Four Public broadcasting outlets have formed the STEM Collaborative to demonstrate that math can be both fun and relevant. The website’s challenges engage students in such projects as building a skateboard ramp and measuring a rollercoaster.

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Tags: Fun & Games, Mathematics, PBS programs, Web Resources, Website

Countries with top-performing schools and students — think Singapore, Finland, and South Korea — recruit their teachers from the top third of college graduates, according to a new study. Yet only 23 percent of U.S. teachers come from the top third of graduates. Salary may be a key component.

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Tags: Education Policy, International K-12 Education, Research on Learning, Teacher Training

Seventy-five percent of all high-school students own cellphones. So why not put that resource to use as an academic tool? That’s the thinking of some Chicago educators. Others worry that cells can be too easily used to cheat on tests, however.

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Tags: Classroom Technology, Technology, Technology for Learning

Is there an algebra overkill? John W. Myres, a retired California school teacher and superintendent, thinks so. Myres notes that most school districts require all students to take one to two years of algebra to graduate and suggests this may be too much of a good thing.

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Tags: Education Policy, Math teachers, Mathematics

The web-based, real-time American Math Challenge, set for October 26 and 27, lets students from across the U.S. compete against each other. It’s open to either individual K-12 students or entire schools and classes. Students from schools that register at least 20 pupils are eligible for prizes.

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Tags: Competitions for Students, Mathematics, Outreach for Schools

Semiconductor manufacturer Broadcom will spend $6 million over six years to fund a new STEM competition, the Broadcom MASTERS, focusing on 6th, 7th, and 8th-graders. In its first year, Broadcom expects 7,500 students from 350 science fairs across the country will be nominated for the contest.

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Tags: Competitions for Students, Corporations, Grades 6-8, Science Fair Projects

The standardized tests that K-12 students take each year will soon undergo an electronic overhaul. The U.S. Department of Education recently awarded two consortia of states $330 million to develop ways to improve, broaden, and speed up the tests by 2014 using interactive computing technologies.

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Tags: Classroom Technology, Education Policy, Technology for Learning, Testing

According to a new report released by the Center for Public Education, school districts across the U.S. are laying off teachers, cutting programs, and eliminating student activities because of the ongoing fiscal squeeze created by the recession. Only two states — Montana and North Dakota — do not face revenue shortfalls this year.

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Tags: Education Policy, Public Policy, Research, School Budgets

Parents and teachers fear that children are reading less because of the plethora of available digital entertainments. Could electronic devices be used to encourage reading? Possibly, says a new study released by publisher Scholastic.

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Tags: Technical Communications, Technology, Technology for Learning