OSMTECHFUTURES
Folks:
On a note of a more GLOBAL nature.
Failures in Science Infrastructure Threaten U.S.
LeadershipThe United States' poor performance in science and math has placed the country in danger of losing its competitive edge in the global marketplace, says a new study by the Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF), a joint effort by the business and higher education communities to analyze U.S. math and science performance.
Raytheon Co. Chairman William Swanson, co-chair of Forum's Initiative on Mathematics and Science Education, called the latest data gathered by the Forum "cause for deep concern."
The report found that even though the U.S. is experiencing an undergraduate enrollment boom, enrollment in countries with emerging economies are growing faster, similar to the U.S. after World War II.
In China, enrollment rates are expanding at 10 times the rate of the U.S. Two-thirds of Chinese students earn math, science or engineering degrees, compared to about one-third of American students, BHEF said.
The BHEF report recommended long-term tactics to alleviate the teacher shortage. The report challenged business and education leaders to commit to collaborative roles to develop seamless state systems of education extending from pre-kindergarten to higher education and the workplace.
The full report can be downloaded from
http://www.bhef.com
Folks:
A little Good News & Bad News from the President Bush.
February 23, 2005
EDITORIAL
High School Reform, Round 1President Bush raised the country's hopes last month when he previewed a $1.5 billion initiative that would promote desperately needed reform in the American high school system. The package laid out in the president's budget proposal touches on many of the right issues, but it is underfinanced and poorly conceived - and dead on arrival in Congress, which has signaled its intent to ignore crucial provisions of Mr. Bush's proposal. The White House, which failed to push for adequate funds for its last big education initiative, the No Child Left Behind Act, has only itself to blame for failing to do the necessary preparation before unveiling this big idea.
Nevertheless, Congress should understand what's at stake here. As school reform grinds to a halt in Washington, American students are falling further and further behind their peers in Asia and Europe, where universally accessible quality schools are producing highly skilled workers at a rate that far outstrips schools in the United States.
The traditional American high school, as conceived a century ago, was never meant to produce well-educated workers in the numbers required by today's economy. Remaking the system so American students catch up with their peers abroad will require several big changes. The curriculum must become far more rigorous across the board, and that can happen only if teachers improve. The schools must offer broad-based remedial instruction to help the eye-popping 70 percent of students who arrive at high school reading too poorly to absorb the complex subject matter they will be required to cover. The system must also develop ways to ensure that students leave school with problem-solving and communication skills that will allow them to thrive in the information economy.
President Bush wants to extend right into high school the testing requirements that are mandated for the lower grades under No Child Left Behind. This page has been second to none in supporting systematic testing, but talking about tests without first addressing all the things that are wrong with the current system is putting the cart before the horse.
Mr. Bush has also proposed a package of academic interventions for struggling students that he would pay for mainly by killing off a $1.3 billion federally financed vocational education program. This figure is far short of what's needed to renovate America's ailing high school system. But the president's underlying point - that many vocational education programs obstruct academic achievement - is perfectly valid. The low-end programs prepare students for low-skill jobs that no longer exist. Worst of all, they commonly become dumping grounds for poor and minority students, who are pushed through shop classes - with no academics to speak of - and then deposited on the street after graduating with meaningless diplomas. Shockingly, the typical American high school student earns more credits in vocational education than in either math or science.
The only way to justify keeping vocational programs is to make sure that they offer a sound academic grounding along with preparation for the new economy's high-skill jobs, instead of just wood shop and fender pounding. At the moment, however, some in Congress would like to push in exactly the wrong way by exempting vocational programs from even the inadequate current academic standards.
Many members of Congress have gotten heat from their districts about the demands made by the current No Child Left Behind standards, and getting them to push for further improvements in quality will be hard. Mr. Bush made a tactical error by failing to prepare the political ground in advance, but the game is not yet lost. Taking aim at vocational education is an excellent way to get high school reform off the ground - but only if the Bush administration will use its political muscle and go public with its case. The opportunity will be missed if the president throws up his hands and slinks away.
