A Global Take on Reform at Ontario’s Building Blocks for Education Summit

By Tim Walker Listening to education experts and policymakers at an international education summit in Toronto this week, NEA Executive Committee member Princess Moss knew that she was hearing innovative ideas to meet the challenges facing the world’s classrooms. “It was exciting to learn about the approaches being taken in Finland and Singapore, especially,” Moss [...]

Slow SIG Process Leaves Lower-Performing Schools Scrambling

By Amy Buffenbarger U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan called for bold and aggressive reforms when he announced the final requirements for the $3.5 billion Title I School Improvement Grants (SIG) program last December. But as the school year approaches, many lower-performing schools still don’t know whether they will receive grants to fund their planned reforms. [...]

Closing the Gender Gap

By Tim Walker On June 23, 1972, 38 years ago today, the landmark Title IX law was signed into law. An amendment to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX was designed to reverse decades of discrimination in education by requiring gender equity for boys and girls in every educational program that receives federal [...]

The Power to Transform Schools

by Mary Ellen Flannery What happens when you give educators power? What happens when you let them decide how to spend their school’s budget or schedule their students’ time? Good things, it turns out. “My kids love coming to school,” says Las Vegas fifth-grade teacher Nadia DeLeon. And not only that, but they’re reading, writing [...]

Florida Teacher’s Essay Becomes Rallying Cry for Respect

By Cynthia McCabe When people were attacking her and her fellow dedicated public school teachers, Florida fourth-grade teacher Jamee Miller got mad. And then she got to typing. The result? An essay called “I Am a Teacher” which caught fire in recent weeks on Facebook and blogs as supporters of teachers attacked by budget-slashing lawmakers and [...]

Race to the Top Wins Send Mixed Signals

By Cynthia McCabe March 31, 2010 — When the Obama Administration this week awarded $600 million in Race to the Top grants to Delaware and Tennessee it sent a strong signal about the power of collaboration with educators for school districts hoping to achieve real education reform. But even as the Administration was indicating it [...]

No Breakthroughs at Health Care Summit

By Tim Walker President Obama hosted a bipartisan health care summit today to loosen the logjam in Congress that has held up passage of comprehensive health care reform. For more than seven hours, the president, members of his cabinet, and about 40 members of the House and Senate sparred over costs containment, insurance reforms, deficit [...]