Survey finds gap in ed-tech access between rich, poor students
Technology has become essential to middle school and high school learning, but according to teachers, a gap in access to the internet between the rich and poor is…
Month: February 2013
Pearson launches ed-tech incubator for startups
Publishing giant Pearson has launched an incubator program for ed-tech startups, following in the footsteps of other educational companies like Kaplan, Mashable reports.
First lady announces website to help kids exercise
Imagine students learning their ABCs while dancing, or memorizing multiplication tables while doing jumping jacks: Some schools are using both methods of instruction, and First Lady Michelle Obama…
Can you see how Google Glass will disrupt education?
Wearable technology will be challenging to manage if schools aren’t prepared, EdTech Magazine reports.
How to prepare for Common Core testing—and why current teacher evaluation systems won’t help
To prepare for more rigorous assessments aligned with the Common Core standards, teachers will need more time and opportunities to collaborate with each other, education professor Linda Darling-Hammond…
What to consider when flipping the K-12 classroom
Flipping the classroom is one of the top trends in school reform, with more and more teachers trying the approach in an attempt to boost student engagement and…
Win a playground for your school
Two grand prize winners will receive a $30,000 grant and a new playground from Playworld Systems. One of the grand prize winners will be chosen from a special…
New report shows how to cultivate great principals
An effective school requires an effective leader, but great principals rarely just happen, says the Wallace Foundation: They are cultivated. Now, a new report from the foundation offers…
Why even art teachers have a problem with standardized testing
Gray is the color between black and white and it can be created in many ways. There is cool gray and there is warm gray. There are light…
Michelle Obama links movement to better test scores
First lady Michelle Obama, in an interview with SiriusXM host B. Smith being aired to mark the third anniversary of her “Let’s Move” campaign, said that allowing students…
Islamic studies lesson at high school causes political firestorm
The Daily Caller, quoting a story from World Net Daily, reports an incident at Lumberton High School in Lumberton, Texas, in which female students were encouraged to dress…
State offers schools post-disaster grants
The New Jersey Department of Education says it will distribute $1.25 million in grants to help schools that were hit hard by Superstorm Sandy last year, the Associated…
Three federal education policy updates
As Congress nears a deadline to form a compromise and avoid sequestration, education stakeholders are hoping to avoid devastating school funding cuts that could put an end to…
Seven new iPad apps to know about
Last month, we launched a brand-new feature called "App of the Week," in which our editors highlight a new educational app every week. Here are the first seven…
Report: High school dropouts cost economy billions
High school dropouts are costing some $1.8 billion in lost tax revenue every year, education advocates said in a report released Feb. 25.
Plagiarism souvenirs
Most teachers will tell you that when assigned a research paper, students enter a few keywords into a Google search, download some relevant webpages, cut and paste passages…
Reporter tries a MOOC
Alas, I busted my deadline. As I write this, my assignment was due 13 hours ago. In this case, I was not late in filing a story for…
Apple will offer $5 credits for parents victimized by “bait apps”
Parents whose kids blew their money buying virtual goods in "free" apps from Apple's iPad store will be getting refunds in the near future, Ars Technica reports. That…
Digital rights advocates wary of new ‘six strikes’ initiative for online piracy
The newest attempt to thwart illegal filesharing launched Monday and while the "six strikes and you're out" initiative seems to offer light penalties, digital rights advocates are concerned…
Like kids, Virginia schools will get letter grades
Students will not be the only ones who may dread showing their grades to parents. Starting in 2014, each Virginia public school will get a very public letter…
‘You can’t have that data’: 19 months of stonewalling by ed bureaucrats
In state after state, critics of education reform try to get data from state education departments to see for themselves ... Read more
Ten facts about K-12 students’ technology use
More than half of students in grades 6-8 now have access to a tablet computer—a percentage that has doubled since last year. And Twitter use has grown three-fold…
Welcome to sequester deadline week
The sequester is set to kick in on Friday, leaving Congress little time to prevent across-the-board spending cuts that would start this week and last until they’ve saved…
Does school reform perpetuate inequity?
Many critics of modern school reform say that while reform efforts are intended to close achievement gaps and provide equitable educational experiences for all students, they are having…
Barnes & Noble weighs its eReader investment
Even for a company with a lot of bad news lately, the bulletin from Barnes & Noble this month had an ominous feel, The New York Times reports.…
NM House OKs budget with merit pay for teachers
New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez's administration will receive money to establish a merit pay system for teachers under a proposed state budget approved by the House despite objections…
‘Good to Great’ author: How to have great schools
The most important factor influencing a school’s success isn’t class size, length of the school day, or other reforms, says researcher and author Jim Collins—it’s having a great…
Study finds teenagers in relationships are threatened online or in texts
In another mark of the increasingly digital life of teenagers, more than 25 percent of those who dated said their love interests threatened or harassed them online or…
Students get satellite time: Inside the Mars Student Imaging Project
A project that puts middle and high school students in charge of an instrument on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter received a top prize from the journal Science on…
Weighing prospect of changes in graduation requirements
Following backlash over the rocky institution of a new student assessment system last spring, Texas lawmakers are scrambling to scale back the requirements they passed four years ago,…
Woman, 104, forced to lie about age on Facebook
Facebook is apologizing for a problem that makes a 104-year-old Michigan woman lie about her age on the social media website, the Associated Press reports. Marguerite Joseph's granddaughter…
Judge says state cannot withhold aid to city schools over teacher evaluation impasse
The New York Times reports that state officials, for now, cannot stop $260 million in aid from flowing into New York City’s schools as a penalty for the…
Attendance data ‘scrubbing’ tempts low-ranked schools
A former superintendent went to prison in Texas for conspiring to remove low-performing students from classrooms to boost average test scores. Principals in Oklahoma and Missouri are out…
Survey: Principals under more stress
School principals and teachers have high opinions of how effectively each group is working to educate students, but principals say their job is growing increasingly stressful and has…
ED considering district-by-district NCLB waivers
Education Secretary Arne Duncan is talking with individual school districts about how to free them from unworkable parts of the federal No Child Left Behind law, signaling he…
The five best Tweets of the week
Here are the education-related Tweets that we found most enlightening, helpful, or interesting this week.
Five habits of great students: Lessons from top-ranked STEM school
Many factors affect how well students do in school, but among them are how the students themselves approach their work and learning, the Washington Post reports.
The worst eighth-grade math teacher in New York City
For 10 months, Carolyn Abbott waited for the other shoe to drop. In April 2011, Abbott, who teaches mathematics to seventh- and eighth-graders at the Anderson School, a…
Why promising minority students aren’t signing up for AP exams
The number of high school students passing at least one Advanced Placement (AP) exam is up overall this year, but students from minority groups still lag behind their…
Teachers union challenges NY’s property tax cap
New York's largest teachers union and several parents sued Wednesday to overturn the state's property tax cap as unconstitutional, contending it widens the gap between rich and poor…
