The Alliance for Excellent Education filmed a special edition of Federal Flash that condemns the actions by white supremacists in Charlottesville and urges parents, teachers, and others to use Charlottesville as a teachable moment in their homes, classrooms, and communities. This blog post includes the video, a transcript of the video, as well as a series of resources that individuals can use to help start conversations about the nation’s dark history with slavery, the dangerous white supremacy movement, and the importance of equity, inclusion, and diversity in America.
This week’s digest features several stories on how students are gaining real-world experience and building the necessary skills and competencies to prepare them for success in their jobs and careers.
This week’s digest highlights the benefits of competency-based learning, personalization, and connecting students to the real world. But looking beyond student learning, how are teachers engaging in deeper learning experiences themselves?
In the past decade, the rate of violent incidents occurring in public schools declined by nearly half, but middle schools and schools that serve mostly students of color still experience higher rates of violence than other schools, according to a new report from the U.S. Department of Education (ED).
Estonia, the northernmost of the Baltic countries, has a population of 1.3 million people, roughly the size of the population of Maine or New Hampshire. Although it is one of the poorest countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), with a 2014 per capita gross domestic product of $28,140 compared to the OECD average of $39,333, Estonia has one of the strongest education systems among OECD countries. The nation boasts above-average results on PISA, almost universal access to pre-primary education, and a rate of educational attainment at the secondary level that is among the highest in the European Union and among OECD member nations. So how does Estonia do it?
Don’t expect to find students sitting passively in neatly rowed desks at MC2 STEM High School. It’s far more likely to see students cutting plywood with laser cutters or driving remote-controlled robots down the hall at this open-enrollment high school dedicated to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The school fosters an atmosphere of innovation, both in its physical structure and its approach to instruction, that empowers students to direct their own learning.
“There are only two things that matter: what students are learning and how effectively they are learning it.”
Former Commissioner of the New York State Education Department, Dr. David Steiner, addressed the importance of rigorous standards and high quality curriculum and instruction during a recent talk at the Alliance’s High School Advisory Group Meeting. The group supports the Alliance’s efforts to elevate and expand practices to promote postsecondary opportunities for traditionally underserved students.
This week’s digest features social and emotional learning as a foundation, going beyond basic reasoning skills to prepare students for future jobs, project-based learning questions and answers, and the story of how one school keeps deeper learning afloat.
Early on a Friday morning in May, Dale Fiess and his students took to the water. For the students, it literally was a sink or swim moment. The time had come to launch the solar-powered boat the students had built and see whether it could compete against the other teams entered in the California Solar Regatta.
This week’s digest features project-based learning for all students in a New York district, individualized instruction in North Dakota, a new study on improving academic performance, an expedition to colonial times, and more.
Last month, the Trump administration released its first full budget proposal recommending a $9.2 billion, or 13.5 percent, cut in funding for the U.S. Department of Education (ED) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2018. The suggested cuts raised many eyebrows on Capitol Hill when U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos testified about the budget before the House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee responsible for funding ED. In particular, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), the Ranking Member on the subcommittee, voiced concerns regarding proposed cuts to literacy funding. She stated, “Literacy is a mark of a civilized society—we spend money to spread literacy internationally, yet [the budget eliminates] $190 million from the largest reading program for low-income children and youth and $96 million from grants that help low-skilled adults become literate.” The Alliance for Excellent Education (the Alliance) shares Congresswoman DeLauro’s concerns with the administration’s recommended cuts to literacy funding.
