Education

No literacy crisis here — Hill

Submitted by Alesia on Mar 23, 2012 08:59 am

THE Education Ministry has sought to rubbish suggestions that the island is facing a literacy crisis.This follows reports that almost 60 per cent of the more than 20,000 primary school students who took the supplemental Grade Four Literacy Test last December had failed to achieve mastery.Andre Hill, the island's literacy co-ordinator, is insisting there has instead been some gains as borne out in the numbers which show that while more than 3,200 of the students who did the December supplemental exam were graded at the non-mastery level, 9,049 achieved mastery.Another 8,000 or so achieved al

Struggling students - Some 60 per cent fail Supplemental Grade Four Literacy Test

Submitted by Alesia on Mar 12, 2012 11:07 am

Tyrone Reid, Senior Staff ReporterNearly 60 per cent of the more than 20,000 primary school students who were given a second and fourth crack at the Grade Four Literacy Test in December 2011 failed to achieve mastery.Unpublished results requested from the Ministry of Education showed that only 9,049 or 44.7 per cent of the 20,235 primary school students who wrote the supplemental exam late last year achieved mastery.The literacy test comprises three sub-tests: Word recognition, reading comprehension and writing.

Equity: The Key to improving education systems

Submitted by administrator on Mar 8, 2012 08:53 am | COMMENTS (0)

We are in GSAT season. All across Jamaica families of grade six students are anticipating one more round of the GSAT examination. For many children, their future is tied to their performance on this exam scheduled for later this month. “Success” in securing a place in one of the top high schools in the country can significantly affect the trajectory of their lives. That fact is not lost on parents. Those with financial and other personal resources pull out all the stops to give their children the edge.

EduFocus # 10: Early Childhood Development and its Importance to Early Literacy Acquisition

Submitted by Alesia on Mar 7, 2012 10:26 am

Are we making the most of the early years to boost literacy achievement? Though there has been a recent focus on literacy at Grade Four level, the literacy journey actually begins much earlier. It is noted that “young children, before they have had any formal literacy instruction, display many capacities and skills which can be viewed as directly relevant to their literacy development” (Snow, 2004, p. 5).

EduFocus # 9: How much value does an effective teacher add?

Submitted by Alesia on Feb 8, 2012 16:29 pm

One of the primary roles of schools and teachers is to add value to students. That is, teachers and schools are expected to make their students “more” than when they first entered the classroom.

Three classes, one classroom, one teacher: Are students in multi-grade schools being short-changed?

Submitted by Alesia on Feb 8, 2012 14:52 pm

KEY stakeholders in the country's education system are calling on the Ministry of Education to implement measures to rescue scores of children who populate the more than 300 primary and all-age schools across the country which are forced to combine as many as three sets of students in a single classroom, with one teacher.Some educators say the institutions — defined as 'multi-grade' schools — need urgent attention, as most of them are struggling to offer quality education to students.Multi-grade schools exist in many countries and play an important role in providing access to education for

Expanding Educational Horizon's Project

Expanding Educational Horizon's Project (EEH) was a joint iniative implemented in Jamaica by the Governments of Jamaica and the United States, through the Ministry of Education and Youth and United States for International Development, between 2004 and 2009. This project, which built on the best practices from the New Horizons for Primary Schools Project, sought to:

Raj Chetty
December 1, 2011

Are teachers' impacts on students' test scores ("value-added") a good measure of their quality? This question has sparked debate largely because of disagreement about (1) whether value-added (VA) provides unbiased estimates of teachers' impacts on student achievement and (2) whether high-VA teachers improve students' long-term outcomes. We address these two issues by analyzing school district data from grades 3-8 for 2.5 million children linked to tax records on parent characteristics and adult outcomes. We find no evidence of bias in VA estimates using previously unobserved parent characteristics and a quasi-experimental research design based on changes in teaching staff. Students assigned to high-VA teachers are more likely to attend college, attend higher-ranked colleges, earn higher salaries, live in higher SES neighborhoods, and save more for retirement. They are also less likely to have children as teenagers. Teachers have large impacts in all grades from 4 to 8. On average, a one standard deviation improvement in teacher VA in a single grade raises earnings by about 1% at age 28. Replacing a teacher whose VA is in the bottom 5% with an average teacher would increase the present value of students' lifetime income by more than $250,000 for the average classroom in our sample. We conclude that good teachers create substantial economic value and that test score impacts are helpful in identifying such teachers.

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International Language Conference

Submitted by Alesia on Jan 30, 2012 11:35 am

THEME: “Un-Babel-ing Language: Engendering Global Understandings” Northern Caribbean University (NCU), through its Department of English and Modern Languages (DEMOL), is hosting of its Second International Language Conference.The main objectives of this Second International Language Conference are to:• Bring together language teachers interested in the exchange of views on a wide range of issues affecting research and practice in the teaching of languages.• Enable participants to gain better insights into the best language teaching practices, as well as the challenges and r

6th Annual Special Needs Conference and Expo

Submitted by Alesia on Jan 30, 2012 11:19 am

THEME: Building the Road to Indepence for with DisabilitiesIndependence is the ability to function in a given area without depending upon another's help. For children with physical, emotional and other disabilities and special needs, the journey to independence is much harder, and for most unachievable without the right encouragement, support and an enabling environment.

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