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Henry George International
Education Center |
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NOTICIAS, September-December 2014
First Dual-Schedule CE Course Renders Promising Results The CEIHG Managua graduated its 55th intensive "Comprender la Economía" (CE) political economy courses in November, 2014, finishing with 25 superior-level graduates and then another three as a result of the follow-up CE workshop for higher level intermediate certificate holders. 25 of the 28 superior-level CE graduates subsequently declared themselves as Georgist Community Fund (GCF) members. This CE 55 course was the first CE course offered with separate afternoon and an evening classes. From 2000-2012, the CE course had been offered only with a night schedule. Then, starting in 2013, the CEIHG changed the CE course schedule to an afternoon format which ended up attracting and graduating larger numbers of students. Of course, along with other administrative and didactic improvements, the change in schedule was just one reason for the CE course's greater enrollment success. Nevertheless, due to the dual schedule and an extra week of publicity and registration (three instead of just two), the CE 55 course received the largest single enrollment of students (97) since July 2001 (108).
At the same time, the CE 55 course was practically the first course presented in large part by Nicaraguan teachers. These two new initiatives of parallel afternoon and evening classes and new teacher trainees imparting the course ended with mostly positive results but also indicated significant opportunities for further improvements in the CE course process. Due to the inexperienced teacher trainees not being quite able to inspire initial interest and motivation in the students during the first half of the CE 55 course, the course ended with a student retention rate of only 37%, the fourth lowest of all the CE courses offered since 2000. Fortunately, the course was put back on track at the halfway point when Professor Martin took over the lead teaching position for the rest of the course. A lesson was learned about the importance of a sufficiently dynamic presentation in the early classes in order to inspire the interest and retention of the students. As a result, the CEIHG is redesigning the teacher guide and materials to enable teacher trainees to be more confident and focused on delivering the course content in the next CE courses.
Despite the lower than hoped for student retention rate of
the CE 55 course, the
total effort of the course was redeemed by the exceptionally high proportion
of superior-level graduates (78%) achieved in the main course and its follow-up workshop. It is notable that the last three
CE courses finished with the highest percentages of superior-level graduates
(62%, 85% and 78%, respectively) since 2008 and that 2014 finished with the
all-time highest annual percentage rate of superior-level graduates with 71%.
These results seem to indicate that the CE course program
is becoming more effective in helping our students achieve greater understanding
of the P&P course material as well as a greater ability to demonstrate their
newly acquired knowledge. The CEIHG plans to offer another cycle of four CE courses in 2015 with the expectation that the parallel afternoon and evening class schedule will continue to attract enrollments of 90-100 students per course. The 2015 CE courses will enjoy the benefits of an improved edition of P&P (abbrev., in Spanish), a system of cross-referencing between the P&P text and the CE teacher guide and illustrative materials, as well as the continued use of CE study groups and follow-up CE workshops. All of this is expected to increase teacher effectiveness and student retention while maintaining the high rate of superior-level GCF-qualified CE course graduates.
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Georgist Community Fund Finishes 2014 With Upward Trajectory The Georgist Community Fund (GCF), the HGIEC-sponsored international association of qualified and declared Georgists, increased its membership to 143 members as of mid-December. More than half of the total membership is considered to be "active" which means they have been recognized as having participated in Georgist-related activities in at least one quarter of the calendar year. The main body of the GCF membership continues to be made up of Nicaraguan graduates of the CEIHG Managua's CE course, along with 8 international members from the international Georgist community.
The Nicaraguan GCF membership is composed of a diverse group of serious-minded students and professionals. The group's average age is 30 years old and 55% are male. The major professions represented in the group include economics (21 members), accounting-finance (18), administration (18), computer engineering (12), diplomacy (9), law (9), and marketing-communications (8). Many other diverse fields such as political science, philosophy, civil engineering, arquitecture, construction, dentistry, military, photography, etc., are also respresented among the GCF's members. As can be expected in a developing country such as Nicaragua, many of the GCF members are parents of young children and almost all are members of large extended families. The one major thing they all have in common is that they believe that all land and land rent needs to be administered equitably as the common property of all humanity.
The uninterrupted upward trend of GCF membership, meeting attendance, and general "active" participation from 2011 to 2014 indicates that a strong continuing growth trajectory of the association can be expected in 2015. Though the GCF expects to lose as much as 25% of its current membership early in the new year due to non-renewal by less committed members (members must qualify every year with the GCF exam), the GCF also expects to add another 150-200 new members in Nicaragua during 2015. In addition, the GCF is hopeful that another 20-30 international Georgist leaders will decide to participate in the GCF in 2015, to bring the GCF Nicaraguan-international membership to a total of around 270-330 members by the year's end.
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