The White House education plan outline proffered January 22, 2001.
US DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. E-LEARNING: PUTTING A WORLD CLASS EDUCATION AT THE FINGER TIPS OF ALL CHILDREN (DEC. 2000)
The use of technology in education must remain a national priority. It must be at the core of the educationalexperience, not at the periphery. Now is the time to renew our commitment to the future by challenging the nation to take bold action in hastening the coming of the future of education. The leadership imperative is clear. Collectively, these new goals for technology in education represent an updated, high-level strategy for ensuring that all students will benefit from enhanced learning opportunities afforded by new and emerging communications and information technologies.
WEB BASED EDUCATION COMMISSION, THE POWER OF INTERNET FOR LEARNING (Dec. 2000)
"The internet is perhaps the most transformative technology in history, but for all its power, it is just now being tapped to transform education….The power and the promise are here. It is now time to move from promise to practice." The report calls for the development of broadband infrastructure so all learners can access high speed internet, to focus on educator technology training, to develop great on-line content, and for federal and state officials to support the effort fiscally and legally.
NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS', DIGEST OF EDUCATION STATISTICS 2000 (MARCH 2001)
The 2001 DIGEST, posted on the National Center for Education Statistics' Web site (no way will we post this monster here), includes more than 430 tables of statistics across all areas of education.
To obtain the report visit http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2001/digest/.
S1, 107th Congress 1st Session (2001) [the Better Education for Students and Teacher Act -ESEA].
The purpose of this title is to improve student achievement, student performance, and school success by including tough accountability provisions, expanding resources, improving technical assistance, and providing mechanisms for turning around failing schools within 3 years. The last reauthorization of title I, which occurred in 1994, made major changes in the program regarding standards, assessment, and professional development. The provisions contained in the BEST proposal build upon and significantly expand the 1994 changes. These new provisions are outlined below.
CROSS CITY CAMPAIGN. THE CHANGING FACE OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS (AUGUST 2001).
Preliminary findings from the 2000 census suggest that Americans are facing one of the most dramatic cultural transformations in history-we are becoming more diverse than ever before. This fact has significant implications for public schools and poses even greater challenges for the institution than it currently faces. Moreover, the "graying" of America, due to the number of baby boomers heading into retirement over the next 20 years, will have a profound impact on public schools. In more than half the states, at least one in five residents will be 65 or older in 2025, which is significant because the elderly vote more often than youth and they will be less likely to approve tax-supported bond issues and referendums for school projects because they no longer have school-aged children.
S.487, 107th Congress (2001) (Short Title: ‘‘Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization Act of 2001’’).
Royalties and ownership is not an issue when the lesson is reproduced, getting hit with copyright infringement is a concern. There is good news on this front, the The Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization (TEACH) Act of 2001 eases the concern of copyright infringement in distance learning. TEACH was authored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Va.) and Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah). The bill extends the long-standing copyright exemption for materials used by faculty in traditional university courses to online courses. It allows distance educators to use movies, video and recorded theater performances for education purposes. This expands the current exemption allowing only "non-dramatic literary or musical works."
To check on the status of the bill visit the Bill and Summary Status at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d107:SN00487:@@@X , visited September 10, 2001. For background on the act read "Senators Stump for TEACH Act," March 13, 2001, http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/163110.html, visited August 20, 2001.
US DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, MEETING THE HIGHLY QUALIFIED TEACHERS CHALLENGE (June 16, 2002)
U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige issued a report to Congress noting the chronic failure of education schools and traditional systems of teacher certification for ensuring a sufficient supply of quality teachers in the nation’s schools. Meeting the Highly Qualified Teachers Challenge contains a careful analysis of state report card data now required of states under Title II of the 1998 Reauthorized Higher Education Act. According to the Secretary, not only are questions on most teacher licensure tests at a high school level of difficulty, but many states also establish an absurdly low passing score. Yet, teachers are required to take courses that do not deepen their content knowledge.
