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Gates Foundation Donates $20 million for Online Courses
Tweet Share on Facebook April 29, 2011 Comment (3)The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced Wednesday it was donating more than $20 million to create 24 online courses in 42 states and a suite of tools and application to support them.
The courses will be math and language-arts focused and will be provided freely to schools in states that have adopted Common Core Standards, which prepare students for college and careers.
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Taxpayers: More Money Won't Improve Education
Tweet Share on Facebook April 28, 2011 Comment (2)Almost three quarters of taxpayers think they aren't getting their money's worth from the public education system, according to a new poll.
The Rasmussen poll, conducted Monday and Tuesday, found that 41 percent of people believe putting more money into the system won't improve student performance, but 54 percent believe the government does not spend enough on public education.
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Developing Better Teacher Evaluation Systems
Tweet Share on Facebook April 28, 2011 Comment (13)With many states passing merit-pay laws, finding a good method to evaluate educators is imperative. A new report from The Brookings Institution a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, says a way to accurately judge student progress, or a teacher's "value added," needs to be developed, and these systems need to be uniform among school districts. Many school districts that evaluate teachers currently put a 50 percent weight on principal or administrator evaluations of teachers, and the remaining 50 percent on teacher "value added," typically measured through student test score improvement.
I talked with Grover Whitehurst, director of Brookings' Brown Center on Education Policy, about states' decisions to revamp teacher pay and the future of teacher evaluation systems.
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California May Require Gay History Education
Tweet Share on Facebook April 27, 2011 Comment (1)The California Senate passed a bill that would require all state public schools to teach the history of the gay civil rights movement and the contributions of members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community.
The bill passed the Democratic-majority Senate by a 23-14 vote, along party lines. Mario Guerrero, government affairs director at Equality California, an LGBT lobbying organization, said his organization expect the bill to move to the state Assembly sometime in June, where it will likely pass. Democrats outnumber Republicans in the Assembly, 52-27.
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Ohio Law Forces Statewide Merit Pay
Tweet Share on Facebook April 26, 2011 Comment (1)A new law that limits collective bargaining for public workers in Ohio will fundamentally change the way teachers are paid in that state.
Senate Bill 5, signed into law by Ohio Gov. John Kasich March 31, limits collective bargaining for teachers, police officers, firefighters, and thousands of other public employees. This means that automatic pay raises for public school teachers would be illegal, effectively creating the first statewide merit-pay system in the country. The law is scheduled to go into effect by July 1, 2013.
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State Attorneys General 'Blast' Malt Alcohol Drink
Tweet Share on Facebook April 25, 2011 CommentThe attorneys general of 16 states and Guam and the city attorney of San Francisco sent a letter Thursday to the CEO of Pabst Brewing Co. urging the brewer to reduce the amount of alcohol in its new Blast malt alcohol drink, claiming the company is marketing the drink to underage people.
Blast, which contains 12 percent alcohol by volume and comes in a 23.5-ounce can, is endorsed by rapper Snoop Dogg. The drink, released earlier this month, comes in flavors such as grape, raspberry watermelon, blueberry pomegranate, and strawberry lemonade, which the attorneys said are "youth-friendly."
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Indiana, Tennessee Pass Voucher Bills
Tweet Share on Facebook April 25, 2011 Comment (3)Indiana passed the country's most extensive school voucher program bill that would provide a subsidy to parents who want to send their children to private schools.
Instead of doling out tax money to public schools, some would be reserved for scholarships to private schools for families of four or more who make less than $60,000 a year. The bill is expected to be signed by Republican Governor Mitch Daniels this week and would pay up to 90 percent of private school tuition, depending on how much money a student's family makes.
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Study: 4-H Students Make Better Decisions
Tweet Share on Facebook April 22, 2011 Comment (2)Young people who participate in programs through 4-H, the nation's largest youth club, are less likely to do drugs, drink alcohol, and smoke cigarettes and are more likely to be civically active than kids who don't participate in its programs, according to a study by researchers at Tufts University.
Originally formed as an agricultural organization, 4-H still battles the perception that it's mainly focused on farming. But the organization has many chapters in urban areas and now teaches young people public speaking, provides STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education, and encourages community involvement.
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CEOs Call for New STEM Standards
Tweet Share on Facebook April 21, 2011 Comment (3)Earlier today, a consortium of CEOs called for standard math and science benchmark testing for U.S. high school students, citing a wide variance among states of what is considered "proficient."
"We're doing students, parents and America's competitiveness a disservice by not demanding higher standards for STEM learning," Craig Barrett, former CEO of Intel and current chair of Change the Equation, the group behind the study, said in a statement.
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Drunk Driving After Prom: Perception vs. Reality
Tweet Share on Facebook April 21, 2011 Comment (808)With prom season upon us, schools are ramping up programs to curb drunk driving—bringing out the wrecked cars, ordering breathalyzers, and hiring security officers. According to a new study, these methods are working.
Just 6 percent of students said they have driven under the influence on prom night, according to a study by Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) and Liberty Mutual insurance. That number is still too high, experts say, but according to a 2009 study by Liberty Mutual and SADD, 90 percent of teens felt that their peers would drive drunk after prom.
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