Current News

CCSSO and National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center), working closely with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) authors, have released an official approach for publishing identifiers and XML designation to represent the CCSS, consistent with their adopted format and now available on www.corestandards.org.

The 2012 National Teacher of the Year Rebecca Mieliwocki traveled to China and Singapore this month. International trips are meant to help educators expand professional knowledge, compare curriculum and resources, and discuss policies.

Wisconsin Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers has proposed a $7 million budget initiative that calls for all public high school juniors to take the ACT college admissions test and replace the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examination (WKCE) with other ACT tests to measure college and career readiness.

The Oklahoma State Department of Education has so far trained 60 professional educators as REAC3H -- Regional Educators Advancing College, Career, and Citizenship readiness Higher -- coaches as part of State Superintendent of Public Instruction Janet Barresi's C3 Plan to ensure students graduate college, career, and citizen ready.

The Montana Office of Public Instruction has received a $50,000 gift from the nonprofit Student Assistance Foundation, and 10 high schools will receive $5,000 awards. The winning schools must showcase their ability to have seniors complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, discuss college-going attitudes and related issues with families, or design activities to bolster graduation rates and college preparedness.

At a recent teacher and staff breakfast, New Hampshire Education Commissioner Dr. Virginia Barry praised SAU 13 -- which includes schools in Freedom, Madison, and Tamworth -- for its efforts to implement the Common Core standards. "You're one of the districts moving forward. You are really trying to commit to what it really means to be college and career ready," Barry said, adding that the standards will focus on learning progressions instead of grade-level progressions.

A memorandum of understanding between Columbia Public Schools (CPS) and the University of Missouri's Office of the Vice Provost for International Programs/Confucius Institute will enable seventh graders at several schools in the district to participate in a Chinese language program beginning in the fall of 2013.

On Sept. 11, Maine Education Commissioner Stephen Bowen rolled out Literacy for ME, an initiative that aims to raise literacy levels statewide. He said that rather than depend only on public schools, communities must create plans to boost literacy rates from birth to adulthood, and he called on early-childhood education providers, public schools, adult education programs, higher education institutions, charitable foundations, and other organizations to collaborate to identify and close gaps.

Louisiana Superintendent of Education John White met with the Nonpublic School Commission on Sept. 11 to discuss a "conceptual framework" for new rules for nonpublic schools seeking funding and to offer vouchers. White said a number of review and approval processes are under revision with the goal of "minimizing work not dedicated to student achievement."

On Sept. 10, the California Department of Education released a 90-page report from the Task Force on Educator Excellence, established by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson earlier this year, that offers recommendations that could change education policy at the school district and state levels. Torlakson says it is the most comprehensive report on the teaching profession in over 10 years.