Quotable Education Quotes: 6/30/2014
** "....Very few educators or parents have learning or scholarship in their hearts as the end-game for their children, except in the sense of their kids getting good grades. Most of us would prefer our children become the very best people they can be, capable of...
Education-Related Websites to Visit: 6/26/2014
** http://code.org ~ With its mission to expand participation in computer science, this site believes that "every students in every school should have the opportunity to learn computer programming." ** www.scholastic.com/island of lemurs/ ~ This site explains that...
1) 13 states do not belong to either the PARCC or SBAC Common Core testing consortia, considerably more than at the outset. 2) According to a Gates Foundation survey of 20,000 K-12 teachers, 73% said they're "enthusiastic about implementing the Common Core, and 73%...
Making Education News: 6/24/2014
1. The U.S. Department of Education handed out $53.6 billion in Obama's stimulus money to help K-12 budgets as long was they publicly reported on numerous education indicators, such as the performance of charters and the percentage of high school grads completing...
Quotable Education Quotes: 6/23/2014
** "On Thursday, Secretary of State Arne Duncan informed Washington that he was revoking the waiver that had freed it from impossible-to-meet requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), including the quixotic mandate that 100 percent of students be proficient...
Quotable Quotes: 2/17/2014
** "Parents deserve to have an assessment of their child's progress that is independent of what teachers say on report cards. I also think assessing schools with test score averages is a useful exercise. But I don't like the current fad of rating individual teachers...
It’s an Education Fact: 2/11/2014
1) In a survey of 1,000 principals in 14 states, 80% said they are prioritizing the new Common Core standards for school improvement in the belief they'll provide students with deeper learning and ore meaningful assessments. 2) Three new polls find that just under 11%...
Quotable Quotes: 2/10/2014
** "Let me get this straight: School reformers, including Arne Duncan, are alienating millions of teachers and hurting countless students and their families over a teacher evaluation policy that--using their own prize methodology (ignorant that we may believe it to...
It’s an Education Fact: 2/04/2014
1) The Pioneer Institute finds that transitioning to the Common Core Standards will cost districts approximately $16 billion over 7 years. 2) More than 80% of 1,000 principals from 14 states say they're "prioritizing the Common Core Standards." 3) 72% of our public...
Quotable Quotes: 2/3/2014
** "Modern research indicates that more areas of the brain are engaged when children use cursive handwriting than when they keyboard. We're not thinking this through. It's beyond belief that states have allowed cursive to slip from the standards." ~ Linden Bateman,...
At Issue: Student Data Collection and Jeopardized Privacy Rights
With the expansion of student and school data collection and its use: Teachers in 35 states can now access student information via secure websites or portals, up from 28 in 2011. Currently, parents in 14 states can access their children’s...
Zero-Tolerance in Schools Run Amok
In the good old days, when a kid misbehaved—shoved another child, disrupted a class, pointed his finger and said, “Bang!”—the result was a sit down with the parents and principal, along with a subsequent detention or two or three. Then came 1994 when Congress, in an...
Quotable Education Quotes: 12/30/2013
** "Often ignored is the importance of the civic mission of schools--schools' role in preparing students to be active and engaged citizens in their communities and the world. Our country's founders viewed education as a cornerstone to our democracy and designed our...
Bill of Rights Day and Our Collective Lack of Civics Knowledge
The Bill of Rights went into effect back on December 15, 1791, and so that date is observed every year by folks in the know. How about you, though? Are you in the know? Can you define the Bill of Rights? If not, you have lots of company, as suggested in Newsweek’s...
Education Websites to Visit: 12/18/2013
** www.pestworldforkids.org ~ Here visitors become pest-wise via guides, games, science fair kits, and more. ** http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/classroom ~ This site "was designed to enhance the breadth, flexibility, and knowledge of science, math, and technology between...
It’s an Education Fact: 12/17/2013
1) About 4% of public school teachers report having been attacked physically during the 2007-08 school year, according to the U.S. Department of Education. 71% were threatened with injury by a student. 2) According to a 2011 American Psychological Association survey,...
Making Education News: 12/12/2013
1. Both PARCC and SBAC consortiums are creating online assessments for the Common Core but will also offer paper-and-pencil versions, as states transition to fully online testing. Question is, does one version have an advantage over the other? 2. Some built-in...
Education-Related Websites to Visit: 12/11/2013
** www.masteryconnect.com ~ This site says it's been designed with teachers in mind and provides content-area assessments, curriculum maps, standards-based student reports, and so much more. ** www.teach.org ~ This site "provides the information and community support...
College: Skyrocketing Costs, Student Debt, and Budget-Wise Choices
Not only do student loans and their accompanying debt keep making news, such lending has become big business for the federal government. In fact, federal student loans have nearly doubled since 2007, with the result that the U.S. Department of Education realized a...
It’s an Education Fact: 12/10/2013
1) A 7-year-long study finds that effective elementary teachers who transferred to low-achieving schools under a $20,000 bonus-pay program helped their new students learn more on average than those in a control group. 2) Nearly 50% of all American public school...
