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"What Makes a Great Teacher? Image credit: Veronika Lukasova Also in our Special Report: National: "How America Can Rise Again" Is the nation in terminal decline? Not necessarily. But securing the future will require fixing a system that has become a joke. Video: "One Nation, On Edge" James Fallows talks to Atlantic editor James Bennet about a uniquely American tradition-cycles of despair followed by triumphant rebirths. Interactive Graphic: "The State of the Union Is ..." ... thrifty, overextended, admired, twitchy, filthy, and clean: the nation in numbers. By Rachael Brown Chart: "The Happiness Index" Times were tough in 2009. But according to a cool Facebook app, people were happier. By Justin Miller On August 25, 2008, two little boys walked into public elementary schools in Southeast Washington, D.C. Both boys were African American fifth-graders. The previous spring, both had tested below grade level in math. One walked into Kimball Elementary School and climbed the stairs to Mr. William Taylor's math classroom, a tidy, powder-blue space in which neither the clocks nor most of the electrical outlets worked. The other walked into a very similar classroom a mile away at Plummer Elementary School. In both schools, more than 80 percent of the children received free or reduced-price lunches. At night, all the children went home to the same urban ecosystem, a zip code in which almost a quarter of the families lived below the poverty line and a police district in which somebody was murdered every week or so. Video: Four teachers in Four different classrooms demonstrate methods that work (Courtesy of Teach for America's video archive, available in February at teachingasleadership.org) At the end of the school year, both little boys took the same standardized test given at all D.C. public schools-not a perfect test of their learning, to be sure, but a relatively objective one (and, it's worth noting, not a very hard one). After a year in Mr. Taylo

The National Measurement Institute (NMI) is responsible for Australia's national infrastructure in physical, chemical, biological and legal measurements. Under the National Measurement Act 1960, NMI is responsible for coordinating Australia's national measurement system, and for establishing, maintaining and realising Australia's units and standards of measurement, thereby allowing Australian industry to operate competitively in a global environment.

The role that education plays in issues of social equity and justice cannot be undervalued. It is acknowledged by the United Nations as a human right, 'Everyone has the right to education' (United Nations, 1948) and as outlined in the Melbourne Declaration on the Educational Goals for Young Australians 'As a nation Australia values the central role of education in building a democratic, equitable and just society- a society that is prosperous, cohesive and culturally diverse, and that values Australia's Indigenous cultures as a key part of the nation's history, present and future.' (Barr et al, 2008). Such lofty assertions of the importance of education as a right and national value should be sufficient to ensure that all Australians have access to an education of the highest standard with equitable outcomes for all, the reality is that this is not the case.

"ACARA is the independent authority responsible for the development of a national curriculum, a national assessment program and a national data collection and reporting program that supports 21st century learning for all Australian students.

Australian group responsible for national curriculum and assessment program.

"BULLYING should be a specific criminal offence and Australia needs to establish a national digital tribunal with powers to speedily remove offensive material from the internet. This is what experts at a national bullying symposium are urging the Federal Government to do to combat bullying and cyber bullying."

"President of the Australian Academy of Science Professor Suzanne Cory addresses the National Press Club on issues facing science in Australia and the Academy's policy platform for the 2013 federal election."

THE NSW state government has ruled out implementing the new national curriculum next year, as scheduled under the federal government's timeline.

The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) came into being on 1 January 2010. The Commonwealth Minister for Education has outlined MCEECDYA's priorities for the Institute in a Letter of Expectation. AITSL provides national leadership for the Commonwealth, state and territory governments in promoting excellence in the profession of teaching and school leadership.  

"AITSL provides national leadership for the Commonwealth, state and territory governments in promoting excellence in the profession of teaching and school leadership. AITSL has responsibility for: * rigorous national professional standards * fostering and driving high quality professional development for teachers and school leaders * working collaboratively across jurisdictions and engaging with key professional bodies. "

Australian group with teaching and leadership focus.

Every Australian student will study the arts from their first year of school under the new national arts curriculum, which was released today for public consultation.

SCHOOLS have options to make new teachers permanent rather than offering them only short-term contracts, according to the head of a prominent secondary college.

The National Library hosts a program of events that highlight aspects of their collections. There are a wide variety of fields and interests covered by these talks. This page offers access to those talks if you missed them by offering podcasts that you can download and listen to.

The U.S. National Archives YouTube channel offers a somewhat eclectic group of videos that include everything from old propaganda films like this one (also embedded below) to lectures from historians to short lessons about items in the National Archives.

National Poetry Month: Exemplars from EDSITEment: Poetry for the Common Core

"The much awaited review of the National Curriculum has finally been released with the reviewers calling for more of a focus on Western literature, and recognition of Australia's "Judeo-Christian" heritage."

In late November I wrote a blog post outlining five resources for free spelling games. That blog post was among the top twenty most read posts of 2008 therefore I am sharing some more online spelling games for elementary school, middle school, and high school students. 1. Spelling Wizard from Scholastic.com lets students, parents, and teachers create their own word search and word scramble games to play online. Each game can have up to ten words. To use Spelling Wizard simply enter ten words into the list field then select word search or word scramble. Spelling Wizard is probably best suited for students in Kindergarten through second grade. Scholastic also offers a free tool for creating online spelling flashcards. 2. Read Write Think has an online activity for young (K-2) students based on four childrens' books. Read Write Think's Word Wizard asks students to select one of four books that they have read or have had read to them. After selecting a book the Word Wizard creates a simple online spelling exercise based on the words in the book chosen by the child. 3. Spell Bee was developed at Brandeis University with funding from the National Science Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Spell Bee allows students to play spelling games in a head-to-head format. Spell Bee allows teachers to create accounts for students so that teachers can track student progress. 4. MSNBC has an interactive spelling bee based on the words from the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee. There are three games to play and the words get progressively more difficult the longer you play. The words are read to students who then type the word into the spelling box. Just like in a real spelling bee, students can get the definition and or hear it used in a sentence. The difficulty of the words in the game make it best suited for middle school and high school students. 5. Spelling Bee The Game is an online spelling bee similar in style to the MSNBC game mentioned above. Aft

Debunking the Case for National Standards One-Size-Fits-All Mandates and Their Dangers

Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds is the third in a series of large-scale, nationally representative surveys by the Foundation about young people's media use. The report is based on a survey conducted between October 2008 and May 2009 among a nationally representative sample of 2,002 3rd-12th grade students ages 8-18, including a self-selected subsample of 702 respondents who completed seven-day media use diaries, which were used to calculate multitasking proportions.

"More than 5 million online U.S. households experienced some type of abuse on Facebook in the past year, including virus infections, identity theft, and for a million children, bullying, a Consumer Reports survey shows. And consumers are at risk in myriad other ways, according to our national State of the Net survey of 2,089 online households conducted earlier this year by the Consumer Reports National Research Center. Here are the details: "

The Teach, Learn, Share database is a national platform where educators and systems can share their effective approaches to literacy and numeracy teaching and learning in Australia. Once established, the Teach, Learn, Share database will be the 'go-to' site for information about effective literacy and numeracy strategies for individual teachers, schools, systems and the wider education community. The database will include descriptions of successful literacy and numeracy initiatives in a diverse range of school settings, capacity for targeted searching and links to relevant and appropriate research in the areas of literacy and numeracy.