Bad teachers 'not being reported'

All teachers have to register with the General Teaching Council Local authorities in England are failing to refer poor teachers to their disciplinary body, a report suggests. Less than half of councils have reported a teacher to England's General Teaching Council, which has the power to strike off poor teachers, it said. The joint GTCE and government report said some employers were uncertain about their responsibilities for referring cases of incompetence. The GTCE is writing to local councils to remind them of their duties. It also plans to review the advice and guidance it offers to schools and local councils to ensue there is an improved understanding of regulation issues. 'Inconsistency' The research found inconsistencies in the way local councils approached referrals. Some employers were anxious about referring cases because they feared a report would automatically lead to a teacher's removal. Others feared the GTCE would be too lenient, it said. But the body said neither worry was well-founded because its committees considered each case on its merit, it added. Chief executive Keith Bartley said: "This report suggests that there is considerable activity on the part of employers locally to ensure that children and young people are taught by high quality teachers and it reflects upon the level of commitment and training that teachers demonstrate. "However, the report also reveals inconsistency of understanding and practice with regard to referrals made by local authorities to the professional regulatory body." Employers need to ensure that they take seriously their statutory responsibilities in this area Venon Coaker Schools minister He added that the research provided some clear insights into reasons for these inconsistencies. Schools minister Vernon Coaker said there was a legal duty on employers to refer cases of teachers who had been dismissed or had resigned on the grounds of incompetence. He added: "Employers need to ensure that they take seriously their statutory responsibilities in this area. "We expect the GTCE to fully exercise its regulatory role in respect of those teachers who fall below the high standards of practice expected of them. "What this report identifies is the need to continue to communicate the legal duty on employers in the case of referral and so we welcome the GTCE's action plan to do this." All qualified teachers have to register with the GTCE, which has a duty to improve standards of teaching and the quality of learning. Since the GTCE began hearing cases in 2001 it has considered 664 professional conduct cases and 75 competence cases. But only 13 prohibition orders, 1 suspension orders and 11 conditional suspension orders have been issued. If a teacher is found to be seriously incompetence the GTCE can impose a range of sanctions from reprimand, through to a conditional registration order requiring remedial action. BBC

We're losing the cyber-war. Here's the strategy to win it.

By Mike McConnell

Sunday, February 28, 2010

The United States is fighting a cyber-war today, and we are losing. It's that simple. As the most wired nation on Earth, we offer the most targets of significance, yet our cyber-defenses are woefully lacking.

This Story

• We're losing the cyber-war. Here's how to win it.
• China is world leader in hacked computers, report finds
• The Internet war

The problem is not one of resources; even in our current fiscal straits, we can afford to upgrade our defenses. The problem is that we lack a cohesive strategy to meet this challenge.

The stakes are enormous. To the extent that the sprawling U.S. economy inhabits a common physical space, it is in our communications networks. If an enemy disrupted our financial and accounting transactions, our equities and bond markets or our retail commerce -- or created confusion about the legitimacy of those transactions -- chaos would result. Our power grids, air and ground transportation, telecommunications, and water-filtration systems are in jeopardy as well.

These battles are not hypothetical. Google's networks were hacked in an attack that began in December and that the company said emanated from China. And recently the security firm NetWitness reported that more than 2,500 companies in the United States and worldwide were compromised in a sophisticated attack launched in 2008 and aimed at proprietary corporate data. Indeed, the recent Cyber Shock Wave simulation revealed what those of us involved in national security policy have long feared: For all our war games and strategy documents focused on traditional warfare, we have yet to address the most basic questions about cyber-conflicts.

What is the right strategy for this most modern of wars? Look to history. During the Cold War, when the United States faced an existential threat from the Soviet Union, we relied on deterrence to protect ourselves from nuclear attack. Later, as the East-West stalemate ended and nuclear weapons proliferated, some argued that preemption made more sense in an age of global terrorism.

The cyber-war mirrors the nuclear challenge in terms of the potential economic and psychological effects. So, should our strategy be deterrence or preemption? The answer: both. Depending on the nature of the threat, we can deploy aspects of either approach to defend America in cyberspace.

During the Cold War, deterrence was based on a few key elements: attribution (understanding who attacked us), location (knowing where a strike came from), response (being able to respond, even if attacked first) and transparency (the enemy's knowledge of our capability and intent to counter with massive force).

Against the Soviets, we dealt with the attribution and location challenges by developing human intelligence behind the Iron Curtain and by fielding early-warning radar systems, reconnaissance satellites and undersea listening posts to monitor threats. We invested heavily in our response capabilities with intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarines and long-range bombers, as well as command-and-control systems and specialized staffs to run them. The resources available were commensurate with the challenge at hand -- as must be the case in cyberspace.

Just as important was the softer side of our national security strategy: the policies, treaties and diplomatic efforts that underpinned containment and deterrence. Our alliances, such as NATO, made clear that a strike on one would be a strike on all and would be met with massive retaliation. This unambiguous intent, together with our ability to monitor and respond, provided a credible nuclear deterrent that served us well.

How do we apply deterrence in the cyber age? For one, we must clearly express our intent. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton offered a succinct statement to that effect last month in Washington, in a speech on Internet freedom. "Countries or individuals that engage in cyber-attacks should face consequences and international condemnation," she said. "In an Internet-connected world, an attack on one nation's networks can be an attack on all."

That was a promising move, but it means little unless we back it up with practical policies and international legal agreements to define norms and identify consequences for destructive behavior in cyberspace. We began examining these issues through the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative, launched during the George W. Bush administration, but more work is needed on outlining how, when and where we would respond to an attack. For now, we have a response mechanism in name only.

The United States must also translate our intent into capabilities. We need to develop an early-warning system to monitor cyberspace, identify intrusions and locate the source of attacks with an evidentiary trail that can support diplomatic, military and legal options -- and we must be able to do this in the milliseconds of network speeds. More specifically, we need to reengineer the Internet to make attribution, geolocation, intelligence analysis and impact assessment -- who did it, from where, why and what was the result -- more manageable. The technologies are already available from public and private sources and can be further developed if we have the will to build them into our systems and to work with our allies and trading partners so they will do the same.

