Top 10 education news and trends of 2009

Greta’s Note: Thank you for your interest and support for law and education, and I hope to talk to you in the new year! 10. New technological innovations such as e-textbooks, tutoring software, virtual schools and distance learning, and student performance-tracking programs are helping students learn better and changing the dynamics of the student-teacher relationship. [...]

Duly noted: Dec 21 – Dec 27, 2009

Happy holidays!  This is the last edition of Duly Noted this year.  Enjoy and see you in the new year! Race to the Top is driving state policy action across the nation as state governors and legislatures look for ways to alleviate their budgetary woes.  The Department of Education estimates that competing for the funds [...]

Not quite post-racial at the Chicago public schools

Has Chicago, the city that gave us Obama, arrived at a post-racial era in its public school system?  Last week, the New York Times reported that the city’s public schools have decided to use student socio-economic profiles rather than race to assign students to schools. Those who believe that race is merely a clumsy and inaccurate [...]

Duly noted: Dec 14 – Dec 20, 2009

In response to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that prohibited school districts from using racial data to assign students, the Chicago public school system is using socio-economic profiles rather than race to increase diversity, raising fears that gains in racial diversity might be erased. The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority approved a “doomsday budget” for [...]

The California tuition protests: much ado about very little?

Anger over the tuition increase at the University of California erupted into several protests and resulted in numerous arrests last week.  Protesters used tactics that included throwing incendiary devices at police cars, vandalizing the home of the chancellor of University of California, and breaking in and barricading themselves inside university buildings. Given that students are so [...]

Duly noted: Dec 7 – Dec 13, 2009

Anger over the University of California tuition increase continues.  Students barricaded themselves into a San Francisco State University building.  26 were arrested.  In addition, 8 people were arrested at UC-Berkeley for breaking windows, lights, and planters outside the home of the chancellor of the University of California.  On Friday night, 40-70 protester threw incendiary devices at [...]

Idea of the day: using e-books to learn about learning

Amazon.com tells me that the Kindle is the hottest holiday gift this holiday season.  And not long ago, several law professors had a lively discussion of law e-textbooks on a prominent law blog.  It seems that, ready or not, widespread use of e-textbooks are just around the corner. To be sure, traditional paper textbooks will not [...]

Why learning should be less fun

In his speech addressing the nation today, President Obama mentioned, once again, the well-known fact that that the math and science scores of U.S. students lag behind the students of many other industrialized countries, including China, Finland, and Singapore.  The weak scores have long been the worry for American educators.  They are partly what the Race [...]

Duly noted: Nov 30 – Dec 6, 2009

Micro-financing of student loans in the developing world is the hot new trend in education and international development.  Vittana Foundation, which provides loans to would-be students in the developing world, has an innovative model of philanthropy.  Loans are given directly by visitors to the website and sent to particular students that the lenders choose.  The [...]

Religious speech in school: religion or speech?

My previous post discusses the tension between the Establishment Clause and the Free-Exercise Clause in the First Amendment.  In the school context, much of the tension centers on what public school educators can or cannot do.  But a couple of recent cases involving religious speech demonstrate that the tension exists for students as well. Unlike with [...]