Survey: U.S. higher education must change to remain globally competitive
Nearly half of all Americans have a dim view of the quality of U.S. higher education, and most think it’s not only too expensive but also only a fair or poor return on their investment, according to the results of a new survey. Most of those surveyed—particularly college-aged Americans themselves—agree that U.S. higher education must change […]
Obama Orders Revamp of ‘No Child Left Behind’
Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced Monday that President Obama would sign an executive order to allow schools who are falling short of No Child Left Behind to circumvent the law. PBS NewsHour’s Gwen Ifill discusses the policy shift with Justin Snider of The Hechinger Report. Watch the full episode. See more PBS NewsHour. Transcript: GWEN […]
Are texting, multitasking teens losing empathy skills? Some differing views
Psychiatrist Dr. Gary Small recently expressed a sentiment that may have crossed the minds of parents and educators who see how much time teenagers spend chatting online and texting: He worries they may not be learning empathy skills. The digital world has rewired teen brains and made them less able to recognize and share feelings of […]
Social media and a tale of two New Jersey principals
Middle-school principal Anthony Orsini of Ridgewood, N.J., made national headlines last year when he urged parents to keep their young adolescents off Facebook — at least until high school. The slings and arrows of social-media stings by peers — also known as cyberbullying — were far more common than any from adult predators, Orsini said, […]
Evaluating teachers: Looking to the future
How should we evaluate teachers? It’s a huge question right now. And it seems like everyone has an opinion. But the one thing many people seem to agree on is that our current evaluation systems are inadequate. What a better system might look like – well, that’s still up for discussion. With so many stakeholders, so many different […]
White voters vs. minority schoolchildren
White voters don’t like paying for the education of minority schoolchildren, or so we learn from a New York Times article this week that looked at places in New York where school budgets were voted down this year. The article’s author, Sam Roberts, found that in places where the majority of voters were white and the majority of schoolchildren […]
Recess round-up: August 9, 2010
A daily dose of education news around the nation – just in time for a little mid-day break! Standardized tests: Justin Snider, of The Hechinger Report, explains why skepticism and caution are warranted when it comes to making important decisions based on students’ standardized test scores. G.I. bill: U.S. spending on veterans’ education will more than double this […]
When should a leader apologize?
To apologize or not to apologize, that is the question. It’s not quite the question Hamlet asks himself, but it is a question facing leaders on a regular basis. When is an apology necessary? When might it actually do more harm than good? And why does it seem like leaders are apologizing nonstop nowadays? These […]
Texas’ incredibly shrinking dropout problem
Reports of another “Texas Miracle” are making the rounds in the media, as the Lone Star state says that the dropout rate for the Class of 2009 was 9.4 percent. That is, only one out of 10 students in Texas who entered high school in the fall of 2005 had quit school four years later. […]
How not to be a role model
That young people look up to Hollywood stars and professional athletes as role models is a fact of life. Often, these superstars disappoint us by revealing that they, too, are only human. This is an especially difficult reality for children to accept. We want — and we need — heroes. Superheroes, even. For a brief bit […]
