Por um ensino melhor

editorial da "Folha de SP" "É louvável a iniciativa de entidades sociais de propor que candidatos assumam compromissos públicos com a educação antes da eleição" Leia o editorial: Duas dezenas de organizações lançam nesta terça-feira (31/8) em Brasília a "Carta-Compromisso pela Garantia do Direito à Educação de Qualidade", que pretendem ver adotada por candidatos aos Poderes Executivo e Legislativo. Trata-se de um passo adiante na crescente tomada de consciência da esfera pública quanto ao papel estratégico do ensino. Ela já levou à formação do movimento Todos pela Educação, articulador da carta, que logrou conferir ao tema uma prioridade perto de consensual. O documento repete a fórmula bem-sucedida de vincular prioridades gerais com metas concretas, passíveis de acompanhamento e verificação. Entre os objetivos específicos estão alfabetizar todas as crianças até oito anos de idade antes de 2014, incluir todos os jovens e crianças de 4 a 17 anos na escola até 2016 e cobrir toda a demanda por vagas em creches até 2020. São propostas factíveis, mas nem por isso triviais. Além das metas relativas ao ensino, fixa-se o objetivo mais geral de elevar a fatia do PIB investida no setor a 10%, dos quais 8% para a educação básica e 2% para a superior. Já houve melhora: a educação básica recebe hoje cerca de 5% do PIB, contra 3,7% em 2006. Embora desejável, o aumento de verbas precisa ser contextualizado. Parece improvável que candidatos se comprometam previamente com metas de elevação de investimentos no ensino sem levar em conta demandas de outras áreas, como a de saúde. Além disso, o acréscimo de recursos precisa estar vinculado a objetivos determinados e ao aperfeiçoamento da gestão, sob pena de desperdício. Outros objetivos da proposta também suscitam reserva, pois os meios de alcançá-los não se mostram tão consensuais quanto poderia parecer. Além da parcela do PIB, são eles: valorização dos profissionais da educação, gestão democrática das escolas e aperfeiçoamento das políticas de avaliação e regulação. Ora, são bem conhecidas as divergências de fundo ideológico a respeito dos três pontos que separam gestões do PT e do PSDB em todos os níveis de governo. As políticas tucanas de premiação por mérito para educadores, por exemplo, são malvistas nos círculos sindicais petistas. Tampouco parece corriqueiro, no campo dos conflitos reais, chegar a acordo sobre o que seja uma gestão democrática, que não resulte em aparelhamento da escola por grupos partidários. Ou, então, sobre que consequências dar para resultados de avaliação. À parte essas discordâncias, não resta dúvida de que cabe pôr em prática de uma vez por todas o piso salarial nacional para docentes de R$ 1.024,67 (inferior até à renda média do país, R$ 1.117,95), ainda ignorado em alguns estados. Para esses casos, uma Lei de Responsabilidade Educacional não seria má ideia. Todos os candidatos deveriam subscrever o compromisso, ainda que fazendo as ressalvas cabíveis no que respeita à aplicabilidade e explicitando que interpretação dariam aos princípios sujeitos a controvérsia. Se a campanha eleitoral seguisse esse figurino, o público não estaria presenciando o festival de inanidades marqueteiras que assola o país. (Folha de SP, 31/8)

Plan Nacional de Educacion

Lo anticipó el ex ministro Tedesco; contempla jornadas de seis horas

Silvina Premat
LA NACION

El gobierno nacional está elaborando un plan con prioridades para la educación, que orientará la acción de las autoridades de esa área durante los próximos diez años.

El responsable de la redacción definitiva de ese programa es Juan Carlos Tedesco, director de la Unidad de Planeamiento y Evaluación de la Educación, dependiente de la Presidencia de la Nación, quien lo presentará en el próximo congreso de ministros de países iberoamericanos, que se realizará dentro de pocas semanas en Buenos Aires.

"Es un plan que forma parte de una estrategia iberoamericana 2011-2021, que fijará metas para alcanzar. Cada gobierno podrá usar la metodología que elija", explicó Tedesco durante un encuentro de ex ministros de Educación, organizado por el Cippec. Tedesco fue ministro de Educación entre 2007 y 2009.

Tedesco adelantó que en la elaboración de las diez metas fundamentales de ese plan colaboraron universidades y organismos nacionales e internacionales.

Entre los objetivos, figuran, según enumeró Tedesco en diálogo con LA NACION, universalizar la educación inicial; avanzar en la obligatoriedad de la escuela secundaria; establecer una jornada extendida de seis horas para los alumnos de las escuelas públicas en los sectores más pobres; aumentar las horas de clase en ciencia y matemáticas; incrementar el rendimiento en mediciones internacionales de calidad y mejorar la formación docente.

Otra de las metas será mejorar la infraestructura escolar. Y, en este sentido, Tedesco adelantó que está hecho el cálculo de cuánto hay que construir en diez años en todo el país.

Se buscará que todos los institutos de formación docente tengan una maestría; que se reforme la carrera docente; que todas las escuelas estén conectadas y que se forme un centro de innovaciones pedagógicas.

"Este plan no reemplazará a la gestión, pero sí da una orientación para trabajar en esa dirección", dijo Tedesco, y agregó que las metas están cuantificadas con una etapa intermedia en 2016. "Simbólicamente, nos permitirá celebrar el bicentenario de la declaración de la independencia con una evaluación de resultados de los cinco primeros años de plan y hacer las adecuaciones que sean pertinentes", planteó.

Juan José Llach, experto en educación y ministro (1999-2000), celebró el anuncio de Tedesco y destacó tres factores en común en las exposiciones que hicieron durante el encuentro, coordinado por Axel Rivas, de Cippec; los otros participantes: Susana Decibe (1996-1999) y Andrés Delich (2001).

Todos habían coincidido en señalar como desafíos de la educación en el país la necesidad de ampliar el acceso al nivel inicial, el establecimiento de la jornada extendida (de 6 horas) y la urgencia de firmar un "nuevo contrato de la sociedad con los

Education in the U.S.A.

Editorial

Continue the Race

The Obama administration’s Race to the Top initiative has shown that competitive grant programs can be a powerful spur to innovation in education. Most of the 12 states that were awarded grants this year — and the more than 30 states that changed education policies in hopes of winning grants — would never have attempted reform on this scale without the promise of federal help.

The administration secured $4.35 billion for the program in the stimulus package and has requested $1.35 billion for next year. Congress should find the money.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan made clear that the process would favor bold reform plans from states with proven records of improving student performance. The states were required to create data-driven systems for training and evaluating principals and teachers; encourage the establishment of high-quality charter schools; develop plans for turning around failing schools; and demonstrate a strong political consensus for reform.

Critics predicted that the Education Department would cave, and end up financing mediocre programs, once members of Congress turned up the heat. Mr. Duncan held firm. In last spring’s first round, grants were awarded to only two of 41 applicants — Delaware and Tennessee. The second round ended last week, with 10 states sharing the remaining $3.4 billion in the fund. (The grants were prorated based on population.)

New York, which got nearly $700 million, improved its chances by adopting a new teacher evaluation system that takes student test performance into account and an expedited system for firing ineffective teachers. The District of Columbia received $75 million, based partly on its new performance-based teachers contract, an ambitious school turnaround plan and a novel program under which not-for-profits and others from outside the system will operate some struggling schools.

Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey initially blamed federal grant evaluators for the fact that his state lost out after filing the wrong budget information with its application. (Mr. Christie has fired his education commissioner over the matter.) But there were other equally self-inflicted wounds, including the Christie administration’s failure to build support for the application among unions and local school districts.

Thanks to the application process, even states that did not get grants now have road maps to reform and a better sense of what it will take build better schools.

The New York Times

Study Finds Computers' Popularity Overstated

By Linda Chion-Kenney

The typical student views computers as another "academic drudgery" and views peers who like the machines as unusually bright or unpopular, according to a study of children's attitudes toward computers presented at the American Psychological Association's recent annual meeting.

Moreover, the study found that students prefer not to use computers during their free time and increasingly develop misconceptions about computers, even after four years' experience with them.

"To make children computer-literate is much more difficult than we imagined," said Steven Pulos, one of three researchers at the University of California at Berkeley who conducted the study. "It's difficult to acquire an accurate conception of computers, a natural understanding of them. If you like computers, you risk being seen as a...

