A Florida teacher is accused of having sex with her sons 15-year-old friend for more than a year.

Arrested on Monday, Susan Weddle, 40, has resigned from her position as a learning resource specialist position at the J.E. Hall Center. Last month, a high school guidance counselor contacted the Department of Children and Families after someone informed the counselor of explicit text messages between Weddle and the teen, according to the Pensacola News Journal.

The victim reportedly told authorities in late November that he and Weddle had sex several hundred times and that their sexual relationship began when he was 15 and Weddle was 39. According to the arrest report, he claimed they first had sex in October 2018, when he and Weddles son attended a football game and party before going to Weddles home to drink.

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The victim reportedly claimed he was drunk when he tried to convince Weddle to have sex with him. He said Weddle said she knew it was wrong but she eventually gave in.

According to NorthEscambia.com, a witness claimed he saw Weddle and the victim kissing in the kitchen during a party at Weddles house. He said the victim admitted to having sex with Weddle after the party.

The witness reportedly also told authorities that he saw a video that possibly depicted the victim and Weddle having sex. However, he noted that faces were not visible in the video.

Weddle allegedly gave the victim an iPhone, necklace, and bracelet during their illicit relationship. The victim also said that he and Weddle exchanged nude photos but claimed the phones used to send the messages were either destroyed or factory reset.

Weddle was charged with felony sexual battery on a victim 16 or 17 years old, lewd and lascivious behavior, and using a two-way communication device to facilitate a felony. Her bond was set at $150,000.

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[Featured image: Susan Weddle/Escambia County Jail]

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Special education teacher has sex with son's teen friend 'several hundred times': Docs - CrimeOnline

Harvard University to provide closed captioning on online videos after a four-year-long lawsuit.

On November 27, the National Association of the Deaf (N.A.D.) won a landmark settlement with Harvard University that institutes a series of new guidelines to make the universitys website and online resources accessible for those who are deaf or hard of hearing. The settlement represents the most comprehensive set of online accessibility requirements in higher education and ensures for the first time that Harvard will provide high-quality captioning services for online content.

The settlement expands upon Harvards new digital accessibility policy, which was announced in May. According to the new policy that will go into effect on December 1, Harvard must provide captions for all online resources, including school-wide events that are live-streamed, content from department-sponsored student organizations and any new university created audio or video hosted by third-party platforms such as YouTube, Vimeo and SoundCloud.

Also, Harvard must add closed captioning to existing content posted on or after January 2019 within two years. For any content not already captioned, upon receiving a request, Harvard must caption the content within five business days. Harvard is also required to submit reports every six months beginning in June 2020 to N.A.D. and the Disability Law Center with information about the number of requests received and any changes made to these policies, among other details.

The terms of the settlement are included within a consent decree, which can be enforced by the court. The court must approve the consent decree before it may become active.

This settlement means greater access for current and future deaf and hard of hearing learners to the vast universe of Harvards online content. Ensuring accessibility is not something that can be considered a bonusit is a fundamental right that everyone deserves. Were pleased that Harvard will finally be treating all learners with the same standard of respect, explains Amy F. Robertson, the co-executive director of the Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center.

This settlement was reached four years after this litigation began in 2015 when it was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Massachusetts as a class action lawsuit.

The lawsuit was prompted by the recognition that, notwithstanding the description of Harvards online resources as available to learners throughout the world, many of its videos and audio recordings lacked captions or used inaccurate captions. Harvard had no published policies in place to ensure these learning tools were accessible to people who are deaf and hard of hearing. In the United States alone, approximately 50 million people are considered deaf or hard of hearing. The failure to provide appropriate accommodations to this community is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

A similar lawsuit wasfiled against the Massachusetts Institution of Technologyat the same time, but they havent settled on the litigation yet. Both Harvard and M.I.T. are known for their extensive materials available free online, and the two universities are the founding partners of edX, a nonprofit that offers dozens of massive open online courses (MOOCs), free to students around the world.

