When the the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965 was passed, until 1979 when it was amended, (creating the U.S. Department of Education)

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.

P ete Hall, ASCD Faculty member and author, talks about the role reflection plays in ones’ professional development and effectiveness in the classroom. Hall also reminisces about his path from educator to award winning administrator and the impact those experiences have had on his current efforts to support the field.Hall is the former principal of Shaw Middle School, a Title I school in Spokane (Washington) Public Schools. After a teaching career that spanned three states and included primary, intermediate, and middle school positions, Hall served as principal of Anderson Elementary School in Reno, Nevada.When he took over Anderson Elementary in 2002, it was one of the only schools in Nevada to have failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for four consecutive years. Two short years later, it was the only Title I school in the state of Nevada to earn a “high-achieving” designation.Hall teaches the capacity-building model of professional development. This emphasizes three things― identifying teachers’ strengths, maximizing their potential, and building their capacity―as a gateway to enhanced student achievement.Hall’s ASCD books, both co-authored with Alisa Simeral, are: Building Teachers’ Capacity for Success: A Collaborative Approach for Coaches and School Leaders (2008) and Teach, Reflect, Learn: Building Your Capacity for Success in the Classroom, released in April 2015.

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.