South West senior high schools have been furious keeping their beloved music teacher and have taken initiatives not to let their music teacher transfer.

Ms. Barica, a fine music teacher have been teaching for more than a decade, specifically 13 years in the institution and this summer she is asked to move to another private or public school due to the falling enrollment of the school. The music teacher had also worked with future American Idol contestants like Nadia Turner, run talent shows and provide after school music programs.

Students have been strongly attached to the teacher because of its unique qualities and effective teaching techniques. One student said that he learned to play the guitar in an easy way through the teacher’s guitar lessons while others claim that they learn cooperation with the teacher. And many strongly disagree with the decision of the school.

Because of this, students made several protest including a face book page urging to let their music teacher stay. Currently, the page has gathered 2100 fans. The seniors are very proud of their music teacher and some students have used their voices as weapon.

Southwest Principal James Haj said that he had taken every possible action to keep such effective teacher but due to a budget cut, he has no choice but to let Ms. Barica go. He also said that they will reduce Fine Arts department which will consequently offset six teachers. But the high school principal promised not to cut any music classes neither any clubs.

Ms. Barica admitted that she really adores the students and would not let go of the school if she has a choice. But unfortunately, the school cannot hold anymore of the expenses however, students will make any possible actions just to keep their beloved music teacher and promised not to walk away without something very powerful.

In response to the growing unemployment of high school graduates, the Macon-Bibb County Office of Workforce Developments reinforced the Summer Teen Work Program. This provides practical internships for teens during summer time which can improve their work aptitude and gain work experience.

The workforce program is federally funded; receiving an assistance of $632,000 from federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act paying about $8.50 per hour for 334 high school and college students to work internships ranging from Captain D’s to River Edge Behavioral Health Center.

Workforce Development had been helping high school and college students since 1998 in providing summer employments for student self-sufficiency which is very essential to Bibb’s low employment rate and competitive job hiring’s. The department also enabled adults to land jobs despite of the competitiveness.

These allowed teens in their enjoy working in their respective interest and gaining helpful knowledge upon doing their summer jobs. This also assists the government particularly in the workforce by saving up extra expenses of hiring non-student workers.

Testimonials from recent student workers support the efficiency of the said program. Students dedicatedly mention the quality work experience they gain from the summer job compared to other work like selling clothes or video games.

The said source of the financial assistance could be affected negatively this year by the current fund shifts. But the administrator strongly claimed that such student financial support shouldn’t be left behind considering the benefits of the program and pointing that paychecks earned by the students (which come from the state) will be cycled back to the economy through student spending.

For the last summer, the program employed 600 high school and college students but sadly due to the funding shifts, the prospective summer workers could be cut down to half this year. If not with the Department of Family and Children Services, there won’t be a program for the said year.

As an innovation to the education methods and techniques of Hawaii’s Nanakuli High School moves into high-tech learning. High School students will experience a new and out of the box learning style made possible by technology.

Incoming Nanakuli freshmen will test-drive brand new laptops as supplementary to their education. With a one laptop per student, new tech learning will take every high school to a new perspective in classroom learning.

The technology had been embraced by more than more than 62 schools around the country and this year, Nanakuli will take on the new technology learning as well as Waianae Public high schools

Teachers are much exited to see such innovation take place while students very eager to click on their laptops and study their first lessons digitally.

The entire freshman class of 150 at Nanakuli High School will be participating in the New Tech Program while about 200 freshmen at Waianae high school will follow the model.

New Tech program had been chosen because of its brought-upon benefits. The model aims at turning around low-performing schools, fostering economic development in communities, and encouraging students to pursue careers in science, math and engineering.

The students will work in groups on problem-based projects with teacher as facilitators enabling students too seek out what they need to know and by being told what to know.

In order to experience such innovation, schools must pay $450,000 for four years of support, professional development and guidance from the New Tech Network, a subsidiary of the KnowledgeWorks Foundation.

Donations were carried by Kamehameha Schools for the school’s enrollment with the New Tech program while the Department of Education, neighboring public elementary schools and Kamehameha itself help in funding $350,000 to buy new laptops for Nanakuli.

Nanakuli and Waianae High Schools are considered a zone for innovation by the Department of Education. The New Tech Program is a high school program expected to improve attendance, graduation rates and student test scores.

As enrollments in most private schools dropped, Summer schools in various schools were not enabled due to the declining number of students. As reported in the Buck Local News, Pennsburry High did not open its summer school which is an aid for students which failed on some subjects. To compensate, the school offered the Twilight Program –an after school program enabling students to earn credits. The school program is held in a small setting and aimed to let students catch up for their failed subjects. The payment for the said program will be the same as the summer school program they offer.

There are lots of Credit Recovery Programs or Twilight Programs all over different district schools. An example is the Metropolitan Nashville Public School, which has 18 twilight programs which allows out-of-school suspension students to be disciplined and have the chance to succeed in their education. The MNPS Twilight program kept 575 students on track in 2009-2010, district-wide; out of school suspensions have decreased by 10% with 13% students fewer students are being suspended, middle schools have seen a 20% drop suspension incidents and 18% fewer students suspended. Years of research lead the district to implement a number of support programs, particularly for middle school students and specific student populations. MNPS is considered below the national and state averages for suspensions of African-American males.

The Twilight program is an alternative enables the students to acquire a high school diploma in a standard base education. The No Child Left Behind (NLCB) Act requires students to graduate from high school and states to improve their graduation rate (NCLB, 2002). The Twilight program should be implemented by the high school during non-school hours as a school-within-a-school approach to support the student achievement and priority is give to students having a difficulty in academic, social, emotional, and behavioral aspect in a regular classroom setting..

