April 19, 2011
Boston–It’s hard to imagine two schools superficially more different from each other than Blackstone Elementary, with its labyrinthine 1970s layout, and Orchard Gardens K-8 School, which opened in 2003, with its modern skylights and cheery primary-color accents. But they were simila r in the way that matters most in young lives: Both Boston schools were […]
April 19, 2011
It’s a daunting job for two big groups of states to design multilayered assessment systems by 2014, and a panel of experts made it even more daunting last week, composing a long list of concerns about what it will take to make the venture a success. On its list, the panel included high-level, long-range items […]
April 19, 2011
Fists raised in triumph, the man lorded sweet victory over his foes and strutted, his puffed chest straining the buttons of his Brooks Brothers shirt. His spoils? A fruit and vegetable quilt. His 5-year-old daughter made the lime. His cost? $2,700. School auctions are great theater, I’ve learned. They can be a checkbook sword used […]
April 18, 2011
On November 9, 2010, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan addressed the annual forum of the State Educational Technology Directors Association to announce the Department of Education’s National Technology Plan. Duncan opened his remarks saying, “Our nation’s schools have yet to unleash technology’s full potential to transform learning. We’re at an important transition point. We’re […]
April 18, 2011
The District Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) has rolled out another proposal to control the cost of tuition and other services at private schools where special education students are sent at public expense. The new rate-setting package, which would go into effect in July, is similar to the one presented last year. […]
April 18, 2011
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri’s proposed budget could get an airing this week in the state Senate. At issue are funding decisions both for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, and for the next fiscal year. Some Republican senators so far have prevented a vote o n legislation pumping an additional $189 million […]
April 18, 2011
Some schools in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg District are offering up to 150 of their most motivated and self-directed Juniors and Seniors an opportunity to take their classes online, reports the Charlotte Observer. Although many schools in the district already offer online course work to supplement the regular brick-and-mortar school day, the new experiment will take a […]
April 18, 2011
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that seasoned educators in Wisconsin faced a tough choice this April: leave a job they love to secure retirement benefits under their current contract or keep working and gamble on what the union could get for them later. The risk of losing early retirement benefits such as health insurance seems […]
April 15, 2011
Education advocates are already bracing for protracted budget battles in the coming year, even as they sort the winners and losers in the bill approved by Congress on Thursday financing the U.S. Department of Education and the rest of the federal government through September. The hard-fought agreement followed months of wrangling between Republicans in the […]
April 15, 2011
In a dramatic turn for the country’s second-largest school district, Los Angeles Unified released school ratings based on a new approach that measures a school’s success at raising student performance — the first in a series of high-stakes moves that will thrust the district into the center of the national debate over education reform. Next […]