Education Policy

Despite its impact on various aspects of society, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education have seen an overall decline in the United States during the last two decades. STEM is a pivotal part of the American economy, but student interest and performance in these key subjects is falling. In an effort to ensure that today’s children become tomorrow’s STEM leaders, each state has devised its own initiatives to promote STEM education. To this end, the state of Georgia has enacted several programs that aim to improve STEM instruction…

American STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education has seen an overall decline in student interest during the last two decades. STEM is a pivotal sector of our economy, and it is important that today’s students become tomorrow’s STEM leaders.

Each state has responded to the growing disinterest in STEM education in their own way. The state of Florid…

Text messaging has become one the fastest and most popular forms of communication. Just a few years ago, cell phones were seen as the newest teenage addiction. Today, however, they can be an important classroom tool, although some schools regard them as disruptive, distracting, and have implemented policies that prohibit using them on school grounds. Most parents are okay with cell phone use, the students are more than okay with cell phone use, yet schools have adopted zero tolerance policies. The reality is that students still use cell phones in school even if they are banned. According to the PEW Internet and American Life Research Project, 58% of teens from schools that forbid cell phones, use them during class anyway.

Some teachers worry that cell phones will increase cheating, lead to sexting, decrease use of proper grammar, and be a distraction to learning. While I can't disprove these concerns, I …

From President Obama's new attempt at education reform to the release of a 14-year-old college graduate's new book, there has been a lot going on in the world of education this month. Here are a few of the top stories: Obama Proposes New Efforts in Education Reform The Obama Administration is implementing a new proposal for education reform, the RESPECT (Recognizing Educational Success, Professional Excellence and Collaborative Teaching) Project. The program is an effort to help schools “keep good teachers and reward the best ones,” which President Obama spoke about in his State of the Union Address. It proposes a $5 billion competitive grant to encourage states to revitalize their regulations in hiring and rewarding teachers. Much like the Race to the Top program, states will draft their own pl…

STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, and encompasses all of the subjects that fall beneath those umbrella categories. Although STEM education affects all aspects of society, the last two decades have seen an overall decline of student interest in STEM subjects in the United States. Each state has responded to this trend in their own way, and in California, many initiatives are in place to improve the quality of