education

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Look Out Teachers' Unions, Here Come Parents' Unions

California group trying to force school to become charter

(Newser) - Two dispatches from the education front, both speaking to underperforming students and angry parents:
  • In Compton, California: Parents are trying to take advantage of a new state law to force their chronically awful school to be taken over by a charter operation. Advocates easily got the necessary 51% support of
...

In Standardized Tests, Shanghai Kids Kick World's Butt

Shanghai ranks at the top in all three areas

(Newser) - China is emerging as a world powerhouse, and that extends into the classroom. Shanghai teenagers outscored their peers around the world on the latest Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey, and Hong Kong also ranked high in all three areas: second in math and science, fourth in reading. This...

Textbook Says Thousands of Slaves Fought for South

Author Joy Masoff read about it on the Internet

(Newser) - A Virginia 4th-grade textbook has come under fire for claiming that thousands of slaves fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War—something an overwhelming majority of historians say isn’t true. The book’s author, Joy Masoff, isn’t a trained historian, and says she did most of her...

Tea Partier: Get Rid of Public Schools

David Harmer says public schools are "socialism in education."

(Newser) - The Tea Party-backed frontrunner in a California congressional race has some unorthodox views on education: he wants to abolish public schools entirely, Mother Jones reports. In past articles, Republican David Harmer—currently leading in California's 11th Congressional District—writes that "government should exit the business of running and funding...

Send Books, Not Guns to Afghanistan
Send Books, Not Guns
to Afghanistan
Nicholas Kristof
Oct 14, 2010 10:11 AM CDT

Send Books, Not Guns to Afghanistan

Oman proves the value of education

(Newser) - Forty years ago, Oman was a hidebound society, similar to neighboring Yemen. There was no modern technology, no paved roads, and most of the people were illiterate. It had just three schools, all boys-only affairs. But today, Yemen is a haven for terrorists, but Oman isn’t. Why? Because in...

1 in 5 Kids Thinks Buzz Lightyear Was First Man on Moon
Buzz Lightyear Was 1st Man on Moon: 20% of Brit Kids
more staggering studies
Oct 8, 2010 4:28 AM CDT

Buzz Lightyear Was 1st Man on Moon: 20% of Brit Kids

Survey finds kids in UK know more about celebrities than history

(Newser) - Another day, another staggering study on British knowledge, this one focused on the wee ones. A fifth of children ages 6 to 12 believe the first person to walk on the moon was actually Toy Story spaceman Buzz Lightyear, not Neil Armstrong, according to a survey of thousands of schoolchildren....

Obama: School Year Should Be Longer

President also defends economic record, says Rahm better hurry up

(Newser) - Barack Obama just lost some votes in the K-12 demographic. The president advocated expanding the school year by a month this morning, in a major interview with the Today Show . “That month makes a difference,” he told Matt Lauer. “Now, that’s going to cost some money...

Teacher Bonuses Don't Help Test Scores

Vanderbilt study says pay raises have little effect

(Newser) - The way to increase test scores is not to give bonuses to teachers, say researchers at Vanderbilt University. A three-year study found that offers of bonuses as high as $15,000 did little to change results. The report leaves open the question of what will increase test scores, but it...

Oprah Donates $1M to Schools
 Oprah Donates $1M to Schools 
Sep 21, 2010 9:41 AM CDT

Oprah Donates $1M to Schools

Talk show queen is going out with a bang on show's last year

(Newser) - Will Oprah Winfrey ’s good deeds never cease? The talk show queen donated $1 million to a California nonprofit that runs 30 charter schools in the state, the AP reports. Winfrey’s Angel Foundation donated the money to Aspire Public Schools during her show yesterday, which was devoted to...

Middle School Mosque Field Trip Sparks Outrage

Video shows kids participating in prayers

(Newser) - A Massachusetts school district apologized today, after a video surfaced showing students praying during a class field trip to the Islamic Society of Community Center. The video was shot in May by a parent chaperoning the trip, and then handed over to a group that has long been critical of...

