ESL News Article: Schools on Shoestring Budgets

This article by Manny Fernandez of the New York Times discusses what schools in the USA are like after heavy budget cuts. You can read an excerpt here:

For Hutto and the 1,264 other public school districts in Texas, this has been the year of doing without. Texas lawmakers cut public education financing by roughly $5.4 billion to balance the state’s two-year budget during the last legislative session, with the cuts taking effect this school year and next.
The budget reductions that districts large and small have had to make have transformed school life in a host of ways — increasing class sizes, reducing services and supplies and thinning the ranks of teachers, custodians, librarians and others, school administrators said.

The rest of the article is available here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/09/us/for-texas-schools-a-year-of-doing-without.html?_r=1&ref=education

Bright Spots Shine in Online Blended Learning

This article is from Forbes 
A month has passed since the first-ever national Digital Learning Day. Given the excitement generated from teachers and others tuning in to the National Town Hall meeting and given today’s National Leadership Summit on Online Learning up on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. that iNACOL sponsored, I thought it was worth noting some great examples that weren’t highlighted during the day’s festivities. To our friends in the field, these examples are familiar, but they remind us that what is so exciting about technology is the power that it holds to move our education system toward a student-centric model of learning where students can move at their own path and pace to boost student outcomes.

'An Opportunity, Not A Problem', Says School With Only 26 English-Speaking Students

This article by Lucy Sherriff of the Huffington Post is about a school providing a flourishing learning environment despite the obstacle of having many students of different linguistic backgrounds. Here is an excerpt:

A primary school has 26 out of 700 pupils who speak English as their native language but this has not stopped the school from receiving positive feedback from inspections body Ofsted and ranking high in league tables.

The rest of the pupils, who amount to 96.3% of the Bradford school's population, use another language, a Freedom of Information (FOI) request revealed.

According to the FOI response, primary school children in Bradford speak 140 languages, ranging from Polish to Punjabi.

Despite the difficulties the school may face with communication and language barriers, the school ranks in the top 25% in the country based on its exam results. Nearly 80% of Year 6 pupils gaining the required English and maths standards, the Telegraph reported, a figure higher than the national average.

Ashford University to Honor Area Educators

This article is from Market Watch The Wall Street Journal

For the third consecutive year, Ashford University will honor area educators by offering three scholarships and a "Teacher of the Year" award this spring.

"We are honored to be able to once again recognize our area's teachers in these ways," said Dr. Joen Rottler Larson, dean of Ashford University's College of Education, in announcing the 2012 program. "We encourage teachers who want to continue their education to apply for one of our scholarships and, if you have had a teacher who has made a difference in your life or the life of your child, now is the perfect time to show your appreciation by nominating him or her."

MIT launches 'fully automated' online learning courses

This article is from Virtual College

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has revealed it is to launch the world's first ever fully automated online learning courses.

It will be free for students to sign up to and will focus on electronics, with the classes set to begin in March, reports BBC News.

The Boston-based university announced its intention to branch out into e-learning shortly before Christmas and the creation of the online courses will come under the MITx brand.

Anant Agarwal, director of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, will be one of the teachers in charge of the online learning and stated the aim is to continue to make the course material engaging for those who sign up to take part in the scheme.