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Indonesia: SabangMerauke aims to shatter misconceptions

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Asia/Indonesia/MARCEL THEE/THE JAKARTA POST

Resumen: Nosotros, los indonesios, necesitamos aprender más sobre la filosofía de Bhinneka Tunggal Ika  , así como entender más sobre la historia de Indonesia. No es el ‘qué’ parte, pero más sobre el ‘por qué’ parte “.  La declaración se produjo a partir Ayu Kartika Dewi, co-fundador de SabangMerauke, un programa de intercambio de estudiantes dentro de la nación que tiene como objetivo promover la diversidad cultural, hablar de cómo las y los estudiantes del país pueden unirse y reforzar los valores de  Bhinneka Tunggal Ika  [unidad en la diversidad], el lema oficial de Indonesia.

Blending in: Sabang Merauke arranges for children to live with families of different backgrounds for three weeks to experience other cultures. (SabangMerauke.id/File)

“We, Indonesians, need to learn more about the philosophy of Bhinneka Tunggal Ika as well as understand more about the history of Indonesia. Not the ‘what’ part, but more about the ‘why’ part.”

The statement came from Ayu Kartika Dewi, co-founder of SabangMerauke, an intra-nation student exchange program that aims to promote cultural diversity, talk about how the country can come together and reinforce values of Bhinneka Tunggal Ika [unity in diversity], Indonesia’s official motto.

While her sentiment may not be unique, Ayu has spent the last five years putting her words to action through the SabangMerauke program.

She knows that the old Indonesian adage of “tak kenal maka tak sayang,”which roughly translates as “if you don’t know, you don’t love,” rings true, as in recent times unfamiliarity has bred dangerous cultural stigmas and ignorance that has often led to hatred. “[Indonesians] need to travel more to other countries and within the country, not just as a tourist and doing touristy stuff, but they need to really interact with the locals and understand their culture,” Ayu said.

“Only by experiencing diversity and being exposed to other ways of thinking can we learn to expand our horizon.”

Through SabangMerauke, which involves Ayu’s colleagues Dyah Widiastuti, Aichiro Suryo Prabowo, Jourdan Hussein, Putri Rizki Dian Lestari, Tidar Rachmadi and Meiske Demitria, she does exactly that.

It is a simple but effective exchange program. On school holidays, a child travels to a different region of the country to live with a family of a different cultural background for three weeks.

Here I am: A boy arrives in Jakarta to participate in the Sabang Merauke program.(SabangMerauke.id/File)

The students are accompanied by a mentor, which they refer to as kakak, whose job is to help both parties – the kid and the family – become acquainted and comfortable with each other.

“This unique mechanism will foster meaningful interaction, therefore debunking stereotypes and shattering misconceptions,” Ayu said.

There is also post-program mentoring that ensures communication between the host family and the student is sustained.

The three weeks is filled with activities that aim to encourage cross-cultural understanding.

The activities include Religion Day, when the students visit worship houses and interact with religious leaders; Career Day, when they visit offices and interact with people of various occupations, such as government officers, photographers or CEOs; Nationalism Day, when students meet and write poems for national war veterans and visit the National Museum; Education Day, when they visit the University of Indonesia and interact with students; and Entrepreneurship Day, when students interact with entrepreneurs and learn to creatively solve problems.

So far, the majority of these kids have come from rural areas and carried out the exchange program with Jakarta-based families.

The selection process mostly prioritizes students from post-conflict areas. The hope is that after completing the program, the kids return to their homes with a positive experience that they share with their respective communities.

“[We hope they spread] positive words and beautiful stories about their intercultural and interfaith experiences,” Ayu said.

Career day: As part of the program, participating children visit various offices and meet with people from various career paths, including officials like then Jakarta governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama.(SabangMerauke.id/File)

Ayu’s idea for SabangMerauke came after a trip in which she taught as an elementary school teacher in a remote village as part of the Indonesia Mengajar (Indonesia Teaches) program. Arriving in the village, she quickly realized that its residents, all of whom practiced Islam, had a limited understanding of other religions.

Ten years before Ayu arrived, a riot occurred between Muslims and Christians in the area, resulting in thousands of casualties and hundreds of thousands of refugees. As a solution, the local government segregated the area into two villages, a “Muslim village” and a “Christian village.”

“I happened to be deployed to the 100 percent Muslim village. Although my students were too young to understand it, there was hatred passed down through the generations,” Ayu said.

One afternoon, she recalled there was potential for another riot. Her students ran to her house in a panic and told her: “Ma’am, please be careful with the Christians. They could burn down our house.”

The students, she said, had never before met a Christian.

“And they didn’t even understand the meaning of riot, but they had so much hatred and anger toward Christians. And I believe this was also the situation on the other side of the fence.”

To change their perception, Ayu requested that a Christian teacher take over for her. The result was surprising, with her students and their parents all responding well to the new teacher.

According to Ayu, the issue of fearing the unknown was inherent in Indonesians, with individuals learning about different religions without interacting with those who practiced them.

