Public Money Finds Back Door to Private Schools

Spreading at a time of deep cutbacks in public schools, private scholarship programs operate in eight states and represent one of the fastest-growing components of the school choice movement, many at the expense of the neediest children. The programs have redirected nearly $350 million that would have gone into public budgets to pay for private school [...]

Kindergarten Teacher Earns $700,000 by Selling Lesson Plans Online

A kindergarten teacher from Georgia, has made $700,000 selling her lesson plans on Teachers Pay Teachers, an ecommerce startup where teachers offer their lesson plans to fellow educators. Source: Mashable

5 Tips to Avoid Teacher Burnout

Here are a few some hard-learned lessons from a former teacher to new teachers – tips that are probably pretty useful for veteran teachers as well. Read more about staying connected with other educators, setting boundaries, and knowing when to go home! Source: Edutopia

Schools Get Creative With PE While Reducing Hours

Budget cuts illustrate the balancing act these days between academics and PE, as schools struggle to raise test scores in the face of a growing obesity epidemic. The Maplewood-Richmond Heights district in St. Louis has emphasized physical education as part of a larger health initiative. All students, including those in high school, have at least 200 [...]

Why Education Inequality Persists and How to Fix It

Parents, teachers, and political leaders must reject long-standing practices that undermine students’ opportunity to learn in the city’s most neglected communities, write Pedro Noguera and John Jackson. In their place, they must advocate for genuine reforms, which will assure equitable access to good schools and programs. Source: The Washington Post  

How Teachers Make Cell Phones Work in the Classroom

The idea of mobile learning touches on just about every subject that any technology addresses: social media, digital citizenship, content-knowledge versus skill-building, Internet filtering and safety laws, teaching techniques, bring-your-own-device policies, school budgets.In the most ideal class settings, mobile devices disappear into the background, like markers and whiteboards, pencil and paper – not because they’re not being [...]

A New Dawn for STEM Education

The STEM gap is a real and complex issue, writes Rep. Barbara Lee on The Huffington Post. “We cannot overcome the challenges we face without the collaboration of educators, parents, industry partners and mentors and policymakers with the courage to fight for bold investment in STEM education.” Source: The Huffington Post

Connecticut and Alabama Deal Blows to Michelle Rhee-Style Corporate Education Reform

There’s good news for public education in Alabama and Connecticut, as the Michelle Rhee breed of privatizers and corporate reformers were thwarted in both states, at least partially and at least for now. Source: Daily Kos

Scott Walker’s ‘Divide and Conquer’ Union Strategy

A video released last week shows Gov. Scott Walker saying he would use “divide and conquer” as a strategy against unions. Walker made the comments to Beloit billionaire Diane Hendricks, who has since given $510,000 to the governor’s campaign – making her Walker’s single-largest donor and the largest known donor to a candidate in state [...]

Students Make Gains in Testing on Science

American eighth graders have made modest gains in national science testing, with Hispanic and black students narrowing the gap between them and their white and Asian peers, the federal government reported Thursday. Source: The New York Times

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