I am speaking these few days on education policy but I had to stop to post this Maryland Assembly Bill being introduced with a flood of last minute bills-----
This is how all of Maryland Assembly laws are written now-----every tax law is now subject to specific exceptions as taxes grow for the middle and working class because corporations and the rich pay no taxes and corporate subsidy is growing. Keep in mind that Maryland's Constitution states that taxes will be uniform; LAWS WILL NOT BE WRITTEN TOO VAGUE----the Maryland Assembly is passing law that circumvents that uniformity and I will be taking this to court to challenge this constitutionally.
IN MARYLAND----IT IS 'CERTAIN' CERTAIN' CERTAIN'
WE NEED THE 80% OF MARYLAND VOTERS NOT VOTING TO GET OUT AND RUN FOR ALL OFFICES IN PRIMARIES TO GET RID OF THESE CORPORATE POLS! KNOW THESE CANDIDATES AND VOTE FOR THE ONES MEDIA DOES NOT ALLOW ACCESS
Tax Amnesty Program
2
FOR the purpose of requiring the Comptroller to waive certain penalties and interest
3
imposed for the nonpayment, nonreporting, or underreporting of certain taxes under
4
certain circumstances; establishing a period during which the Comptroller shall
5
grant am
nesty; authorizing the Comptroller to enter into certain agreements to
6
provide a certain waiver under certain circumstances with respect to certain taxes
7
that a taxpayer agrees to pay in accordance with certain terms and a certain
8
schedule;
providing that
the amnesty program does not apply to certain taxpayers
9
under certain circumstances;
requiring the Comptroller to submit a certain report
10
on the tax amnesty program; and generally relating to a tax amnesty program for
11
certain taxes.
_________________________________________
Here is a typical conversation on social media where Americans have no idea that Race to the Top is the installation of a global neo-liberal education policy having nothing to do with public education. The common meme for Common Core is a picture of a simple subtraction problem turning into a multi-step process that makes no sense to Americans. The friend posting this meme asks WHY are they doing math this way:
Neo-liberalism is about creating global corporate empires -----it is also about creating the cheapest labor pool around the world. US citizens have rights as citizens in the US ----but they don't in an overseas nation. As well, foreign immigrants coming to the US to work have no rights as citizens here and can be worked anyway a corporations wants. It is called mass migration of human capital and it is what 21st century economy is about. This is what Trans Pacific Trade Pact is about and Race to the Top and education privatization is simply installing this global corporate policy. Clinton neo-liberals and Bush neo-cons are installing this and this is why the American people need to stop this reform and get rid of these global coporate pols!
Well how on Earth does the FREE Enterprise System fit into this equation?
The idea is to have the same education systems around the world especially with nations connected to free trade pacts---neo-liberal education is being pushed in Mexico and the entire nation has protested it for the last few years----they are installing the same education policies in South America---all the same testing, evaluation, Common Core. It has nothing to do with public education---it is all vocational tracking and a global job pool.
//In the past, math was learned as a series of memorized facts, formulas and shortcuts or tricks. The result, experts say, is that U.S. students struggle with math.
Nearly two out of every three U.S. fourth-graders and eighth-graders were not proficient on recent national math tests.
The Common Core standards differ from that previous approach in that they emphasize the concepts behind mathematical operations and stress that there are multiple ways to arrive at the same answer.//
Andrew----people consider the narrowing of instruction in our public schools and the tying of children to online lessons written by corporations a dumbing-down. Focusing on math and reading to the exclusion of humanities and liberal arts and tracking vocationally as early as elementary school is taking away choice and opportunity. America fell behind in education because of the education reforms by Reagan Clinton in which students were allowed to learn math using calculators. We need our students to grasp the basics of math before moving to these alternative approaches.
Also Andrew, Common Core is about controlling information. If you are not aware---the exact education reform is happening in nations around the world using the same testing and evaluation----the same Common Core. Common Core is a Republican policy developed in the Bush Administration meant to hand the information taught in our classrooms to a few at the top. Centralized information is what makes autocratic dictatorships as does global corporate tribunals brought by Trans Pacific Trade Pact. So, we need to WAKE UP----look at the goal of these policies. Education reform is tied to global markets and moving US citizens globally. We had a thriving first world domestic economy until Reagan Clinton neo-liberalism.
Peru's government joined the Trans Pacific Trade Pact and has handed the country to global corporations as the US politicians are doing.
Peru’s largest teachers’ union, SUTEP, has voted for an indefinite general strike against the neo-liberal education policies of the government.
February 24, 2015 Teacher Solidarity South America, Education
Delegates at the conference of the largest teaching union in Peru, SUTEP, meeting this weekend in Lima, have voted overwhelmingly for an indefinite general strike against the neo-liberal education policies of the government. The strike will start on the 27th May.
In particular the union is fighting the increasing privatisation of education in Peru, which they say goes against the agreement across the Americas for free and universal public education. More money is being spent on private than on public education in the country, which as SUTEP says: ‘has a damaging effect on students, parents and teachers.’ Moreover the government is attacking the labour rights of teachers, using and dismissing temporary teachers and they have been aided in this by the pro-government union CEN SUTEP which has signed agreements on the topic.
SUTEP has called on parents, students, Peruvian intellectuals and teachers in general, to stand against these developments and support the general strike which will also involve protest marches, pickets and sit-ins.
While the government has increasingly promoted the introduction of ‘accountability’ mechanisms like performance related pay and the commodification of education, SUTEP has been struggling to develop an alternative pedagogy, particularly in remote rural areas, based on the principles of educationists like Vygotsky and Freire, to improve public education and make schools into truly democratic places which are at the centre of their communities.
