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Many of the 8% of schools [i.e. the 8% of schools that got a grant from the fundation] did not succeed: Their test scores were actually lower than the average scores of schools in their school district, and their college-attending rates climbed painfully slowly, up only 2.5 percentage points over five years. A main strategy of the schools, breaking large high schools into smaller units, on its own guaranteed no overall success, Gates said.

A site advocating use of Open Source Solutions in UK Schools

Open Source Schools is here to share information about open source software in schools. Our aim is to help you decide whether open source software might offer benefits for learning, teaching, engaging pupils and parents, managing information and resources, or school administration. The website provides information and articles about open source software, advice on getting started, case studies of its adoption in schools, a directory for exploring what is available, and a glossary.

She's on the cover of Time (week of December 8), in a classroom, unsmiling, dressed in black, holding a broom, with the cover title, "How to Fix America's Schools," set to look as though it's the lesson for the day written on the blackboard. Framing her head is the huge "TIME" trademark. She is Michelle Rhee, Chancellor of Education, District of Columbia Public Schools. And the question for the "class" is, Does she have the answer to America's failing public school systems? Is it, finally, time to make the kinds of sweeping changes that she represents?

This conference has been designed by school leaders and others in the Open Source Schools' community to showcase to school leadership teams the best of educational free and open source software whether used alone or blended with proprietary software.

Wojcicki is a journalism and English teacher at Palo Alto High School, where she leads one of the largest high school journalism programs in the nation. She leads a variety of award-winning journalism projects, including a newspaper, a magazine, a website, a television program, and a sports publication. Over the past 20 years, these projects have won Gold and Silver Crowns from Columbia Scholastic Press Association, the PaceMaker Award and Hall of Fame Award from National Scholastic Press, and best in nation from Time Magazine in 2003. In February 2009, she was awarded the Columbia Scholastic Press Association Gold Key Award in a special ceremony at Columbia University for "outstanding devotion to the cause of the school press … and service above and beyond the call of delegated duty." She is the president of the Friends of the Lurdes Mutola Foundation to support girls' education in Mozambique and is a consultant for the Silicon Valley Education Foundation and Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Open Source UK Schools Video Preentations

I keep waiting for someone to tell the young mayor, and Miss Rhee that to be a teacher in the District of Columbia is a very hard job shaped by all kinds of outside forces. I think about my three years I which I spent all of my savings contributing to the school system. I taught across from a large welfare housing in southwest Washington DC. The school is still there. They called me the pied piper of SW. I took children on field trips, taught them to use the museums on the mall to learn, did NASA Marsville with them and had wonderful reading scores. It was not appreciated. I was making trouble. That's why I left. Children followed me in the SW mall. Children in trouble slept at my doorstep. There was never enough time or money to address all of their needs.

By not supporting medium-sized deployments of, say 30 to 5000 laptops (a typical order from a school or an educational authority) the OLPC Foundation betrays an instinct for paternalism. We have too much paternalism in education already, and the technologies in Sugar were designed to give children democratic access to education.

Special care should be taken to protect highly effective schools for low-income minority students during district upheaval and budget cuts. We should treat highly effective teachers in areas of need as the stars that they are. But the places of learning in the community need to step up to the plate.

This article highlights a suite of education games called GCompris for K-6 students. It gives a good definition of what Edubuntu is and how it is different than just Ubuntu. It is one more reason to use Linux instead of MS Windows in schools.

Great article on Edubuntu Linux

"The winners for each category, selected by an international jury of experts, will win thousands of Euros in cash prizes and ICT equipment. Also, following a successful launch in 2009, the 2010 edition will again be open to international competitors, from countries outside of Europe (see full list of eligible countries in the rules below). Another recent feature: the top 50 entries submitted will be included in the Learning Exchange Resource library (http://lreforschools.eun.org), to give increased visibility to teachers' innovative practices and encourage others to follow their lead. To be eligible for the eLearning Awards, entries must be submitted by schools or teacher training institutions in EU member states, EEA countries, EU applicant countries as well as Switzerland, Israel and Georgia. For the category International cooperation entries are accepted worldwide. A gallery on the eLearning Awards website will showcase all contributions, which will be judged by a panel of experts. Entries can be made from now until 28 September 2010 via the website: http://elearningawards.eun.org. Prize Ceremony The prize-giving ceremony, which will be followed by a gala dinner, will take place in Copenhagen early November 2010, during the annual EMINENT conference. The EMINENT conference is a unique chance to meet and discuss with European ministries of education, global companies and key stakeholders in education. Prize-winners will be given a trip to Copenhagen to attend the award ceremony. Full list of categories Rules"

"Created by Gerry Bayne (EDUCAUSE) on October 29, 2007 In this 40 minute podcast, we feature a speech from the EDUCAUSE 2007 Annual Conference entitled "Tomorrow's Students: Are We Ready for the New 21st-Century Learners?". The presentation is by Julie Evans, Chief Executive Office for Project Tomorrow - NetDay. Video and slides for this speech are also available here. Abstract: The national Speak Up initiative annually collects and reports on the authentic, unfiltered viewpoints of K-12 students, teachers, parents, and school leaders about education technology and 21st-century learning environments. Learn about the expectations of today's K-12 students (the higher ed students of tomorrow) for technology use and their new aspirations for learning as uncovered in the most recent survey data. "

"Here's the audio of my speech last month [Feb 16, 06 at Olin College, a small, elite engineering school outside of Boston. "

It is impossible for the sites to do this. There is no way to independently identify the age and identify of minors. There is no RealID system for minors! More on the infeasibility here: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/research/isttf Seems to me to be a major opportunity for Illinois high school educators to get your students involved in learning about the legislative process. My perspective is that the only reasonable option for Facebook, MySpace and any other social networking site would be to terminate the accounts of any minors who live in Illinois because it would be impossible for them to do this. The penalties for non-compliance would be pretty tough. Many co-sponsors. You might want to alert your students. They are the ones who would be impacted.

I applaud Rhee's efforts at reform, particularly with the DC schools, but it appears that she may not recognize or address the influence of parents, the community, and peer groups on human behavior and learning. Incorporating a plan to address and use these factors are also necessary to achieve her objectives, which are laudable.

Hanan EL-Halawany and Enas Ibraheem Huwail Assuit University, Egypt In this paper the researchers try to comprehend the ideological framework within which Malaysia has created its ICT mediated education. We look at Malaysia as a rewarding case study as evidence reveals that Malaysia has managed to leapfrog using the opportunities that ICTs can offer. Therefore, this paper tries to distill Malaysia's experience in this arena and extract lessons learned and innovative strategies and practices applicable to the Egyptian context.

Ticket to Read lets your students practice important reading skills at school, home, or the library--anywhere they can get on the web. Designed for grades K-5, users can work independently on reading skills, which frees the teacher to focus on other students. Exciting texts, continuous feedback, and opportunities to earn points for prizes makes Ticket to Read your student-friendly ticket to success.