Current News

On Jan. 24, the Illinois State Board of Education voted to increase the cut-off score for elementary and middle school students taking the Illinois Standards Achievement Test in English language arts and math.

The Delaware Department of Education will use Race to the Top money to launch an anonymous online survey, called "TELL Delaware," to provide teachers with the chance to voice any feedback about their working conditions.

Following the Newtown, Conn., school shooting, President Barack Obama issued a plan that focuses not only on mental health services but also on public school safety as a way to prevent similar tragedies.

The new, still-divided Congress that took office this month faces a lengthy list of education policy legislation that is either overdue for renewal or will be soon, in a political landscape that remains consumed with fiscal issues. But it's tough to say whether there will be much action on all that outdated legislation—including the No Child Left Behind Act, which has awaited reauthorization since 2007.

University of Oregon's College of Education Presidential Chair and Associate Dean for Global Education Yong Zhao says the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are "working to perfect an outdated paradigm," and National Center on Education and the Economy President Marc Tucker agrees.

Vermont has joined 13 other states in the Dynamic Learning Maps (DLM) Alternative Assessment Consortium headed by the University of Kansas' Center for Educational Testing and Evaluation. The consortium -- which also includes Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin -- is creating a computer-based assessment for K-12 public school students with significant cognitive disabilities.

The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) teacher prep task force issued a variety of recommendations to improve the way colleges prepare teachers for their first post-graduation jobs.

Montana's 2012 Graduation and Dropout report revealed that the number of dropouts decreased from nearly 2,500 students in the 2008-09 school year to more than 1,800 students in the 2011-12 school year, and the graduation rate increased nearly 2 percent to about 84 percent.

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad's issued an $187 million education reform proposal, and the centerpiece of the plan is the creation of new career paths for teachers, who could receive pay bumps for taking on extra duties.

CCSSO announces today four finalists for the 2013 National Teacher of the Year. The National Teacher of the Year spends a year representing educators across the country and advocating on behalf of the teaching profession.