High Schools

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Looking to history can shape Utah’s education future

Lynn Stoddard

By: Lynn Stoddard.

During the last week of May of this year, 30,250 students graduated from 78 Utah public high schools for an average of 388 students per graduating class. In 1945, I graduated from Ogden High School in a graduating class of approximately 400 students. During the 74 years since my graduation has anything changed in our system of public education?

Except for one big thing, nearly everything has stayed the same. All six of my grandchildren who graduated this year were required to abide by the same school system and curriculum that I did 74 years ago — the one that was installed in 1892 by a “Committee of Ten” scholars. This committee recommended eight years of elementary school followed by four years of high school and a “call to teach English, mathematics, and history or civics to every student every academic year in high school. The recommendations also formed the basis of the practice of teaching chemistry, and physics, respectively, in ascending high school academic years.”

My six graduating grandchildren each attended a different high school and were all subject to the same graduation requirements: 24 credits in English, mathematics, science, social studies, arts and computer, health and physical education and five electives.

What’s wrong with this picture? The “Committee of Ten” inaugurated a system of education to standardize students with a predetermined outline of subject matter courses. Each of my graduating grandchildren achieved what was required of them and has a diploma to show it. They were all exposed to the same knowledge and skills as the other 30,244 Utah graduates.

The one huge difference between education as it was 74 years ago and today is not really a difference at all, but a window to a revolution: computers and electronic communication have shined a spotlight on human differences. Back in my day, we obtained our information about the required curriculum from books and teacher lectures. Now, with the worldwide internet, television and hand-held interactive devices, we have suddenly found new ways to learn and discovered that it is impossible to standardize students in knowledge and skills.

Technology now offers a bridge to unlimited student learning and accomplishment. The present required curriculum allows for only a small percentage to become extraordinary, “sterling” scholars. On the other hand, using computers to access the whole world of events and information makes it possible for every student to attain phenomenal knowledge and accomplishment. Each student will now be able to prove that he or she can become a genius in some area of knowledge.

What needs to be done to have this utopia of education become a reality? Before the federal government imposed subject matter standardization on the system, some schools were starting to use human standards rather than subject standards to help learners grow as powerful individuals. Teachers and parents united to help students grow in human powers such as inquiry, interaction, imagination, initiative, identity, intuition and integrity.

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By using this approach, hundreds of students in several schools discovered their genius and reason to exist as important contributors to society. With “identity” as a top priority, teachers united with parents to help students magnify their unique talents and strengths. Teachers and parents were starting to learn how to find and develop student-oriented curriculum based on the important questions and needs of students. They were starting to learn how to develop a much better student-oriented education.

We now have a choice: go back and get on the right path or continue on the subject-dominated, assembly-line path of student standardization.

Source of the article: https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900075359/guest-opinion-looking-to-history-can-shape-utahs-education-future.html

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Japanese language education vital for foreign residents to adjust to society

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Asia/ Japan/ 04.03.2019/ Source: the-japan-news.com.

In preparation for an increase in foreign workers, it is indispensable to improve Japanese language education for them. The building of a relevant framework, such as establishing bases for study and ensuring the quality of instructors, must be accelerated.

The new types of residence status for “designated skills” will be established in April, with up to 340,000 foreign workers expected to be accepted into the country over the next five years.

It is necessary to encourage them to adjust smoothly to local communities and workplaces. While rooting out bureaucratic sectionalism at the ministries and agencies, the central government should take measures to support foreign workers, in cooperation with local governments and companies that will accept them. A situation in which foreigners form their own groups of compatriots and become socially isolated should be avoided.

The acquisition of Japanese language skills is key to their smooth adjustment. To obtain the new status, they need to attain the level of Japanese language necessary for daily living. It is important to enhance their language ability, even after their arrival in Japan, with the cooperation of their workplaces.

There are about 2,100 bases for foreigners living in Japan to learn the Japanese language, such as language schools and classes run by nonprofit organizations and local governments. But they are unevenly located, with many of them in urban areas, while about 60 percent of the local governments of cities, wards, towns and villages in the country have no such facilities.

Concern cannot be dispelled that foreign workers will flow out of rural areas into urban areas where wages are relatively high. Having no places for learning Japanese language may impede their settlement in rural areas.

Ensure quality teaching

To eliminate areas devoid of language-learning facilities, the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry will assign coordinators to prefectural governments and ordinance-designated major cities, starting in fiscal 2019. They are tasked with crafting educational programs suited to local communities, while giving advice and guidance to local classes of Japanese language. Such endeavors should be promoted steadily.

The utilization of public-run evening junior high schools is also important. Originally, the evening classes were attended mainly by Japanese people who for a variety of reasons had not completed their compulsory education. But now foreigners account for 80 percent of the students.

