Latest News and Comment from Education

Saturday, September 29, 2012

This Week's Answer Sheet 9-29-1212 - School Survival Guide for parents (and everyone else). - The Washington Post



The Answer Sheet - School Survival Guide for parents (and everyone else). - The Washington Post:

Answer Sheet


A people’s education platform

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 3 days ago
With the presidential election approaching and the recent Chicago teachers strike, it seems like a good time for the following post, a “people’s platform” for education, or what Americans really want from their public schools. It was written by Nancy Flanagan, an education consultant and blogger at Education Week Teacher, and Don Bartalo, a retired superintendent who now works as an instructional coach and is also an author. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

How one teacher dealt with class clown — video

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 3 days ago
Here’s a video showing how one teacher handled a class clown. Note: This is *not* a recommended disciplinary method. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

The Answer Sheet - 3 days ago

President Obama interview for Education Nation — transcript

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 3 days ago
Here’s the transcript of an interview that President Obama gave to NBC News and that was aired on Tuesday during the network’s 2012 Education Nation Summit. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney also gave an interview at the summit, which you can read here. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

Mitt Romney at Education Nation — transcript

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 3 days ago
Here’s a transcript of Gov. Mitt Romney talking on Tuesday with NBC News anchor Brian Williams about education at the network’s “Education Nation” Summit in New York. Highlights include a segment when an audience member points out a poll which shows that New York City parents support the teachers union, and Romney says: “I don't believe it for a minute. I don't believe it for a minute. I know something about polls.” Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

What do SAT, ACT scores really mean?

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 4 days ago
The big news in the world of college entrance exams — that would be the SAT and the ACT — is that the scores from the high school class of 2012 were disappointing. Newly released reading scores on the SAT hit a four-decade low, and writing scores edged down too, while math scores were essentially unchanged from last year. SAT average scores have declined by 20 points since 2006, when the test was revised to include a writing section. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

Science professors biased against females — study

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 4 days ago
A new Yale University study shows that bias against women persists in the sciences — in this case, at the university level, where science professors of both sexes were found to rate males as “significantly more competent and hireable” than equally qualified female applicants. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

How ACT overtook SAT as the top college entrance exam

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 4 days ago
The ACT has for the first time overtaken the SAT as the most popular college admissions exam by a margin of a few thousand students. Look at how things changed over time (information from FairTest): 1986: 730,000 students took the ACT compared with 1,000,748 who took the SAT. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

How schools (even great ones) fail kids with ADHD

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 5 days ago
There’s a group of students struggling through school rd to navigate that gets little attention in the media or in the debate about how to fix schools: Children with ADHD. ADHD, or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, is a brain condition that makes it especially hard for children to focus and concentrate in school and has a number of other symptoms. It is too often misunderstood by teachers, parents and even the students themselves. According to the Centers for Disease Control, about 9.5% or 5.4 million children 4-17 years of age, had been diagnosed with ADHD, as of 2007. M... more »

Animal School — video

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 5 days ago
Here’s a video that takes an unusual look at how we educate (or, rather, attempt to educate) children in the United States today. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

Superintendents fight Ohio’s ‘Third Grade Guarantee’

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 5 days ago
The Chicago teachers strike was the biggest action that we’ve seen against aspects of modern school reform, but people in other places are fighting too. Here’s a report from Ohio, by George Wood, superintendent and secondary school principal at the Federal Hocking Local School District in Stewart, Ohio. He is also the executive director of the Forum for Education and Democracy — on whose blog this appeared — and chair of the board for the Coalition of Essential Schools. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to Stum... more »

10 great tweets from Education Nation

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 5 days ago
NCB launched its third Education Nation summit today in New York City. Here are 10 great tweets about a range of issues that appeared on Twitter during a town hall with teachers moderated by anchor Brian Williams. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]

School segregation sharply increasing, studies show

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 6 days ago
New studies show increased levels of segregation in U.S. public schools that are so substantial that, the authors conclude, the country’s success as a multiracial society is at risk. The Civil Rights Project at UCLA just released three reports — “E Pluribus . . . Separation: Deepening Double Segregation for More Students,” plus two regional studies — that analyzed data from the National Center for Education Statistics and found that segregation is growing based on both race and poverty. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [... more »

Three fears about blended learning

Valerie Strauss at The Answer Sheet - 6 days ago
The tech revolution has led many to see a future where students get their education through a blend of traditional learning in classrooms and instruction through computer or other tech device.. Here, John Merrow, veteran education reporter for PBS, NPR, and dozens of national publications, writes about this key concerns about blended learning. Merrow is president of Learning Matters, a non-profit media production company, and his latest book is *The Influence of Teachers* . This post was published on his blog, Taking Note. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Ad... more »