McGraw Hill Education sold to Investment Fund

It was reported today that McGraw-Hill Education has been sold to investment funds affiliated with Apollo Global Management, LLC (NYSE: APO). When the deal closes, the company will be renamed McGraw Hill Financial, and will focus on developing as a high-growth, high-margin benchmarks, content and analytics company in the global capital and commodities markets. 

Read more about this transaction.

New Book: Is everyone really equal? : an introduction to key concepts in social justice education

"This practical handbook will introduce readers to social justice education, providing tools for developing “critical social justice literacy” and for taking action towards a more just society. Accessible to students from high school through graduate school, this book offers a collection of detailed and engaging explanations of key concepts in social justice education, including critical thinking, socialization, group identity, prejudice, discrimination, oppression, power, privilege, and White supremacy. Based on extensive experience in a range of settings in the United States and Canada, the authors address the most common stumbling blocks to understanding social justice. They provide recognizable examples, scenarios, and vignettes illustrating these concepts."

Request it from our library catalog: http://elibrary.wayne.edu/record=b4366702~S47

Find out more about the book at: http://store.tcpress.com/080775269X.shtml

Higher Education Today discusses Schools of Education

The University of the District of Columbia hosts a lively discussion about Schools of Education with Dr. Margaret Crocco, Dean of the University of Iowa College of Education and Dr. Richard Vedder, Director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity. 

Tikatok provides free "Writing Across the Curriculum" content for educators

Posted in eSchool News on September 21. Designed for K-8, this guide covers the writing process from prewriting to publishing, and included activities, organizers and worksheets.

A Framework for K-12 Science Education

National Academies Press new publication, A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas, outlines expectations for students in science and engineering in K-12, and the revisions to curriculum, instruction, assessemnt and professional development for educators that needs to occur to meet these expectations.

Detroit Free Press reports UDM, Marygrove fixing teacher-training programs

A brief article on MDE performance scores on the state's MTTC (teacher certification exam) in the Detroit Free Press on Sunday, August 7.

Visit AFT Teach on Facebook

AFT TEACH (Together Educating America’s Children) provides educators with practical tools, professional knowledge, and inspiration to meet current challenges in education. Through TEACH, you can find out about resources, conversations and innovative work that educators need to know about.

From the Chronicle: Detroit's Troubled Schools Draw New Education Dean to Wayne State

The Chronicle of Higher Education features a story about Dr. Carolyn Shields, who will be starting as the new Dean of WSU's College of Education on July 1. This article talks about her vision for DPS partnerships, including connecting with area cultural institutions. The article also discusses Dr. Shields intent to overhaul the College of Education's core curriculum.

Google Science Fair opens January 11

The inaurual Google Science Fair will be launched January 11, 2011. Google has partnered with NASA, CERN, National Geographic, Scientific American and the LEGO Group to create a new open, accessible and global STEM competition. The Google Science Fair is a global competition that any student aged 13 - 18 from around the world is eligible to enter. Students can enter as individuals or as teams of up to three.

To sign up for fun and free resource kits for your classroom or school (with bookmarks, stickers, posters and more!) and a reminder notification when GSF registration opens, please visit the Google Science Fair at: http://www.google.com/sciencefair

Have you seen: Curriki

Developed by the founder of Sun Microsystems, Curriki provides access to free online textbooks and curriculum support materials.  Use the Browse by Topic under Find Resources to target specific curricular areas.

President Obama unveils Educational Technology plan

On March 5, the Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology plan was unveiled issued by the Obama Administration. It provides a blueprint for individualized, digital learning approaches to enhance education, with a focus on STEM education for students and enhancing online teaching skills in Teacher Education. It touches on Information Literacy skills in the President's Grand Challenge Problem 2.0: Design and validate an integrated system for designing and implementing valid, reliable, and cost-effective assessments of complex aspects of 21st century expertise and competencies across academic disciplines. Those 21st century competencies include student's abilities to access, retrieve, evaluate and ethically use information.

Building a Better Teacher

From Sunday March 8 New York Times Magazine, Doug Lemov a former teacher, a principal, charter-school founder, and now educational consultant, discusses the qualities of effective teachers.

From Education Week: "Study to Size Up Doctoral Programs"

"Two national education groups are launching a first-time effort to assess—and possibly even rank—the hundreds of doctoral programs that prepare education researchers.

The field of education produces an estimated 1,800 doctorates a year, according to the American Educational Research Association, which is overseeing the three-year study with the National Academy of Education, known as NEAD. Such programs, however, have come under scrutiny in recent years, with scholars and policymakers complaining that they suffer from uneven quality and “mission muddle.” Education Week, October 29, 2008

WSU Students, Faculty and Staff can access the Oct 29, 2008 issue of Education Week via the ProQuest Research Library database:

Massachusetts: More than half of minority and hispanic teaching applicants fail licensing test

Excerpt "Education school deans in the last year began expressing concerns about the minority teachers' high failure rates to state officials and asked the state to evaluate the validity of the test and consider other ways of judging prospective teachers. They and others say the minority teachers' results raise questions about whether the design of the Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure is culturally biased and whether the quality of education that minority teaching applicants receive is good enough." Boston Globe, August 19, 2007

Chronicle Reports "Universities fail to reward science and math professors for working with schoolteachers"

You'll need to be on the WSU campus to read the article.

"Science professors receive few professional rewards for joining projects financed by the Math and Science Partnerships program, the federal government's principal effort to improve math and science teaching in elementary and secondary schools, a recent report says. The report calls this "a major roadblock" for the program. "

Preparing STEM Teachers

A new report from AACTE highlights different strategies being taken by selected teacher education programs in all 50 states to train mathematics and science teachers, addressing a topic that has become a prime focus of elected officials and educators across the country. For Michigan, Wayne State University is highlighted.