For First Time, Women Earn More PhDs Than Men

Men now get fewer degrees of any kind

(Newser) - Women earned more doctoral degrees than men in the 2008-2009 academic year for the first time in US history, the Washington Post reports. The PhD is the final degree to be affected by the groundswell of women in higher education—they already outnumbered men on undergraduate and master's degrees. As...

Teacher Cuts 'Gay' From 'Kookaburra' Song

Uproar ensues after line changed to 'fun your life must be'

(Newser) - The Aussies are in an uproar over a teacher's decision to remove the word "gay" from the classic campfire song, "Kookaburra." The first verse ends with the line "gay your life must be!" Headmaster Garry Martin changed the line to "how fun your life...

Let's Scrap Final Exams

 Let's Scrap 
 Final Exams 
opinion
Aug 28, 2010 4:52 PM CDT

Let's Scrap Final Exams

Harvard is right: They don't help students learn

(Newser) - Harvard made exactly the right move when it declared it would no longer require final exams, writes Jonathan Zimmerman. Critics immediately pounced, calling it yet another example of coddled students and weakened standards. (One example here .) Nope, writes NYU history professor Zimmerman in the Christian Science Monitor . That's an...

NJ Fails Math, Loses Millions in School Funding

Christie office commits costly error on 'Race to the Top' application

(Newser) - New Jersey lost out on hundreds of millions of dollars in federal education funding because of a simple mistake in its application, the Newark Star-Ledger reports. A staffer in Gov. Chris Christie's office filled out a field for budget data that called for a comparison of the 2008 and 2009...

Cash-Strapped LA Builds $578M School

And it's the district's third 'Taj Mahal'

(Newser) - The Los Angeles Unified School District is facing a $640 million budget shortfall, but you’d never know it by looking at its newest school. The Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools complex will be the nation’s most expensive public school when it opens next month, clocking in at $578...

Schools Not Using Stimulus to Hire Teachers

They're saving it for an imminent rainy day

(Newser) - The federal government gave schools around the country $10 billion to bolster their budgets this spring, in the hope that it would allow them to avoid layoffs or hire new teachers. But many of the nation’s biggest districts aren’t doing that, the New York Times reports. Instead, they’...

What Happened to 'E' Grade?
 What Happened to 'E' Grade? 
Aug 14, 2010 2:29 PM CDT

What Happened to 'E' Grade?

We used it once—and not for 'excellent'

(Newser) - You can get an A, B, C, D, or F in a class—whatever happened to E? It was used at one point, writes Brian Palmer in Slate’s Explainer column . At Mount Holyoke College, which boasts the earliest record of letter grades, it was given for scores of 74...

New Site Lets Students Bet on Their Grades

And yes, they can bet they will flunk—with 'grade insurance'

(Newser) - A new website is taking wagers from American college students who want to bet on their own grades. Just as Las Vegas sports books set odds on sporting events, Ultrinsic will pay top dollar for A's, a little less for the more likely outcome of a B average or better,...

7 Reasons Your Kids Should Skip College

It's a four year—or more—waste of time, author says

(Newser) - College is a must if you want to have a real career, right? Nope, it’s “a scam, a self-perpetuating Ponzi scheme that needs to stop right now,” writes James Altucher for DailyFinance.com . Here are his seven reasons you shouldn’t send your kids:
  • It’ll cost
...

We're Turning Into a Nation of Dunces
We're Turning Into a Nation
of Dunces
Bob Herbert
Aug 7, 2010 11:41 AM CDT

We're Turning Into a Nation of Dunces

We'd rather watch reality TV than think or get an education

(Newser) - Stats showing that the US has fallen to 12th among developing nations in the percentage of young people with college degrees has Bob Herbert very worried. It's yet another sign of how a nation that once led the way in education is now heading in exactly the opposite direction. Nobody...

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