In This Issue
NEW WEB SITE FOR ARIZONA TEACHERS AND STUDENTS
HIGHER EDUCATION COMMISSION
LANGUAGE GAP GROWS IN ARIZONA SCHOOLS
ARIZONA’S EARLY LEARNING STANDARDS
COMING SOON TO A CLASSROOM NEAR YOU
CREATING CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE SCHOOLS
PROFILE OF TEACHERS IN THE U.S. 2005
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NACCTEP
Fourth Annual Conference
March 17-19, 2006
Atlanta,Georgia
Please Join Us at a new conference location for Jazzing Up Teacher Education Programs in the Community College an extraordinary conference sponsored by the National Association of Community College Teacher Education Programs, March 17-19, 2006, at the beautiful Hilton Atlanta in Atlanta, Georgia.Experience Southern Hospitality in an elegant setting located in downtown Atlanta. Discover the potential for community colleges to energize programs that provide leadership and support equity, diversity, and excellence for future generations of educators. Come explore programs built on tradition that integrate modern practices and methods.
Like each of you, we too are greatly saddened by the tremendous loss and hardship resulting from Hurricane Katrina. It is with heartache that we watch the news and see the devastation of the Gulf Coast.
We encourage you to support the Community College Hurricane Relief Fund, coordinated by the American Association of Community Colleges.
Hurricane Relief Fund
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New LINKS |
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U.S. Geological Survey and Science Education
PBS TeacherSource
Discovery School
Center for Adult English Language Acquisition
Reading is Fundamental
National Fatherhood Initiative
National Center for Education Information, Profile of Troops to Teachers
Ed Helper
Learning Disabilities Association of America
¡ColorinColorado!
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| Archives |
October 2005
August 2005
May 2005
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More Information
For additional information about CCTI or the Maricopa local project, contact Cheri St. Arnauld at 480-731-8726. |
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New Website for Arizona Teachers and Students
The Associated Press reports a Web site to serve all teachers and students in Arizona. Arizona education officials hope to have state teachers, students and their families linked through one Web site by next August. The site, called IDEAL (Integrated Data to Enhance Arizona’s Learning), is the product of a partnership between Arizona State University and the Arizona Department of Education. It is filled with learning tools to help schools customize education for individual students and their parents. Officials hope it will lead to improved test scores, teacher training, and parents’ understanding of the ins and outs of the school system.
Direct IDEAL Link
HIGHER EDUCATION COMMISSION
Citing a need for a more focused policy approach to education at the college and university level, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced the formation of a commission charged with developing a comprehensive national strategy for postsecondary education. Although she is not advocating for a bigger federal role in higher education, Spellings says the country has “a responsibility to make sure our higher education system continues to meet our nation’s needs for an educated and competitive workforce in the 21st century.” The panel will explore such issues as student access, college prices, and how well the higher education system is "preparing our students to compete in the new global economy."
Click Here for information about the Commission’s first meeting.
LANGUAGE GAP GROWS IN ARIZONA SCHOOLS
Two new studies have found that children who have trouble speaking English are among the fastest-growing segments of the school population in Arizona, creating challenges for schools here and across the country. The vast majority of schoolchildren who can't speak English well enough to pass proficiency tests are segregated in a relatively small number of schools, tend to be poor, and live in households where little, if any, English is spoken. The Migration Policy Institute and Urban Institute studies are particularly relevant to Arizona, where bilingual education is banned, and the cost of educating English-language learners has become a political hot potato.
ARIZONA’S EARLY LEARNING STANDARDS
In response to new focuses, new mandates and new research, the newly created Early Childhood Education Section of the Arizona Department of Education has refined the Arizona Early Learning Standards. The Standards provide a framework for the planning of quality learning experiences for all children 3 to 5 years of age, and are intended for use by all those who work with children in an early care and education setting. They cover a broad range of skill development and are inclusive of children from diverse backgrounds and with diverse abilities.
