Throwing out the Baby College with the bathwater?
It hasn’t been a good month for the Obama administration’s education agenda. First, the House of Representatives introduced a bill that would bite off some $8 billion from the president’s favorite reforms — the Race to the Top competition, the Teacher Incentive Fund, and the expansion of charter schools. Now, Obama’s Promise Neighborhoods Initiative, which would […]
Recess round-up: July 22, 2010
A daily dose of education news around the nation – just in time for a little mid-day break! Teacher layoffs: Chicago Public Schools will fire 400 teachers and 200 “educational support personnel” by the end of the week, the first of two rounds of layoffs. (Chicago Sun Times) School standards: “Do high standards really help […]
Why do girls steer clear of science, technology, engineering and math?
By Casey Selix | MinnPost.com As Normandale Community College in Bloomington, Minn. prepares to host a July 26-29 Technology Engineers Camp for Her (TECH) aimed at sixth- and seventh-grade girls, a new study may help explain why some girls steer clear of STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). A Miami University team of researchers found that […]
Recess round-up: July 21, 2010
A daily dose of education news around the nation – just in time for a little mid-day break! Common standards: The Thomas B. Fordham Institute reports that the Common Core State Standards are more rigorous than those in three-quarters of all states. Twenty-eight states have adopted the Common Core State Standards, much to Secretary of […]
After painful debate, Mass. agrees to adopt Common Core Standards
As 27 other states agreed to adopt the “Common Core Standards,” the state of Massachusetts held out, arguing that its own standards were of higher quality — and better. On Monday night, state Republicans urged education leaders to delay a vote on replacing the standards. The whole issue became entangled in state politics, the Boston Globe reported. […]
Finding the right incentives to improve public education
A New York Times story today reports what many have already assumed: New York students’ remarkable test score gains over the past few years were due in large part to the fact that the tests were getting easier, not that the students were necessarily learning more. The story is a reminder of one of the […]
Recess round-up: July 20, 2010
A daily dose of education news around the nation – just in time for a little mid-day break! Virtual schools: The Massachusetts State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education is set to vote on proposed regulations that would limit the growth of virtual schools tomorrow. (Boston Globe) Standardized tests: The New York Board of Regents […]
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. […]
Recess round-up: July 19, 2010
A daily dose of education news around the nation – just in time for a little mid-day break! Budget cuts: In a “major setback,” several California school districts will have to trim days off the school calendar as a result of budget cuts. (San Francisco Chronicle) Appoquinimink School District in Delaware joins a growing list of […]
A bump in average starting salaries for English majors?
By Casey Selix | MinnPost.com To me, it’s news when English majors see their average starting salary increase. It’s not news when engineering grads see another bump in pay that’s sometimes double an English major’s. That story is getting kind of old, frankly. The National Association of Colleges and Employers this week released its summer […]
