Study: Schools Face Shortfalls After Stimulus Ends

"Using federal stimulus money to avoid layoffs at schools is going to create a shortfall even more difficult for states and schools to contend with when that money runs out, according to a first-of-its-kind study released Monday."

Studying Young Minds, and How to Teach Them

"For much of the last century, educators and many scientists believed that children could not learn math at all before the age of five, that their brains simply were not ready. But recent research has turned that assumption on its head — that, and a host of other conventional wisdom about geometry, reading, language and self-control in class. The findings, mostly from a branch of research called cognitive neuroscience, are helping to clarify when young brains are best able to grasp fundamental concepts."

48 Dallas ISD Campuses Listed Among Texas' Worst Schools

"Dallas has more public schools rated as failures by the Texas Education Agency than any other district, with 48 campuses among the 499 on this year's list of the state's worst."

Matching Teaching Style to Learning Style May Not Help Students

"'Learning styles' research has been vastly oversold as a teaching tool, four psychologists argue in a new paper."

Sharing Class Won't Affect Twins' School Success: Study

"Twins who share a classroom will do just as well academically as twins placed in separate classes, new research shows, helping resolve a dilemma many parents of multiple children face."

Microsoft, Google in Battle to Win Over Students

"With the recession taking a bite out of university endowments and public school budgets alike, the competition between Google and Microsoft to convert the nation's colleges, universities and schools to the companies' free e-mail and other IT services that run on the Internet 'cloud' — outsourcing that can save a large university hundreds of thousands of dollars a year — has only grown more fierce. With the two companies fighting to baptize a future generation of computer users with their products, the stakes for both are significant."

Video Games Take Bigger Role in Education

"As more children grow up playing video games, educators are partnering with game developers and scientists to create new interactive experiences for the classroom."

Math Scores Show Improvement at Schools in Large U.S. Cities

"Public school students in major metropolitan areas are showing improvement on test scores in mathematics compared with scores from previous years, according to a report released Tuesday by the Department of Education."

Obama Puts $3.5B Toward Fixing Failing Schools

"The Obama administration will spend at least $3.5 billion to push local officials around the country to close failing schools and reopen them with new teachers and principals."

Efforts Under Way to Stem U.S. School Dropout Problem

"Companies like AT&T and groups such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Colin Powell's America's Promise Alliance have analyzed the problem and are funding programs believed to reinvigorate public schools."

Charter Schools: Two Studies, Two Conclusions

"This year, two major studies offer contradictory conclusions on a movement that now counts more than 5,000 charter schools nationwide, including dozens in the District and Maryland and a handful in Virginia."