Around the Web

By Antonio Gois
Tying teacher pay to student test scores. Creating public schools of choice with private operators. Setting common standards for all students. Those issues probably are familiar to any American reporter who covers education.

First Lady Michelle Obama upped the funk when she danced to Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk” and now she’s rapping her heart out to convince high school kids to “Go To College” in a  College Humor music video. Yes, you already read it right the first time: the First Lady of the United States (FLOTUS) showed off her rap skills in a music video.

The sweeping bipartisan education bill signed into law on Thursday contained a nugget of good news for the tech industry: Computer science has been recognized as important an academic subject as math and English, potentially introducing it into more classrooms across the U.S.

The Great Recession may be officially over, but state spending on K-12 education hasn’t recovered.

With a new federal law, the nation’s education landscape is getting an overhaul and advocates say they expect the changes are a step in the right direction for students with disabilities.

With his signature Thursday, President Barack Obama is setting the nation’s public schools on a sweeping new course of accountability that will change the way teachers are evaluated and how the poorest performing schools are pushed to improve.

Hear that collective whoop from the Capitol? That’s the sound of education advocates and lawmakers cheering at the finish line as the first rewrite of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in more than a dozen years sails through Congress and on to the White House. 

Barnes & Noble Education Inc. said its earnings fell 9.6% since bookseller Barnes & Noble Inc. spun off the college business in August.

Peripheral characters have a funny way of changing our perspective. Once bit players, they invert our understanding of the plot, turn heroes into villains and reframe the issues. Looking at challenge — or stories — from the outside-in brings minor events to the forefront of the narrative to help us figure out what really happened — and why.