If it isn’t discrimination, then it’s certainly opportunism:
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights has launched an investigation into allegations that the San Mateo Union High School District is discriminating against Chinese students.
The civil rights complaint comes as at least a dozen Chinese students say they have been transferred from top-performing high schools to low-performing ones. The district says the students were transferred because they don’t reside with their parents — who, in many cases, live in China — and instead live in homes owned by relatives.
Private tutor Marian Kong filed a complaint on behalf of two students who she said fell victim to the district’s bias. Both were accepted to attend high-performing, Asian-majority Mills High School last fall, and lived with guardians whose addresses fell within zoning boundaries for the school. But just days later, they were transferred to lower-performing Capuchino High for failing to show proof of residency for Mills.
After what I put my students through last term, I’m sure they would love to see me sit for some exams. They would be more than happy to preside over the testing and ensure I don’t try to cheat from the teacher sitting next to me:
The Indonesian Government’s been forced to defend its attempt to test the country’s one-million teachers, after the first run was plagued with problems and allegations of corruption.
In an attempt to improve education, Indonesia has begun testing the performance of teachers, instead of students.
This week it launched the first online exam to assess the abilities of those who are educating the country’s children.
One million teachers will be tested in 3,500 locations across 33 provinces.
But the head of the Education Ministry admits that on the first day, only 10 per cent of the teachers who attempted were able to log on and sit the test.
An advertising campaign from a New Zealand company telling customers to swap their “ginger children” for ginger beer has been criticised on social media.
A media release from Hakanoa Handmade Ginger Beer yesterday gave “unfortunate” parents with red-haired children the opportunity to exchange them for ginger beer, starting today and running until the end of August.
“Parents with ginger spawn will be able to bring them into The Little Grocer on Richmond Road, Grey Lynn, where they will be able to swap them for a six-pack of ginger beer.”
However, people on the company’s Facebook page said the campaign was offensive.
Ross Ronald said: “Awful – who’s next? Kids with glasses? You’ve totally missed the point and have maybe created the world’s most un-inclusive ad campaign. Humour is best left to those who have some.”
“This is a disgusting but of bullying – towards children – and I hope you have some human rights complaints coming your way,” said William Robertson.
Rayville Elementary School in Louisiana received a failing grade this year, based on the state’s School Performance Scores. Under the state’s Public School Choice policy, eligible students in schools flagged as failing and in need of certain levels of improvement can transfer to an “academically acceptable school.”
But an interesting and controversial issue has arisen that may actually challenge equal opportunity intended by the law. In a letter to parents dated July 25, Rayville Elementary school officials inform families of the school’s “F” grade and list two other institutions — with letter grades C- and B — that the parents can choose to transfer their children to. But there’s a disclaimer:
It must be hard to be an athlete’s parent. On one hand, you are supportive no matter what the result is, on the other, you naturally want your child to give a good account of themself.
I prefer enjoying my child’s development away from the cameras.
Research by the charity the National Children’s Bureau showed that under-15s are now less likely to enjoy outdoor play than in previous generations.
It was revealed that almost half of parents admitted that “fear of strangers” prevented them allowing sons or daughters from playing outside.
More than 46 per cent cited traffic concerns and a third were afraid that children would trip or get hurt while playing in parks, streets and playgrounds, figures showed.
The NCB – which published the research to coincide with its national Playday 2012 campaign – insisted that playing outside “should be a normal everyday event for all children”.
RICKY Gervais is bypassing the TV networks for his new series, Learn English with Ricky Gervais.
The comedian announced on his website that he had just finished editing the pilot for the show, which will be distributed on the web.
He gave few details about the show besides saying he might charge viewers a small fee to cover production costs and that it would be subtitled into as many languages as possible.
The first episode, he said, would be free.
“I’m thinking of making a clean version of the pilot available for download so people can put their own subtitles on it and repost it,” Gervais wrote on his blog. “You can do a Klingon version if you want.”
Web series are swiftly gaining in popularity. Last month Jerry Seinfeld premiered Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, in which he drives around town in vintage cars, yaks about nothing in particular with fellow comics, then stops off for a coffee.
Gervais is also working on a comedy series for British TV, titled Derek, in which he plays a middle-aged assistant in a retirement home.
I would never have predicted that former basketballer Dennis Rodman would even contemplate becoming a writer of children’s books:
What do Katie Couric, Gloria Estefan, Jamie Lee Curits and Dennis Rodman all have in common? If you said “They’ve all been photographed in a wedding dress!” … you’re correct. But we also would have accepted … they have all written children’s books.
That’s right … the NBA Hall of Famer and occasional crossdresser is releasing his own book for kids called “Dennis The Wild Bull” … set to be released sometime later this year.
Dennis and his people are tight-lipped about the premise, but the book’s website says it will “convey good lessons to children based on Dennis’ own experiences as a world class athlete while overcoming obstacles as a child.”
Dennis recently reconnected with his father … and we’re told he’s been re-motivated to strengthen his relationship with his own children … and believes this book will help the process.
Bedtime Math (TM!) was created by Laura Overdeck, an astrophysics graduate and mother of three in New Jersey who turned a fun activity with her kids into a website of the same name. Overdeck told NPR’s Ashely Milne-Tyte that Bedtime Math — or maybe bedtime math — started when her oldest child was two years old. Every night, while tucking her in, Overdeck would ask her a math problem. Her daughter loved it so much, they began doing it every night. More kids came along and the challenge of creating one problem that would keep three different kids of three different ages engaged became ever greater.
Overdeck worked it out. Her friends got interested. The website was born. And now, Bedtime Math is a thing (or at least I think it is. I keep hearing about it this summer.)
In February, Overdeck launched her website, where she posts daily problems and puzzles for kids of different ages. More than 5,000 people subscribe to her daily emails. They’re pretty cute and work nicely as short bedtime stories, too.
At a time when girls are outscoring boys in most subject it is surprising to me that boys still maintain the edge in math. A recent study explains why:
From an early age, boys tend to take a more impulsive approach to math problems in the classroom, which might help them get ahead of girls in the long-run, suggests the latest study to touch on the gender gap in math.
The research claims girls may tend to favor a slow and accurate approach — often computing an answer by counting — while boys may take a faster, but more error-prone tack, calling out an answer from memory. The difference in strategies seems to benefit girls early in elementary school but swings in favor of boys by middle school.
“In our study, we found that boys were more likely to call out answers than girls, even though they were less accurate early in school,” Drew Bailey, who led the study, said in a statement. “Over time, though, this practice at remembering answers may have allowed boys to surpass girls in accuracy.”
The University of Missouri study followed 300 students from first grade to sixth grade. During those first two years, the boys called out more answers in class than the girls but also had more wrong answers. Girls were more often right, but answered fewer questions and responded more slowly, according to the university. By sixth grade, the boys were still answering more problems than the girls and were also getting more correct.
Topical Teaching 