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"A ciência do Brasil faz diferença"

David Silitoe/The Guardian

QUEM É Cosmologista e astrofísico britânico, é o Astrônomo Real desde 1995 e presidente da Royal Society, a sociedade real de ciências do Reino Unido, desde 2005 O QUE FEZ Seus mais de 500 artigos científicos ajudaram a explicar aspectos do Universo como a formação das galáxias e a radiação proveniente do bigue-bangue O QUE ORGANIZA Está promovendo o encontro Fronteiras da Ciência, no Brasil ÉPOCA - Por que a Royal Society escolheu o Brasil? Martin Rees - O Brasil é cada vez mais importante no mundo científico. Nos últimos anos, o orçamento para pesquisas dobrou e o país desenvolveu parcerias com o Reino Unido. Vocês têm liderança em biocombustíveis e pesquisa de ponta na área agrícola. Nessas áreas o Brasil começa a fazer diferença. Assim como no desenvolvimento de energias limpas.
Para o presidente da academia britânica, nosso país está na vanguarda - em algumas áreas
ALEXANDRE MANSUR

A mais prestigiada academia científica do mundo, a Royal Society britânica, escolheu o Brasil para participar de seu 350º aniversário. Além de eventos no Reino Unido, a sociedade promove dois grandes encontros internacionais. Um deles é o Fronteiras da Ciência, que reúne 78 pesquisadores britânicos, brasileiros e chilenos para debater os limites do conhecimento entre 30 de agosto e 3 de setembro, em Itatiba, no interior de São Paulo. Para o astrofísico Martin Rees, presidente da entidade, a escolha faz jus ao avanço brasileiro nos últimos anos, em especial nas áreas de agricultura e energias limpas. "Qualquer país que deseje se desenvolver precisa criar uma grande comunidade científica", afirma Rees. Diz que ainda há muito a ser descoberto. "Estamos nos aproximando de questões que nem haviam sido propostas quando eu era estudante."

ENTREVISTA - MARTIN REES

QUEM É

Cosmologista e astrofísico britânico, é o Astrônomo Real desde 1995 e presidente da Royal Society, a sociedade real de ciências do Reino Unido, desde 2005 O QUE FEZ

Seus mais de 500 artigos científicos ajudaram a explicar aspectos do Universo como a formação das galáxias e a radiação proveniente do bigue-bangue O QUE ORGANIZA

Está promovendo o encontro Fronteiras da Ciência, no Brasil

ÉPOCA - Por que a Royal Society escolheu o Brasil?

Martin Rees - O Brasil é cada vez mais importante no mundo científico. Nos últimos anos, o orçamento para pesquisas dobrou e o país desenvolveu parcerias com o Reino Unido. Vocês têm liderança em biocombustíveis e pesquisa de ponta na área agrícola. Nessas áreas o Brasil começa a fazer diferença. Assim como no desenvolvimento de energias limpas. ÉPOCA - Como converter essa produção científica em inovação tecnológica que renda retorno econômico?

Rees - Também nos preocupamos com isso no Reino Unido. Qualquer país que deseje se desenvolver precisa criar uma grande comunidade científica. Não só porque os pesquisadores farão descobertas. Mas porque estão ligados à comunidade científica internacional, de onde vêm mais de 90% das descobertas. Vocês precisam de gente capaz de identificar os avanços e trazê-los para o país. ÉPOCA - Um país em desenvolvimento como o Brasil pode se dar ao luxo de investir em ciência básica, que não dá retorno imediato?

Rees - Os recursos dedicados a pesquisas básicas em qualquer país são uma fração pequena do total. Acontece que você precisa ter boas universidades e centros de pesquisa para formar pessoas qualificadas e reter os cérebros que iriam para outro país. Por isso, é fundamental desenvolver físicos, químicos e matemáticos, mesmo que não pesquisem diretamente aplicações industriais. Eles educarão a próxima geração de especialistas. ÉPOCA - Ainda existe alguma grande descoberta a ser feita?

Rees - De certa forma, estamos começando. Estamos nos aproximando de questões mais fundamentais, que nem haviam sido propostas quando eu era estudante. Ainda não entendemos as condições no bigue-bangue (a origem do Universo). Gostaríamos de entender o que levou o Universo dessa fase inicial, mais quente, para o cosmo que vemos hoje. Como se formaram os primeiros átomos, estrelas, galáxias e planetas. E como a biosfera se constituiu. Temos apenas uma compreensão parcial desses eventos. O darwinismo consegue explicar como a diversidade de vidas complexas surgiu a partir de alguns organismos mais simples. De forma semelhante, estamos tentando entender como esse cosmo complexo se desenvolveu desde o início, há 13,5 bilhões de anos. ÉPOCA - Para contar essa história, os cosmologistas começam a evocar conceitos estranhos, como múltiplos universos paralelos ou dezenas de dimensões. Algum dia esbarraremos no limite de nossa capacidade de compreensão?

Rees - Há vários conceitos difíceis porque não são intuitivos. Mas isso não é exatamente novo. Os princípios da física quântica, dos anos 1920, já eram assim. Porque a matéria, na escala subatômica, se comporta de forma bem diferente do que nós vemos no dia a dia. E é uma teoria bem estabelecida, que serve de base para boa parte das tecnologias atuais. ÉPOCA - Algum dia saberemos o que houve antes do bigue-bangue?

Rees - De certa forma, essa não é a linguagem certa. Quanto mais próximos chegamos do evento inicial, os conceitos de espaço e tempo começam a deixar de fazer sentido. Quando o tempo deixa de ser como uma seta, de antes para depois, não dá mais para pensar em termos de o que aconteceu primeiro. Mas tenho esperança de que teremos uma noção mais clara de por que o Universo começou. ÉPOCA - A religião oferece essa explicação para o Universo?

Rees - Religião e ciência são duas atividades bem diferentes. A ciência nos oferece vários mistérios. E precisamos entender que, mesmo que não os entendamos agora, saberemos cada vez mais no futuro. ÉPOCA - O senhor acredita em Deus?

Rees - Não gostaria de responder. ÉPOCA - A espécie humana vai sobreviver a este século?

Rees - Seguramente, embora haja o risco de passarmos por um contratempo grave, como uma guerra nuclear. E há a pressão cada vez maior sobre o meio ambiente. Nós nos aproximamos de uma população de 9 bilhões de pessoas, com dificuldades para produzir alimento e energia. ÉPOCA - O físico Stephen Hawkins propõe que colonizemos outros planetas. O senhor concorda?

Rees - É uma sugestão idiota. Não há nenhum lugar no Sistema Solar tão confortável quanto a Antártica ou o Monte Everest. As viagens espaciais serão uma empreitada apenas para os aventureiros. ÉPOCA - E os planetas que estão sendo descobertos em outros sistemas solares? Chegaremos lá algum dia?

Rees - Só se você pensar em uma escala de tempo de bilhões de anos. Aí podemos imaginar que a vida sairá da Terra. Mas provavelmente não serão humanos. Porque o tempo transcorrido até lá será mais longo do que o que vivemos desde o início do nosso Sol. Em 4 bilhões de anos, a vida mudou de formas com apenas uma célula para organismos como os humanos. Se a vida da Terra chegar a outras estrelas, será uma vida além dos humanos. Não há razão para imaginar que os humanos sejam o estágio final da evolução.

Articulo de Mario Vargas Llosa

Irene Nemirovsky, una victima del nazismo que narro esos años en una obra maestra

Bajo el oprobio

Mario Vargas Llosa

Irene Némirovsky conoció el mal, es decir, el odio y la estupidez, desde la cuna, a través de su madre, belleza frívola a la que la hija le recordaba que los seres humanos envejecen y se afean; por eso, la detestó y mantuvo siempre a una distancia profiláctica. El padre era un banquero que viajaba mucho y al que la niña veía rara vez. Nacida en 1903, en Kiev, Irène se volcó a los estudios y llegó a dominar siete idiomas, sobre todo el francés, en el que más tarde escribiría sus libros. Pese a su fortuna, la familia, por ser judía, se vio hostigada ya en Rusia en el tiempo de los zares, donde el antisemitismo campeaba. Luego, al triunfar la revolución bolchevique, fue expropiada y debió huir, a Finlandia y Suecia primero y, finalmente, a Francia, donde se instaló en 1920. También allí el antisemitismo hacía de las suyas y, pese a sus múltiples empeños, ni Irène ni su marido, Michel Epstein, banquero como su suegro, pudieron obtener la nacionalidad francesa. Su condición de parias sellaría su ruina durante la ocupación alemana.