Through the litigation, Harvard filed two motions to dismiss the case. In response to each, the court ruled those federal laws prohibiting disability discrimination covered Harvards online content. After these rulings were issued, Harvard announced its new digital accessibility policy, and several months later, the parties reached a settlement.

As Harvard learned through this lawsuit, universities and colleges are on notice that all aspects of their campus, including their websites, must be accessible to everyone. Captioning video content is a basic form of access that opens up academic learning to not only deaf and hard of hearing people but the world. The National Association of the Deaf asks all who develop video content for the Internet to ensure access through quality captioning, said Howard A. Rosenblum, C.E.O. of the National Association of the Deaf.

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Harvard University, The Latest Higher Education Institution To Be Mandated To Provide Video Closed Captioning - Forbes

This story originally appeared on the front page of the Nov. 17, 1989 issue of The Press Advertiser. Editor

I think education is good to me and many others because it gives us a chance to do and know more. For example, we must learn how to read and write. Without knowing those basic skills it would be hard to get through life. Once we know these skills we can learn almost anything we want to learn. I can't imagine what it would be like to walk into a restaurant and not be able to read a menu or not be able to fill out a check or even a job application.

I enjoy getting an education because it is fun to learn new things. It's nice to learn about places I may go when I grow up.

Who knows, maybe someday I will be able to help someone else get an education. That would mean a lot to me. I love learning about good education. Andria Hargis

It means to learn. Without Education where would we be. Educcation is your life. If you did not have an Education you would die, because you could not get a real job. You could not get food, clothes and a house. You would have to have someone take care of you. Lets just say you can't live without Education. the end. Eric Wright

What education means is to go to school and lrne. And to be a good stotit. And it means to lisin to the techer. Rachal Dyan Laut

If you dont go to school you won't know how to read or write or anything like grown-ups do. You need to know how to read and write if you want to be a teacher. Danielle Coffey

I like learning because it is fun. If we did not have education nobody would be smart. Then nobody would know how much their grocerys are, and also I would not be writing this story. Chrysten Cook

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We got to come to school to learn what to do. I want to be a doctor when I grow up. I like the big old cars they have. They get lots of money and you have to have an education to be one. Brayton Hedgcoth

1. Education is learning a bowt being a good citizen. 2. Education means going to school and getting a good Education. 3. Of you have a good Education you can have a job. The ede. Darielle Wallis

Education helps people get along in the world. It gives you jobs, like a doctor or a lawyer, instead of selling candy around the neibarhood. With an education you can buy more food for your family. Some people without an education can't even afford food. With an eduacation you can know what's going on in the world around you. You can also know whats happening out of this world, like anothe planet.

An education lets you go in a store and figure up you bill without the workers telling you what it is. It is much easier to live with a good education. Be cool graduate from school. Amanda Barnhouse

Education means good grades a good job and a good life. Education is working, learning having fun. Education is skool, books, pencils.

I like Educatin because you learn new things like math spelling and the other subjects you learn definitions how to use a dictinary, you learn everything from Education. Education Motto IF YOU KEEP EDUCATION it will kep you. April Crocker

To me eduction means knowledge and how to get a job. I also think it means learning about certain things that you will have to know through life.

It means to use our minds and to try hard. It mens to learn ordinary and special kills. Thats what education means to me. Shelly Watkins

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Students offer their perspective on the importance of education - Daily Journal Online

A new business intelligence report released by Research Industry US with the title Global Online Higher Education Market Report 2019 by Type, Application, Region, and Manufacturers is prepared to cover the micro-level of analysis by companies and key business segments. The Global Online Higher Education Market study offers dynamic visions to conclude and study the market size, market trends, and competitive surroundings. The research is derived through verified primary and secondary sources and it comprises both qualitative and quantitative detailing.

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Online Higher Education Market Global Opportunities 2019 by Industry Size, Growth Rate, Price, Trends, Share, Revenue and more| Research Industry US -...

