A bill introduced Wednesday in the North Carolina Senate aims to empower local school districts to restrict the use of smartphones and similar devices during instructional time in public schools. Senate Bill 55 — sponsored by Republican Sens. Michael Lee of New Hanover County, Jim Burgin of Harnett County, and Lisa Barnes of Nash County —...
A new report is shedding light on the academic, social, and mental-health damage caused by school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A McKinsey & Co. report released Tuesday, July 27, examined test scores for 1.6 million elementary school students across 40 states in spring 2021 and contrasted the results with scores for students before...
There’s a new twist to an ongoing debate — this one about parents and the students they create. This fall a “We Are Teachers” blog post, lamenting an upsurge in over-involved parents, went viral, eliciting coverage from myriad media outlets and the national teachers’ union. Written anonymously by a middle school teacher, the post described “lawnmower parents,” so named...
It’s a world without walls. Students can explore the vast expanse of the Great Barrier Reef or the microscopic intricacies of the human cell — all within the confines of the classroom. Virtual reality experiences take students “to where they cannot be” because of physical, financial, or other constraints, says Helen Crompton, an international expert on mobile learning...
Educators are more concerned about how much time students spend on social media at home as compared to the time they spend online in the classroom. Education Week’s annual Technology Counts survey asked principals and school-based leaders across the country about screen time, personalized learning, and social media use. The survey was conducted online in...
Legislation to provide surplus computers to students from low-income homes has passed the General Assembly. Republican Sens. Jeff Tarte, R-Mecklenburg; Andrew Brock, R-Davie; and Ralph Hise, R-Mitchell; sponsored Senate Bill 312. Rep. Jason Saine, R-Lincoln, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee on Information Technology, sponsored a similar version of the bill in the House. “This will benefit students...
Languid summer days are near at hand. For students finishing the traditional academic year, time — free and fallow — beckons. But as days slip into weeks and months, something else accrues alongside rest and refreshment: a skills drop-off that erodes learning gains. Low-income students are most at risk. Unlike their more affluent peers, they...
A resounding affirmation of free-speech rights on college campuses was recently made by the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education.
UNC tuition ought to go up dramatically, but won't that be unpopular? A careful reading of opinion polls suggests that while voters favor university aid, they prefer work-study and tax breaks to the kind of direct grants the UNC system gets.