En los años veinte, las novelas de Irène Némirovsky tuvieron éxito -sobre todo, David Golder , llevada al cine por Julien Duvivier-, le dieron prestigio literario y fueron elogiadas incluso por antisemitas notorios como Robert Brasillach, futuro colaboracionista de los nazis ejecutado a la Liberación. No eran casuales estos últimos elogios. En sus novelas, principalmente en David Golder , la autora recogía a menudo los estereotipos del racismo antijudío, como su supuesta avidez por el dinero y su resistencia a integrarse en las sociedades de las que formaban parte. Aunque Irène rechazó siempre las acusaciones de ser un típico caso del "judío que odia a los judíos", lo cierto es que hubo en ella un malestar y, a ratos, una rabia visceral por no poder llevar una vida normal, por verse siempre catalogada como un ser "otro" debido al antisemitismo, una de las taras más abominables de la civilización occidental. Eso explica, sin duda, que colaborara en revistas como Candide y Gringoire , fanáticamente antisemitas. Irène y Michel Epstein comprobaron en carne propia que no era fácil para una familia judía "integrarse" en una sociedad corroída por el virus racista. Su conversión al catolicismo en 1939, religión en la que fueron bautizadas también las dos hijas de la pareja, Denise y Elizabeth, no les sirvió de nada cuando llegaron los nazis y dictaron las primeras medidas de "arianización" de Francia, a las que el gobierno de Vichy, presidido por el mariscal Pétain, prestó diligente apoyo.

Irène y Michel fueron expropiados de sus bienes y expulsados de sus trabajos. Ella sólo pudo publicar a partir de entonces con seudónimo, gracias a la complicidad de su editorial (Albin Michel). Como carecían de la nacionalidad francesa debieron permanecer en la zona ocupada, registrarse como judíos y llevar cosida en la ropa la estrella amarilla de David. Se retiraron de París al pueblo de Issy-l´...vêque, donde pasarían los dos últimos años de su vida, soportando las peores humillaciones y viviendo en la inseguridad y el miedo. El 13 de julio de 1942, los gendarmes franceses arrestaron a Irène. La enviaron primero a un campo de concentración en Pithiviers, y luego a Auschwitz, donde fue gaseada y exterminada. La misma suerte correría su esposo, pocos meses después.

Las dos pequeñas, Denise y Elizabeth, se salvaron de milagro de perecer como sus padres. Sobrevivieron gracias a una antigua niñera, que, escondiéndolas en establos, conventos, refugios de pastores y casas de amigos, consiguió eludir a la gendarmería, que persiguió a las niñas por toda Francia durante años. La monstruosa abuela, que vivía como una rica cocotte , rodeada de gigolós, en Niza, se negó a recibir a las nietas y, a través de la puerta, les gritó: "¡Si se han quedado huérfanas, lárguense a un hospicio!". En su peregrinar, las niñas arrastraban una maleta con recuerdos y cosas personales de la madre. Entre ellas había unos cuadernos borroneados con letra menudita, de araña. Ni Denise ni Elizabeth se animaron a leerlos, pensando que ese diario o memoria final de su progenitora sería demasiado desgarrador para ellas. Cuando se animaron por fin a hacerlo, sesenta años más tarde, descubrieron que era una novela: Suite francesa .

No una novela cualquiera: una obra maestra, uno de los testimonios más extraordinarios que haya producido la literatura del siglo XX sobre la bestialidad y la barbarie de los seres humanos y, también, sobre los desastres de la guerra y las pequeñeces, vilezas, ternuras y grandezas que esa experiencia cataclísmica produce en quienes los padecen y viven bajo el oprobio cotidiano de la servidumbre y el miedo. Acabo de terminar de leerla y escribo estas líneas todavía sobrecogido por esa inmersión en el horror que es al mismo tiempo -manes de la gran literatura- una proeza artística de primer orden, un libro de admirable arquitectura y soberbia elegancia, sin sentimentalismo ni truculencia, sereno, frío, inteligente, que hechiza y revuelve las tripas, que hace gozar, da miedo y obliga a pensar.

Irène Némirovsky debió ser una mujer fuera de lo común. Resulta difícil concebir que alguien que vivía a salto de mata, consciente de que en cualquier momento podía ser encarcelada, su familia deshecha y sus hijas abandonadas en el desamparo total, fuera capaz de emprender un proyecto tan ambicioso como el de Suite francesa y lo llevara a cabo con tanta felicidad, trabajando en condiciones tan precarias. Sus cartas indican que se iba muy de mañana a la campiña y que escribía allí todo el día, acuclillada bajo un árbol, en una letra minúscula por la escasez de papel.

El manuscrito no delata correcciones, algo notable, pues la estructura de la novela es redonda, sin fallas, así como su coherencia y la sincronización de acciones entre las decenas de personajes que se cruzan y descruzan en sus páginas hasta trazar el fresco de toda una sociedad sometida, por la invasión y la ocupación, a una especie de descarga eléctrica que la desnuda de todos sus secretos.

Había planeado una historia en cinco partes, de las que sólo terminó dos. Pero ambas son autosuficientes. La primera narra la hégira de los parisinos al interior de Francia, enloquecidos con la noticia de que las tropas alemanas han perforado la línea Maginot, derrotado al ejército francés y ocuparán la capital en cualquier momento. La segunda, describe la vida en la Francia rural y campesina ocupada por las tropas alemanas. La descripción de lo que en ambas circunstancias sucede es minuciosa y serena, lo general y lo particular alternan de manera que el lector no pierde nunca la perspectiva del conjunto, mientras las historias de las familias e individuos concretos le permitan tomar conciencia de los menudos incidentes, tragedias, situaciones grotescas, cómicas, las cobardías y mezquindades que se mezclan con generosidades y heroísmos y la confusión y el desorden en que, en pocas horas, parece naufragar una civilización de muchos siglos, sus valores, su moral, sus maneras, sus instituciones, arrebatadas por la tempestad de tanques, bombardeos y matanzas.

Irène Némirovsky tenía al Tolstoi de Guerra y paz como modelo cuando escribía su novela; pero el ejemplo que más le sirvió en la práctica fue el de Flaubert, cuya técnica de la impersonalidad elogia en una de sus notas. Esa estrategia narrativa ella la dominaba a la perfección. El narrador de su historia es un fantasma, una esfinge, una ausencia locuaz. No opina, no enfatiza, no juzga: muestra, con absoluta imparcialidad. Por eso, le creemos, y por eso esa historia fagocita al lector y éste la vive al unísono con los personajes y es con ellos valiente, cobarde, ingenuo, idealista, vil, inteligente, estúpido. No sólo la sociedad francesa desfila por ese caleidoscopio de palabras, la humanidad entera parece haber sido apresada en esas páginas cuya maniática precisión es engañosa, pues por debajo de ella todo es dolor, desgarramiento, desánimo, tortura, envilecimiento, aunque, a veces, también, nobleza, amistad, amor y generosidad. La novela muestra cómo la vida es siempre más rica y sutil que las convicciones políticas y las ideologías y cómo puede a veces sobreponerse a los odios, las enemistades y las pasiones e imponer la sensatez y la racionalidad. Las relaciones que llegan a anudarse, por ejemplo, entre muchachas campesinas y burguesas -entre ellas, algunas esposas que tienen a sus maridos como prisioneros de guerra- y los soldados alemanes, uno de los temas más difíciles de desarrollar, están narradas con insuperable eficacia y dan lugar a las páginas más conmovedoras del libro.

Sobre la Segunda Guerra Mundial y los estragos que ella causó, así como sobre la irracionalidad homicida de Hitler y el nazismo, se han escrito bibliotecas enteras de historias, ensayos, novelas, testimonios y estudios y se han hecho documentales innumerables, muchos excelentes. Yo quisiera decir que, entre todo ese material casi infinito, probablemente nadie consiguió mostrar de manera más persuasiva, lúcida y sentida, en el ámbito de la literatura, los alcances de aquel apocalipsis para los seres comunes y corrientes, como esta exiliada de Kiev, condenada a ser una de sus víctimas, que ante la adversidad optó por coger un lápiz y un cuaderno y echarse a fantasear otra vida para vengarse de la vida tan injusta que vivió.

