- Many of us have probably dozed off in class, and now $1.1 million in grants will go toward keeping classroom engagement alive. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is funding development of bracelets that measure physiological responses related to engagement; ideally before students can fall asleep on learning.
- Little boys need to get interested in reading! At least, this is the message in a recent Columbus Dispatch article. In light of the recently approved reading guarantee, Columbus City Schools has generated a seemingly obvious, but useful conclusion: to get boys excited about reading, we have to provide what appeals to them. So whether it’s a literary classic, Captain Underpants, or a comic book, reading should be fundamental.
- Dayton has reason to boast this school year. Preliminary results from the Ohio Graduation Test (OGT) show that area public schools are scoring higher than the state average. The OGT will be revised in 2014-15 to meet Common Core Standards. Hopefully this successful trend will continue
- Students yet to graduate are anxious about the job market, with good reason. What do employers want? According to Charis McGaughy and many others at the Higher Education Compact of Greater Cleveland’s college readiness symposium, employers want someone “who can think.” McGaughy states that “it’s a problem when students are pushed to memorize facts they’ll forget, but not challenged to think about skills and content needed in the real world.”