Great Moments in 21st Century Education:
Now the Brits are gettting into the act of stupifying the next generation from the London Telegraph

Shakespeare test without the Bard

"Exam officials are to rewrite a key Shakespeare test for 14-year-olds after admitting that it was possible to pass the paper without any knowledge of the Bard.

Ken Boston, the chief executive of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, will launch a consultation this autumn on the content and structure of the paper.

The measures follow a row earlier this year when the paper was split into two parts. One section, worth 18 marks, asked questions about scenes from a Shakespeare play. The other section, worth 20 marks, assessed pupils' writing skills and demanded little or no knowledge of the text.

Pupils who had studied Macbeth were asked to write a piece taking a "lighthearted look at fictional villains".

Another question asked: "In Twelfth Night, what the characters wear and how they look affects how other characters react to them. How important is what you wear? Write your views as if contributing to a piece in a teenage magazine."

A third asked: "In Henry V, Henry gives a number of speeches to encourage his troops. Imagine you are the captain of a sports team facing an important match and you want to speak to everyone to persuade them to do their best. Write your speech."

Teachers accused the QCA of "ludicrous dumbing down" and said bright pupils would actually lose marks. In previous years, the paper was dedicated to writing essays based on scenes from a chosen play.

Mr Boston admitted last week that the test would be rewritten for 2005. 'There was disquiet about having a writing task that did not depend upon knowledge of the play,' he said."

Sep Board Meeting: Shouldn't this Monday be called Picnic Day or Last Swim Day or Go Fishin' One More Time Day instead of Labor Day since most people have the day off? Well anyway have a nice weekend. The September Board Meeting will be this Tuesday at 7:30 preceded by the Education- Co-Curriculum committee meeting at 7:00 (at least it is supposed to be). The meetings are still held in the old HS now MS and there are usually directions posted. As always your pocketbook and your child education is in extreme jeopardy, so don't say you weren't warned.

E-learning Everywhere : "Online courses are spreading through K-12 education amidst questions about cost, effectiveness and accountability"

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"E-learning brings creative opportunities amidst the unknown. 'This is an experiment in progress,' says Roberts, formerly the technology guru at the U.S. Department of Education. "It's evolving." More:

Flunking Out Bush's pet education bill is in serious trouble.: An article in Slate concerning the No Child Left Behind Law. The author contention is that 2 out of 3 schools in CA couldn't make the state standard's something must be wrong with the law. Not a single line in the article considered that just maybe that the NCLB has revealed that schools need to be improved. There were some good points on how the law could be enhanced but lets not shoot the messenger just yet. ARTICLE

The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn . A new book by Diane Ravitch that has been getting good reviews

"The gist of the book is that rightwing and leftwing absolutists are destroying American education by boiling all of the flavor and marrow out of our textbooks. The most pernicious aspect of the new educational regime is that children should never be exposed to an idea or even a fact that is shocking or unpleasant. Maybe this sounds nice to some, but minds expand by building muscle and muscle is built only when we encounter resistance. So children cannot read stories of life by the sea because it might unacceptably upset urban or Midwestern kids who do not live by the sea. A tale about a rotting stump in the forest attracting all sorts of wildlife was canned--unanimously--by one of the censor committees because “youngsters who have grown up in a housing project may be distracted by similarities to their own living conditions. An emotional response may be triggered.” A story about a heroic young blind man climb Mt. McKinley is cut from the reading list because it suggests that “normal” blind men (er, unsighted persons?) are neither heroic nor are they hikers, and so on. "


Imagine the horror of a book that would trigger an "emotional response".

If you have to visit the school: Try to remember that no student aboves 4th grade will admit actually having parents but if you must go try not to be seen with any of the following in combination.

A nose ring and bifocals

Spiked hair and bald spots

A pierced tongue and dentures

Miniskirts and support hose

Ankle bracelets and corn pads

Speedos and cellulite

A bellybutton ring and a gallbladder surgery scar

Unbuttoned disco shirts and a heart monitor

Midriff shirts and a midriff bulge

Bikinis and liver spots

Short shorts and varicose veins

In-line skates and a walker

Generation Rap What happens when when one generation attempts to explain the slang of another. If you want your child to not use any of the phrases in the article the best way is to start using them yourself.

Reading Eagle Article: Dumped furniture raises ire of Brandywine official
A school board member believes the district should have considered donating or selling items that are being discarded.

By Robin Huiras
Reading Eagle
A few tons of furniture deemed unsuitable for Brandywine Heights classrooms were thrown into large trash bins outside the middle school to be hauled away.
But one school board member said much of the furniture, including student desks, chairs, equipment from art rooms and old lockers, could have been reused.

Board member Michael Sacks wondered why options such as donating the furniture or selling it were not considered.

“It boggles my mind that conservation wasn't a factor here,” Sacks said at a school board meeting Monday night.

Sacks said Tuesday that several residents and teachers asked him about the discarded furniture.

“It's one thing to throw out the tax dollars and another to pay to have the people's tax dollars taken away,” he said.

Sacks estimated that 60 percent of the items could have been salvaged.