Of course, deterrence can be effective when the enemy is a state with an easily identifiable government and location. It is less successful against criminal groups or extremists who cannot be easily traced, let alone deterred through sanctions or military action.

There are many organizations (including al-Qaeda) that are not motivated by greed, as with criminal organizations, or a desire for geopolitical advantage, as with many states. Rather, their worldview seeks to destroy the systems of global commerce, trade and travel that are undergirded by our cyber-infrastructure. So deterrence is not enough; preemptive strategies might be required before such adversaries launch a devastating cyber-attack.

We preempt such groups by degrading, interdicting and eliminating their leadership and capabilities to mount cyber-attacks, and by creating a more resilient cyberspace that can absorb attacks and quickly recover. To this end, we must hammer out a consensus on how to best harness the capabilities of the National Security Agency, which I had the privilege to lead from 1992 to 1996. The NSA is the only agency in the United States with the legal authority, oversight and budget dedicated to breaking the codes and understanding the capabilities and intentions of potential enemies. The challenge is to shape an effective partnership with the private sector so information can move quickly back and forth from public to private -- and classified to unclassified -- to protect the nation's critical infrastructure.

We must give key private-sector leaders (from the transportation, utility and financial arenas) access to information on emerging threats so they can take countermeasures. For this to work, the private sector needs to be able to share network information -- on a controlled basis -- without inviting lawsuits from shareholders and others.

Obviously, such measures must be contemplated very carefully. But the reality is that while the lion's share of cybersecurity expertise lies in the federal government, more than 90 percent of the physical infrastructure of the Web is owned by private industry. Neither side on its own can mount the cyber-defense we need; some collaboration is inevitable. Recent reports of a possible partnership between Google and the government point to the kind of joint efforts -- and shared challenges -- that we are likely to see in the future.

No doubt, such arrangements will muddy the waters between the traditional roles of the government and the private sector. We must define the parameters of such interactions, but we should not dismiss them. Cyberspace knows no borders, and our defensive efforts must be similarly seamless.

Ultimately, to build the right strategy to defend cyberspace, we need the equivalent of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Project Solarium. That 1953 initiative brought together teams of experts with opposing views to develop alternative strategies on how to wage the Cold War. The teams presented their views to the president, and Eisenhower chose his preferred approach -- deterrence. We now need a dialogue among business, civil society and government on the challenges we face in cyberspace -- spanning international law, privacy and civil liberties, security, and the architecture of the Internet. The results should shape our cybersecurity strategy.

We prevailed in the Cold War through strong leadership, clear policies, solid alliances and close integration of our diplomatic, economic and military efforts. We backed all this up with robust investments -- security never comes cheap. It worked, because we had to make it work.

Let's do the same with cybersecurity. The time to start was yesterday.

Mike McConnell was the director of the National Security Agency in the Clinton administration and the director of national intelligence during President George W. Bush's second term. A former Navy vice admiral, he is executive vice president of Booz Allen Hamilton, which consults on cybersecurity for the private and public sector.

9. A universidade do futuro
No Curso de Formação Docente da UnB, Isaac Roitman convocou jovens mestres para comandar a revolução que o Brasil precisa A universidade do século XXI precisa interagir com crianças, adolescentes, professores do ensino médio e educadores infantis. A academia do futuro deve privilegiar uma formação humanística e abrangente. Nela, o aluno é sujeito, cria sua formação e sabe resolver problemas. Essa é a batalha cotidiana do pesquisador Isaac Roitman apresentada na manhã desta quarta-feira (24/2) no Curso de Formação de Professores da UnB. Isaac, 71 anos, biólogo, encantou a plateia e convocou os jovens professores para "comandar a revolução que o Brasil demanda" a qual deve começar pela UnB. Para isso, o cenário do campus precisa mudar, apostou o palestrante. Ele sonha com um imenso e moderno laboratório pedagógico. "O estudante sente um sabor de vitória ao ser selecionado para ingressar, principalmente em uma universidade pública", descreve. No entanto, a realidade é diferente. No lugar de uma mudança, o aluno encontra uma repetição dos vícios de ensino aos quais foi submetido em sua formação básica. "Um grande número de aulas em que, na prática, somente o professor fala sobre assuntos que cobrará na prova", explica o professor. "Essa universidade foi criada por Darcy Ribeiro para gerar mudança. Essa mudança foi interrompida e devemos retomá-la", convoca o professor, presidente do conselho editorial da Revista Darcy, diretor da Secretaria de Políticas, Programas e Desenvolvimento do Ministério da Ciência e Tecnologia, conselheiro da SBPC e membro da Academia Brasileira de Ciências. Para ele, uma prioridade da universidade é a formação dos futuros mestres do ensino básico. "A presença física de estudantes e de professores universitários deveria ser constante no ambiente escolar do ensino básico, por meio de palestras, discussões etc.", afirma. O professor Alberto Muniz, da Faculdade de Educação, já segue essa cartilha. Na disciplina Matemática 1, os alunos desenvolvem jogos matemáticos, que, posteriormente, são testados por crianças em escolas públicas do Distrito Federal. Ao final da palestra, Isaac relembrou as palavras de Anísio Teixeira: "Educar é crescer. E crescer é viver. Educação é assim, vida no sentido mais autêntico da palavra". O curso de formação também apresentou uma pesquisa da professora Edileuza Fernandes da Silva, "Docência Universitária - a aula em questão". Com base em entrevistas com universitários, ela mapeou as características de uma aula inovadora: pesquisa articulada com ensino, criatividade, autonomia, interdisciplinaridade, boa relação professor-aluno e uso de novas tecnologias. "O aluno considera vital o eixo teoria e prática em uma aula", diz a pesquisadora. (Marcus Vinicius França Lacerda, UnB Agência, 24/2)

