Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, announced the selection of six regional network hubs that will promote science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education and economic development across Iowa today. This is the first major initiative of the new Governor’s STEM Advisory Council, a public-private partnership that aims to foster greater student achievement in STEM subjects and [...]
Louisiana is examining an education reform package being advanced by Governor Bobby Jindhal that would tie teacher job security to how they fared on external performance metrics. The Iowa House has passed a slate of education reforms that would require yearly evaluations for school teachers, a test for graduating high school seniors and an extra [...]
Lawmakers are examining changes to the education system in Iowa. Yesterday the state joined a group of states seeking waivers from the federal government to opt out of some of the requirements imposed by the No Child Left Behind Act. Teacher evaluations have also been scrapped from the Governor’s education plan and replaced with evaluations [...]
Ohio is pushing forward on a ten-fold boost to its broadband network speeds. In an event today that included Governor Kasich and researchers from Ohio State, University of Cincinnati, Summa Western Reserve Hospital and Case Western Reserve University officials outlined the state’s plan to become a world leader in medical research.
Colorado signed several reforms into law today that will redesign how teachers are evaluated and awarded tenure. Colorado is just one of several states looking at ways to change how teachers are evaluated as pressure grows from frustrated parents and federal funding programs like Race to the Top require more emphasis to be placed on [...]
New Mexico is making changes to how it funds education. The state has announced changes to both its funding formula for colleges and universities as well as how it will allocate funds to K-12 education based on a new grading system. The initiatives are part of a broader state goal to improve education and increase [...]
Florida Governor Rick Scott has reversed his position on federal funds and is allowing the state’s application for Race to the Top education funding to go through. Previously, Scott rejected federal funding on a variety of projects including some children’s healthcare funding which made the state ineligible for Race to the Top. Scott will have [...]
Illegal immigrants will be able to apply for state money to attend American universities in California thanks to a new law signed by California Governor Jerry Brown. Under the terms of the law, illegal immigrants who have attended school in California will be eligible to apply for Cal-Grant aid to continue their educations. Last year [...]
Many states are vying for federal Race to the Top funds. In order to get these merit-based funds, states are required to perform annual teacher evaluations and submit overall performance records as part of the application process. However, often these evaluations remain hidden from the parents and students of these teachers. But recently,the New York [...]
After spending a year teaching English at elementary schools in Tanzania and Peru, my niece is college bound in the fall. As she heads off to school, I was shocked to learn that her annual room, board and tuition would be around $55,000 a year. This made me think about the value of higher education [...]
