Obesity. Always a hot topic. But in the past year, more and more people seem to be getting involved and hoping to make a difference. Consider First Lady Michelle Obama’s new “Let’s Move!” Initiative, as well as celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s TV show “Food Revolution.” The government and media alike are doing all they can to draw attention to the mediocre lunches being served in modern schools. I think the “revolution” is a fantastic idea and very much needed to prevent our population from reaching even higher levels of obesity. (Read more…)

In today’s global market, it cannot be underestimated how valuable it is to be bilingual. Whether you grow up in a bilingual household or are fortunate enough to have learned a language while in school or abroad, you certainly have a leg up on many potential candidates in the workforce. Many school districts continue to debate over just how much foreign language education should be available to their students. As schools scramble to find appropriate funding for all departments, its easy to push foreign language education to upper levels of education, to the chagrin of many linguists.
(Read more…)

Having grown up in the suburbs, I know nothing about the struggles of parents and families in New York City, aside from what I read in the Times or see in the movies (think Nursery University, except for public schools). Just when New Yorkers thought that getting their kids into private schools, nursery schools included, was a struggle, now they have to face similar problems in putting their kids into nearby public schools. Between the 9/11 babyboom, the current economic downturn, and choices of many to forgo private school, NYC public schools are placing families on waitlists. Many families on the Upper West Side and Upper East Side are experiencing this problem, but it’s not limited to chic neighborhoods.  In Corona, Queens, a predominantly immigrant and middle-class neighborhood, there are close to 120 students on the wait-list. It’s unlike that half these students will be actually put into the classroom, unless rezoning or new schools are put up. What’s the alternative? Home-schooling?

Hopefully the Obama education reforms help New Yorkers find a suitable solution and start their educations on time. Or maybe private schools will reduce their rates? One can only hope!

See the original article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/24/nyregion/24waiting.html?ref=education

Obama has plans to reform the Bush Administration’s No Child Left Behind Act, which has been criticized over and over again for being ineffective and even destructive to the education system. Designed to help bridge the achievement gap and to provide better education for all children, the law has proved problematic for focusing too much on statistics and punishing schools by taking away funding rather than providing incentive to do well.

Lately, the conversation has shifted.  Now, teachers must be given rewards and greater incentive for job performance, to increase student success rates.  The new law is equally as controversial as N.C.L.B., as critics consider it too ambitious and utopian.

Obama plans to keep some parts of N.C.L.B., such as annual testing, but will consider things such as attendance and graduation rates, instead of determining success by a numbers game. The new tests will measure that there was a demonstrated academic growth rather than an achieved proficiency level, because it is unlikely that all students are starting on the same proficiency level to begin with. The Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, explains, “NCLB says that fifth-grade teacher who helps a student reading at a second-grade level reach a fourth-grade level, within one year, has this missed their goal. In fact, that teacher is an excellent teacher and should be applauded.”

Teachers will be evaluated based on their performance in schools, in relation to these standards and will not be penalized for results if these results demonstrate academic growth. The idea, it seems, is to have children catch up at their own pace. The N.C.L.B. proficiency tests demanded the gaps be closed much more rapidly, whereas the new proposal would permit time. Further, it considers individual progress, which may be a better indicator for if the new standards are helping the students.

The administration hopes to greatly reduce drop out rates and hopes to develop a system that would make it so every high school student graduates ready for college and/or a career. Unlike N.C.L.B., states will have to assume federally proposed academic standard, which may do wonders in some states, but states like Massachusetts, that have excellent and rigorous standards, are afraid that those approved federally may not even meet their current system.  Though the program focuses on reading and math, states will be able to develop their own standards for other subjects and those can also be considered when schools are up for review.

What seems to be stressed the most is the effort and the willingness to reform. There is no formula behind a great teacher, nor is there a formula to a great education. What is most important is that no child is left behind, and that somehow one of the reforms proposed prevents that. What will be the impacts on teachers and school administrators? Hopefully that answer is not too far delayed.

The Blueprint, which is very much just that, can be found here: http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/blueprint/blueprint.pdf

The Department of Health and Human Services is trying to go viral in its efforts to prevent the spread of swine flu. Check out a great PSA from HHS and Elmo below, where imparts a very simple lesson even kids can learn–sneeze into your elbow or shirt sleeve rather than into your hands (or into the air). That way, you won’t wipe all your germs over some unsuspecting handrail or piece of furniture. For more from the HHS, including a contest-winning swine flu rap, see their YouTube channel here

A new student loan repayment plan for federal student loans called Income Based Repayment (IBR) went into effect this month. To sum up, the plan, instituted by the federal government, will help some borrowers by reducing their required monthly payments to under 15% of their income.

So if you currently have a student loan payment that is higher than you can afford to pay with your income, this plan will help you. However, IBR doesn’t reduce the amount of interest you owe, so the longer you take to repay your loan, the more interest you will accrue. If you are already comfortably able to make your loan payments, it is probably a good idea to continue paying as much as you can–the faster you pay off your loan, the less interest you will be charged.

One interesting part about IBR is if you make IBR payments for 25 years, your remaining debt (most of which would be due to interest at this point) will be forgiven. And if you work in a public service or non-profit job, you only have to pay for 10 years. However, this plan only applies to federal loans and you’ll have to do extra paperwork, not to mention it’s still a LONG time to be making payments.

For more details and information see this website, and contact your lender to sign up for the plan.

Chao Mu-he, or “Grandpa Chao” as his classmates call him, will receive his master’s degree in philosophy this weekend from Nanhua University in Taiwan.

All you youngsters out there who think school is tough should take note, Chao decided to go back to school simply because he was “bored” after the hospital he used to volunteer at told him he was too old to work there.

Congraduations, Grandpa Chao, Speakaboos applauds your lifelong pursuit of education.

Read the full story at USA Today

Photo credit:  AP

A charter school opening this fall in Washington Heights, NYC is seeking to prove what educators have been saying all along–if teachers are paid more, we’d have a better education system.

But sorry teachers, the eight teaching positions at the grade 5-8 school, called the Equity Project, have already been filled.

So what kind of teachers does $125K buy? According to an article yesterday in the New York Times, the staff was selected out of over 600 applicants, 100 of which were interviewed, and will boast two Ivy League degrees, decades of experience, and a PE teacher who used to train Kobe Bryant.

Lets just say expectations for the first class of 120, chosen in a lottery that favored kids from the neighborhood and low academic performers, will be very, very high.

See the full story here.

I don’t know too much about the stock market, but this is either a beacon of hope for investors or further evidence of the irrationality of our economy:  a group of four 5th graders from Neenah, Wisconsin won a statewide economics contest by turning $100,000 of imaginary money into $203,000 over ten weeks.

The group of four girls, who say that if they actually had that much money they would “probably buy a lot of toys,” competed against teams all over Wisconsin, and won the grand prize:  a trip to the New York Stock Exchange.

For the full story, click here

Saya, a lifelike robot with the ability to smile, scold and call roll, was tested in a Japanese classroom earlier this year. And since the logistical problems with programming a robot to teach children are very obvious, the robot’s developer, Tokyo University of Science professor Hiroshi Kobayashi, insists that the robot is meant to be a tool and not a replacement for humans.

What I find most interesting about this story is that not only does Japan have an apparent shortage of teachers and labor, university professors there have the time and resources to build elaborate, expensive robots which are ironically impractical.

Fun story though. Read more about Saya at NY Daily News.

Photo:  Koji Sasahara, AP