8. O decisivo desenvolvimento científico, artigo de Joaquim Falcão "China e Estados Unidos competem e divergem. Mas, pelo menos num ponto, ambos estão de acordo" Joaquim Falcão é professor da FGV Direito Rio. Artigo publicado no "Correio Braziliense": China e Estados Unidos competem e divergem. Mas, pelo menos num ponto, ambos estão de acordo. É sobre qual deve ser o fator decisivo na disputa pela hegemonia no mundo. Se é que essa hegemonia ainda é possível na multipolaridade. Não será a política econômica sozinha. A política de desenvolvimento científico será, já é, um fator estratégico indispensável. Decisivo, talvez. Não foi por menos, e passou quase desapercebido, que o único setor do orçamento americano para o qual Obama pediu ao Congresso um aumento, se não me engano, de cerca de 5%, foi o que diz respeito ao estímulo a pesquisas científicas. É sua prioridade recôndita. A China, por sua vez, aumenta cada vez mais o componente tecnológico em seus produtos de exportação. Não se pretende no futuro como exportador de produtos de baixa tecnologia. Desenhou uma política científica de altos investimentos em green technology, sendo a poluição um dos fatores inibidores do desenvolvimento social e econômico do país. Sobretudo em biotecnologia aplicada à área da saúde para poder enfrentar os crescentes e insuportáveis custos da atual medicina. Basta constatar no mundo inteiro que não importa o modelo, a legislação, os planos ou os sistemas de saúde. Todos são deficitários e insuportáveis para o conjunto da população. O desafio à nova medicina é assegurar a nova saúde. O que não se faz sem pesquisa intensiva. E, finalmente, na tecnologia da alimentação, para aumentar a produção agrícola e bem alimentar os chineses e o mundo. Nesse contexto, o professor Sandoval Carneiro Junior, da Capes, tem apresentado importantes estatísticas sobre nosso desempenho ante o resto do mundo. Com base no Instituto para Informação Científica dos EUA, um expressivo crescimento de artigos em publicações científicas estaria ocorrendo nos últimos 20 anos em algumas áreas científicas do Brasil. Constata-se, por exemplo, a partir da década de 1990, crescimento quase exponencial, em primeiro lugar, da clínica médica, seguida pelas ciências de animais e plantas, e química. Física depois. Na América Latina, muito nos distanciamos dos demais países, México e Argentina, inclusive. E, no mundo, dos países que integram essa base, a produção de artigos científicos no Brasil foi a que mais cresceu, seguido pela China, Turquia e Espanha. Os Estados Unidos ainda lideram todas as estatísticas, com vantagem, mas está relativamente desacelerando, sobretudo quando comparada com China e Brasil. A publicação de artigos em revistas especializadas é apenas um dos múltiplos indicadores da produção científica. Mas não seria de espantar que esse aumento esteja refletindo um ambiente mais geral. Afinal, temos consolidadas instituições de pesquisa científica de padrão competitivo internacional: Fiocruz e Instituto de Matemática Pura e Aplicada, no Rio de Janeiro, Embrapa, em Brasília, Instituto Tecnológico da Aeronáutica, em São Paulo, e Instituto Nacional de Pesquisa da Amazônia, em Manaus, entre outras. A Unicamp é, a partir deste ano, instituição reconhecida internacionalmente para indicar nomes ao Prêmio Nobel de Medicina, e poderá indicar até 10 nomes de pesquisadores brasileiros. Dois outros indicadores, no entanto, ainda estão a preocupar. O primeiro é não crescermos no número de registros de patentes. Afinal, a pesquisa é apenas um ciclo do processo de desenvolvimento que implica pesquisa, registro de patentes, aumento da receita econômica, geração de emprego e bem-estar da população. Um dos motivos para o ainda muito insuficiente registro de patentes pode ser o fato de que os pesquisadores optaram por registrar suas descobertas nos EUA, e não no Brasil. São contadas como americanas. E preferem nos EUA porque lá é mais rápido, menos burocrático e porque existe um mercado de negócios sobre patentes mais desenvolvido. No Brasil, um depósito de patentes leva anos, e não é integrado internacionalmente de forma automática. Como nas patentes leva quem chega antes, é mais prático e mais barato fazer lá. O Brasil precisa investir para tornar o modelo brasileiro de registro de patentes mais rápido, mais simples e mais integrado, de forma que uma patente aqui possa ser automaticamente depositada também em mercados mais desenvolvidos, como EUA e Europa. Um segundo indicador onde nosso desempenho é ainda insuficiente é o de pesquisadores científicos. Temos apenas 10% do número de pesquisadores que a China tem. E esta menos apenas 5% do número que os Estados Unidos têm. Enquanto a Alemanha tem 35 doutores por cada 100 mil habitantes, temos apenas 0,8. O paradoxo dessa situação é o seguinte. Temos nos desenvolvido relativamente bem. O investimento em doutores, artigos, revistas científica, pesquisadores e instituições é o caminho. A política científica será decisiva para o sucesso da política econômica e, no entanto, provavelmente esta não será uma prioridade na campanha presidencial. O combate à Aids, o etanol de cana, a produção petrolífera em águas profundas, o desenvolvimento da aviação civil, tudo indica que vale a pena investir. Ocorre que ciência é longo prazo. Voto, não.

Taking School Safety Too Far?

The Ill-Defined Role Police Play in Schools

By Johanna Wald and Lisa Thurau

This past November, a food fight in a Chicago middle school resulted in the arrest of 25 students between the ages of 11 and 15. Parents, youth advocates, and others rightly questioned the decision to criminalize teenage antics that, let’s face it, seemed relatively mild. Plenty of us, after all, can recall hurling food at friends in the school cafeteria at a similar age.

As we write this essay, the final resolution of the Chicago incident is not yet known. But regardless of what that may be, the 25 students involved are likely to carry with them for a very long time the trauma of being handcuffed, taken away in a police van, and forced to sit in a jail cell for several hours.

