Afternoon Announcements: October 4, 2011

Education Week reports Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad is the latest state leader to come forward with his own ambitious plan to change education policy, one that would make dramatic changes to how teachers advance in the field and are compensated for their work. The Republican governor, who returned to office last year after previously serving in the post from 1983 to 1999, unveiled a detailed proposal for a system to pay teachers on four tiers, and offer a bump in pay for beginning educators. The Des Moines Register reports that democrats seem to be on board with his plan.

Despite new momentum lately, it doesn't look like Congress will get around to renewing the No Child Left Behind Act by the end of this year, according to Education Week. But it's (almost) a sure bet that lawmakers will be looking to reshape the programs in the U.S. Department of Education, either by eliminating some, or by consolidating smaller programs into broader funding streams.

The Huffington Post reports that when Secretary of Education Arne Duncan presented the Obama administration's reforms to teacher training programs before the D.C.-based think tank Education Sector last Friday, he was joined by an unlikely partner: Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association. The National Education Association, the largest teacher's union in the country, has warred with the Obama administration in the past, going as far as adopting a resolution this summer that took on the title, "13 Things We Hate About Arne Duncan."

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How Sydney Drives Twenty-First-Century Learning From a Nineteenth Century House

A visit to the Sydney Distance Education High School (SDEHS) in the city’s Woolloomooloo section shows the evolution from distance learning to digital learning with new challenges emerging. SDEHS traces its roots back over a century when simply getting a textbook to much of the new South Wales remote population was a challenge. The school developed correspondence courses which, as technology developed, were incorporated into radio broadcast classes.

Today SDEHS combines its earlier practices with meeting modern students’ demand for digital learning. Many students still periodically come to the brick and mortar location to take exams and for special study days where they work directly with teachers. The student demand has changed somewhat from offering an entire course of study to 40 percent of students taking a course that is not available in their regular school. The school also serves a population that cannot be in traditional schools, whether because of vocational activities, illness, behavioral challenges, or other reasons.

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