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California lawmakers have just sent a bill to the governor’s desk designed to prevent new Texas social studies standards from reaching classrooms in the Golden State, according to an Associated Press story.
The state Senate yesterday voted 21-13 to approve SB1451. It requires the California board of education to look out for any of the Texas content as part of its standard practice of reviewing public school textbooks, the story explains.
You may recall that the Texas board of education this spring voted to adopt a new set of social studies standards. And to put it lightly, the elected board’s action was rather controversial, drawing national attention as a bloc of staunch conservatives largely succeeded in putting its stamp on the new standards.
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For years, the only funding at the federal level for gifted education has come through the Jacob Javits Gifted and Talented Education Act, funded at $7.5 milion for the past few fiscal years (compared to the approximately $11.5 billion spent in fiscal 2010 on school-aged children with disabilities under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.)
Now, that money, once again, is on the verge of being cut, as happened repeatedly during the Bush administration. Advocates for gifted education are scrambling to preserve a program they say is focused on developing gifted programs for underserved students.
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I’ve been tweeting a daily idea to spark your instructional design creativity. To get your daily ID idea, follow me on Twitter. (I don’t say much!)
Some recent tweets in the series:
- Ask your SME, “What are the 3 most common mistakes people make?” Turn them into branching scenarios.
- Using a story? What challenge is your character facing? Make them suffer!
- Are you solving a performance problem, or are you just turning information into a course?
- What are you creating to support your course? Job aids? Guidance for managers? Follow-up discussion? Additional tips in emails?
- Teaching a complex procedure? Course:
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Kate and I are off tomorrow at 5am. To New Haven.
Not Yale. We’re visiting Elm City Elementary. I visited a couple years ago. Totally impressed. In particular I liked this:
The elementary reading curriculum continues to center around a three-hour, sacred reading block that uses a phonics-based literacy program and text-rich classrooms. Immersed in sounds and words, students are quickly provided with a solid, early foundation for more advanced reading.
This 4-minute video is some of the school’s staff explaining how they run their operation.
When I visited Elm City a couple years ago, I played tour guide. I t
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Student aid forms like federal government FAFSA are complicated and difficult for students and parents of first generation college students to fill out. There are a myriad of complex college and state aid programs as well. The Illinois Student Assistance Corps is serving as a guide for potential first-generation college students from low-income families to navigate the paperwork and search process of securing grants, scholarships and financial aid. The state-operated organization launched in 2009 with a team of college student and adult mentors based out of the state’s communities colleges visit high schools and community centers. State
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