Our research suggests that, while this incident may be noteworthy because of the large number of students involved, it is by no means an isolated event. Rather, it reveals broader and more systemic problems about policing in schools that should be of concern to parents, communities, school boards, and state legislatures across the country. It highlights the ambiguous and frequently ill-defined role that police play in schools, the unclear lines of authority that often exist between school officials and police placed there, and the highly subjective way in which decisions are made about when and under what circumstances a student’s conduct becomes criminal. All of these issues have taken on greater urgency since school police, currently numbering about 17,000, have permanently moved into public schools during the past decade.

—iStockphoto.com/TimMcClean

The middle school’s official statement about the November food-fight incident is telling: “The Chicago police officers who help protect our school, concerned about potential injuries resulting from the fight, felt it was necessary to arrest those responsible.” In other words, the decision to arrest the students and to call for law-enforcement backup seems to have been made by the police, not the educators in the building. And therein lies a serious, structural problem with the way in which school policing works.

Last year, we interviewed school resource officers and police chiefs in 16 school districts in Massachusetts. Many of them are dedicated and compassionate professionals who care deeply about the students they monitor, often advocating against arrest on their behalf. But there is an inherent tension when police officers and educators occupy the same space, overseeing the same group of students, yet approaching them with very different orientations.

Police, not surprisingly, see their primary mission as maintaining order, preventing crime, and apprehending lawbreakers. Educators are supposed to develop students’ academic potential and social skills, and prepare them to participate in a democratic society. Through one set of eyes a food fight can turn into a chaotic and violent situation that must be suppressed and controlled immediately. Through another, it may be a developmentally typical, albeit annoying, behavior that offers an opportunity to teach teenagers valuable lessons about settling differences peacefully, controlling impulses, and cleaning up their own mess.

Schools with harsh, zero-tolerance codes and heavy police presence are often less safe than those that embrace more flexible and nuanced responses to student misbehaviors.

Unfortunately, these inherent tensions are rarely worked out, or even expressly articulated. Instead, school resource officers and administrators forge uneasy alliances that are often based more on personalities and temperaments than on any set of objective criteria. Their decisions can be idiosyncratic, unpredictable, and highly confusing to students. Within the same school, a shoving match between two students in the hallway might produce a reprimand, or a lengthy suspension, or an arrest for “assault.” The same holds true for verbal altercations, or the catchall offense of “disrupting a school in session.” Students may find themselves facing a juvenile judge for flicking a rubber band, refusing to take off a hat, or being disrespectful to a teacher.

The risk of abuse is compounded by a lack of transparency and shoddy data collection. Advocates across the country report difficulties in trying to wrestle school-based arrest data out of any institution or system. Their requests are routinely dismissed, denied, ignored, or referred elsewhere. Schools and, incredibly, state education departments insist that they do not keep information about arrests. Police departments provide aggregate arrest numbers often only under duress, with no details included. The lack of credible data makes meaningful oversight almost impossible.

---

Another area of concern involves training requirements—or the lack thereof. School resource officers must deal daily with hundreds of students, many with serious health and mental-health needs. Yet they are not required to undergo any instruction in adolescent development or psychology, in de-escalating volatile situations, or on the effects of exposure to trauma, violence, or poverty on adolescents’ behavior. They are not taught how to recognize manifestations of students’ disabilities. As a result, students with special needs, students of color, and students from disadvantaged communities face a heightened risk of arrest.

Arguments that such heavy-handed tactics are necessary to keep schools safe no longer fly. Schools with harsh, zero-tolerance codes and heavy police presence are often less safe than those that embrace more flexible and nuanced responses to student misbehaviors. They are also frequently the same schools with shockingly high dropout rates.

Students with special needs, students of color, and students from disadvantaged communities face a heightened risk of arrest.

A wide array of promising interventions and strategies exists for addressing problem behaviors without resorting to the mass arrests of students. These include, among others, “positive behavioral interventions and supports,” or PBIS, an approach that makes use of graduated sanctions, promotes positive overall school environments, and provides wraparound services for students with more-extensive needs. Restorative-justice practices push students to examine their actions and make amends to those they hurt. Trauma-sensitive programs help school personnel create environments more sensitive to the needs of students who have been traumatized. School-based clinics are staffed with professionals who can address some of the unmet health and mental-health needs of students.

Imagine what a restorative-justice approach to a school food fight might accomplish. Students would be required to clean up the cafeteria for a month. They might spend several Saturdays cooking and serving food to needy families. They would be forced to acknowledge the damage they had caused and to practice more-constructive forms of conflict resolution. In the process, they might learn valuable lessons about respecting one another, themselves, and their environment, without experiencing the terror of being arrested, handcuffed, and detained—and without the realization that their school was becoming more like the streets outside it. In addition, the district would be spared the court, police, and legal costs incurred when many children are processed through the system.

Fortunately, a growing coalition of educators, juvenile judges, and law-enforcement professionals understands this. Thanks to the advocacy of organizations such as the Advancement Project, the American Civil Liberties Union, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Padres Unidos, and others, large schools districts in cities like Birmingham, Ala., Denver, and Los Angeles have revamped their disciplinary codes. Florida recently passed a law restricting the school-based offenses subject to law-enforcement intervention. In Clayton County, Ga., Steven Teske, a juvenile-court judge, spearheaded a successful effort among stakeholders to reduce the number of children being referred to his court from schools. He now provides technical assistance to other districts seeking to undertake similar efforts.

These developments are promising but insufficient. As the recent example in Chicago reminds us, students across the country continue to be traumatized by the unnecessary and unwarranted intrusion of law enforcement in schools. All too often, police too quick to arrest are abetted by school officials eager to rid themselves of students they perceive to be problems. We must demand more monitoring, oversight, and accountability—not just of our children, but also of the adults charged with their education and protection.

Johanna Wald is the director of strategic planning for the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School. Lisa Thurau is the founder and director of Strategies for Youth, a Cambridge, Mass.-based organization that works to improve relationships between police and young people.

Premium article access courtesy of Edweek.org.