“We already have a heavy tax burden on the taxpayer,” he said. “Even if we gave it (the furniture) back to the community, it's their tax dollars. Why not give it back to them?”

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Steven E. Fischer, district business manager, said the items were unwanted leftovers from a major school cleaning. The furniture filled three large trash bins and will cost an estimated $700 to have hauled away.

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School Board President Geoffrey L. Chase said the board's property committee considered other options, but that the discarded items had little value and attempting to sell them would not have been worth the effort.

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Contact reporter Robin Huiras at 610-371-5037 or rhuiras@readingeagle.com. MORE



At Monday's committee meeting the cost was estimated to dispose of the furniture at between $1,000 to $2,000 ($169 per dumpster and $50 per ton). Must have had time to do a better estimate. Mr. Chase was quoted as saying the disposal was discussed and approved at property meetings. Exactly which meeting was this? They take minutes so it should be on the record. How much would a big sign saying FREE STUFF cost. There are a lot of people that would take possession of a battleship on a mountaintop if it had a FREE sign on it. Some of the older wooden furniture could have been chopped up and used for firewood this winter. Not like people can afford utility bills after paying the highest property taxes in the county.

The Reading Eagle link is usually good for one day. They want people to pay money to read their archived articles. Trying to make money on the internet, what a strange concept.

August COW Meeting: It should be considered unusual punishment for the facility that had to show up for a long meeting after what must have been a very hectic first day of school.

There were a few on opening glitches but nothing major. Mr. Gilly did dispel a few of the rumors going around 1) Soccer field is the right size. 2) The holes for the volleyball poles are the right size just different and can easily be rectified with an adaptor. 3) No new sinkhole on any of the playing fields. 4) No Vandalism except for the two trees damaged earlier that have been replaced.

The lighting at the High School will be reduced now that the security system has been tested and people were trained how to use the system.

Your Tax Dollars At Work: Four dumpsters of desk, chairs, lockers and various other usable school furniture was sent to the local dump. At the very least the furniture should have been given to some of the school clubs that could have sold it to raise needed funds. Bad enough we now have the highest tax rates in the county to buy new stuff but now we are paying funds that could have been used for school supplies to dispose of old stuff. At the last board meeting the administration discussed adding an environmental science course, seems like the administration should be the first in line for the course. Maybe they could learn about reduce, reuse and recycle.

HIGH SCHOOL SCHEDULE - Doors open at 7:20 AM classes, first period class starts at 7:30 AM. Remember home room is after first period. If you are late more then twice you lose your parking permit and other nasty things will happen to you.

Committee Of The Whole Meeting - There will be a COW meeting on Monday August 25 at 7:00 PM. If you have any problems or concerns from scheduling issues to bus routes this is the meeting you need to attend. This meeting is for the board to discuss new and outstanding business before voting at the monthly board meeting the following Monday.

Down For Maintance: This site hosting service will be down for maintenance on Thursday between 10:00 PM and 2:00 AM

Scores on math lagging in Berks
"Test results of 11th-graders in seven districts are below the state average.
By Kori Walter
Reading Eagle
Eleventh-graders in more than one-third of Berks County's public high schools scored at lower levels than the state average on standardized math tests in 2002-2003, according to data the state Department of Education released Tuesday.
On the math test, 49.1 percent of Pennsylvania 11th-graders scored at proficient or advanced levels on the 2002-2003 Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests the department reported."
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"Test scores for reading in Berks matched up better with the rest of the state's 11th-graders in 2002-03, according to the department.

Just two high schools, Reading and Tulpehocken, failed to meet the state average in that category.

Statewide, 59.2 percent of students scored at proficient or advanced levels on the 11th-grade reading test, according to education officials.

Just 25.8 percent of Reading 11th-graders and 57.8 percent of juniors at Tulpehocken scored in the proficient and advanced ranges.

Reading and Tulpehocken also were the only districts in which eleventh-graders did not meet the statewide average on reading and math scores.

Brandywine Heights and Wyomissing posted the best percentages of students scoring at the highest levels. Each district had 75.7 percent of their juniors in the proficient and advanced categories." MORE

Seems the author of this article must have attended one of the failing math schools. If less then one-half are doing better then average then Berks schools are not lagging behind the rest of the state as the headline states, unless this is some mythical place where every kid is above average. Oh' well this is summer and no time to be quibbling about statistics. Congratulations to the facility and students of Brandywine for scoring the highest in the county on the reading portion of the test.

If you have ever questioned your child's intellgence. Check out a really dumb kid Video

Business Use Games to enhance corporate training: "The greatest challenge for any learning system is not the impartation of knowledge, but the use of it to change human attitudes and behaviour. That's why web-based e-learning has been criticised in this column for lacking the power to help people modify their work habits, by showing them one-on-one how to put what is learned into practice." MORE

Public education like corporate training may be mandatory but learning is still very voluntary.

Business Use Games to enhance corporate training: "The greatest challenge for any learning system is not the impartation of knowledge, but the use of it to change human attitudes and behaviour. That's why web-based e-learning has been criticised in this column for lacking the power to help people modify their work habits, by showing them one-on-one how to put what is learned into practice." MORE

Public education like corporate training may be mandatory but learning is still very voluntary.