Twigmore » united states

Finally, After Ten Years, Federal Money for Technology in Education

Peter Baer — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:24:12 +0000

NY Times article points out that more than a decade ago, Lawrence K. Grossman, former president of both NBC News and PBS, and Newton N. Minow, the former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, were asked by several foundations to explore how nonprofits like schools, libraries and museums could tap into emerging digital technologies. After a tortuous journey — “It’s been one ‘starting all over again’ after another after another after another,” Mr. Minow said — their organization, what is now being called the National Center for Research in Advanced Information and Digital Technologies, finally has Congressional appropriation through the Education Department. It will be introduced Monday and could be handing out grants by fall. It’s a shame that things have taken this long, but the initiative seems promising.

President Obama Seeks $1.35 Billion More for Education

Peter Baer — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:05:48 +0000

Fox News article on President Obama visiting a Northern Virginia school today and officially announcing he’ll be asking Congress for $1.35 billion to extend an education grant program he introduced in his first year in office. Mr Obama alongside Education Secretary Arne Duncan, detailed his “Race to the Top” program, which was part of the original $787 billion economic stimulus program signed into law last year. “Race to the Top” encourages states and school districts to do better by amending education laws and polices, and compete for the grants. More money is good, but as yesterday’s post shows, there are problems with the program and results will stem from the implementation not the total dollar amount.

Microsoft Invests Millions in Innovative Teaching Practices

Peter Baer — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 21:24:48 +0000

Tech Crunch piece on Microsoft announcing its Partners in Learning program is sponsoring the Innovative Teaching and Learning (ITL) Research project, which is led by non-profit R&D organization SRI International. The global research program intends to “broadly investigate” the effects that information and communications technology has in transforming teaching and learning at the school and education system level. The company will invest a million dollars a year in the multi-year study in partnership with the governments of Finland, Indonesia, Russia and Senegal. Bureaucratic Microsoft partnering with governments may not produce the best results, but we applaud the effort.

Schools Having Trouble Getting Federal Stimulus Funds

Peter Baer — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 22:02:30 +0000

We’ve written several times about the the administration’s commitment to invest stimulus money in the public school system. This USA Today article says there are some big problems with the effort. One example cited is the bond program and how it’s not working in North Carolina where only $2.3 billion of the $11 billion in bonds available this year have been sold as of last week.

Colleges Actually Less Selective Than 50 Years Ago

Peter Baer — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:30:00 +0000

Interesting NY Times article explaining why this is true 90% of the time. Caroline M. Hoxby, professor of economics at Stanford and director of the Economics of Education Program for the National Bureau of Economic Research, points out that while high school graduation rates are up, so too is the number of freshman seats on the market. She acknowledges that this doesn’t apply to the most elite schools, but asserts that increased selectivity in these schools has nothing to do with a shortage of seats. Our question is if supply is growing appreciably faster than demand, why are prices skyrocketing?

Stimulus Money Increasing Access to Education in Remote Areas

Stephen Smyth — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:46:03 +0000

Report out today that federal stimulus funds are starting to be spent on upgrading high-speed data networks in remote parts of the United States. The first $182M of the allocated $7.2B is being handed out today to over 17 states. Interesting to note that the money will go not only towards putting networks in place but also towards “encouraging more Americans to use them.” Presumably this implies that there will be an associated marketing budget. The networks will primarily link schools, colleges, universities, hospitals and government facilities. We welcome this initiative as it will only bolster our raison d’etre of making “the best educators accessible to everyone by taking geographic constraints out of the education equation.”

Math Scores Show Improvement at Schools in Large U.S. Cities

Peter Baer — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:16:56 +0000

CNN piece on public school students in major metropolitan areas showing improvement on test scores in mathematics compared with scores from previous years. In Austin, Texas, and San Diego, California, eighth-graders raised their scores. In Boston, Massachusetts, and Washington, fourth-grade students showed the gains. The report from the National Assessment of Educational Progress compared test scores from those two grades in 18 urban school districts. U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan praised the results in Tuesday’s report, saying that the numbers show that “our nation’s biggest cities are continuing to make progress.” This is some good news.

Use of Technology to Help Teachers Channel Parent Communication in Positive Way

Peter Baer — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:13:07 +0000

A press release from Becta, a UK government agency aiming to advertise and implement the productive and innovative use of technology throughout the teaching and learning process. A recent survey they commissioned shows teachers and schools who have implemented online reporting and electronic communication with parents, have said that it improves parental engagement, allowing them to bring parents into the school community efficiently. It also allows teachers to channel communication from ‘overly demanding’ parents in a positive manner. This seems like it might make sense in the US as well.

Winners of UN prize for use of technology in education unveiled

Peter Baer — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 19:16:23 +0000

UN News Center release on the Rector of the Moscow Institute of Open Education and Jordan’s Ministry of Information and Communications Technology being chosen as the winners of an annual United Nations prize for the use of technology in education. The more the UN focuses on innovation in education, the better.

Bloomberg Tells Schools to Link Tenure, Student Gains

Peter Baer — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:14:09 +0000

Bloomberg article on New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordering the city’s public schools to start using student achievement data in the evaluations of teachers who are up for tenure this school year. He also urged state lawmakers to make it easier to fire ineffective teachers. This seems promising for the NYC school system.