Merenbloom Education

Studying IT Courses Online

Many new jobs require some form of computer literacy these days and this should not be a problem if you have left school within the last 10 years or so as most places of education are now fully equipped to teach their students all about computers and how they work. However, should you be older and you haven’t received this ICT training either through education or in the workplace then you might want to think about some IT courses to enhance your employability and job prospects.

Continue reading 27.10.2011. 07:40

Kansas City Teachers To Be Paid For Passing Students

In an attempt to get more students to pass national standardized tests, officials in Kansas City will be giving teachers pay raises based on the performance of their students. This business model has already been countless times, but Kansas City public school administrators believe that their plan will work. The money will come for a federal grant that the school district that applied for. Teachers that perform will will be able to split the $13 million grant evenly, which can add up to $12,000 per year for each teacher.

Incredibly, more than 75% of teachers in Kansas City schools already qualify for the pay incentive. Because teachers are already performing well, the pay for performance model might prove to be successful. Most students in Kansas City, Missouri, also have shown improvement on their standardized tests as well as in other areas of study.

Teachers will know at the end of the 2012 school year whether or not they will get the pay raise. The American Federation of Teachers believes that the pay for performance initiative actually causes educators anxiety, thus negatively impacting their abilities. While they do not want to prevent teachers from getting extra pay, the group believes that teachers might actually causing themselves more harm than good. An extra $12,000 a year in one lump sum payment can cause teachers to fall into a higher tax bracket, thus causing them higher expenses overall. However well the students in the Kansas City school district perform, teachers will be able to get compensated fairly.

18.07.2011. 00:01

California Passes New Law Preventing Teachers From Being Laid Off

While educators in the state of California are rejoicing, some lawmakers think that the measure preventing teachers from being laid off will have disastrous results. Although the new law only prevents layoffs from occurring for a year, school administrators are worried that they will have to rehire recently fired teachers. In effect, the wording of the new law is unclear at best. The lawmakers that passed the law had little time to look over the details as the budget was passed just before the deadline. Without a doubt, California schools need to retain the best teachers, but the government has not given them enough money to pay their wages.

Now that schools will be prevented from laying off teachers – even the ineffective ones – it will be difficult for them to fund other areas of education. Extra curricular activities, sports teams and after school programs might be canceled indefinitely. While the California Teachers Association is happy about the news, they too have concerns about funding.

The state of California could receive money from the government if it is shown that their students are performing well on standardized tests, but they will also be competing with 49 other states. After the California public school system was criticized for spending more than $500 million on the construction of just one school, it seems that the detractors have a point. Home sales are slagging, which means that not enough property tax revenues are coming in. In the end, school administrators are going to have to figure out how to make due with their current predicament for at least a year.

11.07.2011. 08:19