www.lievendekeyschool-isk.nl

Some of Britain’s faith schools are being accused of inadvertently discriminating against children from immigrant or poorer backgrounds, according to head of the Office of the Schools Adjudicator (OSA), Ian Craig.

Faith schools in Britain are allowed greater control in the selection process that determines which children are given places, but in some faith schools this process disadvantages those children that do not come from white, middle class backgrounds. Faith schools are also allowed to give a higher priority to those children raised in the same faith as the school but some faith schools operate a points system whereby, according to Mr. Craig, it is impossible for some children to be selected. read more »

The results for the record exams revealed that more teen boys were failing. While a smaller number of teenage boys were given A*, an average of one out of four teenage girls have gotten an A* in the recent record exams. This was the widest gap in scoring since the exam was first introduced 17 years ago.

Education experts are alarmed by the dropping scores of the boys because this may leave them without the much needed skills which would enable them to reach their goals in life. In English, the course with the biggest grade difference between the genders read more »

Poster by Favianna Rodriguez

California’s recent passage of the California DREAM Act makes it the eleventh state in America to pass similar immigrant education assistance programs. This law extends in-state tuition fees for public higher education institutions to cover undocumented immigrant students. It also gives private educational institutions legal cover if they decide to offer non-state funded scholarships to students without immigration authorization. There is another portion of the California Dream Act that has yet to reach Governor Jerry Brown. This proposed legislation seeks to make parts of state-funded scholarships available for undocumented students. The scholarships will be offered only after students who are citizens and permanent residents had their needs answered. Also, the scholarships will also operate within the constraints of whether there are remaining scholarship funds available. read more »

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Time to look across the pond where I just read about fifteen-year-old Oakland, California student Tyler Thompson whose hobby sets him apart from many of his peers. As an African-American student in the Purple Silk Music Education program, Thompson teaches Oakland-based low income immigrant kids how to play and sing traditional Chinese musical fare.

Thompson told the Associated Press he finds the music “very beautiful” and “ passionate.” Thompson received a standing ovation for performing a centuries old musical theater piece at Washington’s World Children’s Festival last June. According to Thompson, the music has made him curious about the world outside of Oakland, outside of California, and outside of America. read more »

photo © 2008 Tulane Public Relations | more info (via: Wylio)Interesting news out of the Dutch department of higher education, not entirely relevant to what I have been writing about in the past couple of weeks but maybe signaling a change of sorts in the way the Netherlands is treating education as a whole: Halbe Zijlstra, the state secretary of higher education, spoke of a “triangle of research, education, and entrepreneurship” that he sees at the foundation of all future plans when he announced a new program to address absenteeism, procrastination and a tendency among Dutch students to take much too long to finish their undergraduate degrees – or not finish at all. read more »

Source: www.lentiz.nl

I have been getting some questions on the Dutch education system and where exactly the ISK figures in and what some of the practices are. Well, on the graphic on the right, you can see a middle section that stands for ages 12 to 18 and on the very right there is a red bar that reads “Special Secondary Education”. ISK falls into that description and is placed somewhat outside of the system.

The ISK or reception classes for foreign students in secondary education go back to 1970s when migrant workers started arriving from Mediterranean countries and it was noticed that their children had trouble integrating into the school system. So schools began creating separate classroom for foreign students where the main focus was learning the Dutch language. read more »

For some time, the independent consulting agency Sardes, which aims to forge a direct link between research, policy and practice, has organized the exchange of information among municipalities about educational issues. In these networks, experiences can be shared and problems discussed. Also, they are aimed to provide support for schools struggling with the system. In addition to the existing knowledge and support networks for local institutions, there is now a “schakel network” for the exchange of teaching practices.

Participants include teachers, counselors and coordinators of ISK-classes. In this network, they can practice with each other and discuss methods and approaches. Also educational material specially developed for the schakelklas can be exchanged. read more »

photo © 1975 The U.S. National Archives | more info (via: Wylio) Sometimes you wonder why scholars and scientists are getting paid money to provide common sense answers like: Less educated nations are less productive. But since common sense is relative and there are plenty of folks out there begging to differ, all the more power to these studies. After all, we are still in the age of scientific reason, postmodernism has not been able to strip that away. Anyways. A study by the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CBP) published earlier this month argues that the Netherlands is running the risk of losing billions of Euros if it continues to neglect the education of its children. Especially in literacy, the sciences and math, the report says, the Netherlands is starting to fall behind its European competitors. read more »