Something for highered and something for K12 April 7 2014



• I will say this should count for all colleges in general:

“Community Colleges Can Foster Student Success by Supporting Their Adjuncts”

“When community colleges fail to support the part-time faculty members who teach more than half of the classes offered at such institutions, they are fostering a culture that creates a barrier to student success, according to a new report (click here to read report).”

“Part-time faculty members, themselves marginalized on campuses, are more likely to teach struggling students, says the report, which was produced by the Center for Community College Student Engagement, at the University of Texas at Austin. And that dynamic is most pronounced in developmental (or remedial) courses, where more than three-quarters of faculty members are adjuncts.”

“"Too often, students’ education experiences are contingent on the employment status of the faculty members they happen to encounter," reads the report, "Contingent Commitments: Bringing Part-Time Faculty Into Focus." It is being released here today during the American Association of Community Colleges’ annual convention.”

Read it all here: http://chronicle.com/article/Community-Colleges-Can-Foster/145793/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

• In this next article, I am glad the author pointed out something that is not often mentioned in the overall K12 education conversation: ‘decent salary is important for educators however, a high level of societal respect is probably more important’. After all, they are serving the community:

“Teacher Quality Is a New National-Security Issue”

“It's more than just traditional classroom management and preparing to be effective in classrooms with a mix of students in language, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and learning styles. Today, transformational technologies are bombarding classrooms faster than schools of education can absorb and evaluate them. Then there is the challenging mix of new, uncertain teacher-evaluation systems, high-stakes tests, and the Common Core State Standards and related assessments, all of which will have a commanding influence in today's classrooms and teaching practice.”

“One way to reframe the complex preparation conversation is to view public education as a national-security issue.”

“In countries such as Finland and Singapore, teaching’s allure builds from an amalgam of substantial incentives, from college scholarships to promises of respectable salaries. And, coincidentally, these benefits come with a certain level of social and professional respect that trumps most other occupations.”

Read the whole thing here: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2014/04/02/27sims.h33.html?cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS2

We have a lot of work to do, but until we truly look at this in the best interest of students overall, we will continue to struggle with this issue.

Dr Flavius A B Akerele III

The ETeam