School Reform News Archives

Video to be a key part of student teacher evaluation

November 9, 2010November 2, 2010 by From staff and wire reports

Aspiring teachers are preparing for new, more demanding requirements to receive their teacher license: Under a new teacher evaluation system being tested in 19 states, evaluators will watch…

District Management

Virtual schools in a fight for adequate funding

October 29, 2010October 14, 2010 by By Meris Stansbury, Associate Editor

Heart-wrenching decisions made by state bureaucrats that affect the pursuit of a child’s dream might sound like the makings of a Hollywood movie, but for virtual schools in…

District Management

School of One boosts individual learning

April 25, 2011October 13, 2010 by By Jenna Zwang, Assistant Editor

Although an innovative school model in New York City called the School of One has just started its first full year of implementation, it already has garnered national…

District Management

Obama calls for more STEM teachers, longer school year

July 14, 2011September 27, 2010 by From staff and wire reports

Barely into the new school year, President Barack Obama issued a tough-love message to students and teachers on Sept. 27: Their year in the classroom should be longer,…

District Management

Newark, NJ, schools to get $100M Facebook donation

October 29, 2010September 23, 2010 by Laura Ascione

Mark Zuckerberg, the 26-year-old wunderkind behind Facebook, is making a move to become a player in philanthropy just before the opening of a film that portrays him as…

District Management

Groups urge updates to teacher preparation programs

October 29, 2010September 23, 2010 by From staff and wire reports

The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education and the Partnership for 21st Century Skills are calling on teacher education programs to update their curricula to better prepare…

District Management

Study: Teacher bonuses failed to boost test scores

October 29, 2010September 21, 2010 by From staff and wire reports

Offering big bonuses to teachers failed to raise students' test scores in a three-year study released Sept. 21 that calls into question the Obama administration's push for merit…

District Management

Report: ‘Top-third’ teachers essential to U.S. success

October 29, 2010September 20, 2010 by By Laura Devaney, Managing Editor

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”…

District Management

U.S. ramps up efforts to improve STEM education

October 29, 2010September 16, 2010 by From staff and wire reports

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…

District Management

What schools can learn from charters about teaching English language learners

October 29, 2010September 10, 2010 by By Meris Stansbury, Associate Editor

As charter schools become testing grounds for innovative approaches to education, many of these schools with high English language learner (ELL) and Latino enrollments are identifying best practices…

District Management

New grant program seeks solutions to toughest classroom challenges

October 29, 2010September 8, 2010 by From staff and wire reports

The U.S. Department of Education has partnered with the nation’s largest teachers union and its charitable foundation to launch a grant program encouraging public school educators to identify…

District Management

States given millions for new assessments

February 28, 2013September 2, 2010 by By Meris Stansbury, Associate Editor

Education Secretary Arne Duncan on Sept. 2 announced the recipients of millions of dollars in federal grants to provide new state assessment systems to test students’ 21st-century skills.…

District Management

Newspaper’s teacher ratings stir up controversy

October 29, 2010August 30, 2010 by From staff and wire reports

In a move that has many local educators seething, the Los Angeles Times has published an online database comparing more than 6,000 elementary school teachers based on a…

District Management

Are qualified teachers always effective teachers?

October 29, 2010August 26, 2010 by By Meris Stansbury, Associate Editor

Amid a growing consensus that “highly qualified” doesn’t necessarily mean “highly effective,” a movement is under way to reshape how the nation views successful teaching.

District Management

$3.4B for 9 states, D.C. in Race to the Top grants

November 8, 2010August 24, 2010 by From staff and wire reports

More than 13 million students and 1 million educators will share $3.4 billion from the second round of the federal "Race to the Top" grant competition, the U.S.…

District Management

APQC: Process management can improve education

August 28, 2013August 12, 2010 by By Laura Devaney, Managing Editor

An ambitious program aims to transform K-12 education outcomes by focusing on the processes through which schools strive to achieve those outcomes--and it already has led to positive…

District Management

Ed-tech innovators share their vision for education

July 7, 2011August 3, 2010 by From staff reports

From ideas on how Web 2.0 tools and game-based learning environments can help schools move beyond the industrial-era model of instruction, to the key question that should define…

District Management

Race to the Top program spurs school-reform debate

November 8, 2010July 28, 2010 by From staff and wire reports

The U.S. Department of Education has named 18 states and the District of Columbia as finalists in the second round of the federal "Race to the Top" (RTTT)…

District Management

Are computers for every student a wise investment?