“Indonesia is the 4th most diverse country in the world, but a study revealed that 68 percent of Indonesians were against the building of places of worship in their neighborhood by people of different faiths. Indonesia’s education system was not designed to help deal with intolerance as the curriculum was mono-religious, meaning Muslim children only learned about Islam,” Ayu said.

Real experience: Participants join in activities aimed at encouraging cultural understanding.(SabangMerauke.id/File)

With challenges related to funding, among other issues, Ayu said that her team had asked the question, “How far we should go in promoting tolerance?”

“For instance, when we created the recruitment criteria for host families, we were discussing whether we could only accept ‘traditional families’,” she said. “How far should we push the envelope to ensure that we do not do more harm than good? Will we create unnecessary debates that will push us away from the core objective? What are the boundaries?”

So far, SabangMerauke has done a lot of good. Ayu knows of students whose lives and perspectives have changed for the better.

“One story that I remember is of Apipa, a Muslim girl from an all-Muslim village who stayed with a Chinese-Christian couple as part of the program. She was initially very scared because they were the first Christian people she had met in her life, and she had heard scary stories about Christians. Initially, she requested several times to be moved to a Muslim family, but we insisted that she stay there. We also facilitated the discussion with the family. After several days, she felt a lot more comfortable,” Ayu said.

“Now they are very close and still keep in contact.”

Fuente: http://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2017/07/12/sabangmerauke-aims-to-shatter-misconceptions.html

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Canada: What happens when a B.C. community loses its only school?

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Bridge Lake is one of several small towns that dot Highway 24—better known as “Fishing Highway” for its many lakes and angling opportunities—in British Columbia’s southern Cariboo.

América del Norte/Canada/

Resumen:  Los cierres de escuelas son una realidad en la Columbia Británica Canada. En total, 241 escuelas públicas han cerrado desde 2002. Los cierres más destacados suelen estar en ciudades más grandes, en parte debido a la proximidad de los medios y en parte debido al gran número de personas involucradas. Cuando una escuela se cierra en Richmond o Victoria, van a Prince George o Osoyoos , lo que causa menos inconvenientes para todos los involucrados. Pero cuando una escuela se cierra en una comunidad donde es la única opción de educación pública disponible, los efectos negativos son considerablemente más altos. «Es una asfixia lenta», dice Murray Helmer, presidente de la Asociación de Maestros Cariboo-Chilcotin. Veintisiete comunidades en la Columbia Británica han tenido su única escuela cerrada desde 2002, y cinco más se unirán a ellos este año, incluyendo Bridge Lake, Yahk, Field, Woss Lake y Oyster River.

There have never been many people in Bridge Lake, or Lone Butte or Little Fort for that matter, but the mix of ranching and agriculture, tourism and forestry, young families and retirees has been relatively stable for decades.

“At the time, the school had always been an extremely vibrant part of the community for almost 100 years,” she says.

“It comes together every year to raise tens of thousands for extracurricular activities, the PAC is active, there’s always functions being planned and activities hosted for the entire community.”

But enrolment at Bridge Lake had rapidly declined from 43 students in 2009/2010 to just eight students this year. In January, the Cariboo-Chilcotin school district (SD27) announced they faced a $600,000 deficit, and that K to 7 school was on the chopping block.

In April, after three months of impassioned debate, trustees made their decision: Bridge Lake Elementary would shut down.

“School closure is one of the hardest and most difficult decisions for any board to face,” says Tanya Guenther, SD27 Board Chair.

“As trustees we are elected to support education, make it thrive, and a decision to close can often appear on the surface as a direct opposite of this.”

Volonte and others in Bridge Lake allege that the SD27 intentionally suppressed enrolment at the school by encouraging or forcing families in the region to take their students to Horse Lake Elementary in Lone Butte, which has seen enrolment rise in recent years.

“It’s a unique situation. If a rural school closes because there’s no kids in the community, then that’s life. But that’s not what happened here. It was not a consultation process,” says Volonte.

It’s a charge Guenther denies.

“[We] did refute the allegations that the board intentionally suppressed enrolment. Unfortunately, the community took that as the number one issue, and it really divided the focus,” she argues.

“School closure is always a very emotional decision for anyone affected. The staff, the parents, all community members.”

Now, every child in Bridge Lake will have to travel the 40 kilometres to Lone Butte to receive a public education.

“It will cause our children to have extremely long bus rides. Up to 2.5 hours a day, 50 hours a month,” says Volonte.

“The reason people choose to live in rural areas is to give our children freedom in the wilderness, to grow up in a small community that supports and respects them.”

But it’s not just the children who will suffer. Bridge Lake isn’t just an elementary school. It is the community hub, the gathering space for local organizations, the home of the public library. It’s the recreation centre, the after school centre, the home to the region’s Meals On Wheels program.

Why Bridge Lake is closing is an important question, but one Volonte and Guenther will never agree on.

The more critical question?

What happens next.

