DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ What Costs $1,000 Per Student and Might Help Children Learn to Read?
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-04 | by ( Dana Goldstein | More About Dana Goldstein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The study, by Sarah Novicoff, a Stanford graduate student, and Thomas S. Dee, a professor of education, compared schools that participated in the program to a similar set of schools that did not. It has not yet been peer reviewed. Timothy Shanahan, a literacy expert and professor emeritus at the University of Illinois, Chicago, said the paper’s results left him “very cautiously optimistic.”He noted that education reforms that focus on the early grades often show positive results, but as students age into more conceptual learning, improvements fade out. “Will the schools build on this in any way?” he asked. The intervention also took place during difficult years, with high rates of student absenteeism, mental health challenges and school staff shortages.

Persons: Sarah Novicoff, Thomas S, Timothy Shanahan, “, ” Organizations: Stanford, University of Illinois Locations: Chicago

☆ For Republican Governors, Civics Is the Latest Education Battleground
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-30 | by ( Dana Goldstein | More About Dana Goldstein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Lisa Phillip, a seventh-grade social studies teacher at an Orlando charter school, appreciates many of Florida’s new guidelines for teaching civics. And she doesn’t mind teaching about “the influence of the Judeo-Christian tradition” on the nation’s founding documents. The subject prompted her students at Central Florida Leadership Academy to reflect on how the country’s politics, they believed, fell short of the basic morality in the Ten Commandments. This fall, Ms. Phillip is one of thousands of social studies teachers adjusting to a hotly debated overhaul of civics in several conservative states. The revamp is led by Republican governors — Ron DeSantis of Florida, Kristi Noem of South Dakota and Glenn Youngkin of Virginia — who have also restricted how race and gender are discussed in schools.

Persons: Lisa Phillip, innately, Phillip, — Ron DeSantis, Kristi Noem, Glenn Youngkin, Virginia — Organizations: Central Florida Leadership Academy, Republican Locations: Orlando, Florida, South Dakota

☆ Why Is the College Board Pushing to Expand Advanced Placement?
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-18 | by ( Dana Goldstein | More About Dana Goldstein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For the past two decades, the College Board has moved aggressively to expand the number of high school students taking Advanced Placement courses and tests — in part by pitching the program to low-income students and the schools that serve them. “Why are we holding it for some?”Left out of that narrative is one of the most sobering statistics in education: Some 60 percent of A.P. exams taken by low-income students this year scored too low for college credit — 1 or 2 out of 5 — a statistic that has not budged in 20 years. Nevertheless, the College Board, citing its own research, says its A.P. program helps all students, regardless of scores, do better in college — a claim that has helped persuade states and local districts to help pay for the tests.

Persons: ”, David Coleman Organizations: College Board, College Board’s

☆ By the Numbers: How Schools Struggled During the Pandemic
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-15 | by ( Dana Goldstein | More About Dana Goldstein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The NewsThe federal Education Department released a new trove of data on Wednesday from the 2020-21 school year, the first full academic year during the coronavirus pandemic. It adds to the understanding of how the education system responded to Covid-19, and demonstrates how many schools struggled to handle the cascade of challenges. A Statistic That Sums It Up: 88 PercentThat’s the percentage of the country’s 97,600 public schools that operated in hybrid mode during the 2020-21 school year, with few students receiving a full year of in-person learning. The new statistics come from the Civil Rights Data Collection, a mandatory survey of all public schools in the United States that is administered by the Education Department and is typically conducted every other year. Because of pandemic delays, the last collection of data covered the 2017-18 school year.

Organizations: federal Education Department, Civil, Education Department Locations: United States

☆ Publisher Scholastic Backtracks on Isolating Works on Race and Gender
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-25 | by ( Dana Goldstein | More About Dana Goldstein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The children’s book publisher Scholastic, which had begun separating some books about race, gender and sexuality at school book fairs, said this week it was halting the new practice after pointed criticism from some authors, educators and parents. The company had designated 64 titles as optional for the fairs in response to dozens of recent laws in states restricting what content students can be exposed to in schools. Among the books included on the list were biographies of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson of the Supreme Court and the civil rights activist and congressman John Lewis; a novel about a Lakota girl; and a picture book about different family types, including families with adoptive or same-sex parents. The list of the separated titles was called the “Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice” catalog. Book fair organizers have had the ability to opt out of all or some of those titles.

Persons: Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, John Lewis Organizations: Scholastic, Supreme

☆ Amid Reading Wars, Columbia Will Close a Star Professor’s Shop
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-08 | by ( Dana Goldstein | More About Dana Goldstein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the urgent debate over how U.S. schools teach children to read, few figures have been as central as Lucy Calkins, the Columbia University professor and curriculum entrepreneur. For four decades, her organization, the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, and her widely purchased curriculum inspired passion among many educators. Critics said Dr. Calkins downplayed phonics and overlooked a large body of scientific research on how children become skilled readers. Now her group has been dissolved by Columbia University’s Teachers College, according to a recent announcement. It marks the end of an era for Teachers College and perhaps another setback for balanced literacy, the embattled movement in which Dr. Calkins is one of several prominent leaders.