The Berkman Center for Internet & Society is pleased to share the Youth and Media Policy Working Group Initiative's response to the FCC's Notice of Inquiry (09-94) on "Empowering Parents and Protecting Children in an Evolving Media Landscape":
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/publications/2010/Re_Empowering_Parents_Protecting_Children

The response synthesizes current research and data on the media practices of youth, focusing on three main areas -- 1) Risky Behaviors and Online Safety, 2) Privacy, Publicity and Reputation, and 3) Information Dissemination, Youth-Created Content and Quality of Information -- in order to highlight issues of genuine concern, such as growing participation and literacy gaps, and, crucially, in order to discuss the positive and creative opportunities that electronic media provide for young people. In each area, potential policy responses are discussed.

Today's filing was co-authored by John Palfrey, Urs Gasser, and danah boyd, with help from a terrific group of research assistants and colleagues. It was developed from the ongoing activities of the Berkman Center's Youth and Media Policy Working Group Initiative, which aims to bring the best research on youth and media into policy-making debates and to propose practical, relevant, situated solutions based upon that research. The Working Group Initiative itself builds in part on research carried out by the Berkman Center's Digital Natives project in support of Palfrey and Gasser's Born Digital (Basic Books, 2008). The response also benefited from the substantial literature review led by boyd as part of the Internet Safety Technical Task Force, as well as from Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out (MIT Press, 2009), the notable set of essays collaboratively written by members of the Digital Youth Project, including boyd.

For more information, see:
* FCC NOI 09-94: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-09-94A1.pdf
* Palfrey, Gasser, boyd response: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/publications/2010/Re_Empowering_Parents_Protecting_Children
* Youth and Media Policy Working Group Initiative: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/research/digitalnatives/policy
* Digital Natives project: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/research/digitalnatives
* Internet Safety Technical Task Force: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/research/isttf
* Digital Youth Project: http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu/

As always, we welcome your feedback. And we look forward to sharing more from the Youth and Media Policy Working Group Initiative as its work becomes publicly available.


Seth Young
Communications
Berkman Center for Internet & Society
Harvard University

--
The Berkman Center for Internet & Society -- http://cyber.law.harvard.edu -- exploring cyberspace, sharing in its study, and helping pioneer its development

One in 10 five-year-olds are 'nursery Neets'

Helping children fit in at school at an early age is key, says the study

More than one in 10 five-year-olds are already at risk of disengaging from education when they start school, according to a think tank report.

A study of 15,000 young children by Demos found 11.5% begin school without the behavioural skills they need to learn or to build friendships.
The study comes ahead of figures out later on young people not in education, employment or training - Neets.
Early intervention at the nursery stage is needed, the report argues.
Author Sonia Sodha said: "One in 10 children lacks the tools to benefit from education before they even get to the school gate."
"These nursery Neets show the same behaviour problems as older Neets, like difficulty making friends and bad behaviour."
The report says that only by helping children at an early age can they be prevented from later becoming unemployed and out of education.
It calls for more money for Sure Start centres and nurseries serving children from deprived areas and the trialling of financial incentives for at-risk parents to complete parenting courses.
Shaks Gosh, chief executive of the Private Equity Foundation which supported the study, said: "Early intervention is not about branding children before they have even started school - it is about dealing with any emotional issues, family problems, literacy and numeracy before it's too late."
Gap
Children's Minister Dawn Primarolo said the government had been working on improving children's chances in life by focussing on their early needs and education.
"This research confirms what we already knew in this very important area and have already taken action to ensure that every child gets the best possible start in life," she said.
"Since we introduced the Early Years Foundation Stage in 2008, overall achievement has reached its highest levels since records began and crucially improving the levels of attainment of the most deprived five year olds.
"And we are on course to deliver access to a Sure Start Children's Centre for every community, and working hard to ensure parents are aware of the services they offer, and the tremendous benefits early help can make in a child's life chances.
"The gap between rich and poor in early years continues to close, with the lowest-achieving children not only keeping pace but improving faster than the rest. We will continue to focus extra resources on the most disadvantaged youngsters."

Science and maths exams 'need shake-up'

By Angela Harrison Education and family reporter, BBC News

The report calls for more maths in science A-levels

Science and maths exams should be more demanding and more experts should be involved in teaching the subjects, an independent report has said.

The Science and Learning Expert Group says improving science and maths has been a high priority in recent years.

But it calls for more demanding GCSEs and A-levels, regulation of private exam boards and greater use of flexible pay to attract specialist teachers.

The government says many of the issues raised are being addressed.

Exams 'inadequate'

It set up the expert group as one of five which would provide advice on the UK's Science and Society Strategy.

An excellent education depends on excellent teaching, a strong curriculum and assessment that is fit for purpose Sir Mark Walport, chairman of the Science and Learning Expert Group

Science and Learning Expert Group chairman Sir Mark Walport said: "Many of us have good cause to be grateful to a single inspiring teacher whom we encountered during our school education.

"Our overarching recommendation is that specialist teachers and their subjects need to come to the fore in the teaching of science and mathematics in schools and colleges."

The report also calls for more maths content in GCSE and A-level science courses - especially in chemistry and physics A-levels.

The authors suggest exams are dictating what is taught in schools and that the exams themselves are seen as "inadequate" in testing the depth of students' knowledge and their understanding of key concepts.

The trend for multiple-choice questions was criticised, with the authors saying there should be "greater emphasis on accurate use of the English language".

The report said assessment should follow the curriculum rather than define it and that expert groups should be set up for each subject area to advise on the curriculum for five to 19-year-olds and on GCSEs and A-levels.

The science and maths community want a greater say in the development of qualifications and assessment, it adds.

'Right track'

Sir Mark said: "An excellent education depends on excellent teaching, a strong curriculum and assessment that is fit for purpose."

We believe that by involving those with real experience and understanding of teaching, a more holistic and effective science and mathematics education system will result Professor John Pethica, Royal Society vice-president

The group calls for regulation of private exam boards which offer GCSEs and A-levels, saying this would "prevent competition between them leading to lower standards".

