Great article - America's Real Dream Team - Thomas Friedman

Guess what formal dinner had these guests...

Linda Zhou, Alice Wei Zhao, Lori Ying, Angela Yu-Yun Yeung, Lynnelle Lin Ye, Kevin Young Xu, Benjamin Chang Sun, Jane Yoonhae Suh, Katheryn Cheng Shi, Sunanda Sharma, Sarine Gayaneh Shahmirian, Arjun Ranganath Puranik, Raman Venkat Nelakant, Akhil Mathew, Paul Masih Das, David Chienyun Liu, Elisa Bisi Lin, Yifan Li, Lanair Amaad Lett, Ruoyi Jiang, Otana Agape Jakpor, Peter Danming Hu, Yale Wang Fan, Yuval Yaacov Calev, Levent Alpoge, John Vincenzo Capodilupo and Namrata Anand.

No, sorry, it was not a dinner of the China-India Friendship League. Give up?

O.K. All these kids are American high school students. They were the majority of the 40 finalists in the 2010 Intel Science Talent Search, which, through a national contest, identifies and honors the top math and science high school students in America, based on their solutions to scientific problems. The awards dinner was Tuesday, and, as you can see from the above list, most finalists hailed from immigrant families, largely from Asia.

Finish the article America's Real Dream Team - Thomas Friedman

Labels: Education, Education Improvements, future

An article from the NY Times that is a good read - Virtual Classrooms Could Create a Marketplace for Knowledge

Many top universities are taping lectures and putting them online for free. MIT has a series on physics for example, that I have heard very good things from.

My opinion is for the right person these are a great resource! For those that can self study and have the discipline to do so. Taking a class forces you to attend it and a great teacher can help in motivating you to do more. Of course when you are in a huge lecture hall of several hundred students, the online experience may be superior. I have not seen taped lectures being used as part of a regular class. Even by teachers as a way to supplement material in their classes. The part that is missing from watching a video is the interaction a student can have with a teacher. The asking of questions and how the teacher can pace/customize their teaching to the class. Different classes and even times of day can require a slightly different teaching style. Early in the morning (are your students awake), to after lunch (bit lethargic), to the class before school ends (how many minutes left?

I wonder if anyone is going to put on the web an entire series of Learning Chinese video's for teaching Chinese as many top colleges are doing for other classes? Since a textbook is needed for a Chinese class, there would also need to be associated content. Be it an eBook or something.

Labels: Education Improvements, teaching chinese

Yeah, different segments of society have different opinions about the leadership of the current president. Some like him, some don't, some don't care.

But, when a dad becomes president, then there is a very keen interest in the education of kids across the country, even those too young to go to formal school.

Heard that there are proposals for a presidential fund that will boost enthusiasm for improving the country's Early Learning Program.

The funding will support programs that will encourage states to

• work towards a higher standard of quality of early learning programs
• let more kids participate in high-quality programs
• deliver the training and support needed to prepare the kids with the cognitive, social, and emotional skills necessary for kindergarten success.

If used correctly, I think that USD10 billion will be one of the best investments yet in the history of.

Hope one of the thrusts is to help kids become multi-linguals... Chinese, please? hehehe

Labels: Children Development, Education Improvements

At M.I.T., Large Lectures Are Going the Way of the Blackboard - from the NY Times.

I hope more classes at colleges are like this in the future. I am so afraid of my daughter taking a class with 300 other students and getting little out of it. How can a teach interact with 300 students? It's hard enough with a class of 30 to 40. At my college, I only had one class that was a large scale auditorium (Cal Poly, Pomona prides itself on being hands on). The use of a device where students can signal an answer is useful, another way is a bit old fashioned is having people raise their hands.

Labels: Education Improvements

Shaming statistics:

• 75% of High School Students don't graduate in Detroit.
• 30% nationwide of students don't graduate from High School in the US
• There are schools in Los Angeles that have a 60% drop out rate (I did my student teaching in one. Nice kids, but so sad).

I find the overall state of Education in the US sad. The US seems to do a poor job with the lowest performing, and a great job with the higher performing students. With the disappearance of most high paying jobs that need limited education in the US that can support a family, this is a big concern as a society. As a parent there is a lot you can do to help your child. Many Chinese in the US have figured out the system enabling their kids to go to great colleges/universities.

Some articles in the new section School Tips & Education Articles:

• Chinese Students - What can be Learned from them for Getting Good Grades?
• Time Management Tips for Middle School Students
• Rubric - What it is and how use it to improve your grade!

So why do I care about this? I have a Teaching Credential and education is highly important to my family. And yes, may be someday I will go back to teaching, because I do enjoy making a difference. That is the great feature of teaching, that you can make a difference in a person's life that can change their life, it usually makes up for all the negatives.

Reference/Resources:

• Fear, despair in L.A.'s poorest schools
• Op-Ed Contributor: A Nation at a Loss
• Study Suggests Math Teachers Scrap Balls and Slices
• First to Worse - California's School Special Report on Frontline
• School Tips & Education Articles
• A series of LA Times articles about the drop out rate
• Grades, Study Skills, and College Admission Books

Labels: Education, Education Improvements

Article I enjoyed from the Washington Post - The Most Irritating Education Expert on Chester E. "Checker" Finn Jr. who's new book, "Troublemaker: A Personal History of School Reform Since Sputnik," just came out.

Key Points:

1. No Child Left Behind should have focused on getting nationwide standard results. Instead of letting each state set their own standards (rewarding the states with low standards, since more students would meet them).

2. Great Quote: "Republicans say they care about standards and choices, but their own constituents are at best smug about today's schools and, at worst, hostile to reform that might help poor and minority kids to enter their suburban enclaves. Both parties have screwy ideas about how to balance freedom and regulation in the K-12 domain, with Republicans shunning uniform standards but tolerating government micro-management while Democrats seem to care more about where the money goes than whether kids are learning."

My 2 cents. There are schools that have a 60% drop out rate in the US. There are other schools in K-12 that are world class in the US. As a society, it's important to give all children a chance, and school is a great tool for doing that. Many parents do a lot of extra study work with their kids, paying after school, getting books to improve Grades Study Skills. Even College Admission Books with advice into getting into the best colleges, including Harvard.

Labels: Education Improvements

Pasadena (home of the Rose Parade) at one school improved their graduation rate by 30% by putting in place a program for at risk students. What was the graduation rate before? In LAUSD (Los Angeles is next to Pasadena), the graduation rate per the LA Times is a little above 44%. The graduation rate in 2006 for California on average is 71%. NY City per the same study had a graduation rate of 39%.

The original article point was by increasing the graduation rate by 10%, you could reduce the homicide rate by 20% statewide (I know, how do they reach this statistic and the weasel word could is used). This article puts the cost of drop outs each year at $12 Billion in California.

The big question is what works to reduce the drop out rate? Why does Finland have such great test scores and the US does not. A site on education I have a lot of respect for http://joannejacobs.com/

Labels: Education Improvements