EVERYTHING’S BIGGER IN TEXAS EXCEPT FOR SOME STUFF IN CALIFORNIA
At a news conference Monday, Greg Abbott, the Governor-elect of Texas, said that he was disturbed by “the fact that five of the top ten public universities in the country are from California, with none being from Texas.” Abbot asserted that improving the state’s public education would be his top priority, specifically pointing to early childhood education and postsecondary opportunities as areas with room for improvement.
THE LAST NCLB WAIVER EXTENSION OF 2014 GOES TO...
Despite the ongoing legal battles between Governor Bobby Jindal and State Superintendent John White over the use of Common Core-aligned tests, the U.S. Department of Education has granted Louisiana a No Child Left Behind waiver extension. It appears that Jindal’s political stand against standards did little to hurt the state’s chances of receiving an extension.
ANIMAL CRACKERS AND QUADRATIC EQUATIONS
It may come as a surprise, but many preschool students receive less than one minute of math instruction each day. In a new $25 million study funded by the Robin Hood Foundation, researchers will set out to see if introducing a new math intervention in preschool will have long-term effects on graduation rates. The study is based on previous research indicating that early math skills may be the single strongest predictor for high school graduation, and they support other development including verbal and meta-cognitive skills.
WONDER WHO SCHEDULED THIS ONE?
In yet another successful melding of the worlds of celebrity and public policy, the singer Shakira will join Secretary of Education Arne Duncan for a Twitter Q+A tomorrow on early childhood education. (The Colombian star serves on the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics.) The event will be followed by a panel on new biofuel grants featuring Energy Secretary Dr. Ernest Moniz and rapper/philosopher Ja Rule.
