Industry, Orgs. Champion Informal Education
Posted on September 25th, 2011 by Jaimie Schock
In a Sept. 12 Capitol Hill bid for increased federal funding, a panel of representatives from industry and non-profits mapped out their goals for the future of afterschool, informal education in the U.S. Among them, an enthusiastic Fernando Laguarda of Time Warner Cable explained the company’s programs and efforts, while also outlining the daunting tasks that lie ahead in a time of increasing budget constraints.
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Tags: After School, Corporations, Education Policy, Informal Learning, Public Policy
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Georgia is the latest Race to the Top winner to devote some of the federal money to improving STEM education. Governor Nathan Deal announced that he’s giving $19 million to schools and programs that focus on science, mathematics, engineering and technology, and help better prepare educators to teach those subjects.
States will soon be able to opt out of No Child Left Behind though qualifying for special waivers offered by the Obama Administration. Citing a failure by Congress to make any progress on reforming the controversial legislation before the upcoming school year, the Department of Education will offer waivers to all 50 states, which will be expected to meet certain criteria in order to qualify.
Engineering rarely rates more than a passing nod in most K-12 science programs. A new report from the National Research Council could change that. Its sweeping recommendations for “next generation” science standards put engineering on a par with physics and other disciplines as key to meeting society’s most pressing problems while helping citizens make informed daily decisions.
An investigation of Atlanta Public Schools has uncovered such widespread cheating on state tests that writers of the 428-page report ran out of synonyms for cheating. Some 44 schools and 178 educators were named in the probe, with teachers now facing termination and doubt spreading about impressive gains in student achievement that helped the former superintendent become 2009 superintendent of the year.
New York City will eliminate a performance-bonus program for teachers and principals in light of new research showing that the three-year-old program did not improve student achievement at any grade level or teachers’ morale. “A lot of the principals and teachers saw the bonuses as a recognition and reward, as icing on the cake,” explained Julie Marsh, lead researcher of the RAND report.
As they hurtle toward 2014, when all students must reach proficiency in reading and math, states are pushing new accountability systems–and waivers. The Council of Chief State School Officers announced recently that 41 states had pledged to work together on a new generation of accountability systems that offer a blueprint for reforming NCLB’s pass-fail cut scores and include “growth” in student learning.
