New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, in a recent speech to students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said that in his ideal world, he’d get rid of half of his city’s teachers and double the salaries of those remaining. This statement, together with a weak economy and teacher layoffs, has led to renewed interest in [...]

TOKYO—While on assignment in Japan recently, Blaine Harden sat down with Yujiro Hayashi, president of the Institute of National Colleges of Technology (Kosen), to talk about what the United States can learn from the Kosen system, why technical education is essential, what the future holds—and more. Q: What are Kosen Colleges of Technology doing right, [...]

In September, Hechinger Report writer Jon Marcus reported for The Washington Post that universities were heavily recruiting veterans to get a piece of the $11 billion made available through the new post-9/11 G.I. Bill, but providing little of the additional support that many veterans say they need. Marcus was a guest on the public-radio program Here & Now, [...]

In July, reporter Jon Marcus wrote a piece for The Hechinger Report looking at Obama’s college graduation goal and how much progress has been made. The news wasn’t so good. Now he’s been interviewed by Boston NPR’s Here and Now program about the fact that this generation could be the first to be less educated [...]

A new public opinion poll on the nation’s public schools reveals a number of interesting findings. The poll, conducted every year since 1969 by Phi Delta Kappa and Gallup, asked 1,000 people about a variety of education topics—from trust in teachers to the use of technology in classrooms. You can find all of the poll’s [...]

Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced Monday that President Obama would sign an executive order to allow schools who are falling short of No Child Left Behind to circumvent the law. PBS NewsHour’s Gwen Ifill discusses the policy shift with Justin Snider of The Hechinger Report. Visit HechingerEd for the full video and transcript.

It turns out that video games aren’t only for children—or adults who refuse to grow up—after all. Recognizing the educational potential of video games, teachers across the country are increasingly incorporating them into lesson plans. Lee Sheldon, a video game writer and designer-turned-college-professor, is one of them. In September 2009, Sheldon decided to model one [...]

The controversy over tying teacher pay to performance, rather than seniority and credentials, has escalated in the past year. Teachers unions, which have mostly come out against such “performance” or “merit” pay, have been bolstering their arguments with research suggesting that it isn’t linked to increased student achievement. But education reformers have, for the most [...]

The Department of Education released its long-anticipated regulations for for-profit colleges Thursday. By 2015, if fewer than 35 percent of graduates of a school are repaying the principal on their loans three years after commencement and if loan payments are more than 30 percent of discretionary income and 12 percent of all earnings, the school [...]

Mimi Ito is a cultural anthropologist studying new media use, particularly among young people in the United States and Japan. She focuses on the changing relationship to media and communications among youth and is a co-author of Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media (MIT Press, 2009). Ito [...]

Hechinger reporter Sarah Garland has another collaboration with Capital New York, this time looking at school choice in the city. The story opens with… Dennis Walcott, the new chancellor of the New York City public schools, said recently that he would push to open more single-sex schools in the city. He’s a “big believer” in [...]

When 93 teachers and staffers were fired from Rhode Island’s Central Falls High School in 2010, it fueled a nationwide debate over how failing schools might be resurrected. But of all the school’s dismal statistics, and there were plenty to choose from – fewer than half of its students graduated within four years, and only [...]

Training programs abound, but few do a first-rate job of preparing principals and superintendents for today’s challenges. Given the rising demands of the job descriptions – not to mention the tough choices necessitated by budget cuts – it’s little wonder that the pools of able, available principals and superintendents aren’t especially deep. The Wallace Foundation [...]

Ask any teacher, rookie or veteran, what he or she most needs to succeed and the answer is likely to be fairly straightforward: a supportive but demanding principal. Surveys of teachers confirm this. Public Agenda, a public opinion research organization based in New York City, found in 2007 that given the choice between a more supportive principal or a significantly higher salary, over 70 percent of first-year teachers would prefer a more supportive principal.

Today’s school leaders must guide instruction, manage campuses and deal with parents and the community. The job of being a principal is nothing if not an exercise in juggling dozens of duties and being in many places at the same time. More than a few people have suggested the job is essentially impossible. Of course, [...]

No longer managers, they now must not only navigate but reform the local landscape. The job of a modern school superintendent is drastically different from the original job description, when, in 1837, Oliver G. Steele, a Buffalo, New York native, became the nation’s first superintendent. While the first superintendents tended to assist school boards in [...]

1956 The College Board introduces college-level science courses for advanced high-school students: AP Chemistry, AP Biology, AP Physics B/C (which become AP Physics B and AP Physics C in 1969). 1957 The Soviet Union launches the first satellite, Sputnik I, into orbit. 1958 In response, Congress passes the National Defense Education Act, which provides $887 [...]

Justin Snider of The Hechinger Report sat down today with Dr. Pasi Sahlberg, Director General of the Centre for International Mobility and Cooperation in Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture. An edited version of their conversation follows. Sahlberg, who has trained teachers, coached schools and advised policymakers in more than 40 countries, is also a [...]