Category: Schools

These Sacramento-area schools are low performers. Here’s why state kept list’s release low-key

Loknath Das

More than 50 schools in the Sacramento region landed on the California Department of Education’s list of the state’s 781 poorest performing schools – published quietly last week for the first time in four years. States have to report the lowest-performing 5 percent of schools under federal law so that they can receive additional aid. But since the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act was replaced in 2015, local districts have a lot more control over how they use those funds to remedy low performance. Parents are no longer notified that…

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Should schools fill key roles with volunteers?

Loknath Das

The cake sale, a tradition for generations – but now some cash-strapped schools are asking much more. Photograph: Alamy News that an academy trust founded by the Conservative peer Lord James O’Shaughnessy is advertising for unpaid volunteers to fill key roles in its two primary schools was met with disbelief and dismay by teachers earlier this month. The Floreat Education Academies Trust is looking for full-time and part-time volunteers to fill the jobs of finance assistant, office administrator and personal assistant to the chief executive, Janet Hilary, who was paid £128,768 in…

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Six reasons expat parents should consider distance learning or boarding school

Loknath Das

Photo: Le Sallay A new academy is shaking up traditional distance learning with a combined approach that strikes the perfect balance for expat families. Think distance learning and, chances are, you imagine a course designed for adults with lots of heavy books, solitary time and precious little social interaction. But education is changing and children can now avail of a distance learning program with one crucial twist: it combines home study with a learning camp. Le Sallay International Academy is a pioneering school that offers a unique learning experience for children…

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What other countries can learn from Singapore’s schools

Loknath Das

WHEN the island of Singapore became an independent country in 1965, it had few friends and even fewer natural resources. How did it become one of the world’s great trading and financial centres? The strategy, explained Lee Kuan Yew, its first prime minister, was “to develop Singapore’s only available natural resource: its people”. Today Singapore’s education system is considered the best in the world. The country consistently ranks at the top of the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a triennial test of 15-year-olds in dozens of countries, in…

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Five things Irish schools could learn from the Netherlands

Loknath Das

Margaret Kearns with her husband and four children in Amsterdam, where the family have lived for six years. Several recent reports have found that Dutch teens are among the happiest in the world, and having lived here for almost six years with my family, I have to concur. When we arrived here, we had no idea how it would unfold: moving abroad with a family and no social support, to a new culture, new language and new country. We thought we would stay for three to five years, travel and…

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How schools are failing working parents — and how some are helping

Loknath Das

how schools fail working parents (Lidan Chen/for The Washington Post) I had gritted my teeth through most of the school-related demands at odds with my working mom life. The midmorning concerts and late-afternoon ­parent-teacher conferences. The mandatory “volunteer” slots at after-school drama club rehearsals. The half days that, for some reason, preceded every school vacation. The final straw came when a new after-school program didn’t have space for my son. I vented on Facebook and quickly learned I wasn’t alone. I heard from fellow working parents who had plenty of…

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Report recommends Fairfax Co. schools security improvements

Loknath Das

WASHINGTON — After the February school shooting in Parkland, Florida, Fairfax County Public School launched an internal security review and looked for ways to improve. Now, the results are in. A report from the school district’s Office of Safety and Security recommends replacing outdated locks on classroom doors and requiring that those doors always be locked. It also calls for hiring eight new staffers so that security training and drills can be more thorough and frequent. Related Stories Ohio schools can get aerial photos to augment safety plansEDUCATION NEWS School…

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Schools ‘sweat’ over heat holiday

Loknath Das

An overcast sky over the Hooghly on Tuesday afternoon. The Met office expects the maximum temperature to be back at 40 degrees Celsius or higher on Wednesday. Picture by Ankit Datta  Calcutta: The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations on Tuesday issued a circular to all its affiliated schools in Bengal, requesting them to comply with the state government’s appeal to suspend classes till the heatwave-like conditions prevailing since last week abate. This came within hours of the school education department issuing two circulars, one addressed to the ICSE council…

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The Guardian view on mobile phones: schools are better without them

Loknath Das

 ‘Some games are so overwhelmingly attractive when they first appear that unhappy children can be entirely swept away in them.’ Photograph: Alamy When a minister in this government stumbles on a policy that is both popular and good, it’s newsworthy. Matt Hancock, the digital minister, has suggested that schools ban the use of mobile phones by their pupils. Amanda Spielman, the head of Ofsted, agrees. In France, the Macron government has put forward legislation that will ban the use of phones in all primary and middle schools. This removes the matter from the…

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Will my child be forced to switch schools? What parents need to know about N.J. desegregation suit

Loknath Das

The statistics are undeniable. Across New Jersey, hundreds of thousands of black and Hispanic students attend schools that are almost entirely non-white. The question is whether the state should step in to do something about it. A lawsuit filed earlier this month accuses the state of being complicit in allowing one of the most segregated school systems in America and calls for a comprehensive desegregation plan. The legal challenge, filed by a coalition of civil rights groups, has spurred questions about what segregation really means and what changes could be in store for students if the…

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