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New standards a vital step for education

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

041317-nws-smarter-balanced

North Dakota teachers have developed new math and English standards to replace the much loathed Common Core. The new standards were crafted by North Dakota educators and didn’t totally abandon Common Core.

However, one of the leading critics of Common Core, Rep. Ben Koppelman, R-West Fargo, seems satisfied. He expects the new standards will be the first step in moving away from Common Core. Opponents of Common Core thought establishing nationwide standards took away local control and considered it federal overreach. State Superintendent Kirsten Baesler will have to select a new standardized test to replace the exam from the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium.

It’s important that parents and the public care about education and want a say in how it’s implemented. Hopefully, the new standards will ease the concerns of the Common Core critics. Debate can be healthy, but eventually agreement needs to be reached. Schools need an established curriculum so students can move through the grades and their progress can be tracked.

One of the drawbacks to the new standards is their uniqueness to North Dakota. It will be difficult to compare the progress of North Dakota students to kids in other states. The fact the standards are geared toward North Dakota students also is a strength. Educators know the needs of our students and tailored the standards for them. It will be interesting to see the standards tweaked over the next few years.

Education constantly undergoes change. Technology plays a key role as the days of traditional textbooks and libraries fade away. Teachers are finding new ways to challenge their students.

Recently Simle Middle School students were honored for designing a solar-powered charging station for homeless people to use to charge their cellphones. It was a hands-on learning process and they will be able to see the outcome of their work in operation.

It’s also not all science and math as the Department of Public Instruction has plans to integrate Native American culture and history into classroom instruction.

We have to remember the importance and challenges involved in a broad-based education. Our students need the skills to compete in the digital world along with learning our history and appreciating the arts. We’re trying to cram a lot of knowledge into their brains. How we convey that information to the students and how we track their progress is the key to our success.

First, we need good teachers and administrators, then we need a good plan and resources and we have to have parental and public support. Of course, the most important part is the kids eager to learn.

The new math and English standards are an important step in the constant effort to improve education in North Dakota. Everyone needs to work to make them successful.

[“Source-bismarcktribune”]

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Education

Exclusive: Pisa boss warns England’s school funding squeeze will hit standards

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Union leader hails ‘significant’ intervention from ministers’ favourite, Andreas Schleicher, who runs Pisa for the OECD

The head of Pisa has added his voice to warnings that financial pressures on schools in England risk damaging standards.

Andreas Schleicher, education director at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which publishes the Pisa (Programme for International Student Assessment) world rankings, voiced concerns over schools struggling to make budget savings of 8 per cent to cope with increasing cost pressures.

Asked by TES about the funding squeeze affecting schools in England, Mr Schleicher said: “If you take the same system and you take money out of it, you lose and lack in quality. I think there’s no question around it.”

He spoke out as politicians from around the globe gathered in London for the Education World Forum, where England’s schools minister Nick Gibb again cited Pisa research approvingly.

Mr Schleicher said that in high-performing education systems, such as China, parents and governments prioritised spending on educating children, adding that “they invest in the future”.

“The UK has already spent the money on consumption today,” he said. “That’s where the debt crisis came from. It’s a value choice of societies to make. Education really is an important choice; that is the future.

“The school system today is your economy tomorrow, and that is something I worry about when governments have an attitude of, ‘Oh well, let’s cut some corners here’.”

‘Significant’ intervention from Pisa boss

Mary Bousted, general secretary of the ATL teaching union, described Mr Schleicher’s intervention as “significant”.

The Department for Education said it had protected “core school funding”, which was at a record level, and that it was “incorrect” to say it was taking money out of the system

The department added that total expenditure from public and private sources on UK education institutions was above the OECD average for each phase of education.

A spokesperson said: “We recognise, however, that schools are facing cost pressures, which is why we will continue to provide advice and support to help them use their funding in cost-effective ways, including improving the way they buy goods and services, so they get the best possible value for their pupils.”

Mr Schleicher added that the overall level of funding was not the only issue, and called for schools to do more with the money they received.

[Source:- tes]

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Education

Councils slam school standards plan

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Councils have hit out at government plans to remove their role in boosting school standards in England.

From next year, the civil servants who oversee academies and free schools will take over responsibility for raising standards in all state-funded schools.

But council leaders say regional schools commissioners lack the “capability and capacity” for the job and “could risk children’s education”.

The government called the claims “nonsense, and the figures misleading”.

Currently about a quarter of state schools in England are academies or free schools, run independently and funded directly from Whitehall rather than through local authorities.

This includes most secondary schools but only about one in six primaries.

The job of regional schools commissioners is to oversee academies and free schools in their areas, doing a job similar to that of local authorities for council-run schools.

Expanding role

Ultimately the government wants all schools to be academies, and the commissioners’ role is expanding as more schools convert.

In August next year, the government also intends the commissioners to take over from local authorities the job of supporting school improvement and intervening in failing schools.

But the Local Government Association, which represents councils in England, highlights official data it says suggests that, overall, council maintained schools out-perform academies.

According to that data, the proportion of schools rated good or outstanding by inspectors is:

  • 89% of council maintained schools
  • 83.2% of all academies
  • 62.1% of sponsored academies (taken over by academy sponsors after poor inspections)
  • 88.5% of converter academies (good or outstanding schools that choose to convert)
  • 81.8% of free schools.

However, at secondary level only, academies do better than maintained schools, with 79.6% rated good or outstanding, compared with 76.3% of council run schools.

Woman in classroom

The LGA says that almost 800 academies are currently rated “less than good”, which means that each of the eight commissioners already has responsibility for about 100 struggling academies.

Richard Watts, chairman of the LGA’s children and young people board, questioned whether the commissioners had capacity to boost standards in these academies, let alone take on responsibility for another 13,000 schools.

He said local councils had consistently proved themselves to be more effective at raising standards than regional schools commissioners.

“This is no surprise. Each council is working with fewer schools, who they have good, long-standing relationships with and they know what’s needed in their local areas,” he said.

“It is simply asking too much to expect RSCs to effectively turn around dozens of schools across a huge area.”

Liberal Democrat education spokesman John Pugh said the findings backed up “our long held concerns that the government’s obsession with turning every school into an academy will do nothing to drive up standards, not to mention completely undermining councils’ ability to deliver the education provision their communities need”.

But the government said the LGA was being disingenuous to claim local authorities were better at raising standards, as the government was taking struggling schools off their books by turning them into academies.

“It is inevitable that councils oversee a higher proportion of good or outstanding schools,” said a Department for Education spokesman.

Following conversion to academy status and “after being paired with a strong sponsor, they stand the best chance of breaking from their often long histories of under performance”, said the spokesman.

The spokesman said accountability for academies was more robust than in council-run schools, adding that regional schools commissioners enabled “swift action” on problems “that the council-run system would fail to tackle for years”.

[Source:- BBC]

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