National Education News

The D.C. Public Charter School Board on Monday approved two new schools and rejected seven others, citing concerns ranging from inconsistent budgets to overly vague academic goals and curriculum.

“We’re setting a tough, high bar,” said Chairman John H. “Skip” McCoy, speaking at the outset of the board’s evening meeting. “Running these schools is a really arduous task, and we’re getting a little bit better at spotting red lights — things that are signs to us that a proposal is not quite ready.”

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Microsoft's plans to end support for Windows XP could pose big technological and financial challenges for districts nationwide.

Two groups of states are crafting unique assessments for students with severe cognitive disabilities.

Leobardo Espinoza Jr., a high school senior in Kansas whose parents did not graduate from high school, expects to “work harder and longer” to compete with his Ivy League classmates this fall.    

White House officials say they didn't tell President Obama about an impending IRS scandal, and nobody told him the Justice Department secretly subpoenaed reporters' phone records, and exactly what he knew when about the Benghazi controversy is unclear. This, then, seems like a good time to ask: How much has the president been told about the unfortunate effects his education reform policies are having on public schools?

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A small group of state education officials is pushing back against a call by teachers unions for a moratorium on using standardized tests for evaluating students or teachers until states have completely implemented Common Core standards, a new way of teaching math and reading in grades kindergarten through 12th.

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Can you choose the best synonym for “cri de coeur”?    

The University of Maryland's English Department held its commencement ceremonies on Monday and student Jamie Lee gave the following unusually honest speech in which she concedes that she once thought going to College Park was beneath her and that studying English was a self-indulgent exercise. Here's her speech:

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See what you know about the news of the day.    

This word has appeared in 567 New York Times articles in the past year.    

The N.Y.U. researchers, who specialized in magnetic resonance imaging, colluded with Chinese institutions to reveal confidential information, prosecutors said.    

by COREY MURRAY, EdTech Magazine

Buoyed by her own experiences, and with support from administrators at Cyprus High School in the Anaheim Union High School District, Citlau launched one of the school system’s first online courses. Five years later, the district boasts a full slate of curriculum-approved, teacher-generated online courses, with 23 optional classes scheduled for the 2013–2014 school year. That success is just one of the reasons why iNACOL, a national nonprofit that supports the use of technology in U.S. schools, and the Southern Regional Education Board chose Citlau as their National Online Teacher of the Year. I was fortunate to catch up with Citlau while she was in Washington, D.C., last week to meet with education officials and representatives for learning management systems provider Blackboard, Inc. Itching to launch an online course at your school? Here are five steps the nation’s best online teacher says every program should take.

http://www.edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2013/05/5-must-have-elements-every-online-class

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by Yale Daily News

Following a December report that encouraged the University to prioritize online education, Yale is answering the call. In a Wednesday email to the Yale community, Provost Benjamin Polak announced the University’s new partnership with Coursera, an online education platform used by Princeton, Columbia, Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania. Polak also announced the creation of a new standing committee on online education and the appointment of music professor Craig Wright to the new position of academic director of online education. In the email, Polak stressed the importance of using online education to explore new teaching strategies that can be used in Yale classrooms.

http://yaledailynews.com/crosscampus/2013/05/15/yale-expands-online-education-appoints-new-director/

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by Aarti Shahani, Marketplace

Some of the nation’s most elite professors are taking up a new teaching fad: Massively Open Online Courses. MOOCs rhymes with nukes, and the reach is about the same. These classes streamed on the Internet have millions of students around the world enrolling. They’re free of charge. But when you add up all the work it takes on and off camera to make a MOOC, the cost to professors is pretty high. As Prof. Kevin Werbach can attest, the life of a MOOCs rockstar is not pure glitz.

http://www.marketplace.org/topics/tech/education/life-online-professor

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CHARLOTTESVILLE — The University of Virginia Board of Visitors unanimously elected Richmond businessman William H. Goodwin Jr. as its vice rector Monday evening, putting him on course to lead the board starting in 2015.

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May 21, 2013

Three more states have received waivers from the U.S. Department of Education to free them from many of the requirements of No Child Left Behind, the Bush-era federal education law.

Alaska, Hawaii and West Virginia join 37 other states and D.C. in getting relief from No Child Left Behind, in exchange for agreeing to make changes in education policy endorsed by the Obama administration. The states have agreed to prepare students for college and career, better focus aid on the neediest students and boost effective teaching and school leadership, according to the administration.

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A tiny device that can recharge cell phone batteries in as little as 30 seconds won 18-year-old Eesha Khare a major science award that will help fund her college education at Harvard University.