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US Education UpdateIssue 1, June 2000 Welcome to the first issue of the British Council/British Embassy's Education Update. The update will be issued on a regular basis with the goal of highlighting news and developments in US education policy in particular areas of relevance to UK education policymakers. Contributors to the report include staff connected to the British Council, the British Embassy, and the Consulates-General. You are invited to contact Alison Corbett, Education Research Officer at the British Council, USA, for more information on any items within the report or with suggestions of specific items you wish researched. Please also let us know of anyone you think would be interested in receiving the Education Update and send any comments on the style and format to: alison.corbett@britishcouncil-usa.org Contents
New Teacher Preparation Standards The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) has announced new performance-based teacher preparation standards. This is viewed as a direct response to policymakers' calls for better teacher preparation and standards across the country. (The issue of teacher quality is also one being addressed forcefully by both presidential candidates.) Schools of education will have to meet the new, updated standards to be accredited by NCATE beginning next year. (NCATE is the professional accrediting body for teacher preparation recognised by the US Department of Education.) Teacher preparation institutions will have to submit evidence that they meet the standards required for accreditation which will include an on-site visit by a team of examiners. NCATE believes that encouraging schools of education to attain national professional accreditation will increase the supply of well-qualified teacher candidates which is especially crucial at a time of teacher shortage. The full press release is available on the NCATE website, www.ncate.org. Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read: www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/nrppubskey.cfm National Reading Panel (NRP): www.nationalreadingpanel.org On April 13, the National Reading Panel (NRP) released the results of "the largest, most comprehensive evidence-based review ever conducted of research on how children learn reading." The report concludes that the best way to teach children to read is through a combination of methods, including phonemic awareness, phonics, guided oral reading, and the application of reading comprehension strategies. The NRP Homepage has the full report in .pdf format along with the reports of the sub-groups and offers background information, additional documents, and related links. Business Community Study on Competition within Public School System The National Alliance of Business (NAB) has released a study on ways of improving student performance through increased competition. The report cites a variety of competitive methods, some of which have already been successfully implemented in states: school report cards (providing the public with data on their local schools); financial rewards for high achieving schools; sanctions for under-performing schools; incentives for students (such as merit scholarships); incentives for teachers/principals (performance pay); forcing schools to compete for students. The NAB is a national business organisation which focuses on increasing student achievement and improving the competitiveness of the workforce. It is hoped that the study will encourage policymakers to introduce a range of incentives into their schools and school districts which will enhance existing measures to improve standards and student achievement. The full text of the study, entitled "Improving Performance: Competition in American Public Education", can be seen on the NAB's website, www.nab.com. Closing the Education Gap: Benefits and Costs The above report studies the cost and benefits if African-Americans and Hispanics graduated from high school, went to college, and graduated from college at the same rate as non-Hispanic whites. The report, carried out by RAND - a shortened version of "research and analysis" - concludes that "the benefits would far outweigh the costs of such an investment". The study is the first to try to examine the educational gap between ethnic groups and strategies to close the gap. Hispanics, in particular, are the fastest growing segment of US society and lag significantly behind their peers in educational attainment. The study used the newly-developed RAND Education Simulation Model which models the flows of the US population through the education system, taking into consideration immigration trends. In brief, the report concludes that closing the gap would pay for itself through the long-term savings in public social programmes, increased tax revenues and disposable incomes of more graduates. The full report is available in .pdf format at: www.rand.org/centers/education/pubsnav.html The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) publishes an annual report on the status and progress of education in the USA. The latest document, Condition of Education 2000, is now available and can be read and downloaded in .pdf format on the NCES website: www.nces.org. The report is divided into six sections: Participation in Education; Learner Outcomes; Student Effort and Educational Progress; the Quality of Elementary and Secondary School Environments; Context of Postsecondary Education; Societal Support for Learning. Some key findings of the report are:
Sources: www.nces.org; New York Times The UK was honoured as a recipient of the Washington Symphony Orchestra's High Notes in Education Award for its "commitment to distance education in the new millennium". The UK was recognised for its attempt to connect children, classrooms and the community through access to its educational institutions. The WSO cited the UK's achievements with the National Grid for Learning, along with the successful partnership of the public and private sectors on technical training programmes for headmasters. Source: British Embassy, Washington Teachers, Computers and the Internet. A survey carried out in April by the National Center for Education Statistics reports that 99% of full-time regular public school teachers have access to computers or the Internet in their schools, and about 75% use the technology in their teaching. However, 75% of those surveyed also reported not having the appropriate training to use the technology effectively. The full report entitled "Teacher Use of Computers and the Internet in Public Schools" is at nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2000090 Using the Internet to teach across borders. The New York Times reported recently on a project initiated by the Partnership in Global Learning which will make use of the Internet to offer high school and college-level course materials for classrooms around the world. The pilot project involves universities in the USA (Florida), Mexico and Brazil where faculty will train high school teachers to develop materials for their own use and to be used in the other countries. The project is funded by the charitable body of Lucent Technologies and the company will also make a large investment of equipment (total commitment is $3 million). The teachers will be trained in the development of web-based curriculum materials in business and science subjects. The project has two clear goals:
It is hoped that pressure to compete in a computer-based global economy will make Internet teaching in this way more widespread in developing countries. The Partnership for Global Learning plans to take the project to Asia. Sources and related sites: New York Times www.nytimes.com/library/tech/reference/indexeducation.html Partnership in Global Learning grove.ufl.edu/~pgl/ World Links for Development www.worldbank.org/worldlinks/english/index.html U.S. Department of Education Office of Education Technology www.ed.gov/Technology/ Internet in Schools Survey. Forty-three percent of students with access to the Internet in their schools said in a nationwide survey that using the Internet has improved their attitude toward school. Low-income students were the most likely to feel that way, according to the survey of 601 children ages 9 to 17, which was conducted by the National School Boards Foundation and Grunwald Associates. The report is available at www.nsbf.org Using the Internet at school has (by household income): Under $40,000
$40,000 to $74,999
$75,000 or more
Sources: National School Boards Foundation (www.nsbf.org), Grunwald Associates Virtual Library for On-line Students. Regents College, a distance-education college based in New York state, is developing a virtual library to assist its on-line students dispersed throughout the country. The project is a joint venture with librarians from Johns Hopkins University and is in response to the need to help students access books and periodicals which they cannot find in their local library. The virtual library will house materials which have been digitised and put onto databases. As a further service, librarians will be available by telephone to help students locate research materials, and a list of websites within the virtual library will offer information on specific topics. Viewed as an essential service to distance learning students, it is expected that the model of the virtual library will be expanded to traditional students within colleges and universities. Sources: Chronicle of Higher Education; Johns Hopkins University, www.jhu.edu Regent's College, www.regents.edu Technology Spending in Higher Education. According to a report in the Chronicle of Higher Education, US universities and colleges are expecting to spend $2.6 billion on academic hardware and software this year. The data are based on the 1999 Higher Education Technology Survey issued by the Dun and Bradstreet Corporation. The Survey also looks at distance learning, Internet and network use. Key findings include:
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education Full summary of report: www.schooldata.com/datapoint43.html Wireless Networks on Campus: a cost-saving solution. A small liberal arts college in New York state, Mount St Mary, is providing its students with a high speed wireless network which covers the entire campus. This means that students can access the Internet, on their laptops, from any area of the college without the need to plug into a modem. The wireless network is the result of the college looking to save money. The cost of installing wiring to every room in each residential hall was prohibitive and the college began researching alternative ways to provide access. It appeared that the wiring necessary for a network could be installed for a fraction of the cost. The college negotiated a deal with a wireless network company to be used as a test case, then leased laptops to all its faculty and librarians to encourage everyday use of the Web. Most faculty members embraced the new technology and have incorporated it into their teaching. At present, 100 students have been given laptops equipped with transceivers and antennas to pick up Internet signals. However, it is likely that, eventually, all students seeking admission to the college will be required to have a laptop. Sources: The New York Times; Mount St Mary's College, www.msmc.edu Previous issues of the Education Update are available on the British Council's USA website If there are any topics
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