Afternoon Announcements: Bill Clinton Promotes Open Badges

Former President Bill Clinton teamed up with Mozilla and the MacArthur Foundation to expand the use of Open Badges, or online credentials that employers or universities can use in determining hiring, admissions, and awarding credit. The badges demonstrate skills in various areas. New York Times  

The daughter of a Teacher of the Year from North Carolina describes the difficult year her mom had teaching. She says her mom’s job is to prepare students for college. This one’s a great read. Washington Post

NPR takes on the debate raging around the Common Core State Standards. The program follows the hot topics surrounding the debate, what students will be expected to know when the standards are implemented, and more. On Point

The only teacher in the world teaching with Google Glass describes how he uses it to teach science online. The teacher created STEMbite – “a series of bite-size videos showing the math and science of every day life from a unique first-person perspective.” Edutopia

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Afternoon Announcements: Third Bill to Reauthorize ESEA on the Senate Table

There’s no solution in sight to stop student loan interest rates from doubling on July 1. As of Thursday, the Senate deadlocked over the issue while debating competing proposals. Washington Post

The nation’s high school graduation rate has reached the highest in four decades, but there is still work to be done. At its current rate, the percentage of students earning a diploma could surpass the historical high of 77.1% in the next few years. Education Week

Yesterday, President Obama spoke at Mooresville Middle School in Mooresville, North Carolina. He called for increased high-speed internet and wireless access in 99% of schools within five years and showed how Mooresville has improved teaching and learning with the use of digital technology. New York Times

The introduction of a Republican bill to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) by Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.) marks the third of its kind in recent days. The House Education Committee plans to consider the bill June 19th. Politics K-12 Read Entire Post

Afternoon Announcements: Arne Duncan Says Criticism Against Standardized Testing is "Merited"

Coursera, an online education platform, plans to offer massive open online courses (MOOCs) for teachers. The courses would aim to help teaches improve their technique and would have offerings from teaching experts and premier museums and universities. Washington Post

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said that there are serious flaws in standardized testing at a meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). He said that criticism about the tests is “merited.” Huffington Post

Arizona has implemented a national college-readiness program called Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) that teaches students strategies for taking notes, applying for scholarships, and how to study for college-entrance exams. The goal of the program is to narrow the college-readiness gap in the state. AZ Central

High school graduates in North Carolina will soon receive a seal on their diploma denoting whether they are ready for work or college as part of a new criteria the State Board of Education adopted this week. The three paths students can take to earn a seal are career, community college, and four-year university. Charlotte Observer Read Entire Post

Mooresville, North Carolina Shows How to Implement Digital Learning in a School District

Many important social movements have started with large crowds packed into school gymnasiums. Yesterday I witnessed another movement coming to life in the Mooresville Intermediate School gym in Mooresville, NC.

A group from Missouri drove twelve hours in two vans. Almost fifty came from Alabama. A large contingent showed up from Illinois. And when we did the opening exercises introducing ourselves to the person next to us, I found ten who had driven from Mingo County, WV. In all, approximately 400 people from 16 states and the District of Columbia found their way for this major summer meeting in central North Carolina.

What major effort of the 21st century do they represent? This gathering attracted hundreds of educators, many traveling at their own expense, to learn how to implement digital learning in their school districts.

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Afternoon Announcements--November 30, 2011

Here are today's top education headlines, brought to you by Alliance Policy Intern Bill DeBaun.

Good afternoon and welcome to your Wednesday edition of afternoon announcements! While you're more than halfway to the weekend, you're 100% of the way to arriving at today's education news!

A town hall featuring U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and other local and state education leaders agreed that education is the key to fixing the nation's economy, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Secretary Duncan noted, "Jobs are going to go to where the knowledge workers are." Nevada, which faces a poor economy and an education system held in low esteem by many surveys, can improve quickly despite these hurdles, according to the Secretary. For a more national angle on this story, check out the Associated Press's take, via the Las Vegas Sun.

