The A+ Challenger

A new report based on three years of studies by neuroscientists and psychologists at seven universities provides new insight into how training in the arts might contribute to improving the general thinking skills of children and adults, Education Week reports.

“I think the work done here suggests a much closer connection between the cognitive processes that give rise to the arts and the cognitive processes that give rise to the sciences,” said Elizabeth S. Spelke, one of the researchers.

Ed Week says the Dana Foundation-sponsored report “doesn’t provide any definitive answers to the arts-makes-you-smarter question, but it may sound a final death knell to the myth that students are either right- or left-brained learners, say the scientists involved in the study. It also offers hints on how arts learning might conceivably spill over into other academic domains.”

If you hold a bachelors degree and are interested in teaching at a Houston ISD school, you may be eligible to seek certification through the district’s Alternative Certification Program (ACP).

A general information meeting about ACP will be held Thursday, January 17, 2008 at Waltrip High School, 1900 West 34th Houston, TX 77018 in the auditorium from 5:30-7:30 p.m.

This meeting is only for non-certified professionals interested in teaching. For more information call (713) 556-7300.

To help overhaul teacher education and encourage some of the nation’s most talented college graduates to seek long-term teaching careers in high-need classrooms, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation has launched an unprecedented teaching fellowship program at the state and national levels funded initially at $17 million by leading philanthropies.

In addition to the state-based model being started in Indiana, Woodrow Wilson also announced the creation of a national “Rhodes Scholarship” for teaching. The new Leonore Annenberg Teaching Fellowship, funded by the Annenberg Foundation and Carnegie Corporation of New York, will provide a $30,000 stipend and one year of graduate education at four of the nation’s top teacher-education programs to candidates who agree to teach for three years in low-income schools. The participating education programs are based at Stanford University, the University of Pennsylvania, University of Virginia, and University of Washington.

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In a recent interview with Edutopia.org, renowned futurist and “Future Shock” author Alvin Toffler offers this provacative view of the school he’d create: “It’s open 24 hours a day. Different kids arrive at different times. … I would have non-teachers working with teachers in that school,” and there would be “business offices in the school, from various businesses in the community.” Toffler, a septegenarian, argues that flexible hours of operation, personalized educational experiences for students, an expansion in the number of charter schools, and collaboration between schools and businesses are key to creating a 21st century system “from the ground up.”

Click here to read the full interview.

A new study released today by the Educational Testing Service finds that beginning teacher qualifications have risen rapidly over the past decade, reports Greg Toppo of USA Today. Candidates’ verbal SAT scores are up 13 points, math scores are up 17 points and the percentage of candidates reporting a 3.5 GPA or higher rose from 27 percent to 40 percent.

The gains hold across gender, racial and ethnic lines. Toppo and the study’s authors suggest that tougher requirements at all levels — from the federal government to the local teacher’s college — have forced teachers’ colleges to improve offerings while luring more qualified candidates into teaching.