© LA Nacion

Um grande paradoxo brasileiro

"Por que então não eleger esta que começa como a Década da Educação e da Ciência?" Roberto Lent é diretor do Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) e membro do Conselho Deliberativo do Instituto Ciência Hoje. Artigo publicado em "O Globo": É patente para todos os observadores independentes que o Brasil conseguiu infletir fortemente para cima, nos últimos anos, a modesta curva de crescimento da ciência e tecnologia que caracterizou o século passado. No entanto, não foi isso que ocorreu na educação, área em que os indicadores estão estagnados ou sofreram modesta ascensão. Esse grande paradoxo é simbolizado por dois indicadores internacionais: nosso país ocupa hoje o 13º lugar na produção de artigos científicos em todo o mundo, mas é o último no desempenho em ciências de jovens de 15 anos. O paradoxo é tão grave que pode pôr em risco a sustentabilidade do nosso crescimento científico. Como mantê-lo sem multiplicar o número de cientistas? E como multiplicá-los em uma população de jovens que não compreende minimamente os temas científicos? Como manter e o aporte financeiro à ciência e tecnologia no futuro, se a sociedade não compreender o valor que a ciência tem para o seu bem-estar e o seu progresso? Em qualquer atividade gestora, é preciso priorizar e adotar medidas estruturantes e potencializadoras. Duas delas me parecem essenciais neste caso: a dedicação exclusiva do professor de ensino básico à sua escola, e o turno único para os alunos. Como conseguir essa façanha? Primeiro, precisamos estar convencidos de que são esses os dois eixos fundamentais - porque repousam no fator humano, e não em laptops, salas de aula, livros e outros elementos materiais, importantíssimos, mas comparativamente fáceis de conseguir. A façanha é exequível em uma década - por que então não eleger esta que começa como a Década da Educação e da Ciência? A dedicação exclusiva do professor à sua escola não depende apenas de legislação: depende de salário. E, por razões financeiras, não há como garantir um salário competitivo por meio dos municípios brasileiros, convençamo-nos disso! A proposta então é que o governo federal assuma essa tarefa: federalização da categoria dos professores do ensino básico, com o objetivo de elevar o seu salário aos níveis de um professor assistente das universidades públicas. O turno único para os alunos, por outro lado, depende da duplicação da capacidade física da rede escolar em todo o país, combinando o aumento do número de escolas com a ampliação das existentes. É razoável supor que a federalização dos salários desoneraria as finanças municipais em grande medida, e permitiria que os 20% previstos em lei fossem destinados à ampliação física da rede escolar. Se esses dois eixos estruturantes forem adotados pelos nossos candidatos à Presidência da República, e aceitos pela sociedade, será fácil eleger o período 2011-2020 como a Década da Educação e da Ciência, e inaugurar um ciclo ideológico forte para a mobilização social, com um Esforço Nacional pela Educação e a Ciência. A esses dois eixos se somariam todos os pequenos e valiosos programas e iniciativas que muitas instituições e pessoas realizam pelo Brasil afora com financiamento público e privado, tais como atividades de aprimoramento curricular, acesso à internet nas escolas, divulgação científica, bolsas para projetos docentes, e a infinidade de propostas que, cada dia mais, afloram à superfície. Estamos em um momento histórico virtuoso, e precisamos mantê-lo. Essa década é nossa: a década da Educação e da Ciência. E a obrigação é de todos nós: um esforço nacional pela Educação e a Ciência. (O Globo, 27/8)

Lições do Ideb: urgência não é igual a pressa

"Não devemos apressar ações sem que haja o necessário fundamento, pois nosso compromisso deve ser com a aprendizagem dos estudantes"

Jorge Gerdau Johannpeter é presidente do conselho de governança do Todos pela Educação. Artigo publicado na "Folha de SP":



Os dados do Ideb (Índice de Desenvolvimento da Educação Básica) de 2009, divulgados recentemente pelo MEC (Ministério da Educação), trazem um quadro evolutivo da aprendizagem e da aprovação dos nossos estudantes.



Se, por um lado, a análise dos dados recomenda reflexão, por outro, indica que há o que comemorar no desenvolvimento da educação.



A cautela se justifica pelo imenso desafio que a sociedade brasileira deve vencer nos próximos anos para atingir as metas para a educação básica traçadas até 2021, quando devemos chegar ao patamar que países desenvolvidos já alcançaram em 2003.



O desempenho do ensino médio também exige atenção especial. Se, nas séries iniciais do ensino fundamental, tivemos crescimento do Ideb, as notas do ensino médio seguem praticamente estagnadas.



Dito isso, quais são os motivos de comemoração? O principal é a própria existência do Ideb: ele representa o reforço de uma cultura de avaliação, baseada em objetivos e metas passíveis de acompanhamento não só por especialistas, mas pela sociedade. Para o Todos pela Educação essa é uma conquista que merece ser lembrada, já que não há boa gestão sem avaliação.



Outro fato que não pode deixar de ser celebrado é o resultado dos anos iniciais do ensino fundamental. Nessa etapa do ensino, o índice subiu de 4,2 pontos em 2007 para 4,6 pontos em 2009. E o crescimento foi puxado, principalmente, pela aprendizagem dos alunos na Prova Brasil, e não apenas pelas taxas de aprovação.



Certamente não alcançaríamos esse resultado se não fosse a contribuição direta de professores, diretores e gestores, que focaram o trabalho no alcance das metas traçadas. Se o país persistir nesta rota, nossas crianças terão bom desempenho nos anos finais do ensino fundamental e no ensino médio.



Mas, para prosseguir no caminho das conquistas na aprendizagem, temos de estar atentos aos agentes que interferem nos rumos da educação brasileira.



Ano eleitoral é momento mais que propício para isso, já que a população vai escolher seus representantes e, por consequência, as diretrizes das políticas públicas.



Não podemos aceitar dos próximos governantes uma desaceleração no processo de aprendizagem, porque ela, já sabemos, traz impactos decisivos sobre a vida de nossos jovens e sobre a capacidade produtiva e a competitividade do Brasil.



É preciso que haja, por parte do futuro presidente e dos próximos governadores, compromisso com os avanços que vêm sendo conquistados e com os caminhos sedimentados nos últimos anos.



E também que eles se envolvam na tarefa de acelerar o ritmo de melhoria da educação. Não devemos apressar ações sem o necessário fundamento, pois nosso compromisso deve ser com a aprendizagem dos estudantes. A educação exige urgência, o que é muito diferente de pressa.



Assim como na saúde, não existe uma prioridade única nas políticas de educação. Os problemas decorrem de diversos fatores e são variados os gargalos a serem atacados até a garantia de um direito constitucional: o da educação de qualidade para todas as crianças e jovens. Se observarmos a economia brasileira na última década, podemos constatar que superamos disputas ideológicas e partidárias que, embora legítimas, muitas vezes dificultavam a implantação de medidas econômicas que melhor atendessem aos interesses do país. Isso é o que defendemos na educação.

(Folha de SP, 26/8)

art'iculo de Nora Bar

VIiceversa

Más allá del samba y la caipirinha

Nora Bär

En ciencia, como en tantas otras cosas, cuando buscamos un ejemplo inspirador, solemos mirar para arriba... más exactamente, hacia el hemisferio norte. Sin embargo, hay países cercanos, algunos vecinos, que ostentan logros que pueden considerarse ejemplares.

Uno de ellos es el que refleja el "Estudio Doctores 2010", que analiza la demografía de la base científico-tecnológica brasileña: según ese trabajo, el número de estos graduados viene creciendo en ese país a un ritmo del 11% anual en promedio. Esto significa que entre 1996 y 2008 la cantidad de doctores graduados en Brasil prácticamente se triplicó. Alrededor de la mitad fueron mujeres (en los Estados Unidos, ellas son 47,7%; en Alemania, el 39% y en Japón, el 24%).

