Controversial new child care attendance system examined in Mississippi
Mississippi parents will have to scan their fingerprints every time they drop off and pick up their children at daycare when a new program goes into effect next year. But childcare providers have been protesting the system for months, saying that it stigmatizes low-income families and may ultimately take away income from already cash-strapped centers. […]
Report: Excessive teacher absences hurt students and budgets
Too many teachers across the country are missing work too often, and their absences are taking significant academic and financial tolls on schools, according to a new report by the Center for American Progress. The Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit analyzed teacher attendance rates at more than 56,000 schools across the country in “Teacher Absence as a […]
Five times a finalist, Miami-Dade finally takes home Broad Prize
Miami-Dade County’s public school system–which U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said is moving in the “absolute right direction,’’–won the 2012 Broad Prize for Urban Education on Tuesday during a ceremony at the Museum of Modern Art . The win followed five nominations for The Broad prize, which recognizes gains in student achievement in large […]
Survey: Today’s teaching force is less experienced, more open to change
More inexperienced teachers are in today’s classrooms than ever before and they are more open than their veteran colleagues to performance-driven options for how they’re evaluated and paid, according to the results of a new survey conducted by the Boston-based nonprofit Teach Plus. For the first time in decades, more than 50 percent of the […]
Will Mississippi jump in and provide funds for early learning?
Advocates of a privately funded early education program in Mississippi are asking the state for five million dollars to expand, in a move they hope will improve school readiness for children who too often start behind – and stay behind. The request to expand Mississippi Building Blocks follows increasing media coverage of early education in […]
Education Nation: Revived support for grammar instruction
With American schools focused on raising reading and math scores to meet accountability requirements, writing often takes a backseat. The class of 2012 posted the lowest average writing score on the SAT this year since writing became part of the exam in 2006. But with 45 states adopting Common Core standards that include writing and […]
Education Nation: Why educators aren’t sold on video games
Video games are increasingly popular learning tools in classrooms, but not all teachers are sold on the benefits. Day two of NBC’s Education Nation summit highlighted the potential for video games to tailor material to a student’s individual level and allow teachers to track student progress. But while games can provide valuable information about how students […]
Education Nation: Teachers wary of new evaluations in aftermath of Chicago strike
NBC’s third annual Education Nation summit kicked off Sunday with a focus on solutions: ideas with a track record of success and potential for replication. But for teachers attending the event, a central concern continues to be new evaluations, which helped set off a teacher strike in Chicago this September. Thirty-two states have made changes […]
The rise of teacher unions: A look at union impact over the years
The Chicago teachers strike, which ended Tuesday after more than a week of protests and negotiations, has emphasized the power that teachers’ unions can have. Since the earliest days of unions, teachers have been fighting over some of the same issues in contention in Chicago: salaries, conditions at schools and tenure. A look at the […]
Could raising salaries be the best way to attract and keep better teachers?
Educators kicked off the New York Times Schools For Tomorrow Conference on Thursday morning by addressing a recurring question among teachers: how can the status and perception of the teaching profession be elevated? The talk soon turned to teacher salaries, and through the day, that topic came up, over and over again. Research has shown […]
