Students who entered charter schools performed better on state exams compared to students who wished to attend charter schools but were not admitted based on a lottery.

I just came across this article in the most recent issue of the Smithsonian Magazine. While it describes law enforcement officials being taught the skills of describing in great detail what they see, I thought it provided an interesting example of how helpful looking at works of art can be. While many students might at first not feel confident in describing works of art in the classroom, I think this shows how applicable the skills can be.... not only to use them as a starting point for a history discussion but for other things as well.

The DC school system is being forced to layoff teachers and consolidate some classes because of budget problems. This comes as a surprise after 900 teachers were hired this summer.

I think this article provides an interesting look at standardized tests. As school depend on them increasingly, math scores are actually decreasing. How valid are these tests in determining knowledge gained?

As more and more schools and districts are faced with smaller budgets, some schools are phasing out foreign languags or turning to interactive technology programs to save money.

I first thought I would combine my love of art and history by someday working on projects like this.... creating teaching kits or sets of images that can be used in classroom education. This one provides images for classrooms or libraries based on American-inspired themes.

This webpage describes a National DIgital Newspaper Program that is a partnership between the NEH and Library of Congress. It aims to provide access to internet users. THis could be a great resource for teachers to use in classrooms... often other subscriptions to databases can be licensed and quite expensive to use.

This article provides an interesting look at the concept of reading workshops and various degrees of student choice when picking literature books to read compared to more strictly selected books. It provids a solid background explaining some of the educators who have really pushed for the reading workshop technique.

A national media campaign is being launched to encourage parents to "be there" - or to turn everyday moments into teaching experiences even if they are not able to physically spend time at their children's schools.

In what seems to be a never-ending debate in NYC about budgets and union jobs, etc., an agreement has been reached that will permit principals to hire school aides with funds that were raised by parent groups. It is a one-year agreement that aims to allow teachers to focus on teaching while aides help support them in a non-teaching capacity.

In light of the fact that we are all pursuing higher degrees in education, I found this debate forum to be very interesting. Some argue for and against and also bring factors such as using advance degrees as the basis for pay increases and promotions versus student performance into the debate.