Consultants are profiting from telling the obvious to Arkansas schools, writes Brian Kisida of Mid-Riffs.
Fayetteville School District’s new Phi Beta Kappa curriculum audit will bear an uncanny resemblance to a Dilbert cartoon, Kisida predicts.
Of course, Phi Delta Kappa’s report will turn community members’ idea [...]
As Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) becomes more influential, critics charge it’s a way for high-tech companies to influence schools, reports Education Week.
“The closer we look, the more P21’s unproven educational program appears to be just another mechanism for selling more stuff to schools,” Lynne Munson, [...]
More than a quarter of young people have been involved in sexting — “sharing sexually explicit photos, videos and chat by cell phone or online” — according to an Associated Press-MTV poll. One third of young adults also say they’ve sent or received explicit photos.
. . . 14 percent [...]
Low-income and minority students lag in college enrollment and graduation at two- and four-year public colleges, concludes Charting a Necessary Path, an Education Trust report.
Two years ago, 24 public higher education systems educating 40 percent of four-year students pledged to halve the achievement gap in college access [...]
In Confessions of a Twilight Addict, English teacher Jennifer Morrison compares the popular teen vampire series to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.
Like an 18th century novel of manners, Twilight criticizes social assumptions and regimented ideas of appropriate behavior. In an interesting twist, whereas Austen’s heroines single-mindedly protect their [...]
DonorsChoose, which lets givers fund public school teachers’ requests, now offers gift cards. For example, the recipient might choose to help a high school teacher buy fun books for a class library.
In some cases, donations will be matched by the Gates Foundation.
[...]Epic Adventures Are Often Uncomfortable is hosting Educarnival v2. To submit to next week’s carnival, use this form. The deadline is Monday at 6 pm EST.
The Carnival of Educators deadline is Sunday night. The form is here.
Andrea is hosting the Carnival of Homeschooling.
[...]Americans say it’s important to know about the American Revolution, but 83 percent failed a basic test by the American Revolution Center with multiple-choice questions such as: What battle ended the Revolutionary War? The average score was 44 percent.
[...]The Department of Education is backing away from its decision to use National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results to measure states’ progress, reports Flypaper, citing Education Daily. Instead of using a single national measure, the department will factor in results from state exams.
“Race to the Top” is a [...]
Deloitte 2009 Education Survey shows a “disconnect” between what students and parents want from high school and what teachers believe is their responsibility.
Preparing students for college is the primary mission of high school, say 42 percent of low-income parents and 48 percent of low-income students. But teachers’ top priorities [...]
Washington state students aren’t ready for new graduation requirements in math, science, speaking, and writing, argues state Superintendent Randy Dorn in the Spokane Spokesman-Review. The class of ‘13 will be required to pass all four state exams, but the new math standards won’t be tested until they’re in 10th [...]
Instead of 30 minutes stuck in the cafeteria, Patuxent High (Maryland) students get a free hour — anywhere in the school — for lunch, clubs, tutoring or relaxing, reports the Washington Post.
. . . the middle-of-the-day burst of freedom has increased club participation, taught time management skills and given [...]
Los Angeles Unified profits by keeping kids in English Learner status long after they’ve met state and local standards for fluency, argues Lance Izumi of the Pacific Research Institute in the LA Daily News. The district gets more money and higher test scores.
A Bureau of State Audits report found [...]
Teaching the transcendentalists and inspired by an essay called “The End of Solitude,” Lightly Seasoned asked AP juniors to give up social media and TV for one day last weekend.
The journals were fascinating: some kids did it fairly easily and were happily surprised by how productive they were. One [...]
Those who want to dump standards and testing are abandoning the good school promise, writes Tom Vander Ark, ex-Gatesman, on his blog.
The primary reason we have a federal law like NCLB is that school boards (and state boards) allowed generations of chronic failure. They cut bad employment deals and [...]
University of California students protesting a 32 percent fee hike are pampered brats, writes Ruben Navarrette Jr.
UC-Irvine freshman Suzanne Kordi told the regents in public comment: “This isn’t Wall Street, and the UC students are not here to bail you out. We’re here to get an education. If these [...]
