Portfolio Part 3

The overall goal of this paper is threefold: (a) to broaden science knowledge and conceptions; (b) to reinforce the power to use a scientific inquiry; (c) to integrate new programs with the core curriculum. New measures are designed to function a field-based, staff-centered, professional delivery system that meets the support needs required by schools to broaden expertise in implementing science literacy and to revamp preschool learning environments into science-rich and student-centered settings. As new programs implement an integrated approach to developing science literacy and communication skills to further the training of preschool children. Teaching scientific process skills improves the power to foster a fundamental set of “learning to learn” skills. This approach not only develops their ability for using process skills in self-directed learning, but also enhances their ability to interact in learning processes that need problem-solving.

The publication of open data is not resource free, the aspiration to publish all public service data must be balanced by the resources needed to publish/sustain such data and a genuine benefit to the public. There needs to be a clear recognition that it will take some time and cost to deliver.

Shortages of teachers are often most acute in certain fields, particularly bilingual/English as a Second Language, special education, mathematics, Spanish, and the physical sciences. Sometimes students are taught by a revolving door of substitutes. Other times students from the affected class are added temporarily or permanently to different classes, thereby increasing class size.

Everyone can tell you about a teacher who was caring, knowledgeable, and inspiring. Most of us know from personal experience that being certified to teach is no guarantee that a teacher will do a good job with children, just as being licensed to practice medicine is not a complete assurance of quality patient care. And yet, being certified to teach means something.

New teachers commend principals who are instructional leaders, and those who encourage them to participate in professional development opportunities and get involved in the school community. Since new teachers often feel overwhelmed, they are not always sure what opportunities are available to them, how to allocate their time, or how they will be perceived if they participate in certain activities. Having guidance and support from the principal made these decisions much easier and gave teachers evidence that the principals cared about their professional development.

We agree with the statement that “a right to data is meaningless without knowledge of what is available” and with the proposals to create a central, user-friendly catalogue or inventory of all the information available. We think that this should: – Include information of what is available not only in central government datasets but also in those of more fragmented organisations such as local authorities or the police to allow comparisons. – Be easily searchable with common sense terms. – Include notes on the freshness of the data and how regularly users can expect it to be updated (i.e. is it one-off, published quarterly – including the next publication date)

We consider open data to be part of a broader trend towards “open government” where open data combines with social media, mobile technology and other feedback mechanisms to transform the relationship governments have with citizens, delivering better, more relevant public services (which we could broadly term “citizen-centric” open data). Open data also has the power to improve individuals’ lives through private or third sector innovation on the back of publicly-available data sets, resulting in valuable services and economic growth (which we could term “consumer-centric” open data).

New teachers are drawn to the profession by a strong desire to teach. They go into teaching aware of the demands of the job and the salary levels they can expect. Once in the profession, new teachers feel a tremendous sense of fulfillment and job satisfaction, much more so than college graduates of the same age working in other jobs. Despite this, teachers leave their chosen profession at higher rates than professionals in many other fields do. By some estimates, 40 to 50 percent of new teachers leave after five years on the job.

Diversity Preparation. Teachers felt their formal pre-service training did little to prepare them for teaching a diverse student population. Typically, discussion about diversity was the extent of their training.

Although educational opportunities for minority and low-income students have improved over the past 30 years, the achievement gap has not been closed. Understanding diversity and how it affects teaching and learning is a critical component in reaching this goal. Yet even with additional resources for multicultural education, most educators are not aware of the many ways that racial and cultural diversity affects teaching, learning, and educational outcomes. The situation is further compounded by the placement of uncertified or inexperienced teachers in schools where the majority of students are minorities from low-income families.

The demand for new teachers has been climbing steadily since the 1990s and is expected to continue in the foreseeable future given the increases in teacher retirement and student enrollment, lower pupil/teacher ratios, and rising teacher attrition rates. New teachers enter the profession with varying degrees of preparation, ranging from extensive coursework and classroom experience to no preparation at all. They often need special attention and support to reach their full potential as educators, but this support is sorely lacking in many schools-which may explain why large numbers of new teachers leave the profession after just a few years of teaching.

The potential benefits in opening data are not confined to improvements in transparency and accountability in the public sector (as may have been the previous consensus) – in fact, open data can provide the biggest gains by enabling the development of useful services. Before this potential can be unlocked however there are some significant challenges that need to be overcome.

