District Administration - January 2011 - (Page 12)

NewsUpdate Proposed Bill Would Create a Nation of Bilingual Students Many language advocates are hoping to see the elementary and secondary education act promptly picked up by the 112th congress in January—with a new bill included. The excellence and Innovation in language learning act, introduced in July 2010 by Reps. Rush Holt (d-n.J.) and Paul tonko (d-n.y.), proposes $400 million in funding to teach world languages to K12 students. language programs have declined under tight budgets and assessment constraints imposed by no child left Behind, says vivien stewart, senior advisor for education at the asia society. stewart believes the need for language learning, however, has never been more important. “These are where the jobs of the future are going to be,” says stewart, noting that more companies are going global and that there is a greater need from a national defense perspective for graduates with bilingual capabilities. The proposed bill by Reps. Holt and tonko includes three prongs: for the u.s. department of education to coordinate an effort to build up the nation’s language capacity; to develop a state coalition to recruit and retain highly qualified language teachers; and to partner K12 schools with higher education institutions to develop a K16 model for language instruction and assessments. “We need to empower the next generation of americans to shape the globe, not follow it,” said Rep. tonko. Br iefings The bill is currently garnering signatures of support from superintendents and members of congress hoping it will be included and that esea reauthorization will be passed in the upcoming months. e-mail Heather singmaster at Hsingmaster@asiasociety.org for more information. The United States Receives Average Rankings from PISA the Recent RhetoRic uRging the u.S. education system to up the ante to remain competitive in a global economy came to a sobering point with the release of the 2009 Program for international Student Assessment (PiSA) results on Dec. 7, 2010. in 2009, the united States, along with 65 other countries, joined PiSA to assess the performance of 15-year-old students in reading, mathematics and science. the united States remained just average in reading and science, while lagging a bit in mathematics on the global scale. the PiSA results were released by the organization for economic cooperation and Development (oecD), an intergovernmental organization of industrialized countries. the united States appeared strongest in reading assessments, with an average score of 500—close to the oecD average score of 493. only six countries had higher scores. in terms of science, u.S. 15-year-olds scored 502, on par with the oecD average of 501. Where the united States slumped below average was in mathematics literacy, scoring 487, which was measurably lower than the oecD average of 496. Seventeen countries—a sizable amount—had a higher average than the united States in math. “Being average in reading and science—and below average in math—is not nearly good enough in a knowledge economy where scientific and technological literacy is so central to sustaining innovation and international competitiveness,” said u.S. Secretary of education Arne Duncan in a statement following the release of the PiSA results. compared to past PiSA results, however, the united States has shown some improvements across all categories. “the positive news is that the united States has stopped dropping in the international rankings, and there has been some improvement in the mean scores of all three subjects since the last assessment,” says Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for excellent education. Wise also notes improvement among low-income students, 25 percent of whom tested in the top quartile. For more information, visit www.pisa.oecd.org. District Administration 12 January 2011 http://www.pisa.oecd.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - January 2011

District Administration - January 2011
Contents
From the Editor
Letters
News Update
Administrator Profile
District Profile
Conversations
Crisis Response
Going Mobile
Online Edge
Professional Opinion
K12 Guide to Audio/Visual Solutions
Product Focus
What’s the Value in Value-Added?
The Politicization of Bullying
Holding On to Parent Voices
Tough New Issues Refocus Health Education
New Products
Books

District Administration - January 2011