The Association of American Educators has joined a coalition of other influential groups and individuals from across the political and education spectrum in opposition to a nationalized curriculum.

A Washington, D.C. briefing at the U.S. Capitol by the Civil Rights Project last week generated an active discussion of research on the intersection of public education and civil rights, …

Donna Garner – Summary of ideas: STAAR tests will have a time limit of four hours. Two can be given on one day. Students can use dictionaries and graphing calculators provided for them. Accountability scores next school year will be based upon TAKS scores from this spring. Only the raw scores from the STAAR tests will be shared with students at the end of the 2012 school year. For the 2011-12 school year, schools will not use the STAAR tests for promotion purposes. —

James Alexander, Ph.D., Professor – It seems as if Americans are constantly bombarded by reports of doom related to our educational system. A recent documentary, Waiting for Superman, has highlighted the disturbing and sad situations in our schools.

In early March, the New York City Department of Education released a layoff plan that raises real concerns about the city’s ability to serve students with learning disabilities.

Arne Duncan, Angel Gurría and Fred van Leeuwen: Increasing teacher autonomy and participation in reform is vital not just to improving student outcomes but to elevating the teaching profession. We reject the prevailing wisdom that it can’t be done.

Heather Wolpert-Gawron – It’s actually happened. On March 2, all direct funding of the National Writing Project was eliminated. As a result, you have deleted one of the only proven programs to improve teaching quality and student achievement.

WASHINGTON—A new survey on bullying by the National Education Association (NEA) finds that school employees know bullying is pervasive in schools and that they believe it’s their job to intervene—but that they need more training to do so effectively.

Joel Packer – The total cut to the Education Department from current FY 11 CR = $10.566 billion or 15.4%.

The Unmoved Mover is Aristotle’s own version of a deity that set the universe into motion. According to the philosopher, the universe was a set of connected events, a long chain of cause and effect, and this Unmoved Mover was force that set the course into action.

The Alliance for the Advancement of Heritage Languages periodically creates Heritage Language Spotlight web pages that focus on select heritage language. Chinese is a member of the Sino-Tibetan language family, which includes languages such as Burmese and Tibetan. By some classification systems, there are as many as 14 major varieties of Chinese (Lewis, 2009), with additional variation within the major varieties.

STEPHEN MOORE – Can anyone really argue that the schools are better today than they were in the 1950s or '60s, before Jimmy Carter created the Department of Education?

Kyle Huwa – At Stanford, education policy holds a revered place among political science and public policy students. Many envision themselves correcting the social injustices of society through eliminating the achievement gap, while many plan to equalize the field of opportunity which they themselves mastered in order to acquire admission to Stanford.

John C. "J. C." Bowman has been selected as the new Executive Director of Professional Educators of Tennessee, replacing Walter Jewell. Mr. Jewell is retiring, but will continue working with the organization as a consultant.

Dr. J. Michael Adams – A breath of new hope is blowing across the globe — from Australia to America, from Canada to China, from Africa to Europe. It is the Millennial Generation, those young people — 78 million in the United States alone — born between 1985 and 2000 who define themselves by the social commitment and technological savvy that unite them worldwide.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – K-12 teachers have an extra month to apply for the Horace Mann-Abraham Lincoln Fellowship Program. The deadline has been extended from Jan. 3, 2011 to Lincolns’ birth date, Feb. 12.

The city's controversial teacher grading system gives Pamela Flanagan the lowest possible grade – a zero – for her performance as an English instructor.

The Heartland Institute's 2010 State School Report Card: A state-by-state analysis of learning, efficiency, and standards, purports to rank states on student achievement, education expenditures and adherence to learning standards.

Justin Snider of The Hechinger Report sat down today with Dr. Pasi Sahlberg, Director General of the Centre for International Mobility and Cooperation in Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture. An edited version of their conversation follows. Sahlberg, who has trained teachers, coached schools and advised policymakers in more than 40 countries, is also a [...]

Sandra Stotsky – Why have the reading skills of American high school students shown little or no improvement in several decades, despite substantial increases in funds for elementary and secondary education by federal and state governments? Two possible reasons—a fragmented literature/reading curriculum and a neglect of close reading—spring up from the results of a study,