In expectation of an increase in foreign manpower, the government aims at increasing evening school courses, which are currently available at 31 schools in Tokyo and seven other prefectures, by having them established in all the prefectures. Financial support should be advanced in a carefully planned way.

Ensuring the quality of education should not be forgotten. The Cultural Affairs Agency will establish a qualification for teachers of Japanese language. Requiring teaching practice in the training stage is also being discussed. A challenge will be to secure schools where trainees can engage in practice teaching, and to work out the content of practice teaching programs.

Sound management of Japanese language schools is also important. How should these facilities be urged to improve themselves, where the attendance rate of students is low and the performances of language proficiency tests are poor? A framework to check them effectively is essential.

It is indispensable to take care of children who are unable to fully understand classes given in Japanese. The number of such children has reached a total of 44,000 in elementary, junior high and senior high schools, up 70 percent over the past 10 years.

Many of them are elementary and junior high schools with fewer than five such students, making it difficult to give lessons efficiently. There are cases where a teacher who can offer Japanese language instruction circulates among different schools. There are also local governments that offer language programs intensively for a certain period, by having such students gather in one place.

By referring to these examples, meticulous guidance should be expanded.

 

Source of the notice: http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0005582463

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Japanese city to use AI to predict seriousness of school bullying

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Asia/ Japan/ 11.02.2019/ Source: japantoday.com.

A western Japan city said Friday it plans to use artificial intelligence to predict the seriousness of suspected school bullying cases, in what will be the first such analysis by a municipality in the country.

«Through an AI theoretical analysis of past data, we will be able to properly respond to cases without just relying on teachers’ past experiences,» Otsu Mayor Naomi Koshi said regarding the planned analysis beginning from the next fiscal year starting April.

AI will be used to analyze 9,000 suspected bullying cases reported by elementary and junior high schools in the city over the six years through fiscal 2018. It will examine the school grade and gender of the suspected victims and perpetrators as well as when and where the incidents occurred.

Statistical analysis of the data is expected to help local authorities and teachers to identify forms of bullying that tend to escalate in seriousness and require particular attention, said the Otsu city education board in Shiga Prefecture.

The AI analysis will also look at other factors, such as school absenteeism and academic achievement, and the findings will be compiled into a report for use by teachers and in training seminars.

«Bullying may start from low-level friction in relationships but can get worse day by day. It is important to know which cases have a tendency to become serious,» an official of the education board said.

The Otsu city education board came under fire over the handling of a bullying case involving a 13-year-old junior high school student, who jumped to his death from the condominium building where he lived in 2011.

The board initially found no connection between the suicide and bullying, but some students were later found to have stated in a school survey that the boy was told to «practice killing himself.» An independent committee set up by the Otsu city government attributed the suicide to bullying in a report issued in 2013.

The case led Japan to enact a law the same year obliging schools to set guidelines to prevent bullying. In Otsu, schools are required to report all possible bullying cases to the city education board within 24 hours.

Elementary, junior and senior high schools in Japan reported more than 410,000 cases of bullying in fiscal 2017. Ten of the 250 students who committed suicide had been bullied at school, according to education ministry data.

Source of the notice: https://japantoday.com/category/national/japanese-city-to-use-ai-to-predict-seriousness-of-school-bullying

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France detains 32 students protesting education reform

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Europa/ Francia/ 12.11.2018/ Source: www.aa.com.tr.

Protests erupt after Macron administration unveils plans to change education system

French police detained 32 students Wednesday who were taking part in protests against government plans to overhaul the country’s approach to education.

Students in a number of cities have been protesting against President Emmanuel Macron’s educational policies. The major reforms by his administration include changes to the Baccalaureate Examination, which students must pass to be eligible to enter university.

Six students were detained in a demonstration in Stalingrad Square in Bordeaux after they damaged vehicles and threw projectiles at police.

In southern Toulouse, another 13 students were detained for harming the environment and attacking police.

Tensions were also high between the police and students in the Henin-Beaumont commune, where students set fire to a large number of waste bins in front of a high school. Thirteen students were detained in demonstrations.

Around 100 high schools throughout the country were blockaded Monday by students protesting the education reform, with lessons at the schools fully or partially disrupted.

Source of the notice: https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/france-detains-32-students-protesting-education-reform/1330753

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EEUU: State officials explain education program

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EEUU/March 27, 2018/By Grant McPherson Staff Writer/Source: http://leader.mainelymediallc.com

Residents have numerous questions regarding profiency-based diploma program
State officials attended a Scarborough board of education meeting to discuss where the state was in its implementation of proficiency-based diplomas as well as the challenges they face, but residents still have many questions.

