SCHOOLS & THE YOUNG

VOCATIONAL TRAINING MAKING A COMEBACK

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR - Enrollment in technical education soared by
57 percent - from 9.6 million students in 1999 to 15.1 million in 2004,
the US Department of Education reported to Congress. . . The
once-standard offerings of technical education - wood shop, metal shop,
machining - don't cut it in today's economy . . . Fields of study today
are likely to include more forward-looking careers: crime forensics,
composite-plastic fuselage design, robotics, nanotechnology,
radiological diagnostics, 3-D animation, and the burgeoning field of
"industrial maintenance technology" (keeping the high-tech systems in a
modern industrial building up and running).

"When a light-sensor toilet doesn't function anymore, who ya gonna call?
Not a regular plumber," says Bill Murphy, recruiter for the McMurry
Regional Training Center in Casper, Wyo. "You need someone who knows how
to program computers.". . .

In California, the renewed interest in tech ed follows a 25-year decline
in such instruction. About three-quarters of high school technical
programs were dismantled, and the number of such high school courses
dwindled from 40,000 to 24,000 in that time. But Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger (R) supports targeted vocational education, based on
European models from his childhood. The governor is touring the state in
support of a November ballot proposition that will provide $10 billion
in bond money to overcrowded schools, including 170 community colleges.
. .

More than 90 percent of US high school seniors say they plan to attend
college, and about 70 percent of high school graduates actually do go to
college within two years, according to the Education Trust. "Many more
have been going to college without really knowing why and finding out
they don't acquire the skills they need to get a job," says Ms.
Hendershot. "Now the conversation has started over how to create
shorter, alternative pathways."

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1012/p01s03-usec.html

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CHILDREN IN NEIGHBORHOODS LEFT BEHIND GET LEFT BEHIND IN SCHOOL, TOO

DAVID M. HERSZENHORN, NY TIMES - The first results of a new set of New
York State math exams show about two-thirds of students performing at
grade level, with striking disparities between rich and poor school
districts, according to scores released yesterday. The share of students
at grade level in affluent districts was more than twice as big as in
impoverished urban districts. . .

Over all, the statewide results showed 65.8 percent of students in
grades three to eight to be proficient in math. And, as on the state
English test, there was a steady decline in achievement as students got
older; in math, the sharpest drop was between the fourth and fifth
grades, a year earlier than the drop-off in English. In third grade,
80.5 percent of the pupils were proficient in math; by eighth grade that
percentage fell to 50.3. . .

While 86.3 percent of students in rich, or so-called low-need districts
scored proficiently, only 28.6 percent did so in Buffalo, 30.1 percent
in Syracuse, and 33.1 percent in Rochester. . .

The results came a day after lawyers appeared before the Court of
Appeals, the state's highest court, over a lawsuit that challenged the
fairness of the state education financing system and accused Albany of
shortchanging New York City.

Lower courts have twice ordered the state to provide at least $4.7
billion more a year for the city's schools, to ensure that all students
get the decent education guaranteed by the State Constitution. And while
the suit pertains only to the city, officials have long said the state's
other impoverished school districts also need more help.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/12/nyregion/12math.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

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DRIVE ON TO REVIVE RECESS

TRACY DELL'ANGELA CHICAGO TRIBUNE - Nearly three decades after the
Chicago Public Schools all but eradicated recess at most elementary
campuses, there's a movement to bring it back--an effort now championed
by schools chief Arne Duncan. It's the first time since Mayor Richard
Daley took over the school system in 1995 that a district leader
publicly endorsed free play as a priority. "My goal would be to have
recess at every single school," said Duncan, who acknowledged that he
never would have succeeded in school if he didn't get out to play
between lessons. . . Duncan pointed to various hurdles that stand in the
way of his goal, including the teachers contract, lack of space and
supervision at schools, and safety concerns in high-crime neighborhoods.
. .

City educators are under pressure to pack in as much academic time as
they can into an already tight day. The district has the shortest school
day in Illinois, at five hours and 45 minutes, and one of the shortest
among urban districts nationwide. In New York, school is in session at
least six hours and 20 minutes and almost seven hours in some
low-performing schools.

Also, the midday break disappeared so long ago that there are few
teachers left who remember what it was like when recess was part of
their daily routine.

By 1980, nearly every Chicago elementary school became a "closed
campus," which moved the lunch break to the end of the day and
effectively shortened the school day by 45 minutes. This allows teachers
and students to leave by 2:45 p.m., the standard dismissal time at most
city schools, instead of 3:30 p.m.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0610230205oct23,1,1855422.story
?coll=chi-news-hed


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ANOTHER COST OF TEST MADNESS

VALERIE STRAUSS, WASHINGTON POST - Your fourth-grader is galloping
through Lois Lowry's utopian novel "The Giver," and you marvel at her
reading speed. Stop marveling. Most likely she has little idea what the
book actually means.

In many classrooms around the country, teachers are emphasizing, and
periodically testing, students' reading fluency, the current buzzword in
reading instruction. The problem is that speed isn't the only element to
fluency, educators said. . .

"Fluent readers are readers who know how to dig into a book and pull out
just what they are looking for -- whether it is information, a part with
strong language, a part with good character development, or just a
chance to read for fun," said Susan Marantz, a longtime teacher now at a
suburban school in Columbus, Ohio.

Yet a combination of politics, insufficient teacher development and an
inherent difficulty in capturing all aspects of fluency have led to
questionable instruction practices, according to Richard Allington, a
reading researcher and University of Tennessee professor who first wrote
about the importance of fluency in the early 1980s.

Many students are asked by teachers to reread the same passages over and
over -- often with constant interruptions from the teacher. And some
struggling readers are given books -- including textbooks -- that are
above their reading level and soon become a source of frustration.

"You can make any adult a disfluent reader by giving them books that are
too hard and jump in and interrupt them a lot," Allington said. "What do
you think it does to kids?"
As a result, some kids are motivated to read only to beat a test clock,
he and other researchers said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/23/
AR2006102300928.html?nav=rss_education


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