Education Blog October Archive

DeKalb County's Anti-Truancy Program

10/25/08 20:31

In DeKalb County Georgia, parents are faced with one of the most aggressive anti-truancy programs, where there is a possibility being behind bars if proven guilty.

DeKalb's truancy program starts if a child has 10 or more truancy incident, their parents are referred to a program to make sure their children get to class. If they fail, the next things is to face a judge and charged with education neglect. More details on the link below.

Link: Parents of truant kids can face jail time - CNN.com

New Education Curriculum

Kathy Cox - Georgia's State Superintendent of Schools, imposed a different high school curriculum without properly reviewing it with parents and teachers. She wants to replace the previous structure which is Algebra I And II, Geometry, Trigonometry, and Calculus to Math1, Math2 and Math3.

Under the new proposition, freshmen to juniors will now only have two range of math abilities, basic math1 and advance math1 for each level.

Link: Sonny Perdue Must Stop Kathy Cox

Fixing Education

Education these day are gradually declining because of many reasons like poverty, cultural aspect, media, or the students itself.

According to some, the key to fixing these problems is selecting good and effective educators, parent guidance and government support.

But the real problem is only few people with good technical skills (like math and science) are choosing to pursue a their respectively fields instead of teaching because of financial reasons.

Link: Uncertain Principles: Fixing Science Education

Closing Schools in Oakland

Another schoolyear has come once again and it's that time of the year when educational districts decide if they will rehabilitate or close down sub-performing schools in the district.

By "sub-performing", I mean schools whose enrollment rate gets lower every single year. Now the main issue here is how to determine if a school is fit for rehabilitation or total closure. Let us learn from the story of Oakland district in California.

Link: Oakland schools blog: Another year, another round of school closures - Inside Bay Area