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Six States Win Federal Grants for Early Education
Teacher Julie Singleton helps her 4-year-old students paint butterflies at the Sunshine School in Marietta, Ga. Georgia is one of six states that will receive grants in the third round of the federal Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge competition. (AP) Six states – Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Vermont – will […]
Protecting Student Privacy in the Data Age
A teacher updates the data tracking wall at O.M. McNair Upper Elementary School in Belzoni, Miss. Schools are using technology to collect an increasing amount of student data, raising privacy concerns in many states. (AP) In Kentucky, parents, educators and policy makers can track how many students from a high school go to college, and […]
Q&A: Common Questions About the Common Core
First grade teacher Lynda Jensen walks with her class of 30 children at Willow Glenn Elementary School in San Jose, Calif. The Common Core State Standards have been adopted by 45 states and the District of Columbia. Many parents still don’t know what the standards are. (AP) If you keep hearing about the Common Core […]
More Schools Collecting, Using Student Data
Caption Leanasha Jones, right, and Bobby Kennedy, fourth graders at Southside K-8 School in War, W.Va., play video games after school. A new survey finds a growing number of states are collecting and using data to try to improve education.(AP) A growing number of states are expanding the way they use student and school data. […]
States Insist on Third Grade Reading Proficiency
Students say goodbye to the monsters after a recent reading of “Where the Wild Things Are” at Amidon-Bowen Elementary School in Washington, D.C. A number of states have adopted policies to try to ensure students are reading proficiently by the third grade, which researchers say is a critical milestone for learning. (AP) Educators have known […]
Reading, Math Scores Inch Up
Fourth-grade teacher Angela Gaia pats a student on the head during math class in a Memphis elementary school. Only Tennessee and the District of Columbia showed improvement in both reading and math scores for both fourth- and eighth-graders on the Nation’s Report Card. (AP Photo/The Commercial Appeal, Mike Brown) Reading and math scores remained flat […]
Encouraging First-Generation College Students
As a high school senior, Skyler Lopez, 18, wasn’t sure he was college material. He changed his mind after a campaign to encourage low-income and would-be first-generation college students to apply for college reached his hometown. (Priscilla Sweitz) As a senior at Taft High School in Lincoln City, Oregon, last year, Skyler Lopez didn’t spend […]
Science and Math Tests Show State Disparities
Students at a Boston middle school study a guinea-pig heart during their science class. A new study shows that Massachusetts eighth-graders rank highest in science and math, and compare favorably with their international counterparts. (AP Photo/Bizuayehu Tesfaye) Comparing American students to their international peers typically prompts hand-wringing over the failures of U.S. schools. But a […]
Students Paying More for College
Students are paying more for their college educations even as tuition and fee increases at public four-year colleges and universities have slowed, according to new reports by the College Board. Why? After years of substantial increases in federal government aid to students during the recession, federal aid has slowed. “This year’s slowing of the price […]
Who Is an ‘English-Language Learner’?
A student at a Las Vegas elementary school where 83 percent of the incoming kindergartners don’t speak English. States are striving to come up with a common definition of “English language learner.” (AP) If a U.S. student learning English were to drive across the country, he would find that in some states he would be […]
Supreme Court Considers Affirmative Action
Nakia Wallace, center, a Cass Technical High School student in Detroit, and others demonstrate outside the Supreme Court in support of affirmative action. The court heard arguments on whether the University of Michigan can consider race in its admissions process. (AP) The nation’s highest court weighed affirmative action once again on Tuesday, this time hearing […]
Massachusetts Debates Raising School Dropout Age to 18
Students walk in a Washington High School hallway in Sioux Falls, S.D. More teens are showing up in classrooms and courtrooms since South Dakota raised its compulsory school attendance age from 16 to 18. (AP) Massachusetts is the latest state to consider raising the dropout age for students to 18 in an effort to improve […]