ED launches version 2.0 of its education data website
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) on Aug. 25 launched version 2.0 of ED Data Express, an interactive website aimed at making accurate and timely K-12 education data…
Month: August 2011
RheeFirst, Michelle Rhee attack site, defended by teachers union
In the eyes of Steven Brill, the American Federation of Teachers building a website attacking Michelle Rhee and masking its origins is worse than Rhee's creating a billion-dollar…
Mom gives back-to-school shoes to 700 needy kids in murdered son’s name
For Lynn Alderman, August is the cruelest month. It's the month her son, Joey, was born. It's also the month he was shot and killed three years ago…
Don’t weep at urban violence; prevent it with better schools
I get deeply angry over each untimely death--because this violence does not have to happen, says Gary Marvin Davison, former researcher and writer for the 2004 and 2008…
Public high school grads struggle at college
New data show GPAs decline markedly, raising questions about whether students are prepared for demands of higher education, the Chicago Tribune reports.
Sony, Toshiba, Hitachi join forces in displays
The display businesses of three major Japanese electronics makers are joining forces to become more competitive in small and medium-sized panels—a sector that's expected to grow because of…
Universal Service reform: What it means for schools
Changes to the government's Universal Service programs will result in new broadband options for schools—but they'll also create new compliance challenges as the web of federal programs supporting…
Opinion: Teachers get little say in a book about them
Can an education reform movement that demeans and trivializes teachers succeed? It’s hard to imagine, but that is what is going on in parts of America today, the…
Ex-Apple exec wants to make textbooks like computers
Inkling, a digital textbook company started by ex-Apple education exec Matt MacInnis, wants to make textbooks more like computers, reports the Huffington Post.
$10,000 for retention, performance and recruitment blended learning
Echo360, the global leader in campus-wide blended learning and lecture capture solutions, is now accepting submissions for the 2011-2012 Blended Learning Grants Program. The 2011-2012 program theme is…
Growth scores give schools No Child Left Behind alternative
Orr Middle School Principal George Leavens isn't surprised that only half his students tested at grade level in math and reading last school year, the Las Vegas Review-Journal…
‘Unschooling’ gaining popularity, allows children alternative learning tools
School's never out for 14-year-old Zoe Bentley. Nor is it ever in, reports the Huffington Post.
The plight of great teachers
Let's say you are a teacher, and not just any teacher. You are one of those special teachers we hear about in news and policy discussions—the supposedly rare…
Detroit leads way in school security with high-tech scanning system
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‘Principal pipeline’ project targets six major districts
Six school districts will receive funding from a $75 million initiative that will help them develop a much larger corps of effective school principals and determine whether this…
Think you’re an auditory or visual learner? Scientists say it’s unlikely
We've all heard the theory that some students are visual learners, while others are auditory learners. And still other kids learn best when lessons involve movement, NPR reports.
Buyout packages becoming common for departing school superintendents
From Massachusetts to California, a rising number of school superintendents who find themselves at odds with their boards of education are enjoying softer landings thanks to generous farewell…
Drug test proposal inspires 8-day teacher strike in Illinois
Angered by a newly proposed random drug testing policy, the teachers union in the Illini Bluffs School District in the central Illinois town of Glasford, located 15 miles…
What’s really wrong with ‘parent trigger’ laws
“Parent trigger” laws, first passed in California and then elsewhere in the country, typically state that over 50 percent of the parents in a school or schools “feeding…
Opinion: When roommates were random
Today I am a college professor, and I am sad that most of my students will not experience what I did back when Mark Zuckerberg was in diapers,…
New York spikes education software deal with Wireless Generation
New York’s comptroller has spiked a $27 million contract with an education software firm owned by Rupert Murdoch because of the media mogul’s phone hacking scandal in Great…
Ind. vouchers prompt thousands to change schools
Weeks after Indiana began the nation's broadest school voucher program, thousands of students have transferred from public to private schools, causing a spike in enrollment at some Catholic…
Closing the math skills gap and boosting achievement
As with so many other schools around the country, it was apparent that too many of our students, at all grade levels, were struggling with math and were…
School superintendent gives up $800K in pay
Some people give back to their community. Then there's Fresno County, Calif., School Superintendent Larry Powell, who's really giving back. As in $800,000—what would have been his compensation…
FCC ruling brings e-Rate funding to more applicants
Several hundred more e-Rate applicants will get funding for the wiring, routers, switches, servers, and other equipment needed to bring high-speed internet access into classrooms, thanks to a…
Missouri judge blocks Facebook limits for teachers
A new Missouri law prohibiting teachers from having private online conversations with students suffered a double setback Aug. 26. First, a judge blocked it from taking effect because…
Teacher: How to address school bullying—and how not to
PBIS stands for Positive Behavioral Intervention and Support, a disciplinary framework for schools to help prevent bullying that is, in my experience, heavy on jargon but light on…
NYC ordered to release teacher performance data
A New York state appellate court has ruled New York City must release reports that measure public school teachers’ effect on their student test scores—complete with the teachers’…
Cheating teachers, principals found in 5 more Georgia schools
Richard Hyde, the investigator behind the July bombshell report of extensive teacher cheating in Atlanta's schools, expects to have the next installment of the unfolding saga ready by…
Hispanics surpass blacks in college enrollment
Hispanics surpassed blacks in 2010 to become the second-largest racial or ethnic group of young adults in America’s colleges, according to a new analysis of Census Bureau data,…
CPS: Property tax hike approved to offset new costs
According to the Huffington Post, the Chicago Board of Education unanimously approved a budget late Wednesday afternoon that includes a property tax hike for homeowners, ABC7 News reports.
15 ways more funding could change education
If money were no object, what would your "dream school" look like—and what it would offer students and teachers? Perhaps surprisingly, many readers responded with practical, common-sense ideas—which…
Jobs resigns as Apple CEO; educators ponder his ed-tech legacy
Though Steve Jobs wasn’t at Apple’s helm during the twelve years the company established itself as the leader in educational technology in the 1980s and 90s, it was…
Opinion: Why great teachers aren’t enough to make schools work
We love to talk about teachers—good teachers, bad teachers. Our entire narrative about schools seems to revolve around finding good teachers and firing bad ones, says Harold Kwalwasser,…
Watch: Teachers rap a public letter to Education Secretary Arne Duncan
Twitter's 140-character allowance wasn't enough for anonymous rapping teacher duo Two Teachers and a Microphone to talk education with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, reports the Huffington…
Opinion: What the U.S. can learn about education from Canadians
There is a debate, if that’s what you can even call it, raging in America about how to improve our public education system, Reuters reports.
How to fix our math education
There is widespread alarm in the United States about the state of our math education, reports the New York Times.
Student-inspired strike in Chile erupts in violence
A 48-hour national strike got off to a violent start in Chile on Wednesday, as demonstrators clashed with police around Santiago in the worst unrest of Sebastian Pinera's…