by Maggie Haberman

The last time she ran for president, Hillary Rodham Clinton did not have to take a position on the Common Core, Race to the Top or teacher evaluations in tenure decisions.

She won the endorsement of one of the nation’s largest teachers’ unions in 2007 after deploring the use of standardized tests and the underfunding of the No Child Left Behind law by President George W. Bush’s administration.

Now, as she prepares for a likely second run at the White House, Mrs. Clinton — who largely avoided domestic policy when she was secretary of state — is re-entering the fray like a Rip Van Winkle for whom the terrain on education standards has shifted markedly, with deep new fissures in the Democratic Party.

 

Read the rest of the article on the New York Times website.

Written by Seb Murray | MBA Distance Learning | 

In an office complex in California’s Mountain View on the fringes of Silicon Valley is Coursera — a $300 million+ start-up trying to bring about a new age in education.

The university as we know it is ripe for innovation by the disruptive use of new technologies. Online learning groups like edX and Udacity emerged as providers of free education to the masses but have evolved into colossal entities that are on the cusp of rivalling the traditional degree and providing the same boost to careers.

As they scramble to understand emerging threats, universities and business schools are being forced to evolve their content to be delivered in blended forms – accessible from both classrooms and smart devices. Wharton, Stanford and INSEAD have all invested heavily digital tech.

Read the rest of the story at BusinessBecause

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By: Matt Zalaznick District Administration, March 2015

N inth graders in North Carolina take all their classes on the campus of a major state university. Early-college high school students in Connecticut can gain an inside track to one of the world’s largest tech companies. Online and blended learners in Michigan can spend a fifth year in high school and graduate with an associate’s degree.

Aside from providing a money-saving jump-start on college, the rapid spread of early-college high school programs is spurring closer collaboration between K12 and higher ed around preparing students for the rigors of college life and coursework.

“This definitely provides a really good opportunity for K12 and college partners to be more explicit about their shared expectations for students,” says Joel Vargas, vice president of Jobs for the Future, a nonprofit that, among other initiatives, helps districts design early-college programs. “They have figured out a way to share responsibility for providing students an opportunity to move seamlessly into and through secondary education.”

Read the rest of the story at District Administration

ASCD 2015 has wrapped in Houston. Check out highlights and prepare for next year in Atlanta, Georgia!

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE 

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is highlighting private-sector efforts to encourage more students from underrepresented groups to pursue education in science, technology, engineering and math.

At the White House Science Fair on Monday, Obama will announce more than $240 million in pledges to boost the study of those fields, known as STEM. This year’s fair is focused on diversity.

Obama will say the new commitments have brought total financial and material support for these programs to $1 billion.

 

Read the rest of the story at U-T San Diego

ASCD wraps in Houston. Check out Monday’s action!