NSTA - Education News

Changes Urged in Rules for Federal Innovation Aid
Nov 20 2009 - Education Week
As the U.S. Department of Education prepares final rules for the $650 million Investing in Innovation Fund, officials face strong concerns from school districts and philanthropies that requiring matching funds from the private sector is unworkable and would turn foundations into the gatekeepers for these federal grants.

Congratulations!
Nov 20 2009 - Jamaica Plain Gazette
Nicole Yana Davis won a fellowship through the National Science Teachers Association's New Science Teacher Academy.

Governor Opposes Delay in WASL Math and Science Testing
Nov 20 2009 - The Olympian
Gov. Chris Gregoire said Thursday she opposes state schools chief Randy Dorn's proposal to delay the requirement for students to pass math and science tests to graduate, because the state's economy depends on Washington students leaving high school well trained in both subjects.

Gates Foundation Gives $335M for Teacher Quality
Nov 20 2009 - The Boston Globe
Three school districts and a coalition of charter schools have agreed to be test kitchens for some radical ideas for improving teacher quality—from paying new teachers to spend another year practicing before getting their own class to letting student test scores affect teacher pay. In exchange, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is handing them the biggest pile of cash it has spent on education reform in about a decade.

Four Teachers Named U.S. Professors of the Year
Nov 19 2009 - USA Today
Teaching is more than lecturing: It is helping students experience their education, say the four 2009 U.S. Professors of the Year, who are being recognized today by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Innovative Countries, Energized Campuses
Nov 19 2009 - The New York Times (requires free registration)
A new report on Innovation for Development out of the European Business School ranks countries' ability to propel innovation in ways that advance societies. (The U.S. comes in third, behind Sweden and Finland.)

Scholars: Parent-School Ties Should Shift in Teen Years
Nov 19 2009 - Education Week (requires registration)
Adolescents' needs have been overlooked by researchers and policymakers intent on boosting parental engagement, a new book concludes.

CoSN Seeks More ICT Lessons from Abroad
Nov 18 2009 - eSchool News
To learn from colleagues abroad, a delegation of U.S. education technology leaders from the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) visited Scotland and the Netherlands last week to learn more about the world's first national intranet for education, international approaches to online safety, and more.

New Website Highlights Research Supported by Stimulus Legislation
Nov 18 2009 - The Chronicle of Higher Education
Top public and private universities teamed up with members of Congress to launch a new website and related efforts to highlight the role of the multibillion-dollar economic-stimulus legislation in fostering research both on and off campus.

Exercise Balls Get Education Rolling
Nov 18 2009 - The Los Angeles Times
Classrooms that have replaced chairs with balls and ball chairs see better results. The devices sharpen students' attention and improve posture, teachers say.

Stakeholders Advise on National Ed-Tech Plan
Nov 17 2009 - eSchool News
Train every pre-service teacher to teach online in teacher-education programs at colleges and universities; invest in the development of open courseware with federal and state funding; encourage the use of technology to create new forms of assessment that better measure student learning gains; provide national standards for school IT support: These are some of the many recommendations the U.S. Department of Education has received so far as officials prepare a new National Education Technology Plan.

Selling Lessons Online Raises Cash and Questions
Nov 16 2009 - The New York Times (requires free registration)
Thousands of teachers are selling lesson plans online. While some of the money is going toward classroom supplies, some teachers are spending it on themselves, leading school officials to question who owns material developed for public school classrooms.

Funding for Common Assessments Poses Challenge
Nov 16 2009 - Education Week
The U.S. Department of Education faces challenges in spending $350 million in economic-stimulus money to aid consortia of states in developing common assessments in reading and mathematics.

How to Fix the STEM Education 'Crisis'
Nov 13 2009 - eSchool News
According to experts ranging from White House advisors to leading education organizations, the state of math and science instruction in the United States is in crisis—and only a major overhaul of the U.S. education system will get the nation back on track.

Rules Set for $4 Billion 'Race to Top' Contest
Nov 13 2009 - Education Week
For a good shot at the $4 billion in grants from the federal Race to the Top Fund, states will need to make a persuasive case for their education reform agenda, demonstrate significant buy-in from local school districts, and develop plans to evaluate teachers and principals based on student performance.