“Slow suffocation”

School closures are a fact of life in British Columbia.

All told, 241 public schools have shut down since 2002. Another 16 are slated to close in June. More are already being considered for the 2016/2017 school year.

The most high-profile closures are usually in bigger cities—partly because of media proximity, and partly because of the sheer number of people involved.

When a school closes in Richmond or Victoria, or Prince George or Osoyoos, it causes inconvenience for everyone involved.

But when a school closes in a community where it is the only public education option available, the stakes are considerably higher.

“It’s a slow suffocation,” says Murray Helmer, President of the Cariboo-Chilcotin Teachers’ Association.

“Your support system is your community rather than the city life. It’s a different feel up here. As soon as you lose the school, you lose that tie to those neighbours and your communities. If you have to rely on something an hour away every day, it’s not a community anymore.”

Twenty-seventy communities in British Columbia have had their only school shut down since 2002, and five more will join them this year, including Bridge Lake, Yahk, Field, Woss Lake and Oyster River.

INTERACTIVE MAP: Every community in B.C. that has seen its only school close since 2002

In some cases, the decision to close these schools is straightforward. Some parts of B.C., built up because of a mine or sawmill or cannery, simply fade away, the closure of a school a postscript rather than a exclamation point to a town’s epitaph.

The provincial government provides at least $162,400 to any small community school with at least nine students.

“We recognize that rural communities face unique challenges – that is why our funding model includes financial increases to specifically address rural challenges like smaller enrolments, location, community size, remoteness and a harsher climate,” said the Ministry of Education.

But any lower than nine students and the grant is reduced by $85,000. The Ministry of Education also then has the authority to unilaterally close the school – making it academic for most school boards.

“Schools aren’t closing because of a lack of funding. Schools are closing because of a lack of students,” says the Ministry.

“It’s important school districts invest in vital programs and supports instead of empty classrooms.”

However, there are other schools that still have enough students to fill a class, but are caught in the crossfire of districts trying to balance their budgets and have more buildings that are fully used.

“It’s very difficult to maintain our schools at the needs of each location with the dollars that we’re provided,” said Lenora Trenaman, Board Chairfor the Kootenay Lake school district (SD8).

“We’ve got aging infrastructure, declining enrolment, and we’ve got a geographically disperse district, so all of that equates to do what are we going to do in order to keep operational needs in the classrooms.”

Trenaman’s School District has already agreed to close Yahk Elementary school, which had only three students this year. But they’re also reviewing the future of five other schools, including Jewett and Winlaw Elementary, after next school year.

Winlaw has 85 students and the town has over 400 people. However, it’s also 20 minutes from WE Graham Elementary in Slocan, and SD8 is considering the merits of one fuller school for the region over two half-empty ones – both of which are in buildings that will need maintenance upgrades sooner rather than later.

“For the district to apply for capital dollars, we have to submit a strategic plan,” says Trenaman, who says the provincial government is pressuring them to have most facilities at 85 per cent capacity.

“To do nothing, in the ministry’s eyes, we anticipate, is not going to be convincing to it to obtain the capital we want to obtain.”

Not surprisingly, the local community has been outraged by the possibility, with “Save Winlaw School” dotted along the highway.

“Most of the people in the [Winlaw area] are historically seniors, but they’re slowly moving out of the valley towards the major centres in the area like Nelson and Castlegar. The people that are buying the properties are young families with children. It’s a major concern as to where their school is located.”

Trenaman, who herself lives in the rural community of Crawford Bay, is sensitive to the concerns of Winlaw, and stresses no decisions have been made yet.

“There’s no doubt that rural B.C. is the backbone of [the province],” she said.

“The economic stability for the rural areas is often connected to the school community. It’s very difficult for young families to remain or become citizens of a particular community if they can’t find public education within a viable location for their kids.”

But she also knows the agonizing calculus she must deal with as a school board trustee.

“It’s just a really difficult thing for this district, and across the province. There just aren’t enough capital dollars being provided to us to maintain all of the demands for our buildings.”

GRAPH: There are 10 schools in B.C. where they are the only public education in town and enrollment is 15 students or less

“There’s just not enough people anymore”

When outgoing BCTF President talks about communities losing their only school, he speaks from experience. After he got his bachelor’s degree in Nova Scotia, he applied for teaching jobs all over British Columbia – and he landed in Topley, where he’s had a home ever since.

“I didn’t know much about the town at the time, but since I grew up in a big city, I always wanted to go to a smaller rural area and see what it would be like,” he said.

Topley Elementary, located between Houston and Burns Lake, had 112 students when Iker began teaching there. By the time he became a full-time BCTF executive, enrollment was in the dozens, and was there were 28 students when it closed in 2010.

“I know the community and teachers there, they tried to present a variety of different ideas of how to keep the school open…but once the school district made the decision to close it, it seemed to be there was nothing that could change their mind. They were doing it to save money, but they were only going to save $125,000 or so,” he says.

Iker has noticed the change in Topley since the school left.

