Photo credit: Timlewisnmby Leslie PostalThe study to determine whether Florida’s new standardized test is a valid one is due in Tallahassee on Sept. 1. The study of the Florida Standards Assessments is being run by two outside testing companies that have filed detailed reports on what they’ve done — but provided few clues on what, if anything, they’ve determined so far.Read the rest of the story at the SunSentinel.

On Sept. 15, 2005, two weeks after Katrina and the levee breaches, I drove with my parents into New Orleans. It was my 25th birthday.We used my press pass from The Village Voice to get past a military checkpoint so we could assess the damage to their home near Tulane University. It turned out to be minimal: a few slate tiles off the roof, tree limbs downed, a putrid refrigerator full of rotting food to drag to the curb.Read the rest of the story at NPR.org.

Photo credit: Woodleywonderworksby Ty TagamiThe vote is more than a year away, but debate over Gov. Nathan Deal’s proposed takeover of failing schools has moved from the Capitol into community centers and schools themselves.It pits Georgia’s cherished ideal of local control of schools and tax dollars against the urgency to improve education via an “Opportunity School District.”Read the rest of the story at AJC.com.

Photo credit: Mosborne01by Annette BreauxMaster teachers—those who have figured out how to get students to do and be their best, how to simplify the complex, how to look forward to their jobs each day, and how to create lasting memories in the hearts and minds of students—once struggled as new teachers, too. The following 10 practices not only helped master teachers over the initial hump of inexperience but also sustained their ongoing success.Read the rest of the story from ASCD.

Photo credit: KitAyby Paul FainWASHINGTON — The Association of American Colleges and Universities has worked to make its voice heard in discussions about competency-based education, MOOCs and other trendy alternatives to traditional higher education.Read the rest of the story at Inside Higher Ed.

Discover four essential financial tips for high school seniors to plan for college, avoid debt, maximize scholarships, and make smart education choices.

Photo courtesy: Department for Business, Innovation and Skills Every school in England should become an academy, PM David Cameron has said, as he set out his “vision for our schooling system”.Read the rest of the story at BBC.com.

Photo Credit: Edgar Zuniga Jr.by Larry Dignan for Between the LinesNews Corp. is putting its Amplify electronic learning platform and curriculum up for sale because the new school year selling season flopped and the rush to digital tools never materialized.Was the demise due to educational institutions’ reluctance to change or fatal flaws with Amplify?Read the rest of the story at ZDNet.

Photo credit: John Morganby Megan McArdleIf you’ve reached that crotchety age I’m at, you may be as mystified as I am by the kids these days — especially by how they’re behaving on campus. I get the naive leftist politics and the wildly irresponsible partying; those things have been staples of student life for hundreds of years. I even understand the drive toward hamfisted censorship of views they don’t like. After all, I did my coming-of-age at the University of Pennsylvania during the “spring from hell,” when copies of the campus newspaper were stolen to protest perceived bias against minorities, and Eden Jacobowitz was famously brought up on racial harassment charges for screaming “shut up, you water buffalo” out the window at a black sorority that was conducting a rather lively promenade down the walk below his dorm window.Read the rest of the story at BloombergView.

by Howard Pitler, Ed.D.”The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.” — Anatole France, French novelist, 1844-1924There is much discussion in education these days about teaching curiosity. From my observation as a teacher, administrator, and most importantly, a grandfather, I think we are looking at curiosity through the wrong lens. The question to me isn’t “How can we teach curiosity?” but rather, “What can we do in schools to stop killing curiosity?”This realization came to me recently while watching my two grandsons, ages 2 and 4. I bought a toy for the 4-year-old that was labeled for ages 5 and up. It was a small foam rocket that was to be put on a launcher tube and then launched by air pressure created by squeezing a bulb. The 4-year-old took the toy and experimented with different …

Photo credit: Dan Spencerby Pragati VermaTechnology is reshaping how we teach, connecting classrooms and shaking up the fundamental business model of the education industry.The disruptive potential is evident in the flow of capital investment. Venture funding to education tech companies jumped 55 percent last year to $1.87 billion, with several firms closing in on $1 billion valuations, according to venture capital research firm CB Insights.Read the rest of the story at Forbes.

Explore the politics of ESEA and Title I with expert insights on federal education policy, program evaluation, and the impact on K-12 schools.

by Motoko RichROHNERT PARK, Calif. — In a stark about-face from just a few years ago, school districts have gone from handing out pink slips to scrambling to hire teachers.Read the rest of the story at The New York Times.

Photo Credit: Theresa Thompsonby Gerard RobinsonHere’s what education activist Campbell Brown should ask the 2016 GOP hopefuls.Read the rest of the story at U.S. News and World Report.

It’s not often that one comes across two articles in the same day that put the reader into a surreal mindset. But today I am stuck in that literary “Twilight Zone.”The first story appeared August 7 in The Onion, the widely-read satirical “news source.” It’s titled, “New Statewide Education Standards Require Teachers To Forever Change Lives Of 30% Of Students.”