Is There An Actual Crisis in U.S. Education?

Is There An Actual Crisis in U.S. Education?
By Abby Rapoport
Over at the American Journalism Review, The Washington Post's Paul Farhi has a much-needed critique on how the "education in crisis" narrative cropped up in journalism across the country. Farhi, a veteran education reporter, notes how widespread the ... Assumptions that teachers are suddenly much less competent and education is awful has prompted punitive policies aimed at weeding out the failures in the system. Furthermore, while many education"reformers" look to improve ...
The American Prospect

Ontario Teachers' began 2012 with $9.6-billion funding shortfall
Globe and Mail
The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan had a $9.6-billion funding shortfall at the start of this year, despite recent contribution increases, benefit cuts, and solid investment returns. The funding gap is symbolic of struggles across the pension sector, ...

Globe and Mail

Ontario Teachers' Pension Fund Posts 11% Return on Fixed Income
Bloomberg
Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, Canada's third-biggest retirement-fund manager, posted an 11 percent return on investments in 2011, led by fixed income, private capital and infrastructure assets. Net investment income rose to C$11.7 billion ($11.8 ...

Teachers fear they may be paid by pupil age
BBC News
Members of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) also say planned reforms could lead to a shortage of good teachers in disadvantaged areas. TheEducation Secretary, Michael Gove, has asked the body which helps set teachers' pay to look at how ...

BBC News

11.2% rate of return boosts Teachers' net assets to all-time high of $117.1 ...
MarketWatch (press release)
The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (Teachers') today reported that net assets reached an all-time high in 2011. Its 11.2% rate of return added $11.7 billion to the plan's net assets, reaching $117.1 billion at December 31, despite the crisis of ...

The Facebook photo in question (Courtesy Kimberly Hester)
ABC News
Hester, 27, was a full-time peer professional, or teacher's aide, at Frank Squires Elementary in Cassapolis, Mich. for about two years. A year ago, in April 2011, a coworker texted a photo showing herself with her pants around her ankles, ...

ABC News

Comments: Michigan teacher's aide was right to refuse district's request for ...
MLive.com
By Troy Reimink | treimink@mlive.com You don't find a lot of consensus in comment sections here, so the reader response to a story Monday about a Michigan teacher's aide who was suspended after refusing to allow administrators access to her Facebook ...

MLive.com

2 School Buildings To Be Closed, 110 Fewer Teachers Among PPS Proposed Cuts
NPR
"Fewer teachers and educational staff will be available to assist our students," she said. The proposal slashes 110 teaching jobs plus 34 central support positions. Enrichments and electives will be further reduced. Programs that engage students and ...

Education World Honors Top 25 Blogs for Educators
San Francisco Chronicle (press release)
Why We Love It: The site offers a comprehensive look at technology in education -- from the people who are actually using it in classrooms. ScienceFix This blog for middle-school scienceteachers features lesson ideas written by science teacher Darren ...

Teachers body slams region pay plan
The Press Association
Plans to introduce regional pay for public sector workers risk discriminating against olderteachers and those working in primary schools, a union has warned. The proposals will leave schools, especially those in deprived areas, struggling to recruit ...

Children becoming addicted to video game fantasy worlds, teachers warn
The Guardian
A growing number of young children are acting out violent scenes from adult computer games in the playground, teachers have warned. Pupils as young as four and five are simulating car crashes and graphic injuries as a result of playing games ...

The Guardian

Federal judge gives go-ahead to fired pregnant teacher's suit against ...
Washington Post
CINCINNATI — A federal judge has given the go-ahead for trial in a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Cincinnati by a Catholic school teacher fired after she became pregnant through artificial insemination. The archdiocese fired Christa Dias in 2010, ...

US Secretary of Education Should Weigh in on Virginia Tech Shooting Fine Reversal
Huffington Post
Last week an administrative law judge for the US Department of Education (ED) relieved Virginia Tech of their obligation to pay a $55000 fine for "an alleged failure to follow the timely warning requirements of the Clery Act" during the April 16, ...

