Eleven-year-old Ethan Rediske has been in hospice care for the past month and is likely nearing the last days of his life, the Huffington Post reports. Yet, it appears Florida school officials aren’t convinced he should be able to opt out of an upcoming standardized test. Florida requires all students in the state to take a version of Florida’s Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT). While a recent law allows some special education students facing exceptional circumstances to be exempt from these tests, getting approval isn’t easy…
…Read MorePodcast Series: Innovations in Education
Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.
Study: Single-sex ed may not actually be better for kids
Do students really learn better when separated by gender? New research indicates that they do not, the Huffington Post reports. Study results released this week by the American Psychological Association found that students do not perform better in math, science or verbal subjects when they attend single-sex schools, or single-sex classes within coeducational schools. The research, which analyzed 55 years worth of data, refutes theories that adolescent girls thrive when separated from boys, and that boys perform better when they have a curriculum specifically tailored to them…
…Read MoreThen-and-now photos bring iconic Black History moments back to life
Every day, we walk in the very places where history was made years ago, the Huffington Post reports. Sometimes that location is marked by a plaque or a statue, but other times we walk in the very same places where the footsteps of iconic men and women changed the world without even knowing it. In honor of Black History Month, The Huffington Post created these images of iconic Civil Rights locations and what they looked like then and now…
…Read MoreHumble teacher shocks community by leaving $8.4 million
A retired teacher who worked with special-needs kids, the late Margaret Southern drove a 1980s Cadillac, lived in a modest home and had just one indulgence in life: taking her friends out to eat from time to time, the Huffington Post reports. So when the Greenville, S.C., community learned that the humble resident, who died at age 94 in 2012, had left $8.4 million to the Community Foundation of Greenville, a group that provides grants to targeted programs, they were pretty shocked to say the least, Greenville S.C. News reported. The donation was made public this week as the first of the annual grant distributions will be doled out this month, the foundation announced…
…Read MoreWhen this New Zealand school got rid of playtime rules, it actually got safer
One school has found that eliminating rules can actually be a good thing, The Huffington Post reports. After Swanson Primary School in New Zealand got rid of rules during recess as part of a study, administrators saw a decline in rates of bullying, injuries and vandalism, as well as an increase in students’ ability to concentrate during class, according to New Zealand outlet TVNZ. The AUT and Otago University study, which began several years ago and concluded at the end of last year, eliminated recess rules in an effort to discover ways to promote active play, according to the outlet. As a result, kids were more engaged in their activities…
…Read MoreNew 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…
…Read MoreNYC 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.”
…Read More7 things we should start teaching in schools ASAP
Americans typically learn a lot of things in school–spelling, math, why plants are green–that are actually useful in our day-to-day lives, the Huffington Post reports. But they also learn a lot of other things–cursive, long division, how to play “Hot Crossed Buns” on the recorder–that are probably not. No, we didn’t waste our time with those lessons. Learning something new isn’t ever a net loss. Playing the recorder provides building blocks for understanding music, and writing cursive has been shown to increase reading comprehension, for example. But it is worth reconsidering what we teach in the classroom and figuring out which lessons could better prepare students for life after graduation…
…Read MoreHow the Common Core became education’s biggest bogeyman
Shortly before Thanksgiving, Arne Duncan made a glib remark about the Common Core that quickly blew up, the Huffington Post reports. Speaking before a gathering of state schools chiefs, the secretary of education dismissed growing opposition to the new national set of learning standards, saying “white suburban moms” were rising up against the Core simply because its more rigorous tests meant they were being told “their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were.” The riff wasn’t all that different from Duncan’s usual words of support for the Common Core…
…Read MoreU.S. puts schools on the hook for police actions
The Obama administration issued the first federal legal guidance on school discipline Wednesday, telling school administrators they must avoid discrimination when doling out punishments, and must reserve harsh punishments that pull kids out of class as a last resort, the Huffington Post reports. Because of concerns that schools unfairly punish students differently based on race, the U.S. Education and Justice departments are setting legal standards for managing students’ behavior while avoiding discrimination outlawed by the Civil Rights Act of 1964…
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