Keeping Kurrent Show

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For young people growing up in the Aboriginal settlement of Toomelah, New South Wales, life offers few choices. Jobs are scarce, few finish high school and nothing their elders want to teach them seems to matter. As elder Auntie Ada Jarrett says, "I just hurt so much for the young people today. Because they don't know anything, all the good things that we had – traditional dances in the night, story telling. They're not able to survive." Words and pictures by Heather Faulkner

See BBC web site for more pictures.

What's Happening

with

Education in Oregon & Around the World?

 

Education

"It [education] has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinquish what is worth reading, an easy prey to sensations and cheap appeals."

G.M. Trevelyan, English Social History (942) ch. 18.

What's Happening with the Chalkboard Project in 2008?

"The Chalkboard Project has a number of current initiatives helping schools improve their success teaching children. These initiatives include the following:

  • Open Book$ Project: This online tool gives you the facts about Oregon K-12 school spending in a simple, easy-to-understand format. You can view your own district's spending, compare districts and see statewide averages.
  • CLASS Project: In spring 2007, Chalkboard selected three Oregon school districts (Forest Grove, Sherwood and Tillamook) to participate in this pilot project.
  • Running Start: A two-part toolkit and trainings aimed at improving student achievement among Oregon's most at-risk youth by increasing family involvement in schools.
  • Partnering with individual districts, local businesses and parent groups to expand parent and community involvement in schools.
  • Employer-Classroom Connection Challenge: Challenging employers to commit to helping their employees get involved in Oregon's schools.
  • Creating and sharing “best practices” for school district business operations. Chalkboard is partnering with the Oregon Association of School Business Officials to review business practices in five volunteer school districts during the 2007-08 school year. Findings will be used to develop a set of “best practices” in everything from purchasing supplies and services to processing payroll.
  • Researching professional development in several Oregon districts. Chalkboard has reviewed professional development practices in several Oregon school districts to share great methods as well as identify professional development support needs.

For more information about The Chalkboard Project go to their web site at http://www.chalkboardproject.org/about-us.php.

 

Pictures of children in the Outback - source BBC*

THERE AND ABOUT: Australia finally says sorry for breaking Aborigine families

Story by CHEGE MBITIRU at Nation Media

Publication Date: 2/18/2008

Australia last week gave meaning to a concept politicians avoid: nations have historical responsibility and can say sorry. That’s thanks to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Earlier, Queen Elizabeth, inheritor of an empire that colonised Australia and now its head of state and former Prime Minister John Howard missed an excellent opportunity. The issue of the Stolen Generation played big. However, implicit in Mr Rudd’s bipartisan “sorry motion” last Wednesday was an apology for the wrongs white Australia has inflicted on Aborigines and Torres Straight Islanders.

For more on this story you should turn to Nation Media.

* Toomelah Armed with drinks bottles against the near 40C heat of the outback, kindergarten students step out across the hot asphalt to their homes for lunch hour. Only families and their descendants who lived in Toomelah when it was founded in 1938 are allowed to stay here. The population has decreased from 500 in 1987 to around 350 today. But there are still only 35 houses for 350 people – a few new house frames dot the small town, but it's very cosy.

See BBC web site for more pictures.

 

Public School Children in a small school in southern India in the Backwaters of Kerala.

 

March 2007

 

 

Oregon Public School Enrollment Increases during 2007-2008

February 6, 2008

Report from the Susan Castillo, State Superintendent of Public Instruction

SALEM – State Schools Superintendent Susan Castillo announced today that the total number of Oregon elementary and secondary students enrolled in public schools continues to increase steadily. According to counts reported by school districts, Oregon has 566,067 public school students – an increase of 3,239 since last year (+0.6%). Oregon’s public school enrollment has increased nine times during the last ten years. Growth was uneven across the state, with the largest enrollment increases in the Portland metro suburbs, Salem and central Oregon. Reflecting the change in Oregon’s demographics during the past few years, minority student enrollment continued to increase, while white student enrollment decreased. Hispanic students accounted for the largest increase in student population, growing 5.3% over last year. “Today’s report highlights the need for Oregon to continue to invest in our educators,” Castillo said. “Increased enrollment and growing diversity in our student population make it more important than ever that we provide our teachers and administrators with the support they need to help all students succeed. We must invest in professional development at all levels, and we need to work closely with colleges and universities to ensure that new teachers and school leaders are well prepared.”

2007-08 Enrollment, State’s Ten Largest Districts & Percent Change From Last Year:

1. Portland 46,262 (-0.2%)

2. Salem-Keizer 40,106 (+1.3%)

3. Beaverton 37,821 (+0.3%)

4. Hillsboro 20,401 (+1.6 %)

5. Eugene 18,025 (-1.6 %)

6. Bend-LaPine 15,843 (+3.4%)

7. North Clackamas 17,651 (+1.2%)

8. Tigard-Tualatin 12,763 (+1.8%)

9. Medford 12,391 (-0.6%)

10. Gresham-Barlow 12,215 (+1.3%)

2007-08 Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity:

White (391,393) -4,709 change from 2006-07

Hispanic (95,172) +4,809

Asian (26,486) +639

African American (16,807) -4

Multi-Ethnic (13,220) +2,776

American Indian/Alaska Native (11,942) -52

Not Reported (11,047) -220