 percent below the levels of the leading states in this critical area. Twenty-five percent of Michigan adults have "some college," but no credential past a high school degree.
In dealing with this goal, the commission was well aware that any response needed a bold move, which would put the state in a position of guarantying economic support for all Michiganders who want a credential beyond high school. This step is particularly extraordinary because few states face such a pressing need as Michigan does to alter its fundamental economy. Over the past four years, Michigan has lost more jobs than any other state, as the huge auto-manufacturing base continues to shrink.
While in the past, getting hired in a unionized auto industry job could guarantee decent pay with substantial fringe benefits for those with even less than a high school education, those jobs are disappearing at an alarming rate. To shift to the new economy, the state needs to rapidly enhance the educational levels of its citizens. The commission report argues that increasing the educational credentials of Michigan's citizens is the only way in which the state can be assured of a promising future.
The commission's specific recommendations focus on three important areas. First, the demand that credentials are the desired outcome -- not simply more citizens attending college. Access to higher education still remains an issue for many low-income Michigan families, but the focus of the commission's efforts is on completion. These credentials of value could be college degrees, but they also can be apprenticeships, industry-validated certificates and other forms of non-degree achievements that give economic return in the market place. What the state will measure and support are educational credentials that matter in today's marketplace.
Second, for high school students, the commission demanded the elimination of various multiple high school tracks in favor of making college prep courses the norm. In addition, the commission called for a dramatic increase in the number of school districts using credit-based transition strategies from high school to college. Not only will students in high school prepare for college, but a large number will attend college classes while they are in high school. They will gain not just credits to be used to further their college education, but also familiarity with college level work. That is particularly important for students who are the first in their families to attend college.
Third is the critically important role that community colleges will play. Community colleges will remain institutions to earn a two-year degree, but the commission is also calling for them, in specific circumstances, to
offer vocational or applied baccalaureate degrees in many growing economic sectors such as information technology and technical training.
These recommendations and more are a statewide response to the lack of a college-educated workforce, and its implication for the future of Michigan. Throughout the report, there was an emphasis on how the higher educational system must actively recruit students from low-income urban and rural high schools so that Michigan remains a leader in economic development.
This is a tall order in a state where the government budget has been slashed for the past four years and total state spending is no larger today than it was in the mid-1970s. Moreover, the state's largest school district, Detroit, is faced with an enormous fiscal deficit that threatens its viability.
Yet the leadership of the state is committed to moving ahead with this bold vision.
One of the most frequent words in the report is "must." This is an imperative for the economic prospects of Michigan and its citizens.
This is a gamble, but it will make Michigan the leading state in providing post-secondary credentials for all of its citizens.
In that way, the mitten could become the model for a new merger of workforce and economic development for the rest of the country.
THOMAS R. BAILEY is director and JAMES JACOBS is associate director of the Community College Research Center, an organization dedicated to carrying out and promoting research on major issues affecting the development, growth, and changing roles of community colleges in the United States. CCRC is housed within the Institute on Education and the Economy at Teachers College, Columbia University. Write to them in care of the Free Press Editorial Page, 600 W. Fort St., Detroit, MI 48226.
Folks:
This just in.........
"Pilot Project" exploration with the Hands-on Science Center in Ann Arbor with our good friend Mel Drumm (formerly visionary director of the Detroit Science Center).
Much MORE to come.
Best,
Jim
Fast Company
Celebrating the Extraordinary (or anything else for that matter)
This month's letter from the editor.
From: Issue 90 January 2005, Page 14 By: John A. Byrne Photographs by: Dennis KleimanURL:
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/90/open_edlet.html
In his 80th year of life, the famous English sculptor Henry Moore was asked a fascinating question by literary critic Donald Hall.
"Now that you are 80, you must know the secret of life. What is it?"
Moore paused ever so slightly, with just enough time to smile before answering.
"The secret of life," he mused, "is to have a task, something you do your entire life, something you bring everything to, every minute of the day for your whole life. And the most important thing is: It must be something you cannot possibly do."
The sculptor's remarks represent a nicely packaged theory of a productive life: Throw yourself into something big that you believe in. Dedicate your life's work to it. And make damn sure it's ambitious enough to stretch you to the limits.
It's a philosophy that guides the 25 social entrepreneurs honored in this issue with our second annual Social Capitalist Awards. Turn to "The Change Masters," starting on page 47. Each of these extraordinary individuals has tackled a seemingly impossible task: "something you cannot possibly do." And each of them has triumphed in bringing creativity, passion, and smarts to that task to make a meaningful difference.
The Social Capitalists package, produced in partnership with the consulting firm Monitor Group, not only recognizes the accomplishments of these remarkable entrepreneurs. It also explains the how behind what they have achieved, describing creative ideas and lessons helpful to all of us, no matter what we do or how we do it. And behind every initiative -- from helping underprivileged children go to college or exporting entrepreneurship to solve Latin America's most daunting social problems -- is a tale that truly inspires.
Consider the story of Jonathan Schnur, who leads New York-based organization New Leaders for New Schools. The group helps to recruit and train entrepreneurs to become principals in inner-city schools. It was while working on education policy in the Clinton administration that Schnur became unsettled by the shockingly low reading and math scores among low-income and black children. He came to believe those low scores were the result of a dearth of quality teachers and principals in inner-city schools. Schnur went to Harvard Business School to learn how to do something about the problem, and with four fellow grads founded NLNS in 2000.
So far, his "leadership factory" has turned out 152 principals serving 75,000 children. "The proudest moment for me will be when we can say we've got 2,000 schools serving a million kids," he says.
New Leaders for New Schools is an extraordinary enterprise -- but then, so is the Social Capitalist Awards project itself. Our team began work on this year's awards almost as soon as last year's package was complete, rethinking the methodology that guides our selection of the best social entrepreneurs and gathering the top experts who help make our analysis smarter and more rigorous. The standards we apply are high. After all, we're essentially trying to create a new system of accounting for the not-for-profit sector.
So we measure organizations by their social impact, aspiration and growth, entrepreneurship, innovation, and sustainability.
This year, we began accepting nominations in June, and our assessment lasted most of the summer and into October. In all, it took nine Monitor consultants and an equal number of Fast Company editors and writers, led by deputy editor Keith H. Hammonds and contributing writer Cheryl Dahle, to make this package happen. No fewer than 48 experts from education, community development, health care, and other fields worked with us to identify promising organizations, refine our criteria and metrics, and assess the performance of our finalists. And the participating organizations themselves invested countless hours in preparing and defending their applications.
Why would a business magazine invest so much time and energy in a project that isn't, in the end, about traditional business? Because these Social Capitalists bring commitment and innovation to their work. Because increasingly, they are engaging with for-profit companies to realize their goals. And because ultimately, they may be a bit closer to Henry Moore's secret of life than the rest of us.
The Makings of a Social Innovator
In its selection of Fellows, Ashoka measures social entrepreneurs against five essential criteria.
From: Issue 90 January 2005, Page 63 By: Keith H. Hammonds
1. Is there a new idea?
If there isn't, the rest doesn't matter. If it's new, is the idea going to fly? And will it be big enough to truly change society?
2. Is this person creative?
What is the quality of thinking? What is the history of her creativity? Experiences early in life are the best indicators.
3. Is this person an entrepreneur?
True social innovators need to change a pattern across society. They are drawn to problems, constantly searching for the next advance.
4. What's the impact? Will it spread?
Most entrepreneurs can easily seed their idea in one place. It's another thing to come up with a solution that will get traction elsewhere.
5. Is there ethical fiber?
To be effective, leaders have to be on the up and up. They must change relationships -- and that won't happen if there's no trust.
