- Obama’s fiscal 2014 budget boosts Education Department funding to $71.2 billion in a $3.8 trillion budget. That’s $3.1 billion more than it received in 2012–despite the sequester.
- Although Education Secretary Arne Duncan predicted that the Common Core Standards assessments–set to be given starting in 2014-15–would be “an absolute game changer” and were funded to the tune of $360 million. Comes news, though, that “design constraints, money, and timing” make that prediction almost moot.
- One million students across the country will participate in the first large-scale trial of the Common Core Smarter Balance Assessments–an online-only test that measures academic growth via adaptive questions. The pilot, though, will lack the adaptive feature and grades won’t be issued.
- 26 states have now committed to considering the new 71-page Next Generation Science Standards intended to stem science ignorance, standardize science education, and raise the number of grads who choose STEM majors.
- The 16 Race to the Top-District winners received $400 million in federal grants aimed at personalized learning, which includes individual plans for students, personalized learning coaches for teachers, and data dashboards to store all student data.
