5 Newark principals suspended indefinitely, allegedly for opposing One Newark plan

Five Newark public school principals were suspended indefinitely on Friday, including four who spoke at a community meeting opposing proposed changes to the state-run school district, according to two sources who sought anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the press, The Star-Ledger reports. A video on YouTube shows four of the administrators with mayoral candidate and Newark Councilman Ras Baraka, who is on leave as principal of Central High School, at the meeting at the Hopewell Baptist Church. The Wednesday meeting was held to oppose Superintendent Cami Anderson’s One Newark reorganization plan. The suspension of the fifth principal was the result of an incident unrelated to that meeting, according to the sources…

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S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley blasts Common Core, wants state to scrap it

Gov. Nikki Haley urged South Carolina lawmakers to scrap the national Common Core curriculum that is being phased in at schools throughout the state, KnowNews reports. “We don’t ever want to educate South Carolina children like they educate California children,” Haley said. “We want to educate South Carolina children on South Carolina standards, not anyone else’s standards.” “We are telling the legislature: Roll back Common Core,” the Republican governor added. “Let’s take it back to South Carolina standards.” Her remarks came in response to a question at the conclusion of her speech Thursday to the Greenville County Republican Women’s Club…

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Joy & rigor: The And-Both solution

Is it possible to create a high-engagement school where students do interesting and relevant work and meet high expectations? Erin Mote and Eric Tucker are a smart duo developing Brooklyn Laboratory Charter School (LAB) and they think the answer is decidedly YES, Getting Smart reports. Admittedly, they haven’t figured it all out but they have seven months before 132 sixth graders show up at their school in the heart of downtown Brooklyn near the Farragut housing projects. The joy-rigor paradox that they have embraced reminds me of another favorite Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC) winner—a “no excuses” blended Montessori mashup launching in Austin…

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Fon raises $14 million from Qualcomm to boost sharing of Wi-Fi, music

Spanish Wi-Fi sharing company Fon has raised $14 million from Qualcomm Ventures, VentureBeat reports. It’s an indication that Fon’s collective approach to sharing bandwidth, while slow-growing, still has some attraction to investors — particularly a strategic investor like Qualcomm, which makes chips for broadband wireless communications. It might also be finding some traction now that the notion of “collaborative consumption” is catching on, thanks to startups like AirBnB and Lyft — although Fon predates those startups by several years. Fon will use the funding to develop a new device, based on Qualcomm’s Atheros chipset, that enables users to share music as well as their broadband signals, Recode reports. In addition, Qualcomm will build Fon’s Wi-Fi sharing capabilities into its own Atheros chipset, GigaOm states…

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Apple settles with FTC after kids blow millions on the app store

Apple agreed to settle with the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday after a formal complaint said the company was billing customers for millions of dollars worth of App Store purchases made by children without their parents’ consent, readwrite reports. The initial complaint, filed January 15, alleged Apple was in violation of the FTC Act by not informing parents that once they initially entered their Apple ID username and password combination to purchase an app or an in-app item, their iOS device would approve any further purchases for the next 15 minutes without asking for further authorization…

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Technology is not driving us apart after all

In September 2008, two graduate students working for Keith Hampton, a professor at Rutgers, raised a camera atop a 16-foot tripod to film down into Bryant Park, the sprawling green space behind the main branch of the New York Public Library, says Mark Oppenheimer for the New York Times. They hit record, then milled about nearby pretending they had nothing to do with the rig, as it semi-surreptitiously filmed the comings and goings of hundreds of New Yorkers. The charade didn’t last. After an hour, Lauren Sessions Goulet, the more senior of the pair, found herself talking to the park’s private security force, which sent her to see their bosses, the Bryant Park Corporation. She was nervous…

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New York wants to give special education kids easier tests

Should students with disabilities be held to the same academic standards and tests as other kids their age? asks the Huffington Post. That decades-old question is being revived by a debate in New York. Some advocates charge that a proposed tweak to the state’s No Child Left Behind update may shortchange vulnerable students — and, if approved, could spread to other states. They want these kids tested alongside their peers, so that they won’t fall behind as each grade passes them by. Others, though, say tougher testing for kids with disabilities can have its own detrimental effects…

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Some schools need $100 million for online Common Core tests

A new report from Maryland’s Education Department to the legislature says that the vast majority of schools in many of the state’s counties are not technologically prepared to give new online Common Core-aligned standardized tests and that at least $100 million will have to be spent by 2015 to get ready, the Washington Post reports. In Montgomery County alone, it is estimated that necessary computer purchases will cost some $10 million, wireless enhancements to the infrastructure another $3 million and other technological improvements an additional $4 million…

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Does middle school need an image makeover?

Middle school has a terrible reputation, The Atlantic reports. The titles of James Patterson’s middle-school series say it all: From the number-one New York Times bestseller Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life, which launched the series in 2011, to last summer’s Middle School: How I Survived Bullies, Broccoli, and Snake Hill, to this spring’s Middle School: Ultimate Showdown!, the titles reflect a dystopian vision of life in middle school. And he’s far from alone in this. When it comes to young adolescents in schools, Americans seem determined to perpetuate a narrative of hormones and horror…

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62 interesting ways to integrate iPad in your classroom

iPad is making huge inroads in education with more and more school districts embracing it as a learning and teaching device, Educational Technology and Mobile Learning reports. If it happens that you teach in one of these districts then you might have already experienced the usability of this device in instruction. It is true that we are still in the early stage of integrating iPad in education but reports coming from classrooms using it clearly demonstrate the benefits of this device as a teaching tool. What is obvious is that the star of iPad is raising and soon or later you will have to start thinking of giving it a room in your instructional toolbox in case you haven’t already done so…

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NYC wants to teach kids how to not ruin their lives on Facebook

The New York City Department of Education (DOE) wants to make sure teens know how to use social media responsibly, the Huffington Post reports. The DOE recently rolled out a nine-page social media guide for students 13 and older, in an effort to make sure students leave a “smart digital footprint.” The guidelines advise students on how to create a preferred digital image, respond to cyberbullying and adjust their social media privacy settings. They also warn students to be cautious of what they post online and to “pause before you post.”

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A real school reform agenda for 2014

If you remember your No Child Left Behind history, 2014 is the year that all children were supposed to be scoring proficient on standardized tests, the Washington Post reports. That was, of course, a ridiculous goal, which the authors of the bill knew full well when they wrote it, and a symbol for just how misguided school reform has become. Here, George Wood, superintendent of Federal Hocking Local Schools, offers four things that reform really should be targeting…

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