Chicago Public Schools has developed and begun implementing a comprehensive strategy for going green, one that encompasses information technology, facilities, and education to reduce the district's environmental impact, cut operating costs, and help build students' awareness of the environment.
- By Bridget McCrea
- 03/03/11
Students in large urban school districts are lagging behind the nation in their grasp of natural sciences, according to a special report on science education in 17 of America's urban districts. Experts involved in the report placed part of the blame on the lack of any clear or meaningful national science strategy, though several other factors, they acknowledged, contributed to the disparity.
- By Scott Aronowitz
- 02/28/11
"Ensuring high-speed broadband access for all students is a critical national issue and foundational to realizing our education reform and improvement goals." This was the admonition from Douglas Levin, executive director of SETDA, in response to the February release of the National Broadband Map.
While states have made exceptional progress in collecting quality longitudinal data on individual students and their educational progress over time, according to a new report, many continue to lag when it comes to applying this data to making policy decisions that positively impact student achievement.
- By Scott Aronowitz
- 02/22/11
The Obama administration formally released its 2012 federal budget proposal Monday, dissolving a number of education programs into broader funding pools--including state grants for education technology previously provided for under Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT).
Data Quality Campaign (DQC) this week will release the report on its annual analysis of educational data collection and use by each of the 50 states. Data for Action 2010 reports on the results of an in-depth survey and analysis that suggest that while states have made significant advancements in certain areas of data collection and its application, in other key areas most states have made little to no progress.
- By Scott Aronowitz
- 02/14/11
Technology is about how we bridge the gap between what students learn in school and what they do outside of school, according to Karen Cator, director of the Department of Education's Office of Education technology. She spoke Wednesday to a crowd gathered at the FETC 2011 conference in Florida, where she elaborated on some of the goals of the National Education Technology Plan (NETP).
The latest science results from the "Nation's Report Card" have set a new baseline for student science achievement in the United States, and that baseline is low--"unacceptable," according to Francis Eberle, executive director for the National Science Teacher's Association. THE Journal discussed the latest national assessment results with Eberle, whose organization today issued a call to bolster resources for science education to avoid producing a "scientifically illiterate workforce."
The results are in for the latest National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) in science, and those results are grim, especially at the 12th grade, where 40 percent of students failed to attain even a "basic" level of proficiency. The test also revealed an enormous gap between the lowest- and highest-performing ethnic groups, as well as smaller but still significant gaps in achievement between males and females.
After 25 years of hearing the same calls for action in education technology, I'm throwing down the gauntlet.
- By Therese Mageau
- 01/11/11