________________________________________
Everyone understands that this testing and evaluation education policy is bad----parents, students, teachers, academics, and justice organizations. So, why do they continue to install it in states like Maryland? Because Clinton neo-liberals and Bush neo-cons are working for global corporations and global markets and only see what works for them---not the American people. These Clinton neo-liberals
DO WHAT THEY ARE TOLD--THEY DO NOT LEAD.
Most of these pols running as Clinton neo-liberals do not understand the goals of these policies---the goal is to get rid of old-school teachers and install newly graduated teachers from teacher's programs developed around these policies. That is why we are seeing mass firing of teachers and conditions that make teachers quit---
Disadvantages of High Stakes Testing in Elementary Schools
by Amy Pearson, Demand Media
High stakes testing has become common in elementary schools across the United States, as governments and schools try to work together to improve standards, teaching quality and learning. In elementary schools, there are serious consequences for students and schools who perform poorly on tests. Disadvantages to high-stakes testing are easily identified, yet teachers and schools are held responsible if scores are not acceptable.
High Pressure on Elementary Students
Pressure to succeed on high stakes tests is felt by students, resulting in anxiety for young children. Major decisions are often made based solely on the results of high stakes testing. Elementary students suffer as the pressure to succeed weighs heavily on them. Children who do not perform well on tests may suffer from lack of self-esteem and reduced self-worth. According to Sociology of Education, self-concept is strongly related to perceived intellectual abilities.
Low Morale
Elementary students, teachers and parents all experience stress and anxiety over standardized testing. If scores are low, teachers may begin to lose motivation to try to help students succeed. Students often feel frustrated by high stakes testing. Parents become frustrated as they are unable to help or remedy the situation.
Consequences for Low Scores
Elementary schools with poor test scores are at risk of losing federal and state funding. If scores do not improve within a set amount of time, the school may be forced to submit to government takeover or major restructuring, according to a report from the Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement. Teachers often fear repercussions if students do not pass high stakes testing, leaving educators tempted to succumb to corruption or to cheat, according to The National Association of School Psychologists.
Teaching to the Test
To help students pass high stakes standardized testing, schools are forced to eliminate subjects that will not be tested. Music and art are often reduced or eliminated, in favor of increasing instructional time in reading or math. Elementary schools are already pressed for time to accommodate all of the daily requirements and responsibilities. To cover material needed to pass a high stakes standardized test, teachers are forced to wait to teach other topics until the testing is complete. Others remove additional topics from the curriculum completely.
Poor Design
High stakes tests generally do not assess higher order thinking or reasoning. Computerized grading is often used to score the exams. Children with special needs or children with different styles of learning are not adequately assessed using these styles of tests, or simply not tested at all. The National Center for Learning Disabilities states that standardized tests are some of the worst ways to assess children with learning disabilities. Accommodations can be made to assist special needs children, but all children suffer from the generalized nature of the tests.
______________________________________
Why is Forbes Financial worried about foreign language in elementary schools? It's Trans Pacific Trade Pact that seeks to send US workers overseas to work and this language training is growing in Hispanic and black schools with the goal of doing just that. Immigrants being brought from around the world are taking more and more of the white collar jobs in the US and the low-wage jobs are going to immigrants as well. So, as the US labor market is flooded with immigrant labor----Americans will be sent overseas to work. Already, European nations are seeing their youth taking jobs overseas as well as the US as global corporations and their pols deliberately keep the economy stagnant and domestic unemployment high-----we have never had so few participants in the workforce since 1960s----63% of Americans of working age are working.
Below you see what the 21st Century economy looks like to Clinton neo-liberals and Bush neo-cons and the US economic situation and public policy is written just to create this movement of human capital globally. This is what Race to the Top expanded around the world prepares for.
REMEMBER, WE SIMPLY NEED TO GET RID OF THE CLINTON NEO-LIBERALS MAKING UP ONLY 20% OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY TO GET BACK TO HAVING A THRIVING DOMESTIC ECONOMY AND FIRST WORLD QUALITY OF LIFE. IT REALLY IS EASY PEASY IF PEOPLE WOULD ENGAGE IN POLITICS!
Youth work abroad: Youth work abroad
| 19 September 2006 Children and Young People Now--UK
Some people love it and make a life abroad, while others can't wait to return home or only do it for a short period.
Spanish youth urged to seek work abroad -
The Globe and Mail
Over half of young adults in Europe want to move abroad to work
www.expatforum.com/european-union/over-half-of-young...CachedMay 22, 2011 ·
More than half of young adults in Europe are willing or would like to live abroad with Iceland having the largest number destined to become expats, a new
More Americans Moving Overseas to Find Jobs
jobs.aol.com/.../more-americans-moving-overseas-to-find-jobsCachedJan 04, 2011 ·
More Americans Moving Overseas to Find Jobs. ... mostly from new American Ph.D.s. Will working abroad become a mainstream option for American job hunters?
This is the goal of the 21st century economy Clinton neo-liberals and Bush neo-cons always speak---and installing foreign languages in elementary schools is driven by this goal. We all love languages----it is progressive to have languages in elementary schools---but the goal of creating an ex-pat society for America is not progressive and it will kill end US sovereignty and our rights as citizens as Trans Pacific Trade Pact does.
Southern states like Georgia and South Carolina lead in teaching language in elementary and again---it is the low-income schools having this installed the most. I guess if they cannot send their low-income citizens to the military---they will send them to this global work pool. Remember, over 70% of Americans are at or near poverty and the coming economic bond market crash will cause that to rise to 80%. So, these policies will hit 90% of Americans!
8/27/2012 @ 6:19AM
America's Foreign Language Deficit
When elementary and secondary schools and colleges around the country open for the fall semester, millions of students will not be studying a foreign language. Not necessarily for lack of interest. They won’t be able to.
