Quantcast
Jeremy Piven

Jeremy Piven has known his favorite teacher since the day he was born. His mother, Joyce, a talented drama teacher, gave Jeremy a head start on his acting career. While other kids were playing games, Joyce had Jeremy playing roles.

Behind Every Famous Person is a Fabulous Teacher.

Education News:
February 5, 2010

Every week we scour the headlines from around the nation and prepare brief executive summaries of the top education stories.

Want Ed News in your inbox? Just send an email to jake@teacherscount.org.

Interested in last week's headlines or the week before that? View our archive section. Also view our education resources, below, to keep up to date about the latest news and trends in education and the teaching community.

This Week in Education

Widening Gap for Top Students
(New York Times, February 5th) A new report has shown a widening achievement gap among high performing K-12 students. While the national achievement gap has begun to narrow as a whole, experts believe that the effort to improve low performing schools has negatively impacted top performing students. The report suggests that schools need to consider the needs of their top students by providing early college course options.

President’s Budget Plan Outlines Rewrite of New Child Left Behind
(San Francisco Gate, February 2nd) In his new budget plan President Barrack Obama has proposed to overhaul the No Child Left Behind laws, which mandate that all American schools test at grade level by 2014. The laws have resulted in sliding state standards as schools adjusted to meet its requirements. The president hopes that by changing student and school assessments, national academic standards can be raised. Instead of measuring school progress relative to test standards, the president intends to measure growth from year to year offering incentives for improving schools. This would allow schools performing below grade level to be eligible for rewards so long as there is evidence of growth.

Should Schools Monitor Students Internet Speech
(Education Week, February 5th) In an age where the internet is highly accessible, federal judges find themselves pining over whether schools should be allowed to monitor students’ internet speech. With a recent court ruling upholding the suspension of a student who created a phony Myspace profile for his school principal, the debate over school censorship discretion continues to escalate. While many believe monitoring students’ internet use is an infringement of rights, others claim that the internet allows students to disrupt school activities and thus must be monitored.

Study Changing Perception of Abstinence Education
(New York Times, February 2nd) A recent study of urban middle school students suggests that "abstinence-only" in sex education may help to delay sexual activity. Head researcher Dr. John B. Jemmot III followed nearly 662 African American students. The students were randomly assigned to either abstinence-only or comprehensive sex education courses. Within 24 months of the classes a third of those who participated in the abstinence-only course started sexual activity, compared to about 42 percent of the comprehensive sex education participants. Because of the controversial nature of the findings the study, published in the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine, was accompanied by an editorial warning policy makers not to interpret the results of a single study literally.

Standardized Testing Going Digital
(Education Week, February 4th) A Washington pilot program will mark the state’s first attempt to administer standardized tests via computers. With roughly 25 percent of the Washington schools participating, the digital testing will cut costs as well as make grading easier. Critics of the program are concerned that students’ limited familiarity with the computer program may skew their test results. However many students have enthusiastically greeted the change.

New Jersey Advisors Recommend More Charters
(Philadelphia Inquirer, February 4th) New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s transition advisers have called for radical changes in the state’s school system. A 25 page report recommended that Christie adopt the state Board of Education policy control, and expand the number of charter school programs. Critics of the report are concerned with its proposal for teacher pay based on student performance; a standpoint that the New Jersey Education Association says has not been proven to improve education quality.

Education Resources


Popular Education News Sources

Directories of Education Journals and Magazines

Sites offering directories of hundreds of journals and magazines (both electronic and printed) related to education. Many of the resources contained in the directories below are free.