Showing What They Know
RI adds performance assessments to its requirements for graduation, but is it manageable? (posted 6/17/08)
Schools experiment with paying kids
To pay or not to pay: that is the question. Rewarding students is not new. Gold stars and pizza parties have been around for ages. But the new programs are more systematic. They are often available on a school-wide basis or throughout certain grades rather than just doled out by select teachers, many times with their own money. (posted 6/17/08)
Bellevue Community College in Seattle WA offers an associate's degree in Occupational and Life Skills. College officials are touting the Venture program as the only accredited associate-degree program in the nation for people with mental disabilities. Earlier this month, President Jean Floten said educating students with autism, obsessive-compulsive disorders and other disabilities is "one of the final frontiers in higher education." (posted 6/17/08)
Read more: Four grads from BCC are true believers in life skills program
Leaving "No Child Left Behind" Behind, Richard Rothstein, 12/17/07
The next president has a unique opportunity to start from scratch in education policy, without the deadweight of a failed, inherited No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law. The new president and Congress can recapture the "small d" democratic mantle by restoring local control of education, while initiating policies for which the federal government is uniquely suited -- providing better achievement data and equalizing the states' fiscal capacity to provide for all children.CEC SMARTBRIEF | 06/02/2008
