Education News

One of my fears with picking a roommate is that I might not end up getting along with him and then I will regret not having the selection be made randomly.    

Finland's Pasi Sahlberg is one of the world's leading experts on school reform and the author of the best-selling "Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn About Educational Change in Finland?" In this piece he writes about whether the emphasis that American school reformers put on "teacher effectiveness" is really the best approach to improving student achievement.

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What teams do you follow or play for? How loyal a fan are you? What bitter defeats have they suffered, and how did you react? When have you been most disappointed by a team? Why?    

Why did Angelina Jolie write an Op-Ed in this week’s New York Times, and what do you think about what she wrote?    

Can you calculate the distance from Earth to planets that are 1,200 light years away?    

The president of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, called late last month for a moratorium on the high stakes attached to new Common Core-aligned standardized tests. (You can read about that here.) Here's a piece in support of that call, written by Jeff Bryant, an Associate Fellow at the Campaign for America's Future and the owner of a marketing and communications consultancy. It serves numerous organizations including Human Rights Watch, Doctors Without Borders, PBS, and International Planned Parenthood Foundation. He writes extensively about public education policy at ourfuture.org. Follow Jeff on Twitter: jeffbcdm

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See what you know about the news of the day.    

Eastern Slovakia’s elementary schools are a microcosm of one of Europe’s biggest challenges: how to bring its most disadvantaged minority into the mainstream.    

This word has appeared in 18 New York Times articles in the past year.    

Some people who have retired from their jobs go for advanced degrees, either for a new career or for the thrill of learning for themselves.    

The music business partners Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre gave $70 million to the University of Southern California to start an academic program for the development of creative entrepreneurs.    

Montgomery County school board members voiced alarm Tuesday about steep failure rates on last semester’s final exams in high school math courses, saying such problems go back many years and raising questions about school policies that might affect student test performance.

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The Georgia Institute of Technology will offer a master’s degree in computer science that can be earned entirely through so-called massive open online courses, or MOOCs.    

Charles Steger, the Virginia Tech University president who led the college during the 2007 mass shooting, this week announced plans to retire as soon as a successor is found.    

Virginia Tech President Charles W. Steger has shepherded the public university for more than 13 years, overseeing enviable growth in scientific research, financial endowment, student enrollment and national prestige.

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This Friday, I will be the third person in my entire family to graduate from high school. This is so important to me, and it’s so strange that my senior year is coming to an end.