What makes the Finnish school system so amazing is that Finnish students never take a standardized test until their last year of high school, when they take a matriculation examination for college admission.
Their own teachers design their tests, so teachers know how their students are doing and what they need. There is a national curriculum — broad guidelines to assure that all students have a full education — but it is not prescriptive. Teachers have extensive responsibility for designing curriculum and pedagogy in their school. They have a large
degree of autonomy, because they are professionals.
Admission to teacher education programs at the end of high school is highly competitive; only one in 10 — or even fewer — qualify for teacher preparation programs. All Finnish teachers spend five years in a rigorous program of study, research, and practice, and all of them finish with a masters’ degree. Teachers are prepared for all eventualities, including students with disabilities, students with language difficulties, and students with other kinds of learning issues.
Many around the world watched with great pride as
President Obama spoke at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial dedication. Black civil rights,
political, and entertainment royalty were present, surrounded by thousands of people who wanted to be close to the tribute on the National Mall for a non-president.
Everyone from
Rev. Al Sharpton and members of the Congressional Black Caucus to Nikki Giovanni and Aretha Franklin were there as presenters and participants alike. References were made to all forms of black resistance and struggle, providing the audience with a picture of the movements that shifted the country and the world to change. That is all but one movement and its leader.
Left out of the
MLK Memorial celebration by every speaker was the fact that it was the 16th anniversary of the
Million Man March. And
Minister Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam and the march's charismatic and often chastised convener, was no where to be found in Washington
DC.
As the economy stays stagnant, many African Americans are leaving northern cities and returning to their more rural, southern roots.
Former magnets for black migrants, including Illinois, Michigan, New York and California, all have had black population declines. Atlanta has even overtaken Chicago as the city with the second-largest black population behind New York City. The black population in Atlanta has grown in the past decade by 473,493. In Dallas it grew by 233,890, and in Houston by 214,928 over the same period. Today, 57 percent of the country's black population lives in the South, a 50-year high, according to the most recent census data.
"There are places like Harlem that no longer have majority black populations because many of the black folks who have lived there for the last 50 or so years have decided to cash in, and they are going to live somewhere more affordable, places that don't come with the urban baggage that maybe we didn't ever want but put up with because this was our best chance at a solid economic future," said Khalil Muhammad, director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, part of the New York Public Library and renowned for its collections of historic artifacts. "Those people are going to places that look just the way they want them to look. They are not going to be shackled by a political nationalism or the segregation of the past."
BEIJING — A video showing a toddler being struck twice by vans and then ignored by passers-by is sparking outrage in China and prompting soul-searching over why people didn’t help the child.
The 2-year-old girl, identified as Wang Yue, is in a coma in critical condition in the Guangzhou Military District General Hospital following Thursday’s accident, state media reported Tuesday. The Guangzhou Daily quoted the hospital’s head of
neurosurgery as saying the girl is likely to remain in a vegetative state if she survives.
Retired Lt. Col. Luke J. Weathers Jr., a member of World War II’s legendary Tuskegee Airmen died in Tucson at age 90. He will be buried with full honors at Arlington National Cemetery.
Choose Wisely In Your Career Choice!
Create Your Own Business Choice To Serve Your Neighbors and Community!
Let's face facts: The economy sucks! Year 2011 has become a nightmare for so many individuals who are seeking employment, have lost their jobs, and as a result of this despicable trend of employers not wanting to hire more people at their place of business is downright shameful! But then again, who is really to blame for this crisis?
While many of you are still figuring out whom to blame for our present economic condition, I urge all of you who are contemplating on a career choice to delve into, the following career choices that I believe will catapult your horizons by increasing your chances of getting hired, especially since a few of my suggestions are not palatable to some, or create for yourself, may prove to be beneficial in the long run.
Take Advantage of "Who You Really Are" in Life!
Your parents want you to become a doctor. You, on the other hand, want to sing and dance on Broadway. Ahhh, decisions, decisions.