In a shrinking world this reality constitutes a threat to our national security. “To prosper economically and to improve relations with other countries,” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan declared in 2010, “Americans need to read, speak and understand other languages.” Unfortunately, Duncan pointed out, only 18% of Americans report speaking a language other than English, while 53% of Europeans (and increasing numbers in other parts of the world) can converse in a second language.
More and more students and their parents understand the need to communicate with friends and foes in other countries, and not just on our terms. Demand for and enrollment in foreign language courses is at its highest level since 1968. At public K-12 schools, course enrollment in 2007-2008 reached 8.9 million individuals, about 18.5 percent of all students; between 1995 and 2009, it increased 47.8 percent at colleges and universities.
At the same time, however, schools at every level are balancing their budgets and offsetting reductions in government allocations by cutting their offerings and/or eliminating foreign language requirements.
Consider this:
- The percentage of public and private elementary schools offering foreign language instruction decreased from 31 to 25 percent from 1997 to 2008. Instruction in public elementary schools dropped from 24 percent to 15 percent, with rural districts hit the hardest.
- The percentage of all middle schools offering foreign language instruction decreased from 75 to 58 percent.
- The percentage of high schools offering some foreign language courses remained about the same, at 91 percent.
- About 25 percent of elementary schools and 30 percent of middle schools report a shortage of qualified foreign language teachers.
- In 2009-2010, only 50.7 percent of higher education institutions required foreign language study for a baccalaureate, down from 67.5 percent in 1994-1995. And many colleges and universities, including Cornell, have reduced or eliminated instructional offerings in “less popular” languages.
We should care – a lot – about our foreign language deficit. We need diplomats, intelligence and foreign policy experts, politicians, military leaders, business leaders, scientists, physicians, entrepreneurs, managers, technicians, historians, artists, and writers who are proficient in languages other than English. And we need them to read and speak less commonly taught languages (for which funding has recently been cut by the federal government) that are essential to our strategic and economic interests, such as Farsi, Bengali, Vietnamese, Burmese and Indonesian.
There have been some positive recent developments:
- Over the past decade, the Chicago Public Schools have expanded instruction in Chinese to include 43 schools and serve 12,000 students. Many of these students are Hispanic and will be trilingual.
- The Arlington, Virginia, public schools offer after-school instruction in Chinese and Arabic to middle and high school students.
- Columbia, Yale and Cornell are developing video-conferencing courses to share – and spread – instruction in less-taught languages.
But we need to do more. Much more. We ask parents to urge their children to attain proficiency in a foreign language, whether or not schools require them to do so; PTAs to lobby school boards; faculty members and deans in colleges and universities to re-visit foreign language requirements; readers of Forbes to write to their elected representatives.
The message is simple: in 1957, after the Russians launched Sputnik, Congress passed and President Eisenhower signed the National Defense Education Act, which provided federal support for foreign language instruction as well as science education. We may not be quite as frightened as we were during the height of the Cold War, but we must be just as resolute in designing a comprehensive approach to foreign language acquisition that will prepare the next generation of Americans for success in a highly competitive, tightly interconnected world.
___________________________________
You see why Baltimore and Maryland has such a captured system installing these education policies-----besides Johns Hopkins as the neo-conservative driver of installing this education privatization of K-college----we have the Clintons connecting to local universities----Towson and MICA----in creating this global education and neo-liberal expansion.
I talk all the time with Hopkins students caught in this process----they are generally from affluent families and are being directed into this American as ex-pat lifestyle and
EVEN THOSE PEOPLE AT THE HIGHER EARNING LEVELS HATE WHAT IS HAPPENING TO AMERICAN SOCIETY. THEY DON'T WANT TO SPEND THEIR LIVES AWAY FROM FAMILY.
So, no one wants this policy and yet---we cannot shake these Clinton neo-liberals and Bush neo-cons out of our Democratic and Republican Parties and it starts with the election fraud I showed existing in Maryland politics-----the state Democratic committees are captured by these neo-liberals and they are rigging elections illegally. So, fight your way into this process and CHANGE IT----WE CAN CHANGE IT.
This is why Baltimore is flooded with private non-profits that organize and promote single issues but none of them educate on what is happening with global 21st century economic policies.
This is Clinton bringing back to the US what he created overseas------a system of global corporations working in developing nations using their citizens as sweat shop labor and devastating that nation's environment while making a few people rich.
Building on the successful model of the Clinton Global Initiative, which brings together world leaders to take action on global challenges, President Clinton launched the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) in 2007 to engage the next generation of leaders on college campuses around the world.
Each year, CGI U hosts a meeting where students, university representatives, topic experts, and celebrities come together to discuss and develop innovative solutions to pressing global challenges. President Clinton, Secretary Clinton, and Chelsea Clinton hosted CGI U 2015 at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida from March 6-8, 2015. The meeting brought together more than 1,100 students to make a difference in CGI U's five focus areas: Education, Environment and Climate Change, Peace and Human Rights, Poverty Alleviation, and Public Health.
But CGI U is more than just an event. It is a growing community of young leaders who don't just discuss global challenges - they take real, concrete steps toward solving them. Throughout the year, and as a prerequisite of attending the CGI U meeting, students develop their own Commitments to Action: new, specific, and measurable initiatives that address pressing challenges on campus, in local communities, or around the world. Commitments range from manufacturing wheelchairs for developing countries to establishing campus bike share programs, from creating free vision clinics to developing e-learning applications for mobile phones.
Throughout the year, students are also invited to apply to become CGI U Campus Representatives. Colleges and universities can engage with CGI U by joining the CGI University Network to support and mentor innovative student commitment-makers from their respective campuses by providing seed funding for new projects and initiatives.
