CAROL’S SUMMARY:

Stacy Smith, CFO of Intel, notes in the CFO.com article below that education of the U.S. workforce has been steadily deteriorating. “Math and science curricula in primary-school systems in the United States are comparatively weak, he said, and the population of university students pursuing math, science, and engineering has dropped.” According to Smith, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 focused on public works and was a good step, but doesn’t come close to China’s stimulus bill, which focused on broadband and wireless infrastructure to close the digital divide.

Technology as a national agenda is crucial to creating a knowledge-worker economy. That is why our revision of Making the Most of High School includes two new chapters, including one on technology in the 21st century. If students learn to work effectively with the technologies of today they will become more versatile and it will be easier to adapt to the frequent advances in technology. To request a free copy of Making the Most of High School call our toll free # at 1.877.737.8510 or email contact@lifebound.com.

ARTICLE:

Intel CFO Sees U.S. Losing Battle for High-Tech Jobs
by Vincent Ryan
CFO.com
April 22, 2010

In the fourth quarter of this year, chipmaker Intel’s new wafer-fabrication plant in the city of Dalian in Northeast China, a $2.5 billion capital investment three years in the making, will come online. The factory will produce chipsets to support Intel’s microprocessor business and will boast a workforce of 1,200 people.

Intel received a typically rich package of grants and tax incentives from China in order to build the plant there, according to Stacy Smith, the company’s CFO. “When we are thinking about building a factory, almost every government of a sizable, mature economy reaches out to us and provides financial incentives,” he told CFO.

To view this entire article visit www.cfo.com

Carol’s Summary:

There’s more dismal news for America’s schools as international benchmarks show the U.S. lagging behind its global counterparts. According to the New York Times article below, “a greater proportion of students in more and more countries graduate from high school and college and score higher on achievement tests than students in the United States.” In yesterday’s address to a panel of U.S. policy lawmakers who plan to rewrite the Elementary and Secondary Education Act – the main law governing federal policy on public schools – Andreas Schleicher, a senior education official at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development OECD, and one of the foremost experts on comparing national school systems in the world’s 30 richest countries, presented these facts to the Senate education committee:

• Canada’s 15-year-old students are, on average, more than one school year ahead of American 15-year-olds
• Finland has the world’s “best performing education system,” partly because of its highly effective way of recruiting, training and supporting teachers.
• Only New Zealand, Spain, Turkey and Mexico now have lower high school completion rates than the U.S (about 7 in 10 American high school students earn a diploma).
• South Korea has achieved a 96 percent high school graduation rate, the world’s highest.
• Poland, Mr. Schleicher said, is improving its education system most rapidly. In less than a decade, it raised the literacy skills of its 15-year-olds by the equivalent of almost a school year. “If the U.S. would raise the performance of schools by a similar amount,” he said, “that could translate into a long-term economic value of over 40 trillion dollars.”

The committee also heard from Charles Butt, chief executive of a supermarket chain in Texas, who said employers there faced increasing difficulties in hiring qualified young workers. “The blame for America’s sagging academic achievement does not lie solely with public schools,” Mr. Butt said, but also with dysfunctional families and a culture that undervalues education. Schools are inheriting an overentertained, distracted student,” he said.

LifeBound’s comprehensive approach to helping students achieve college and career success includes programs for parents that help them value education and give them the tools to communicate this to their children. Additionally, we offer books and curriculum for Summer Academies and year-long programs in districts across the country that help students grow their critical and creative thinking skills and develop emotional and social intelligence. Until districts adopt a rigorous model of learning that challenges students to think and plan for future success, we will continue to lose ground in education and ultimately our competitive edge in the world’s marketplace.

How can districts create new standards and curriculum that help American students catch up to their global counterparts?

How can we instill a sense of what is possible into the hearts and minds of our students?

How can we transform our nation’s entertainment culture into a culture of learning?

Article

New York Times
Many Nations Passing U.S. in Education, Expert Says
By SAM DILLON
March 9, 2010

One of the world’s foremost experts on comparing national school systems told lawmakers on Tuesday that many other countries were surpassing the United States in educational attainment, including Canada, where he said 15-year-old students were, on average, more than one school year ahead of American 15-year-olds.

America’s education advantage, unrivaled in the years after World War II, is eroding quickly as a greater proportion of students in more and more countries graduate from high school and college and score higher on achievement tests than students in the United States, said Andreas Schleicher, a senior education official at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, which helps coordinate policies for 30 of the world’s richest countries.

To view this entire article visit www.nytimes.com

The term “millennials” was coined by Neil Howe and William Strauss in their 2000 book, Millennial Rising. Although each generation has its own unique characteristics, the schism between millennials and other generations centers on technology. While demographers debate just how influential digital technology has been on the millennial personality, no one doubts its profound impact. It is certainly the great unifier of millennials from places as diverse as Geneva, Japan, and Jersey. More than any other factor, it has united the generation, even globally.

Today’s article from the Chronicle of Higher Education offers several opinions by people who have studied this new breed of young people. The researchers who study them propose findings that contradict each other, perhaps because the experts themselves are a product of their own generation. The reporter, Eric Hoover, writes: “Depending on the prediction, this generation either will save the planet, one soup kitchen at a time, or crash-land on a lonely moon where nobody ever reads.” Such contradicting arguments should make us wonder whether an entire generation can be effectively stereotyped. With colleges and corporations spending immense amounts of money on experts to tell them how to attract today’s twenty somethings, what implications will these stereotypes have on our higher education institutions?