The fear is that schools might opt for exam boards they consider to be offering easier qualifications.

Schools Minister Iain Wright said the report suggested the government was "on the right track" and that many of the issues raised were being addressed.

These included the need for greater maths content in GCSE science, the need to continue recruiting and supporting specialist teachers and the need for science A-levels to be more challenging, he added.

'Valuable contribution'

Royal Society vice-president Professor John Pethica said he was "delighted" by the recommendation that expert groups should advise on the development of the curriculum and qualifications.

"We believe that by involving those with real experience and understanding of teaching, a more holistic and effective science and mathematics education system will result," he said.

Sylvia McNamara, from the QCDA, the body responsible for the development of the curriculum and qualifications in England, said the report made a "valuable contribution" to the debate around the critical role of science and maths.

"This summer A-level students will sit the new style exams, which demand a more broader understanding and will better prepare young people for higher education and employment," she said.

"Input from teachers and lecturers, awarding bodies, subject specialists and the royal societies all played a vital role in the recent revisions to maths and science GCSEs, as well as the new Science Diploma for 2011."

A spokeswoman for Ofqual, England's exams watchdog said it worked to maintain standards.

"Ofqual carries out rigorous monitoring of the awarding bodies throughout the awarding process to ensure that standards are maintained year-on-year, across awarding bodies and across subjects," she said.

"Where we find problems or cause for concern over standards we have and will take action.

"While Ofqual accepts that teachers who become examiners have a wealth of experience and it is right that they should be able to share this experience with others for the educational good of pupils and students, we agree that there are limits to what can be allowed."

jorge.werthein@gmail.com sent you an Education Week Article.

This article was sent to you by: jorge.werthein@gmail.com

Best Practices in the Middle Grades Identified

February 25, 2010  by Mary Ann Zehr

California schools successfully serving students ages 10 to 14 shared a common set of characteristics, a new study finds.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/02/25/23middle.h29.html?tkn=YXXFPvYuFqTr%2BLlpmuADyECgyA2xvbfYPThy&intc=es

© 2007 Editorial Projects in Education

Brasil alcançará atual índice chileno de jovens no ensino superior apenas em 2022 Sarah Fernandes | sarahfernandes@aprendiz.org.br Apenas em 2022 o Brasil alcançará um índice de jovens inseridos no ensino superior próximo ao apresentado pelo Chile hoje, mesmo com as atuais políticas de inclusão. O diagnóstico é de uma pesquisa da Universidade de Brasília (UnB), que comparou o acesso à universidade nos dois países. Em 2006, 12% dos brasileiros entre 18 e 24 anos estudavam no ensino superior contra 27% no Chile. Em 2022, o percentual de universitários dessa faixa etária no Brasil deve ser 25%, segundo uma projeção do Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada (Ipea). “Os motivos para isto estão relacionados centralmente à maior desigualdade de renda encontrada na sociedade brasileira, sendo a desigualdade de acesso ao ensino superior um espelho da desigualdade de renda da sociedade”, avalia Luana Goveia, autora da pesquisa, intitulada “Ensino superior público e privado no Brasil e no Chile desde as reformas educacionais de 1968 e de 1981 até a década de 2000: Financiamento, acesso e desigualdade”. Soma-se à concentração de renda, segundo a pesquisa, o atraso brasileiro na implantação de programas de inclusão no ensino superior e a não obrigatoriedade do ensino médio no Brasil — será uma exigência a partir de 2016, de acordo com a emenda constitucional 59/09, de novembro de 2009. “O Brasil enfrenta uma queda no número de estudantes na passagem do ensino fundamental para o médio e depois outra do médio para o superior. O Chile enfrenta apenas uma queda, do médio para o superior”, aponta Luana. Hoje o Chile é o país com maior Índice de Desenvolvimento Humano (IDH) da América do Sul. O país ocupa a 44ª posição no ranking mundial (0,878 pontos), enquanto que o Brasil é o número 75 (0,813 pontos). O IDH mede os avanços alcançados por um país em três aspectos: vida longa e saudável (baseado na esperança média de vida ao nascer), acesso ao conhecimento (baseado na alfabetização e na escolarização) e nível de vida digno (baseado no PIB per capita associado ao poder de compra em dólares americanos). Os países são classificados dentro desses aspectos em valores médios entre 0 e 1. Programas de inclusão Nos últimos anos, o Brasil tem sido bem sucedido em incluir estudantes de baixa renda no ensino superior, segundo a pesquisa, por meio de iniciativas como a implantação de cotas para negros em vestibulares e o oferecimento de bolsas de estudo em universidades privadas. Com essas medidas, o percentual de universitários no Brasil cresceu mais que no Chile nos últimos sete anos, mas em um ritmo insuficiente para alcançar o país vizinho, de acordo com o estudo. O Chile privatizou todo o seu sistema ensino superior e passou a cobrar matrículas e mensalidades em todas as universidades públicas desde 1980, com a ditadura do general Augusto Pinochet. “Assim, garantiu o acesso da classe média, que apoiava o regime, e tirou verba das universidades contrárias a ditadura”, lembra Luana. Com a medida, o país começou a implantar programas de inclusão pelo menos dez anos antes que o Brasil. “Enquanto o Chile desde 1980 têm programas de bolsas e créditos baseado em critérios de renda e de notas, o Brasil começou com programas inclusivos no fim da década de 1990, quando foi detectada grande ociosidade das vagas do setor privado”, avalia Luana. “Os programas chilenos foram se estruturando ao longo dos anos e hoje abrangem quase 50% dos estudantes”. Portal Aprendiz, 24 de fevereiro,2010

Millennials' an always on, texting generation

They bring their cell phones to bed with them. They admit to texting while driving. They're almost certain to have a profile on social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook or Twitter.

You likely already know them, but in case you don't, meet a majority of the "Millennials," the generation born after 1980 and "the first generation to come of age in the new millennium," according to the Pew Research Center.