Canada Will Require Foreign Students to Submit Biometric Identification Data
Nov 13 2009 - The Chronicle of Higher Education
International students applying for study visas to Canada will be required to provide biometric identification details, such as fingerprints, within two years, according to a senior Canadian immigration official.

States Lag in Educational Innovation, Report Says
Nov 12 2009 - Education Week
A report card issued Monday on state-level innovation in education found what a trio of ideologically varied groups sees as deeply disturbing results, with most states earning C's, D's, or even F's in such key areas as technology, high school quality, and removal of ineffective teachers.

District Nixes Cash-for-Grades Fundraiser
Nov 12 2009 - The News & Observer
Selling candy didn't raise much money last year, so a Goldsboro middle school tried selling grades. However, the fundraiser came to an abrupt halt after a story in The News & Observer raised concerns about the practice of selling grades.

Club Aims to Build Girls into Engineers
Nov 12 2009 - The Washington Post (requires free registration)
Last week, Karin Hill, the director of education and public programs for the National Museum of the United States Navy in the District, visited Calvert Middle School in Prince Frederick. Her mission: to teach the members of the school's all-girls engineering club how to make a barometer out of a soup can, a balloon, a sewing needle, and a straw.

Project Shows Kids Butterflies Growing in Space
Nov 12 2009 - MSNBC
Students nationwide are getting a chance to see how butterflies develop in space, compared to here on Earth.

States Lag on School Innovation
Nov 10 2009 - eSchool News
To reform the American education system, states and districts need more flexibility, better accountability, more capacity, and a stronger reform environment, according to a report card released by a coalition of concerned organizations.

Ford Foundation Gives $100 Million to Reform Urban High Schools
Nov 10 2009 - Los Angeles Times
The New York-based organization pledges the funds to seven cities, including Los Angeles, to research and improve teacher quality, student assessment, and school funding, among other things.

Ford Foundation Gives $100 Million to Reform Urban High Schools
Nov 10 2009 - Los Angeles Times
The New York-based organization pledges the funds to seven cities, including Los Angeles, to research and improve teacher quality, student assessment, and school funding, among other things.

More Oregon Students Are Getting Math
Nov 10 2009 - The Oregonian
Oregon math teachers have moved middle schoolers far enough ahead in math that the typical eighth-grader now can do math at nearly the same level as many high school sophomores. Middle school students in every racial, ethnic, and income group show greater mastery of mathematics.

V-Frog Gets Jump on Digital Dissection
Nov 9 2009 - The Buffalo News
One of the country's most vocal animal rights groups is spreading the word about a virtual dissection program developed and sold by a University at Buffalo high-tech spin-off company.

Teachers Help Youths Speak Science
Nov 9 2009 - The Tampa Tribune
Science teacher Kathryn Bylsma noticed something during the years as she tried to engage her middle school students in their lessons. Forget grasping the scientific concepts. Students often struggled just to get past the science vocabulary.

Tweeting in Class
Nov 6 2009 - Inside Higher Ed
Do Twitter skeptics really believe the popular microblogging service offers no educational value, or are they just afraid of it?

Seven Cities Launch Collaborative Efforts to Improve
Nov 6 2009 - EducationNews.org
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has announced $4 million in grants to the National League of Cities’ Institute for Youth, Education, and Families, and seven cities to boost college graduation rates by better coordinating the services that colleges, schools, and communities provide to students.

Minority Students Earned Greater Number of Academic Degrees in Fiscal Year 2006
Nov 6 2009 - National Science Foundation
A new National Science Foundation report shows an increase in the number of academic degrees awarded to minority students since 2004, the last time such data were published.

Guest Column: DeadWeight an Example of Innovative Education
Nov 5 2009 - West Branch Times Online
During the same week the 2009 Nobel Prizes in science were announced, three Iowa 13-year-olds met with the Obama administration's top education and science officials to receive recognition for their own extraordinary scientific achievement.

Election Offers Varied Impact for Education
Nov 5 2009 - Education Week (requires registration)
The results from Tuesday's state and local elections around the country offer some potentially significant implications for K-12 education, as voters sent two big-city mayors with authority over their school systems back for another term and replaced Democrats with Republicans in two governors' mansions.