“The school had a playground, and that was always a place where kids could go play. When people were travelling and needed a break, they would see the highway. But they dismantled the playground because of insurance reasons,” he laments.
“There’s not a lot of movement. There is no school, there is no playground. We used to have a baseball team in Topley, and used the school field…but there’s just not enough people around anymore.”

The same fate befell Quatsino on the western edge of Vancouver Island, says the person who taught the final five students of Quatsino Elementary in 2008.

“Young families left. It’s been very hard to draw young families back into the community. Adults get grumpy,” says Heather Johnson.

“There are some young families, but they home school. The school was the only public building in the community. It’s still used, but it was children that really brought the community together.”

Johnson is now the principal for Sea View Elementary, 40 kilometres south of Quatsino. There are 35 students there this year, enough to keep the school stable for now. But she worries that as districts consolidate, and one or two-classroom schools disappear, so too will a unique style of learning.

“I think the teacher becomes more invested in the education knowing she will have them for possibly all of their elementary education. It does take time to get to know the children and how they learn and what their interests are, and to establish that relationship with families. There are benefits,” she says.

“What is the cost of not making education accessible to rural children? Some people will say there’s always distance education, but that does not replace the relationship between a student and a teacher on site. I know the economy of scale isn’t there, but I think our rural areas do a lot of supporting of the rest of the province, and we need to acknowledge the wealth that comes from our communities.”

The Dunster Fine Arts School successfully converted to a community-run educational facility after it was closed by the local school district in 2010.

The Dunster Fine Arts School successfully converted to a community-run educational facility after it was closed by the local school district in 2010.

Courtesy the Rocky Mountain Goat

The story isn’t universally grim for communities that have lost their school.

When Malakwa Elementary was shut down in 2013, the regional district helped the community purchase the building. An independent school, Malakwa Learning Academy, is now one of many groups using it.

The same scene played out in farming community of Dunster when they lost their school in 2010, despite enrollment of close to 30 students remaining steady over the previous decade. But people in town, 30 kilometres east of McBride, created a society and purchased the building from the school district, and this April, they paid off their mortgage.

Today the Dunster Fine Arts School is a centre for everyone in town, young and old, to gather in a variety of learning settings.

“It’s still a school in the true sense of the word. It’s not controlled by government and bureaucracy. It is a community school,” said Dunster Fine Arts School Society board member Pete Amyoony to the Rocky Mountain Goat.

“It’s something for the community to use for years to come, rather than have it boarded up or derelict or bulldozed.”

If there’s a community with families, easy transportation to bigger towns, and a local economy that isn’t dependent on one business, the loss of the school doesn’t have to be a death knell.

It’s why Volonte is staying put, determined that her family will be a part of Bridge Lake’s future.

“We’ll be fine, we’re a very strong community, we have a lot of intelligent people, and they love kids and want to provide a good education…It’s a huge loss to our community, but we’ll make it through,” she says.

“By the time my daughter gets to being 5, I’m sure there will be a great private school here.”

Fuente: http://globalnews.ca/news/2735992/what-happens-when-a-b-c-community-loses-its-only-school/

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EEUU: As Schools Tackle Poverty, Attendance Goes Up, But Academic Gains Are Tepid

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América del Norte/EEUU/edweek.org

Resumen: la noticia hace referencia a los esfuerzos de la Ciudad de Nueva York para convertir a decenas de escuelas de bajo rendimiento en modelos educativos exitosos, inyectándoles una gama de servicios de salud, y de apoyo social y emocional para estudiantes y las familias de los  estudiantes. Casi tres años después del inicio del programa, los resultados de la escuela PS 123, con sus 530 estudiantes, ofrecen una pequeña ventana a lo que la iniciativa más grande de la ciudad está viendo: un aumento en la asistencia estudiantil y la participación de la familia en las actividades escolares, una caída en el ausentismo crónico, Progreso.  «Eso no es una gran cosa para nadie, pero, en realidad, eso es enorme cuando se trabaja con la demografía con la que trabajamos», dijo Hernández.

P.S. 123, a K-8 school in Harlem, had been a chaotic place when Melitina Hernandez arrived as principal in 2013. Students would often run out of class to get attention. Staff members sometimes dodged confrontational parents. The school had old computers and tattered textbooks.

So Hernandez and her staff set out to make big changes with a $4 million grant from the state. They started with upgrading technology and other classroom amenities. They also turned their attention to the needs of the school’s large population of homeless children. Then their efforts kicked into higher gear in 2014 when P.S. 123 became part of New York City’s broad efforts to turn around dozens of low-performing schools by injecting them with a range of health, social-emotional, and academic support services for students and their families.

Nearly three years later, the results at P.S. 123, with its 530 students, offer a small window into what the city’s larger initiative is seeing: an increase in student attendance and family participation in school activities, a drop in chronic absenteeism, but uneven academic progress. Just 17 percent of P.S. 123’s students in grades 3-8 were proficient on the state’s English Language Arts exam in 2016, but in 2015, it had been even lower at 7 percent.