Según el sitio electrónico SciDev.Net (una organización sin fines de lucro), durante el período estudiado se otorgaron 87.000 títulos. Ahora, incluso en Brasil, que hoy puede ufanarse de dedicar un 1,56% de su PBI a la actividad científica (en el país, la inversión ronda el 0,5%), persisten sesgos no muy positivos, como la escasa participación del sector privado en las actividades de investigación (8 de cada 10 doctorados se emplean en las universidades) y el hecho de que la proporción de los especialistas que se dedican a las ingenierías y las ciencias exactas, en lugar de aumentar, disminuyó.

El caso brasileño es una prueba de lo que se logra cuando la inspiración de los funcionarios dura bastante más que un período de gobierno...

nbar@lanacion.com.a

Investing in Our Young People

Use a mirror (749 K)

Flavio Cunha, James J. Heckman NBER Working Paper No. 16201 Issued in July 2010 NBER Program(s): CH ED This paper reviews the recent literature on the production of skills of young persons. The literature features the multiplicity of skills that explain success in a variety of life outcomes. Noncognitive skills play a fundamental role in successful lives. The dynamics of skill formation reveal the interplay of cognitive and noncognitive skills, and the presence of critical and sensitive periods in the life-cycle. We discuss the optimal timing of investment over the life-cycle. This paper is available as PDF (749 K) or via email. Machine-readable bibliographic record - MARC, RIS, BibTeX

Interesante articulo!

Do Differences in School's Instruction Time Explain International Achievement Gaps in Math, Science, and Reading? Evidence from Developed and Developing Countries

Use a mirror (502 K)

Victor Lavy NBER Working Paper No. 16227 Issued in July 2010 NBER Program(s): CH ED LS There are large differences across countries in instructional time in schooling institutions. Can these differences explain some of the differences across countries in pupils’ achievements in different subjects? While research in recent years provides convincing evidence about the effect of several inputs in the education production function, there is limited evidence on the effect of classroom instructional time. Such evidence is of policy relevance in many countries, and it became very concrete recently as President Barrack Obama announced the goal of extending the school week and year as a central objective in his proposed education reform for the US. In this paper, I estimate the effects of instructional time on students’ academic achievement in math, science and reading. I estimate linear and non-linear instructional time effects controlling for unobserved heterogeneity of both pupils and schools. The evidence from a sample of 15 year olds from over fifty countries that participated in PISA 2006 consistently shows that instructional time has a positive and significant effect on test scores. The effect is large relative to the standard deviation of the within pupil test score distribution. I obtain similar evidence from a sample of 10 and 13 year olds in Israel. The OLS results are highly biased upward but the within student estimates are very similar across groups of developed and middle-income countries and age groups. Evidence from primary and middle schools in Israel is similar to the evidence from OECD countries. However, the estimated effect of instructional time in the sample of developing countries is much lower than the effect size in the developed countries. I also show that the productivity of instructional time is higher in countries that implemented school accountability measures, and in countries that give schools autonomy in hiring and firing teachers. This paper is available as PDF (502 K) or via email.

Interesting articles on Education published by the Journal of Economic Perspectives

Journal of Economic Perspectives

Vol. 24, No. 3, Summer 2010

Microeconomic Approaches to Development: Schooling, Learning, and Growth (pp. 81-96) Mark R. Rosenzweig

Abstract/Tools | Full-Text Article (Complimentary) | Comments (0)

Symposium: No Child Left Behind

Searching for Effective Teachers with Imperfect Information (pp. 97-118) Douglas O. Staiger and Jonah E. Rockoff

Abstract/Tools | Full-Text Article (Complimentary) | Online Appendix | Comments (0)

Aiming for Efficiency Rather Than Proficiency (pp. 119-32) Derek Neal

Abstract/Tools | Full-Text Article (Complimentary) | Online Appendix | Comments (0)

The Quality and Distribution of Teachers under the No Child Left Behind Act (pp. 133-50) Eric A. Hanushek and Steven G. Rivkin

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Teachers' Views on No Child Left Behind: Support for the Principles, Concerns about the Practices (pp. 151-66) Richard J. Murnane and John P. Papay

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Measurement Matters: Perspectives on Education Policy from an Economist and School Board Member (pp. 167-82) Kevin Lang

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Your Brain on Computers

Your Brain on Computers

Digital Devices Deprive Brain of Needed Downtime

Jim Wilson/The New York Times

Rhiana Maidenberg listened to an audio book on her mobile phone while watching television during a workout in San Francisco.

By MATT RICHTEL

SAN FRANCISCO — It’s 1 p.m. on a Thursday and Dianne Bates, 40, juggles three screens. She listens to a few songs on her iPod, then taps out a quick e-mail on her iPhone and turns her attention to the high-definition television.

Jim Wilson/The New York Times

Loren Frank, a professor of physiology, said downtime lets the brain go over experiences, “solidify them and turn them into permanent long-term memories.”

Just another day at the gym.

As Ms. Bates multitasks, she is also churning her legs in fast loops on an elliptical machine in a downtown fitness center. She is in good company. In gyms and elsewhere, people use phones and other electronic devices to get work done — and as a reliable antidote to boredom.

Cellphones, which in the last few years have become full-fledged computers with high-speed Internet connections, let people relieve the tedium of exercising, the grocery store line, stoplights or lulls in the dinner conversation.

The technology makes the tiniest windows of time entertaining, and potentially productive. But scientists point to an unanticipated side effect: when people keep their brains busy with digital input, they are forfeiting downtime that could allow them to better learn and remember information, or come up with new ideas.

Ms. Bates, for example, might be clearer-headed if she went for a run outside, away from her devices, research suggests.

At the University of California, San Francisco, scientists have found that when rats have a new experience, like exploring an unfamiliar area, their brains show new patterns of activity. But only when the rats take a break from their exploration do they process those patterns in a way that seems to create a persistent memory of the experience.

The researchers suspect that the findings also apply to how humans learn.

“Almost certainly, downtime lets the brain go over experiences it’s had, solidify them and turn them into permanent long-term memories,” said Loren Frank, assistant professor in the department of physiology at the university, where he specializes in learning and memory. He said he believed that when the brain was constantly stimulated, “you prevent this learning process.”

At the University of Michigan, a study found that people learned significantly better after a walk in nature than after a walk in a dense urban environment, suggesting that processing a barrage of information leaves people fatigued.

Even though people feel entertained, even relaxed, when they multitask while exercising, or pass a moment at the bus stop by catching a quick video clip, they might be taxing their brains, scientists say.

“People think they’re refreshing themselves, but they’re fatiguing themselves,” said Marc Berman, a University of Michigan neuroscientist.

Regardless, there is now a whole industry of mobile software developers competing to help people scratch the entertainment itch. Flurry, a company that tracks the use of apps, has found that mobile games are typically played for 6.3 minutes, but that many are played for much shorter intervals. One popular game that involves stacking blocks gets played for 2.2 minutes on average.

Today’s game makers are trying to fill small bits of free time, said Sebastien de Halleux, a co-founder of PlayFish, a game company owned by the industry giant Electronic Arts.

“Instead of having long relaxing breaks, like taking two hours for lunch, we have a lot of these micro-moments,” he said. Game makers like Electronic Arts, he added, “have reinvented the game experience to fit into micro-moments.”

Many business people, of course, have good reason to be constantly checking their phones. But this can take a mental toll. Henry Chen, 26, a self-employed auto mechanic in San Francisco, has mixed feelings about his BlackBerry habits.

“I check it a lot, whenever there is downtime,” Mr. Chen said. Moments earlier, he was texting with a friend while he stood in line at a bagel shop; he stopped only when the woman behind the counter interrupted him to ask for his order.

Mr. Chen, who recently started his business, doesn’t want to miss a potential customer. Yet he says that since he upgraded his phone a year ago to a feature-rich BlackBerry, he can feel stressed out by what he described as internal pressure to constantly stay in contact.

“It’s become a demand. Not necessarily a demand of the customer, but a demand of my head,” he said. “I told my girlfriend that I’m more tired since I got this thing.”

In the parking lot outside the bagel shop, others were filling up moments with their phones. While Eddie Umadhay, 59, a construction inspector, sat in his car waiting for his wife to grocery shop, he deleted old e-mail while listening to news on the radio. On a bench outside a coffee house, Ossie Gabriel, 44, a nurse practitioner, waited for a friend and checked e-mail “to kill time.”

Crossing the street from the grocery store to his car, David Alvarado pushed his 2-year-old daughter in a cart filled with shopping bags, his phone pressed to his ear.

