New York City is currently enmeshed in a debate over whether it should release ratings of 12,000 of its teachers, as The Los Angeles Times did on behalf (or in spite of) the Los Angeles Unified School District back in August. Teacher evaluation has been a hot topic in the last year or so, but one topic that is discussed far ...

A story posted on MSNBC earlier today reports that by 2012, 10 percent of American school kids could be attending classes year-round. This doesn't mean that they've lost their summer vacation entirely; rather, every nine weeks or so, they (and their teachers) would get a four-week respite. The adoption of the year-round education model has been taking gradually and quietly. It ...

Here is one of the many desperate emails and letters from teachers that education historian Diane Ravitch, author of the bestselling book The Death and Life of the Great American School System, receives every day. Ravitch has emerged as the country's most prominent independent voice in opposition to the current wave of "school reform" that is supported by the Obama administration, ...

Last month I argued that people’s unwillingness to pay higher taxes is the main reason why teachers will never make as much money as lawyers. Many readers disagreed, arguing that it’s due to the amount and difficulty of work that lawyers do. Who’s right? Well, as a former teacher who spent three years in two very challenging schools, I’m a little biased, and I know about lawyering only ...

Surrounded by a dozen middle school students from Florida, Michigan and Nebraska, President Obama spoke to 11 NASA astronauts by phone from the Roosevelt Room in the White House this evening. A video fed their images back at the same time.

Incredibly touching, heroic stories keep emerging from Japan's earthquake and tsunami disaster, and the latest comes from the coastal town of Ofunato. A courageous high school teacher named Robert Bailey saved the lives of his 42 students—and he only had eight minutes to do so. The 27-year-old British national has lived in Ofunato for four years with his wife, Mai. In ...

As Washington politicos perused President Obama's health care plan, Obama took time to discuss education policy with the nation's governors. The president also presumably discussed other items with members of the National Governors Association, but we're not sure what they were -- the press pool was led out before the question-and-answer session.

 School districts around the country, forced to resort to drastic money-saving measures, are warning hundreds of thousands of teachers that their jobs may be eliminated in June.

In less than a month, Angela Dondero's daily scenery will change from rows of blazing conifers to rows of gossiping teenagers. Dondero, like many Utah teachers, follows a different career path during summer vacation. She'll return to teaching high school next month, but now she spends her days supervising a U.S. Forest Service firefighting crew."It's a nice break from teaching. It's ...

 An innovative study of 17 schools along the East Coast suggests that putting literacy coaches in schools can help boost students’ reading skills by as much as 32 percent over three years.

  Ten strategic technologies for enterprise social computing

A recent article in The Chicago Tribune described a continuing debate in business schools over whether their enrollees should be regarded as “customers” rather than as traditional students. Should the students have more say over what they are taught and even how they are judged? What’s the risk of the student-consumer approach in M.B.A. programs? And does the issue reflect broader ...

She called in sick. Then, police say, she robbed a bank.       Early in the afternoon of Dec. 16, the day she didn’t come to work, authorities say, a 49-year-old English teacher from Brookline, N.H., her face obscured by a multicolored scarf, showed up at Washington Savings Bank in the nearby town of Tyngsborough, handed the clerk a ...

Gather faculty members together and it's not hard to get them talking about the ways students disappoint. They text in class, expect extensions for no good reason, and act surprised when they don't earn A's. But when it comes to work ethic and manners, are there some students who -- on average -- don't disappoint? Kara Miller thinks so -- ...

According to the annual study of America's Most Literate Cities, Washington, D.C., has snatched the literacy crown away from perennial front runner, Seattle. Unfortunately, a closer look at the numbers reveals that nationally, key indicators of literacy are on the decline. The scores that earned D.C. the top spot in 2010 would, in 2004, only be enough to reach 7th place. ...

Remember when schools used to have the goal of every student having a laptop for classroom use? Well, that one-to-one student laptop program dream is so last year. In 2011, the iPad revolution is on, and school districts are increasingly investing in them as the education tech tool of choice. The least expensive iPad starts at $499 a pop, but cash-strapped ...

President Obama will announce a $250 million public-private effort Wednesday to improve science and mathematics instruction, aiming to help the nation compete in key fields with global economic rivals.