«That’s not a big thing to anyone else, but, in actuality, that’s huge when you work with the demographics that we work with,» Hernandez said.

Flooding impoverished schools with a range of services and resources is not new, and there’s still lively debate in education circles about whether it’s something schools should take on.

Commonly referred to as «community schools» or «whole-child» initiatives, the approach has been used in districts from Tacoma, Wash., to Cincinnati for several years, but the movement has picked up steam more recently amid a backlash against single-measure, test-based accountability and as an alternative to closing long-struggling schools. It’s gotten robust support from the nation’s teachers’ unions. And some states are looking to incorporate the features of community schools in their plans required by the new federal education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act.

Students at P.S. 188 help clean up their classroom before the last day of the official semester in New York City public schools. The school provides an on-site nurse practitioner, mental health counseling, and other services meant to make it a hub of the community.

Students at P.S. 188 help clean up their classroom before the last day of the official semester in New York City public schools. The school provides an on-site nurse practitioner, mental health counseling, and other services meant to make it a hub of the community.
—Mark Abramson for Education Week.

Pennsylvania, for example, intends to allow districts to use a community schools approach to tackle the problem of chronic absenteeism, to increase the roles that parents play in schools, to address students’ social and emotional needs, and to provide more after-school opportunities, said Pedro Rivera, the state’s education secretary.

«We know that in today’s society, our children … regardless of class, come to our institutions with various needs,» Rivera said. «When properly implemented and supported, community schools will again allow schools to be the nucleus or the hub of their communities.»

Whether community schools initiatives will continue to gather momentum is unclear. President Donald Trump’s proposed federal budget threatens to slash several funding streams that districts, communities, and nonprofit partners use to fund community schools and whole-child initiatives. And the research on whether a community schools strategy is an effective way to increase student achievement paints a complicated, sometimes contradictory, picture.

Benefits for Attendance

An independent study released earlier this year on the Communities in Schools program, one of the country’s largest whole-child initiatives that focuses on dropout prevention, found that while on-time graduation rates rose and the numbers of dropouts decreased in schools with the program, comparison schools also saw their graduation rates go up.

Attendance was higher in elementary schools in the program than in a comparison group of schools, according to the study by MDRC which looked at select schools in Texas and North Carolina.

Test scores improved at both Communities in Schools sites and the comparison schools at the elementary and high school levels. But at the middle school level, state test scores did not improve at those sites, although they did at the comparison schools.

But Linda Darling-Hammond, a longtime education scholar and president of the left-leaning Learning Policy Institute, said there is evidence that the strategy can be used to improve schools. What matters, more often than not, is the implementation, she said.

Schools that use the approach successfully, Darling-Hammond said, know the specific needs of their community and tailor services to meet those and forge strong relationships with families and communities.

In a recent report by the National Education Policy Center and the Learning Policy Institute, researchers analyzed more than 125 studies and research reviews on community schools, and found test score gains showed up in years three, four, and five. In the shorter term, researchers saw improvement in students’ health, attentiveness, and behavior, Darling-Hammond said.

«Whenever you do major structural reforms, if you are successful, the first thing that will respond is attendance,» she said. «And then you will see increases in kids … coming to school, staying in school, graduating, which actually has a much bigger effect on their later life outcomes than test scores.»

Though addressing the needs that poor students face outside of school is important, improving the quality of instruction is the most essential part of making schools better, said Paul Reville, who runs the Education Redesign Lab at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

«I’d hate to see [community schools] undermined by having unrealistic expectations of it being a short-term silver bullet to bringing about success in these schools,» Reville said. «It’s one piece of a comprehensive strategy for turning around chronically underperforming schools.»

Massive Effort Aimed at Struggling Schools

In New York City, schools like P.S. 123 are in a special category of community schools—a multi-million dollar initiative called «renewal schools» aimed at staving off a state takeover or shutdown of campuses that had lagged academically for years.

Buoyed by some of the results in the wider community schools’ program, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced in May that he will expand the number of participating schools in the fall to 215 , increasing the scale of the program to one previously unseen in the country. The schools will serve about 100,000 students, far bigger than most school districts in the United States. But critics say de Blasio’s embrace of the community schools approach is troubling, since the academic improvements have been modest at best.

Students at P.S. 188 in New York socialize on the playground during the last week of school.
—Mark Abramson for Education Week.

English/language arts and math proficiency rates rose by 5.7 percent and 1.8 percent, respectively, from the 2014-15 school year to the 2015-16 school year, according to city data. Graduation rates for students in community schools averaged a 4.7 percent increase year over year. Chronic absenteeism declined by 3.5 percent in community schools, compared to a little over 1 percent citywide.

«We are targeting really high-need schools that are in neighborhoods with entrenched poverty, so the numbers are not where we want them to be. But we have been pleased with the growth early on,» said Chris Caruso, the executive director of New York City’s community schools program. «A lot of this is about changing culture.»