Well, the truth of the matter is that not everyone can become a doctor or dentist, and love it!
Much can be said about other careers that parents would rather see their child pursue in life, and to the parents dismay, these adult children are much happier than ever before doing what they know is best for them, and not the other way around!
However, let us not forget that those 20th Century days and ways of decision-making choosing to “do their thing,” or engaging in a career that “makes them happy” are basically OVER!
Snail mail is about to get a little more expensive.
The price of a first class stamp is going up by one cent starting next year, the United States Postal Service said Tuesday.
PHOENIX — Police looking for a 5-year-old Arizona girl who has been missing six days said Monday they now believe she was most likely kidnapped, because otherwise they would have found her.
Jahessye (JES’-ee) Shockley was last seen by her three older siblings last Tuesday at her
Glendale home while their mother was
running an errand. Police believe she left their
apartment through the front door but don’t know anything about what happened next.
“If it was just her walking away, we would have found her by now,” Coombs told The Associated Press. “Obviously she’s not with us. Somebody knows something or somebody has interacted with her and put her in a place, and we just haven’t found her yet.”
Hunter also declined to speak about her other children but pleaded for Jahessye’s safe return.
“I would really appreciate anybody who has any information, anyone who thinks they have seen anything, to contact the police,” she said. “If you have my child, please take her to a safe place, a public place where she can be located.”
‘There are just too many houses on the market’ in some areas, one broker says
The Arc of Mecklenburg County , led by Executive Director Lauren Borchert, has launched a new website - separate from the agency's main website - called SCHOOL2Life to assist young people with disabilities in transitioning from school to
college or employment.
The organization, located on Park Road, is a United Way agency for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
One of four mentally handicapped people found chained in a Philadelphia basement over the weekend was reported missing in 2005, but the case was closed by police, myFOXphilly.com reported Monday.
The woman found in the basement was identified by myFOXphilly.com as 29-year-old Tamara Breeden.
Her family reported her missing in 2005. A Philadelphia detective closed her case last year even though she had not been found.
Slowly but surely, Americans seem to be making peace with the pot pipe.
According to a
poll released by Gallup on Monday, 50% of Americans surveyed say marijuana use should be legal — up from 46% last year. This year, 46% percent said it should be illegal.
Those numbers mean that, for the first time in the poll's 42-year-history, Americans who say that marijuana should be legal outnumber those who say it should be illegal.
Doctors have been left baffled by a strange condition which saw a woman of 23 age 50 years in a matter of days.
Vietnamese woman Nguyen Thi Phuong now looks like a septugenarian after the rapid aging affliction took hold following an allergic reaction to seafood.
Her sad story began in 2008, when her youthful beauty began to fade over the course of just a few days, leaving her with sagging, wrinkled skin all over her face and body.
A Chinese toddler was run over twice and ignored by nearly 20 passers-by in Guangdong Province in a case that has caused outrage around the world.
A new study of reefs in the South Pacific suggests that some algae can poison coral on contact. This chemical warfare may be increasing the pressure on struggling reef communities worldwide, researchers say.
During the past generation, a reasonable level of debt has always been seen as appropriate, because balance sheets were able to withstand a typical
recession. Yet all that changed in 2008.
GM's (NYSE: GM) debt load crashed the company, forcing it into
bankruptcy, while many other companies such as
GE (NYSE: GE),
Ford Motor (NYSE: F),
Hertz (NYSE: HTZ) and
Domino's Pizza (NYSE: DPZ) saw their stocks plunge on fears a
bankruptcy filing would be necessary if economic conditions worsened.
Thankfully, many companies wizened up and have been taking many steps to strengthen their balance sheets. But not everyone got the message. Some companies still carry
too much debt and might run into trouble if the U.S.
economy slips into
recession in coming quarters. These companies will need to make large payments to handle their debt in coming periods, and right now they lack the cash to meet potential obligations. Typically, a company can simply roll over that debt and push out the time frame when debts come due. But a weak
economy would make this task much harder as lenders grow skittish.
