A recent survey indicates that 50 percent of all student-computing devices will be mobile within a decade. The survey was commissioned by two major publishers and targeted superintendents, curriculum directors, and tech directors in school districts representing more than 11 million kids.

Colorado middle school geography teacher Eric Hamlin was escorted from his classroom and placed on administrative leave for refusing to remove flags of foreign countries that were hanging in his classroom. It seems that Colorado state law forbids the display of flags that are not relevant to the curriculum. Hamlin’s principal determined that he had no lessons planned in the near future for the flags that were displayed—China, Mexico, and United Nations. He was, therefore, found in violation of state law. District officials later offered a compromise. Hamlin could display the flags for six weeks then rotate them with flags of other countries.

Los Angeles is experiencing what appears to be a bit of a tug-of-war over what and how to teach in the classroom. On one side you have the city mayor aligned with the teachers union saying that teachers should have a greater say in what works in their classrooms. They argue that while teachers have their feet held to the fire when it comes to student performance, they have little influence over the curriculum. The district superintendent and board, on the other hand, argue that a uniform curriculum in the core subject areas is key to improved student performance. They further argue that in a district with a 25-percent student mobility rate, a uniform approach to teaching is extremely beneficial. The mayor initially wanted full control over LA schools but has moderated his demands to where he seems willing to share management authority with the teachers’ union, the elected board, and the appointed superintendent. Of course, Governor Arnold “The “Terminator” Schwarzenegger and California legislators will have the final say over whose plan wins out.

Five years ago, congress, as part of No Child Left Behind, approved a program that required under-performing schools to provide free tutoring services to their students. The program was well intentioned—after all, one-on-one tutoring is one of only a few measures known to improve student performance. Yet, after five years, of the more than 2 million children eligible for tutoring, only 19% received it during the 2004–2005 school year. While the number of children receiving tutoring services has been improving, it is still woefully short of reaching its full potential. In one-fifth of the school districts required to provide tutoring services, not a single child was served.

The snags are what you might expect:

• Schools can’t recruit in rural areas or for students with disabilities.
• Poor communication home to parents from the schools.
• Tutors from private firms are not being allowed into schools.
• Poor quality tutoring services.

There are many successful programs, and one of the most successful, that I am aware of, is Project More centered in Northwest Ohio. This project has served rural schools using volunteer tutors. Efficacy studies, conducted by Bowling Green State University, have shown that students tutored in the federally funded project make significant gains. The program has expanded and now serves urban and suburban districts. Programs affiliated with Project More are run by local districts and the per-pupil cost is incredibly low. For more information on Project More, contact afreeman@pm.noacsc.org.

Don’t forget to check out Reading-Tutors.com. It has 200 downloadable tutoring packets for volunteer tutors, classroom aides, and parents to use when helping kids to read. The packets cover the main elements of reading. Get the most out of tutoring sessions by providing tutors with the resources they need when teaching kids to read.

I remember when back to school meant loading up with a few new pencils, a few pads of paper, and maybe a new binder. But today's back-to-school shopping spree is likely to need a bigger budget to purchase those electronic items that are becoming more and more common—items such as laptops, desktops, iPods, and cell phones. According to one estimate, the amount spent this year on electronic school supplies will reach close to four billion dollars. One parent reported that her children have daily assignments that require Internet access and has found that each of her four children needs their own computer.
See: Washington Times: Gearing Up

On a related note, just think about teaching children in China to spell. There are estimates that the number of Chinese characters compiled since ancient times far exceeds 50,000 in number. Children in China who receive the equivalent of a middle school and secondary school education and those who wish to read the daily newspaper are expected to master 3,500-4,000 of the most common Chinese characters. Our 26 letters of the alphabet pale in comparison to the number of characters these children must learn.

We all know, and teachers of reading know better than anyone, that English is not an easy language to learn. Most linguists claim there are between 40 and 45 phonemes in the English language, yet the sounds these phonemes make can be spelled out in more than 400 different ways. With emailing and text messaging, shortcuts for spelling some words, such as info, thru, and thanx are becoming more and more commonplace. This surely compounds the difficulties teachers face in teaching spelling.

It may comfort some of you to know that there is a small group of very persistent advocates of simplified-English who continue to push for the creation of a much more phonetic system of written English. They claim, rightfully in my opinion, that children learning English as a second or native language would have much less difficulty if we removed the confusing elements of the language. For example, they would ensure there would be no inconsistencies such as those that make comb, tomb and bomb all sound differently.

This movement isn’t new. Even Andrew Carnegie attempted to introduce a system of simplified spelling. And Teddy Roosevelt was known to use simplified spellings in his presidential correspondence.