ChildUp – Jeanne McGovern

“Ellen Galinsky was not planning to write a book about the essential life skills all kids need to succeed. But when, in the course of conducting a research project, she noticed too many kids were “turned off to learning,” her job became clear.
“These kids were not just dropping out of school — they were dropping out of learning,” said Galinsky, who is president and co-founder of the Families and Work Institute and a well-respected author. “When they talked about learning, their faces were expressionless.”(more)

Education Week – Lesli A. Maxwell

“California’s schools chief has assigned a team of experts to focus exclusively on the needs of California’s estimated 1.5 million English-language learners as the state embarks on numerous initiatives to improve the achievement of students who are learning English in public schools.”(more)

Education Week – Erik W. Robelen

“At a time when U.S. political and business leaders are raising concerns about the need to better nurture creativity and innovative thinking among young people, several states are exploring the development of an index that would gauge the extent to which schools provide opportunities to foster those qualities.”(more)

NPR – Nancy Shute

“Grade-schoolers are supposed to be riding in booster seats. But anyone who’s ever chauffeured a bunch of second-graders can tell you that the day will come when you don’t have enough boosters to go around. Faced with this obvious safety risk, most parents (including this one) buckle up the kids without boosters, and pray.”(more)

The Huffington Post – Scott Barry Kaufman, Ph.D. & Kevin McGrew

“Unfortunately, all too often educational policies and systems reward those with a high IQ, and limit those who, for a number of potential reasons, don’t perform well on IQ tests. Many believe that a person’s intelligence is a genetically determined, largely fixed, global, and enduring trait that explains most of a student’s success or failure in school. The reality is this: intelligence is not fixed, it takes many different forms, and IQ test scores are not sufficient metrics by which to form pinpoint accurate expectations about any particular individual’s likelihood of future academic success. They can only provide a range of possible levels of expected achievement.”(more)

The Huffington Post – Staff Writer

“Getting young children to eat their servings of fruits and veggies, particularly in school, has been a long and hard struggle for parents, schools and lawmakers over the years. But a new study suggests that a quick fix could be as simple as showing kids some pictures.”(more)

Education News – B. A. Birch

“Alabama lawmakers are looking at implementing charter schools to give parents and students more educational choice.”(more)

Education News – Julia Steiny

“If a kid’s not listening, she’s not learning. If the kid’s not even in school, she’s certainly not listening. Showing up every day and on time are skills absolutely necessary to success, especially at the entry level of any job or profession. Who would argue? And yet, high absenteeism is a huge problem across the nation.”(more)

The Guardian – Alison Wolf

“Young people all over Europe face a daunting labour market, and school qualifications are critically important to their job prospects. An education system that ignores labour market realities is failing in its duty. In the review of vocational education that I carried out for the government last year, I concluded England was doing exactly that.”(more)

BBC – Sean Coughlan

“Pupils who shout out in class achieve better results than their counterparts who appear to be better behaved and quiet, suggests research. A study of primary school pupils found children who “blurt out” responses perform better in maths and English.”(more)