CGI U is proof that young people have the power to make a significant impact by confronting some of the world's most urgent challenges. Since 2008, students have made more than 5,500 Commitments to Action, and nearly $2 million in funding has been awarded to these commitment-makers through CGI U.
2015 Members
Current members of the CGI University Network are listed below. These 70 schools have pledged more than $800,000 to support CGI U 2015 student commitment-makers. If your school is a University Network member, contact your campus liaison to learn more about applying for travel assistance and seed funding.
If you are a university administrator or faculty member interesting in learning more about joining the CGI University Network, contact the CGI U team at cgiu@clintonglobalinitiative.org or 212.710.4492.
American University in Dubai Arizona State University Babson College Boğaziçi University Brown University California State University, East Bay California State University, Fresno Carnegie Mellon University, Heinz College Chinese University of Hong Kong Clark Atlanta University Clinton School of Public Service College of Wooster Cornell University Duke University Fashion Institute of Technology Feather River College George Mason University George Washington University Hamilton College Hong Kong Polytechnic University Illinois College Jarvis Christian College Johnson C. Smith University Kean University Lamar University Loyola Marymount University Maryland Institute College of Art Miami Dade College Middlebury College Mount Holyoke College Nazareth College New York University North Carolina State University North Dakota State University Northeastern University Northern Arizona University Northwestern University Ohio State University Oregon State University Purdue University Rutgers University Southern Methodist University St. Cloud State University Stanford University State University of New York at Geneseo State University of New York, Westchester Community College Tomsk State University Towson University Tufts University University College London University of Alabama at Birmingham University of Arkansas, Fayetteville University of California, Berkeley University of California, Davis University of California, San Diego University of Central Florida University of Chicago, Harris School of Public Policy University of Delaware University of Edinburgh University of Fortaleza University of Houston University of Kentucky University of Lausanne University of Miami University of Nebraska at Omaha University of St. Andrews University of St. Thomas University of Virginia Washington University in St. Louis Widener University
____________________________________
Neo-liberals went out and built the South Korean neo-liberal model of education while they dismantled the American Democratic public education model embraced by Finland several decades ago----now Finland has a #1 ranked education system in a first world Democratic society and South Korea is an autocratic corporate controlled repressive society with a neo-liberal education structure that Clinton neo-liberals and Bush neo-cons are now pushing on Americans. So, we simply need to go back to the original US model now used by Finland to return to a first world Democratic society.
An Ohio teacher visits Finland schools – and sees why they have a #1 worldwide ranking in education.
The comparisons with #17 USA are stunning. Posted on March 11, 2015 by Don R
Here’s a refreshing change of pace – an uplifting view about the state of education! Thanks to a wonderful submission sent in by Suzanne G., a math and special education teacher from Ohio, we have the chance to visit a classroom in the country ranked at the top of worldwide education performance. It is an engaging picture of what classrooms can be, and what they once were across the USA.
(Another outstanding teacher story follows this introduction, as part of
our BeHEARD! initiative to let YOUR classroom voice be seen nationwide.
If you did not know about BeHEARD! – please click here.)
Several respected researchers estimate educational performance by country each year. Depending upon what survey you accept, Finland is usually seen as ranking #1 or #2 (alternating with South Korea) in terms of “cognitive skills and educational attainment. The lowest ranking I found was #5. Meanwhile, the USA, by these same researchers is usually #17, with #14 the highest published result.
Suzanne found a very different environment than all of us find in our classrooms. Several things really stood out to me:
Enjoy a look at the classrooms we all remember from 20 years ago, before all the destructive mandates.
Please be sure to FOLLOW our blog by clicking “follow” in the
upper right corner of this page. Following a blog is ALWAYS ANONYMOUS.
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————————————--
(Suzanne G. is a high school math and special education teacher from Ohio. She took a year’s sabbatical to visit other schools, and is blogging her way through the classrooms of Europe. Please visit her blog at sgenillier.wordpress.com to enjoy being part of the trip!)
I am currently on sabbatical observing schools in the French-speaking world, with one exception, Finland, for I was curious to discover the secret to their success. What I saw was enlightening! A philosophy of less is more when it comes to teaching.
Kids don’t start school till they are 7 years old. Each 45 minute class is followed by a 15 minute break during which all students have to go outside no matter what the weather (I observed an IB Middle School), while teachers get a chance to collaborate in the teacher’s lounge. I saw small classes (around 15 students), often with two or three teachers (the main teacher, a teacher who helps with special need kids and, if the main teacher is new he collaborates with a veteran teacher with whom he co-teaches three or four times a week).
I saw a curriculum that was meant for all students (not just the highly academic ones) including mandatory classes such as home-economics where students cooked and ate their own meal, workshop, during which students were building their own bike, textile where students could experiment with sewing machines, looming machines or do a knitting project. I saw student-centered classes that looked more like study halls – with students working in collaboration while the teacher(s) walked around to help as needed.
But, I didn’t see students and teachers being overworked, over-tested, or constantly asked to do more with less means and less time to teach. I saw what “no child left behind” meant in a school system that offers choices between technical HS and main stream (the average is 50/50 in the country).
I understand that some of their success can be attributed to different social conditions and a more homogeneous population (though I saw diversity in the classrooms I observed). But this is no by mere chance – they make sure to provide for each child so no one has to come to school hungry or worry about not being able to afford their transportation fee. No matter what the conditions are, their school system, where the well-being of the child and the teacher is a priority, makes a lot of sense and has proven successful.
If you want to read more about my experience and see a few pictures, I have kept a blog of my experience at sgenillier.wordpress.com
This is how all of Maryland Assembly laws are written now-----every tax law is now subject to specific exceptions as taxes grow for the middle and working class because corporations and the rich pay no taxes and corporate subsidy is growing. Keep in mind that Maryland's Constitution states that taxes will be uniform; LAWS WILL NOT BE WRITTEN TOO VAGUE----the Maryland Assembly is passing law that circumvents that uniformity and I will be taking this to court to challenge this constitutionally.
