Initial Teacher Education is Important

Jane Gaskell, Guest Commentator for the Educational Policy Institute

There is a good deal of evidence that teacher effectiveness is a strong determinant of student achievement (Darling Hammond, 1999; National Academy of Education, 2009).  And teachers can learn to be effective; the learning takes place before they are certified to enter the classroom and as they progress through a career of teaching.  Since teachers have full responsibility for a class of students or a set of courses as soon as they are hired, continuing to learn on the job, while important, cannot substitute for ensuring all teachers are well prepared in the basic elements of teaching and learning when they first enter the classroom.  Teacher education is a continuum, and needs to be considered as a whole rather than an either/or proposition.

So strong, relevant initial teacher education is a pivotal element in a well functioning educational system.  It screens, it prepares, and it provides tools and networks that last through a career.  My colleague Ben Levin’s provocative dismissal of the importance of initial teacher education reflects some long – standing prejudices, but little awareness READ MORE...

Canada has the highest rate of college completion among its peer countries. Canada has consistently performed at the top level on college completion. All competitor countries except Belgium, Finland, and Japan have college completion rates that are more than 10 percentage points lower than Canada’s.
Source: The Conference Board of Canada

THE NEWS

Budget Miscalculation Puts Strain on Schools
Justine Hunter, Toronto Globe and Mail
Higher-than-expected enrolment in B.C. public schools this year has blown a $32-million hole in the province's education resources. In its September budget, B.C. expected the number of students to drop by 7,000 compared with the previous school year. Late last month, a tally of students in the classrooms showed the projections were off: Total enrolment has declined by just 3,500 students.

Hovercraft Contest Boost Engineering Skills
Winnipeg Sun
There was a buzz in the Engineering and Information Technology Complex atrium at the University of Manitoba yesterday. More than 100 students from high schools across Manitoba tried their engineering hand in a radio-controlled hovercraft competition put on by the Canadian Manufactures and Exporters group. The aim of the event, which is a part of the Advanced Manufacturing Discovery Program, was to help build young mechanical minds for future success in industry.

Federal Funding Ends Soon for Canadian Council on Learning
Canada.com
The Canadian Council on Learning faces an uncertain future after being informed by the federal government that its funding will not be renewed beyond March. The independent and non-profit agency responsible for monitoring and reporting on all aspects of learning in Canada will try and survive on its own, its CEO and president vowed last Friday.

A Decade in Education: What Are The Lessons?
Paul W. Bennett, Halifax Chronicle Herald
Although concern over the state of education consistently ranks high in Atlantic Canadian opinion polls, especially among the young adult (19 to 34) age group, it still remains a blind-spot on the larger public agenda. In spite of this challenge, here are choices for the top 10 "tipping-point" events over the past 10 years that impacted education, viewed from an Atlantic Canadian perspective.

Full-Day Kindergarten May Become All-Year Affair
Kate Hammer, Toronto Globe and Mail
All-day school for kindergarten-aged children will probably be an all-year affair in some of the nearly 600 schools across Ontario selected to launch the popular new program next fall. In announcing the final list of schools where about 35,000 kindergarten students will be among the first in the province to spend full days in the classroom, Ontario's Ministry of Education called on boards to help families out by extending child-care services at school throughout the calendar year.

Teachers Entitled to Paid Days Off in Four Districts
Janet Steffenhagen, Vancouver Sun
School districts that were found to have violated B.C. law about class size and composition in 2006-07 and 2007-08 have been ordered to compensate teachers by giving them paid days off. In a ruling released Monday, arbitrator James Dorsey said teachers deserve compensation because they carried the burden when districts ignored the rules in creating classes with more than 30 students and/or more than three pupils with special needs.

Laid Off Adults, Teens Compete for Education
Winnipeg Sun
Ontario’s graduating high school students are facing stiffer competition for high-demand, high-employment college and university programs as workers who lost their jobs in the recession head back to school and claim the country’s coveted post-secondary education spots.
 
Work-Study Survey Open for College, University Students
Canada Views
The government of Nova Scotia is asking college and university students about their work and study habits and how they pay for their education. The Department of Education, in partnership with the Canada Student Loans Program, is conducting an online survey to better understand how undergraduate students finance their education and how it affects their college or university experience.

Record Number of Visits to SaskJobs.ca
Regina Leader-Post
Interest in the province's job-matching website peaked in 2009, with more than 6.9 million visitors browsing 102,000 jobs posted over the course of the year, the government said Thursday. That exceeds the 2008 SaskJobs.ca record of 4.3 million visits. The success of the site suggests Saskatchewan has fared relatively well in what has been a turbulent economic year worldwide, said Rob Norris, minister of advanced education, employment and labour.

Google Can Save U of A $2M
Elise Stolte, Edmonton Journal
The University of Alberta plans to outsource e-mail to Google, setting a precedent other major Canadian universities are expected to watch closely. The move would upgrade service and save $2 million a year, but privacy is a key concern, says Jonathan Schaeffer, the man behind the project. "Our intellectual assets are enormous," said the vice-provost of information technology. "Everyone in Canada knows we're doing it and everyone in Canada is watching."

University Applications 'Surging’
Sean Coughlan, BBC News
In the UK, universities are facing a huge surge in applications for places, says the head of one of them with increases of up to 38% reported. Last summer saw tens of thousands of applicants being turned away - and financial pressures on universities could make this year even tougher.

North Coast Targets Foreign Student Market
ABC News Australia
North coast educational institutions and tourist bodies plan to market the region as a safe place to study to attract overseas students. Northern Rivers Tourism's Russell Mills says education tourism is a lucrative market, but has been hurt by recent attacks on foreign students in big cities. He says the north coast's positive profile could work to attract foreign students.

American Colleges Scramble to Contact Students and Professors in Haiti
Karin Fischer and Andrea Fuller, Chronicle of Higher Education
American colleges were struggling to extract—and, in some cases, even reach—students, and faculty and staff members studying and traveling in Haiti in the wake of a deadly earthquake there Tuesday, a task made more difficult by the extent of the devastation and by already poor infrastructure in the Caribbean nation.

Schools Must Embrace Mobile Technology
BBC News
The need for schools to prepare for 21st century learning was top of the agenda at this year's British Educational Training and Technology (BETT) conference. They must embrace mobile technologies, games, podcasts and social networking, according to leading educationalist Professor Stephen Heppell. Schools should also break away from traditional classroom and curriculum models, he argued.

Govt 'Not Providing' for Skilled Labour Needs
ABC News- Australia
In Australia, the State Opposition has accused the Government of not providing extra training to meet the needs of Western Australia's resources industry. Labor says an estimated 40,000 construction jobs and more than 10,000 permanent jobs will be created over the next few years in WA resource projects.

Some B.C. Students Left Schools When Test Scores Brought ‘Bad News’
In 2000, British Columbia’s Ministry of Education began publishing information about how students in each school performed on Foundation Skills Assessments. In 2003, the Fraser Institute, an independent research and advocacy organization, began publishing an annual ‘Report Card’, ranking schools based on these tests. The publication of schools’ average test scores has generated intense controversy, but little is known about its effects. New research from SFU’s Centre for Education Research and Policy (CERP) asks whether families in B.C.’s Lower Mainland actually pay attention to this information when making school choice decisions. Specifically, did students become more likely to leave public schools when these publications brought “bad news” about their school’s average test scores?