Cambium Learning Solutions is Now Voyager Education Services
MarketWatch (press release)
The newly named Voyager Education Services will continue its important mission of providing best-in-class support for teachers, teacher leaders and administrators, and also expand its offerings to include the latest research-based services that center ...

Teacher's aide in Michigan says refusal to show Facebook page to bosses caused ...
Washington Post
A teacher's aide in Michigan says she's been suspended for refusing to allow bosses to see her Facebook page. Kimberly Hester last year posted a picture of a co-worker's pants around her ankles and a pair of shoes. She says it wasn't done at work.

Benchmark Learning Donates to Partnership Community Services
MarketWatch (press release)
MINNEAPOLIS, April 3, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Benchmark Learning donated more than 950 technical items to Partnership Community Services, which will be returned to people in need at a minimal cost. Eligible recipients include individuals with ...

Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship New England Announces Adopt-A-Class Program
MarketWatch (press release)
BOSTON, April 3, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- The New England chapter of The Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), an international non-profit dedicated to inspiring young people from low-income communities to stay in school and recognize ...

Teachers under the morality microscope
Bradenton Herald
By JONATHAN TURLEY — Los Angeles Times In February, a Philadelphia high school teacherwas suspended because of a posting to her blog in which she complained that her students sometimes acted like "rude, disengaged, lazy whiners.

Grading Obama's Education Policy
Huffington Post (blog)
Obama's education reform magnum opus, Race to the Top, sustains successful teachers and principals in school districts across the nation, and has led to the adoption of common K-12teaching standards. In this competition, states receive points for ...

Jindal education bills headed to Senate floor
Bastrop Daily Enterprise
Teacher unions and other opponents are organizing a protest at the state Capitol on the Senate's debate day, but their criticism of the measures has done nothing to slow them down. The bills would make sweeping changes to the way education is financed ...

Pupils 'made more violent by computer games'
BBC News
Children are becoming more violent as they are being left unsupervised by their parents to play inappropriate computer games, teachers say. Pupils as young as four are acting out "graphic scenes" from games in class and in the playground, ...

BBC News

Bengals cheerleader, former teacher Sarah Jones pleads not guilty to sexually ...
Washington Post (blog)
By Matt Brooks A Cincinnati Bengals cheerleader and former teacher continues to maintain her innocence in the sexual abuse case involving one of her former students. Jones, who resigned from her job as an English teacher at Dixie Heights High in ...

College education leads to better health
Chicago Tribune
(Reuters) - A report card released on Tuesday ranking the relative health of people in more than 3000 US counties showed that those with more college-educated residents had fewer premature deaths and fewer reports of being in poor or fair health.

Teacher's aide fired for not giving up Facebook password
KHOU
by Kevin Reece/ KHOU 11 News HOUSTON—A teacher's aide in Michigan has been suspended because she refused to give her Facebook password to her employer. And our KHOU 11 News legal expert says it could easily happen in Texas as well.

Teacher's aide fired for refusing to share Facebook access with employer
Digitaltrends.com
As mentioned on WSBT, a teacher's aide named Kimberly Hester was put on paid administrative leave and then suspended from Frank Squires Elementary School in Cassopolis, Michigan after refusing to provide direct access to her Facebook account.

Digitaltrends.com

China Education International, Inc. Announces Amended Agreements With a ...
Sacramento Bee
China Education is a leader in managing the operations of private Chinese schools and educational organizations within China, while providing them with international partnership programs, and recruiting American and other international teachers for ...

A Passionate Curiosity for Learning
Huffington Post
The desire to gain an education should be an important element toward reforming the American way of learning. Several years ago I traveled to Taiwan and visited several schools. While there, I met an eight-year-old boy who made such an impact on me ...

Teacher of the Month: Byron teacher puts fun into learning
Post-Bulletin
By Matthew Stolle BYRON — Byron Middle School teacher Kim Nelson-McCann is a strong believer that laughter is not only good for the soul, but the mind as well. Laughter, smiles and good fun abound in this sixth-grade teacher's classroom.

