Opinion & Analysis

In a recent analysis, the Seattle Special Education Advisory & Advocacy Council found that in Seattle Public Schools, 40 percent of all long-term or short-term suspensions were received by students identified as having a disability.

The No Child Left Behind Act increased student and teacher accountability, tests and led to the development of the Common Core Standards. All of these are noble changes, well-intentioned changes and no one is arguing that change was needed, but the implementation of the changes in all grade levels meant that the students in grade 1-12 were held to standards for which they were not prepared.

President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan last year issued what has become known as the "digital mandate," challenging schools to adopt digital technology by 2017.

One aspect of school improvement that is not being given the emphasis it deserves is the health and safety of our children. A snapshot of public health indicators among Buffalo Public School students reflects a troubling picture.

The most recent education news provides alarming indications that the "pipeline" from early childhood neglect to young adult incarceration is disappearing. I don't suggest that the problem is going away. Quite to the contrary.

I find the the guest editorials from the Saratogian which ran in the Gazette on April 3 to be poorly informed. I realize this was on the opinion page, where any opinion can be printed, but I would think that a responsible publication would not want to propagate false information. Here are my personal opinions. They do not necessarily represent the total Lew-Port Board of Education, but they are factual.

No one knows if Atlanta's school superintendent or any of the others involved will go to jail, but they wouldn't be the first if they do. Lorenzo Garcia, the former superintendent of schools in El Paso, Texas, has been sitting in a federal prison since last year. He's the nation's first superintendent convicted of fraud and reporting bogus test scores for financial gain.

In a math class, they saw five students present different solutions for the same problem, then heard the teacher explain that one strategy of problem-solving might make more sense for one student, or in one situation, than another.

As interest in online education rages, these 17- and 18-year-old students at Newark, N.J.’s West Side High are guinea pigs in a global experiment to answer a key but surprisingly elusive question: whether and when it actually works.

Along his block in Newark’s West Ward, where drugs are endemic and the young residents talk about shootings with alarming nonchalance, Najee Little is known as the smart kid. He got all A’s his sophomore year, breezing through math and awing his English teachers.