Morning Announcements: January 3, 2011

In an op-ed in today’s Washington Post, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan writes, “In the past two years, I have spoken with hundreds of Republican and Democratic mayors, governors and members of Congress. While we don't agree on everything, our core goals are shared - and we all want to fix NCLB to better support reform at the state and local level.”

The Houston Chronicle writes about a former high school dropout that is now a high school graduation coach: Craig Zeno grew up in public housing in southeast Houston believing he had three options in life. "I was told I was either going to be dead, in jail or on drugs," Zeno recalls. "I didn't want that." So, he fought for more. Zeno became a college graduate whose job now is to inspire struggling high school students with his own story of perseverance.

The Des Moines Register writes about Iowa’s new top education official and how he worked for the first school district in the country to toss out the tradition of paying teachers by seniority and education level for tying pay raises to test scores and annual evaluations.

The New York Times examines teacher rankings and how they have been received in New York public schools.  In another article about international standardized tests, the Times explores how Shanghai schools’ approach to learning pushes their students to the top.

The Grand Rapids Press writes about how online learning is changing school hours, buildings, and interactions.