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How to Address Anti-Gay Remarks in the Classroom
Tweet Share on Facebook January 30, 2012 Comment (3)If students don't feel comfortable in the classroom, they won't learn. In fact, they may not even show up to class, says Ryan Roemerman, executive director of the Iowa Pride Network, a nonprofit focused on strengthening the ties between gay and straight communities.
As the disturbing trend of bullying based on perceived sexual orientation grows—to the point of assaults and suicides— teachers need to be prepared to handle anti-gay remarks in high school classrooms.
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Education Roundup: New York Bill Could Make SAT Cheating a Felony
Tweet Share on Facebook January 27, 2012 CommentWelcome to the High School Notes weekly roundup of education news. Every Friday, you'll find out what's making headlines around the Web.
SAT cheating
New York Sen. Kenneth Lavalle proposed a bill Tuesday that would make the act of cheating on SAT tests a felony in his state. The legislation is specifically targeted at those impersonating other test takers for pay and would call for photo identification of each student, and possibly fingerprinting and retinal scans. The Washington Post reports that Lavalle's bill was prompted by a September cheating scandal in a New York suburb, where imposters were accused of receiving up to $3,600 for taking tests for high schoolers.
State teacher report cards
In most states, there have been major improvements in teacher effectiveness policies, according to the fifth annual "State Teacher Policy Yearbook" report from the not-for-profit National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ). The report, which grades the quality and rigor of state teacher policies, gave out the highest scores it's ever given to seven states: Florida, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. Policies of using teacher effectiveness data for tenure and dismissal decisions, as well as teacher evaluations, caused much of the improvement in teacher policy grades.
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3 Tips on Integrating Technology in the Classroom
Tweet Share on Facebook January 25, 2012 Comment (4)Integrating technology into a high school classroom isn't a one-step process. "You can't just slap a netbook [computer] on top of a textbook and say, 'Great, now we have technology," says Bob Wise, former governor of West Virginia and president of the Alliance for Excellent Education, an advocacy organization.
Wise says that digital learning starts with teachers, whose performance is enhanced by technology—not the other way around. That's also the idea of Digital Learning Day, which the Alliance is spearheading.
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Teens Should Learn Personal Finance from Parents, Teachers
Tweet Share on Facebook January 23, 2012 Comment (5)Most high school students don't spend their time fretting over mortgages, stock prices, or their 401(k) plans, but they are at an age when smaller financial responsibilities start creeping into their lives. Many teenagers earn allowances and begin working part-time jobs, so they need to make decisions about what to do with their money.
High school students "also begin to have a lot more of a social life," says Margaret Magnarelli, senior editor of Money magazine and author of the textbook Per$onal Finance. "They might have a car and access to shopping and restaurants. And if they don't have a car, they want a car."
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Education Roundup: New iPad App Revolutionizes Textbooks
Tweet Share on Facebook January 19, 2012 Comment (1)Welcome to the High School Notes weekly roundup of education news. Every Friday, you'll find out what's making headlines around the Web.
Digital textbooks
Apple unveiled the iBooks 2 app for the iPad on Thursday, which may lighten the load in students' backpacks. With iBooks 2, which is now available for free through the iTunes App Store, students will have access to interactive E-textbooks, which will include features such as movies and digital note-taking. Apple teamed up with publishing giants McGraw Hill, Pearson, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which make up more than 90 percent of the American textbook market, for the project.
Apple also announced that any iPad user can write one of these interactive E-textbooks through a free tool called iBooks Author. And with the iTunes U app, teachers can build an interactive syllabus that could send students directly to the assigned page in an E-textbook. Teachers can also use iTunes U to make online courses with video, documents, podcasts, and books.
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Learn How to Recognize and Help Depressed Students
Tweet Share on Facebook January 18, 2012 Comment (2)One fifth of females between the ages of 14 and 17 reported feeling severely depressed at some point, according to a recent Department of Education report, and there are many factors of high school life that can lead to such feelings. Teachers, who often see these factors firsthand in classrooms and hallways, should know how to interpret the signs of their students' depression.
The Department of Education report shows that 21 percent of high school females reported having a Major Depressive Episode (MDE) at one point in their lifetime, which it defines as a "period of at least two weeks when a person experiences a depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure in daily activities, plus at least four additional symptoms of depression (such as problems with sleep, eating, energy, concentration, and feelings of self-worth.)" Only 10 percent of males in the same age bracket, the report states, have experienced one of these episodes.
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Education Funding for Foreign Languages Cut
Tweet Share on Facebook January 16, 2012 Comment (7)The Department of Education program that funded $27 million worth of foreign language education grants—which were split by a mix of 55 charter schools, school districts, and states—was cut in the recent budget bill, leaving the future of foreign language classes at these schools in jeopardy.
"What this cut does is pull the rug out from these programs," Martha Abbott, executive director of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFA), says. Because the Foreign Language Assistance Program (FLAP) grants were awarded in three- or five-year increments, affected schools will have to scramble to find funding. "Some of them are in the middle of being funded; I think it'll be interesting to see how the communities react to this," Abbott says.
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Education Roundup: Maryland Tops Education Week Public School Rankings
Tweet Share on Facebook January 13, 2012 Comment (2)Welcome to the High School Notes weekly roundup of education news. Every Friday, you'll find out what's making headlines around the Web.
State rankings
Yesterday, Education Week released its annual rankings of states' public school systems. The publication looked at six factors, including student achievement; a student's "chance for success" later in life if they attend school in the state; school finances; state assessments and standards; and teacher and school accountability.
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Should High Schools Limit AP Course Enrollment?
Tweet Share on Facebook January 11, 2012 Comment (1)Some students measure their success by the number of Advanced Placement courses on their transcripts. But some high schools are beginning to push back—worried their students are juggling too much.
According to a San Francisco Chronicle article published Monday, a number of schools are considering capping the number of AP classes a student can take in a given year, citing concerns that students may be overexerting themselves and placing too much of a focus on rigorous coursework and not enough on extracurricular activities and hobbies.
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Governors Association Examines Teacher Merit Pay
Tweet Share on Facebook January 9, 2012 Comment (5)Many pro-reform education experts, including U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, will tell you that one of the most important factors in a child's education is the quality of the teacher—and the way to retain the best teachers is to pay them more. But states and teachers unions nationwide are having trouble agreeing on how their salaries should be determined.
[Read about a recent study that says teachers aren't underpaid.]
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