Research: Improving Test Scores Doesn't Equate to Improving Abstract Reasoning

A team of neuroscientists at MIT and other institutions has found that even when schools take instructional steps that help raise student scores on high-stakes tests, that influence doesn't translate to improvements in learners' abilities to perform abstract reasoning.

New York iZone Academy Taps Microsoft and Other Corporate Sponsors for Blended Learning Environment

When the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) opens its next iZone school in fall 2014, Microsoft will be deeply embedded in its operations — along with other corporate sponsors that may even go as far as hosting classes for this new school without walls.

25 Programs To Receive $134 Million in Federal Funds

The United States Department of Education recently published its list of the 25 programs that will receive funding in the fourth round of the Investing in Innovation (i3) competition. Those programs will receive a combined total of $134 million before the end of the year.

Gwinnett County, IBM Partner for Personalized Learning Experiment

Gwinnett County Public Schools is partnering with IBM in what the two are characterizing as "a first-of-a-kind research and development relationship that leverages big data, deep analytics, and cognitive technologies to generate actionable insights for personalized education and learning pathways for students."

Fordham Study Finds Major Problems with Public School Use of Data in Cloud Computing

Schools are fairly clueless regarding the impact of their decisions on student privacy in adopting cloud services, according to a new study by Fordham Law School's Center on Law and Information Policy.

Chicago Public Schools Makes Computer Science Core Subject

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett have launched plans to elevate computer science to a core subject in the district.

Report Outlines Strategies for Recruiting and Retaining Teachers

To attract and keep the best educators, the teaching profession must evolve to offer a "staged" career trajectory, where teachers can move up in the profession without switching to administrative roles, according to a new report from Pearson's Research and Innovation Network and the National Network of State Teachers of the Year.

Dell Rolls Out Gigabit APs for 802.11ac Networks

Dell has begun rolling out new enterprise storage and networking solutions designed to help schools meet increasing demands for IT performance and network access, including new W-Series gigabit wireless access points, which offer data rates up to 1.3 gigabits per second for end-to-end 802.11ac wireless networks.

Drag-and-Drop Programming Tool Alice Updated

The developers of Alice have introduced a new version of their free drag-and-drop development tool as well as an online tutorial to help young students learn how to perform object-oriented programming.

High School Students Take Top Prize in Science Competition

Four high school students have won the grand prize in this year's Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology. The annual competition awards $100,000 scholarships to the winners of the Individual and Team categories.

School Improvement Network Publishes New Interactive E-Books for Common Core

School Improvement Network has published two new interactive multimedia e-books about Common Core implementation on its LumiBook platform for educators.

FETC 2014