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Photo credit: Star file photo

Photo credit: Star file photo

Photo credit: Star file photo

Antonia Rainey December 2, 2019

Students have the opportunity to influence statewide education by applying to be a representative on the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

Texas Senate Bill 1007passed in 2007 and implemented in 2008allows Texas students from a public university to apply to become a representative on the Texas Higher Education Board. The student representative will serve a one-year, non-voting term and gets appointed June 2020.

Only one Texas student at a public higher education institution is selected to be a representative. Currently, a student from Texas Tech University is serving until the end of their term in May 2020. There has not yet been a Texas State student appointed to serve on the Higher Education Coordinating Board.

To apply, students must have at least a 2.5 GPA as an undergraduate or graduate student and maintain good academic standing. Students can fill out the online applications found on the TXState VPSA page, and then print and submit them to the Division of Student Affairs, which work in conjunction with Student Government.https://www.vpsa.txstate.edu/students/resources/Student-THECB-Application.html

By Jan. 1, Student Government members will select no less than five applicants to give to University President Denise Trauth. Trauth will select two nominees and then send the nominations to the governor by Feb 1. Gov. Greg Abbott will be able to select who he wants to appoint for the position by June 1.

Vice President for Student Affairs Joanne Smith said the university has been sending out the application and information for a student representative on the board for years. The main purpose of the Student Affairs Office is to ensure applications are filled out correctly. Disciplinary records and transcripts are checked to guarantee candidates meet the required academic standards.

We are basically the screeners of the application and make sure everything is correct before it gets sent up, Smith said, We make sure everything is complete and (students) have all the right information asked for.

Chief Operating Officer of the Commissioners Office in the Texas Higher State Education Coordinating Board Linda Battles said the goal of the bill is to allow more student perspectives on the educating board.

Institutional student perspectives are very important to the work we do, Battles said. Obviously, it is one of the reasons why we exist: to serve the students. We want to make sure student perspectives and concerns are represented in these discussions and deliberations our boards take.

A day before the first committee meeting on June 17, the newly appointed student representative will go through an orientation for the Higher Education Coordinating Board before participating in their first meeting. Toward the end of July, the representative will then participate in their first-floor board meeting on July 23.

According to Battles, the responsibilities of a student representative on the Board are to review agenda materials and attend at least three of the four committee meetings. The student will attend three of the four board meetings as well, both of which are held quarterly in Austin.

The student representative serves on the board and three committees total as ex officio members, meaning they do not vote, but can participate in discussions and deliberations. Additionally, the student representative may be contacted from constitutes in which they can either respond directly or have the agency respond on their behalf.

Battles said the student representative must have an interest in serving not only their institution but the whole of the state.

We try to ensure members of the board have a statewide perspective, and theyre not representing a particular point of view from one institution, Battles said The student board member comes from all walks of life, not just students enrolled at a particular institution.

Trevor Newman, candidate for the Hays Democrat Chair, encourages students to get involved in government and politics. By doing so, students are able to influence government officials to pass legislation benefiting students needs.

The people that know students the best are other students, and students know what each other needs and what they want to learn more about, Newman said. We know what things are being used on campus or our public education more than other things. I think thats where we get interesting insight because weve been through public education. We need more young voices within our democracy and if young voices arent willing to jump in the game, then were going to have older people making decisions for us.

Students who would like a chance to be selected for representative on the board must complete the higher education board application and Governors appointment application as well as send their resume and transcript to the Vice President for Student Affairs Office in the J.C Kellam Building, Room 980 by Dec. 2.

The appointment from Abbott will be announced June 1, 2020. The position is in effect until May 31, 2021.

For more information, students can call the VPSA office at (512)-245-2152.

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Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to get new student representative - University Star

Coming out of an abusive relationship, Jill realized that many domestic violence victims have been in worse situations than she's had to deal with.

But she's grateful for every bit of help provided by the Women's Center of Montgomery County.

"I was in an abusive relationship about six years ago and they kind of saved me from that," she recalled. "So I've been with them for a long time."

The mother of a 14-year-old and a 9-year-old, Jill has never been homeless, but is expecting some guidance from the organization in the coming months in finding affordable housing.