He was talking to a colleague about work scheduling, noting that he wanted to steal a moment to make the call between paying for the groceries and driving.

“I wanted to take advantage of the little gap,” said Mr. Alvarado, 30, a facilities manager at a community center.

For many such people, the little digital asides come on top of heavy use of computers during the day. Take Ms. Bates, the exercising multitasker at the expansive Bakar Fitness and Recreation Center. She wakes up and peeks at her iPhone before she gets out of bed. At her job in advertising, she spends all day in front of her laptop.

But, far from wanting a break from screens when she exercises, she says she couldn’t possibly spend 55 minutes on the elliptical machine without “lots of things to do.” This includes relentless channel surfing.

“I switch constantly,” she said. “I can’t stand commercials. I have to flip around unless I’m watching ‘Project Runway’ or something I’m really into.”

Some researchers say that whatever downside there is to not resting the brain, it pales in comparison to the benefits technology can bring in motivating people to sweat.

“Exercise needs to be part of our lives in the sedentary world we’re immersed in. Anything that helps us move is beneficial,” said John J. Ratey, associate clinical professor of psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School and author of “Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain.”

But all things being equal, Mr. Ratey said, he would prefer to see people do their workouts away from their devices: “There is more bang for your buck doing it outside, for your mood and working memory.”

Of the 70 cardio machines on the main floor at Bakar Fitness, 67 have televisions attached. Most of them also have iPod docks and displays showing workout performance, and a few have games, like a rope-climbing machine that shows an animated character climbing the rope while the live human does so too.

A few months ago, the cable TV went out and some patrons were apoplectic. “It was an uproar. People said: ‘That’s what we’re paying for,’ ” said Leeane Jensen, 28, the fitness manager.

At least one exerciser has a different take. Two stories up from the main floor, Peter Colley, 23, churns away on one of the several dozen elliptical machines without a TV. Instead, they are bathed in sunlight, looking out onto the pool and palm trees.

“I look at the wind on the trees. I watch the swimmers go back and forth,” Mr. Colley said. “I usually come here to clear my head.”

Education in the U.S.: Obama's Race to the top competition

Eastern States Dominate in Winning School Grants

By SAM DILLON

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When Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced on Tuesday the latest states to win the Race to the Top competition — and a share of $3.4 billion in federal financing — he said they were chosen because they outlined the boldest plans for shaking up their public school systems.

But others noted another common denominator: geography.

Of the dozen states that have won major grants to date in the two-part grant contest that is the Obama administration’s signature education initiative, 11 are east of the Mississippi and most hug the East Coast, including Florida and Georgia in the South and New York and Massachusetts in the North. Among the winners, Hawaii is the lone geographic exception.

Educators in many of the states that did not win, or did not even participate in the competition — which includes every state from Tennessee west to the Pacific — said they were hamstrung from the outset.

They said the competition’s rules tilted in favor of densely populated Eastern states, which tend to embrace more the ideas that Washington currently considers innovative, including increasing the number of charter schools and firing principals in chronically failing schools.

But those rules have seemed a poor fit for the nation’s rural communities and sparsely populated Western regions, experts said.

In small towns, for example, there is often just one school, so setting up a parallel charter school might not be feasible. It can also be hard to attract principals to such communities. And many of rural states do not have the resources or staff to write sophisticated grant applications.

“This whole effort had more of an urban than a rural flavor,” said Armando Vilaseca, commissioner of education of Vermont, whose state did not participate in either round of Race to the Top.

Congress appropriated more than $4 billion for the competition in last year’s economic stimulus program. Delaware won $100 million and Tennessee won $500 million in Round 1 in March. The 10 winners of the competition’s second round were the District of Columbia (which was treated as a state for its application), Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Rhode Island.

Mr. Duncan has distributed all but about $75 million of the $3.4 billion that remained to Tuesday’s winners, and was still deciding what to do with the remaining money, he said.

Mr. Duncan apportioned the latest awards according to the number of students in each state. New York and Florida each won $700 million; Georgia, North Carolina and Ohio won $400 million; Massachusetts and Maryland won $250 million; and Rhode Island and the District of Columbia won $75 million.

“The creativity and innovation in each of these winning applications is breathtaking,” Mr. Duncan said.

In both rounds, Mr. Duncan selected the winning states after judges assigned a rank to each state’s proposal.

The competition was designed to reward what President Obama considers exemplary educational ideas and practice, in hopes that other states will adopt similar practices.

The president’s goals include expanding the number and quality of charter schools, updating the way school districts evaluate teachers’ effectiveness, improving student data-tracking systems to help educators know what students have learned and what must be retaught, and turning around thousands of the lowest-performing schools.

States earned points if they raised their standards and the rigor of standardized tests. Dozens of states responded to that incentive by adopting common standards in English and math written over the last year at the request of the National Governors Association.

Colorado and Louisiana were not among the winners, even though both states endured divisive legislative battles to change education laws in ways favored by the administration, to improve their chances of winning Race to the Top money.

Many experts had considered those two states sure winners.

“This list of states raises questions for me about the criteria,” said Frederick M. Hess, a director at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative research group who has followed the competition closely. “I’m just puzzled. I’m sure this is giving the administration heartburn.”

Mr. Duncan apologized to both Colorado and Louisiana in the conference call announcing the winners, saying he was “very sorry” that Colorado would go unrewarded and “I’m deeply disappointed that we weren’t able to fund Louisiana.”

Asked whether he was concerned that almost all of the winning states were Eastern, Mr. Duncan noted that Hawaii was among the winners. “We went as far west as we could go,” Mr. Duncan said. “We want to work with Western states. Geography was irrelevant.”

Of the 11 states that declined to participate in one round or the other, many said that they considered the rules stacked against them. All are rural or Western except Maryland, which declined to participate in the first round: Alaska, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont and Washington.

But some rules governing other federal money are stacked in their favor. For example, most federal education money flows to states, using formulas that give rural ones more federal financing per student than their big urban counterparts.

One aspect of the rules that especially rankled rural areas was a four-part federal menu of strategies for turning around failing schools, three of which included firing the principal.

This month Mr. Vilaseca, the Vermont commissioner, along with colleagues from Alaska, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming, wrote to Mr. Duncan criticizing the idea.

“Replacing the principal in the most rural of communities does nothing to build the leadership capacity of these small schools, where recruitment and retention is a continual problem,” the 10 rural educators wrote.

They also objected to the focus on charter schools; competing states were rewarded with 40 points — out of 500 possible points — for encouraging more charter schools.

“We have many small towns with one public school, elementary through high school, that has less than 200 students, so the numbers aren’t there to justify creating charter schools,” said Dan Guericke, director of the Mid-Central Educational Cooperative in South Dakota, who helped assemble that state’s Race to the Top application for the first round.

After South Dakota placed last in Round 1, the state decided not to reapply, Mr. Guericke said.

Grant-writing is a third area in which rural states were at a competitive disadvantage, he said. Many of the winning states spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on professional writers, drawn from consulting groups like McKinsey, to prepare applications that in many cases ran to more than 500 pages.

South Dakota’s application was written by a full-time school teacher and a community volunteer, Mr. Guericke said.

Fewer Americans Back Obama’s Education Programs

By Dakarai I. Aarons

Support for President Barack Obama’s education agenda is slipping among Americans, according to a poll released today of the public’s attitude toward public schooling.

The survey, conducted by Phi Delta Kappa International and the Gallup Organization, reports that just 34 percent of those polled would give the president an A or B when grading his performance on education during his first 17 months in office, compared with 45 percent in last year’s poll, which covered the president’s first six months in office. ("Obama School Ideas Getting Good Grades," Sept. 2, 2009.) The president’s grades fell not just among Republicans surveyed, but also among Democrats and Independents, who increasingly gave Mr. Obama grades of C or lower.

Poll respondents, for example, took a decidedly different tack than the president and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan when it comes to turning around low-performing schools. When asked what was the best solution, 54 percent said the school should remain open with the existing teachers and principal and receive outside support.

The administration’s models for school turnarounds have been criticized because they often require the replacement of the principal and other school staff members, and questions have been raised about whether the approach is based in research.

