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Documentary: "American Teacher"

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A new law tweaks an existing federal grant program that provides startup money for new charter schools and adds some quality control provisions.  

Charter schools are publicly financed but independently operated.

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MC Books and More of Montgomery College in Maryland fights declining sales -- and wins --  with a shopper promotion worthy of mainstream retail.  Retail experts have for years observed that college stores would need to de-niche their sales strategies in order to compete as a viable channel for textbooks.  MC Books and More obviously got the message.

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HarperCollins CEO:  Thoughts about the future of publishing.

Includes comments on e-Books in library channel.

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Secretary of Education Arne Duncan addresses key issues facing the nation:

Closing the Pell shortfall both through efficiencies and more resources.

Protecting Title I and IDEA formula funds for students most at risk.

Expanding reform programs that support state and local policies, including Race to the Top, Investing in Innovation, and ED’s learning and college completion programs.

Full testimony here.

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"In 20 years, you’ll need a Ph.D. to be a janitor."

Excellent exploration of the rise of "credentialing" for college graduates to compete in the job market, from author Laura Pappano for The New York Times. 

The degree of the moment is the professional science master's, or P.S.M., combining job-specific training with business skills. Where only a handful of programs existed a few years ago, there are now 239, with scores in development. Florida’s university system, for example, plans 28 by 2013, clustered in areas integral to the state’s economy, including simulation (yes, like Disney, but applied to fields like medicine and defense). And there could be many more, says Patricia J. Bishop, vice provost and dean of graduate studies at the University of Central Florida. “Who knows when we’ll be done?”

And more...

Among the new breed of master’s, there are indeed ample fields, including construction management and fire science and administration, where job experience used to count more than book learning. Internships built into many of these degrees look suspiciously like old-fashioned on-the-job training.

The number of master's degrees conferred since the 1980's has nearly doubled.  Today, almost 10% of people over the age of 25 now have a master's degree -- about the same percentage of that age group with a bachelor's or higher in 1960.  Says an economics professor interviewed for the article, "In 20 years, you'll need a Ph.D. to be a janitor."

via The New York Times (some content may require subscription)

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Community College Online Students Fare Worse than Face-to-Face Peers.

A study that tracked community college students over a 5-year period concluded that students enrolled in online courses have lower completion rates than their peers enrolled in face-to-face courses.

This study follows on the heels of a study conducted in Virginia, which concludes similar results.

...results indicated that students were more likely to fail or withdraw from online courses than from face-to-face courses. In addition, students who took online coursework in early terms were slightly but significantly less likely to return to school in subsequent terms, and students who took a higher proportion of credits online were slightly but significantly less likely to attain an educational award or transfer to a four-year institution.

The study points out opportunities to improve the online learning experience for students.

Read more here or from the original source, here.

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So what has happened since is that teaching has become the most highly esteemed profession. Not the highest paid, but the most highly esteemed. Only one out of every 10 people who apply to become teachers will ultimately make it to the classroom.  The consequence has been that Finland's performance on international assessments, called PISA, have consistently outranked every other western country, and really there are only a handful of eastern countries that are educating with the same results.

Tony Wagner looks at the roots of Finland's extraordinary education success. Mr. Wagner is Harvard professor and researcher, and author of the landmark book,  "The Global Achievement Gap:  Why Even the Best Schools Don't Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need -- and What We Can Do About It."

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Educators.

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Conflict Over Charter Schools

Good coverage of the heated debate over proposed charter schools in areas where traditional public schools have a successful track record.

“With these charter schools, people are trying to say, ‘I want a custom-tailored education for my children, and I want you, as my neighbor, to pay for it.’ "

Read the article from the New York Times. 

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Nice exploration of trade e-book use.

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Should Hands-On Experience Be Federally Funded?

Technical schools are facing deep budget cuts.  But is federal funding the right direction, given the critical need for other skills America needs to remain globally competitive?  Great coverage of the discussion about technical colleges from The New York Times.

Pushing all young people toward a bachelor’s degree could be misguided, some employers say, depriving certain industries of much-needed future workers. “I think there is a stigma in society that says if you don’t get a four-year degree you have not achieved,” said Matthew Edwards, manager of human resources at Machine Specialties in Whitsett, N.C., which makes precision parts for the aerospace and defense industries and is desperate to hire 10 new machinists. “And I don’t think that is true. There are not enough technical people in the workforce for us to grow.”

Others question whether the skills shortage is simply a matter of employers not paying enough for qualified workers. In fact, the skills that employers most frequently say are in shortest supply are critical thinking, the ability to work in teams and communication, not specialized training.

“Our clients tell us ‘I’ve found somebody who is an electrician or a technician, but they don’t have a global mindset or can’t work with people in different cultures,’ ” said Mara E. Swan, executive vice president for global strategy and talent at ManpowerGroup, a job placement firm. “ ‘They can’t think beyond what I tell them to do.’ ”

Even as experts debate how to teach such intangible skills, more jobs demand much higher math and reading proficiency than in the past.

In manufacturing, for example, work once performed on low-skilled assembly lines has mostly moved offshore or been automated. The jobs that remain require workers who can interpret blueprints, program computerized machinery and solve problems on the fly. According to a report by the Pioneer Institute, a public policy group, manuals for auto mechanics, plumbers and those who repair appliances are written “up to a Grade 14 reading level.”

Yet many young people are not able to compete for these jobs. Nearly two-thirds of students who enter a community college within a few years of high school graduation require remedial math and reading classes, according to the American Association of Community Colleges.

Students who have a hard time grasping academic concepts in a traditional lecture or textbook may learn better in a practical, hands-on setting.

Full story here.