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Web Site Advisory April 2, 2008
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Web Site Advisory April 3, 2008 Our web host will be performing routine maintenance on the MySql server that contains our data. The following message was provided by our host: MySQL Maintenance Scheduled for Tonight
As part of our ongoing efforts to improve MySQL performance, we will be adding new hardware and re-allocating the load on our MySQL servers between 12:00am and 5:00am EDT on Thursday, April 3, 2008. During this five-hour maintenance window, there may be periods of time when your database is temporarily inaccessible, making the database-driven pieces of your Web site temporarily unavailable to your visitors. (You should be able to connect to your database(s) as normal for most of this maintenance window, but you may experience intermittent connectivity issues between midnight and 5:00am EDT.) We have scheduled this maintenance for a time when traffic to most customers' sites is typically at its lowest. Still, we apologize for any inconvenience, and we expect that the work we're doing will help improve your site's performance. - 04/02/08 at 14:52 ET
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Leaders Focus on Student Performance, Building a Workforce |
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Camacho, Won Pat and Sgambelluri gather with nation's governors in North Carolina for Governors Education Symposium
June 13, 2008
(North Carolina) Governor Felix P. Camacho joined the nation's governors in calling for a greater focus on growing workforce capacity by promoting a college education and measuring student performance.
Governor Camacho is in North Carolina with Speaker Judith Won Pat and public schools Superintendent Giovanni Sgambelluri for the annual Governors Education Symposium, a joint initiative by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the James B. Hunt, Jr. Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy.
The Governors Education Symposium brings the nation's governors together to engage in candid dialogue about improving education in the United States. Throughout the three-day symposium, governors explored strategies and policies from around the country and globe for developing a world-class education system for all American students.
"The educational performance of our students today will determine our economic competitiveness in the future," said Governor Camacho "Governors all across the country are working to ensure their students are internationally competitive with those from top-performing countries. Our goal is for students from Guam to rank at the top. A focus on student performance with a mission to prepare Guam's schoolchildren for the careers of the future will help us to reach that goal."
"How U.S. student achievement compares internationally is alarming," said former North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt of the Hunt Institute. "If we are going to change our international standing and improve the quality of education, it has to start with high, rigorous standards."
Governors share successes and challenges in their states and discussed breadth of challenges in making American public education globally competitive, including:
Effectively Measuring U.S. Student Performance
High, rigorous standards are the foundation of a strong education system. Content standards specify the knowledge and skills that students need at each grade level. These standards must be supported by an aligned and clearly articulated system of curriculum, assessments, teacher preparation and professional development, textbook selection and appropriate support for students.
Improving the Quality of the Teacher Workforce
Research suggests that quality teaching is the single most important school-based factor in determining student achievement. School systems from top-performing nations share three common characteristics: improving the quality of the teaching force; providing support to teachers; and building structures to ensure that schools deliver high-quality instruction to every child. With nearly half of all new teachers in the United States leaving within the first five years on the job, teacher retention is a critical component of solving teacher shortage problems. Working conditions play a large part in teachers' decisions to remain in a school.
Increasing College Graduation Rates and Workforce Capacity
Amid the shifting demands of the global knowledge economy, it is critical that today's workforce have higher levels of postsecondary education or training than ever before. Our nation has seen a dramatic increase in the marketplace demand for workers with postsecondary education. The demand for workers with postsecondary education has increased from 28 percent in 1973 to 59 percent today.
Redesigning Education Finance Systems for Greater Efficiency and Effectiveness
State education funding comprises nearly 50 percent of total state government expenditures, but rising costs and competition with other sectors have significantly tightened public education funding. State financing systems should be modified to ensure that student learning drives education finance decisions.
For information about the Hunt Institute and the Governors Education Symposium, please visit www.hunt-institute.org.
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