A new era is about to begin, and as usual, Sara Mead at Early Education Watch is keeping on eye on the post-election developments in early childhood education. While it will be months before newly elected President Barack Obama details how he will carry out his early childhood pledges, it’s important for journalists to be reminded of what he said — all the better to watch what he does.
Mead points out where Obama has stood on education issues in her post today. Education Week also took note of the education agenda ahead, while Alexander Russo of This Week in Education weighed in with a round-up of commentary on what the new president faces.
Closer to home, New York Times writer Lisa Belkin, who writes a new blog called “The Mother Lode,” for the New York Times, focused on the dilema parents faced this week — whether or not to allow their kids to stay awake and witness history.
It remains to be seen how educators coped with all the nodding heads and blinking eyes post-election day. I keep picturing a classroom filled with sleeping children.
More news
Alternative routes to teaching become more popular despite lack of evidence
Do new exams produce better teachers? States act while educators debate
INGLEWOOD, Calif.—In the back of a tenth-grade geometry classroom on a recent morning at Washington Preparatory High School, nine miles southeast of Los Angeles, Landon Yurica and Alycia Jones bent over the papers in front of them. At 23 and 24, respectively, the two could almost blend in as students as they tried the assignment [...]
California struggles to assess teacher training programs
NORTHRIDGE, Calif.— It took less than a minute for Mario Martinez to finish the first six questions of the algebra exam that his professor, Ivan Cheng, had just handed to him. The high school-level test was supposed to be a good example of an exam, so that the graduate students in Cheng’s math methods course [...]
Chicago parent on school closings: “If you’re not teaching children…it needs closing”
NORTHRIDGE, Calif.—On a recent afternoon at California State University, Northridge, Nancy Prosenjak was attempting to quiet the graduate students spread out across conference tables in the back of her classroom. She was still missing nearly a third of the class, but she was eager to debrief with her students about their first day of student [...]
Chicago parent on school closings: “I cry a lot…Nobody wants their school closed.”The decision to close more than 50 struggling schools in Chicago has fueled outrage among many parents and teachers. But others see the strategy as a way to improve education for the city’s most vulnerable students. Patricia Hunter, 28, a stay-at-home mom, sends her daughter Danielle to Dulles School of Excellence on the South Side. [...]
California’s rocky path to prosperityThe Chicago school system plans to shutter 54 schools next year to save money and improve academics. Among them is Lafayette Elementary in Humboldt Park on the West Side of the city, a school with a treasured school orchestra and a program for autistic children. Valerie Nelson, 43, is a home health care worker who [...]
Unless California helps low-income parents learn basic skills, train for jobs and pursue higher education, the state’s prosperity is at risk, concludes Working Hard, Left Behind. The Campaign for College Opportunity, the Women’s Foundation of California and Working Poor Families project collaborated on the report. California leads the nation in low-income working adults and in [...]