COMING SOON TO A CLASSROOM NEAR YOU
A survey by the National Center for Education Statistics provides information about the plans and expectations of high school seniors, and offers insight into what different groups of students are looking for in the choice of a college. The survey, “A Profile of the American High School Senior in 2004: A First Look,” finds that 61.6 percent of students who were high school seniors expected to go to a four-year institution after high school graduation, 22.5 percent planned to attend a community college, and 35 percent planned to get a graduate or professional degree. However, nearly two-thirds of the students who expected to get a four-year degree had not mastered intermediate level mathematics concepts as 12th graders, and nearly a third had not mastered “simple problem solving” skills based on low-level mathematical concepts.
CREATING CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE SCHOOLS
During the last 10 years, U.S. schools have experienced a rapid growth in ethnic and racial diversity. An increasing body of research demonstrates the importance of addressing the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students and their families. Unfortunately, America’s formal education system is based largely upon middle-class, European values, which lead many schools to ignore or downplay the strengths of diverse students, a cultural disconnect which often leads to poor self-concepts, discipline problems, and poor academic outcomes for ethnic minorities.
Research, however, has also identified ways in which schools can effectively serve students of color. Embracing the strengths and addressing the diverse learning needs of our increasingly multicultural, multilingual student population requires major transformation of our current school practices. The culturally responsive education practices outlined here can help establish a learning environment that promotes success for all students.
PROFILE OF TEACHERS IN THE U.S. 2005
Results of a survey of K-12 public school teachers conducted by the National Center for Education Information show the workforce getting older, more female, slightly less White, and more experienced. Eighty-two percent of public school teachers are female; the proportion of K-12 teachers who are 50 years of age and older has risen from 24 percent to 42 percent in the past ten years; the proportion of white teachers has dropped to 85 percent in 2005; and, the number of K-12 public school teachers with 25 or more years of experience has doubled in the last 15 years. Other findings of the survey of 1,028 randomly selected teachers, who are satisfied with most aspects of their jobs, include a strong opposition to standardized testing. Respondents felt that compliance with No Child Left Behind is a serious problem because “standards of academic achievement should be flexible enough that every child can feel successful”. They are also opposed to using academic progress of students as measured by standardized test scores to determine whether or not a teacher is qualified to teach. |
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· According to a forthcoming study, more than half of U.S. kindergarten students now attend full-day kindergartens.
· Kindergartners in full-day programs learn more over the course of a school year than their counterparts in half-day programs— the equivalent of about an extra month of schooling.
· Children who attend full-day kindergartens tend to be less advantaged socially, economically, and academically, than their peers in half-day programs.
· Full-day kindergartners are more common in the South and the Midwest than they are in the Northeast and the West.
· Disadvantaged children don't seem to gain more from full-day programs than their more advantaged counterparts do. Rather, all children learn more in daylong classes.
SOURCE: American Journal of Education |
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Campus Spotlight
As a teacher education faculty member you have invaluable experience teaching students how to become educators. We invite you to share your teaching tips and ideas with us or spotlight a project on your campus that we can feature in our Educator’s Corner.
Please contact ncte@domail.maricopa.edu for more information.
Feedback
The NEWSWIRE is dedicated to becoming a value-added resource for Maricopa Community College teacher education faculty. Your feedback regarding this publication is desired to aid NCTE staff in the production of a newsletter that is valuable and useful to your education experiences.
Please contact ncte@domail.maricopa.edu with your comments and suggestions. |
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Disclaimer
The information on this Web site is intended to provide information currently affecting or related to the teaching community and community college teacher education programs. Links to other Web sites are provided merely for your convenience and do not constitute or imply endorsement by the National Center for Teacher Education (NCTE). Such external sites contain information created, published, maintained or otherwise posted by organizations independent of NCTE, and NCTE cannot guarantee the accuracy or completeness of information on such sites. NCTE shall not be liable for any damages, including, without limitation, direct, indirect, incidental, special, punitive or consequential damages, that result in any way from your use or reliance on information provided on this site. |
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