Five education chiefs have created a new group to press a policy agenda topped by school choice and performance-driven evaluations for teachers and principals. The founding members of Chiefs for Change are superintendents from Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Rhode Island and Virginia. The five education leaders put these at the top of their list: “value-added” ways of evaluating teachers and principals; more rigorous accountability systems based not on inputs but results; raising academic standards; and expanding school choice.The Foundation for Excellence in Education – headed by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush – has agreed to provide the group with financial support. The five chiefs will continue to work with the Council of Chief State School Officers. The article is in Education Week.

A major squabble between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his adversaries on K-12 funding early in his administration has had a positive outcome: higher test scores in many of the state’s lowest performing schools. That is the finding of a report to be released today by the California Teachers Association on a nearly $3 billion program established as a result of a settlement to a lawsuit filed against Schwarzenegger by the CTA and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell five years ago. The article is in the Huffington Post.

After dropping for decades, average class sizes in American schools may be growing again as schools cope with budget shortfalls. Although some educators see the rising numbers as a worrisome trend, others see an opportunity for innovation. The national ratio of students to their teachers fell between 1980 and 2008, from 17.6 to 15.8 students per public school teacher, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Because the statistics count special education and other specialized teachers who normally have much smaller classes than regular teachers do, the U.S. Department of Education estimates the current average class size at more like 25 students. That number is likely to rise, given states’ and districts’ financial constraints, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said last week at a Washington forum. The article is in Education Week.

Researchers say the lure of these technologies, while it affects adults too, is particularly powerful for young people. The risk, they say, is that developing brains can become more easily habituated than adult brains to constantly switching tasks — and less able to sustain attention.  “Their brains are rewarded not for staying on task but for jumping to the next thing,” said Michael Rich, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and executive director of the Center on Media and Child Health in Boston. And the effects could linger: “The worry is we’re raising a generation of kids in front of screens whose brains are going to be wired differently.”  But even as some parents and educators express unease about students’ digital diets, they are intensifying efforts to use technology in the classroom, seeing it as a way to connect with students and give them essential skills. Across the country, schools are equipping themselves with computers, Internet access and mobile devices so they can teach on the students’ technological territory.  The article is in The New York Times.

A report from the Center for Studies in Higher Education at the University of California, Berkeley, has analyzed the challenges faced by tertiary education in California and its relationship to economic growth – and proposes some radical solutions. California now ranks among the bottom 10 states in the US for access to higher education and in degree completion rates. Struggling to respond to its current status, public higher education in the state is facing off against other highly publicized challenges, including the impact of the current economic crisis and the increasingly predatory recruitment strategies of the for-profit sector.

In addition to offering greater institutional diversity and mission differentiation to the state-wide University of California (UC), regionally-oriented California State University (CSU) and local California Community College (CCC) systems, the report encourages the state to set realistic educational attainment goals.

The article is in University World News.

STEM education in helping to drive innovation and scientific discovery, and to maintain the nation’s economic competitiveness. Education in the STEM subjects include: Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics where “talents are discovered and passions are lit, and the future scientists, engineers, inventors, entrepreneurs are born” said President Obama in first annual White House science fair celebrating winners of STEM-focused student competitions.

President Obama emphasizes the need to inspire more young people to engage in the STEM fields.  It gives them a chance to work closely with the business community where in some industries, leaders see STEM education as vital to their bottom lines.

Read more on the Education Week

“The nation that educates its children the best will be the nation that leads the global economy in the 21st century,” Obama said during brief remarks in the White House Rose Garden. President Obama said today the U.S. is engaged with what he termed as an “Education Arms Race” competing with growing nations such as China and India, and cannot afford to lose if it wants the economy to recover.

“We’ve got to make sure that in good times or bad, our families can invest in their children future and in the future of our country,” Obama said. The president called on Congress to extend the credit that covers college tuition of up to $10,000 over four years.

Read more on USAToday.com

Waiting for “Superman“ is an inspiring documentary which analyzes the failures, issues, challenges, and opportunities facing America’s current education system. Director Davis Guggenhein (Oscar®—winning filmmaker An Inconvenient Truth) and producer Lesley Chilcott, in this movie follow a handful of promising kids through a system that inhibits, rather than encourages, academic growth.

During its opening weekend in New York City and Los Angeles, the film grossed $141,000 in four theaters, averaging a strong $35,250 per theater.

Davis in his film jogs our memory to the education “statistics” that have names such as: Anthony, Francisco, Bianca, Daisy, and Emily, whose heartbreaking family stories  relentlessly seek ‘good’ from public, religious or charter schools for their children. This is what essentially makes up the gripping foundation of WAITING FOR SUPERMAN. Davis  undertakes an extensive review of public education, surveying “drop-out factories” and “academic sinkholes,” methodically scrutinizing the system and its seemingly intractable problems. Read more…

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Publishing giant Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is making a $400 million investment to back up the company’s increasing emphasis on putting more technology into classrooms.The investment announced Monday includes $100 million in incubator money for technology supporting student achievement.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt CEO Barry O’Callaghan says his company can provide capital and product expertise to budding educational entrepreneurs. The Boston-based company also plans to invest $300 million over the next three years developing its own technology, such as a pilot algebra application for the Apple iPad currently being tested by 400 California students. Read more on U.S. News

The College Board released data today on SAT scores for college-bound seniors in 2010, Female high school students have shown to be better students on average compared to male high school students, and they are equally or better prepared than males for the math SAT exam based on the number and level of math classes taken in high school. Yet, male students scored significantly higher on the SAT math test than females, and the statistically significant male-female test score gap of more than 30 points persists over time. Here are some highlights of the results relating to the 2010 SAT Math test:

1.       Continuing a trend that has persisted for many decades, high school boys continued to score significantly higher on the SAT Math test that their female counterparts, by 34 points this year.

2.      The gender differences in SAT Math test scores prevail for all ethnic groups, with the following male-female point differences: American Indian (29 points), Asian (28 points), Black (14 points), Mexican-American (35 points), Puerto Rican (30 points) and white (36 points).

3.      For top scores of 800 points, there were 8,072 males and 3,887 females with perfect scores, for a boy:girl ratio in favor of boys of 2.08 to 1.

Read More of the analysis on the Benzinga.com