New York City Chancellor Carmen Fariña stressed that community schools are one of many strategies the district is using to improve schools, and that they offer parents, students, and teachers key advantages. GED and English-as-a-second-language classes for adults help parents participate in their children’s education. The schools provide mental health counselors and other staff from community-based organizations, which frees up teachers and principals to focus on instruction, she said.

A major benefit, Fariña said, are the experiences community schools bring to low-income children that are typical in middle- and upper-income communities. Playing chess, raising chickens, and learning to code, to name a few.

«You don’t ever give up on any community and any child, and this is what we are doing,» she said. «You have to serve the whole child, we are talking about social, emotional, academic learning–what we call the three pillars of education.»

Still, in the city’s renewal schools—where the challenges are even greater and the resources have been more robust—results so far from the community schools initiative show modest, but promising signs. In renewal high schools, the graduation rate jumped on average nearly five points in 2016, to 59 percent. But, that still lagged the city average of 73 percent.

Graduation rates at renewal high schools did not increase more than at comparable high schools, and test scores did not show statistically significant gains compared to select non-renewal schools that did not get extra city resources, according to Aaron Pallas, a professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, who recently analyzed city education data.

But city education officials have called Pallas’s analysis «flawed,» arguing, in part, that renewal schools were chosen based on strict selection criteria that did not match the criteria used in his analysis.

One pro-charter group that has been highly critical of de Blasio’s education agenda—Families for Excellent Schools—thinks a smarter approach would be to shut down the renewal schools and give students the option to attend high-performing schools, including charters.

Others argue that until the city does something dramatic to break up schools with high concentrations of poverty, there won’t be any major academic breakthroughs.

Zeroing In on Chronically Absent Students

While the city’s community schools use a wide variety of strategies to address each school’s and neighborhood’s needs, they all rely on an on-site director as a key ally to principals and the main connection to outside partners. At P.S. 123, Hernandez points to two people who are essential to her school’s program: Jeanine Lascelles, the community school director, and Raymond Blanchard, the mental health clinician.

Lascelles oversees a team of 10, including six «success mentors,» who work directly with 112 students who were chronically absent. The mentors are frontline advocates for homeless students, who may need extra tutoring, an extension to finish an assignment, or more basic supports. The mentors conduct daily check-ins to ensure that students show up to class and make home visits to families. They also meet weekly with the liaison at the shelter in the neighborhood. And when students improve, mentors notify parents through «celebration calls,» Lascelles said.

Their efforts are paying off. About 85 percent of the students who were part of that targeted effort improved attendance over the past year, Lascelles said.

Blanchard, along with other staff members, provide counseling to students and their families, and training for teachers to better recognize signs that misbehaving students need counseling services. They are also trained on de-escalation techniques and other ways to support students, including knowing when a child may just need to take a walk or require additional counseling.

«The learning is 100 percent important, but it’s hard for the students to learn if they are coming in worrying about where they are going to sleep, what they are going to eat, different things like that,» Blanchard said. «It’s providing them support on that emotional level so that they can come in express themselves, let that information out, and then be able to go into the classroom and continue with their day, to continue with learning.»

Fuente: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2017/06/07/when-a-community-loses-its-schools.html

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Hong Kong: Hard work by students at grassroots’ school pays off

Noticias

Asia/China/Atimes.com

Resumen: Muchos estudiantes de primaria de una escuela reconocida por admitir a niños desfavorecidos han ganado lugares en las escuelas secundarias favoritas de Hong Kong este año. Alrededor de un tercio de los estudiantes de primaria de la Escuela de Comerciantes de Pescado Fresco, que se conoce por admitir a niños desfavorecidos, se dirigen a las renombradas escuelas secundarias de Hong Kong este mes de septiembre, de acuerdo con los resultados de asignación de Secundaria One publicados el martes.

Around a third of primary-six students from Fresh Fish Traders’ School, which is known for admitting underprivileged kids, are heading to Hong Kong’s renowned secondary schools this September, according to Secondary One allocation results released on Tuesday.

Lau Ka-yan, 12, the eldest daughter of a family of six living in a subdivided flat in Sham Shui Po, will be attending Wai Kiu College, her first choice, Apple Daily reported.

For the past two years, the schoolgirl studied diligently six hours a day and spent her weekends in a tutorial center or students’ study room to revise, as her home was too crowded. Lau expressed deep gratitude to her mother and teachers and attributed her success to their patience and teaching.

Lau said she is wants to become a nurse when she grows up.

Wong Yuen-ying, another grassroots student at the same school, is heading to CCC Ming Kei College, also her first choice, Oriental Daily reported.

Wong, who was born to a Hong Kong father and Vietnamese mother, said learning Chinese characters was hard at first. She overcame it by copying the characters and reading Chinese materials online more often to help boost her reading comprehension skills.