Educated Guess describes how a consortium of California charter schools will spend $60 million in Gates Foundation teacher effectiveness grants.
* A one-year residency program for aspiring teachers;
* A data warehouse of assessments to measure individual students’ growth;
* A performance-based pay system that teacher help design.
Alliance for College-Ready Public [...]
In Poor Schools or Poor Kids? on Education Next, Joe Williams of Democrats for Education Reform speaks for the Education Equality Project (accountability, pay reform, choice) while Pedro Noguera gives the Broader, Bolder perspective (preschool, health care, nutrition, parent training) on improving K–12 schooling.
Noguera: There are schools across the [...]
On The Answer Sheet, cognitive scientist Dan Willingham argues that arts education is more than a luxury, citing a speech by Jerry Kagan, a developmental psychology researcher.
First, he estimated that something like 95% of children are capable of doing the work necessary to obtain a high school diploma, yet [...]
Many students attend two, three, four or more colleges en route to a degree, writes Chad Alderman on The Quick and the Ed. With AP and online courses, plus low-cost community college options, even more will be rolling their own education. So why not let course-givers provide credits, instead [...]
The Science on Women and Science, is a collection of essays by researchers who disagree on why women lag behind men in science careers. Is it gender bias? Differences in ability or interest? Sean Cavanagh [...]
Pittsburgh students are the best in the nation — and the world — in ability to spell “‘Roethlisberger,” reports The Onion. During the Steeler quarterback’s rookie season in 2004, only 43 percent of students could spell Roethlisberger, said Pittsburgh mayor Luke Ravenstahl.
“In just five years, we have increased that [...]
Darwinian evolution? Intelligent design? In a letter to a Kansas school board, Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster devotees demand that Pastafarian beliefs be taught in public schools along with other theories of creation.
Let us remember that there are multiple theories of Intelligent Design. I [...]
Future teachers will be required to repudiate the American dream — “the idea that in this country, hardworking people of every race, color and creed can get ahead on their own merits” == at University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities campus, writes Katherine Kersten in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
According to a [...]
Notes From A Homeschooling Mom is hosting the Carnival of Educators. (Email Andrea if you want to be a future carnival host.)
Siobhan Curious, a Canadian literature teacher, writes about an 18-year-old student who’s desperate to pass her course after seven weeks out of school trying to help [...]
Alternatives to Virginia’s state exam, such as assessing portfolios of students’ work, are proliferating, reports the Washington Post. The pass rate is soaring. Are the alternative assessments too easy?
The Virginia Grade Level Alternative, like the multiple-choice test, assesses students’ understanding of the state academic standards. Teachers [...]
As paternity testing has soared, more men have learned they’re not the fathers of the kids they’ve been raising. But non-dads may be stuck paying child support for other men’s children, reports the New York Times Magazine.
In most states, judges put the interest of the child above that of [...]
The Carnival of Homeschooling is open at Norfolk Homeschooling Examiner.
[...]President Obama promised a national science fair to spotlight young inventors and show young students how “cool science can be.” It’s part of his Educate To Innovate campaign: Sesame Street’s Elmo and Big Bird, corporations, companies, video game programmers and scientists have pledged to promote science, technology, engineering [...]
Parents would pay a detention fee for their misbehaving children if two board members in Nutley, New Jersey get their way. Detention costs the district about $10,000 a year in overtime and maintenance. The board members want to fine parents of “habitual” detainees.
However, the policy may not be legal, [...]
Todd Farley’s Making the Grades: My Misadventures in the Standardized Testing Industry gets a review in the Washington Post. After rising from scorer to trainer to test writer, Farley concluded that standardized tests are “less a precise tool to assess students’ exact abilities than just a lucrative means [...]
When it’s noisy, kids don’t learn language skills, writes Ashley Merryman in Newsweek.
Kids in noisy environments hear enough words that they learn to communicate. But they miss out on the additional language necessary to master the more sophisticated nuances of phonics, vocabulary, and structure.
Researchers have looked at children living [...]
Overparenting has sparked a backlash, claims Time, which sees a “revolution under way, one aimed at rolling back the almost comical overprotectiveness and overinvestment of moms and dads.”