“Anybody experienced in running an organization as complicated as a school can see pretty quickly that the experience of the faculty and staff and administrators and principals all working together is a huge asset in improving a school,” said John Simmons, the president of the Chicago-based Strategic Learning Initiatives, which has turned around schools in that city while largely retaining their staffs. ("Focus on Instruction Turns Around Chicago Schools," Jan. 6, 2010.) “Yes, some schools should be closed. Some principals need to be removed, but only after they have had a good opportunity to apply state-of-the-art research strategies.”

Bryan C. Hassel, a co-director of the Chapel Hill, N.C.-based Public Impact, an education research and consulting company, said he wasn’t surprised by the results, but for a different reason. “Our political leadership hasn’t convinced the American people yet that disadvantaged students could and should be learning much more,” he said in an e-mail. “Nor have they conveyed the magnitude of change that will be required in schools to reach the possible. Without that inspiration, the public is naturally, but unfortunately, cautious.”

Invisible Investments

Taking the Public Pulse on Reforms

Americans agreed with the President on some strategies for improving schools but differed on others in the latest PDK/Gallup poll on education. Here is a closer look at some of the questions in the Gallup poll and the results.

SOURCE: PDK/Gallup Poll

The president’s lower numbers on education mirror the overall decline in his approval rating, said Shane Lopez, a senior scientist in residence at Gallup and the co-director of the poll. Mr. Obama’s present overall approval rating is 44 percent, compared with 52 percent at this time last year, Mr. Lopez said.

“Despite all of the time and attention that has been devoted to school improvement over the past year and half, we haven’t won over the hearts and minds of the American people,” said Patrick R. Riccards, the chief executive officer of Exemplar Strategic Communications, a Virginia-based communications firm and the author of the education reform blog Eduflack. “They aren’t feeling the impact of the stimulus. They aren’t seeing the role of the federal government in school reform.”

In fact, just two in 10 of those surveyed said they were aware that any of the economic-stimulus funding passed by Congress last year helped pay for education expenses in their communities­—despite the fact some $100 billion over two years was allocated for education in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Part of the problem, said Daniel A. Domenech, the executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, is that education spending is rather invisible to members of the public. They don’t know whether the dollars in their school came from the federal government, state income taxes, or local property taxes.

That makes the public less aware of education stimulus funds than they are of, say, transportation projects financed by the stimulus, said William Bushaw, the executive director of PDK International and the poll’s other co-director.

“Any road project or building project you see, there’s a sign, ‘This road is being paid for’ by [the economic-stimulus],” he said. “There were no signs like that for the funding going to education.”

The poll, released annually by PDK, a professional society based in Bloomington, Ind., and the Princeton, N.J.-based Gallup, was conducted from June 4 to June 28, using a national sample of 1,008 adults aged 18 and older. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

Bright Spots

Not all the survey news was bad for the Obama administration. Poll respondents showed strong support for work on teacher effectiveness, another priority of Mr. Duncan and Mr. Obama. Respondents selected improving teacher quality as the most important national education strategy, besting efforts to create better standards, devise better assessments, or improve failing schools. More than a third of those polled also said improving the quality of teaching is the top task a school must accomplish before earning an A.

Support for changing the way teachers are paid has increased among the public. Seventy-one percent of those surveyed said teachers should be paid on the basis of their work, rather than on a standard salary schedule, and 54 percent said a teacher’s salary should be “somewhat closely” tied to the achievement of his or her students.

The public’s focus on teacher evaluation, however, told a different story. When asked what the primary purpose of evaluating teachers should be, 60 percent said to help teachers improve, compared with 26 percent who said it should be used to document ineffectiveness that could lead to dismissal, and 13 percent said evaluations should be used to establish teachers’ salaries based on their skills.

“There is far more interest in supporting teachers than firing them or paying them on the basis of test scores,” said Barnett Berry, the president and chief executive officer of the Hillsborough, N.C.-based Center for Teaching Quality. “It doesn’t mean the American people don’t want a results-oriented profession. They do. I think they are more tuned in with the needs of the field than some of the policymakers who are making the rules and regulations.”

Americans’ emphasis on teacher effectiveness also highlights the need to improve school leadership in the field, said LeAnn M. Buntrock, the executive director of the University of Virginia’s Darden/Curry Partnership for Leaders in Education.

“Part of the issue in education has to deal with this leadership issue. One of the main reasons we lose our best teachers has to do with job conditions, and at the top of that list is school leadership—who the principal is,” she said. “If you are good at what you do and passionate about what you do, you want to work for someone who is going to provide you with the right kind of development opportunities, who can motivate and empower you to do the things you are best at.”

Support for charter schools also continued to grow among the public, with 65 percent of respondents saying they would back new public charter schools in their community and 60 percent saying they would support “a large increase” in the number of such schools operating in the United States.

“Once people understand what a charter school is, they like the concept of innovation and allowing teachers to have freedom in the classroom,” said Peter C. Groff, the president and chief executive officer of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. “Parents and communities embrace having options to figure out what is in the best educational interest of their children.”

Education Week

La educación y los medios digitales

En el país se requiere el desarrollo armónico de las políticas, los recursos, la formación docente y la planificación curricular

La inserción en la actividad escolar primaria y secundaria de los medios que ofrecen las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación (TIC) se ha convertido en una indudable necesidad para las generaciones de alumnos primarios y secundarios actualmente, en el cuadro de las demandas de la vida social, económica y cultural de hoy. Aunque hay suficiente consenso al respecto, falta mucho por debatir y decidir en el plano de las políticas que definan la incorporación generalizada de los nuevos recursos en la escuela.

En el editorial "Desnivel informático en las escuelas", de junio último, señalábamos el hecho de que el panorama educativo tecnológico de la Argentina se presentaba muy variado y disperso, dado que, además de la entrega de computadoras que se hacía desde el Gobierno, de acuerdo con el programa Conectar-Igualdad.com.ar, contemporáneamente en otras provincias se proveía a los alumnos de otras netbooks , dentro de los planes locales.

Por ello, es de destacar que el Centro de Implementación de Políticas Públicas para la Equidad y el Crecimiento (Cippec) haya publicado un valioso texto, elaborado por Florencia Mezzadra y Rocío Bilbao, cuyo contenido merece una atenta consideración al analizar los inéditos desafíos que plantean instrumentos tan renovadores. En efecto, los cambios no sólo alcanzan al manejo eficiente de las computadoras, sino en comprender el rol que pueden asumir los nuevos medios al servicio de la lectura y la crítica de la información y de las imágenes ahora accesibles. Es importante, también, que los chicos aprendan a respetar normas básicas de conducta en el uso de instrumentos de tan poderosos alcances, tanto para lo positivo como para lo negativo.

Las autoras Mezzadra y Bilbao subrayan cuánto gravita en este proceso innovador la coherencia entre las políticas que definen sus objetivos en el proceso de la enseñanza y el nivel del equipamiento en las escuelas junto con la conectividad instalada, todo lo cual deberá articularse con los progresos de la capacitación docente en la materia y los contenidos curriculares por cumplir. Esta red de logros permitirá apreciar plenamente las funciones pedagógicas y sociales ampliadas que las TIC podrán cumplir en beneficio de los adolescentes.

Un capítulo fundamental de esta transformación se vincula con el tiempo en el ámbito escolar. Por una parte, los recursos digitales modifican las acciones del docente y de los alumnos en el tiempo del aprendizaje; por otra, la planificación de las tareas tiene que responder a criterios de flexibilidad y a la previsión de alternativas, según el tiempo abarcado, porque se trata de medios en constante innovación (sabido es que "las tecnologías de última generación" envejecen pronto).

Las opiniones de numerosos especialistas sobre la materia fluctúan de manera extrema, pero ello es lógico. Hay quienes consideran que las TIC constituyen una innovación óptima que transformará de raíz la enseñanza y hay quienes advierten especialmente sobre sus riesgos, sobre todo si los alumnos quedan librados a su propio juicio, sin el control de padres y maestros. Sin embargo, y a pesar de las oposiciones, la enseñanza siempre avanza más allá del mero uso instrumental de los medios. Lo que se requiere en nuestro medio es el desarrollo armónico de las políticas, los recursos, la formación docente, la planificación curricular. En esa armonía cuenta necesariamente el desarrollo de las TIC en el interior.

