This week in education news, physical computing has established a presence in a number of schools around the country; Senator Lamar Alexander is on mission to overhaul the federal Higher Education Act by the end of the year; Sal Khan envisions a future of mastery-based learning; educators teach not just content but a range of skills students will need to be successful as adults; registration for advanced placement exams will move to Nov. 15 starting this fall; performance assessment is not a new idea in K-12 education; and students who can see the impact of their work are often more invested in their learning.

Hatch Gets Environmental Award from SeaWorld

Harrison Middle School EAST Lab teacher Mary Beth Hatch has received a substantial reward for environmental excellence. In the application for the award, Hatch explained that she had decided to make a concerted effort to get her sixth, seventh and eighth grade students outside as much as possible. In order to keep their hands and minds busy, she knew they needed projects for the entire year. Read the article featured in Harrison Daily.

Physical Computing’ Connects Computer Science with Hands-On Learning

Physical computing, an emerging instructional strategy that tries to teach students about computer science and computational thinking through physical tools and hands-on activity, has established a presence in a small number of schools around the country. In many cases, there’s just one teacher or administrator who’s trying it, but supporters of the concept believe its role will grow. Read the article featured in Education Week.

A Mission to Overhaul Higher Education

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, is on a mission to overhaul the federal Higher Education Act by the end of the year – and with his recent track record, he just might do it. Read the article featured in U.S. News & World Report.

Sal Khan Envisions a Future of Active, Mastery-Based Learning

Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy and keynote speaker at the recent 2019 Future of Education Technology Conference in Orlando, discusses how technology will impact education in the years ahead. Read the article in District Administration.

Understanding a Teacher’s Long-Term Impact

As every teacher knows, educators teach not just content but a range of skills students will need to be successful as adults. A recent study shows just how important fostering those skills is: Teachers who help students improve noncognitive skills such as self-regulation raise their grades and likelihood of graduating from high school more than teachers who help them improve their standardized test scores do. Read the article featured in edutopia.

AP Participation, Performance Reach New Highs

Seniors in the class of 2018 took 4.22 million exams — a 65% jump over the past decade — and were more likely to persist when faced with harder material. Read the article featured in Education DIVE.

The International Space Station as a Teaching Tool

We live in a technology-driven world where accelerating innovation and change are dominant themes. The challenge to our educational systems is twofold. First, we must provide our nation’s youth a comprehensive education, including science, to prepare them for the world in which they will live and work in the coming decades. Read the article featured in Scientific American.

Performance Assessment: 4 Best Practices

Let’s get this out of the way first: Performance assessment—the idea of measuring what students can do, not merely what they know—is not a new idea in K-12 education. Teachers have been told to engage students in projects at least since the days of John Dewey, and probably long before that. Nevertheless, performance assessment has a bit of a riddled history in the United States. Read the article featured in Education Week.

Seeing Tangible Outcomes Builds Deeper Student STEM Engagement

At four San Francisco high schools, students in beginning computer science classes are programming human-like robots as part of an initiative to get more pupils excited about coding and robotics. Read the brief featured in Education DIVE.

How to Assess Group Projects: It’s About Content and Teamwork

Group work is a time-tested strategy in many classrooms, but educators are starting to rethink how to evaluate these projects not just on the content students learn, but the skills they hone to work in teams as adults. Read the article featured in Education Week.

Stay tuned for next week’s top education news stories.

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