"I've never had to stay at a shelter. I'm staying with my sister right now but plan to move in the next four or five months," she said.

With her background in the medical field, Jill said she's been working steadily, except for a brief period when she had knee surgery.

"I try to get to as many of the weekly meetings as I can, but during that time when I wasn't working I was able to get to more meetings than I usually do," said Jill, who plans to pursue a grant to finance a degree that will allow her to pursue a different field.

"They can provide the resources for that but they don't do it for you. You have to do the work yourself," she said.

Jill wasn't sure how much assistance from Operation Holiday would be coming her way, but anything would be helpful, she said.

" My kids will be getting some gifts for Christmas, but not that much. I did get a call from Pauline about the program, so that's nice to know I'm on the list."

Jill noted that she had nothing but praise for Pauline McGibbon, who provided tremendous guidance over the years.

"She has always been there for me and it's meant so much," Jill said.

Now in its 29th year, Operation Holiday has provided a brighter holiday season to thousands of families with children throughout the region. Donations from readers last year allowed the program to provide food and gifts for 144 families with 442 children in need.

This year, 15 agencies in Montgomery County and northern Chester County have referred 107 families with 325 children. Stories of families interviewed by our reporters will appear in the newspaper and online between now and December 24.

There is no overhead with Operation Holiday and all funds stay local. Funds are collected and audited in a non-profit foundation account managed by staff of MediaNews Group.

Food, which includes the fixings for a holiday dinner as well as staples for the pantry, is ordered, bought, packed and distributed by employees and their family members as well as local high school and community volunteers..

Gift cards for every child in the program 16 years of age or younger are purchased through Boscovs and distributed in partnership with the referring agencies.

Operation Holiday does not accept families who have not been referred by an agency in order to protect the integrity of the program.

Operation Holiday is funded solely by readers contributions. All contributions are tax deductible.

Contributions can be mailed to The Mercury, Attn: Operation Holiday, PO Box 1181, Pottstown, PA 19464, or The Reporter, 307 Derstine Ave., Lansdale PA 19446. Make checks payable to "Operation Holiday."

Online donations are being accepted in a secure portal in partnership with TriCounty Community Network. Visit https://tcnetwork.org/ and click on the link for Operation Holiday.

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OPERATION HOLIDAY: Woman hoping for an educational grant with the help of Women's Center - The Times Herald

Engineers are taking free online courses to gain new knowledge to address challenges in their work and to improve their employment prospects, writes Brian Mulligan

Technology is now enabling many alternative models of engineering education.

Brian Mulligan

Engineers are taking free online courses to gain new knowledge to address challenges in their work and to improve their employment prospects, writes Brian Mulligan.

You can learn almost anything on the internet. Kids are learning to play the piano without a teacher by watching YouTube videos. Technicians are using videos viewed through augmented reality glasses to maintain equipment.

So will this change the nature of engineering education? It has already started in CPD, where busy engineers take online courses in topics that are not available close by, saving them time and minimising disruption of their lives.

Even practical work is being facilitated online with simulators, remote access to rigs and virtual reality based learning experiences.

For undergraduates lecturers are starting to use the web to improve their teaching. They are posting links to resources, accepting assignment and giving feedback online and using quizzes to encourage and monitor progress.

However, these changes are only augmenting the basic model of education that has been with us for hundreds of years. Are there more radical approaches that might change the underlying teaching or business models of engineering education?

Flipped Learning, where the student engages with the content before class, and takes part in activities during class, is gaining traction. Why give the same lecture every year when it can be recorded? Why not use the valuable time in class to apply knowledge and to get support from the lecturer (and peers in large classes)?

Why not create a full Project Based Learning (PBL) degree. Why have any lectures at all? A programme based around the execution of projects will better prepare the students for the workplace.

Students can access low-cost courses on the web to underpin their learning. Many of these will be compulsory and considered to be a fundamental part of an engineering education, but many will be chosen by the students on the basis of their own interests or the requirements of the projects.

