Rebecca Winthrop from the Brookings Institution notes that the differences between the developed and developing worlds in education remain stark.

N ationally, eighth graders’ average scores on the NAEP U.S. history, geography, and civics assessments showed no significant change in 2014, compared to 2010—the last assessment year. However, several student groups have made gains. In 2014, eighteen percent of eighth-graders performed at or above the Proficient level in U.S. history, 27 percent performed at or above the Proficient level in geography, and 23 percent performed at or above the Proficient level in civics. Students performing at or above the Proficient level on NAEP assessments demonstrate solid academic performance and competency over challenging subject matter. See the results at The Nation’s Report Card.

David Greene shares that former NY Governor Cuomo’s education policies fly in the face of what experts cite as elements for successful schools.

by Katrina Schwartz S andwiched between preschool and first grade, kindergarteners often start school at very different stages of development depending on their exposure to preschool, home environments and biology. For states adopting Common Core, the standards apply to kindergarten, laying out what students should be able to do by the end of the grade.* Kindergartners are expected to know basic phonics and word recognition as well as read beginner texts, skills some childhood development experts argue are developmentally inappropriate.“There’s a wide age range for learning to read,” said Nancy Carlsson-Paige on KQED’s Forum program. Carlsson-Paige is professor emerita of education at Lesley University and co-author of the study “Reading Instruction in Kindergarten: Little to Gain and Much to Lose,” which criticizes the Common Core standards for kindergarten.Read the rest of the story at KQED News.

by Elissa Nadworny

by Harvey Rice O ne college professor found his students so hopeless that he flunked them all and quit the course. In an email to his management class at Texas A&M Galveston, professor Irwin Horwitz came down hard.”I am frankly and completely disgusted. You all lack the honor and maturity to live up to the standards that Texas A&M holds, and the competence and/or desire to do the quality work necessary to pass the course just on a grade level,” he wrote, according to Inside Higher Ed. “I will no longer be teaching the course, and [you] all are being awarded a failing grade.”RELATED: Meanest things said about Houston college teachersIn the message, Horwitz said students had cheated, told him to “chill out,” called him a “[expletive] moron” and spread false rumors about him online. He told KPRC news he even felt unsafe in the classroom at times, and had never thought so low of a class in his 20 years as a college professor.Read the rest of the story on Chron.com.