questões de 'economia' da educação... ou seja... do impacto dela [via acção dos professores] nos 'proventos' dos adultos pelos seus resultados 'educativos'...?

"The paper caused a remarkable stir last week, and for good reason: It’s one of the most dense, important and interesting analyses on this topic in a very long time. Much of the reaction, however, was less than cautious, specifically the manner in which the research findings were interpreted to support actual policy implications (also see Bruce Baker’s excellent post).

What this paper shows – using an extremely detailed dataset and sophisticated, thoroughly-documented methods – is that teachers matter, perhaps in ways that some didn’t realize. What it does not show is how to measure and improve teacher quality, which are still open questions. This is a crucial distinction, one which has been discussed on this blog numerous times (also here and here), as it is frequently obscured or outright ignored in discussions of how research findings should inform concrete education policy."

aqui.

o citado relatório pode ser consultado... aqui.

a percepção de que por cá as coisas estão 'iguais' às dos 'states'... provavelmente pela mesma ordem de razões...!

muito para lá da mania dos 'resultados' talvez importe que tenhamos bases [dados, investigação abalizada] com que confrontar as agendas públicas e políticas da educação sem preconceitos que [só] 'terminem' no vector económico-financeiro da questão...

ou não será a educação um bem comum e um investimento com retorno a prazo [médio e longo] para o estado-nação...?

até por causa desta notícia.. que não augura nada de bom...!

daqui, com bill gates...

"When you need more achievement, you have to change the way you spend the money. This year, the governors are launching "Complete to Compete," a program to help colleges get more value for the money they spend. It will develop metrics to help show which colleges graduate more students for less money, so we can see what works and what doesn't."

"Over the past few years, due to massive budget deficits, governors, legislators and other elected officials are having to slash education spending. As a result, incredibly, there are at least 30 states in which state funding for 2011 is actually lower than in 2008. In some cases, including California, the amounts are over 20 percent lower.

Only the tiniest slice of Americans believe that we should spend less on education, while a large majority actually supports increased funding. At the same time, however, there’s a concerted effort among some advocates, elected officials and others to convince the public that spending more money on education will not improve outcomes, while huge cuts need not do any harm."

aqui.


para complementar, a partir do relatório citado:

"In the following brief, I discuss selected major studies on three specific topics; a) whether money in the aggregate matters; b) whether specific schooling resources that cost money matter; and c) whether substantive and sustained state school finance reforms matter. Regarding these three questions, I conclude:"

aqui.

para aceder ao relatório, em pdf...aqui.

orçamentos da educação... cortes e mais cortes... para além das obras faraónicas da parque escolar... vícios de países 'ricos'... enfim...!

caricaturando pelos 'states'...

por cá, as obras do regime...

e depois é só ir ao bolso dos funcionários públicos...!

profissionalidade docente e o desempenho dos alunos... um relatório dos 'states' para uma associação dos professores [nea]...!

Cett 2011_transforming Teaching, Connecting Professional Responsability With Student Learning

sobredotados... como? uma reflexão nos 'states'...!

"Today, lots of different definitions of giftedness exist. This wasn't always the case. Prior to 1972, practically every school used one criterion and one criterion only to identify giftedness: an IQ cut-off of 130. This criterion was heavily influenced by the pioneering work of Lewis Terman, who equated high IQ with genius.

Then the first federal definition of giftedness came along in 1972, which was undoubtedly an important step forward. Noting that only a small percentage of the 1.5 to 2.5 million gifted school children were actually benefiting from special education services, former U.S. Commissioner of Education Sidney P. Marland, Jr. proposed a broadened definition that went beyond just IQ to also include specific academic and creative aptitudes. That report was important in its broadening of giftedness."

aqui.

questões de agenda liberal... para a contratação de professores... que tipo de 'acesso'...? pelos 'states' as coisas andam a 'aquecer'... pelos vistos...!