Maine Department of Education Chief Academic Officer Paul Hambleton and Sen. Brian Langley (Dist. 7), chairman of the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee, spoke before board members, school staff and the public Thursday, March 15 and answered questions about what kind of regulations the state was considering.

Following a state mandate, ninth graders at Scarborough High School must demonstrate they have mastered skills in eight different educational areas in order to graduate. Residents are concerned how the new grading system will affect their children’s chances of being accepted to colleges and universities.

Hambleton, who taught English and special education before joining the department of education, said he’s heard both concerns and success stories from around the state regarding the transition. He spoke before the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee and asked for clarification from the legislature about what the definition of “proficient” should be.

“The struggle I was having was in one particular area of the law,” Hambleton said. “It describes the diploma as something that is awarded when a student reaches proficiency in all eight areas and my challenge with that after talking to colleges is if we take that at straight face value, we were concerned about the way we were setting it up was going to result in a lot of kids not being able to meet that bar.”

Hambleton has been back and forth in discussion with the legislature about amendments to the law, which could look similar to aspects of the No Child Left Behind Act and Every Student Succeeds Act, the latter a reauthorization of the 50-year-old Elementary and Secondary Education Acts.

“Now the question is, what does a diploma mean,” Hambleton said. “The other moving piece is what do we expect kids to be able to do by the time they graduate high school? Do we want to create a statewide definition for all students in all eight areas before they exit high school? That’s been our challenge. Where is that model and where do we land on that? What are we expecting all kids in the state to be able to do regardless of zip code? How do we help all kids get there without creating a barrier that will trip kids up? That’s essentially where we are now, finding that sweet spot.”

Over the next couple weeks, Hambleton said he would work with the legislature and his department to try and answer some of those questions.

Langley spent 27 years teaching culinary arts at the Hancock County Technical Center in Ellsworth before his time in the legislature and was present when the proficiency-based diploma bill was introduced. He said that a proficiency based grading system is not a mandate of the new law and local school districts are free to implement it, create a hybrid system or keep a numerical method of grading.

Langley said he doesn’t know how many schools have chosen a proficiency based grading system, but that eight high schools in Maine will graduate students this year with performance-based diplomas.

The law took effect Jan. 1, 2017 and Langley said as long as the state legislature continues to turn over every few years there will continue to be amendments to the law. However, he is hopeful the changes will be beneficial in the long-term.

“It’s been difficult for those whom the system has always worked for,” Langley said. “They will continue to say it still works. I spent my career working with castaway kids. When they had been given up on they would end up in my program. With a grading system of one through four for a perfect blueberry pie taste, they could begin making one when they compare themselves against a standard and not someone else’s work.

“Most school systems already have proficiency based (models). In kindergarten through second grade, a report card shows if a student can tell time to a quarter of the hour, count to 10 and recite the alphabet.”

Langley said the legislature would wait for an amendment to the law from the department of education or possibly choose to delay further implantation by a year. While not originally planning to attend the Scarborough Board of Education’s meeting, he said he felt obligated when he heard a municipality was discussing how to implement its own methods.

“It’s nice to see so many people out for a school board meeting,” he said. “From my perspective it’s hard and people are very concerned about what’s best for their kids. A lot of school systems have trouble finding enough people to serve on the school board. You will develop thick skin working through the issues and come out better for it.”

Scarborough resident Jeannine Uzzi said while she supports the transition to proficiency-based education, making sure colleges and universities understand students’ transcripts is critical.

“I have no philosophical issue, but the fact of the matter is the onus is on the district to replace the familiar transcript with narrative data and it will take a lot of hard work upfront before the switch to a different grading system,” she said. “Proficiency-based education will not disadvantage students in terms of learning, it should be an advantage. There need to be resources put into recreating how we grade assessments and how teachers are trained. The town has to invest money to support changes.”

Maria Connolly, another resident, was less enthusiastic about the change. She said the discussion about proficiency based education has only caused more anxiety for her children, who are considering private school to ensure a better chance at being accepted to the college or university of their choice.

“You have the future of our children in your hands,” she said. “We want you to leave a legacy of positivity for them. I regret I didn’t get involved in the discussion sooner. I regret my 13-year-old son came up to me at the beginning of the school year asking to go to Cheverus for the rest of his high school career because he was unhappy with the grading system. As a 13-year-old he was worried about the impact on himself. If a 13-year-old saw the writing on the wall, then you as the board of education and superintendent should have.”

Staff Writer Grant McPherson can be reached at news@scarboroughleader.com

Source:

http://leader.mainelymediallc.com/news/2018-03-23/Community_News/State_officials_explain_education_program.html

 

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