The center, which has studied that age group's behaviors since 2006, calls them "history's first 'always connected' generation" in a new report, "Millennials: A Portrait of Generation Next."

In a survey done last year, Pew's Internet & American Life Project said a third of teens ages 16 and 17 said they have texted while driving and 48 percent of teens ages 12 to 17 said they have been in a car when the driver was texting.

Read More

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35545420/from/ET

Gangues de Londres usam estupro como arma, diz relatório

Segundo o documento, violência sexual é usada em represálias nas disputas dos grupos.

Da BBC News - Um relatório divulgado por um centro de estudos britânico indica que garotas vêm se tornando vítimas de violência sexual como resultado das disputas entre gangues em Londres.

Depois de entrevistar mais de 350 mulheres e meninas, a organização Race On The Agenda revelou que o estupro é usado para punir garotas integrantes de gangues e parentes de membros de gangues rivais.

Todas as mulheres e meninas entrevistadas estão associadas a alguma gangue na capital britânica.

A autora do relatório, Carlene Firmin, disse que o estupro está sendo usado como "a arma favorita" e que poucas organizações e serviços estão equipados para ajudar as vítimas.

Poucos dados

Firmin descreveu a entrevista com uma jovem que foi presa por vender drogas para uma das gangues.

"Quando foi solta sob fiança, ela foi sequestrada e estuprada por vários membros da gangue, como punição e para silenciá-la", disse a autora do estudo.

Segundo o relatório, há poucas informações sobre o número de mulheres afetadas pela violência das gangues. O documento ainda destaca que os poucos serviços existentes para atender as vítimas sofrem da falta de recursos crônica e estão sobrecarregados.

Peaches Cadogan, ex-integrante de uma gangue que agora trabalha com a organização Reality Bites, que tenta ajudar membros de gangues, confirmou o que diz o relatório.

Segundo ela, as meninas envolvidas com gangues não sabem como sair da situação abusiva e temem as consequências se disserem "não".

"Esses membros de gangue não têm qualquer problema em colocar uma arma na boca de sua mãe - essas coisas acontecem diariamente", diz Cadogan.

Vida de violência

A reportagem da BBC falou com jovens meninas integrantes de gangues em Londres e Glasgow, na Escócia. Seus nomes foram trocados, mas suas histórias revelam o nível de envolvimento das jovens nos grupos criminosos.

"Já bati em gente. Já tive dez pessoas me atacando de uma vez. Minha cabeça foi ferida com uma garrafa. Quando uso a violência é porque a violência é usada contra mim, então, é o troco", disse Rebecca, integrante de uma gangue em Londres.

Ela fuma e vende maconha desde os 13 anos de idade e começou a vender drogas mais pesadas desde que deixou a escola.

"Quando você está envolvida com drogas pesadas e vende essas drogas, vem os crimes com armas de fogo, facas, tudo isso."

O leste de Glasgow tem uma das taxas mais altas de crimes com facas da Europa ocidental. A predominância dos crimes é entre jovens homens brancos, mas nos últimos anos, houve uma mudança nesta tendência.

Segundo assistentes sociais de um projeto para jovens na cidade escocesa, crianças de sete anos de idade já estão sendo arrastadas para a violência e cada vez mais meninas se envolvem com as gangues.

"Hoje em dia, as meninas se juntam às gangues para tentar fazer amigos. Acredito que elas sintam que precisam ser parte de alguma coisa - elas não têm autoconfiança ou autoestima", disse uma das assistentes, Stephanie Brady.

Há uma diferença aparente entre a violência entre gangues de Glasgow e Londres, no entanto: as disputas na cidade escocesa não estão ligadas a drogas - são apenas brigas alimentadas pelo álcool.

Família como alvo

"Está piorando cada vez mais", disse Louise, de 16 anos, que entrou para uma gangue aos 13 anos.

"As meninas são tão ruins quanto os garotos. Elas vão e começam, algumas delas se vestem como rapazes, agem como rapazes e saem por aí esfaqueando outras meninas, batendo nelas e rindo, só escolhendo as vítimas."

Uma vez dentro de uma gangue, a integrante não ousa sair de seus domínios. Louise cometeu um erro e começou a namorar um menino que morava em outra área. A gangue foi atrás da família dela.

"Minha mãe foi atacada quando eu não estava em casa. Bateram nela", disse a jovem.

"Ela tinha ferimentos por todo o rosto, seu olho estava inchado... ela ficou apavorada, com medo de ficar em nossa casa."

Em Glasgow, pelo menos, as jovens escapam da violência sexual, apesar de a prática de sexo entre menores, alimentada pelo consumo de álcool e drogas, ser cada vez mais comum.

Em Londres e Glasgow, essas meninas são a segunda ou terceira geração de famílias associadas com gangues - elas não conhecem outra vida, tendo nascido e crescido em meio ao crime.

Este é um mundo praticamente desconhecido da sociedade britânica, e só agora a questão das gangues começa a chamar a atenção dos políticos do país. BBC Brasil - Todos os direitos reservados. É proibido todo tipo de reprodução sem autorização por escrito da BBC.

Tags: criminalidade, gangues, londres, glasgow, violência, estupro, drogas,juventude

Clique no link da notícia para ler toda a matéria. 2. Associação Brasileira de Jornalismo Científico apresenta recomendações para a Conferência Nacional de CT&I Entidade defende a adoção de políticas públicas de Comunicação em CT&I

Clique no link da notícia para ler toda a matéria. 15. "Vai levar mais dois anos para finalizar esse negócio", entrevista com Yvo de Bôer Chefe da ONU para o clima descarta conclusão de acordo contra emissões no México

Does the U.S. Produce Too Many Scientists?

By Beryl Lieff Benderly
American science education lags behind that of many other nations, right? So why does it produce so many talented young researchers who cannot find a job in their chosen field of study?