IN MARYLAND----IT IS 'CERTAIN' CERTAIN' CERTAIN'
WE NEED THE 80% OF MARYLAND VOTERS NOT VOTING TO GET OUT AND RUN FOR ALL OFFICES IN PRIMARIES TO GET RID OF THESE CORPORATE POLS! KNOW THESE CANDIDATES AND VOTE FOR THE ONES MEDIA DOES NOT ALLOW ACCESS
Tax Amnesty Program
2
FOR the purpose of requiring the Comptroller to waive certain penalties and interest
3
imposed for the nonpayment, nonreporting, or underreporting of certain taxes under
4
certain circumstances; establishing a period during which the Comptroller shall
5
grant am
nesty; authorizing the Comptroller to enter into certain agreements to
6
provide a certain waiver under certain circumstances with respect to certain taxes
7
that a taxpayer agrees to pay in accordance with certain terms and a certain
8
schedule;
providing that
the amnesty program does not apply to certain taxpayers
9
under certain circumstances;
requiring the Comptroller to submit a certain report
10
on the tax amnesty program; and generally relating to a tax amnesty program for
11
certain taxes.
_________________________________________
Here is a typical conversation on social media where Americans have no idea that Race to the Top is the installation of a global neo-liberal education policy having nothing to do with public education. The common meme for Common Core is a picture of a simple subtraction problem turning into a multi-step process that makes no sense to Americans. The friend posting this meme asks WHY are they doing math this way:
- They do this because this is the way math is done in China---they want US students prepared to work with the Chinese.
Really?
yes.....21st century education to Clinton neo-liberals is all about preparing US citizens to live as ex-pats just as the days of the British empire.
Again, I ask ...why?
Neo-liberalism is about creating global corporate empires -----it is also about creating the cheapest labor pool around the world. US citizens have rights as citizens in the US ----but they don't in an overseas nation. As well, foreign immigrants coming to the US to work have no rights as citizens here and can be worked anyway a corporations wants. It is called mass migration of human capital and it is what 21st century economy is about. This is what Trans Pacific Trade Pact is about and Race to the Top and education privatization is simply installing this global corporate policy. Clinton neo-liberals and Bush neo-cons are installing this and this is why the American people need to stop this reform and get rid of these global coporate pols!
Well how on Earth does the FREE Enterprise System fit into this equation?
The idea is to have the same education systems around the world especially with nations connected to free trade pacts---neo-liberal education is being pushed in Mexico and the entire nation has protested it for the last few years----they are installing the same education policies in South America---all the same testing, evaluation, Common Core. It has nothing to do with public education---it is all vocational tracking and a global job pool.
//In the past, math was learned as a series of memorized facts, formulas and shortcuts or tricks. The result, experts say, is that U.S. students struggle with math.
Nearly two out of every three U.S. fourth-graders and eighth-graders were not proficient on recent national math tests.
The Common Core standards differ from that previous approach in that they emphasize the concepts behind mathematical operations and stress that there are multiple ways to arrive at the same answer.//
Andrew----people consider the narrowing of instruction in our public schools and the tying of children to online lessons written by corporations a dumbing-down. Focusing on math and reading to the exclusion of humanities and liberal arts and tracking vocationally as early as elementary school is taking away choice and opportunity. America fell behind in education because of the education reforms by Reagan Clinton in which students were allowed to learn math using calculators. We need our students to grasp the basics of math before moving to these alternative approaches.
Also Andrew, Common Core is about controlling information. If you are not aware---the exact education reform is happening in nations around the world using the same testing and evaluation----the same Common Core. Common Core is a Republican policy developed in the Bush Administration meant to hand the information taught in our classrooms to a few at the top. Centralized information is what makes autocratic dictatorships as does global corporate tribunals brought by Trans Pacific Trade Pact. So, we need to WAKE UP----look at the goal of these policies. Education reform is tied to global markets and moving US citizens globally. We had a thriving first world domestic economy until Reagan Clinton neo-liberalism.
Peru's government joined the Trans Pacific Trade Pact and has handed the country to global corporations as the US politicians are doing.
Peru’s largest teachers’ union, SUTEP, has voted for an indefinite general strike against the neo-liberal education policies of the government.
February 24, 2015 Teacher Solidarity South America, Education
Delegates at the conference of the largest teaching union in Peru, SUTEP, meeting this weekend in Lima, have voted overwhelmingly for an indefinite general strike against the neo-liberal education policies of the government. The strike will start on the 27th May.
In particular the union is fighting the increasing privatisation of education in Peru, which they say goes against the agreement across the Americas for free and universal public education. More money is being spent on private than on public education in the country, which as SUTEP says: ‘has a damaging effect on students, parents and teachers.’ Moreover the government is attacking the labour rights of teachers, using and dismissing temporary teachers and they have been aided in this by the pro-government union CEN SUTEP which has signed agreements on the topic.
SUTEP has called on parents, students, Peruvian intellectuals and teachers in general, to stand against these developments and support the general strike which will also involve protest marches, pickets and sit-ins.
While the government has increasingly promoted the introduction of ‘accountability’ mechanisms like performance related pay and the commodification of education, SUTEP has been struggling to develop an alternative pedagogy, particularly in remote rural areas, based on the principles of educationists like Vygotsky and Freire, to improve public education and make schools into truly democratic places which are at the centre of their communities.