Michigan’s u69-12 Robotic Competition-Driven Mentoring Program was chosen to receive a $60,200 from the Innovation Generation grant program from Motorola Foundation. With the will to share advance engineering techniques to underrepresented high schools, such high school program was made possible by the Motorola’s Foundation in cooperation with Michigan State University.

The program will focus on building competition designed robots with the help of engineering students from MSU and will focus on high schools with large enrollment of African-American and Hispanic students as well as all-girls school.

The students will also serve as mentors in robotic teams for socio-economically challenged high schools in Lansing and Detroit. The programs will help first and second year undergraduate engineering students in solving complex problems using an engineering design as they design, build, program and test robots for collegiate robotics competitions.

Competitions will encourage high school students in the fields of science, engineering and mathematics integrated together in a robot design event. Dr Kim (assistant to the dean for recruitment and K-12 outreach, in the MSU College of Engineering) claimed that such program will definitely provide mutual learning for the both parties.

As expected by Kim, 20 MSU engineering students will engage in the U69-12 Robotics Competition Program and the fund from Motorola Foundation will broaden MSU’s to the Detroit Area, provide support for the supplies and develop a robust mentoring relationship with the high school students guaranteeing a more successful program compared to the last few years.

“Engaging youth in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields will be crucial to driving future innovation and keeping America competitive in the global society” said Eileen Sweeney (Director of the Motorola Foundation).

This is the fourth year the Michigan State University attained funding from the Generation Innovation grant program through Motorola’s Foundation –a charitable and philanthropic arm of Motorola.

Online education means an online access to all the materials and resources necessary for the course. Considering online learning, the first tool we can associate with is then computer. This state-of-the-art machine is very powerful that almost education processes are made through and now using it as an aid for quality education –particularly in educational technology. But does it really benefit each student considering the use of computers in every campus and in more homes?

According to studies, computers aid the learners in a more mobilized education. This means learning even in the unlikely locations and circumstances with the use of portable gadgets, e.g. computers. It also speeds up the dissemination of instruction and allowing students for instant access on their assignments, projects and scores. It lets them catch up on a particular subject in the case of being behind and offers a lot of resources all over the internet gateway.

On the contrary, an article on the Perdido Street School explains a study about the disadvantage of computers in some children. The economist (according to the blogsite), conducted a study about the impact of computer in low-income school children. Offer Mahalamud –the co author of the study sites the negative effect of computers on academic achievement and some parents also find the same conclusion too. The reason for the conclusion was due to the students urge to use computers for entertainment rather than learning their lessons. Another research cited is from the professors of public policy at Duke University (Jacob L. Vigdor and Helen F. Ladd,) found out that the first arrival of broadband technology service in North Carolina gave students a low grade in math and reading subjects. The study suggested that computers have negative effect only on some groups and made achievements on other socio-economic groups.

Consequently, computers have many diversions; from electronic games to visual and audio entertainments which can divert a student’s focus.

Cami Anderson, with her vision to encourage progressive learning and create more options for under-credited students proposed to open up alternative high schools. The city alternative high school overseer planned to open three additional charter schools for kids by 2011 to prevent kids from dropping out. The high school program includes a self spaced work online to a small group of students and will require every learner a self plan. She believes that this will help overage students and drop outs students to have more choices upon continuing their education. If this proposal gets approved, the New York superintendent will be the first person to handle educational obligations outside her district concerning charter schools.

Unfortunately, Anderson’s proposal is facing many objections and criticisms even among charter school supporters. The proposal is currently screened at the charter school board. The legitimate concern is whose interests they are going to have front and center in deliberations, Tood Zeibarth (vice president at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools). Though faced with different issues, Anderson’s team is seeking formal guidance from the Conflict of Interest Board in order to pass out their chartering plan.

About charter schools:

Charter schools are primary and secondary schools which receives financial support through public and private donations but are not subjected to some of the rules that apply to some other public schools in exchange for accountability for producing certain results. Such schools do not have tuition fees but still a part of the educational system. State authorized charter schools are chartered by local school districts. Charter schools exist due to parents, teachers, universities and some activists that feels restricted by the policies of traditional schools. Though some school districts permit corporations to manage chains of charter schools, the school themselves are still non-profit.

The Florida State Team composed of well trained researchers from Vanderbilt University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the U.S. Department of Education collaborated for one purpose –“Gearing low performance high schools with effective practice”. The department of education has allotted $13.6 million in support for the improvement of effectiveness. Researchers from the respective universities will apply their quality education practices in low performing schools, particularly traditional high schools and minority groups. According to Cohen-Vogel, native English speakers and English language learners (black and Hispanic 17-year-olds) have a three year learning gap compared to their white counterparts and this under performance will greatly affect the educational and economic wellness of the country.

The researchers will engage partnership with district leaders and teachers from Dallas Independent School District and Broward County Public Schools for the five year project. The newly formed National Research and Development Center on Scaling up Effective Schools will focus on combining their different tested educational policies and the application of these practices for the high school effectiveness. These value added models will be the tools for sharpening effectiveness. Improved student achievement in English/language arts, mathematics and science achievement, reduced probability of student dropout before graduation, and increase enrollment in advanced courses among low performing high schools will be the bases of effectiveness.

But the ultimate goal of the project is the implementation of these practices according to Cohen-Vogel. The research team will dig through the components of the model, updating and gathering more data for the better implementation of the policies in order to identify effective and ineffective high schools. In accordance, the Florida State Team will visit and observe different high schools and administer surveys. This fall Cohen-Vogel and the research team will devote 60 weeks improving and designing professional development for the betterment of school leaders in sustaining student success.