Around the Web

Photo credit: David Hawgoodby Dr. Francis CollinsWhen children enter the first grade, their brains are primed for learning experiences, significantly more so, in fact, than adult brains. For instance, scientists have documented that musical training during grade school produces a signature set of benefits for the brain and for behavior—benefits that can last a lifetime, whether or not people continue to play music.Now, researchers at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, have some good news for teenagers who missed out on learning to play musical instruments as young kids. Even when musical training isn’t started until high school, it produces meaningful changes in how the brain processes sound. And those changes have positive benefits not only for a teen’s musical abilities, but also for skills related to reading and writing.Read the rest of the story on the National Institutes of Health Director’s Blog.

by Kate TaylorFormer Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has been out of office for a year and a half, but his influence over New York schools is practically as strong as ever.Read the rest of the story at The New York Times. 

Photo Credit: S B F Ryanby Tara E. BuckSouthern New Hampshire University president argues true disruption comes in the form of online, competency-based providers who deftly meet modern students’ — and industry’s — needs.Read the rest of the story on EdTech.

Photo Credit: Medill DCby Nick AndersonEducation Secretary Arne Duncan delivered this week a dual message on accountability in higher education. He said the Obama administration aims to crack down on schools that fail to deliver what they promise to students, but he lamented that politics and bureaucracy in the system of oversight often stymies efforts to get tough on dismal school performance.Read the rest of the story at The Washington Post.

by Branwen Jeffreys, Education EditorIn Gothenburg’s main square I watch as a crowd of rowdy, happy teenagers pile out of the back of a flatbed truck and set off coloured smoke bombs.All dressed up with jaunty caps, and prom dresses they are celebrating the end of their school days with a parade.But they are part of a generation which many now fear has been let down by the education system in Sweden.Read the rest of the story at BBC News.

Photo Credit: TaxCredits.netby Karin Price Mueller/Credit.com Both options have serious downsides, but there’s a third option.Read the rest of the story at Money.  

Both houses of Congress have now passed versions of the bill that would update the largest federal education law, known as No Child Left Behind, for the first time since 2001. They are big, meaty and complicated, and now they have to be reconciled into one messy Dagwood sandwich of a bill to go to the president. Read the rest of the story on NPREd.

Photo credit: Agência Brasilby Julie RuvoloBrazilian startup Descomplica (“Uncomplicate”) has raised an $8 million Series B to build an education entertainment company that the company hopes could actually change the future of education in Brazil. Read the rest of the story at Tech Crunch.

by Nicholas FandosARLINGTON, Va. — This is not your typical summer sleepaway camp.Bonfires and archery? Try Insecure Direct Object References and A1-Injections.The dozen or so teenagers staring at computers in a Marymount University classroom here on a recent day were learning — thanks to a new National Security Agency cybersecurity program that reaches down into the ranks of American high school and middle school students — the entry-level art of cracking encrypted passwords.Read the rest of the story at The New York Times.