________________________________________
Everyone understands that this testing and evaluation education policy is bad----parents, students, teachers, academics, and justice organizations. So, why do they continue to install it in states like Maryland? Because Clinton neo-liberals and Bush neo-cons are working for global corporations and global markets and only see what works for them---not the American people. These Clinton neo-liberals
DO WHAT THEY ARE TOLD--THEY DO NOT LEAD.
Most of these pols running as Clinton neo-liberals do not understand the goals of these policies---the goal is to get rid of old-school teachers and install newly graduated teachers from teacher's programs developed around these policies. That is why we are seeing mass firing of teachers and conditions that make teachers quit---
Disadvantages of High Stakes Testing in Elementary Schools
by Amy Pearson, Demand Media
High stakes testing has become common in elementary schools across the United States, as governments and schools try to work together to improve standards, teaching quality and learning. In elementary schools, there are serious consequences for students and schools who perform poorly on tests. Disadvantages to high-stakes testing are easily identified, yet teachers and schools are held responsible if scores are not acceptable.
High Pressure on Elementary Students
Pressure to succeed on high stakes tests is felt by students, resulting in anxiety for young children. Major decisions are often made based solely on the results of high stakes testing. Elementary students suffer as the pressure to succeed weighs heavily on them. Children who do not perform well on tests may suffer from lack of self-esteem and reduced self-worth. According to Sociology of Education, self-concept is strongly related to perceived intellectual abilities.
Low Morale
Elementary students, teachers and parents all experience stress and anxiety over standardized testing. If scores are low, teachers may begin to lose motivation to try to help students succeed. Students often feel frustrated by high stakes testing. Parents become frustrated as they are unable to help or remedy the situation.
Consequences for Low Scores
Elementary schools with poor test scores are at risk of losing federal and state funding. If scores do not improve within a set amount of time, the school may be forced to submit to government takeover or major restructuring, according to a report from the Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement. Teachers often fear repercussions if students do not pass high stakes testing, leaving educators tempted to succumb to corruption or to cheat, according to The National Association of School Psychologists.
Teaching to the Test
To help students pass high stakes standardized testing, schools are forced to eliminate subjects that will not be tested. Music and art are often reduced or eliminated, in favor of increasing instructional time in reading or math. Elementary schools are already pressed for time to accommodate all of the daily requirements and responsibilities. To cover material needed to pass a high stakes standardized test, teachers are forced to wait to teach other topics until the testing is complete. Others remove additional topics from the curriculum completely.
Poor Design
High stakes tests generally do not assess higher order thinking or reasoning. Computerized grading is often used to score the exams. Children with special needs or children with different styles of learning are not adequately assessed using these styles of tests, or simply not tested at all. The National Center for Learning Disabilities states that standardized tests are some of the worst ways to assess children with learning disabilities. Accommodations can be made to assist special needs children, but all children suffer from the generalized nature of the tests.
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Why is Forbes Financial worried about foreign language in elementary schools? It's Trans Pacific Trade Pact that seeks to send US workers overseas to work and this language training is growing in Hispanic and black schools with the goal of doing just that. Immigrants being brought from around the world are taking more and more of the white collar jobs in the US and the low-wage jobs are going to immigrants as well. So, as the US labor market is flooded with immigrant labor----Americans will be sent overseas to work. Already, European nations are seeing their youth taking jobs overseas as well as the US as global corporations and their pols deliberately keep the economy stagnant and domestic unemployment high-----we have never had so few participants in the workforce since 1960s----63% of Americans of working age are working.
Below you see what the 21st Century economy looks like to Clinton neo-liberals and Bush neo-cons and the US economic situation and public policy is written just to create this movement of human capital globally. This is what Race to the Top expanded around the world prepares for.
REMEMBER, WE SIMPLY NEED TO GET RID OF THE CLINTON NEO-LIBERALS MAKING UP ONLY 20% OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY TO GET BACK TO HAVING A THRIVING DOMESTIC ECONOMY AND FIRST WORLD QUALITY OF LIFE. IT REALLY IS EASY PEASY IF PEOPLE WOULD ENGAGE IN POLITICS!
Youth work abroad: Youth work abroad
| 19 September 2006 Children and Young People Now--UK
-
- Youth work isn't traditionally viewed as a career with job prospects abroad. But there are opportunities out there, as Patrick McCurry discovers. Working overseas can take your career in unpredictable directions.
Some people love it and make a life abroad, while others can't wait to return home or only do it for a short period.
Spanish youth urged to seek work abroad -
The Globe and Mail
- www.theglobeandmail.com
- › …
- › European Business
Over half of young adults in Europe want to move abroad to work
www.expatforum.com/european-union/over-half-of-young...CachedMay 22, 2011 ·
More than half of young adults in Europe are willing or would like to live abroad with Iceland having the largest number destined to become expats, a new
More Americans Moving Overseas to Find Jobs
jobs.aol.com/.../more-americans-moving-overseas-to-find-jobsCachedJan 04, 2011 ·
More Americans Moving Overseas to Find Jobs. ... mostly from new American Ph.D.s. Will working abroad become a mainstream option for American job hunters?
This is the goal of the 21st century economy Clinton neo-liberals and Bush neo-cons always speak---and installing foreign languages in elementary schools is driven by this goal. We all love languages----it is progressive to have languages in elementary schools---but the goal of creating an ex-pat society for America is not progressive and it will kill end US sovereignty and our rights as citizens as Trans Pacific Trade Pact does.
Southern states like Georgia and South Carolina lead in teaching language in elementary and again---it is the low-income schools having this installed the most. I guess if they cannot send their low-income citizens to the military---they will send them to this global work pool. Remember, over 70% of Americans are at or near poverty and the coming economic bond market crash will cause that to rise to 80%. So, these policies will hit 90% of Americans!
8/27/2012 @ 6:19AM
America's Foreign Language Deficit
When elementary and secondary schools and colleges around the country open for the fall semester, millions of students will not be studying a foreign language. Not necessarily for lack of interest. They won’t be able to.
