Final rules for the Obama administration’s $4 billion Race to the Top competitive education grant program retain politically volatile elements.

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A new $11.5 billion chunk of federal stimulus money is now available to states, but to qualify, states will have to fill out a far more detailed application that demands information on how they’re trying to meet the Obama administration’s goals: tougher academic standards, better ways to recruit and keep effective teachers, a method of tracking student performance and a plan of action to turn around failing schools.

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Congress is considering a huge expansion of the Troops to Teachers program, the McClatchy news service reports. Under a pending bill, an estimated 98 percent of U.S. schools would be eligible to hire troops-turned-teachers. In 2008 and 2009, Congress appropriated $14 million for the program each year. The new bill would authorize the program for as much as $50 million a year.

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Oregon math teachers have moved middle schoolers far enough ahead in math that the typical eighth-grader now can do math at nearly the same level as many high school sophomores. Middle school students in every racial, ethnic and income group show greater mastery of mathematics — including algebraic reasoning, statistics and geometry — than they did three years ago.

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A helpful list of service projects for k-12 students and schools, focused on the environment and poverty-alleviation. The projects listed are located worldwide, nationally, and in the specific Seattle and Washington state area.

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Filed under: Web Resources | Comments Off on Website: Take Action Projects

Tags: Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Grades K-5, Seattle, Service Projects

The edible “rocks” lesson helps students grades K-8 learn the importance of observation, teamwork, and communication skills. Students draw and describe the food/meteors, then pair their observations with short descriptions in a geologic “Field Note” style.

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Tags: Aerospace, Grades 6-8, Grades K-5, Lesson Plans, NASA

International Education Week is a joint initiative of the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education to celebrate the benefit of international education and worldwide exchange.

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When NASA’s space shuttle Atlantis takes off for the International Space Station, a University of Colorado at Bolder butterfly experiment will be aboard, monitored from Earth by thousands of K-12 students.

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Filed under: Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Grades K-5, K-12 Education News, K-12 Outreach Programs | Comments Off on Fluttering in Space: The Butterfly Project

Tags: Aeronautics, Aerospace, Biology, NASA, Space

The TeachEngineering Digital Library exists to provide teachers with the curricular materials to bring engineering into the K-12 classroom for a single day, a unit, or even an entire course. An excellent web resource.

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Tags: Competitions for Teachers, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Grades K-5, Lesson Plans