US News and World Report tackles dropout factories, an issue that the Alliance has been raising awareness of for years. The article's discussion notes that while the number of dropout factories nationally has decreased in the last decade, tens of thousands of students are still failing to graduate from these schools. The article identifies a number of areas where many dropout factories struggle, including having "a hamstrung principal," "high suspension rates," "overwhelmed students," and a "lack of technical training." For more information on the dropout crisis, check out some of the Alliance's reports and publications on the topic.

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Afternoon Announcements: November 14, 2011

According to Education Week, U.S. House of Representatives lawmakers want performance targets for different subgroups of students in ESEA bill.

When it comes to education, reports the Washington Post, “the republican field of presidential candidates has a unified stance: Get the federal government out of schools.”

The Huffington Post writes that minority students will likely outnumber white students in the next decade or two, but the failure of the national teacher demographic to keep up with that trend is hurting minority students.

In a MetroWest Daily story, experts say social media isn't hurting today's teens.

The Wall Street Journal writes about those who are for cyberschooling and those who have other opinions on it.

The Bangor Daily News reports that businesses in Maine have jobs to offer, but job applicants don’t have the skills.

Teachers facing low salaries opt to moonlight, reports the Associated Press.

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Morning Announcements: October 3, 2011

Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced the department’s proposed reforms to improve teacher preparation programs and better prepare educators for classroom success, according to Ed.gov. “America’s teachers and America’s children deserve world-class preparation programs that prepare teachers for today’s classrooms and students for today’s information age,” he said.

According to US News & World Report, most high school districts offer some sort of dropout prevention program. A new report released last week by the National Center for Education Statistics shows a majority of high schools (approximately 8 in 10) offer services such as tutoring and remediation classes for students who have fallen behind, but less than half of school districts offer an after-school program for high school students at risk of not graduating.

The New York Times report if no deal is reached by Friday, 716 of New York City’s lowest-paid workers — school aides, parent coordinators and other members of school support staffs — will lose their jobs, the latest victims of budget cuts to the public schools. Nearly 350 schools will be affected, in a scattered pattern, according to a list of layoffs by school, which was obtained and analyzed by The New York Times. The newspaper found the poorest and most struggling schools will be hit the hardest.

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Morning Announcements: November 22, 2010

The Sunshine News in Florida takes a look at Florida’s graduation rate and how it was calculated.

The New York Times writes about computers and cellphones and the constant stream of stimuli they offer as well as the challenges that they present to focusing and learning. Also in the Times, columnist Thomas Friedman discusses Arne Duncan’s “national teacher campaign”, an effort to take the profession much more seriously and elevate it to where it should be.

In the Providence Journal, education columnist Julia Steiny writes, “Written word builds bridges between school and home.”

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Morning Announcements: October 8, 2010

The Minnesota Post reports that underperforming MPS schools try longer days but experts say success will depend on how the extra time is spent.

The Las Vegas Sun reports on the life of homeless students in Clark County School District.

In the Wall Street Journal chairman and CEO of News Corporation Rupert Murdoch explains how American Idol has tougher standards than the American school system.

The Washington Post editorial board reflects on the Education Jobs Fund writing, “So urgent was the supposed need for Congress to forestall a catastrophic loss of teacher jobs that the House was called back from its summer recess and money looted from the food stamp program. That money is now flowing to the states, but since, for many, the crisis was less dramatic than had been described, local school districts are now looking for creative ways to use the money. Let's hope that they are smarter than those who engineered this boondoggle and that they do not waste taxpayer dollars on programs that can't be sustained or policies that don't work.”

 

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Morning Announcements: September 3, 2010

Washington Post columnist Jay Matthews discusses how students’ struggle to apply their AP or International Baccalaureate credits towards their college degrees.

At a new experimental school in Michigan, two teachers and an executive administrator will lead instead of a principal and assistant principal.

Michigan receives nearly $82.7 million in school improvement grants for twenty-eight of the lowest-performing schools in the state.

Read more about the federal aid money that is being awarded to two state coalitions for the development of new assessments in the New York Times, Miami Herald, and the Boston Globe.

Under a plan that the North Carolina Board of Education has been developing for months, most high school juniors will be required to take the ACT and the state will pay the students’ test registration fees.

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