National Education News

The Fairfax County School Board voted Thursday night to expand high school honors courses, reversing a policy that was championed by Superintendent Jack D. Dale and that became a central issue during fall’s School Board campaign.

Read full article >>

A new study commissioned by D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray recommends that the city turn around or close more than three dozen traditional public schools in its poorest neighborhoods and expand the number of high-performing charter schools.

Read full article >>


Featured Advertiser The next level in education with NEC   We bring you tailor-made solutions built on an in-depth understanding of your unique needs. Learn how NEC’s solutions and expertise in voice and data communications, networks and data storage can elevate your performance at www.nec.com/education www.nec.com/education
Ads by Pheedo

In the national push to prevent bullying, more elementary schools are introducing lessons about gay tolerance. Some lessons begin before the first day of kindergarten.

One fall day at Oyster-Adams Bilingual School in Northwest Washington, Scarlette Garnier and her pre-kindergarten classmates drew pictures of their families and talked about their similarities and differences.

Read full article >>

The Rhodes Trust confirmed that it had put on hold the candidacy of the quarterback, Patrick J. Witt, upon learning that a fellow student had filed a complaint against him.

At the University of Washington, 18 percent of the freshmen are foreigners, and each pays about three times as much as students from Washington State.

Green River Community College, south of Seattle, has enrolled 1,400 international students this year, most of them recruited by agents who get 15 percent of the $9,732 first-year tuition.

An interview with Mayor Emanuel is a highlight of a new video that criticizes the Chicago Teachers Union.

The Chester Upland district’s fiscal woes – so severe that it cannot afford to pay teachers past the end of this month – are compounded by a charter school with which it shares its financing.

The Chester Upland district’s fiscal woes – so severe that it cannot afford to pay teachers past the end of this month – are compounded by a charter school with which it shares its financing.

When a college education is critical in today’s economy, a national discussion on how to make public institutions more affordable is long overdue.

Shoes get lost, knees get scraped, backpacks get spilled. So on some days, members of the Denicore family get to school a minute or two late.

That’s not ideal, Mark and Amy Denicore admit. But, they wonder, is it a crime?

Read full article >>

Parents and educators are expressing strong concern about the central role of standardized testing in the assessment and overall education of their children and students.

This was written by Marion Brady, veteran teacher, administrator, curriculum designer and author. This first appeared on truth-out.org .

By Marion Brady

Imagine the present corporately promoted education reform effort as a truck, its tires nearly flat from the weight of the many unexamined assumptions it carries.

Read full article >>

The case of a woman who was expelled from a graduate counseling program highlights how religious views on sexual orientation provoke controversy in the profession.

Two days after 76 applicants were mistakenly told they had been accepted to Vassar College, the school’s president apologized for the confusion and said the college would reimburse the students’ $65 application fees.

by Free Tech 4 Teachers

Udemy, an online course hosting service that I’ve previously written about, recently launched a new project called The Faculty Project. The Faculty Project is a series of free online courses developed by professors from top-notch universities including Northwestern, Dartmouth, and Vassar. The courses will be conducted through Udemy’s platform of video, slides, and PDFs. While it’s not clear if the professors will or will not be checking-in on the courses, there are discussion boards for students in each course to correspond with each other.

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2012/01/faculty-project-free-courses-from.html

Share on Facebook var button = document.getElementById('facebook_share_link_3854') || document.getElementById('facebook_share_icon_3854') || document.getElementById('facebook_share_both_3854') || document.getElementById('facebook_share_button_3854'); if (button) { button.onclick = function(e) { var url = this.href.replace(/share\.php/, 'sharer.php'); window.open(url,'sharer','toolbar=0,status=0,width=626,height=436'); return false; } if (button.id === 'facebook_share_button_3854') { button.onmouseover = function(){ this.style.color='#fff'; this.style.borderColor = '#295582'; this.style.backgroundColor = '#3b5998'; } button.onmouseout = function(){ this.style.color = '#3b5998'; this.style.borderColor = '#d8dfea'; this.style.backgroundColor = '#fff'; } } }

By KAITLYN BYRNE, the Reflector

During the fall 2011 semester, 201 cases of academic dishonesty were reported at Mississippi State University. By comparison, 271 cases of academic dishonesty were reported for the entire 2010-2011 academic year. James Orr, director of the student honor code office, said the increase in reported academic dishonesty cases is not due to an increase in cheating. Instead, the increase is due to professors taking a more active involvement in reporting students who are caught cheating. “Faculty members and other students are vigilant in reporting and discovering academic dishonesty,” Orr said. “Professors understand that a major part of deterring academic dishonesty involves reporting incidents and ensuring that students receive the appropriate sanction.” Orr said sanctions for violating the student honor code could include receiving a zero on the assignment, lowered course grade, dismissal from MSU and/or the course grade of “XF.”

http://www.reflector-online.com/mobile/news/cheating-reports-continue-to-increase-1.2691143

Share on Facebook var button = document.getElementById('facebook_share_link_3852') || document.getElementById('facebook_share_icon_3852') || document.getElementById('facebook_share_both_3852') || document.getElementById('facebook_share_button_3852'); if (button) { button.onclick = function(e) { var url = this.href.replace(/share\.php/, 'sharer.php'); window.open(url,'sharer','toolbar=0,status=0,width=626,height=436'); return false; } if (button.id === 'facebook_share_button_3852') { button.onmouseover = function(){ this.style.color='#fff'; this.style.borderColor = '#295582'; this.style.backgroundColor = '#3b5998'; } button.onmouseout = function(){ this.style.color = '#3b5998'; this.style.borderColor = '#d8dfea'; this.style.backgroundColor = '#fff'; } } }

by Peter Murray, Singularity Hub

 This past August fellow Singularity Hub writer Aaron Saenz wrote about Udacity, the online university created by Stanford artificial intelligence professor and Google autonomous vehicle leader, Sebastian Thrun. At the time Thrun was gearing up to teach his Introduction to Artificial Intelligence course to a class of 200 at Stanford. But why teach 200 when you can teach 1,000…or 160,000? With Udacity, Thrun and fellow AI giant Peter Norvig created an online version of the course, and anyone that wanted to enroll could – for free. The homework assignments and exams would be the same as the ones given to the Stanford students, and they would be graded in the same way so online enrollees could see how they stacked up to some of the brightest students in the world. It was to be a grand experiment in education.

http://singularityhub.com/2012/01/28/sebastian-thrun-aims-to-revolutionize-university-education-with-udacity/

Share on Facebook var button = document.getElementById('facebook_share_link_3850') || document.getElementById('facebook_share_icon_3850') || document.getElementById('facebook_share_both_3850') || document.getElementById('facebook_share_button_3850'); if (button) { button.onclick = function(e) { var url = this.href.replace(/share\.php/, 'sharer.php'); window.open(url,'sharer','toolbar=0,status=0,width=626,height=436'); return false; } if (button.id === 'facebook_share_button_3850') { button.onmouseover = function(){ this.style.color='#fff'; this.style.borderColor = '#295582'; this.style.backgroundColor = '#3b5998'; } button.onmouseout = function(){ this.style.color = '#3b5998'; this.style.borderColor = '#d8dfea'; this.style.backgroundColor = '#fff'; } } }

A test letter mistakenly told 76 applicants, some in other countries, that they had been accepted to the school.

Jacquelyn Nealon, who handles enrollment, communications and marketing at New York Institute of Technology, advises students on the best ways to ensure they get the financial aid package they deserve.