Though it continues to oppose the use of standardized test scores to gauge effectiveness, the nation’s largest teachers’ union for the first time affirmed that evidence of student learning must be considered in teacher evaluations.

Read More

Filed under: K-12 Education News | Comments Off on Union Shifts on Teacher Evaluations

Tags: assessments, Education Policy, NEA, teacher evaluation, teachers union

The summer break will cost many students a month of learning, a sweeping new study by the nonprofit RAND Corporation and the Wallace Foundation reports. The setbacks also are cumulative, disproportionately affecting pupils from low-income families and all but guaranteeing a permanent achievement gap. The good news: quality summer programs can help stave off summer slide.

Read More

Filed under: K-12 Education News | Comments Off on Summer Slide: Kids Lose A Month of Learning

Tags: achievement gap, Education Policy, Programs for Students, Public Policy, Research on Learning, summer, Summer Programs (Students)

Eighty four percent of school districts nationwide anticipate cuts in funding for the coming school year. Of these, well over half plan to cut staff. “A grim situation is expected to worsen in the coming school year,” predicts the Center on Education Policy, a Washington-based advocacy group.

Read More

Filed under: K-12 Education News | Comments Off on Bleak Year Forecast for Schools

Tags: Education Policy, Public Policy

The Republican chairman of the House education committee outlined publicly for the first time a timetable for rewriting the sprawling No Child Left Behind school accountability law. Minnesota Rep. John Kline said he would move five bills to the House floor by year’s end. Experts say that profound partisan disagreement with the Democrat-led Senate could doom the Elementary and Secondary Education Act’s reauthorization this year.

Read More

Filed under: K-12 Education News | 1 Comment »

Tags: Education Policy, Elementary and Secondary Education Act, ESEA, NCLB, No Child Left Behind, Public Policy, reauthorization, U. S. Department of Education

Teacher layoffs nationwide threaten to make a bad STEM education situation worse, as more educators must cover subjects they are not certified to teach. A new survey by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) found that fewer than half the chemistry and physical science teachers in public high schools had degrees in those fields, with about 30 percent lacking certification in those subjects.

Read More

Filed under: K-12 Education News | Comments Off on Many STEM Teachers Lack Majors

Tags: Higher Education, Public Policy, Research on Learning, Science, Teacher Training, Teachers

An ethanol-powered electric vehicle that can travel the equivalent of 81.9 miles per gallon clinched the EcoCAR Challenge for a team of Virginia Tech engineering students. They beat 15 other student teams in the three-year competition, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and General Motors, to design a more fuel-efficient, environmentally friendly car with the same consumer appeal and safety as today’s models.

Read More

Filed under: K-12 Education News | 1 Comment »

Tags: Alternative Fuels, car, Competitions for Students, Contest, Energy, Environmental Engineering, General Motors, U.S. Department of Energy, Virginia Tech

A British product-design student has invented a wheel-chair alternative whose legs can lift up and step over obstacles. Martin Harris, 21, hopes his invention will give people with mobility issues more freedom. He also believes his design, which was inspired by the kinetic sculpture of Dutch engineer-artist Theo Jansen, has potential uses in agricultural machinery or military vehicles.

Read More

Filed under: K-12 Education News, Special Features | Comments Off on Student Invents ‘Walking Chair’

Tags: adaptive technologies, Biomedical, Biomedical Engineering, Design, Mechanical engineering, student invention

Apple’s iPad hasn’t yet taken over the nation’s classrooms, but it’s starting to look as though it might. In Colorado, Manitou Springs Middle School plans to buy an iPad for every fifth-through-eighth grader next year and have one for every high schooler the following year. Now in pilot: an iPad-only algebra curriculum.

Read More

Filed under: K-12 Education News | Comments Off on More Schools Are Catching the iPad Bug

Tags: education firsts, Education Policy, Technology, Technology for Learning

Two Houston engineers have won a competition for low-cost experiments that high school students could send aboard a suborbital space flight. They have designed an inexpensive microgravity spaceflight kit that allows students to conduct three experiments demonstrating important principles of science and engineering.

Read More

Filed under: K-12 Education News | Comments Off on DIY Space-flight Experiments for High Schoolers

Tags: Aeronautics, Aerospace, Aerospace Engineering, Competition, Competitions for Students, NASA, Physics, Space