Opinion: Why public education must be preserved
People often ask me why I’m a school board member. To be sure, it is an unpaid and largely thankless job, says Peggy Zugibe, a member of the…
Washington Post
Online textbooks moving into schools
Electronic books, having changed the way many people read for pleasure, are now seeping into schools, the Washington Post reports.
Opinion: 5 myths about Gov. Chris Christie’s ed reform in New Jersey
New Jersey’s public schools are often cited for academic achievement, outperforming most other states on the National Assessment of Educational Progress and ranking among top nations on international…
New ways students cheat on tests
Are we in a cheating epidemic? Asks the Washington Post.
Opinion: The problem with Obama’s plan to issue NCLB waivers
President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan would do well to listen to Daniel Domenech on the subject of issuing states waivers from key provisions of No Child…
Rupert Murdoch giving keynote at Jeb Bush’s ed reform summit
The man chosen to give the breakfast keynote address on the second day of the upcoming National Summit on Education Reform 2011: Education Everywhere , is none other…
Opinion: The latest in free-market educational solutions
A recent report was published that slammed America’s education schools for rampant grade inflation and low standards. Here’s a critique of that report: I began teaching in 1976,…
School district uses Race to the Top money for public relations
A school district that is a finalist for the soon-to-be announced $1 million 2011 Broad Prize for Urban Education is embarking on a public relations effort—funded with U.S.…
Opinion: Thank test-driven reform for poor scores on SAT
Anybody paying attention to modern school reform will not be surprised to learn that new SAT results show scores in reading, writing and math are down compared with…
Opinion: Why education reform keeps failing
What are we to make of articles (here and here) extolling IMPACT, Washington D.C.’s fledging teacher evaluation system, for how many “ineffective” teachers have been identified and fired,…
School board member: How I was bullied at school
Bullying is, obviously, a problem in our nation’s schools. Sometimes it leads to suicides or lawsuits, and that ends up making headlines. Bullying can also coast under the…
The cause of standardized test cheating and how to stop it
A top-ranked Los Angeles charter school now joins the seemingly endless list of schools and districts suspected of succumbing to a nationwide cheating pandemic: Animo Leadership Charter High…
Opinion: What the iPad (and other technology) can’t replace in education
A recent article in the New York Times explains how after investing $33 million in technology, a school district in Arizona has seen almost no improvement in test…
U.S. falls in global ranking of young adults who finish college
America’s global rank in college completion among young adults is slipping, according to a report released Tuesday, signaling that the higher education ambitions of other nations are progressing…
Are schools teaching the wrong lessons about 9-11?
What should teachers be discussing with their students to mark the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks? Asks the Washington Post.
The Daring Librarian: Wikipedia is not wicked!
My name is Gwyneth and I use Wikipedia every day. There, I said it. Somehow that’s pretty freeing! Wikipedia is NOT a dirty word, says Gwyneth Anne Jones,…
Opinion: National standards won’t help, won’t work
Despite my many bets to the contrary, the movement for national learning standards still lives, says Jay Matthews, education columnist and blogger for the Washington Post.
President Obama gives back-to-school interview to kids
President Obama is a busy man, but not too busy to give a back-to-school interview to members of Scholastic’s Kids Press Corps, the Washington Post reports.
The plight of great teachers
Let's say you are a teacher, and not just any teacher. You are one of those special teachers we hear about in news and policy discussions—the supposedly rare…
What’s really wrong with ‘parent trigger’ laws
“Parent trigger” laws, first passed in California and then elsewhere in the country, typically state that over 50 percent of the parents in a school or schools “feeding…
Teacher: How to address school bullying—and how not to
PBIS stands for Positive Behavioral Intervention and Support, a disciplinary framework for schools to help prevent bullying that is, in my experience, heavy on jargon but light on…
Hispanics surpass blacks in college enrollment
Hispanics surpassed blacks in 2010 to become the second-largest racial or ethnic group of young adults in America’s colleges, according to a new analysis of Census Bureau data,…
Editorial: How to improve teacher education now (and why Teach for America isn’t the answer)
A bill recently introduced in Congress, the GREAT Teachers and Principals Act, would designate programs based outside of universities as special academies for preparing teachers and principals, says…
Principal: Why I’m marching to ‘save our schools’
We are awash in market-based school reform, says Carol Corbett Burris, principal of South Side High School, NY, and the School Administrators Association of New York State’s 2010…
High school students get learning experience on college campus
There’s a new experiment to get Prince George’s County high school students ready for higher education: sending them straight to college, the Washington Post reports.
Despite cheating scandals, testing and teaching are not at odds
Recent news reports of widespread or suspected cheating on standardized tests in several school districts around the country have been taken by some as evidence that we must…
Opinion: To improve U.S. education, it’s time to treat teachers as professionals
“What are the right incentives to have in place for teachers?” The very question itself is jarring, says Howard Gardner, Harvard Graduate School of Education professor for the…
U.S. Education Department joins D.C. test probe
The U.S. Department of Education has joined the District’s investigation into allegations that some recent big gains on standardized test scores might have been the result of cheating…
Investigators report ex-Atlanta schools superintendent knew of test cheating allegations
A state investigation says former Atlanta schools Superintendent Beverly Hall knew about cheating allegations on standardized tests but either ignored them or tried to hide them, reports the…
At NEA convention, mixed feelings among teachers for Obama ahead of 2012 vote
When her union endorsed Barack Obama for president in 2008, retired Montgomery County teacher Jane Stern wrote checks to his campaign and spent hours calling voters in swing…
Presidential wannabes mum on schools
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney declared his candidacy for president last week. I went to his web site to read his ideas about education. There weren’t any, says…
University of Virginia revises sex-misconduct rules, other schools examine current guidelines
Colleges and universities in Virginia are reviewing their student sexual-misconduct policies after receiving guidance from the U.S. Department of Education about their responsibilities to address sexual violence under…
On college campuses, a gender gap in student government
More than half of George Washington University’s 10,000 undergraduates are women. But the latest candidates for student body president were Kwasi, Joshua, Chris, Phil, Jason, Caleb and John.…
Harvard reopens door to ROTC
Harvard University on Thursday became the most prominent college to welcome the Reserve Officer Training Corps back to campus in response to congressional repeal of the ban on…
Texas group launches scholarship exclusively for white males
The application for a $500 scholarship from the Former Majority Association for Equality looks pretty much like all the others out there. Well, except for this eligibility requirement:…
Fixing higher ed: Lumina’s Jamie Merisotis
In a story that published Sunday in the Washington Post Magazine, I offer eight suggestions to "fix" higher education, says Daniel de Vise of the Washington Post.
Obama names Facebook, Intel and Comcast execs to new jobs council
President Obama named Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, venture capitalist John Doerr and Comcast chief executive Brian Roberts to his council on jobs and competitiveness, highlighting the…
A University of Virginia student has a bright idea: ‘Flash seminars’
Once or twice a week, students at the state's flagship public university collect in some idle classroom or lounge for a "flash seminar," an ad hoc performance of…
Mexico state congress asks ban of video game
A shoot-em-up video game set in the border town of Ciudad Juarez has angered local officials who are busy fighting all-too-real violence, reports the Washington Post.
Principals briefed on how to ‘excess’ teachers
One sign of the difficult days ahead was the refresher course that school principals took via conference call last week on how to eliminate teacher jobs as they…