Blogs | Partnership for Learning

		Subscribe to E-News
RSS Feeds Get the latest information through RSS Feeds. Blog Articles News College & Work Readiness What is RSS? Most Recent Resources Ladies and Gentleman, the Washington Class of 2008 Added: 6 weeks 5 days ago Article April Update Added: 12 weeks 3 days ago Article Creating a College-Going Culture Added: 19 weeks 3 days ago Article Teaching Science Teachers to be Leaders Added: 24 weeks 1 day ago Article Senate Hearing to Delay Reading as a Requirement for the K-12 Diploma to be Held on Monday Added: 26 weeks 1 day ago Article Find More Resources >>	Blogs Just a bit of semi-shameless self-promotion... By maureen on 17 Jul \| 0 comments We're in the news! Check out today's Spokesman Review for a great article on the State Board's CORE 24 decision, the Partnership's support of the Board's work and a few delicious quotes from your's truly. I guarantee your Thursday will be redeemed. Read more... Difficult Discussions: Race-ing to Conclusions By maureen on 16 Jul \| 0 comments For such a diverse nation, we certainly have a hard time talking about race. Unfortunately, we have an even harder time talking about it in our schools (which, let’s face it, weren’t exactly race-neutral 50 years ago). Hence, the mild shock I felt when I saw the article “Why do Asian students generally get higher marks than Latinos?” in this morning’s Los Angeles Times. Provocative title? Definitely. Haven’t all of us wondered in the dark corners of our colorblind, politically-correct minds the same question? I’m not asking you to confess and be absolved, if that’s what you’re thinking—but reporter Hector Becerra is. Becerra was able to gather eight students from Lincoln High School in Los Angeles’ Eastside to talk about this touchy subject. Read more... Topics: Students \| Poverty \| National Debates \| Minority Students \| Achievement Gap \| Our Students Compete in a Different Type of Olympics… By maureen on 15 Jul \| 0 comments And it’s called “The Job Market.” Strong American School’s “Ed in ‘08” campaign continues to chug forward and demand that education be placed at the heart of the 2008 election. Check out the latest television ad from their campaign below (and the voice of Jamie Lee Curtis!). Sort casts the State Board’s CORE 24 decision in a new light, if you ask me. Read more... Making the Point: CORE 24 Matters By maureen on 15 Jul \| 2 comments I left yesterday’s State Board of Education Meaningful High School Diploma work session slightly disheartened—and it wasn’t what I ate for lunch. Despite initially strong support for the Board’s CORE 24 graduation requirement proposal, the Board finally faced criticism from several educator groups who cautioned that the Board was moving too fast in their work and that the system isn't ready for the demands of increased science, math and arts requirements. They also noted the shortage of necessary high school counselors to help students navigate the increased number of required credits. Read more... Topics: K-12 Education Reform \| College & Work Readiness \| Achievement Gap \| Fluency Friday By maureen on 11 Jul \| 0 comments After years of crusades from parents, students and policymakers, the importance of foreign language instruction is finally starting to sink in. Articles in both today’s Seattle Times and USA Today, extol programs that target students' multi-lingual capacity from an early age. Read more... Pamelia Valentine: A Renaissance for our School By maureen on 09 Jul \| 0 comments Our school, like many others struggles to help kids learn and even more than that- to help kids WANT to learn. The Junior High years are fraught with tension. For many students in this rural area it is a new school, a new set of expectations and the first time they have been out of their own tight little communities and thrown into a place with so many other kids. The hormones are beginning to rage and soon their world begins to unravel. Who can they trust? Who can they turn to? How can they navigate these rough new waters? In this new herd mentality some students begin to become invisible- or so they think. Read more... Topics: Teachers \| Students \| Rural Schools \| Fun In The Classroom \| Yakkin’ about Yakima By maureen on 08 Jul \| 0 comments What would we ed bloggers do without good-spirited comment wars? It's really the dessert following the fruit of our labors. And wouldn’t you know that Karin Chenoweth’s Seattle P-I article, which we posted on last week, has caused quite a stir over at Ed Sector’s Eduwonk? Many good points have been made about the article’s depiction of Granger High School’s work narrowing the achievement gap—Chenoweth neglected to mention specifically the success of Navigation 101 at the school, possibly implied a “one-size-fits-all” model for school turnaround—and Chenoweth even responded to several of the comments personally (she only had 900 words for crying out loud!). I particularly liked this slice of Chenoweth's rebuttal: Read more... Renton’s done it again! By maureen on 07 Jul \| 0 comments A while back, we posted about the lengths the Renton School District has gone to in order to combat a shortage of math teachers. This week, we were pleased to see the district (under the direction of PFL-adored Supt. Mary Alice Heuschel and Curriculum Director Jane Goetze) tackling the challenges of science instruction in the same manner. Read more... Am I smarter than an Indian 10th grader? Answer Unclear… By maureen on 02 Jul \| 0 comments It’s quiz day at Partnership for Learning and, no, we didn’t break out a stack of bawdy Cosmos to compare “kissing styles.” We finally got around to taking the “Third World Challenge” quizzes from the Two Million Minutes website. The quizzes are shortened and simplified versions of the test 10th graders in India must pass to gain admittance to 11th grade—and they cover everything. Read more... Gen Y Talks Ed By maureen on 01 Jul \| 1 comment A couple of weeks ago, I discovered an ed blog that has become a bit of a fascination for me. Written by an as yet anonymous 21 year-old member of Generation Y (or the Millennials, pick your poison), Urban Angle takes cold, hard look at education reform from the standpoint of an individual just a few years out of the system. Well-informed and eloquent, the author seeks to situate the effects of current ed policy in terms of what has and what hasn’t worked in urban schools. On the importance of leadership in schools: Read more... Topics: Students \| K-12 Education Reform \| 12 3 4 5 6 7 8 9…next ›last »	Recent News Teachers Make Case for National Board Posted on 18 Jul Education Week View this article >> Washington board weighs stiffer graduation standards Posted on 17 Jul Spokesman Review View this article >> Opposing view: Stop scapegoating teachers Posted on 17 Jul USA Today View this article >> Find More News >> Tag Cloud Achievement Gap College & Work Readiness Graduation Rates Legislature Math Math Curriculum Science Standardized Tests Students Teachers Washington WASL more tags What is a Tag Cloud?