Education News

A robust new federal Office of Educational Entrepreneurship and Innovation within the Department of Education would expand the boundaries of public education by scaling up successful educational entrepreneurs, seeding transformative educational innovations, and building a stronger culture to support these activities throughout the public sector.

Desperate for ways to ratchet up test scores and close the achievement gap separating white and minority students, school officials from Tucson to Boston are paying kids who put up good numbers.

New federal rules made final yesterday will tighten enforcement of the No Child Left Behind law, including requiring schools nationwide to use a single formula to calculate high school graduation rates.

HIGH school graduation rates are universally seen as a barometer of success, or failure, in education. Parents, college admissions officers, even savvy real estate agents rely on that particular statistic to tell them if a school is any good.

As seen on the TI MathForward Web site testimonials, he said the program made him think differently about math. "I want to know more and go into more detail," he said. "I started thinking about college; maybe taking a math class in college. It gave me confidence."

What more could we want for our struggling students?

One in four kids is still dropping out of high school.

Citing academic rigor and the teaching of moral standards, many rural parents are choosing private schools, even in states without voucher programs.

The study suggests that while many girls have exceptional talent in math — the talent to become top math researchers, scientists and engineers — they are rarely identified in the United States.

To effectively recruit and retain the teachers needed to turn troubled schools around and give the kids who need it most a fighting chance, education officials should re-consider how schools are financed.

"When people play games, there is some sort of state they get into," he said. "Nobody has really studied whether or not the brain is more receptive to learning complex concepts when you’re in that state. People assume that is the case."