Salem Education Foundation hosts 17th annual auction on Thursday
Boston.com
An equal prize of $5000 goes to support the work of the Salem Education Foundation with the schools. • The well-beloved Apple Board, where an exciting prize awaits for every $20 donation. • A silent auction that allows bidders to test their strategy ...

Q&A: University A-level plan
BBC News
A guide to why Education Secretary Michael Gove wants universities to have greater involvement in A-levels set by English exam boards. The education secretary wants the content of A-level courses to be controlled by universities, rather than ministers...

BBC News

President Obama's Education Budget Buster
By Lindsey Burke
President Obama's near-term spending proposals for the Department of Education (DOE) are a staggering display of federal profligacy. ... National Education Association Convention Fails to Benefit Teachers or Improve Education ...
The Foundry: Conservative Policy...

Patricia Leavy, PhD: How Higher Education Fails Us All
By Patricia Leavy, PhD
If higher education is going to be 'the way out' for the individual or society, it needs to cultivate skills with real-world value. ... Teachers · Education Reform · Ed-lection 2012 · Charter Schools · Armchair Detective More. Log in Create .... More in Education... Education Reform: Why a Bachelor's Degree Still... Kimberly Hester, Michigan Teacher's Aide, Files Lawsuit... Miguel Rivera, Pennsylvania School Bus Driver, Gets... Early Study Abroad For U.S. Education Means...
The Huffington Post Full Blog Feed

Learning to Code? Codecademy Adds Beginner Languages HTML ...
By Sarah Kessler
A new teacher tool gives anybody the option to submit a lesson for the curriculum, thereby making Codecademy content curators rather than creators. Sims tells Mashable more than 2000 lessons have been submitted, including those that ...
Mashable!

More than 100 teaching jobs would disappear from Portland schools ...
By Betsy Hammond, The Oregonian
The scaled-back teacher allocations that Smith is proposing would mean very small schools won't have the critical mass of educators they need to operate, Smith said. So she ... Smith said consolidating Humboldt's students and teachers with those at Boise-Eliot School, which is also small, will enable students from both neighborhoods to get a better education. .... By mid-October this year, parents will understand more clearly what 38 or more students in a classroom does to learning.
Portland News

Teacher's aide fired for refusing to hand over Facebook password
By Dan Graziano
A teacher's aide at an elementary school was fired last year for refusing to give her Facebook login credentials to her supervisors, ZDNet reported o.
BGR: The Three Biggest Letters In Tech

Teacher's aide files lawsuit against school system that asked for her ...
By Tom Cheredar
A teacher's aid who refused to give her school system access to her private Facebook account is now filing a lawsuit against her employer, according to a report from local Michigan news station WSBT.
VentureBeat

Casey Hauff, Teacher, Accused Of Offering Good Grades In ...
By The Huffington Post News Editors
Jonas Magdangal, a 55-year-old former math teacher at Campbell High School in Cobb County, Ga., is now facing criminal charges after police say he drove a 17-year-old student to a nearby hotel to have sex, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution ...
The Huffington Post | Full News Feed

Teacher's Aide Claims She Was Fired For Refusing To Give Up ...
By Mary Beth Quirk
It's not just students that are getting in trouble for having Facebook accounts -- one teacher'saide says she was fired from her elementary school for refusing to hand over the password to her social networking account. The teacher is now ...
The Consumerist

National Zinn Education Award Given to Tucson's Mexican ...
By jeffbiggers
In honor of embattled Mexican American Studies director Sean Arce's leadership role in “one of the most significant and successful public school initiatives on the teaching of history in the U.S.,” the Zinn Education Project announced its selection of Tucson's beloved educator as the inaugural recipient of the 2012 Myles Horton Education ... “Sean Arce, as a teacher and as director of MAS, has been key to the success of the program and to the very necessary ongoing effort to save it.
AlterNet Blogs Master Site Feed Posts

Grade school teacher's aide fired for refusing to hand over Facebook ...
Teachers have gotten in trouble for Facebook status messages before, but in ... the regional service center for education in Michigan, even wrote her a letter ...
news.yahoo.com/.../grade-school-teacher-aide-fired-refusing-h...

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