The Two Million Minutes Blog

Colleges of Education focus too much on how to teach and not enough on the subject matter

“The reforms proposed by the Department of Education offer important remedies for two major problems in teacher education.

The first is that many teacher preparation programs focus too much on how to teach and not enough on the subject matter their graduates are planning to teach. The new requirement that future teachers have a major in a subject area provides a much needed remedy.

The second issue is professional development. Historically, teachers have gotten salary increases by accumulating credits and degrees, which may or may not be germane to the students and subjects they teach. The new requirement that professional development focus on the skills and knowledge that will best serve school and student needs is an urgently needed policy change.

Arthur Levine, president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation and former president and professor of education at Teachers College, Columbia University

Tipping Point...Slipping Point...Point of No Return

I spent two days in Detroit last week, a portion of which was simply driving around once prosperous neighborhoods now dying and decaying.

 

I also visited the Cornerstone Charter School - a school that is educating the next generation of Detroit citizens and doing it very well.

But as I look at the moribund U.S. auto industry, I wonder whether Detroit can ever return to prosperity. The city lived beyond it means for decades, failed to educate its population and relied on two industries for economic vitality - autos and banking.

Global competition and all that that implies has crushed Detroit's economy. I cannot see the economic sector that ever brings that once great city back to life, unless it is the Baseball Industry. The nicest building in Detroit? Tiger Stadium!

How China Subsidized "The American Way Of Life" Over 10 Years

This article is 18 months old, but well worth re-reading.

From James Fallows - The Atlantic Monthly

"Through the quarter-century in which China has been opening to world trade, Chinese leaders have deliberately held down living standards for their own people and propped them up in the United States. This is the real meaning of the vast trade surplus—$1.4 trillion and counting, going up by about $1 billion per day—that the Chinese government has mostly parked in U.S. Treasury notes."

"In effect, every person in the (rich) United States has over the past 10 years or so borrowed about $4,000 from someone in the (poor) People’s Republic of China. Like so many imbalances in economics, this one can’t go on indefinitely, and therefore won’t.

"But the way it ends—suddenly versus gradually, for predictable reasons versus during a panic—will make an enormous difference to the U.S. and Chinese economies over the next few years, to say nothing of bystanders in Europe and elsewhere."

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Immigrant Scientists Create Jobs and Win Nobels - WSJ 10-20-09

Sadly, I think it is too late to be kind to immigrant scientists - most of the ones I know are seriously thinking of leaving the U.S. and taking their talent, technology and treasure back to their home countries.

In an OP/Ed piece in today's WSJ, Ms. Susan Hockfield, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, explains why foreigners are so desirable to America.

Here are excerpts:

"Of the nine people who shared this year's Nobel Prizes in chemistry, physics and medicine, eight are American citizens, a testament to this country's support for pioneering research. But those numbers disguise a more important story. Four of the American winners were born outside of the United States and only came here as graduate or post-doctoral students or as scientists. They came because our system of higher education and advanced research has been a magnet for creative talent."

"Of the 35 young innovators recognized this year by Technology Review magazine for their exceptional new ideas, only six went to high school in the United States.

"In the 1960s, the U.S. had the highest high-school completion rate in the developed world; by 2005, we ranked 21st. In college completion, as recently as 1995 we ranked second. In 2005, we ranked 15th.

"From 1989 to 2003, despite a growing population, the number of American science and engineering Ph.D.s remained constant: an average of 26,600 a year. Over the same period and in the same fields, Ph.D.s awarded in China shot up to 12,000 from just 1,000."

"Today, discovery and innovation increasingly spring from a creative network of the finest talent everywhere across the globe. From new advances in medicine to scientific breakthroughs that spawn new industries and sustainable jobs, the work of science and engineering is being done by individuals who can live almost anywhere."

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NY About to Become Nation's Most Aggressive Ed Reform State

From the October 20 New York Post:

A sweeping proposal to be unveiled today by a leading advocate for charter schools aims to catapult New York to the front of the pack in a nationwide scramble for billions of dollars in federal education funding.

The proposal, by Buffalo Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, would, among other things, strike from law what many education reform advocates agree represents the state's single biggest roadblock to claiming its share of the $4.3 billion "Race to the Top" fund: the cap on charters.

"If, in fact, it became law -- if, in fact, half of it became law -- New York state, by most accounts, would be at the very top of the charts when it comes to education reform," he said.

Full Story

Michigan Governor Lauded as Education Leader, As Student Achievement Plummets

OMG!

Only in American Education...the Alice In Wonderland of the world...