June 16, 2014July 26, 2010 by By Dennis Pierce, Editor

Daily technology use in core subject-area classes, frequent technology use in intervention courses, and a low student-to-computer ratio can play a critical role in reducing dropout rates, new…

District Management

Forget grade levels: Schools try something new

November 8, 2010July 21, 2010 by From staff and wire reports

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…

District Management

NCTAF: Transform teaching through collaboration

January 17, 2012July 1, 2010 by By Meris Stansbury, Associate Editor

According to a new report, 21st-century teaching and learning can only occur if teachers and school staff work together as a collaborative team; simple adjustments to antiquated school…

District Management

Smaller urban high schools found to boost achievement

October 29, 2010June 25, 2010 by From staff and wire reports

With support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, New York City under Mayor Michael Bloomberg has systematically shut down large, failing high schools and replaced them with…

District Management

Microsoft’s Philly high school traveled rocky road

November 5, 2013June 15, 2010 by From staff and wire reports

When the Microsoft-designed School of the Future opened, the facility was a paragon of contemporary architecture, with a green roof, light-filled corridors and the latest classroom technology, all…

District Management

Wisconsin agency aims to transform education’s core

November 5, 2010June 10, 2010 by By Laura Devaney, Managing Editor

With support from all of its 45 superintendents, a Wisconsin regional service agency is determined to reinvent the very nature of public education so that all students are…

District Management

Final common standards in English, math released

October 29, 2010June 2, 2010 by By Laura Devaney, Managing Editor

A year-long effort to define a common set of academic standards for English and math culminated on June 2 with the release of the final version of the…

District Management

Videos highlight successful school reform

October 29, 2010May 19, 2010 by From staff and wire reports

To help local leaders with their own school-reform efforts, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) has produced a new series of online videos highlighting successful school improvements from…

District Management

Feds turn to ‘crowdsourcing’ for educational innovation

October 29, 2010May 10, 2010 by By Meris Stansbury, Associate Editor

Education technology advocates hope that a new national online community will inspire entrepreneurs and educators to team up in developing and funding innovative solutions to some of education's…

District Management

Teacher of the Year: Education ‘must be learner-centered’

April 25, 2011May 4, 2010 by From staff and wire reports

Facebook and digital video are among the many technology-based tools that Sarah Brown Wessling uses to engage her students—but just as important as that, it was her passion…

District Management

Feds to shape the future of assessment

November 5, 2013April 16, 2010 by By Meris Stansbury, Associate Editor

Federal officials are leading the charge to develop a new generation of summative, end-of-year exams that are delivered and scored by computer; focus on a deeper understanding of…

District Management

Author: ‘iGeneration’ requires a different approach to instruction

April 25, 2011April 12, 2010 by By Maya T. Prabhu, Assistant Editor

Today’s middle and high school students learn much differently from students just a few years older—and that's mainly because they’ve never known a world without the internet or…

District Management

Critics say administration’s blueprint is too similar to NCLB

October 29, 2010March 30, 2010 by By Laura Devaney, Managing Editor

As the Obama administration seeks support for its plan to rewrite the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), many education policy analysts worry that the new blueprint's guidelines…

District Management

Obama offers blueprint for rewriting NCLB

July 7, 2011March 15, 2010 by From staff and wire reports

President Barack Obama on March 13 unveiled a plan to overhaul the 2002 No Child Left Behind education law championed by President George W. Bush.

District Management

Critics: Obama’s ed policies no better than Bush’s

October 29, 2010March 12, 2010 by By Dennis Pierce, Editor

When it comes to education policy, President Obama is repeating the most grievous errors of his predecessor, charge a trio of venerable education policy analysts, including one—Diane Ravitch—best…

District Management

Teachers share their views on how to improve education

January 17, 2012March 3, 2010 by From staff and wire reports

In one of the largest national surveys of public school teachers, thousands of educators agreed that today’s students aren’t college-ready when they graduate from high school. Teachers' suggestions…

District Management

Plan to stem dropout rate stirs controversy

October 29, 2010March 1, 2010 by From staff and wire reports

The Obama administration is offering a $900 million carrot to the nation’s school systems to tackle what many view as an abysmal dropout rate that threatens America’s ability…

District Management

Obama urges states to raise academic standards

October 29, 2010February 22, 2010 by From staff and wire reports

Saying America’s “primacy in the world” is at stake, President Barack Obama on Feb. 22 prodded states to raise their academic standards by using the best leverage he…

District Management

Are unions blocking school reform?

November 8, 2010February 17, 2010 by By Laura Devaney, Managing Editor

In a new film called Waiting for Superman, there is a scene in which hidden-camera video shows a teacher reading a newspaper and looking at his watch while…

District Management

AASA keynote: Focus on children, or risk nation’s status

November 23, 2010February 14, 2010 by By Dennis Pierce, Editor

Referring to the significant challenges facing public education today as a crisis that threatens the nation’s status as a global leader, educational trailblazer Geoffrey Canada urged school leaders…

District Management

iSchools lift hopes in NYC

January 28, 2011May 15, 2009 by By Meris Stansbury, Associate Editor

A series of theme-based high schools are springing up across New York City, based on a model that has been open for only a year but already is…

Login