She also went to tutorial classes for English and mathematics on weekends in a bid to get better academic results

Fuente: http://www.atimes.com/article/hard-work-students-grassroots-school-pays-off/

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En Mumbai India llaman al boicot de suministros escolares hechos en China

Noticias

Asia/India/atimes.com

En medio de la actual fricción entre Pekín y Nueva Delhi, muchas escuelas de Mumbai han pedido a estudiantes y padres que muestren su patriotismo al boicotear los suministros educativos hechos en China, según informes de los medios de comunicación.

A través de mensajes de texto, la Asociación de Principales de la Escuela de Mumbai (MPA), con ascendencia en más de 1.600 escuelas, está tratando de aumentar la conciencia de los problemas diplomáticos entre los estudiantes.

El Hindustan Times informó que el MPA decidió en una reunión del comité pedir a los estudiantes y padres que dejen voluntariamente de comprar productos chinos tales como botellas de agua, cajas de colores, cajas de lápices, plumas de dibujo, reglas de medida, blocs de notas y borradores.

El funcionario del MPA Prashant Redij fue citado diciendo, «No hay legalmente ninguna prohibición de los productos chinos. Más bien, haremos un llamamiento a los padres y les pediremos que piensen sobre este tema. China está creando problemas para la India. Sigue oponiéndose a la candidatura de la India para un puesto permanente en el Consejo de Seguridad de las Naciones Unidas. En un momento en que el país está lidiando con problemas en Jammu y Cachemira, y los medios chinos están instigando a la gente contra el país. En tal situación, ¿por qué nuestro dinero debería ir a China? Son las escuelas las que deben inculcar el patriotismo entre los estudiante»

Fuente: http://www.atimes.com/article/principals-call-boycott-chinese-made-school-supplies/

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Evalúan alcance de 29 institutos de lenguas y cultura de Bolivia

Noticias

Bolivia/Julio de 2017/Fuente: Opinión

El “Encuentro de Institutos de Lengua y Cultura de las Naciones y Pueblos Indígena Originarios Campesinos y Afroboliviano” (NyPIOs) se celebrará este jueves y viernes en el Colegio Pedro Poveda, de la ciudad de Cochabamba.

El Ministerio de Educación informó que participarán técnicos de los 29 institutos de Lengua y Cultura (ILC), las cinco organizaciones sociales matrices de Bolivia, el equipo técnico del Instituto Plurinacional de Estudio de Lenguas y Culturas (IPELC), la Coordinadora Nacional Comunitaria de los Consejos Educativos de los Pueblos Originarios (CNC-CEPOs) y los directivos de los 12 consejos educativos.

El evento será inaugurado por el ministro de Educación Roberto Aguilar. El encuentro busca que los institutos de lenguas y culturas de las NyPIOs den a conocer las acciones que desarrollan en cuanto a la construcción de sus currículos regionalizados y currículos diversificados, su concreción con relación al Currículo Base, entre otros aspectos, incluida la implementación de la lengua originaria correspondiente en las unidades educativas.

Un comunicado del Ministerio de Educación especificó que las políticas lingüísticas que se implementan son desarrolladas desde las propias naciones y pueblos indígena originario campesinos y desde los propios hablantes.

La Constitución Política del Estado reconoce a Bolivia como Estado Plurinacional y Plurilingüe. En ese marco, el 2 de agosto de 2012 se promulga la Ley General de Derechos y Políticas Lingüísticas (Ley Nº 269), misma que tiene por objetivo reconocer, proteger, promover, difundir, desarrollar y regular los derechos lingüísticos individuales y colectivos de los habitantes del Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia.

En la misma fecha, el presidente Evo Morales promulgó el Decreto Supremo Nº1313, que reglamenta el funcionamiento del Instituto Plurinacional de Estudios y Lenguas y Culturas (IPELC), instancia creada en el marco de la Ley “Avelino Siñani – Elizardo Pérez”.

Fuente: http://opinion.com.bo/opinion/articulos/2017/0713/noticias.php?id=224529

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Cuba: Entre ciencia y educación ambiental

Noticias

Cuba/Julio de 2017/Autor: Orfilio Peláez/Fuente: Granma

Más allá de su visible misión de exhibir organismos marinos vivos, promover y elevar el conocimiento y la cultura de la población acerca del necesario desarrollo sostenible de nuestras zonas costeras y mares, el Acuario Nacional se define hoy como una entidad especializada en la investigación científica.

Desde su apertura al público el 23 de enero de 1960, el Acuario Nacional devino en uno de los sitios marcados en la preferencia de varias generaciones de cubanos, que lo convirtieron en punto focal de los paseos familiares hasta la actualidad.

En el transcurso de estos 57 años más de 30 millones de visitantes recorrieron sus instalaciones y pudieron acercarse al fascinante mundo del mar mediante la observación de numerosas especies y el disfrute de atractivos espectáculos, entre ellos los protagonizados por delfines y la simpática foca Silvia (realmente era un león marino), sin duda el animal más carismático de los mostrados en el lugar en cualquier época.

