Hot Topics – controversial

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.

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.

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.

by Claudio Sanchez”If a kid is in first period when they should still be asleep, how much are they really learning?”Anne Wheaton is an epidemiologist and the lead author of a new study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study surveyed the start times of 8000 middle and high schools across the country. Last year the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that middle and high schools start no earlier than 8:30 a.m. The goal is to accommodate the “natural sleep rhythms” of teenagers.Read and listen to the story at NPREd.

Photo Credit: Caleb Roenigkby Suzanne WrightMy mother, now in her 70s, has beautiful handwriting. As a young girl, I admired and emulated her expressive script, ultimately winning a couple of penmanship awards for my efforts. My mom was proud and so was I.But with cursive writing instruction in decline since the 1970s in many elementary schools, widespread pride in the almost artistic form of penmanship seems to be waning.Read the rest of the story at USA Today.

by Nicole Gorman, Education World ContributorA recent report looking at research into Head Start programs—or federally funded early education programs for low-income families—has revealed that research is not conclusive enough to determine the effectiveness despite 50 years of operation and 30 million children served, said The Hechinger Report. Read the rest of the story at Education World.

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)