Edutopia - February/March 2008 - (Page 7) ™ Feedback the country meet the needs of more remote places the big universities won’t or can’t touch. The University of Virginia is excellent, but those graduates are few and far between here on the border with North Carolina. I invite you to explore how small colleges are having an impact on the face of education in our country’s smaller niches. Thanks for your review and for the Foundation’s excellent work. Mark Crummey Assistant professor of teacher education Ferrum College Ferrum, Virginia James Daly Editor in Chief Jennifer Foote Sweeney Executive Editor Laura Morris Designs Creative Director Owen Edwards Consulting Editor Richard Koscher Art Director Naheed Attari Managing Editor Mark Nichol Assistant Managing Editor & Web Production Editor Grace Rubenstein Staff Writer & Multimedia Producer Sara Bernard Editorial Assistant Edutopia.org Cal Joy Senior Director, Digital Content & Technology Geoff Butterfield Senior Technical Web Producer Malaika Costello-Dougherty Web Editor Diane Demée-Benoit Consulting Online Editor Laurie Chu Media Designer Billy Hawes Desktop-Support Specialist Video Ken Ellis Senior Producer Karena O’Riordan Producer Karen Sutherland Editor Amy Erin Borovoy Associate Producer Big Schools, Big Cities I enjoyed your article about the nation’s ten leading teacher-preparation programs (November/December 2007). I am familiar with a few of them already and agree with your assessments. They all, however, share something in common: They are connected either to large universities or established schools in larger metropolitan areas. Either way, all are large and tend to send teachers out into well-populated areas. I would like to call attention to the role smaller institutions play in training teachers in hard-to-place communities, urban or rural. Small colleges all over Drop in on Dropouts I just finished reading a very grim report, the most depressing I have ever read, on the Dallas Independent School District, pulled from research conducted by Johns Hopkins University. Then I read Edutopia (November/December 2007) and found only a brief mention of that report. That was the only article on the dropout issue I could quickly locate in your magazine. Why don’t you address dropout issues more frequently? It is the central issue in education in the United States. Bill Betzen Quintanilla Middle School Dallas, Texas Contributors Writers Ann Cooper, Roberta Furger, Carol Guensburg, Don Lipper, Ellen Moir, Richard Rapaport, Evantheia Schibsted, Fran Smith, Burr Snider, Denise Kersten Wills Copy Editors Courtney Benvenuti, Molly Jackel Fact-Checkers Katherine Black, Erika Stalder Multimedia Developer Debra St. John Photographers & Illustrators William Duke, Indigo Flores, David Julian, Bart Nagel, Klaus Schoenwiese, JJ Sulin, Jenny Elia Pfeiffer, Mark Todd, Mark Wagoner, Noah Webb, Xplane Narrators Michael Pritchard, Kris Welch Camera Operators Brian Cardello, Rob Weller Music Ed Bogas Letters to the Editor All letters and attendant materials (such as photos) become the property of GLEF and may be reproduced and used in whole or in part, by any means and in any manner or media, at the sole discretion of GLEF. Opinions expressed do not reflect those of GLEF or any affiliated person or entity. Submissions We welcome story ideas and pitches that relate to learning and teaching in our nation’s public schools, from educators and professional writers alike. Email edit@edutopia.org. We cannot be responsible for the return, loss of, or damage to unsolicited manuscripts or artwork. Teacher Tally In your Editor’s Note (November/December 2007), you mention that only one teacher out of every four you had were excellent, or at least memorable. Let me do the math: For teachers, I had one each in grades 1–6 and six per grade in secondary school, for a total of forty-two. Like you, I had three or four “worth remembering” teachers, but four out of forty-two is hardly one in four—closer to one in ten. Given that our kids now have six teachers in elementary school, and seven teachers per year during grades 6–12, that adds up to fifty-four teachers. Assuming they have only four memorable teachers, the ratio drops like a rock to one in thirteen or so. I assume you could still call that sad, but I suspect pathetic is more like it! Randy Gaylor Librarian Artesia High School Artesia, New Mexico Subscriptions For subscriptions, address changes, adjustments, or back-issue inquiries, please call (818) 286-3155 or email educs@magserv.com. Volume 4, Issue 1, February/March 2008 No part of this periodical may be reproduced other than for educational not-for-profit purposes without the consent of GLEF. For educational, not-forprofit reprints of stories from this issue, please use the credit line “Originally published in the February/March 2008 issue of Edutopia. Visit www.edutopia.org.” Edutopia and the GLEF trademark and logo are trademarks of The George Lucas Educational Foundation. Copyright 2008 by The George Lucas Educational Foundation. All Rights Reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. Occasionally, we provide our subscriber list to carefully screened companies that offer products and services we believe would interest our readers. If you do not want to receive these offers and/or information, please write us at Edutopia, PO Box 15265, North Hollywood, CA 91615-9295 or email edutopia@glef.org. Edutopia is published by The George Lucas Educational Foundation GLEF is a nonprofit operating foundation. Visit us at www.edutopia.org. FEEDBACK is a vital par t of the conversation. Comment on ar ticles at Edutopia.org or write to letters@edutopia.org or Edutopia, PO Box 3494, San Rafael, CA 94912. Please include your name, affiliation, and contact information. EDUTOPIA.ORG EDUTOPIA 7 http://Edutopia.org http://Edutopia.org http://www.edutopia.org http://Edutopia.org http://www.edutopia.org http://EDUTOPIA.ORG
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