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WHAT IS SCHOOL-TO-WORK OR SCHOOL-TO-CAREERS? A SIMPLIFIED VERSION By Aldo S. Bernardo, PhD
School-To-Work is a vast program with huge financial backing from the federal government devised primarily by Hillary Clinton and other advisors to the current administration. It is a plan to help mobilize "human resources" of the country by training new generations of students to constantly keep career goals in mind as they progress through their school years. This will assure a compliant workforce and a managed economy that will help the U.S. compete in the new world order and global economy. In order to accomplish this our educational system must be "reinvented" so as to allow all schools to participate in this "new paradigm."
THE ROAD GETS LONGER - AN UPDATE ON EDUCATIONAL REFORMS by Aldo S. Bernardo, PhD
...Not only have student scores declined, but schools no longer understand what their role is supposed to be. A November, 1998 international study ranked U.S. education 23rd among industrial nations in such categories as high school dropouts and graduates.
Letter to the Editor by Aldo S. Bernardo, PhD
"...pending shortage of school superintendents proves that current educational reforms are failing."
Dollars to the Classroom Act
by: Phyllis Schlafly
House investigators had discovered that, of the $2.74 billion now flowing to the states through those 31 different grant programs, up to $800 million never made its way into the classroom. Where did those billions go? Probably to fund a redundancy of administrators.
Jonesboro
By Rep. James A. Traficant (D,OH)
"...and now mass murder."
By Aldo S. Bernardo, PhD
"...why the youngsters' rage was directed at the school.
The Gifted And Talented
By The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented
Tenure Wars
By Barbara McKenna
Home Schooling: The Thriving Private Option
By Candace de Russy, PhD
The Repeal of Outcome Based Education/Goals 2000
By National Federation of Republican Women
OBE Chaos In The Classroom
"Many CFT members who are educators have reported on OBE crash courses they've attended. Some excerpts: ..."
Dan Walters: A new skirmish in phonics war
(Published Feb. 14, 1997)
"Two years ago, Californians were stunned to learn that the state's fourth-graders were tied, with those in Louisiana, for dead last in reading skills in nationwide tests."
SCHOOL-TO-WORK: THE COMING COLLISION
"This report is a MUST READ for everyone concerned with school-to-work. The report describes the introduction of school-to-work in our nation, and focuses on how it is impacting classrooms, both in Texas and in other states. The document is heavily foot-noted, making it easy for readers to locate the original sources."
Family
"This is a review of a new monograph from the USDE entitled: New Skills for New Schools: Preparing Teachers in Family Involvement."
EDUCATION REFORM: DUMBING DOWN OR EMASCULATION?
by Aldo S. Bernardo, PhD
"For those of you who are wondering about the title of my talk, I might simplify by pointing out that "dumbing down" is like "limping," while "emasculation" is like not being able to walk at all."
California: "State Board May Return Math Classes to the Basics"
By RICHARD LEE COLVIN, Times Education Writer
"Education: Standards commission, schools chief criticize proposal as encouraging less thinking, more memorization. Proponents say essential skills are needed."
Home School Laws
By Ann Balough, CRM,
"This is what I wrote to the public school when they wanted a schedule of how many hours a week I would spend on each subject."
Block Scheduling and the Regents exams.
ESTEEM
"Then came the Regents exams."
Student Sexual Molestation and Federal Funding
News and Notes
"...a 14-year-old Crystal Lake girl who was sexually molested by a 37-year-old gym teacher at her junior high school."
See Dick Flunk
By Tyce Palmaffy
"... Marilyn Adams, now a visiting scholar at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, says, "You can teach children more efficiently and effectively if you use phonics. If you don’t know how the alphabet works, you can’t learn how to use an alphabetic language. There is no argument.""
Time's Outrageous Distortions
by Charles Richardson
"Regarding TIME's "education issue" of October 27....What I found was a lot of column footage and cute photos, some good lines on phonics vs whole language, but also some sneaky distortions and outrageous sins of omission!"
Tragedy Changes Perspective On Government-Run Schools
By Mike Swickey
"I lost my 16-year-old son in January to a hit and run auto-pedestrian accident after he wandered into a street while hallucinating on LSD. It was a first-time experimentation, a mistake that cost my son his life. One filled with promise. He had purchased the drug earlier in the day in the cafeteria at Putnam City High School."
Math and Learning
by Madge Goldman
"By the 8th grade, our students have fallen to 28th place in the international mathematics rankings."
NEA Launches Campaign for ERA
by Phyllis Schlafly
"...an expensively printed "Curriculum Guide" for use in the schools and elsewhere was distributed to convention delegates and discussed during a workshop held during the NEA convention in Atlanta this year."
Special Interests Control Education
by Robert Novak
"There is doubt whether these meetings are legal, but no question that they have been effective and, until now, a rare Washington secret."
Normed-Reference Tests
by Lil Tuttle
"Don't worry about the test result. If enough kids get the wrong answers, they will take these questions out of the test."
Teacher's Union Battle Plan
By Mike Antonucci
"The National Education Association, the country's largest and most politically powerful teachers' union, has put together a handbook on the "Radical Right" and distributed it to its activists."
NEW YORK EDUCATION UPDATE
by Aldo S. Bernardo, PhD
"Educational reform in New York is in an interesting state of flux."
BLOCK SCHEDULING
By Penney Holtsford
"The parents at Montgomery County High were given the option to vote on whether or not they wanted block scheduling two years ago. Due primarily to apathy, most parents did not do any investigating as to what four block scheduling actually was and only a small number participated in deciding to incorporate block scheduling....As a result, the parents have been in for a shock."
Extra Credit for Doing Poorly
By Robert J. Sternberg
"Imagine an educational system that subverted the goal of education -- one that discouraged students from discovering their strengths and instead encouraged them to get ahead based on their weaknesses."
This is Math?
by Romesh Ratnesar
"The students have spent close to an hour puzzling over the question at hand: "What if everybody here had to shake hands with everyone else? How many handshakes would that take?"
New Ammunition in the Literacy Wars
by Charles Richardson
"Encouraging news at Columbia Teachers College (NYC) is that MA candidates in reading or special-ed are required to take an Orton-Gillingham multi-sensory course."
The Hard Plight of Teachers
by Bill Buckley
"Now the famous Beck decision of 1988 requires an accounting to union members of that money which is spent on bargaining for the interest of the union members (higher wages, shorter hours, greater benefits). That's OK, according to the law. What isn't OK is to use union dues to support a political party or a political agenda."