Afternoon Announcements: January 27, 2012

It you haven't already high-tailed yourself out of the office for the 3-day lunch break, take in some education news to close out your week.

Teacher tenure and evaluations remain a key issue in educational reform around the country and witin the federal government. The New York Times reports that teachers are petitioning the city of New York and the teacher union to reach an agreement on a new evaluation system that would meet requirements for a federal grant and free up $58 million that the state has been withholding.

As class sizes swell, teachers are finding it hard to address the individual needs of students and intricately develop their literary skills. As the Chicago Tribune reports, the once prominent stable of higher education, the term paper, is disappearing from schools across the county.

From the Associated Press, the Texas State Board of Education members pressed the education commissioner about whether students are being taught to pass numerous tests. The board asserts an abundance of high-stakes standardized testing is warping classroom teaching to ensure students spend more time preparing for the exams then actual learning.