Quantcast
Michelle Snow

“I’m amazed and honored that she chose me,” said John Alemany, Michelle Snow’s 12th grade Spanish teacher.“She's a star basketball player. I would have thought for sure she’d pick one of her coaches.” “Sports came easy to me,” explains Michelle. “Spanish was a challenge, and Mr. Alemany didn’t give up on me. “He has this amazing positive energy. And he genuinely cares. You can’t imagine what a difference that makes.” Behind every famous person is
a fabulous teacher

Education News: August 19, 2005

Following are some of the top headlines from the world of education for the week ending August 19, 2005.

Indianapolis Public Schools’ big gamble: Smaller is better
(Source: The Indianapolis Star, 8/18/05)
The Indianapolis Public Schools system is beginning a large-scale educational experiment this school year by dividing the city’s five high schools into 24 small “themed” academies. The change is intended to boost test scores and graduation rates in the state and is funded in part by Bill and Melinda Gates, who are funding comparable school changes around the country.

Retirements seen raising teacher turnovers
(Source: The New York Times, 8/17/05)
Forty percent of public school teachers plan to leave the profession within the next five years, which is the highest rate since at least 1990, according to a study by the National Center for Education Information. This is largely a function of retirement, as 42 percent or teachers are age 50 or older.

Report: High school exit exams pressuring limited-English students
(Source: CNN.com, 8/16/05)
A new study by the Center on Education Policy has found that large numbers of students who don’t speak or read English well may fail to receive high school diplomas based on exit exams that don’t fairly measure their abilities. Limited-English students may fail math sections because they don’t understand the framing of the problems or perform poorly in general because they spend much of their school-time learning the English language rather than learning the material on the tests. The study predicts that nine in ten limited-English students will face such tests by 2012.

Half of teens say school’s unsafe
(Source: USA Today, 8/16/05)
Only 55 percent of U.S. high school students feel safe in school, according to The High School Survey of Student Engagement. Also, 41 percent of students say their school heavily emphasizes athletics, while only 27% of students sense a heavy emphasis on academics.

Teachers spend big to supply what schools don’t
(Source: The Washington Post, 8/14/05)
Teachers nationwide spent an average of $458 out of their own pocket on school supplies last year, according to a study by the National School Supply and Equipment Association. The extra supplies range from instructional materials to basic supplies, some of which should be but aren’t supplied by the students’ parents.

Foreign languages no longer just for big kids
(Source: The San Diego Union-Tribune, 8/13/05)
Driven by research that young children have a great capacity for learning foreign languages, more schools are adding foreign language instruction to elementary school curriculums. Marty Abbott, director of education at the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, says the trend is an important step in preparing U.S. students to be competitive in the global economy.