"If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?" - Alice

Stunningly ironic dual announcements:

1-Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm was praised as a National Education Policy Leader of the Year by the National Association of State School Boards of Education on Friday

    - Granholm says she has strengthened Michigan’s education system in numerous ways, including:

• expanding preschool programs and creating a public-private partnership;
• adopting some of the most rigorous K-8 content standards and high school graduation requirements in the nation;
• creating the Michigan Promise scholarship;
• establishing Promise Zones, new public-private partnerships in 10 Michigan communities;
• developing the Michigan College Access Network;
• launching the No Worker Left Behind job-training program in 2007 that provides qualifying participants two years of free tuition up to $10,000 at any Michigan community college, university or other approved training program. This month, enrollment in the program topped 100,000.

 2- NAEP analysis, conducted by Michigan State University, found Michigan student achievement has been stagnant for the last eight years while neighboring Midwest states' reforms are producing better results:

C- In fourth-grade math, Indiana, Wisconsin and Minnesota scored significantly above the national average. Michigan's relative score fell.

D- Michigan fourth-grade and eighth-grade African American' math test scores now rank as the nation's lowest. 

F- Michigan also now holds the tragic distinction of being tied with Wisconsin for the nation's worst white-black achievement gap.

Maybe it's like the Nobel Peace Prize - she is going to TRY to do good things.Even Jennifer looks stunned...

  

   

Teachers Using 2 Million Minutes In Class

More high schools have purchased the Two Million Minutes DVD's than any other customer category. I'm starting to see how wisely the teachers are bringing my film into their classrooms. Here are a two examples (click to enlarge):

 

Teach For America - More than a "5-week boot camp"

Traditional teachers and the Teachers' Unions constantly harp on TFA, saying "how can they learn to be teachers in 5 weeks of summer training when it took me 4 years?"

Setting aside the facts that these TFA Corps members have 40% higher SAT scores than Education Majors, that TFA accepts only the top 10% of the applicants and that the applicants represent the cream of the best colleges in America - I learned one more reason why students of TFA teachers are so successful:

Teach For America has a rigorous, regular, on-going training system that rivals the very best corporate training programs I have experienced.

I was fortunate to be invited to the bi-monthly Memphis TFA Saturday training session on October 17, 2009, and saw first-hand the quality of content and instruction TFA provides its Corps members.

I also learned a few more facts about Teach For America:

1- 63% stay in education after their 2-year commitment - that's 63%!!!

2- More than 360 TFA alums are school leaders

3- 47% of those leaders are in traditional public schools

Memphis is fortunate to have Brad Leon as our TFA executive leader. He also shared some data from a Gallup Poll about THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP:

Memphis School Superintendent Endorses Teach For America

Interesting how growing unemployment, global competition and a President's leadership can start to change the attitudes of government school leaders.

Today, at the kick-off of the bi-monthly TFA Saturday continuing teacher training program, Memphis Superintendent Dr. Kriner Cash not only praised TFA, but committed to bringing the number of new TFA Corps members up from 50 per year to 150!

His comments about TFA teachers and some of his other goals:

1- "we need young, energetic new teachers and lots of them"

2- "TFA teachers can learn from experienced teachers; experienced teachers can learn from TFA"

3- "need to go from Kids At Risk to Kids of Promise"

4- "schools need to educate kids from Cradle to Career"

5- "must break the Over Age for Grade issue" - this is a euphemism for "social promotion" as the norm in Memphis, not promotion based on merit

6- "need more high school AP teachers - particularly in math & science" - regretably even TFA struggles to recruit STEM teachers

7- "I promise to 'loop' great TFA teachers" - this means a teacher would have the same kids for 2 years - a very positive approach because the second year accelerates as the teacher knows the kids' strengths and weaknesses

8- "we need more math and science at the elementary level"

9- "we are teaching Algebraic concepts now in 5th grade"

10 - "today in Memphis, by third grade one-half of students will have failed or are behind. That is unacceptable"

11- "a high school diploma MUST mean College Ready. Today over 40% of high school grads in Memphis are not college ready"

12- "this is the Knowledge Era - ONE CANNOT BE OVER EDUCATED"

I applaud him for his vision. Now, can it be executed?

Federal deficit - worst year on record since World War II

The Obama administration on Friday said the government ran a $1.42 trillion deficit in fiscal year 2009. That made it the worst year on record since World War II.

Tax receipts for the year fell 16.6% overall, while spending soared 18.2% compared to fiscal year 2008. The causes: rising unemployment, the economic slowdown and the extraordinary measures taken by lawmakers to stem the economic meltdown that hit in fall 2008.

Consequently, the annual deficit rose 212% to the record dollar amount of $1.42 trillion, from $455 billion a year earlier.

Read full article

What will be the economic engines in the decades ahead to:

1) get the USA back to a budget surplus

2) allow our children pay down our national debt?