Open Education Week: 5 Successful Projects That Are Expanding Student Access

This week, educators, learners, and advocates are gathering to celebrate National Open Education Week (March 27-31). The OER (open educational resources) movement has been expanding over the past decade, driven by the critical goal of increasing equity and access to learning. And the data continues to show that OER is gaining real traction, empowering teachers and schools to improve educational access in more than 50 different countries. In today’s post, we’ve highlighted a few examples of OER projects in the U.S. that are making a big impact. If you’re looking for ways to participate online in Open Education Week, we’ve…
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This Week: Top Headlines in Education

Happy National Open Education Week! All week long, hundreds of contributors and participants from at least 50 different countries are hosting events and sharing ways to embrace open educational resources (OER) – a movement that has been enriching teaching and learning on a global scale. This annual awareness campaign first began in 2012 and has gained the attention of K-12 and postsecondary educators, students and lifelong learners, advocacy and nonprofit groups, and education service providers. To celebrate Open Education Week, we’ll be dedicating the next two posts to OER, including examples of how it’s adding value to schools and the…
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This Week: Top Headlines in Education

Earlier this month, the SXSWedu Conference in Austin brought together experts from K-12 and higher education on a number of topics, including how a district can transform when teachers are given more input and agency (we’ll be covering more highlights from SXSWedu later this week). Also, read about this week’s top stories on the decline of Apple devices in the classroom, what policymakers ignore about achievement gaps, the fastest growing segments in ed tech, and more below. Are Teachers K-12’s Greatest Untapped Innovation Engines? At SXSWedu, two K-12 administrators and a district leader from Texas shared their insights on how…
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This Week: Top Headlines in Education

This week, the attention on education has been on the House and Senate, which have been making sweeping changes to the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives overturned multiple ESSA rules under the Congressional Review Act, allowing lawmakers to spike federal regulations. The Senate passed a similar resolution this past Thursday, which President Trump has indicated he will sign. While this still keeps ESSA in place, the changes would grant more power to Betsy DeVos in how it will be applied. Read the New York Times feature about the latest updates on ESSA and…
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This Week: Top Headlines in Education

After months of speculation, educators and activists are starting to get a clearer picture of what and how the Trump administration will do about education this year. As anticipated in previous months, they are putting their faith in moving to school vouchers. In President Trump’s first school visit since he took office, he talked about his plan to promote vouchers, which critics fear may take funding away from the public school system. Also in this week’s feature in Education Week, education experts examine some of the potential problems that the national budget plan may present in K-12. Read more from…
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The Student Life Cycle: What K-12 Can Learn from Higher Ed

On the college campus, educators frequently toss around the buzz phrase “student life cycle.” What exactly is it? This approach helps academic leaders analyze, anticipate, and seek ways to improve a freshman student’s success in their first year of college. The life cycle model suggests looking at a student’s first year in a well-rounded way, taking into consideration a variety of factors that could either positively or negatively contribute to a student’s persistence and achievement through the rest of their college years: the state of the student-teacher relationship, physical environment, student participation, vocational interest or direction, personal development, and academic…
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This Week: Top Headlines in Education

After the long-fought battle against her confirmation on Capitol Hill, Secretary Betsy DeVos has been stirring things up in her first few weeks on the job. Among other things, she has attacked public school teachers, bashed protesters, did not participate in the first Twitter chat her department had for teachers on Feb. 21, added more confusion on Common Core Standards, and made it clear her priority will be pushing for school choice. This week, we offer up some of the latest insights on potential policy challenges and changes to expect in education this year and other top stories on ed…
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This Week: Top Headlines in Education

It’s a critical time particularly for states, as leaders are scrambling to finalize the ESSA accountability plans for their state. This year, there’s a particularly large number of new policymakers coming on board, which has many advocates and district leaders on edge. In prior years state policymakers had some room to get up to speed, but on the first day of their jobs last month, they had an extraordinary set of challenges in how to turn around their lowest-performing schools, allocate funding, retool evaluation systems. Read Education Week’s feature on this year’s freshman class of state leaders and the rest…
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This Week: Top Headlines in Education

There are rising concerns about science education, particularly as colleges and universities report significant drops in student interest and enrollment within the first year. Recently, the National Board on Science Education brought together practicing scientists and members to discuss ways they could improve awareness and understanding of STEM fields through partnering with K-12 schools. Read more about how scientists are prioritizing K-12 education and the rest of this week’s education stories. Scientists Take on New Roles in K-12 Classrooms The grim truth about the increasing dropouts in college science is causing practicing scientists to rethink how they can improve interest…
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Video and Mobile Learning: What the Research Says

Digital learning is getting a major boost – great news for education. A 2017 report from the Fosway Group, one of Europe’s top HR and learning analyzers, pointed out that there are fast-growing investments in digital learning platforms and content. Of the learning and development professionals surveyed, the biggest demands they are seeing in new technologies have been focused in video learning (77 percent) and mobile learning (76 percent). Today, video and mobile are dominating as optimal ways that people consume content and learn. They’ve have been on the rise for a few years, becoming much more than passing trends. Let’s…
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