Groups urge updates to teacher preparation programs
Classroom Innovations
K-12 Curriculum news
Personalizing history for more impactful student learning
Social studies teachers can help students personalize history by embracing individualized pathways and oral or local history projects
Panelists: Digital tools expand learning opportunities
The nation's ed-tech director called on schools to replace textbooks with mobile learning devices, and the head of the FCC said his agency would be voting this week…
Report: ‘Top-third’ teachers essential to U.S. success
Improving teacher effectiveness has risen to the top of national education priorities, but the key to attracting, training, and retaining truly effective teachers may lie in the “top-third”…
A professor’s review of online cheat sheets
At this time of year, students are buying textbooks and looking for ways to avoid reading them. Nothing is new about that, the New York Times reports. CliffsNotes…
Texas education board to consider rule on Islam’s portrayal in textbooks
Just when it appeared the State Board of Education was done with the culture wars, the panel is about to wade into the issue of what students should…
Music instruction goes virtual
As online courses spike in popularity across the nation, students are finding that even the most traditional face-to-face courses offer virtual options that are just as thorough as…
U.S. ramps up efforts to improve STEM education
A grant program that challenges students to design their own video games is one of several new initiatives announced by President Obama Sept. 16 as part of a…
Intel awards $1 million to schools
Things are looking up for America’s innovative and dedicated STEM schools, thanks to Intel Education’s over $1 million donation to six math and science schools as part of…
Spell-check use on writing exam prompts debate
A decision by the Oregon Department of Education to let students use a computer spell-check feature when taking an online version of the state’s writing exam this year…
Gearing up for the new school year
In the past I have dusted off curriculum binders, gathered a supply of whiteboard markers (so recently replacing chalk), and put up a framework for bulletin boards to…
UK experts say game education could help lacking tech curriculum
Information and communication technology (ICT) education is failing UK students and the country's technology industry as a whole, but a curriculum that includes video game-related subjects could help…
Long Beach schools teaching algebra with iPads
Need to learn algebra? There's an app for that, as a group of students at Washington Middle and Hudson K-8 schools in California found out Sept. 8, reports…
Gates Foundation to invest in next-generation instructional tools
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation plans to invest up to $250 million over the next eight years to develop ... Read more
Feds probing claims of bias against Arizona’s non-native English speaking teachers
The federal government is investigating whether a new Arizona policy discriminates against teachers who are not native English speakers, reports the Arizona Republic. The state’s education department for…
After nearly a decade, laptops changed learning in Henrico County
Henrico County, Va., is entering the 10th year of its novel program to provide a laptop computer to every middle and high school student. Now ubiquitous, the laptops…
3D equipment helps school lessons take on a whole new dimension
Vera Johnson's fifth-graders barely noticed as visitors walked into their classroom this week, reports the Dallas Morning News: They were far too focused on the disembodied head that…
First virtual school in Mass. opens today
The Massachusetts Virtual Academy opens in Greenfield on Sept. 2, not only as the first in the state, but also as the first virtual school in New England…
Former Leapfrog, Blackboard exec joins DreamBox Learning as new CEO
DreamBox Learning has hired Jessie Woolley-Wilson as its new CEO, an appointment that comes four months after the Bellevue, Wash., online education startup was sold to an investment…
Wired youth forget how to write in China and Japan
Like every Chinese child, Li Hanwei spent her school days memorizing thousands of the intricate characters that make up the Chinese writing system. Yet, at 21 and now…
iTunes Texas education channel launched
Texas students now can download podcasts, videos, and other multimedia lessons directly from iTunes through a new online program aimed at providing free, supplementary coursework that can be…
Replacing a pile of textbooks with an iPad
A new company called Inkling hopes to break the standard textbook model and help textbooks enter the interactive age by letting students share and comment on the texts…
Oregon’s education board seeks rules on virtual schools
This week, the Oregon Board of Education took a small step toward resolving a five-year dispute over one of the thorniest questions of the virtual-schools movement, reports the…
Survey: Video-game technology embraced by med students
A new survey reveals the vast majority of medical school students believe that technology in the form of virtual reality exercises could help them develop the skills they…
Cutting class soon could cost teens driver’s licenses
The Clark County, Nev., School Board on Aug. 4 will discuss whether to push for a new state law that will link driving to school work, reports the…
New iPrep Academy gives students technology-rich environment
Miami-Dade Public Schools is tightening its embrace with the 21st century by unveiling the newest addition to its magnet school fleet, reports the Miami Herald: the iPrep Academy,…
Plagiarism lines blur for students in digital age
As the free and easy exchange of information online has transformed concepts of intellectual property, copyright, and originality, students’ notion of what constitutes plagiarism has changed as well,…
Teacher innovation gets royal treatment
In what could be called a 21st-century teachers' fair, Microsoft chose a select group of educators to participate in the company’s annual Innovative Education Forum (IEF)—a showcase of…
Feds to create an Online Learning Registry
In a move to help rural schools keep pace with more developed districts, the U.S. Department of Education said it will create an Online Learning Registry that will…
Analysis: ‘Common Core’ standards clearer, more rigorous
An analysis by an education policy think tank finds that the common academic standards many states will be adopting are clearer and more rigorous than those currently used…
Forget grade levels: Schools try something new
As Kansas City, Mo., students return to their age-assigned classrooms this fall, they will begin to take assessments in math and reading—tests that will determine their mastery of…
Harvard profs dropping final exams
Final exams are probably not anybody’s primary concern at the moment, but it is worth noting that the July-August edition of Harvard Magazine reports that many Harvard professors…
Program uses smart phones to increase math scores
Two years ago, public high schools in North Carolina began a pilot project to determine whether smart phones, in conjunction with curriculum resources, could be leveraged to increase…
Technology a key tool in writing instruction
While there are still many obstacles facing teachers in implementing technology, teachers play a critical role in driving the use of technology to teach writing, says a recent…
Is computer science a dead end in the workforce?
As software development tools grow more advanced and more coding moves offshore, the need for advanced development expertise is on the decline, InfoWorld reports.
New tool shows how arts education boosts 21st century skills
Working with national arts organizations, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) has developed a first-of-its-kind Arts skills map that clearly defines how arts education promotes key 21st-century…
Students take photos of Earth’s curvature with help from iPad
At the Potomac School in McLean, Va., this past school year, 13 seventh- and eighth-graders signed up for a biweekly science elective that proposed this challenge, reports the…
3D content for education on the rise
At least a dozen companies now offer three-dimensional learning content, according to industry sources, and some of the major players in the educational video market are rumored to…
New Texas law requires more class details online
Public colleges and universities in Texas face the cost of making more detailed class descriptions available online so students and parents can get a better idea of what…
Project lets users explore the cosmos from a PC