Folks:
Lose of OSMTech at OSTC/NW part of OSTC/NW Agri-Science Advisory Council Sub-Committee agenda discussion.
View minutes of meeting at
http://nwagrivisory.blogspot.com/Best,
Jim
Folks:
A little piece of the future was published today in the Oakland Press 2-20-2005. "NASA engineer shows girls that science is cool." Unfortunately, the search engine is not as good as the NASA program, alas no link to the article.
Congratulations to all whom participated!
Best,
Jim
Folks:
Nice piece in the Oakland Press "Getting with the program" this morning 2-15-2005. Unfortunately I was uable to get the link from there web-site.
"Nooch" for State Superintendent of Schools! With a huge assist from OSMTech founding teacher, Kyle Hughes.
Best,
Jim
Folks:
Had a chance to see and speak to the "crusader" (Kyle) yesterday afternoon. Seems O.K. to me.
Best,
Jim
Folks:
From the Governor's lips to God's ear. PRAY!
Today's Jobs-Tomorrow's Jobs
http://www.michigan.gov/gov/0,1607,7-168-22079-110164--,00.html
Best,
Jim
Folks:
The "Nooch" continues to astound!
Superintendent finalists chosen
Of The Daily Oakland Press
A committee of residents and officials plans whirlwind visits this week and next week to the campuses of two finalists who are seeking the Brandon school superintendent position.
Board trustees narrowed the list of contenders for the job from four to two after public interviews Saturday.
The goal is to name a new superintendent Feb. 22 after a report by the site visitation team, said board President Beth Nuccio. The individual would succeed retiring Superintendent Bart Jenniches, who has served nine years.
The finalists are Nancy Campbell, assistant superintendent for the Berkley schools since 2000, and Tom Miller, assistant superintendent for Port Huron since 1998. The other two semifinalists were Derrick Fries, deputy superintendent of Avondale district since 2003, and Karl Paulson, assistant superintendent for Lakeview schools in St. Clair Shores since 2003.
A visitation team of 30 will make a daylong visit to Campbell's district Thursday and Miller's on Feb. 16. The team had to visit the Berkley district this week because a winter break is scheduled for next week.
Nuccio and Vice President Christopher Yuchasz said selecting the finalists was difficult because all of the candidates were "top-notch." Before the interviews, Yuchasz said he wouldn't be surprised if all four candidates came out contenders in the final run.
"Within the next four years, we are dealing with the budget, and that is certainly the top priority," Nuccio said. The new superintendent will be looking at how to work with a shrinking budget to provide quality education and how to keep the staff fully trained.
"Collectively, as a board, we are just looking for somebody with lots of integrity," Nuccio said. "It sounds very simple, but in today's world sometimes that's very difficult to find. We want someone everyone feels they trust; somebody that can communicate well; someone who can share ideas and make tough decisions, because tough decisions will have to be made; and someone who will make sure those tough decisions are carried through."
Campbell earned her doctorate at Wayne State University.
Miller earned his master's degree at Wayne State University and has done post-master's work at several universities.
Yuchasz said he was pleased that the district had such a good pool of candidates at a time when school finance is a major issue and curriculums are constantly being changed to meet Michigan Educational Assessment Program test requirements.
"Right now, education is a very difficult field, and I was pleasantly surprised that these candidates want to step up and be superintendent," Yuchasz said. "I think a lot of retirements (several in Oakland County) are because it is not going to get any better. What Bart has done in nine years has been exceptional. The next few years have me nervous."
To help determine which candidate will best suit the Brandon School District, the board Saturday appointed a site visitation team that includes a variety of people, including teachers, community members, administrators, a Parent Teacher Association president and two high school students.
Click here to return to story:
http://www.theoaklandpress.com/stories/020805/loc_20050208006.shtml
From: Beth Nuccio [mailto:beth.nuccio@baker.edu] Sent: Tuesday, February 08, 2005 6:57 PMTo: jross2@earthlink.netSubject: Re: Item of Interest from the Oakland Press.
