Ed Policy

Education policy consists of news, commentary and stories that follow legislation and government action in the educational sphere.
Ed Policy

CA Leaders Converge at STEM Education Summit

Getting Smart Staff

With California business, civic and education leaders sounding alarm bells about the vital need to bolster the state’s lagging science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education, the California STEM Learning Network (CSLNet) is convening business, government, education, nonprofit and philanthrophic luminaries to jump-start new STEM education initiatives at the 2012 California STEMSummit taking place October 15 and 16 at the Sheraton San Diego.
Ed Policy

iNACOL Hosts Webinar On Race to the Top District (RTT-D)

Guest Author

Here is one more opportunity to listen to another perspective that will provide you more information about the role that digital learning can play in a successful application. This webinar is brought to you by the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) on Friday, August 31 4-5 pm ET. If you’d like to attend for free, please register here: http://www.inacol.org/events/webinar/special_edition.php.
Ed Policy

Changes in the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools

Guest Author

Change is hard – something that those in the education community may know better than most. Whether it is changing a school culture, a child’s life prospects, policymakers’ thoughts on accountability, or voters’ minds on a bond referendum, educators are constantly on the lookout for evidence that they are succeeding as change agents. Sometimes that evidence seems scarce, particularly at a national level, as policymakers push education in ways we don’t always like and rhetoric indicates that we are to blame for a great number of society’s problems.
Ed Policy

Curriculum Associates Releases New ‘Ready’ Program For Common Core

Getting Smart Staff

Curriculum Associates, LLC, has introduced an all-new print program to ensure student success on the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Built specifically for the new standards and using the language of the CCSS, Ready™ Common Core offers students in grades 3–8 rigorous instruction and practice in math and reading while also offering teachers multilevel resources and tools to easily implement these lessons.
Ed Policy

Poverty: High on the Edu Agenda, Not a Campaign Issue

Tom Vander Ark

Frank McCaughey is a teacher in the Bronx where 80 percent of the students in his school live in or near poverty. Frank posted a blog today, “The Biggest Challenge I Face in my Classroom,” where he urged policy makers to take on “the devastation that extreme poverty…
Ed Policy

Principles for Model Online & Blended Learning Legislation

Getting Smart Staff

The International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) released a Statement of Principles for Model Legislation in States.  The principles are fully aligned with Digital Learning Now!, a framework for state policy released in 2010. The principles are a useful guide not only for state policy…
Ed Policy

SOPA and PIPA Polling Lower than the BP Oil Spill

Adam Renfro

How will SOPA and PIPA affect online education? It will be the collateral damage. On the surface, both bills seem reasonable. Both bills seek to give power to law enforcement to stop access to “rogue” websites that abuse copyright and exchange counterfeit goods. The bills focus on foreign websites; however, U.S. based Internet companies and technology leaders fear the bills are over-reaching and will have chilling effects on Internet freedoms in the U.S.