"The NEA and the American Federation of Teachers, which combined have more than 4 million members, have long opposed the 20-year-old Teach for America. TFA recruits newly minted college graduates who are not education majors and gives them five weeks of summer training before placing them in classrooms in high-poverty schools. Recruits are asked to commit to only two years of teaching. The unions have argued that the country’s neediest students need highly trained teachers committed to the profession."

aqui.

formação de professores... precisa-se... generalista, não...! especialista,... talvez sim, mas com formação pedagógica adequada...!

escola a tempo inteiro... questões bizantinas de números...? ou de eficácia de um sistema...?

"Our students today are competing against children in India and China. Those students are going to school 25 to 30 percent longer than we are. Our students, I think, are at a competitive disadvantage. I think we're doing them a disservice."

But is perception reality? Do students in other countries spend more time in school than students here in the U.S.? Secretary Duncan provided data to back up his claims. But do those claims tell the whole story? This brief takes a closer look at the data to answer the question: Do U.S. students spend less time in school than students in other countries? 

aqui. 

e, já agora, atente-se no quadro e veja-se a situação de portugal...

pelos vistos nós é que temos 'escola a tempo inteiro' [armazém 'educativo'], trabalhamos [estudamos] mais que a média da ocde e os resultados são lastimáveis...

culpa, obviamente, dos professores... madraços...!

para as tabelas da ocde, 2011, consultar aqui.

[tres]leituras... a avaliação dos professores... via outra costa do atlântico...!

Gary Gordon 2011_improving Student Performance Through Teacher Evaluation, The Gallup Approach

as artes e expressões artísticas fazem falta no currículo escolar... à revelia do que parece ser o 'modus operandi' do novo mec 'crático'... ou não será...?

"Hoffmann Davis addresses the larger and most critical issues for public education reformers with regard to the arts, including inviting us to consider why we educate children in the first place, and the consequences to our society if we don't do a good job of it. To make the point, Hoffmann Davis highlights the current advocacy trend focusing on (disputable) evidence that the arts increase students' standardized test scores:

Arts education has been pushed so far to the margins that desperate advocates have fought for a place at the head of the table by arguing that arts learning even helps to increase student performance on standardized tests... These considerations, so extraneous and removed from the powerful learning that the arts provide, are a symptom of the time."

aqui.

questões similares às do pte... mas parece que as semelhanças se ficam por aqui...!

"Digital learning will benefit all students -- particularly students from low-income families where education leaders are proactive. In light of the 'OER exacerbates the gap' flap this week, I thought it would be worth expanding on the ways in which EdTech, blended learning, and open education resources (OER) will benefit low-income kids. Following is a list of 10 ways that digital learning will benefit low-income students:"

daqui.

a complementar por aqui.

rácios professores - alunos, turmas grandes, pequenas, médias... questões 'bicudas'...? claro... mas uma única medida é inviável... se não for pedagógica e socialmente relevante...!

"To a certain extent, I am merely playing devil's advocate here. There are definite, inarguable advantages to having smaller class sizes, and those arguments have been widely voiced and fiercely defended. While we strive to serve students with more personal attention and a comfortable learning atmosphere, it is important to recognize that not everyone learns optimally in the same way. Some subjects may be more effectively taught in a larger setting. Certain skill sets can only be strengthened by being introduced to a variety of social environments. Nothing is black and white. It is essential that we keep our minds open and consider the good that can come out of larger class sizes, rather than merely writing it off as a categorically substandard and inferior way of serving the children for whom we care so much."

aqui.

por cá a coisa é mais simples...avaliação do sistema e dos resultados...? para quê...? fecham-se as escolas com base no número de alunos... e 'prontos'...!

"It's hard to argue that a high school where half the students drop out is serving the students or the community, and officials nationwide are taking tough measures to tackle the problem, including closing some of the worst-performing schools. New York City recently announced plans to close or phase out 19 schools, including Washington Irving High School, which graduates 48 percent of its students, and Grace Dodge Career and Technical School with a graduation rate of 35 percent."

daqui.

olha que admiração... parece que já 'vi' isto em qualquer lado... e não só na educação...!

"The job of the American public school teacher has never been so thankless. In states across America, cutting teacher salaries and pensions has become the most popular method for fixing budget deficits."

aqui.

isto serve de 'retrato' da auto-avaliação das escolas que se faz por cá [de um modo geral] para 'confirmar' [conferir] aquilo que a ige faz com a avaliação externa... nem mais nem menos...! claro que, com os exames [excluindo] a frequência, não acredito [por enquanto] que tal seja possível, por cá...