Sería lamentable entonces que la promoción de esos medios sirviera para incrementar las desigualdades que abruman a nuestra educación y que, lamentablemente, pueden observarse diariamente. Como tampoco es aconsejable utilizar su distribución con fines demagógicos, como pareció desprenderse del reciente anuncio de la Presidenta, hecho al entregar 2400 portátiles en un club de Ciudad Evita, en el sentido de que los alumnos de quinto año que egresen sin llevarse ninguna materia "no van a tener que devolver la computadora", como una manera de "premiar el esfuerzo", algo que, en principio, no parecía estar previsto en el programa.

Charter Schools

D.C. charter schools face unfunded mandates

New food, phys-ed standards problematic

**FILE** D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee credits charter schools for turning around underachievers in D.C. schools. (The Washington Times)

By Deborah Simmons

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D.C. schools open their doors Monday morning for the start of a new year, and charter parents and advocates say a new problem is compounding an old one.

This school year, the D.C. Healthy Schools Act mandating new feeding and physical-education policies takes effect. But charter schools are scrambling to meet some requirements of the new law, which says schools must feed students locally produced fruits and vegetables and offer students overall healthier meals. The act also raises the bar on physical fitness.

"The majority of charter schools are going in commercial buildings," said Robert Cane, executive director of the advocacy group Friends of Choice in Urban Schools. (FOCUS). "We support good food and exercise, but charter schools have scrambled to meet requirements."

Charter and traditional schools often lack cafeterias, and most charters lack green space for children to play or hold gym classes. Many don't have a swimming pool, gymnasium, football field, tennis court or a track course.

"Charter schools often dont have playgrounds, play fields and cafeterias," he said. "Parks and recreation [authorities] give priorities to D.C. public schools."

Equitable funding and facilities are long-standing concerns of the school-choice movement, which saw a major victory in 1996, when Congress and the Clinton White House established the D.C. School Reform Act to provide charters as competition and public options for parents who tired of their children languishing in the D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) system.

Supporters point out that, today, parents of charter-school students have much to be proud of despite disparate facilities and funding disparities. Waiting lists prove public charters are trying to meet parental demands for more innovation programs, and rising test scores, graduation rates and studies prove they are closing the achievement gap for blacks, Hispanics and unprivileged youths, advocates said.

Friendship Public Charter Schools, for example, has nearly 6,000 student on nine campuses and a high-school waiting list of more than 260 students. Many of its student athletes have been recruited by or are attending some of the top colleges in the nation.

The number of students attending charter schools has been steadily rising by a few thousand students each year since 1996, with charters now educating 38 percent of D.C. public school students. The rate is expected to rise again this school year, perhaps to 40 percent, Mr. Cane said.

Advocates are more acutely aware of facility shortfalls because of another policy change: The citys push for universal preschool.

Students in College

Students, Welcome to College; Parents, Go Home

Brian C. Frank for The New York Times

Tim Marsho watches his son Chris move in at Grinnell College.

By TRIP GABRIEL

GRINNELL, Iowa — In order to separate doting parents from their freshman sons, Morehouse College in Atlanta has instituted a formal “Parting Ceremony.”

Brian C. Frank for The New York Times

Boyd Monson, 19, and his father, Ronald Monson, at Grinnell College in Iowa, which holds a ceremony to formalize separation.

Brian C. Frank for The New York Times

Alex Bazis, 18, and his father, Tim, at the mailboxes at Grinnell. The college urges parents to leave on moving-in day.

It began on a recent evening, with speeches in the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel. Then the incoming freshmen marched through the gates of the campus — which swung shut, literally leaving the parents outside.

When University of Minnesota freshmen move in at the end of this month, parental separation will be a little sneakier: mothers and fathers will be invited to a reception elsewhere so students can meet their roommates and negotiate dorm room space — without adult meddling.

As the latest wave of superinvolved parents delivers its children to college, institutions are building into the day, normally one of high emotion, activities meant to punctuate and speed the separation. It is part of an increasingly complex process, in the age of Skype and twice-daily texts home, in which colleges are urging “Velcro parents” to back off so students can develop independence.

Grinnell College here, like others, has found it necessary to be explicit about when parents really, truly must say goodbye. Move-in day for the 415 freshmen was Saturday. After computer printers and duffle bags had been carried to dorm rooms, everyone gathered in the gymnasium, students on one side of the bleachers, parents on the other.

The president welcoming the class of 2014 had his back to the parents — a symbolic staging meant to inspire “an aha! moment,” said Houston Dougharty, vice president of student affairs, “an epiphany where parents realize, ‘My student is feeling more comfortable sitting with 400 people they just met.’ ”

Shortly after, mothers and fathers were urged to leave campus.

Moving their students in usually takes a few hours. Moving on? Most deans can tell stories of parents who lingered around campus for days. At Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y., a mother and father once went to their daughter’s classes on the first day of the semester and trouped to the registrar’s office to change her schedule, recalled Beverly Low, the dean of first-year students.

“We recognize it’s a huge day for families,” she said. Still, during various parent meetings on Colgate’s move-in day, which is Thursday, Ms. Low and other officials plan to drop not-so-subtle hints that “activities for the class of 2014 begin promptly at 4,” she said.

Formal “hit the road” departure ceremonies are unusual but growing in popularity, said Joyce Holl, head of the National Orientation Directors Association. A more common approach is for colleges to introduce blunt language into drop-off schedules specifying the hour for last hugs. As of 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 11, for example, the parents of Princeton freshmen learn from the move-in schedule, “subsequent orientation events are intended for students only.”

The language was added in recent years to draw a clear line, said Thomas Dunne, the associate dean of undergraduates. “It’s easy for students to point to this notation and say, ‘Hey, Mom, I think you’re supposed to be gone now,’ ” he said. “It’s obviously a hard conversation for students to have with parents.”

For evidence, consider a chat-board thread by new Princeton parents on the Web site College Confidential. “Do parents hang around for a day or two after orientation in case their kids need something?” one poster, mrscollege, asked. “I say no, but we have a friend who is planning to hang around for a while in Princeton for her son just in case.”

Some undergraduate officials see in parents’ separation anxieties evidence of the excesses of modern child-rearing. “A good deal of it has to do with the evolution of overinvolvement in our students’ lives,” said Mr. Dougharty of Grinnell. “These are the baby-on-board parents, highly invested in their students’ success. They do a lot of living vicariously, and this is one manifestation of that.”

He and other student-life officials encourage parents to detach — not just at drop-off but throughout the freshman year, including limiting phone calls and text messages.

Parents, of course, know that in their head. But they still struggle to let go.

After lunch on Saturday at Grinnell, before the hail and farewell ceremony, Gary and Glorialynn Calderon easily welled up while visiting the campus mailroom with their daughter. “It’s hard, we’re overprotective,” Mr. Calderon admitted.

His wife, a kindergarten teacher, said Grinnell’s message that at 4 p.m. college was starting and parents must go reminded her of what she tells the mothers and fathers of her pupils on the first day of school: “Say goodbye and just leave, because the kids calm down.”

Their daughter, Aileen, a softball player, said that she had initially been fearful about starting college, but “now I’m excited and ready to go.”

That seemed altogether typical of the freshmen, who were looking forward to the “floor bonding” exercises with dorm mates and were failing to share parental nostalgia.

The pressure to let go had really begun a year earlier while touring colleges, said Leslie Nelson, who with his wife, Jill Hayman, had spent three days driving their son, Micah, from New York City.

Ms. Hayman corrected her husband: “I think the pressure starts when the umbilical cord falls off,” she said. “I’m not the only mom here who’s been dreading this since that day.”

As a comfort, she had read books about the stages of grief. “You have to just allow yourself to experience the loss and grieve over what’s gone,” she said.

But Micah was eager to get on with it. “I haven’t been thinking about anything they’ve been saying,” he said, as his parents looked on.

As for Mr. Dougharty of Grinnell College, for the first time in his academic career he missed his own campus’s move-in day. He and his wife were busy Saturday, dropping off their only child, Allie, at Earlham College in Richmond, Ind., to begin her freshman year.

Mr. Dougharty had made reservations at a bed-and-breakfast near the campus for Saturday night, but then his wife, Kimberly, questioned why they should stay around after dropping Allie off.

“I had to look at myself in the mirror,” Mr. Dougharty said. “I had thought, ‘On Sunday morning we can swing by and take Allie to breakfast.’ Kimberly was good and sane — ‘We have to get down the road.’ ”