However, college projects are artificial and a limited attempt to emulate the real world. What if undergraduates spent the full length of their degree in the workplace? Work-Based Learning (WBL) degrees already exist, often as apprenticeships in a block-release format.

Online learning allows such work-based programmes to be more convenient as the student can attend work continuously and study online. This model has already been successfully deployed by Institute of Technology Sligo in the apprenticeship degree in insurance practice.

Manufacturing employers around Ireland have indicated great interest in employing young trainees to get their engineering degree in this mode.

Both PBL and WBL are examples of how technology can enable radical changes in teaching models, but it might be suggested that changes in business models could be even more radical. Although the hype of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) has passed, they continue to be popular.

IT Sligo enrolls 2,000 learners every year on a free Introduction to Lean Sigma course, an important marketing tool for our large range of CPD courses. Many universities are monetising this development by amalgamating MOOCs into micromasters and charging for assessment.

The most notorious example of this style of low-touch, low-cost education is the masters in computer science from Georgia Tech. At $6,500 (about 5,900), the programme has 5,000 students enrolled and is partially to blame for the reduction in enrollment in computer science masters degrees around the US.

AI systems are now being deployed to reduce the workload in both supporting students and creating assessments.

Cutting cost through scale and the use of technology, strategies familiar to engineers, are now being applied in education. The value proposition for learners seems very compelling and may well be a threat to existing programmes.

To finish, consider a more radical concept called free range learning where the learner chooses what, how and where they learn.

This may be difficult to develop in a traditional and highly regulated profession like engineering. However, given the need for more engineers, the increasing specialisation of work and the constant emergence of new technologies, perhaps this should be considered.

As accreditation is important, the key to the development of such a model is Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL). Many shorter courses on the Internet are issuing micro-credentials, often electronic (and more recently based on blockchain).

Electronic certificates, which can hold much richer data about a learners achievement will ease verification and make RPL more feasible. However, institutions will need to also change their regulations to be more accepting of learning gained elsewhere.

Technology is now enabling many alternative models of engineering education. Many will resist change for both valid and invalid reasons. However, learners, who will now have many more choices than they have ever had before, may force the pace of change, preferring those providers that innovate.

Author: Brian Mulligan is a civil engineer, and is responsible for online learning innovation at the Institute of Technology Sligo where he has worked as a lecturer, online learning developer and online innovation manager since 1984. bit.ly/brianmulligan

Engineers are taking free online courses to gain new knowledge to address challenges in their work and to improve their employment prospects, writes Brian Mulligan. You can learn almost anything on the internet. Kids are learning to play the piano without a teacher by watching YouTube videos. Technicians are using...

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Engineering education online the future is now - Engineers Journal

The stock of China Online Education Group (COE) formed H&SI with $7.16 price target or 3.00 % above the current $6.95 share price. The 9 months Head & Shoulders Inverse reveals low risk for the $141.74M company. This trade was featured by Faxor.com on Dec, 4. If the $7.16 target price is reached, the companys valuation will be $4.25 million more. Inverse Head-and-shoulders are some of the best chart patterns to trade. These formations work as in bear as in bull markets and many researchers states that they have very low failure rates. Despite the high pullback rate, these trading patterns are usually good places to trade based on their risk-reward profile. Industry expertss backtests show that 55% of these patterns reach their targets.

The stock decreased 0.71% or $0.05 during the last trading session, reaching $6.95. About 1,000 shares traded. China Online Education Group (NYSE:COE) has declined 44.19% since December 4, 2018 and is downtrending. It has underperformed by 44.19% the S&P500.

