Current News

In Oklahoma, 188 school districts received the Governor's ACE Award, recognizing those in which 100 percent of seniors in the Class of 2012 completed all graduation requirements.

Minnesota will join three other states participating in a national effort to bolster graduation rates, known as GradNation, spearheaded by America's Promise Alliance.

Maine Education Commissioner Stephen Bowen outlined a new approach to education spending, deemed targeted education support, just days before the governor's biennial education budget will be revealed.

The third Annual International Summit on the Teaching Profession, is being held in Amsterdam March 13-14, 2013. This year the focus of the summit is on teacher evaluation and professional standards.

According to Harlem Village Academies Founder and Chief Executive Deborah Kenny, upper-income schools were found to focus on active play and crafts in kindergarten, while lower-income schools engaged in regimented academics, reward-and-punishment behavior systems, and top-down instruction.

At the American Association of School Administrators' National Conference on Education on Feb. 22, Linda Darling-Hammond, the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education at Stanford University, talked about the need for high-quality professional development to prepare teachers and students for the next-generation assessments aligned with the Common Core State Standards that are being developed by the Partnership for the Assessment of College and Career Readiness and the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium.

In|Site, an online resource for teachers, students, and administrators, has been launched by the West Virginia Department of Education. The site enables academic and career technical teachers to find instructional resources for classroom use, paves the way for the implementation of cross-curricular projects, and offers learning resources for students.

New Jersey Education Commissioner Chris Cerf recently presented proposed regulations for the state's new teacher evaluation system to the State Board of Education. The proposal indicates that for teachers in grades and subjects evaluated by state tests, 35 percent of their rating in the first year would be tied to student progress on the tests, while 50 percent would be tied to supervisors' evaluations of teacher practice and 15 percent to undefined achievement measures.

North Dakota Superintendent of Public Instruction Kirsten Baesler announced that her department would begin accepting applications for a three-year grant to expand or establish community learning centers.

At a recent luncheon sponsored by the Mooresville – South Iredell Developer’s Council, North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson talked about the importance of businesses and schools working together "on behalf of economic development."