It has now been over a year since the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) were finalized in April 2013. While 26 states actively participated in the development of the standards (the NGSS official site calls them “lead state partners”), the adoption process has been slow and controversial. As of March 2014, the District of Columbia and just eleven states have accepted the standards: [...]
When I was in school, I was one of those kids who hated gym class. I would purposely strike out during kickball so that I could return to the bench as soon as possible; I would let myself get hit when playing dodge ball rather than spend the energy swerving; and I always walked the mile during the annual presidential fitness test, linking [...]
Throughout high school, I had teachers who would rejoice whenever anyone spoke up in class—particularly when they were answering a question correctly. Additionally, they would barely reprimand any student for causing any type of raucous behavior within the classroom. Students loved these teachers. However, I also had teachers who would offer no acknowledgment beyond “correct” when a student answered a question with the [...]
(TAC) isn’t your average arts education organization. In fact, through an interview with its co-founder Kim Guzowski, I learned there isn’t anything average about TAC. From its inception in the fall of 2012, TAC has been a confluence of theatrical production professionals, artisans and educators creating educational experiences in which students apply their knowledge as tools to build, make and create. TAC is the [...]
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) published the 2010 results of the geography portion of their National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) given to fourth, eighth and twelfth graders. The results revealed that nearly 30 percent of tested students were below the Basic knowledge level. The NAEP defines the Basic achievement level as “partial mastery of the knowledge and skills fundamental for proficient work at each grade.” In [...]
When the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) results came out in 2012, they received more attention than usual because of the recent changes in educational policy. Measured against 64 other countries, 33 of which are other member nations of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), American teenagers came in seventeenth in reading, twenty-first in science and twenty-sixth in math. The rankings were [...]
When I was a kid, the best days in school were always the days we would build something in science class. I still remember the day we learned about solids and liquids by making Oobleck, a non-Newtonian fluid. The concoction was a cornstarch-and-water mix that was a solid when you rolled the mess in between your hands but turned into a liquid as soon [...]
Recently, Georgia State University (GSU) has increased its graduation rate by 22 percent thanks to recent changes in the way it is handling its academic advising program. One of these changes includes using a new type of software created by the Education Advisory Board (EAB). The software aids students and academic advisers by sending alerts to both parties when academic issues start to arise. For [...]
The Great Recession of 2008 that rocked the United States for more than a year made many aspects of life difficult for Americans, including the decision to attend a four-year college program. With college tuition prices mounting, it was helpful for many that there was also an increase in the amount of federal aid offered during the time of and right after the [...]
Many American students are overwhelmed at the thought of education beyond the high-school level, particularly when confronted with the idea of having a STEM-based job. STEM is the acronym defined as “science, technology, engineering and math,” and majors leading to careers in these fields, despite encouragement by educators and administrators, are not seeing the growth necessary to sustain the future workforce. In an article from The [...]