On October 25, the Alliance for Excellent Education held an interactive webinar that looked back at what the current Congress accomplished on education reform while looking ahead to the prospects for additional reform in the new Congress, which begins in January. The webinar featured a roundtable discussion with Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor and congressional representative of West Virginia, and representatives from the Alliance’s federal advocacy team. The discussion was followed by a question and answer session driven by questions from webinar participants. Check out the full video below:

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An editorial in yesterday’s New York Times paints a grim picture of our international standing in math and science education. According to the piece, the National Academies finds that the United States ranks 27th out of 29 wealthy countries in the proportion of college students with degrees in science in engineering and the World Economic Forum ranks the United States 48th out of 133 developed and developing nations in quality of math and science instruction. The editorial board concludes by calling for Congress to expand funding for programs that support high-caliber math and science students in college in return for their commitment to teach in needy districts.

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Seventy percent of young Americans in the 17-to-24 age bracket are unfit to join the U.S. military. Most of the unfit are high school dropouts, who are forbidden to enlist. Many of the rest have such low mental abilities that they flunk military entrance exams. Many others are obese or physically unfit. –The Charleston Gazette

For the year just ending (FY2009-2010) tuition was raised for community colleges in 44 states (86%), for regional universities in 36 states (88%), and for flagship universities in 41 states (89%). –Education Policy Center at the University of Alabama

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After the Alliance hosts an event we usually post the full event video on our Web site within a few days. Now we are also offering video highlights of our events so viewers can tune-in for a shorter video summary. These highlight videos also break the content up into easily viewable sections based on speaker and topic area.

This video highlight is from a September 17th event that the Alliance co-hosted with the Center for Teaching Quality to discuss the emerging realities facing the nation—the funding crisis, the teacher shortage, and new technologies—that will reshape learning environments and expectations for the teaching profession.

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The Oregonian editorial board calls for the State Board of Education to join 40 other states in embracing the common core state standards and to raise the testing bar in the state’s K-8 and high school math programs.

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman writes about a National Academies study that has received much less attention that it deserves. The report recommend 10 actions the federal government could take to enhance science and technology so America could successfully compete in the 21st century. For the Alliance’s summary of the report, see this article in Straight A’s.

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New York Times education reporter Sam Dillon writes about a 10 page letter that the Department of Education sent to thousands of school districts and colleges today urging them to ensure that they are complying with their responsibilities to prevent bullying.

The Charleston Gazette editorial staff focuses on the imperiled future of high school dropouts and explains how 70 percent of young Americans in the 17-to-24 age bracket are unfit to join the U.S. military.

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Nearly eighty percent of states including the District of Columbia have now adopted the common core state standards. This month Kansas (October 12) and New Mexico (October 19) were the latest states to announce they were officially on board. In September, Minnesota announced they would be adopting the English Language-Arts standards but not the math standards. So far, they are the only state to adopt the standards this way.

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Kansas and New Mexico are the latest states to adopt the common core state standards, bringing the total count to 40 states including Washington, DC.

According to Education Week, the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education and the Teacher Education Accreditation Council have approved plans to merge into a single organization.

The Montgomery Advertiser takes a look at the high school dropout problem in Alabama in a story and an editorial.

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Check out this New York Times interactive feature on the quick and inexpensive ways that schools can reorganize their cafeterias and increase the likelihood that children will make healthier food decisions:

School cafeterias are much criticized for offering the kind of snack foods and desserts that contribute to childhood obesity. But banning junk food from cafeterias, as some schools have tried, or serving only escarole or tofu, can backfire. Students then skip lunch, bring in their own snacks or head out for fast food. We’ve even seen some pizzas delivered to a side door.

Children and teenagers resist heavy-handed nutritional policies — and the food that is associated with the heavy hand. No food is nutritious, after all, until it is actually eaten.

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Education Week reports that the U.S. Department of Education’s What Works Clearinghouse is broadening its definition of “gold standard” research to include nonexperimental designs.

College seniors who graduated in 2009 had an average of $24,000 in student loan debt, up 6 percent from 2008, according to an annual report from the Project on Student Debt. See the New York Times story on this study.

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