"A new investigative report details a second major standardized test cheating scandal in a Georgia school system, implicating 49 educators, including 11 principals. A key reason for the “disgraceful” cheating, investigators said, was pressure to meet No Child Left Behind requirements.

The probe (see here and here) by the Georgia governor’s Special Investigators team into cheating in the Dougherty County School System concluded that “hundreds of school children were harmed by extensive cheating"."

daqui.

nem de propósito... por cá, corta-se na educação... lá, pelos 'states',... corta-se ne educação... similitudes fmi[nianas]... só pode...!

"Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell says he wants to boost the state’s K-12 education funding by $438 million over the next two years. That sounds laudable in these times when education spending has been severely cut — until you see what his newly unveiled proposed budget actually does.
Most of the increase — $342 million of it, to be exact — is earmarked to replenish the teacher retirement system. Nothing wrong with that, but the governor shouldn’t pretend that money is going into the classroom."

 

a ler aqui.

escola pública versus escola privada... sobre a 'charter school' em relatório de 2011, lá pelos 'states'...!

"Why schools do or do not get results is extremely difficult to answer – policies and conditions are notrandomly assigned to schools, and it’s very tough to disentangle all the factors - many unmeasurable - thatmight affect achievement (Betts and Hill, 2006). But the available evidence at this point is sufficient tostart drawing a few highly tentative conclusions about “what works” (in this context, increases test scoresmore quickly than do comparable regular public schools)."

Charter Review 2011

escola a 'tempo inteiro'... que nome e que problemas...! exemplo do que se passa pelos 'states'...

"I can honestly say that it is a task to teach students more math and English between 4 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. My students don't want to be there, like the rest of the school. At 4 p.m., they've "check-out." Our students don't want to learn out of HSPA practice books; they don't have any love for learning using that method -- although it is the only "weapon" given to us by our administration. Truth be told, they're probably not being taught using the best instructional methods during the regular school day. I am a history teacher, so I have the luxury of infusing history, current events, and debating to get my kids interested in English and math, but I will admit, some days are better than others."

aqui.

por lá, pelos states, as coisas andam assim... os professores abandonam cedo a carreira de professor... por cá não tarda que isso também aconteça... será...?

"The implications of this statistic are, of course, that we are losing a huge proportion of our new teachers, creating a “revolving door” of sorts, with teachers constantly leaving the profession and having to be replaced. This is costly, both financially (it is expensive to recruit and train new teachers) and in terms of productivity (we are losing teachers before they reach their peak effectiveness). And this doesn’t even include teachers who stay in the profession but switch schools and/or districts (i.e., teacher mobility)."

aqui.

a desregulação dá nestas coisas... por cá também será...?

"Over the last 10 years, we have deregulated high-speed Internet access in the hope that competition among providers would protect consumers," Crawford wrote. "The result? We now have neither a functioning competitive market for high-speed wired Internet access nor government oversight."

aqui.

financiamento da escola pública... por privados... como organizar esses 'apoios' por forma a racionalizar reformas na educação... sem milagres...!

já aqui tinha dado nota do 'problema' das 'escolas milagre', lá pelos states... vem agora, a talhe de foice, a questão do filantropismo e do modo como se gastam rios de dinheiro, com objectivos 'escondidos', como políticos e sociais,,, na rede de escolas públicas... mas esparsamente...!

"You'd think nearly $4 billion would be enough to have a decisive impact on most things. That's how much philanthropy gives each year to improve and transform K-12 public education.

This support goes to thousands of mission-driven, talented individuals who annually commit themselves to transforming education, particularly at low performing inner-city schools. The money and talent flow into reform-minded local school districts, as well as organizations like Teach for America, charter schools, local community and advocacy groups, and many others.

Together, the philanthropists and reformers have spread into schools across the country.

And that's the problem. They've spread themselves too thinly."

daqui.

por cá a questão não se coloca nestes exactos termos... mas a coisa é para pensar com maturidade...!

para além de coisas como a epis, escolas fénix,... de que se sabe pouco ou nada...