Current News

About 893 school districts or groups of districts have filed applications for $400 million in U.S. Department of Education grants in the Race to the Top competition to spur local improvements. Nearly 200 large districts are eligible for top awards of between $30 million and $40 million, while 433 small districts plan to compete for $10 million to $20 million in awards.

On Sept. 7, the U.S. Department of Education recognized 269 schools across the country as 2012 National Blue Ribbon Schools.

In this commentary, National Center on Education and the Economy President Marc Tucker responds to an Aug. 15 column in the Washington Post by Marion Brady that he feels is "way off the mark" in regards to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).

At the Aug. 28 meeting of the Lyon County (Nev.) School District's Board of Trustees, Claudia Fadness, the district's director of curriculum and accountability, discussed steps the district plans to take in the near future to train teachers in the Common Core State Standards. Grant money has been used to hire instructional coaches to support implementation of the instructional units at each school.

The new "Course Choice" program, part of Louisiana's education reform law passed earlier this year, will provide expanded course options to students beginning in the 2013-14 school year. The State Department of Education has received more than 30 applications from contracting groups, online course providers, and colleges that plan to offer the academic courses, skills training, and work-based apprenticeships outside public school classrooms.

The Georgia Department of Education, with the help of $600,000 in state funding, is collaborating with Microsoft to provide access to Microsoft's IT Academy to public high school students across the state. These specialized classes enable students to obtain industry certifications and prepare them for college and careers.

California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson has requested public comments on the new Career Technical Education (CTE) Model Curriculum Standards that is defined as the knowledge, concepts, and skills students need to acquire at each grade level. State law requires the development and adoption of these standards, which should incorporate career technology into academic education for grades 7-12.

The Common Core Standards must be fully implemented in Arizona by the 2013-14 school year, and state leaders have unveiled a website to help teachers and the community understand and adhere to the standards. The Arizona Department of Education has held over 400 training sessions and trained more than 14,000 of the state's nearly 70,000 teachers so far.

On Friday, Sept. 14, 2012, at 11 a.m. EDT the National Assessment Governing Board, which sets policy for NAEP, will host a live webinar to explore the results of a groundbreaking assessment that used technology and tools comparable to those in America’s workplaces to test the writing skills of 8th- and 12th-grade students.

The 2012 annual Phi Delta Kappa (PDK)/Gallup Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward Public Schools, which polls the public on a number of education topics, contains positive findings for the Common Core. According to the report, most Americans believe the Common Core standards will allow U.S. schools to compete globally, and three out of four Americans believe the standards will provide more consistency in the quality of education between school districts and states. In addition, half of those polled believe the standards will improve the quality of education in their community schools.