Education and Technology, News, Voices, and Resources

Photo Credit: dcJohnby Grace SmithThere will be no penalty for New York state school districts that had large numbers of students who refused to sit for the New York standardized tests this year.Education officials made the announcement to put to rest the uncertainty over how districts would respond to the anti-testing movement. Kate Taylor of The New York Times reports that state and federal officials had warned for months that districts that fell below the 95% participation rate might stand to lose federal funds. Leaders of the “opt-out movement” argued that these were nothing but empty threats.Read the rest of the story at Education News.

Photo Credit: U.S. Dept. of Agricultureby Amy SchimkeAs the second phase of Colorado’s “Breakfast After the Bell” law takes effect this fall, thousands more low-income students will have access to free breakfast served during school hours.It’s a development lauded by advocates who say the program improves attendance and achievement, but not always by administrators in the districts required to provide the universal free meals.Read the rest of the story at Chalkbeat Colorado.

Photo credit: Woodleywonderworksby Hallie JacksonLONDONDERRY, N.H. — Forget emails and immigration: the topic du jour for half-a-dozen Republican candidates Wednesday involved education.Topping the agenda at a policy forum in the key early-voting state of New Hampshire was Common Core, the school standards program that has become deeply unpopular among conservative voters in the Republican Party.Read the rest of the story at NBC News.

Photo Credit: U.S. Dept. of Agricultureby Ron NixonWASHINGTON — A majority of Americans support providing schoolchildren with healthy meals that consist of more fruits and vegetables and fewer foods high in calories and sodium, according to a national poll released on Tuesday by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. Read the rest of the story in The New York Times.

Photo credit: Timlewisnmby Leslie PostalThe study to determine whether Florida’s new standardized test is a valid one is due in Tallahassee on Sept. 1. The study of the Florida Standards Assessments is being run by two outside testing companies that have filed detailed reports on what they’ve done — but provided few clues on what, if anything, they’ve determined so far.Read the rest of the story at the SunSentinel.

On Sept. 15, 2005, two weeks after Katrina and the levee breaches, I drove with my parents into New Orleans. It was my 25th birthday.We used my press pass from The Village Voice to get past a military checkpoint so we could assess the damage to their home near Tulane University. It turned out to be minimal: a few slate tiles off the roof, tree limbs downed, a putrid refrigerator full of rotting food to drag to the curb.Read the rest of the story at NPR.org.

Photo credit: Woodleywonderworksby Ty TagamiThe vote is more than a year away, but debate over Gov. Nathan Deal’s proposed takeover of failing schools has moved from the Capitol into community centers and schools themselves.It pits Georgia’s cherished ideal of local control of schools and tax dollars against the urgency to improve education via an “Opportunity School District.”Read the rest of the story at AJC.com.

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.