In Japan visit, US First Lady Michelle Obama puts focus on empowering girls through education

EdCircuit Staff March 19, 2015

0 minutes read

By ELAINE KURTENBACH, Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — Education is the starting point for opportunity, U.S. first lady Michelle Obama said Thursday as she and her Japanese counterpart Akie Abe showcased efforts to help girls stay in or return to school.

“Like so many women I was able to achieve both my professional and personal goals because of my education,” Mrs. Obama said after Abe announced plans for Japan to support the “Let Girls Learn” project aimed at promoting education for girls in the developing world.

“My education is the starting point for every opportunity in my life,” Mrs. Obama said. “When we put limits on women’s lives we stifle their full potential.”

Read the entire story on US News.com.

March 19, 2015

How America’s Education Model Kills Creativity and Entrepreneurship

EdCircuit Staff March 19, 2015

1 minutes read

By Batten Institute University of Virginia Darden School of Business

T he current model of education in the United States is stifling the creative soul of our children. While this is troubling for a variety of reasons, it also has significant economic consequences for the future of our country. America has long been unique because of its remarkable ingenuity, innovative capacity and entrepreneurial spirit. Yet over the last few decades, we have witnessed both a steady decline in the number of startups, as well as an increasing number of studies that suggest America’s education model fails to promote the kind of creativity, risk-taking, and problem solving skills necessary for entrepreneurship, and for a world and labor market that is in the midst of profound transformation. These are very worrisome trends.

Read the Rest of the Article on Forbes Site..

March 19, 2015

Nancie Atwell of Maine wins $1 Million Global Teaching Prize

EdCircuit Staff March 18, 2015

1 minutes read

CANDICE NORWOOD

This weekend, Maine teacher Nancie Atwell was awarded the first Global Teacher Prize, a $1 million award intended to be the “Nobel Prize of teaching.”

Growing up, Atwell, 63, never expected to become a teacher, or even to go to college. But from the moment she began teaching in 1973, Atwell says she felt right at home.

“I am so inspired by all my students, but especially the seventh- and eighth-graders,” she says. “They are so uninhibited and if you ask them to do something they will just work their heads and hearts off.”

She founded the Center for Teaching & Learning as a demonstration school in 1990. The independent K-8 school based in Edgecomb, Maine, has gained recognition for its small class sizes, research-based curriculum and teacher training programs.

Read the rest of the story at NPREd

March 18, 2015

Closing Arguments Begin in Test Cheating Trial of 12 Atlanta Educators

EdCircuit Staff March 18, 2015

1 minutes read

ATLANTA — After more than five years of controversy and five months of testimony, a prosecutor used seven words on Monday to recap the accusations against the dozen Atlanta educators seated in a courtroom here.

“They cheated,” the prosecutor, John E. Floyd, told the jurors in Fulton County Superior Court. “They lied. And they stole.”

Mr. Floyd’s scornful summary came near the start of what will be days of closing arguments centered on whether significant increases in standardized test scores in Atlanta’s public schools came about because of endemic cheating and what prosecutors say was criminal misconduct that included racketeering. The trial, set up by a March 2013 indictment, as well as a state-commissioned report and a series of articles published by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, could lead to decades in prison for the defendants.

Read the rest of this story at The New York Times

March 18, 2015

Teacher stress levels in England ‘soaring’, data shows

EdCircuit Staff March 18, 2015

0 minutes read

By Matt Precey-

Stress levels among teachers in England’s classrooms are soaring, a BBC investigation has found.

Unions are blaming workload for large numbers of staff taking time off work or leaving the profession.

Insurance industry data suggests stress is the biggest cause of staff absence save for maternity.

The Department for Education insists it is working “to tackle the issue of unnecessary workload which we know can lead to stress”.

The BBC has also seen a survey of 3,500 members of the Nasuwt teaching union which shows more than two-thirds of respondents considered quitting the profession in the past year.

Read the rest of the story at BBC News

March 18, 2015

States Prepare Public for Common-Core Test Results

EdCircuit Staff March 18, 2015

0 minutes read

Outreach aims to temper any backlash over tests aligned with the common core

By Andrew Ujifusa

Even as states begin administering new tests aligned with the Common Core State Standards, they are ramping up efforts to eliminate or minimize public backlash when the scores—widely expected to be markedly lower than results from previous assessments—are released later this year.

From old-fashioned fliers designed to reach parents via students’ backpacks to webinars intended for administrators and teachers, states including Illinois and New Jersey are using a diverse set of resources and partnering with various groups to prepare school communities and the general public for what’s coming.

Read the rest of the story at Education Week

March 18, 2015

Latest Posts