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Bipartisan Bill Seeks to Remake Teacher Training Programs

Teacher training programs would be held accountable for producing educators who demonstrate the ability to boost student achievement before they even graduate, under a bill introduced today by a powerful, bipartisan trio of senators. The bill, called the “Growing Excellent Achievement Training Academies for Teachers and Principals Act” was intoduced today by Sens. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Barbara Mikulski, D-Md. Participation in the program would be optional for states. […] Read more

Will Rocketship schools launch in District?

Their handshake added an unexpected jolt to the closing session of the New Schools Venture Fund summit in San Francisco last month, and with good reason. Acting Chancellor Kaya Henderson and Reed Hastings, Netflix co-founder and charter entrepreneur, sealed a deal to bring eight Rocketship Education schools to D.C.[Read the full article at The Washington Post] Read more

Waiting for Superman pledge turns up $5M for change in schools

Waiting for Superman, a popular documentary about America’s public school woes which drew particular attention from Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurial class, comes out on DVD today, February 15. In September, Paramount Pictures announced that NewSchools Venture Fund had committed to investing $5 million in entrepreneurial education organizations if over 150,000 pledged to watch the film.

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Future schools: Blending face-to-face and online learning

The way the 1st graders hurtle toward their computer workstations, you’d think they were headed out to recess. It’s an unseasonably warm winter morning in San Jose, California, and the two dozen students at Rocketship Mateo Sheedy Elementary School get situated quickly in the computer lab, donning headphones and peering into monitors displaying their names.

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