MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. –
Leaders of a forum on Florida’s new standards for teaching Black history encouraged parents to let their discontent be heard by showing up at local school board meetings, sending feedback to the state’s Department of Education and voting.
Hundreds of lawmakers, teachers and parents crowded into Antioch Baptist Church in Miami Gardens on Thursday night to discuss the new policy, which has drawn harsh criticism for requiring teachers to instruct middle-school students that enslaved people “developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
But Florida Education Commissioner Manny…
Vancouver resident Calvin Wong says he can finally start picturing a future in Canada after the federal government announced it was dropping educational requirements for Hong Kongers seeking permanent residency in the wake of the Chinese city’s crackdown on dissent.
Wong, 28, had graduated from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology with a computer science degree in 2017 before moving to Canada on a work permit in 2021, looking for a life where he could enjoy “political freedom.”
But immigration pathways for Hong Kong residents that have allowed thousands to settle permanently in Canada excluded…
Premier Doug Ford’s government is pushing Ontario schools to focus on what it calls “getting back to the basics of education.”
The 2023-24 school year brings fresh momentum to that push from Ford and Education Minister Stephen Lecce.
The government is now armed with new powers to set provincial priorities for student achievement, and school boards face new requirements to report publicly on their progress.
Here are some highlights:
Student achievement plans
Each school board is required to post what’s called its Student Achievement Plan, a document that lays out how the board intends to work on the education priorities…
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The Bluewater District School Board has named Wendy Louwerse a superintendent of education effective Sept. 1.
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She will replace superintendent of education Andrea Tang, who is set to retire.
A media release announcing the post said Louwerse grew up in Caledon but has spent more than 34 years as a resident of Gray County. With a previous occupation in publication design, she began her teaching career at Osprey Central School in 2002. Subsequent teaching positions included the former Durham District Community and Spruce Ridge Community schools, prior to assuming administrative positions as a system curriculum lead…
From the Amazon River to the Thames River, a group of Brazilian teachers made the 7,000 km trek to London, Ont., to soak in knowledge about Canada’s education system.
“In Canada we are learning another way to see people around us, and that’s a great thing so far,” said Debora Menezes, an elementary special education teacher from Brasília, Brazil.
Just a few weeks since arriving in London, visiting libraries, museums, markets and festivals in London, she’s noticed how community-oriented things are here, she said.
“These differences here are going to improve the way we are helping children to see the…
Members of the Anglophone East district education council have waded into a debate over New Brunswick’s policy on LGBTQ students in schools, with one member calling Premier Blaine Higgs’s comments on the issue “deplorable.”
“I know it’s recent news, it just came out, but the premier’s comments regarding Policy 713 tonight are absolutely deplorable,” Dominic Vautour said during the council’s meeting Tuesday evening in Moncton.
It was one of a series of comments by Anglophone East council members, who oversee a district in the southeast region of the province with more than 18,000 students, that criticized the government and its…
The Higgs government in New Brunswick says it is rethinking its school policy on sexual orientation and gender identity in schools because of a backlash against the guidelines.
The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development confirmed it’s reviewing the policy, designed to support gay, lesbian and trans youth, “after hearing concerns and misunderstandings of its implementation.”
The review was already underway before Education Minister Bill Hogan distanced himself and his department from a recent sexual orientation and gender identity learning session for teachers.
After a small crowd protested the session last Friday, Hogan issued a statement saying his department…
New Brunswick’s education minister Bill Hogan is firing back at the New Brunswick Teacher’s Federation over claims that they are being “squeezed” by the government.
Hogan used part of his opening speech at the legislature’s estimates committee to address teacher wages, saying the salaries for the province’s teachers measure up favorably against their Atlantic counterparts.
“Our teachers are currently compensated better than their counterparts in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland,” he said.
Hogan said that the $82,296 salary in New Brunswick is above the $81,514 paid to similarly experienced teachers in Nova Scotia and the $73,242 in Newfoundland and Labrador. Teachers…