Más allá de su visible misión de exhibir organismos marinos vivos, promover y elevar el conocimiento y la cultura de la población acerca del necesario desarrollo sostenible de nuestras zonas costeras y mares, incluido el cuidado, conservación y uso racional de los recursos marinos, el Acuario se define hoy igualmente como una entidad especializada en la investigación científica.

Para cumplir con los objetivos enunciados, cuenta con un colectivo conformado por 258 trabajadores (131 son mujeres), donde figuran 17 investigadores categorizados y profesionales en Biología marina, Oceanología, Medicina veterinaria, práctica de buceo, además de técnicos en diferentes disciplinas.

RECUENTO NECESARIO

Siguiendo lo expresado públicamente en más de una ocasión por Fidel de que junto con su misión educativa y recreativa, el Acuario debía ser también ante todo un centro científico, a partir de mediados de la década de los 90 del pasado siglo la entidad emprendió un conjunto de estudios encaminados a concretar dicho propósito.

Los resultados condujeron al registro de alrededor de 40 especies nuevas para aguas cubanas y la ciencia, el sostenido incremento del número de especies en las colecciones, la determinación de áreas de blanqueamiento de corales y la introducción de nuevas técnicas de manejo y atención de mamíferos marinos, bajo condiciones controladas.

Otros aportes de interés radican en haber ampliado el conocimiento referido a la abundancia de ejemplares del delfín Tursiops truncatus en los mares de nuestro archipiélago, que incluye el monitoreo sistemático de los parámetros clínico veterinarios, y lograr la reproducción en cautiverio y exhibición de especies amenazadas. Tal es el caso del popularmente conocido Caballito de Mar.

Según indicó a Granma la Máster en Ciencias María de los Ángeles Serrano Jerez, directora del Acuario Nacional, la institución acomete en la actualidad tres proyectos investigativos primordiales. Ellos son Dinámica de arrecifes de corales sometidos a diferentes grados de severidad ambiental, Ecología de las especies invasoras marinas en Cuba: Pez León y Mejillón Verde, y Estudio y caracterización de las poblaciones de delfines Tursiops truncatus en su medio natural.

«Recientemente presentamos un proyecto de restauración de arrecifes de coral a la Comunidad de Estados del Caribe, que ya fue aprobado y está en fase de coordinación. Asimismo trazamos un conjunto de investigaciones referidas al rescate de corales con el Acuario de la Florida, que pronto empezará a ejecutarse», aseveró.

«Toda labor científica del centro responde a los postulados contenidos en la Estrategia Ambiental Nacional, en particular los referidos a la protección de los ecosistemas marinos y el empleo sostenible de su rica biodiversidad. Hoy exhibe un total de 350 especies y 2 500 ejemplares».

Igualmente atesora desde el 2004 la colección de corales pétreos cubanos, considerada una de las más grandes y significativas de la región del Caribe por su alto grado de conservación y elevada cantidad de muestras.

Vale mencionar que algunos de sus especialistas participaron en la recién concluida expedición científica conjunta Cuba-Estados Unidos, que a bordo del buque de investigación Walton Smith, de la Universidad Atlántica de Florida, recorrió 1 430 millas náuticas a lo largo de la costa norte y sur de nuestro país.

Merecedor del Premio Nacional de Medio Ambiente en el 2002, el centro mantiene dentro de sus prioridades la de acoger diferentes programas de educación ambiental que faciliten poner el conocimiento marino al alcance de cualquier persona que participe en ellos.

No menos relevante es que junto con la atención sistemática brindada a estudiantes de escuelas primarias y secundarias a través de visitas programadas, el Acuario organiza cada año las ya habituales jornadas científicas infantiles y los talleres de verano, eventos caracterizados por la afluencia de niños y adolescentes.

Tan meritoria labor científica y educativa contrasta con el marcado deterioro de no pocas de sus áreas de exhibiciones como las peceras circulares, estanques y otras instalaciones, provocadas por el paso de los años sin recibir mantenimiento y los efectos de varios eventos meteorológicos extremos.

Incluso algunas de las inversiones previstas en el programa de ampliación y remodelación de la entidad, aprobado a principios del primer decenio del presente siglo, estuvieron paralizadas durante mucho tiempo por causas no siempre fundamentadas en problemas objetivos.

Para beneplácito de sus trabajadores y el numeroso público que lo visita diariamente, hace unos meses se reiniciaron las faenas constructivas en obras que contemplan el futuro Centro de Biodiversidad Marina y el nuevo restaurante de autoservicio, con capacidad para 400 personas sentadas, aseveró María de los Ángeles.

Concluirlas con la calidad debida, sin chapucerías y en el plazo establecido no solo mejorará las condiciones generales del Acuario, será también un homenaje a la memoria del líder histórico de la Revolución, su promotor más entusiasta y visionario defensor de la protección del medio ambiente en Cuba y el mundo.

Fuente: http://www.granma.cu/ciencia/2017-07-07/entre-ciencia-y-educacion-ambiental-07-07-2017-18-07-13

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