The U.S. Education Department has announced that it has provided an unprecedented amount of aid to turn around struggling high schools, while an independent report found that the nation's high school graduation rate is on the rise.

The federal announcement and the report from America's Promise Alliance, a nonprofit organization founded by former secretary of state Colin Powell, reflected a coordinated response to what some experts have called high school "dropout factories."

Through the 2009 economic stimulus law, the government has targeted $3.5 billion to improve persistently low-performing schools. On Tuesday, November 30, the department disclosed that 48% of the 730 schools that have set turnaround plans in motion through those grants are high schools, a higher share, officials say, than high schools normally receive because federal education aid usually is tilted toward elementary and middle schools that qualify for the anti-poverty program known as Title I. Read more in The Washington Post online.

The 2010 edition of the annual Guide to U.S. Department of Education Programs is now available in hard copy and on CD. This resource discusses how the Department of Education advances its programmatic mission. The guide profiles more than 230 programs and activities including information on funding amounts and the number of grant awards available, program descriptions, types of projects, and more. Get your free copy of the guide online.

For the first time in more than 20 years, Minnesota will require a new licensure exam for aspiring K-12 teachers.

It comes as the state is adding more requirements to get a teaching license -- including student teachers videotaping a classroom lesson -- and as teachers are being held more accountable for student learning.

Educators hope the new test, the Minnesota Teacher Licensure Examination, will provide higher standards catered to the state's curriculum and a more rigorous scoring process. About 3,400 people apply to teach in Minnesota each year.

Read more about the test in The Star Tribune online.

The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) has convened a Blue Ribbon Panel on Clinical Preparation and Partnerships for Improved Student Learning. The expert panel, made up of education experts and critics, calls for teacher education to be “turned upside down” by revamping programs to place clinical practice at the center of teacher preparation. This new vision of preparation also will require the development of partnerships with school districts in which teacher education becomes a shared responsibility between preK-12 schools and higher education.

The new approaches will involve changing policies and procedures in both state higher education and preK-12 education systems, including policies and practices that are no longer relevant to today’s needs. Eight states—California, Colorado, Louisiana, Maryland, New York, Ohio, Oregon, and Tennessee—have already agreed to implement the panel’s recommendations. For further reading, visit the NCATE website.  

 

On November 9, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan released the U.S. Department of Education's plan for transforming American education through technology. The National Education Technology Plan (NETP) was written and refined by leading education researchers over an 18-month period. Input about the plan was given by the public, industry officials, educators, and students from across the country. The IRA was among those that gave input as it filed comments about the plan in May 2010.  

The plan, titled Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology, presents a model with key goals in five areas: learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure, and productivity. Each section has guidelines for using technology to transform education, aiming to achieve these goals by 2015.

 

“With this technology plan, we have laid out a comprehensive vision for how teachers working with technology can transform student learning in classrooms across America. We must dramatically improve teaching and learning, personalize instruction, and ensure that the educational environments we offer to all students keep pace with the 21st century," said Duncan. Read the full plan here.