Browse our collection of education articles, audio reports, webcasts, blog posts, and video from around the Web. This blog is no longer being updated.
Education
Better Schools and Gardens Would Boost Learning
Schools feeling pressure from the No Child Left Behind Act to push students to absorb more reading and math skills should take a look at what their students are sitting on, says this article in Edutopia. Students would learn more in comfy chairs instead of hard seats and desks, the authors say. Schools should also think about indoor air quality, get rid of “horrible bells” and other noise pollution, create pleasing spaces for learning and install a school café conducive to absorbing all that knowledge floating around. Anyone seen a school like this?
Education
The Nation's Take on NCLB
The Nation offers a fascinating take on five years of No Child Left Behind and where to go from here (in the view of four veterans in the policy community). Linda Darling-Hammond writes in the magazine's May 21 issue that while NCLB provided some breakthroughs and "shines a spotlight on longstanding inequalities" in education, its implementation has undermined good intentions. It is time to reconsider the big picture, she says. "We badly need a national policy that enables schools to meet the intellectual demands of the twenty-first century," Darling-Hammond writes. "More fundamentally, we need to pay off the educational debt to disadvantaged students that has accrued over centuries of unequal access to quality education."
Education
At Long Last, the Prom
Norma and Norman Baker finally made it to the prom in Sutton, Mass.—62 years late. Baker and then-Norma Duhamel met and fell in love at Northbridge High School in the days when Franklin Roosevelt was president, but World War II—and Baker’s decision to drop out of school and join the Navy—thwarted their opportunity to go to the prom together. The Bakers, who married after Norman’s return from the war, jumped at the chance to attend a “prom” at the Sutton Senior Center on May 1, the Boston Globe reports. The Sutton High School jazz band entertained and the Sutton High School Honor Society provided the food. "It was just wonderful," Norma said.
Education
It's Hard Work That Counts, Teens Say
Their parents would be proud. The Mortarboard blog in the Guardian (England) reports on a survey in which teens "put hard work and reliability at the top of the list of skills they think they need to get them their dream job.” What’s more, only 15 percent of those surveyed called being creative an asset in vying for jobs, according to the survey commissioned by the United Kingdom’s National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts. In an ironic twist, however, NESTA says today’s employers are actually looking for creative, resourceful employees to advance innovation. Would the results be the same in the U.S.? It's interesting to consider.
Education
How Far Is Too Far?
Linda Thomas of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer blogs about how far parents—and some schools, seemingly—are willing to go to keep an eye on children. The story behind her post: the revelation that a high school official shared school surveillance videotape with the parents of a girl who’d asked the school to keep an eye on her behavior. The tape allegedly showed the girl kissing another girl, and the parents subsequently moved their daughter to another school. “I understand why parents of a Gig Harbor High School girl asked the school to examine surveillance tapes and help them spy on their daughter. What I don't get is why the school complied,” Thomas writes.
Education
Don't Watch That Screen
While many schools are going high-tech with several computers in a classroom, one substitute teacher is facing jail time because, she says, she isn’t plugged in to computer technology. On a PBS teachers’ blog, host Andy Carvin laments the plight of substitute teacher Julie Amero who is now facing decades in prison because she’s alleged to have allowed middle school students to look at pornography online in class. Ms. Amero says the school’s Internet filters weren’t working the day she was teaching a Connecticut English class, and pornography sites continued to pop up on the computer screen. Ms. Amero says she didn’t know how to get rid of them, but prosecutors say she allowed students to surf explicit sites on class time. Mr. Carvin is a big supporter of Ms. Amero, but for a more objective explanation of the case, read The New York Times’ take. The Norwich Bulletin has the latest on the legal twists and turns of the case.
Education
Same-Sex Couple Barred From Prom
The Boston Globe is reporting on a Massachusetts teen who has been barred from bringing a woman as her date to the prom at her Catholic high school. Officials at Bishop Feehan High School in Attleboro, Mass., say that same-sex couples are not allowed at the prom. Student Rosanne Strott says she’s being discriminated against because she is bisexual. George A. Milot, superintendent of schools in the Diocese of Fall River says that is not the case. "The school has the right to make rules in the best interests of the students. We teach tolerance towards people who may be gay. That is not the issue at all. That's the confusion. It's against gay sexual activity." Strott says she doesn't feel the school's decision is fair, but she plans on attending the prom anyway—by herself.
Education
'Sanitized' School Variety Show to Go On
After a barrage of criticism, the Deer Park, N.Y., school board has opted to allow the staging of a “new and sanitized” version of a controversial school variety show it initially cancelled, according to Newsday. The board has also reached an unspecified agreement with the teacher who was in charge of the show.
Education
School Absences Highlighted
The Indianapolis Star's editorial board has done a good job analyzing the problem of empty seats in classrooms, by taking a hard look at truancy in their area.
Education
School Lunch Needs a New Recipe
If you’ve been to any public school cafeteria lately, you’d know that despite the national discussion about childhood obesity, you’ll still find pepperoni pizza, chicken nuggets, hot dogs, tater tots and a host of unhealthy foods on the menu. Schools often complain that when they provide healthier foods students either don't want it on their lunch tray, or else they pick it up but don't actually eat it. The Washington Post reports on an interesting phenomenon that could up the amount of healthy food kids eat: ask them if they want it. This health column describes a new study that found if cafeteria staff asked students if they wanted fruit, for example, more students took them up on the offer and actually ate it. The column also looks at schools that have decided to offer healthier food, despite grumbling from students.
Education
Are Police in School a Good Idea?
One week after the Virginia Tech tragedy, school safety is the topic on everyone’s minds. But the Eagle-Tribune in North Andover, Mass., offers a different take on the issue in its story, “Wasted Resources? Some educators question whether police presence in schools can curb violence.” In the piece, staff writer Rebecca Correa examines whether students and faculty feel—and are—safer when police officers are in-house. A student tells Correa that there is a deterrent effect. “For kids that even think of doing anything, they know there’s a cop in the school,” he says. But Bill Preble, a professor of education at New England College, believes law enforcement is better suited to investigating school threats than reducing threats overall. “We’re always looking for quick fixes for complex problems and although it might be well-intended, (police presence) is something administrators can do to look good…It is not a serious response to the problem.”
Education
Spellings on Virginia Tech
Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings made an appearance on Meet the Press with Tim Russert over the weekend to talk about the shooting of 32 people at Virginia Tech and lessons that can be learned about school security issues and the diagnosis and treatment of students with mental illness. Ms. Spellings shied away from a suggestion by Mr. Russert that schools might want to look at national security standards for some type of warning system, saying that a “one size fits all approach” isn’t the way to go. She also said the Department of Education is preparing a report on how children are effected by violent television and the type of violent video games the Virginia Tech gunman apparently spent a lot of time playing. Ms. Spellings mentioned last year’s school safety summit, which was quickly called for by President Bush after a series of school shootings in the fall of 2006. Education Week sums up the recommendations that came out of the summit.
Education
Another School Tragedy
As the news about the devastating school shooting at Virginia Tech continues to trickle out, the tragedy not only evokes memories of past shootings, but also renews the debate among bloggers about how to keep both younger students and those in college safe. The Chronicle of Higher Education’s blog has all the latest news. Current Events in Education talks about the loss of innocence when it comes to the safety of schools and links to this timeline for school shootings around the world. Eponymous Educator uses the shootings as an opening to look at gun control.