Morning Announcements: March 16, 2012

Friday is here and we at the Alliance for Excellent Education wish you a prosperous weekend of good wholesome fun. For the rest of us you, just make sure you manage to get back to work on time Monday after celebrating a weekend’s worth of Irish heritage (or pretend Irish affiliation). Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Class sizes and limited staffing continues to be a barrier for academic success in school districts all through the country. As the Texas Tribune  reports, the number of elementary classes exceeding the state’s 22-student cap soared to 8,479 from 2,238 last school year.

Teacher satisfaction and evaluation continue to be the hotbed issues of the moment, snagging education headlines everywhere.  In New York state, legislative leaders agreed to turn a new teacher evaluation system into law, according to the New York Times. This would bring the state one step closer to ensuring that the state will hold on to $700 million in federal education aid.

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Morning Announcements: March 15, 2012

Good Morning! The heat wave continues throughout the country so fold up your newspaper. It makes a really good fan. Instead, get caught up in education news with the announcements below!

Despite dozens of allegations of neglect and sexual abuse over the years, the Associated Press reports it has obtained documents indicating that the U.S. State Department has scrapped a plan to require FBI-based fingerprint searches for people hosting foreign high school exchange students.

According to USA Today, grieving kids says schools could be better at helping them heal. "The reality is that most educators have no training specifically directed at how to help students who are grieving," says one expert.

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Morning Announcements: March 14, 2012

Happy Pi Day!

It’s March 14th, also known as 3.14. Mathematicians, scientists, geeks and number enthusiasts all over celebrate this day by embracing the beauty in the never-ending number π. While you’re finding creative ways to incorporate π into your day like this generous tipper, get up-to-date with the latest in education news.

According to the New York Times, a new poll released today has found that a majority of New York City voters approve of the public release of ratings for thousands of public school teachers, even though a plurality of voters believe that the ratings are flawed.

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Afternoon Announcements: March 8, 2012

Greetings! Here are the latest headlines in education news:

Education reform and teacher evaluation efforts are increasingly focused on using student test scores which isn’t always an accurate depiction of student development. As the Wall Street Journal reports, School districts nationwide are only now beginning to deal with the practical challenges of implementing those changes.

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Morning Announcements: March 2, 2012

Happy Friday! Take in some education news before your afternoon nap.

For the fourth day in a row, Virginia’s Senate put off voting whether to eliminate teacher tenure. According to the Washington Post, the continued delay is because the Senate suggests that Governor Robert F. McDonnell may not yet have secured enough votes to pass the measure.

One-fifth of new principals leave within a year or two, and their schools continue on a downward academic slide, according to the RAND Corp. As Education Week reports, the study suggests that quick principal turnover bodes poorly for schools overall.

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Morning Announcements: February 24, 2012

Happy Friday! We bring you the Morning Announcements even earlier so that you can get caught up on all the latest education news before the afternoon lag sets in and you mysteriously disappear from the office. Enjoy!

Education Week is reporting that the U.S. Department of Education has begun switching its focus to the most important part of the No Child Left Behind waiver process: holding states accountable for the promises they’ve made. With 11 states now granted an exemption from some parts of the No Child Left Behind Act and another round of states preparing their waiver applications, the Education Department now stands ready to monitor subgroups.

PBS is highlighting the increase in popularity for online public schools. Full-time public cyber schools are now an option in 30 states, allowing some 250,000 students in kindergarten through 12th grade to press buttons to raise their hands and message their teachers. However, many questions still remain about the quality of K12 education provided online and PBS analyzes the issue in one of the states most popular for online learning: Pennsylvania.

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Afternoon Announcements: February 8, 2012

Happy Wednesday, here are the latest headlines in education news. Enjoy.

During a science fair held at the White House yesterday, President Obama declared that the nation was in need of more “tinkerers and dreamers.” According the New York Times, the President announced new federal and private-sector education initiatives to encourage student engagement and development in STEM curriculum.

Principals and assistant principals in Tennessee have traveled to thousands of classrooms in the state an to spend at least an hour annually observing and rating every teacher, guidance counselor, social worker and librarian. But as the Hechinger Report notes, the new methods of teacher evaluation have come across a bump in what will be a long road ahead.

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Afternoon Announcements: January 6, 2012

Good Afternoon!

We hope you enjoyed the Super Bowl and the enormous amounts of food and fun at watch parties in your area. Thanks to the big game, today is the most commonly called-out “sick-day” in the United States. So if you’re working from home because you enjoyed one too many chicken wings or drinks, kick back in bed and get caught up with these stories on education news.

States continue to develop measures that would render them exempt from the No Child Left Behind Act. In New Hampshire, two bills are being drafted in the state House of Representatives that would withdraw the state from the law. But according to the Boston Globe, the cost would be an estimated $61.6 million loss in federal money tied to the law.

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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.

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Morning Announcements: January 23, 2012

It’s been quite some time since the Morning Announcements were actually in the morning, so why not brighten your cold, dreary day with a little bit of sunshine? Get up to speed with some of the latest in education news.

Technology is the word of the day and as we quickly approachDigital Learning Day, brought to you by the Alliance, we bring to you more stories related to the benefits and obstacles of applying technology based education in the classroom.

From CNN, technology giant IBM is hoping to solve their own unemployment crisis. Despite a large database of unemployed Americans ready to get back to work, IBM executives say they are having a hard time filling those positions because few candidates have the backgrounds in math and science to qualify. So the company is hoping to change that by fostering future employees among high school students.

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