Obama Calls for Longer School Year

"President Obama said on the 'Today' show Monday morning that American students attend school a month less than kids in other countries -- contending that the school-year gap puts them at a competitive disadvantage in the global economy."

Obama's New Goal: 10,000 New Science, Tech, Engineering, and Math Teachers

"President Obama set a new goal today of recruiting 10,000 new teachers in science, technology, engineering, and math, calling these subjects essential to competing in the 21st century global economy."

Secret to Teen Health, Happiness: Sports

"Young teens who play sports feel healthier and happier about life than those who do not, U.S. researchers say."

Girls May Learn Math Anxiety From Female Teachers

"Now, a study of first- and second-graders suggests what may be part of the answer: Female elementary school teachers who are concerned about their own math skills could be passing that along to the little girls they teach."

Report: Poor Science Education Impairs U.S. Economy

"Stagnant scientific education imperils U.S. economic leadership, says a report by leading business and science figures."

Merit Pay Study: Teacher Bonuses Don't Raise Student Test Scores

"Offering middle-school math teachers bonuses up to $15,000 did not produce gains in student test scores, Vanderbilt University researchers reported Tuesday in what they said was the first scientifically rigorous test of merit pay."

Fitter Children Have Better Test Scores

"U.S. researchers link brain development in children ages 9-10 to physical fitness."

What Common Standards for Schools Can and Can't Do

"Today states, school districts, and in some cases individual schools are allowed to set both their academic standards and the tests to determine whether students are reaching them. In other words, lots of different entities get to decide whether to call themselves "education capitals.'"

What Makes a School Great

"At least 12 states have passed laws requiring student-progress data to be used in making teacher-evaluation or tenure decisions, a notion that would have been unimaginable five years ago. And 35 states and the District of Columbia have agreed to adopt common standards for what kids should learn at every grade level."

U.S. Asks Educators to Reinvent Student Tests, and How They Are Given

"Standardized exams — the multiple-choice, bubble tests in math and reading that have played a growing role in American public education in recent years — are being overhauled. Over the next four years, two groups of states, 44 in all, will get $330 million to work with hundreds of university professors and testing experts to design a series of new assessments that officials say will look very different from those in use today."

New Study: Young Children Surprisingly Perceptive

". . .a paper published recently in the journal Psychological Science shows that very young children can be far more attuned to the 'desires, preferences, beliefs [and] emotions' of others, including adults, than the Piaget theory assumes."

Japan Fattens Textbooks to Reverse Sliding Rank

"Alarmed that its children are falling behind those in rivals such as South Korea and Hong Kong, Japan is adding about 1,200 pages to elementary school textbooks. The textbooks across all subjects for six years of elementary school now total about 4,900 pages, and will go up to nearly 6,100."

Sister: 'Little Rock Nine' Member's Mission was Education for All

"Jefferson Thomas was risking his well-being by leaving an African-American school for Little Rock's all-white Central High School with eight other students in 1957. But a simple comparison of the schools' biology classes helped compel the then-15-year-old to go through with it, his sister Alma Hildreth recalled Monday, a day after Thomas died of cancer at age 67."

Formula to Grade Teachers’ Skill Gains Acceptance, and Critics

"A growing number of school districts have adopted a system called value-added modeling to answer that question, provoking battles from Washington to Los Angeles — with some saying it is an effective method for increasing teacher accountability, and others arguing that it can give an inaccurate picture of teachers’ work."