More notable recent China Online Education Group (NYSE:COE) news were published by: Benzinga.com which released: Earnings Scheduled For September 11, 2019 Benzinga on September 11, 2019, also Seekingalpha.com with their article: Johnson Controls International plc (JCI) CEO George Oliver on Q4 2019 Results Earnings Call Transcript Seeking Alpha published on November 07, 2019, Seekingalpha.com published: China Online Education: Sitting On The Sidelines Seeking Alpha on November 07, 2019. More interesting news about China Online Education Group (NYSE:COE) were released by: Prnewswire.com and their article: China Online Education Group Announces First Quarter 2019 Results PRNewswire published on June 14, 2019 as well as Businesswire.coms news article titled: Mary Ellen Coe Elected to Merck Board of Directors Business Wire with publication date: January 29, 2019.

China Online Education Group, through its subsidiaries, provides online English language education services to students in the People's Republic of China and the Philippines. The company has market cap of $141.74 million. It operates online and mobile education platforms that enable students to take one-on-one live interactive English lessons with international foreign teachers. It currently has negative earnings. The company's flagship courses include Classic English and Classic English Junior for the development of English communication skills.

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Time to Buy China Online Education Group (COE) After The Completion of This Inverse H&S Pattern? - FinanceRecorder

EASEL Lab, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is on the map. There is solid evidence that SEL matters a great deal for important life outcomes including success in school, college entry and completion, and later earnings. We also know that SEL can be taught and nurtured in schools, resulting in significant impacts such as improvements in classroom functioning and organization, students ability to learn and get along with others, and increases in academic achievement.

Although the term social and emotional learning is not new, and has, in fact, been around for years, a growing evidence base has recently driven a tremendous surge in interest in this area particularly among parents, educators and policymakers. Yet, amid a wide array of effective programs and approaches to draw upon, challenges still remain. One major area of ongoing concern is that SEL goes by many names, and the terminology can be confusing and misleading, ultimately impeding efforts to achieve meaningful results.

Common ways of describing the field include character education, personality, 21st century skills, soft skills, and noncognitive skills. Each label draws from a slightly different theoretical perspective and employs different pieces of research, and each has its own related fields and disciplines. Moreover, major players in the field have put forward competing organizational schemes or frameworks that often use different or even conflicting terminology to describe similar sets of skills. The result is what has been described as the jingle and jangle problem, which refers to the use of a single term to mean many different things (jingle) or multiple terms to mean the same thing (jangle).

This wide array of terms, concepts and ideas is not a bad thing in itself. Indeed, it makes for a broad, rich and vibrant field overall. The challenge is that inconsistent terminology makes it difficult to communicate clearly about whats important and to make decisions about the right strategies and approaches to use in practice. In short, without a way to make sense of the words, its easy to misinterpret, overgeneralize or overlook the hard science that links evidence to strategies, and strategies to measurement and evaluation. The result could be cherry-picking teaching practices, interventions and assessments that may or may not be related to each other or to the desired outcomes.

To address this challenge, the EASEL Lab at the Harvard Graduate School of Education created Explore SEL. Thiswebsiteand set of tools is designed to show relationships among different skills, terminology and frameworks(organizing systems that communicate which skills and competencies are important, and that serve as a roadmap or guide for policy and practice),organizing, describing and connecting them across disciplines in a way that is agnostic to brand and sensitive to development and context.

Explore SEL includes the following interactive tools, with more to be added in the future:

Compare Domains: See which domains, or broad skill areas common to the field of SEL, are emphasized in different frameworks; see all frameworks at the same time and identify broad trends in the field;

Compare Frameworks: See where skills, competencies, behaviors in one framework relate to those in other frameworks; select any two frameworks from the database and compare them side by side;

Compare Terms: See where specific skills like conflict resolution, attention, empathy, self-efficacy and critical thinking are included across all the frameworks in the database; select any skill(s) and identify its prevalence; and

Thesaurus: See related terms, regardless of terminology and research tradition or discipline (whether the term is common to the study of early childhood vs. adolescent and youth development, or SEL vs. character education, etc.); select any skill or term in the database and see a list of related terms in order of similarity.

