June 2007
Monthly Archive
14 Jun 2007 07:39 am
Sustained Literacy Efforts by Ontario Schools Yielding Positive Results
| The Education and Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) published school- and board-level results from the 2006-2007 Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) on its Web site, www.eqao.com. These local results confirm that the public education system’s continued focus on developing students’ fundamental reading and writing skills has helped sustain the highest level of achievement on the literacy test to date. In 2002, only 85 out of 720 English-language schools had a student success rate on the OSSLT that was at or above this year’s provincial high of 84%. |
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search for : reading and writing skills
13 Jun 2007 07:33 am
The PC end of the English speaking peoples?
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To anyone beset by bilingualism, in both business and the business of daily life, the Hispanization of America is currently a fact. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t an almost-tangible gut check, say, in reading about the extent to which 2008 American presidential candidates, Republicans and Democrats alike, are gearing up Spanish-speaking drives within their English-speaking campaigns to vie for Spanish-speaking voters. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., is the principled exception, believing, as he has said, that where a bilingual individual gains an advantage, a bilingual country suffers from irreparable fragmentation because the disappearance of a common language leads to the end of a common culture. |
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search for : bilingualism, Spanish-speaking, Spanish-speaking voters, bilingual
12 Jun 2007 07:08 am
Teachers from Mexico coming to Utah to help ESL students
| Several teachers from Mexico are expected to arrive in Utah this August. The teachers will help the state’s growing number of English as a Second Language students and fill teacher shortages. The jobs were created in part by an agreement made by Governor Jon Huntsman during a trip to Mexico two years ago. Officials from the State Office of Education Equity say the teacher shortage in the state makes the hires necessary. They say no Utah teachers are being deprived of jobs. |
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search for : English as a Second Language
11 Jun 2007 07:06 am
Language labels make all the difference to school districts
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It may sound like nothing more than paperwork, but teachers and administrators said last week a process called “reclassification” is vital to students struggling to learn English. To the state, it is a shuffling of numbers in which students are labeled proficient in English —- a different column in the demographics chart from those who cannot read, write or speak English very well. But for students and teachers in the Fallbrook Union Elementary School District, it’s the result of years of hard and frustrating work, both on the part of the child and that of teachers and tutors who have several good reasons to see Latino students improve their grasp of English, officials said. |
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search for : learn English
10 Jun 2007 07:57 am
Hard work, happy students
| Four years ago, Kristina Hedberg was head teacher in the fledgling English as a Second Language program at Birch Hill Elementary School in Nashua. At the time, Cindy McKenna was working at the school as a paraprofessional in the special-education program. Hedberg needed an assistant, and administrators believed McKenna would work well with the students who would enter the new program.
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search for : English as a Second Language
09 Jun 2007 08:37 am
N.M. senators oppose English language bill
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New Mexico’s two senators voted against an amendment to an immigration bill declaring English the national language of the U.S. government. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., was the only Republican voting against the measure by Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla. Domenici called the measure “overreaching,” but senators voted 64-33 to approve it late Wednesday. Domenici and Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., instead voted for a competing amendment by Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., which acknowledged that English is the nation’s “common language.” That amendment also passed, which means the two opposing measures will have to be hammered out in a conference committee. |
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search for : English the national language
08 Jun 2007 07:12 am
Mixed reviews for Utah students
| Utah’s achievement gap appears to be narrowing in some areas, but not in others, since No Child Left Behind took effect in 2002. A report issued Tuesday by the Center on Education Policy shows the gap between low-income and more well-off students narrowed in reading and math. Reading gaps between Hispanics and whites also narrowed in elementary, middle and high school grades examined. But when you look at Utah’s performance based on average test scores — called effect size — rather than the percent of students scoring as proficient, the gap between Hispanics and whites actually widened in reading across all grades analyzed. |
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search for : Hispanics
07 Jun 2007 05:24 am
Excellence in Education awards grants for education projects
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Literacy for All with Read at Home (RAH) Family Literacy Packs; Parkside Elementary School; Rebecca Sukanen, ESL teacher; will reach ESL students representing five countries. Funding will be used to purchase bags, books, journals, math tools, movies and other materials that reinforce the varied themes of the literacy packs. (Funds for this project were made available through a donation from the Monroe Kiwanis Club.) |
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search for : ESL teacher, ESL student
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