San Diego teacher Jonathan Winn has done what some would say is impossible: He’s inspired high school students to get excited about math. His AP calculus class is the most popular course in a school with a large number of low-income students for whom English is not their native language.

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Tags: Math, Math teachers, Mathematics, Teacher Awards, Teachers

Mike Town has worked in steel factories and forests, tricked out a “green” house, persuaded legislators to save the wilderness, and started a student-run “Cool Schools” energy audit, saving his district $30,000 a year. Now, the Redmond, Wash., teacher is turning an environmentalist’s eye toward federal STEM education policy.

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Tags: Environmental Engineering, Environmental science, Grades 9-12, Public Policy, Teachers

Wisconsin’s labor battle gained national attention after nearly 100,000 people, including educators, rallied in the capital to protest a bill to curb public-sector collective bargaining. Meanwhile, with far less fanfare, Ohio’s legislature approved a bill that is perhaps even tougher on unions and gives school boards and city councils a free hand to unilaterally impose their side’s final contract offer.

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Tags: Public Policy, Teachers

School districts nationwide are bracing for potentially deep cuts in their teaching ranks. While many may fare better than projected, each layoff causes a chaotic ripple of staff reshuffling as senior educators “bump” more junior teachers from their classrooms, forcing thousands to change schools, grades, or subjects.

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Tags: Education Policy, Public Policy, Teachers

The AFCEA Educational Foundation is offering 50 scholarships of $5,000 each to students actively pursuing an undergraduate degree, graduate degree, or credential/licensure for the purpose of teaching STEM (science, technology, engineering, or math) subjects at a U.S. middle or secondary school. Application Deadline: May 1, 2011.

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Tags: Higher Education, Programs for Teachers, Scholarship, scholarships, Scholarships and Fellowships, Teachers

Many kids dream of exploring space, but few get much further than their schoolyards. This is not true of students in Tekna-Theos, a Florida after-school program bursting with science activities and contests. They’ve set their sights high, designing and building mini-satellites and preparing a payload to test the effect of weightlessness on bone cells. Some have actually experienced “Zero-G.”

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Tags: Aeronautics, Aerospace, Aerospace Engineering, Biomolecular Engineering, CubeSat, NASA, Satellite, Satellite imagery, Satellites, Space, Teachers

In response to cheating, many states and school districts are tightening test security, USA Today reports. Texas distributes 14 steps staff must follow during test administration and warns that state investigators will ferret out cheaters. In other places, educators are experimenting with different ways to test what kids learn.

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Tags: Education Policy, Public Policy, Teachers, Testing

Starting in 2014, new teachers in Florida could see their pay and promotions linked to their students’ performance on state assessments. Bills being considered in the legislature also would allow school boards to fire teachers more easily for mediocre results. Similar legislation was vetoed last year by the former governor, who considered it too extreme, but Gov. Rick Scott seems poised to approve this somewhat gentler version.

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Tags: Education Policy, Public Policy, Teachers

Education Secretary Arne Duncan warned last week that 82 percent of the country’s schools soon could be considered failing if the No Child Left Behind law is not changed. The administration is seeking to relax some accountability measures in the law. “The law has created dozens of ways for schools to fail and very few ways to help them succeed,” Duncan said.

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Tags: Education Policy, Public Policy, Research on Learning, Teachers