Ultimately, Explore SEL will provide education decisionmakers with a way to sort through frameworks and terminology to make sense of existing information, allowing them to better align strategies and goals to achieve real impact. As efforts to build social, emotional and related skills are integrated into schools, practitioners, policymakers and funders need to know which skills are important, what they are called and how they relate to one another, in order to focus on the skills and approaches to SEL that best meet their students needs. The tools are designed to help stakeholders in the field select, adapt or develop organizing frameworks that will guide their SEL efforts in ways that make clear the skills they intend to address, ultimately enabling greater alignment among those target skills, the strategies used to build them and the measures used to assess them.

To this end, Explore SEL encourages and supports users to (a) reflect on the goals, priorities and needs of their target population and setting; (b) identify, compare and align relevant skills and frameworks; and (c) think about which types of strategies and measures will best fit the skills they have identified as important. For example, school and district leaders can use the site to better understand the subtle nuances and differences between various frameworks in the field in order to select one that guides their approach to SEL in ways best aligned with their specific goals and needs.

Similarly, policymakers can use the site to explore which skills appear across multiple frameworks and how they are related to ensure that SEL standards dont focus too narrowly on a particular skill area while missing others that matter for childrens success. At the same time, the site can help researchers, funders and program evaluators be more clear and precise in how they understand and define the skills being targeted by a particular program or intervention, thus increasing the likelihood that their evaluation, measurement and assessment strategies are closely aligned with the target skills and outcomes on which they should reasonably expect to see impact.

This is an important moment for SEL interest is high, and promising approaches abound. But poor communication and coordination threaten to undermine efforts. Now is the time to take advantage of the current energy to drive forward more precise, careful and transparent work that will maximize impact. Explore SEL is designed to make it easier for educators, policymakers and researchers to be intentional about the skills and outcomes that are best aligned with their mission and goals, and to identify frameworks, programs and strategies that effectively meet their needs and enable them to achieve results.

Stephanie M. Jones is the Gerald S. Lesser professor of early childhood development at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, director of HGSEs EASEL Lab and co-director of the Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative.

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Analysis: Social-emotional learning is important. But what do all those SEL terms, concepts & ideas actually mean for the classroom? New online...

ENGLISH IS THE most widely spoken language in the world. And of the roughly 1.5bn speakers globally, the vast majority speak it as a second language. So where are the worlds best non-native English speakers? According to a new report by EF Education First, an international education company, Northern Europeans are the most fluent (the Netherlands tops the rankings, followed by Sweden, Norway and Denmark). Middle Easterners are the least proficient (Iraq, Kuwait, Oman and Saudi Arabia all rank near the bottom).

These results are not comprehensive, however. Nor are they representative. EFs index is based on the results of a free online test taken by 2.3m volunteers in 100 countries. Only people with an internet connection and time and willingness to take a test are included in the sample, which means the results are biased towards richer countries interested in English. As a result, many African countries do not have enough test-takersat least 400to be included in the index.

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Such biases aside, the EFs index produces results that are interesting, if not entirely scientific. Nearly six in ten of this years test-takers were female. Women have always fared better than men, but this year men closed the gap somewhat. Some countries saw their proficiency scores decline. This is probably not because their English got worse; more likely, a big increase in the number of test-takers brought in more people with weak English.

In Europe, the powerhouse economies fare surprisingly badly: only Germany makes the top tier of very high proficiency countries. France is next, while Spain and Italy are persistent laggards. A study by a Spanish research institute confirmed the bad news: 60% of adults say they speak no English at all. The fact that Spanish is a global language in its own right (the language boasts 400m native speakers) is probably the culprit. If you speak Danish, you need another language to take part in global culture; speaking French or Spanish (or Arabic) means hundreds of millions of people to talk to without English.

Asia is the region of greatest diversity. Only Singapore makes the top tier, but the Philippines, Malaysia, Hong Kong and India are not far behind. China is further back but still in the second tier, a few slots ahead of Japan. Languishing in the bottom slots are a clutch of South-East and Central Asian countries like Cambodia and Kyrgyzstan. This correlates with another factor: EF repeatedly finds that English skills are highly correlated with connections and openness to the rest of the world.

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Where are the world's best English-speakers? - The Economist