ODYSSEYWARE

Dedicated to providing the most efficient and effective eLearning solutions to public and charter schools today, ODYSSEYWARE is pleased to announce a full slate of practical enhancements to our technology-driven online curriculum.

1. Both teachers and administrators now have the ability to activate or inactivate students with a new batching feature.

2. Users can now delete custom courses and assignments. Read more »

What does it take to be the best? When it comes to high schools, Newsweek has decided that it all comes down to one thing: the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, or Cambridge tests given at a school each year divided by the number of graduating seniors. One point should be noted: the scores of students taking these tests don’t matter. Read more »

Starting in 2009, a new law took effect in South Dakota requiring high school students to stay in school until age 18. Not the only state to follow the trend of raising the legal age to drop out, South Dakota educators are asking themselves how they can get students back and offer them the sort of program that will not only allow them to get a diploma, but make it realistic and practical. 

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With the renewal of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) looming, Barack Obama and company have been trying to address one of the biggest and most talked about drawbacks in the current version of the law. It seems that everyone agrees that No Child Left Behind (NCLB) places too much emphasis on students’ test scores in core disciplines while ignoring other needs necessary for real learning to take place. Read more »

In an address to more than 400 educators in Peoria last week, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan noted that cuts to education programs and spending less time in school are the opposite of what students need. According to Duncan, “None of this is moving the country in the right direction.”

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Students seeking success in the classroom this year will have an extra incentive to achieve higher results. President Obama has announced that he will give public high schools the chance to compete to have him speak at their graduation ceremonies. To do so, schools need to prove that they are moving toward the goals of achieving higher graduation rates with higher scores for its students. From Yahoo News:

‘Public schools that encourage systemic reform and embrace effective approaches to teaching and learning help prepare America’s students to graduate ready for college and a career,’ Obama said in a video announcing the competition, called The Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge.

Good luck to schools as they prepare for this honor! Although the details have yet to be announced, schools will be expected to make significant gains in their yearly progress and submit an application to the President, explaining why their school would be a good fit for his commencement speech. This is a very innovative and interesting incentive for schools this year!

Whether they’re a fan of veteran ski racer Bode Miller, charismatic snowboarder Shaun White, or elegant and perky figure skater Sasha Cohen, your students are gathered around a screen of some size, somewhere watching Olympic athletes go for the gold. Once every four years you have the opportunity to capitalize on this midwinter enthusiasm by creating teaching moments as they arise.

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Kentucky is a state accustomed to being first; rumor holds that it was the first state to produce the cheeseburger and the first of many states to use Washington as a town name (after our first President). Although the 15th state to be incorporated into the Union, it has traditionally laid claim to the original ideals of the 13 colonies and can trumpet the Kentucky Derby as the standard in horse racing events. It is the oldest in the nation on that count. This week, however, Kentucky also became the first to incorporate the national standards set forth in the Common Core State Standards Initiative, which have slowly come into being since last year’s meeting of the National Governors Association. The standards, while voluntary, have been claimed by many to be the first step toward a uniform educational measure for all states, or at least those that choose to join. Education Week highlights some of the challenges that remain in fully implementing the shift.

Bringing the state’s 47,000 teachers up to speed on the new standards, and helping them translate those ideas into curriculum for the classroom, will take time and money, educators said.

‘Teachers need time to reach agreement on what the standards mean for day-to-day instruction,’ said Ms. Young, who chairs a panel that advises the state education department on curriculum, instruction, and assessment issues.

Good luck to Kentucky as it begins to set the standard for other states seeking to join the Common Core. Because the standards are only in their infancy, much more will need to be learned on how effective they are; however, many educators seem genuinely excited for taking a different approach

E-rate has made a name for itself in schools with telecommunications funding, especially in rural areas that need access to technology but all too often are consumed by budget needs to purchase computers. E-rate becomes an asset in this manner and can give a much needed boost to technology budgets through the help of federal funding. The problem, however, is that the program is often too onerous to navigate for school administrators who spend much of their day dealing with the day-in, day-out tasks of maintaining order in school to sit down and put pen to paper and apply for funding. According to The Education Week:

Such frustrations have become synonymous with the E-rate. The program is credited with helping most of the nation’s schools move into the Internet age—just 14 percent of K-12 classrooms had access when the program was created in 1996, compared with more than 95 percent today.

But confusion over which services qualify for discounts, the extent of the requirements for addressing Internet safety and access, and a paper trail laborious enough to frighten even the most seasoned of bureaucrats, have hindered plans in some districts to expand the use of digital tools, experts say.

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If matchmaking can be done for singles seeking the perfect mate, why not for students seeking their perfect match in education, complete with the right STEM-proficient minds to lead them?

Today they can. Introduced last November by a coalition of educators and science and engineering associations, National Lab Day aims to inspire a new generation to innovate and collaborate, by teaming up veteran scientists and engineers with students in grades K-12. The result: lots of kids having fun with science all across America, and with a little luck, igniting a passion for STEM disciplines in these young scientists. It’s a nationwide initiative set to build local communities of support to foster ongoing collaborations among volunteers, students, and educators, with the focus on STEM.

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