Persons: Lucy Calkins, Critics, Calkins Organizations: Columbia University, Teachers College Reading, Columbia University’s Teachers College, Teachers College

☆ Florida Expected to Approve Classical Exam as a Competitor to the SAT
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-06 | by ( Dana Goldstein | More About Dana Goldstein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Classic Learning Test is the college admissions exam that most students have never heard of. An alternative to the SAT and ACT for only a small number of mostly religious colleges, the test is known for its emphasis on the Western canon, with a big dose of Christian thought. But on Friday, Florida’s public university system, which includes the University of Florida and Florida State University, is expected to become the first state system to approve the Classic Learning Test, or CLT, for use in admissions. “We are always seeking ways to improve,” said Ray Rodrigues, the chancellor of the State University System of Florida, noting that the system, which serves a quarter million undergraduates, was the largest in the country to still require an entrance exam. Ron DeSantis to shake up the education establishment, especially the College Board, the nonprofit behemoth that runs the SAT program.

Persons: ”, Ray Rodrigues, Ron DeSantis Organizations: ACT, University of Florida, Florida State University, State University System of, Gov, College Board Locations: State University System of Florida

☆ Little Rock Will Offer A.P. African American Studies Despite State Objections
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-17 | by ( Dana Goldstein | More About Dana Goldstein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

The same legislation weakened teachers’ tenure protections, which has raised the stakes in the confrontation with the state over African American studies. African American Studies will allow students to explore the complexities, contributions and narratives that have shaped the African American experience throughout history, including Central High School’s integral connection,” the district said. African American studies is a rigorous, fact-based class protected under the law, and not an example of ideology or opinion. Huckabee Sanders pointed out that the state already offered an African American history course and that the A.P. African American studies and were planning a joint response.

Persons: “ A.P, ”, Reisma, Huckabee Sanders, Ivory Toldson, Toldson, Ron DeSantis, Black Organizations: Little Rock School District, Little Rock Central High School, American Studies, Central, Educators, Arkansas Education Association, The Arkansas Department of Education, Gov, U.S . National Guard, Rock Central High School, NAACP, Little, Nine, Howard University, College Board, Republican Locations: Arkansas, American, Florida

☆ Arkansas Warns School Districts Not to Offer A.P. African American Studies
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-14 | by ( Dana Goldstein | More About Dana Goldstein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

African American Studies has had a tumultuous journey since its official rollout in February, when it emerged that the College Board had revised the course’s content. African American studies is interdisciplinary, encompassing concepts from history, sociology, politics, legal studies, arts and culture. But the College Board removed or watered down key subjects and concepts from the course framework, such as critical race theory and mass incarceration. The College Board said it “rejects the notion that the A.P. African American studies course is indoctrination in any form.” And it pointed out that more than 200 colleges have already agreed to provide credit for the class, including the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, the state’s flagship public postsecondary institution.

Persons: Ron DeSantis, —, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Jacob Oliva, DeSantis, Alexa Henning, Huckabee Sanders, “ Organizations: American Studies, College Board, Gov, Florida Republican, Board, Republican, Arkansas Department of Education, Twitter, The, University of Arkansas Locations: Florida, Arkansas, Fayetteville

☆ Florida Schools Try to Adapt to New Rules on Gender, Bathrooms and Pronouns
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-10 | by ( Dana Goldstein | More About Dana Goldstein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The new bureaucracy is an offshoot of Gov. Ron DeSantis’s increasingly muscular push for “parental rights” in education, with new laws and regulations that broadly restrict classroom instruction on gender and sexuality, including in high school, and prevent transgender students and staff members from using group bathrooms that match their gender identity. Teachers will also be barred from asking students for their preferred pronouns and could lose their professional certification for violating the new laws. Course lists and classroom libraries are also under the microscope, with districts seeking to excise material that touches on gender and sexuality, including in classics like “Romeo and Juliet.”Here is how some Florida school districts are interpreting the new laws. They Have a Form for ThatThe new regulations have created a bureaucratic tangle, with several counties sending parents forms that must be filled out if they want their child referred to by something other than their legal name.

Persons: Ron DeSantis’s, Romeo, Juliet Organizations: Gov Locations: Florida

It was the sixth lawsuit against Northwestern University in nine days, and the allegations had become, somehow, both familiar and even more appalling. A young alumnus of the football program, Simba Short, said he had been restrained and sexually abused in a well-rehearsed hazing ritual. That he had witnessed a teammate struggling to breathe after he was sexually abused while being held underwater. That players had been forced to drink until they vomited, and that coaches could have intervened, but did not. Short’s experiences troubled him so deeply that he attempted to harm himself and was hospitalized in 2016, according to the complaint he filed in Chicago on Thursday — only the latest to allege a pattern of sexually abusive hazing and racism in the university’s sports program.

Persons: Simba Short Organizations: Northwestern University, Big Locations: Chicago, Lake Michigan

Search resuls for: "More About Dana Goldstein"

11 mentions found