Jim-
This process has been time consuming thus my absence in the OSMTech scene. Kyle did call me today and say that Clarkston is taking the OSMTech program over (Kyle and Mike Olsen as teachers) in a half day format. Open to current participating districts and will make it 9-12. I am hopeful Brandon can get a superintendent that is a forward thinker and supportive of the OSMTech program. Hey, don't think that is one of my questions for these candidiates!
Keep in touch.
Beth
Hi partner, long time, no hear……..
As I discussed with Mike a couple of weeks ago, I guess the OSMTech program moving to Clarkston High School is a “safe haven” for ridin out the storm for he and Kyle. Immediately after they have departed, if Oakland Schools gets smart (no guarantee), the 4 technology centers can begin to re-invent the advanced technological OSMTech program again as the center-piece of their operations. There is nothing like throwing the baby out with the bath water. Anyway, given what we heard in the State of the State last night it probably won’t matter much given the significant real-time challenges we currently face in today’s high-touch technological economy. Had Oakland Schools had the foresight to fully support the OSMTech program as originally envisioned they would currently be celebrated for being so far ahead of the current failed educational curve regarding the future jobs of the 21st Century, instead they will be remembered for simply being missing in action, clueless and oblivious.
Soon we will cut to the chase and begin to think like true entrepreneurs of the 21st Century and accordingly begin to engage in student studies that feature creativity, innovation, imagination and immersive project-based programs that are facilitated by an advanced technological infrastructure while teamed with appropriate research- based pedagogical foundations. But first I guess we must fail some more. I just wish we could fail faster, lives are at stake here.
Hope your candidate will have a good understanding as regards these issues. They are the coin of the future of today’s/tomorrow’s educational success. Today’s learners must create/invent their futures several times-over in their lifetimes, because the ones we knew for the past several decades have disappeared forever.
Much continued success!
Best,
Jim
Folks:
Another insight regarding reinvention.
February 1, 2005
EDITORIAL
Reinventing High School
The achievement gap between rich and poor students is narrowing in some states, thanks to the added resources and better instruction that are a result of the No Child Left Behind Act. But that good news is largely limited to the early grades. Progress is stalled in high schools, where more states are slipping behind than are making progress, and American teenagers have lost ground when compared with their peers in other industrialized nations. The United States, which once led the world in high school graduation rates, has plummeted to 17th - well behind France, Germany and Japan.
The American high school is a big part of the problem. Developed a century ago, the standard factory-style high school was conceived as a combination holding area and sorting device that would send roughly one-fifth of its students on to college while moving the rest directly into low-skill jobs. It has no tools to rescue the students who arrive unable to read at grade level but are in need of the academic grounding that will qualify them for 21st-century employment.
New York City recently embarked on a plan to develop a range of smaller schools, some of them aimed at the thousands of students whose literacy skills are so poor that they have failed the first year of high school three times. The plan is to pull these students up to the academic standard while providing some of them with work experiences.
The National Governors Association has begun a high school initiative that calls for remedial services and partial tuition reimbursement for students who complete community college courses that lead to technical or industrial job certifications. The White House, rushing to get ahead of the parade, recently announced a high school project of its own. And other school districts are tinkering with gimmicks like cash bonuses for good grades.
The emerging consensus is that the traditional high school needs to be remade into something that is both more flexible and more rigorous. But the rigor has to come first. Many states are still setting the bar for reading performance abysmally low in the primary grades, paving the way for failure when children move on to high school. State education departments have fudged vital statistics on graduation rates, as well as the teacher qualification data they have reported to the federal government in ostensible compliance with No Child Left Behind.
The federal Education Department failed to push the states toward doing better under the disastrous leadership of its departing secretary, Rod Paige. No matter how hard localities try, the best-designed high schools in the world will still fail unless the states and the federal government finally bite the bullet on teacher training.
That means doing what it takes to remake the teacher corps, even if it means withholding federal dollars from diploma mills pretending to be colleges of education, forcing out unqualified teachers and changing the age-old practice of funneling the least-prepared teachers into the weakest schools.