In a shrinking world this reality constitutes a threat to our national security. “To prosper economically and to improve relations with other countries,” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan declared in 2010, “Americans need to read, speak and understand other languages.” Unfortunately, Duncan pointed out, only 18% of Americans report speaking a language other than English, while 53% of Europeans (and increasing numbers in other parts of the world) can converse in a second language.
More and more students and their parents understand the need to communicate with friends and foes in other countries, and not just on our terms. Demand for and enrollment in foreign language courses is at its highest level since 1968. At public K-12 schools, course enrollment in 2007-2008 reached 8.9 million individuals, about 18.5 percent of all students; between 1995 and 2009, it increased 47.8 percent at colleges and universities.
At the same time, however, schools at every level are balancing their budgets and offsetting reductions in government allocations by cutting their offerings and/or eliminating foreign language requirements.
Consider this:
- The percentage of public and private elementary schools offering foreign language instruction decreased from 31 to 25 percent from 1997 to 2008. Instruction in public elementary schools dropped from 24 percent to 15 percent, with rural districts hit the hardest.
- The percentage of all middle schools offering foreign language instruction decreased from 75 to 58 percent.
- The percentage of high schools offering some foreign language courses remained about the same, at 91 percent.
- About 25 percent of elementary schools and 30 percent of middle schools report a shortage of qualified foreign language teachers.
- In 2009-2010, only 50.7 percent of higher education institutions required foreign language study for a baccalaureate, down from 67.5 percent in 1994-1995. And many colleges and universities, including Cornell, have reduced or eliminated instructional offerings in “less popular” languages.
We should care – a lot – about our foreign language deficit. We need diplomats, intelligence and foreign policy experts, politicians, military leaders, business leaders, scientists, physicians, entrepreneurs, managers, technicians, historians, artists, and writers who are proficient in languages other than English. And we need them to read and speak less commonly taught languages (for which funding has recently been cut by the federal government) that are essential to our strategic and economic interests, such as Farsi, Bengali, Vietnamese, Burmese and Indonesian.
There have been some positive recent developments:
- Over the past decade, the Chicago Public Schools have expanded instruction in Chinese to include 43 schools and serve 12,000 students. Many of these students are Hispanic and will be trilingual.
- The Arlington, Virginia, public schools offer after-school instruction in Chinese and Arabic to middle and high school students.
- Columbia, Yale and Cornell are developing video-conferencing courses to share – and spread – instruction in less-taught languages.
But we need to do more. Much more. We ask parents to urge their children to attain proficiency in a foreign language, whether or not schools require them to do so; PTAs to lobby school boards; faculty members and deans in colleges and universities to re-visit foreign language requirements; readers of Forbes to write to their elected representatives.
The message is simple: in 1957, after the Russians launched Sputnik, Congress passed and President Eisenhower signed the National Defense Education Act, which provided federal support for foreign language instruction as well as science education. We may not be quite as frightened as we were during the height of the Cold War, but we must be just as resolute in designing a comprehensive approach to foreign language acquisition that will prepare the next generation of Americans for success in a highly competitive, tightly interconnected world.
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You see why Baltimore and Maryland has such a captured system installing these education policies-----besides Johns Hopkins as the neo-conservative driver of installing this education privatization of K-college----we have the Clintons connecting to local universities----Towson and MICA----in creating this global education and neo-liberal expansion.
I talk all the time with Hopkins students caught in this process----they are generally from affluent families and are being directed into this American as ex-pat lifestyle and
EVEN THOSE PEOPLE AT THE HIGHER EARNING LEVELS HATE WHAT IS HAPPENING TO AMERICAN SOCIETY. THEY DON'T WANT TO SPEND THEIR LIVES AWAY FROM FAMILY.
So, no one wants this policy and yet---we cannot shake these Clinton neo-liberals and Bush neo-cons out of our Democratic and Republican Parties and it starts with the election fraud I showed existing in Maryland politics-----the state Democratic committees are captured by these neo-liberals and they are rigging elections illegally. So, fight your way into this process and CHANGE IT----WE CAN CHANGE IT.
This is why Baltimore is flooded with private non-profits that organize and promote single issues but none of them educate on what is happening with global 21st century economic policies.
This is Clinton bringing back to the US what he created overseas------a system of global corporations working in developing nations using their citizens as sweat shop labor and devastating that nation's environment while making a few people rich.
Building on the successful model of the Clinton Global Initiative, which brings together world leaders to take action on global challenges, President Clinton launched the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) in 2007 to engage the next generation of leaders on college campuses around the world.
Each year, CGI U hosts a meeting where students, university representatives, topic experts, and celebrities come together to discuss and develop innovative solutions to pressing global challenges. President Clinton, Secretary Clinton, and Chelsea Clinton hosted CGI U 2015 at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida from March 6-8, 2015. The meeting brought together more than 1,100 students to make a difference in CGI U's five focus areas: Education, Environment and Climate Change, Peace and Human Rights, Poverty Alleviation, and Public Health.
But CGI U is more than just an event. It is a growing community of young leaders who don't just discuss global challenges - they take real, concrete steps toward solving them. Throughout the year, and as a prerequisite of attending the CGI U meeting, students develop their own Commitments to Action: new, specific, and measurable initiatives that address pressing challenges on campus, in local communities, or around the world. Commitments range from manufacturing wheelchairs for developing countries to establishing campus bike share programs, from creating free vision clinics to developing e-learning applications for mobile phones.
Throughout the year, students are also invited to apply to become CGI U Campus Representatives. Colleges and universities can engage with CGI U by joining the CGI University Network to support and mentor innovative student commitment-makers from their respective campuses by providing seed funding for new projects and initiatives.