This paper provides an overview of evidence-based educational interventions (EBEIs) and associated practices in school psychology. The profession has, for some time, embraced scientific principles and procedures across areas of professional practice, including diagnosis and classification, assessment, prevention and intervention, consultation, and research and program evaluation.

Much literature is available on programs to teach critical thinking, and a substantial amount of evidence indicates critical thinking can be taught and learned, especially when instruction is specifically designed to encourage transfer of skills. Nevertheless, the types of studies required to confirm with certitude the efficacy of teaching critical thinking present practical and methodological problems.

Key questions facing researchers and policymakers are whether teacher education programs are effective in changing teachers’ knowledge and practices and whether such changes, if they occur, increase student learning. Answers to these questions will help determine the characteristics of effective programs for reading teachers.

Advocates believe more school choice will allow better student-school fit than public education. But others maintain better matching will not improve performance unless financial pressures improve educational practices. A voucher-based educational market linking funding to pupil counts based on parental choice could motivate improvement, especially in inefficient public schools, eliminating allocations unrelated to student achievement.

For two decades, educators have attempted to get parents more involved in children’s learning. Experts agree that parental involvement is crucial to student success, but too often the typical involvement-work on fundraising, open houses, and school committees-is detached from an understanding of the type of involvement that research has shown necessary for improved student learning.

If one seeks to eliminate achievement gaps at elementary, middle, and secondary school levels, then it is essential that improvement efforts focus on implementing a series of initiatives. The initiatives must aim to achieve a targeted degree of implementation in a focused and progressive effort. Periodic evaluations of progress in reaching new standards help determine when the various elements of the plan are in place and functioning reasonably well. Periodic visits to the schools enable superintendents and central office staff to estimate the extent to which work has been undertaken in each area. For example, if a district already has implemented a curriculum that aligns instruction and instructional materials, the superintendent may feel additional work is currently not needed. On the other hand, if the curriculum has been aligned, but no calendar or schedule of topics and skills to be taught has been established and implemented, this might appear under the “Next Steps Action Plan”.

Teacher quality and related issues (i.e., teacher preparation, recruitment, and professional development) ranked among the highest priority areas among a sample of education policymakers surveyed by the Institute of Education Sciences. And it is not surprising that quality teaching also emerged as a central theme in one recent series of Policy Forums.

American schools are not producing satisfactory results, and this problem is not likely to be solved until classrooms are filled with excellent teachers. There seems to be a national consensus about this problem and its solution, but how to achieve that solution is the subject of far less agreement. Our purpose here is to suggest a promising path that is very different from the one that most policymakers and education reformers are now following.

Reformers argue that for schools to educate all children to higher standards, teachers need a deeper understanding of the content they teach, of specific areas of content that challenge students, and of effective strategies for meeting those challenges. As a result, more and more reform programs include intensive, continuing professional development that addresses these needs.

As standards-based reform has directed attention to schools as the unit of organizational accountability with the most influence on teaching and learning, principals have become the education leaders most responsible for managing learning conditions. The movement to reform and improve schools demands that principals be visionaries focused on improving teaching and learning to ensure their students’ success; they must be leaders capable of promoting their vision throughout the school community and knowledgeable of the specific practices that will bring it to reality.

The struggles of youth without college degrees constitute a labor-market crisis as they move from one dead-end job to another, unable to develop skills, status, and earnings. Employers complain that these employees lack basic skills, which must be provided on the job. Growing shortages of skilled workers suggest that educational reform must address improving the abilities and opportunities of high-school graduates. This article shows that schools have misunderstood work-entry problems by focusing on college entry and that students have misunderstood incentives for achievement. Moreover, many other nations communicate incentives effectively, and American schools could improve incentives and job entry.

The teen years are a critical period of development for our children. Teenagers face changes in their biological and emotional makeup and in their social relationships. If teens are to devote their energy and attention to learning in school, these changes require that teens develop an array of coping skills.

Adolescence corresponds with critical developmental occurrences in biological, emotional, social, familial, and cultural domains; teens thus live in a context of tremendous and often difficult personal change. Teens unable to cope successfully with these changes are at high risk for problem behaviors, including substance abuse, contracting sexually transmitted diseases, and dropping out of school.