The insurgency goes by many names — slow parenting, simplicity parenting, free-range parenting — but the message is the same: Less is [...]
Better science education wouldn’t fix Star Trek’s bad science, argues John Scalzi. But it doesn’t matter.
. . . even movies with bad science can still inspire the science-minded. Aside from James Kirk, the main characters in Star Trek are a science officer, a linguist, a mathematical whiz kid, a [...]
A burka-clad Barbie will be sold in a charity auction for Save The Children.
Barbie can leave her box only if escorted by Mullah Ken, sold separately, writes Tim Blair.
[...]Is Northern Virginia’s Thomas Jefferson High, a science-and-tech magnet, too successful, asks The Washingtonian. “Why You Should Hate This School” is the subhead.
The public school admits only 16 percent of applicants. In addition to “whiz-kid scientists, computer jocks, and chess champions . . . there’s also a professional model [...]
To help teens succeed in school, parents’ role starts at home, concludes a new book, Families, Schools and the Adolescent.
For example, while helping with homework makes a difference for elementary students, it has little impact for middle and high schoolers, concludes Nancy Hill, a Harvard researcher.
Visiting the school, [...]
Two overdue library books have been returned to Camelback High in Phoenix 51 years late. An anonymous former student mailed the two books with a money order for $1,000 and a note.
. . . the sender wrote that the money should cover delinquency fees and a little extra in [...]
We’re All Right-Wing Bastards Now, writes teacher Larry Sand of the anti-union California Teachers Empowerment Network in City Journal. Sand is responding to a speech by Bob Chanin, the outgoing general counsel of the National Education Association, who called critics of the union “conservative and right-wing bastards” who [...]
Epic Adventures Are Often Uncomfortable is hosting this week’s EduCarnival.
Darren writes about the principal’s classroom visits, which allegedly aren’t about evaluating teachers, but are about checking for student “engagement.” If students are disengaged, wouldn’t the principal form an opinion about the teacher’s ability?
[...]The Pledge of Allegiance is un-American, argues Michael Lind on Salon.
In a republic, the people should not pledge allegiance to the government; the government should pledge allegiance to the people.
“We owe each other an obligation to obey the rules that we, directly or through elected representatives, have mutually [...]
Two Kentucky librarians who decided a graphic novel was obscene have been fired for refusing to let an 11-year-old check out the book.
Sharon Cook, an employee of the Jessamine County library, checked out The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume IV: The Black Dossier in 2008 and kept [...]
A linguist father spoke only Klingon to his child for his first three years,
“I was interested in the question of whether my son, going through his first language acquisition process, would acquire it like any human language,” (d’Armond) Speers told the Minnesota Daily. “He was definitely starting to [...]
Will the world end in 2012? Impressed by ads for the new disaster movie, 2012, New York City students seem to think it’s a documentary, reports Ms. Rubin, a science teacher now covering earth sciences.
. . . every time I introduce them to some new feature of the [...]
Scribbit, a mom-blogger in Alaska, wonders why her high school age daughter watches so much TV at school. The daughter watched Enchanted in English class and Ratatouille, The Incredibles, Ice Age and Finding Nemo in German class.
“How many movies do you watch a week?”
She thought a bit, counting up [...]
The drama club edition of the Carnival of Educators is up.
[...]Educators have a new euphemism for struggling students, writes Jay Mathews on Class Struggle. “At-risk kids” are now “at-promise.”
“We use the term ‘at-promise’ in Alexandria City Public Schools to describe children who have the potential to achieve at a higher rate than they are currently achieving,” (Superintendent Morton) [...]
In a low-performing, high-aspiring San Diego high school with Mexican, Somali and Asian immigrants, advanced calculus is the hot class everyone wants to take and the biggest club is an honors math fraternity. Jonathan Winn teaches at Crawford Champs High, a Gates-funded school within a school. From Voice [...]
Test scores improved for students with disabilities from 2005-06 to 207-08, according to a new study by the Center on Education Policy.
The study found that students with disabilities showed progress at all levels of proficiency in 4th grade, where the median percentage scoring at the basic level or [...]