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=does-the-us-produce-too-m&SID=mail&sc=emailfriend

Jueves, 18 de febrero de 2010 Cómo hacer que internet sea mucho más rápido La promesa de Google de crear una banda ancha de muy alta velocidad no debe reducirse sólo al aspecto de la infraestructura física. La semana pasada Google anunció planes para construir una red de fibra experimental que ofrecería velocidades de banda ancha de un gigabit por segundo en hasta 500.000 hogares de los EE.UU. Entre otros objetivos, la compañía afirmó que quería “poner a prueba nuevas formas de construir redes de fibra, así como informar acerca de ellas y ayudar con su instalación en el resto de localizaciones.” Google no ha publicado muchos detalles aún, pero los expertos creen que lo principal del éxito de una banda ancha de muy alta velocidad no sólo recae en la fibra. Para realmente poder aumentar la velocidad de internet, Google tendrá que operar a muchos niveles de su infraestructura. Las velocidades de un gigabit por segundo son mucho más rápidas de lo que, por ejemplo, ofrecen los servicios de alta velocidad actuales como el de Verizon FiOS. Sin embargo, la red de Google no será la primera en alcanzar esas velocidades. Existen varias otras instalaciones a nivel internacional, incluyendo en lugares como Hong Kong, los Países Bajos y Australia. Internet2, un consorcio de redes avanzadas sin ánimo de lucro en los Estados Unidos, ha estado experimentando con internet de muy alta velocidad durante más de una década, ofreciendo conexiones de 10 gigabit a investigadores universitarios. Las aplicaciones existentes para internet de muy alta velocidad incluyen la transferencia de archivos de muy gran tamaño, el streaming de video de alta definición (y posiblemente en 3-D), las video conferencias, y los juegos. Algunos expertos especulan que el acceso a grandes archivos de datos y aplicaciones a través de la nube también podría requerir una mejor banda ancha. “Sólo con ampliar la infraestructura física no podemos garantizar la distribución de aplicaciones de alta gama a los usuarios finales,” afirma Gary Bachula, vice presidente de relaciones externas de Internet2. Hay muchos factores más allá de la banda ancha en sí, afirma Bachula. Por ejemplo, un router configurado de forma errónea o un firewall de universidad que afecte al rendimiento y acabe haciendo que la red se congestione. “Tenemos que tener redes abiertas, hay que publicar los datos de rendimiento, tenemos que tener a personas capaces de arreglar los problemas de la red de forma remota,” afirma Bachula. Durante los últimos años, Internet2 ha estado investigando herramientas y tecnologías que pueden ayudar a encontrar y solucionar los problemas de rendimiento que ocurren en las conexiones de alta velocidad “de forma sistemática y sin interrupciones.” Lo ideal, afirma, sería que tanto los consumidores como los administradores de red pudieran utilizar estas herramientas para hacer un diagnóstico de la red. “Si realmente queremos implantar estas aplicaciones de gama alta, hay que ir más allá de la banda ancha en crudo,” afirma. Tampoco basta con construir una infraestructura de hardware rápida, afirma Steven Low, profesor de ciencias informáticas e ingeniería eléctrica en Caltech, así como cofundador de la compañía FastSoft, con sede en Pasadena, California, y dedicada a la tecnología de optimización de redes. Low cree que los protocolos que mueven el tráfico por la red también necesitarán ser actualizados para poder hacer un uso efectivo de las capacidades de muy alta velocidad. Por ejemplo, el protocolo de control de transmisión (TCP), el algoritmo de 20 años que gobierna la mayoría del flujo de tráfico por internet, no funciona bien a velocidades de un gigabit por segundo. Los métodos usados por el TCP estándar para asegurarse de que no esté perdiendo datos provocan que utilice muy poca cantidad del ancho de banda disponible. Low señala que existen problemas similares en muchos protocolos, y que a menudo se dan problemas con la forma en que los protocolos se coordinan entre ellos y que eso puede ralentizar aún más el rendimiento de la red. El ancho de banda de alta velocidad hasta los escritorios de los usuarios también podría tomarse como una oportunidad para crear nuevos sistemas. “¿Qué nuevas aplicaciones se harán posibles que en la actualidad no lo son y que los usuarios realmente deseen utilizar, y qué protocolos de aplicaciones son necesarios para hacer que funcionen?” afirma. Rudolf van der Berg, asesor de telecomunicaciones que estuvo involucrado en la dirección de una de las primeras redes de banda ancha mundiales, afirma que aunque otras compañías y organizaciones han encontrado formas de instalar conexiones en el rango de los gigabits, la colocación física de la fibra aún supone entre un 70 y un 80 por ciento del coste del proyecto. Google podría hacer una gran contribución mediante la aplicación de métodos más eficientes en cuanto a costes, afirma. También señala que la intención de Google de compartir la red entre múltiples proveedores podría influenciar la forma en que la red se estructura a nivel técnico. Las redes que llevan una fibra a un grupo de hogares y después comparten la banda ancha entre ellos son más difíciles de administrar según el modelo de acceso abierto, señala van der Berg. Google aún no tiene todos los detalles de sus planes para la red experimental, según informa un portavoz de la compañía, pero ya existen varios ingenieros interesados en varios tipos de experimentos relacionados con la instalación. Google espera que algunos de sus equipos estén interesados en encontrar formas mejores de instalar la fibra, que otros deseen experimentar con las capacidades de la red, y así de forma similar con otros equipos. La compañía tiene pensado ofrecer su propio servicio de internet a los clientes en la comunidad o comunidades que seleccione para sus pruebas, y también espera asociarse con otras compañías que ofrezcan servicios a través del uso de su red. En la actualidad Google está recogiendo propuestas de las comunidades interesadas. La compañía espera elegir las localizaciones para finales de año. Bachula desde Internet2 cree que la iniciativa de Google animará a organizaciones como la FCC a configurar objetivos concretos para el acceso a la banda ancha a lo largo de los Estados Unidos. Mediante la propuesta de un gigabit por segundo, señala Bachula, Google ha abierto la puerta a una conversación sobre cómo de rápidas deberían ser las conexiones de internet del futuro. Copyright Technology Review 2010.