Following are statistics of millennials that do not stereotype:

• Referred to as the “Internet Generation,” they speak digital as a second language: 94% use the Internet for school research and 78% believe the Internet helps them with school work (National Center for Education Statistics, 2008).
• The vast majority of young people are not in college full time. Only an estimated 25% of 18-24-year-olds attend a four-year college full time (U.S. Department of Education).
• 44% of college students are male (For the first time in history more girls attend college than boys; Newsweek, January 30, 2006).

While it’s useful to determine patterns to help us understand trends, when it comes to students, learning is dynamic. The advent of a new generation of students and increasingly sophisticated technology has left many teachers separated from their students. Similarly, most faculty teach their students in ways they were taught, and these methods may not be reaching today’s students. Indeed, technology has emerged as the salient characteristic of the millennial generation, but like all students, they are as individual as their fingerprints.

• What unique characteristics can make millennials successful in the academic and economic world of the 21st century?
• How might we better understand these characteristics and translate them into specific pedagogical practices?
• What important principles from cognitive science and pedagogy should faculty know and utilize in their teaching?

ARTICLE:

October 11, 2009
The Millennial Muddle
How stereotyping students became a thriving industry and a bundle of contradictions
By Eric Hoover

Kids these days. Just look at them. They’ve got those headphones in their ears and a gadget in every hand. They speak in tongues and text in code. They wear flip-flops everywhere. Does anyone really understand them?

Only some people do, or so it seems. They are experts who have earned advanced degrees, dissected data, and published books. If the minds of college students are a maze, these specialists sell maps.

Ask them to explain today’s teenagers and twentysomethings. Invite them to your campus to describe this generation’s traits. Just make sure that they don’t all show up at the same time. They would argue, contradict one another, and leave you more baffled than ever.

Figuring out young people has always been a chore, but today it’s also an industry. Colleges and corporations pay experts big bucks to help them understand the fresh-faced hordes that pack the nation’s dorms and office buildings. As in any business, there’s variety as well as competition. One speaker will describe youngsters as the brightest bunch of do-gooders in modern history. Another will call them self-involved knuckleheads. Depending on the prediction, this generation either will save the planet, one soup kitchen at a time, or crash-land on a lonely moon where nobody ever reads.

To view this entire article visit www.chronicle.com

CAROL’S SUMMARY:

Sudan has been ravaged by civil war and genocide for a quarter of a century, but Valentino Deng hopes to help change that. The article below by New York Times columnist, Nicholas D. Kristof, talks about Valentino, a 30-year-old former Sudanese refugee who opened the first high school in his home town of Marial Bai. Deng’s colleague, Dave Eggers, the author of “What Is the What,” a biography about Valentino, has partnered with him, and all proceeds from the book go toward the school.

Valentino’s school opened earlier this year with 100 students, and the goal for 2010 is boost enrollment to 450. Another priority is to add girl students. “I want to enroll more than 50 percent girls,” Valentino said. “But to do that, I have to house them, because families will not allow a girl to go far away to school without a place to stay.” The school also focuses on leadership through service, and Valentino requires students to participate in activities such as building huts for displaced people, and he actively recruits volunteers. The article reports: “Eight high school teachers from the United States, Canada and New Zealand traveled at their own expense to Valentino’s school last summer to train teachers and work with students. They raved to me about how eager the students are to learn; some students burst into tears when the volunteers had to leave.”

With more schools in the United States emphasizing service learning and leadership, Mr. Deng’s vision is timely. According to the World Bank Data and Statistics, almost half the world—over three billion people—lives on less than $2.50 a day. Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names. Source: 2007 Human Development Report (HDR), United Nations Development Program, November 27, 2007, p.25. Two-thirds of all children not attending school are girls because when a family is forced to choose between sending a son or a daughter to school, it is generally the daughter who remains at home. Poverty and traditional beliefs about the value of educating girls keep 90 million school-aged girls out of the classroom. Source: http://www.ggef.org/top.html.

Most U.S. students would be astonished by these numbers, and we need to expose them to these kinds of real-life issues so they can develop a passion for helping solve some of our world’s most pressing problems using their own resourcefulness and imagination. LifeBound’s book, Junior Guide to Senior Year Success: Becoming a Global Citizen, champions students to see how their gifts and talents could make a difference. We also will be releasing a new book this spring of 2010 on Leadership for Teenagers, that promotes skills for the 21st century. To request a review copy of Junior Guide, or to reserve a copy of our new Leadership book, please contact us toll free at 1.877.737.8510 or email contact@lifebound.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

ARTICLE:

The New York Times
December 17, 2009
His Gift Changes Lives
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Here’s a story for the holiday season. A 30-year-old former refugee is putting together a most extraordinary Christmas present — the first high school his community has ever had.

Valentino Deng, 30, is the central figure in the masterful 2006 best seller, “What Is the What,” by Dave Eggers. The book records Valentino’s life after the Sudanese civil war strikes his remote town in South Sudan. His friends were shot around him. He lost contact with his family, and he became one of the “lost boys” of Sudan. Fleeing government soldiers, dodging land mines, eating leaves and animal carcasses, Valentino saw boys around him carried off and devoured by lions.

At one point, Valentino and other refugees were attacked by soldiers beside a crocodile-infested river. He swam to safety through water bloodied as some swimmers were shot and others were snatched by crocodiles.

To view this entire article visit www.nytimes.com

Mexico’s higher education community is working to “combat soaring dropout rates, a lack of scholarly research, and the poor quality of many of the university’s academic programs,” with Proyecto Aula (Project Classroom), one of several reform efforts modeled after the European Union’s Bologna Process. This process “seeks to establish a common standard for university education and boost student and faculty mobility throughout Europe.” Dr. Jorge Balderrama, a physician, psychologist and professor, is helping lead this change, which “include instituting a flexible and multidisciplinary curriculum, a new emphasis on critical thinking and problem-based learning, and integrating research and technology into the classroom.”

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