EduTrendsOnline

States Gaining a Say on School Accountability

Whether a rewrite of the No Child Left Behind Act makes it over the finish line this year, the federally driven accountability system at the heart of the law seems destined to go the way of the Blockbuster video.

The Obama administration has already opened the door to major flexibility by issuing waivers from the NCLB law, the current version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

Wash. State Lawmakers Face Hard Choices on K-12 Finance

Despite a $100,000 daily fine, it remained unclear as of late last week just how ready Washington state legislators are to develop a plan for education funding that will fulfill the dictates of the state’s constitution to the satisfaction of the state Supreme Court.

Earlier this month, that court ruled that the state must pay the monetary penalty each day that it does not come up with a plan that, among other goals, would reduce the state’s reliance on local taxes to pay for education, especially staff salaries, by 2018.

Why Ed Tech Is Not Transforming How Teachers Teach

WILMINGTON, Del. — Public schools now provide at least one computer for every five students. They spend more than $3 billion per year on digital content. And nearly three-fourths of high school students now say they regularly use a smartphone or tablet in the classroom.

But a mountain of evidence indicates that teachers have been painfully slow to transform the ways they teach, despite that massive influx of new technology into their classrooms.

Can reading comprehension be taught?

Willingham is a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia and author of several books, including “Why Don’t Students Like School? and “When Can You Trust The Experts? How to tell good science from bad in education.” This appeared on his Science and Education blog. Willingham started teaching at U-Va., in 1992, when his research focused on the brain basis of learning and memory.

Virginia, four other states to remain exempt from No Child Left Behind

Virginia and four other states will remain exempt from the key parts of No Child Left Behind for up to four years, freeing them from the most onerous requirements of the main federal education law that left many schools facing sanctions.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced Tuesday that the states — the others are Kentucky, Minnesota, New Mexico and North Carolina — were approved for waivers under a fast-track process.