The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) has released a report which aims to show that student learning can be used to determine the effectiveness of teachers’ instruction methods. Using the results of this study, the Board hopes to be able to make changes and reform national education systems as needed. The report shows the usefulness of large-scale evaluations for determining teachers’ effectiveness, and through the use of this study the most successful teaching methods can be spread and improve the education of students on a wide scale. To read the report, visit the NBPTS website.

A study of Tennessee public pre-kindergarten classes shows that kids who attended such classes showed gained an average 82% more on early literacy and math skills compared to children who did not attend pre-k, according to an article by Richard Locker in the Memphis Commercial Appeal. The studies will continue in order to strengthen the data, but the initial results are impressive and crucial to Tennessee’s funding for pre-kindergarten programs.

Vanderbilt professor Mark Lipsey explains, “The prime objective of Tennessee pre-K is to improve the readiness of economically disadvantaged children to enter kindergarten with better emergent literacy and math skills than they would have otherwise.” The recent study shows that this goal is certainly being reached.

To learn more, read the full article.

According to Bill Gates, while the cost per student of supplying K-12 education has doubled over the past 40 years in the United States, student achievement has remained unchanged. There is a large gap that must be closed between cost and effectiveness, for the sake of educating our children, wrote Gates in a recent editorial for The Washington Post.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is working with educators to evaluate and improve the teaching methods and means used by today’s educators. Gates suggests that the reason teaching has not improved over the past four decades is that there is no concrete way of measuring teacher effectiveness, a problem he and his foundation seek to fix. To learn more, read the full article.

The Specialty Areas Studies Board (SASB) of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) has formally approved IRA's standards for Reading Specialist/Literacy Coach. Use of these standards will be required beginning in fall 2012 for all programs submitting program reports for NCATE review. Their use is optional for programs submitting reports prior to that time.

"Let me take this opportunity to congratulate you and your association for the high quality of your standards," wrote NCATE President James C. Cibulka to IRA Acting Executive Director Mark Mullen in notifying IRA of the acceptance. "We appreciate your commitment to NCATE and look forward to continued productive collaboration."

To access the IRA's Standards for Reading Professionals—Revised 2010, visit this page on the IRA website. To learn more about NCATE and its activities, click here.  

Going to college to earn an advanced degree could keep you healthier in the long run, according to a new study that had discovered a link between education and lower blood pressure.

The research, published earlier this week in the journal BMC Public Health, used data from the Framingham Offspring Study to follow 3,890 subjects for a period of 30 years. To learn about their findings, read the full article by the redOrbit staff in the Health section of the redOrbit website.