Why Johnny Can't Hypothesize: A Discussion about Math and Science Education
Nov 5 2009 - Scientific American
A panel of experts, moderated by The Wall Street Journal's managing editor gathered recently to discuss some of the challenges behind improving K-12 math and science education across the country.

At Top Schools, More Than Half the Profs Have Industry Ties
Nov 4 2009 - The Wall Street Journal
A survey conducted in 2006-07 and published this week in the journal Health Affairs found that 53% of academic research faculty in the life sciences at top schools reported financial ties to industry.

Race to the Top Education Grant Propels Reforms
Nov 4 2009 - USA Today
It's relatively small by Washington standards, but the Obama administration's $4.35 billion carrot for schools is already leading states to adopt a handful of key reforms.

Advanced Math, Science Mandatory
Nov 4 2009 - ArgusLeader.com
Despite criticism that they are setting the bar too high, the South Dakota Board of Education passed a new set of high school graduation rules Monday that make upper- level math and science classes mandatory.

Former Apple Executive to Lead U.S. Ed-Tech Office
Nov 4 2009 - Education Week (requires registration)
After months of anticipation about who would head educational technology initiatives at the U.S. Department of Education , ed-tech advocates praised the appointment of Karen Cator, saying the former educator and Apple executive brings to the job a passion for the potential of technology to improve teaching and learning.

ARL Student Receives National Honor
Nov 3 2009 - Aggie Town Square
USU graduate student Mark Towner, a science teacher at Granite Park Middle School in Salt Lake City, was chosen from hundreds of applications nationwide to participate as an Amgen-National Science Teachers Association Fellow in the 2009 NSTA New Science Teacher Academy.

Barberton Science Teacher Selected for Fellowship Program
Nov 3 2009 - The Suburbanite
Four out of the 185 science teachers chosen as Fellows in the 2009 NSTA New Science Teacher Academy are from Ohio.

First Lady Launches White House Mentoring Program
Nov 3 2009 - The Boston Globe
First lady Michelle Obama launched a mentoring rogram Monday to give local high school girls access to women at the White House.

The New Myths of Gifted Education
Nov 3 2009 - ScienceDaily
More than 25 years after myths about gifted education were first explored, they are all still with us and new ones have been added, according to new research.

TV Linked to More Child Aggression
Nov 3 2009 - WebMD
A new study shows that children who watch more television—and even those who are exposed to the television while other people in the home are watching—are more likely to be aggressive.

Socrates in the Boardroom
Nov 3 2009 - Inside Higher Ed
A new book says that research universities are best led by presidents who have had distinguished careers doing real research.

Which States Have the Highest Standards for Students?
Nov 2 2009 - The Christian Science Monitor
Each state comes up with its own standards for student achievement. A new study from the National Center on Education Statistics compares them. Here are the top and bottom five.

Parents: Focus More on 21st-Century Skills
Oct 30 2009 - eSchool News
Although parents, K-12 students, and educators agree that using technology is essential to learning and student success, parents are largely dissatisfied with the technology skills their children are learning in schools, according to a new analysis of survey data.

Many States Set Low Bar on Student Proficiency
Oct 30 2009 - The Boston Globe
Many states declare students to have grade-level mastery of reading and math when they do not, the Education Department reported yesterday.

Wash. Report: Health and Grades Related
Oct 29 2009 - The Seattle Times
A report based on data from a health survey of Washington state's young people has found a direct connection between healthy living and good grades.

After Complaints, Gates Foundation Opens Education Aid Offer to All States
Oct 29 2009 - The New York Times (requires free registration)
Some officials complained that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was trying to handpick the winners of the Department of Education's $4 billion grant competition, known as Race to the Top. After some reflection, the foundation last month broadened its offer to include all states that are competing for the money and can prove they share the foundation's views about education reform by signing an eight-point checklist.

STEM Defection Seen to Occur After High School
Oct 28 2009 - Education Week
Despite popular opinion, the flow of qualified math and science students through the American education pipeline is strong—except among high-achievers, who appear to be defecting to other college majors and fields.

Forensics Courses Becoming Classroom Fixture
Oct 28 2009 - Education Week (requires registration)
Over the past decade, forensic science has carved out a sizable niche in the science curriculum. Once found almost exclusively on college campuses, increasingly sophisticated forensics lessons—typically focused on crime-solving techniques—have become entrenched in many high schools and even some middle schools as electives or sections of core science classes.

