Washington D.C. bets big on Common CoreNEWS

Washington D.C. bets big on Common Core

Putting them into practice demands a heavy lift: The standards require far stronger literacy skills than most students currently possess.

NEWS

More Americans have degrees, but lead is slipping

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By Jon Marcus

More Americans than ever have earned bachelor’s degrees, putting them ahead of international rivals, but the gap is narrowing, according to new figures from the U.S. Department of Education. The department’s annual Condition of Education report, which tracks all levels of education, finds that the percentage of American 25- to 29-year-olds with at least bachelor’s [...]

BLOGS

How will NYC students fare on the new exams?

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By Aaron Pallas

Last month, the state of New York administered English Language Arts and mathematics assessments to students in grades 3-8. For the first time, the assessments were aligned with the Common Core State Standards, a set of standards for what students should know at each grade level in these subjects that 45 states across the country [...]

BLOGS

The promise of iPads for special ed

Kindergartners in Gambell play on iPads at the end of the day. (Photo by Sarah Garland)
By Anya Kamenetz

A music lesson in Virani’s classroom When Neil Virani walked into his middle school special education classroom at Mulholland Middle School, part of the LA Unified School district, three years ago, he encountered a roomful of students with a range of cognitive, emotional and physical challenges. But the most toxic problem they had to combat [...]

NEWS

Aspiring teachers learn from their avatars

The TeachLivE classroom simulator lets education students get the feel of managing a classroom. The virtual students respond to the teacher’s questions and movements and each student has a distinct personality. (Photo by John O’Connor/StateImpact Florida)
By Sarah Butrymowicz

Lisa Dieker went around the room asking her middle-school students what they did over the weekend. CJ went to see the movie “Here Comes the Boom” with her boyfriend. Ed played in a basketball game and Kevin posted new dance videos to YouTube. “Did you work on any art projects?” Dieker asked Maria, a girl [...]

NEWS

Teacher training programs grapple with recruitment

University of Central Florida elementary education students discuss how to incorporate books, maps, magazines and other materials into lesson plans. John O’Connor/StateImpact Florida. (Photo by Sarah Butrymowicz)
By Sarah Butrymowicz

Somewhere midway through his sophomore year of college at Florida Atlantic University, Christopher Clevenger started to question his aeronautical engineering major. He liked the coursework, and was doing well at it, but when he thought about his job prospects, the future seemed bleak. “It would be me, a computer screen and a phone,” he said. [...]

NEWS

Florida plans increased scrutiny for education schools

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By Sarah Butrymowicz

ORLANDO―Lee-Anne Spalding’s Elementary School Social Studies class at the University of Central Florida (UCF) had spread out over the room in small groups. One group of sophomore college students huddled over a set of poetry books, picking out ones they liked. Others gathered around the white board as Spalding demonstrated how to they could embed [...]

NEWS

Alternative routes to teaching become more popular despite lack of evidence

Landon Yurica and Alycia Jones, part of the Urban Teacher Residency program, watch their mentor teacher deliver a geometry lesson at Washington Preparatory High School. (Photo by Jackie Mader)
By Jackie Mader

INGLEWOOD, Calif.—In the back of a tenth-grade geometry classroom on a recent morning at Washington Preparatory High School, nine miles southeast of Los Angeles, Landon Yurica and Alycia Jones bent over the papers in front of them. At 23 and 24, respectively, the two could almost blend in as students as they tried the assignment [...]

NEWS

Do new exams produce better teachers? States act while educators debate

Mario Martinez, a graduate student in California State University Northridge's teacher preparation program, examines a high school algebra test he created for a class assignment. (Photo by Jackie Mader)
By Jackie Mader

NORTHRIDGE, Calif.— It took less than a minute for Mario Martinez to finish the first six questions of the algebra exam that his professor, Ivan Cheng, had just handed to him. The high school-level test was supposed to be a good example of an exam, so that the graduate students in Cheng’s math methods course [...]

NEWS

California struggles to assess teacher training programs

Graduate students in the California State University Northridge teacher preparation program discuss their student teaching assignments. Before they graduate, students in the program will spend at least 500 hours in classrooms across the greater Los Angeles area. (Photo by Jackie Mader)
By Jackie Mader

NORTHRIDGE, Calif.—On a recent afternoon at California State University, Northridge, Nancy Prosenjak was attempting to quiet the graduate students spread out across conference tables in the back of her classroom. She was still missing nearly a third of the class, but she was eager to debrief with her students about their first day of student [...]

NEWS

Chicago parent on school closings: “If you’re not teaching children…it needs closing”

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By Sarah Garland

The decision to close more than 50 struggling schools in Chicago has fueled outrage among many parents and teachers. But others see the strategy as a way to improve education for the city’s most vulnerable students. Patricia Hunter, 28, a stay-at-home mom, sends her daughter Danielle to Dulles School of Excellence on the South Side. [...]