Study Shows Students Taking Online Courses More Likely to Fail

By Mary Ellen Flannery Maybe online education isn’t the magic pill for cash-strapped school districts and colleges. In a newly released study of 51,000 Washington State community college students, Columbia University researchers found that students who took online courses were more likely to fail or drop out of the course than students who took the [...]

Laptops Are Not Teachers

By Tim Walker The third bill of Idaho schools Superintendent Tom Luna’s education reform plan is headed for final passage. The bill allocates new spending on laptop computers for high school students across the state. New technology in the classroom – what could be wrong with that? In Idaho’s case, almost everything. Luna’s plan isn’t [...]

A Wave of Teacher Retirements on the Horizon

By Mary Ellen Flannery In Wisconsin, the number of state employees who have applied to retire this year is already 73 percent over last year – and public schools are bracing for a full-on stampede before contracts end in June. Educators simply can’t afford to stay on. With Gov. Scott Walker’s success in gutting collective [...]

“America Cannot Have a Middle Class Without Unions”

By Dennis Van Roekel National Education Association President True fiscal leadership requires creative solutions grounded in the most important needs of the community. So faced with crippling budget deficits, fiscally responsible governors should focus on reforms that create jobs and a long-term agenda for moving their states forward. All of this sounds plausible enough. But [...]

Idaho Educators and Parents Help Put the Brakes on the Luna Plan

by Tim Walker When Idaho School State Superintendent Tom Luna unveiled his education proposals last month, educators and parents sprang into action to oppose what was clearly one of the most destructive and ill-conceived “reform” packages in the country.  Thanks to a relentless grassroots effort, the Senate Education Committee agreed last Thursday to send the [...]