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9 April 2015 – Just one third of countries have achieved all the measurable education goals set in 2000 and only half of all countries have achieved universal primary enrolment, the United Nations agency mandated with promoting learning spotlighted today, urging countries to bridge the $22 billion annual finance gap needed to achieve quality basic education for all by 2030.“The world has made tremendous progress towards ‘Education for All’…however the agenda is far from finished,” said Irina Bokova, Director-General at the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), on the heels of the key findings produced in the 2015 EFA Global Monitoring Report (GMR) .Education for All 2000-2015: Achievements and Challenges, produced by UNESCO tracks the progress of a set of six goals ranging from improving quality of education to ensuring equal access to learning. Released today, the report found that 47 per cent of countries reached the goal of early childhood education, and another eight per cent were close. Twenty per cent were very far from the goal. Yet, in 2012, nearly two-thirds more children were enrolled in early childhood education than in 1999. Read the rest of the story at UN News Centre.

by Nick Valencia

Elementary schools would be allowed to eject students only if they do serious harm or are a threat to safety

// Mark Cuban talks with Bloomberg’s Cory Johnson about the education market while at the ASU GSV Education Summit in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Kaplan Test Prep survey highlights pressure on officers to admit certain students By Tara García Mathewson | April 6, 2015 Sometimes, it’s who you know. Kaplan Test Prep recently surveyed …

by Daniel Goleman

by Yasmeen KhanNext week, students across New York will take the standardized tests in English, followed a week later by the tests in math. The exams are difficult for most children, with results showing that the large majority of students are not meeting grade-level standards. The numbers are worse for students with disabilities. Statewide, just a tiny fraction of students passed the tests: about 5 percent received high enough scores to be considered on grade level in English; about 9 percent did in math.Many educators and disability rights advocates have said that the standardized tests offer frustration and stress, rather than opportunity, for special needs students. In fact, they may do a better job testing students’ disabilities than abilities, said Richard Lavoie, a special educator based in Boston.Read the rest of the story at WNYC.org.

By ELIZABETH A. HARRIS APRIL 2, 2015The New York City Department of Consumer Affairs has begun an investigation into four for-profit colleges over concerns about students’ dropout and loan-default rates, and the ways in which students are recruited in the first place.For-profit colleges have been under increased scrutiny at all levels of government in recent years, amid growing concern that many of their students are left shouldering unwieldy debt but unable to find good jobs, and that tax payers are being debited in the process.“What we are concerned about,” said Julie Menin, the commissioner of consumer affairs, speaking about problems within the industry at large, “is that predatory, for-profit colleges are taking advantage of the ambition that so many New Yorkers with low incomes have for a better life, and cheating them out of their dreams and their money.”Read the rest of the story at The New York Times

I n a dramatic conclusion to what has been described as the largest cheating scandal in the nation’s history, a jury here on Wednesday convicted 11 educators for their roles in a standardized test cheating scandal that tarnished a major school district’s reputation and raised broader questions about the role of high-stakes testing in American schools.On their eighth day of deliberations, the jurors convicted 11 of the 12 defendants of racketeering, a felony that carries up to 20 years in prison. Many of the defendants — a mixture of Atlanta public school teachers, testing coordinators and administrators — were also convicted of other charges, such as making false statements, that could add years to their sentences.Judge Jerry W. Baxter of Fulton County Superior Court ordered most of the educators jailed immediately, and they were led from the courtroom in handcuffs. Judge Baxter, who presided over a trial that began with opening statements more than six months ago, will begin sentencing hearings next week. Read the rest of the story in The New York Times