Beyond Labels

A 360° Discussion of Foreign, National and Local Policy Issues

Mike Wolf

Notes 3 April 2017

Progressive education

Tax plans for School Choice in Congress

Requirements for Home Schooling in Maine

Maine Charter Schools: 10 schools authorized

Testing – A statement of assurance that indicates that the home instruction program will include an annual assessment of the student’s academic progress using one of the types of assessment in accordance with existing regulations. To include:

i. a standardized achievement test; or

ii. a test developed by the school officials of the administrative unit in which the student resides; or

iii. a review and acceptance of the student’s progress by an identified individual who holds a current Maine teacher’s certificate; or

iv. a review and acceptance of the student’s progress based on, but not limited to, a presentation of an educational portfolio of the student to a local area homeschooling support group whose membership for this purpose includes a currently certified Maine teach or administrator; or

v. a review and acceptance of the student’s progress by a local advisory board selected by the superintendent of the administrative unit in which the student resides.

Review of taking the GED. TL;DR it is HARD

Link to a practice exam. 1169 page PDF.

New York Times interactive display of School Outcomes

Earlier post on the topic, here

Resources for comparing schools:

Here and

Here

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter with a half-million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. . . . This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.[1][5]

Elon Musk’s Home School — and here

Spending on education vs GDP

United States GDP on education 5.6% Finland 6.8% Wikipedia here

Battle Hymn of of the Tiger Mother

Managing Student Growth

April 3 topic: HR 610 and public education

HR 610 at GovTrack. Links to text and related, earlier versions.

Version at Congress.gov

Summary:

The bill establishes an education voucher program, through which each state shall distribute block grant funds among local educational agencies (LEAs) based on the number of eligible children within each LEA’s geographical area. From these amounts, each LEA shall: (1) distribute a portion of funds to parents who elect to enroll their child in a private school or to home-school their child, and (2) do so in a manner that ensures that such payments will be used for appropriate educational expenses.

To be eligible to receive a block grant, a state must: (1) comply with education voucher program requirements, and (2) make it lawful for parents of an eligible child to elect to enroll their child in any public or private elementary or secondary school in the state or to home-school their child.

No Hungry Kids Act

The bill repeals a specified rule that established certain nutrition standards for the national school lunch and breakfast programs. (In general, the rule requires schools to increase the availability of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat or fat free milk in school meals; reduce the levels of sodium, saturated fat, and trans fat in school meals; and meet children’s nutritional needs within their caloric requirements.)

 

Healthcare improvement course (featuring Duncan!)

Coursera has a course on Healthcare Quality Improvement.

It’s free to audit, $49.00 to take for a certificate. And it’s just started.

Our own Duncan Neuhauser is a guest lecturer for one of the modules. Well, he’s not ours, but you know what I mean.

If you are interested, you can go to the course page, and sign up for Coursera and the course.

Week 1 is a bunch of preparatory quizzed that don’t count unless you are taking the course for credit.

Week 2 starts the actual course. There is an online forum for discussion.

I plan on following the course–at least for a bit.

Mike

 

 

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