Report Urges Colleges to Emphasize Math, Science, and International Studies
Oct 28 2009 - The Chronicle of Higher Education
Americans ages 25 to 34 are less educated, on average, than their parents' generation, and are less likely than their predecessors to earn degrees in science, technology, and mathematics, according to a new report by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.

Grand Ledger Teacher Honored
Oct 27 2009 - Lansing State Journal
Allison Webster, a second-year science teacher at Grand Ledge High School, was recently selected by the National Science Teachers Association as one of two Michigan science teachers chosen as Fellows in the 2009 NSTA New Science Teacher Academy.

Common-Standards Leaders, Experts Eye Adding Math, Science
Oct 27 2009 - Education Week (subscription required)
Leaders of an effort to establish common academic standards in math and language arts have held tentative discussions with advocates for science and social studies groups about expanding that work into those subjects.

PCAST Tackles Science Education
Oct 27 2009 - ScienceInsider
Does the United States need another high-powered panel recommending ways to improve how students learn science and math? The President's Council of Advisors for Science and Technology (PCAST) thinks the answer is yes.

Clean Tech: Schools Bet on the Next Big Thing
Oct 27 2009 - eSchool News
New programs aim to prepare students for an emerging field with the transformative potential of railroads, telephones, and the internet.

Duncan Scolds Hawaii on School Furloughs
Oct 27 2009 - The Wall Street Journal
Hawaii schools drew a stern rebuke from Washington on Friday, the first of 17 furlough days planned for the school year, amid concerns that billions of dollars in federal aid won't be enough to prevent further classroom cuts across the U.S.

Floating Science Teachers Inspire Students
Oct 26 2009 - AP Texas News
Northrop Grumman is just one among many companies—Exxon Mobile Corp., Honeywell International Inc., Merck & Co., and Lockheed Martin Corp. to name a few—and government entities, such as the Department of Energy, the National Institutes of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency, providing hands-on experiences for science teachers in elementary and secondary schools.

New Works of Science Nonfiction
Oct 26 2009 - The Washington Post (requires free registration)
Creating an original organism required no bolt of lightning for a team of University of Virginia students. But it did take buckets of ice, vials of bacteria, and a FedEx delivery.

Darwin Teaching 'Divides Opinion'
Oct 26 2009 - BBC News
More than half of adults in a survey of 10 countries thought school science lessons should teach evolutionary theories alongside creationism.

Science Students Do Better When Teachers Go Back to School
Oct 26 2009 - Voice of America News
New research indicates that high school science teachers who get actual, hands-on experience doing scientific research become better teachers as measured by their students' test results.

Courses Transform Students into CSIs
Oct 24 2009 - The Washington Post (requires free registration)
Forensics classes have flourished across the country in the past several years. Science educators praise the courses for drawing together strands of chemistry, biology, physics, and more, and they say that the lab work is a practical introduction to solving problems using scientific methods.

Duncan: 'Revolutionary Change' Needed in Teachers Colleges
Oct 23 2009 - USA Today
The Obama administration is calling for an overhaul of college programs that prepare teachers, saying they are cash cows that do a mediocre job of preparing teachers for the classroom.

Diagnosing ADHD: Teacher Input Overlooked?
Oct 23 2009 - Web MD
Pediatricians are most often involved in the diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children, but many do not get recommended input from teachers before rendering a diagnosis, Consumer Reports says in a parent survey about their children with ADHD.

Putnam County Teachers Chosen for New Science Teacher Academy
Oct 22 2009 - 13 News WOWK.com
Two Putnam County science teachers have been chosen as Fellows in the 2009 NSTA New Science Teacher Academy. Erika Klose of Winfield Middle School and Maureen Miller of Poca High School were among 185 middle and secondary science teachers selected from hundreds of applicants nationwide.

San Leandro Teacher Selected for National Science Fellowship
Oct 22 2009 - The Daily Review
Samantha Johnson, in her second year of teaching, is participating as a fellow in the National Science Teachers Association's New Science Teacher Academy, which links veteran science educators from throughout the nation to new teachers as resources.