One in four teachers in urban schools say most of their students won’t be successful at a community college or university, according to a survey sponsored by the National School Boards Association. A slightly higher percentage say students “are not motivated to learn” and parents aren’t supportive.

In all, 23.6% of public school teachers at all levels say success in college would elude most students in their school. An additional 18% say they aren’t sure.

One in eight teachers say their school is not a safe place.

Education Week’s Technology Counts 2007 is now up (no registration required). EdWeek finds schools have closed the digital divide for the most part, though low-income students are much less likely to use computers at home.

Digital cameras and videorecorders, coupled with photo-sharing and moviemaking software, are putting new, easier-to-use means of expression into students’ and educators’ hands.

Interactive software applications such as blogs, podcasts, and social-networking sites are letting students and teachers easily post their own writings and multimedia presentations on the Web. Digital whiteboards and liquid-crystal-display projectors are giving some classrooms a high-tech feel once reserved for corporate boardrooms.

Virtual education, in its infancy a decade ago, is going mainstream. Hundreds of thousands of students go online for some or all of their courses—a trend that is opening up opportunities, such as Advanced Placement classes, that would otherwise be unavailable. Teachers, for their part, are turning to the Web for professional development.
From Connectivity to Creativity

In addition, students are more likely to take tests on computers and teachers are using technology to gather and analyze data.

Are students learning more because of technology? Not clear says the report. Research has focused mostly on innovative uses of technology with few scientifically valid studies focused on whether students are learning more.

Several recent research reviews and meta-analyses published in the United States and in Britain suggest that, when measured across the board, educational technology yields “small, but significant” gains in learning and in student engagement. The problem is that those modest gains fell short of advocates’ promises.

Most of the giddiness of the hook ‘em up era is gone now. Federal funding for unproven technology is drying up. Education technology will have to compete with other school needs.

Technology Counts includes state technology reports.

One in five children under the age of eight comes from a Latino family, reports the Washington Post.

Latino children nationwide tend to start kindergarten knowing less about letters and numbers compared with their non-Hispanic white peers. Many never catch up. Improving early childhood education is one of the best ways to narrow the achievement gap, educators say, citing such programs as the family book club. But many Latino families face economic, linguistic, educational and even cultural barriers.”It’s partly about parents not understanding the American system,” said Eugene E. Garcia, an Arizona State University administrator and chairman of the National Task Force on Early Childhood Education for Hispanics. “Hispanic parents think school is good and education is good. They just don’t have the tools they need.”

About 40 percent of Latino 3- and 4-year-olds (and 5-year-olds not yet in kindergarten) are enrolled in pre-kindergarten programs, compared with about 60 percent of white and African American children, according to the District-based advocacy group Pre-K Now. In addition, a new report from Garcia’s task force noted that Hispanic mothers generally read and talk less to their children compared with white parents. Hispanic families also tend to have fewer children’s books at home.

Educators are trying to enroll more Hispanic children in quality preschools. They’re also working with immigrant mothers.

The amount of time parents spent reading and telling stories to their children and interacting with them mattered more, (Michael) Lopez said, than the education level or income of the adults.

In Arizona, a Latino policy group wants to bar school districts from issuing certificates or diplomas when students complete eighth grade for fear it sends a message that their education is complete. In Mexico, it probably would be.

The hope is to take aim at the state’s high dropout rate and communicate to families, especially immigrant families, that completing eighth grade is really not that big of a deal.

In a visit to a San Jose middle school with a large immigrant enrollment, I noticed that the principal had banned limos and formal wear at the eighth-grade graduation. He said many students assume it’s the last graduation ceremony they’ll attend. It’s not that students don’t know they’re expected to go on to high school; they just don’t believe they’re likely to earn a diploma.

Henry Miller is off the approved list for student research projects at a Dallas high school after a 17-year-old girl complained about the explicit sex in Tropic of Cancer.

Many books approved for New York City classrooms include sex and violence, notes NYC Educator. If students are reading, does it matter what they’re reading?

A student who does service in our office regularly comes in with novels entitled Bitch, or Blood on the Sidewalk, and various others of this ilk. She says her aunt has a collection, and she seems to finish several a week. The list must be endless. Is it doing her any good? Who knows? But at least she’s reading. I have to admit I like that.

NYC’s readers say there are books they’d never assign but don’t mind if students decide to try on their own. (To my surprise, a number of teachers said they’re not allowed to assign and teach novels in class.)

I tried to read my parent’s copy of Tropic of Cancer when I was in junior high or high school. I thought Miller had managed to make sex boring. Of course, if Miller had written about a brooding hawk-visaged loner carrying off a young woman to his lonely castle . . . Well, I didn’t read those either, unless you count Jane Eyre, which is a great book for adolescent girls.