CGI U is proof that young people have the power to make a significant impact by confronting some of the world's most urgent challenges. Since 2008, students have made more than 5,500 Commitments to Action, and nearly $2 million in funding has been awarded to these commitment-makers through CGI U.
2015 Members
Current members of the CGI University Network are listed below. These 70 schools have pledged more than $800,000 to support CGI U 2015 student commitment-makers. If your school is a University Network member, contact your campus liaison to learn more about applying for travel assistance and seed funding.
If you are a university administrator or faculty member interesting in learning more about joining the CGI University Network, contact the CGI U team at cgiu@clintonglobalinitiative.org or 212.710.4492.
American University in Dubai Arizona State University Babson College Boğaziçi University Brown University California State University, East Bay California State University, Fresno Carnegie Mellon University, Heinz College Chinese University of Hong Kong Clark Atlanta University Clinton School of Public Service College of Wooster Cornell University Duke University Fashion Institute of Technology Feather River College George Mason University George Washington University Hamilton College Hong Kong Polytechnic University Illinois College Jarvis Christian College Johnson C. Smith University Kean University Lamar University Loyola Marymount University Maryland Institute College of Art Miami Dade College Middlebury College Mount Holyoke College Nazareth College New York University North Carolina State University North Dakota State University Northeastern University Northern Arizona University Northwestern University Ohio State University Oregon State University Purdue University Rutgers University Southern Methodist University St. Cloud State University Stanford University State University of New York at Geneseo State University of New York, Westchester Community College Tomsk State University Towson University Tufts University University College London University of Alabama at Birmingham University of Arkansas, Fayetteville University of California, Berkeley University of California, Davis University of California, San Diego University of Central Florida University of Chicago, Harris School of Public Policy University of Delaware University of Edinburgh University of Fortaleza University of Houston University of Kentucky University of Lausanne University of Miami University of Nebraska at Omaha University of St. Andrews University of St. Thomas University of Virginia Washington University in St. Louis Widener University
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Neo-liberals went out and built the South Korean neo-liberal model of education while they dismantled the American Democratic public education model embraced by Finland several decades ago----now Finland has a #1 ranked education system in a first world Democratic society and South Korea is an autocratic corporate controlled repressive society with a neo-liberal education structure that Clinton neo-liberals and Bush neo-cons are now pushing on Americans. So, we simply need to go back to the original US model now used by Finland to return to a first world Democratic society.
An Ohio teacher visits Finland schools – and sees why they have a #1 worldwide ranking in education.
The comparisons with #17 USA are stunning. Posted on March 11, 2015 by Don R
Here’s a refreshing change of pace – an uplifting view about the state of education! Thanks to a wonderful submission sent in by Suzanne G., a math and special education teacher from Ohio, we have the chance to visit a classroom in the country ranked at the top of worldwide education performance. It is an engaging picture of what classrooms can be, and what they once were across the USA.
(Another outstanding teacher story follows this introduction, as part of
our BeHEARD! initiative to let YOUR classroom voice be seen nationwide.
If you did not know about BeHEARD! – please click here.)
Several respected researchers estimate educational performance by country each year. Depending upon what survey you accept, Finland is usually seen as ranking #1 or #2 (alternating with South Korea) in terms of “cognitive skills and educational attainment. The lowest ranking I found was #5. Meanwhile, the USA, by these same researchers is usually #17, with #14 the highest published result.
Suzanne found a very different environment than all of us find in our classrooms. Several things really stood out to me:
- Small classes
- Time for, and encouragement of, collaboration between teachers
- Senior teachers actively helping new teachers
- “Gym” not being forced out by test prep
- Curriculum aimed at all ends of the spectrum – not just a forced, dumbed-down, middle road
- Electives were equal priority with core subjects.
Enjoy a look at the classrooms we all remember from 20 years ago, before all the destructive mandates.
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(Suzanne G. is a high school math and special education teacher from Ohio. She took a year’s sabbatical to visit other schools, and is blogging her way through the classrooms of Europe. Please visit her blog at sgenillier.wordpress.com to enjoy being part of the trip!)
I am currently on sabbatical observing schools in the French-speaking world, with one exception, Finland, for I was curious to discover the secret to their success. What I saw was enlightening! A philosophy of less is more when it comes to teaching.
Kids don’t start school till they are 7 years old. Each 45 minute class is followed by a 15 minute break during which all students have to go outside no matter what the weather (I observed an IB Middle School), while teachers get a chance to collaborate in the teacher’s lounge. I saw small classes (around 15 students), often with two or three teachers (the main teacher, a teacher who helps with special need kids and, if the main teacher is new he collaborates with a veteran teacher with whom he co-teaches three or four times a week).
I saw a curriculum that was meant for all students (not just the highly academic ones) including mandatory classes such as home-economics where students cooked and ate their own meal, workshop, during which students were building their own bike, textile where students could experiment with sewing machines, looming machines or do a knitting project. I saw student-centered classes that looked more like study halls – with students working in collaboration while the teacher(s) walked around to help as needed.
But, I didn’t see students and teachers being overworked, over-tested, or constantly asked to do more with less means and less time to teach. I saw what “no child left behind” meant in a school system that offers choices between technical HS and main stream (the average is 50/50 in the country).
I understand that some of their success can be attributed to different social conditions and a more homogeneous population (though I saw diversity in the classrooms I observed). But this is no by mere chance – they make sure to provide for each child so no one has to come to school hungry or worry about not being able to afford their transportation fee. No matter what the conditions are, their school system, where the well-being of the child and the teacher is a priority, makes a lot of sense and has proven successful.
If you want to read more about my experience and see a few pictures, I have kept a blog of my experience at sgenillier.wordpress.com
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