The Condition of Education 2010

To ensure reliable, accurate, and timely data, which are necessary to monitor the progress of education in the United States, Congress has mandated that the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) produce an annual report, The Condition of Education. This year's report presents 49 indicators of important developments and trends in U.S. education. These indicators focus on participation and persistence in education, student performance and other measures of achievement, the environment for learning, and resources for education.

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) re-launches The Right Choice for Kids website to promote NAEYC Accreditation of Programs for Young Children to families and the public. The new site features

• Information about what NAEYC Accreditation is and why it is important
• A brand new NAEYC Accreditation of Programs for Young Children search feature
• New updated articles for families (new ones will be available on a bi-monthly basis)
• Videos for viewing regarding the promotion of NAEYC Accreditation
• Resources for families and the field
• Incorporation of NAEYC's Early Learning News to keep families informed about the field and accreditation.

Status and Trends in the Education of Racial and Ethnic Groups examines current conditions and changes over time in education activities and outcomes the educational progress and challenges of students in the United States. This report shows that over time, the numbers of students of each race/ethnicity who have completed high school and continued their education in college have increased. Despite these gains, the rate of progress has varied, and differences persist among Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Native Hawaiians or Other Pacific Islanders, American Indians/Alaska Natives and students of two or more races in their performance on key indicators of educational performance.

With more than half of children with disabilities being educated in the general education classroom, and federal education law requiring improved learning outcomes for these students, preparing general education teachers to work effectively with all students is critical. This report on teacher certification requirements in the nine Northeast and Islands Region finds that eight of them require some coursework in teaching students with disabilities for initial licensure of general education teachers. It also finds commonalities and differences both in how jurisdictions require general education teacher candidates to develop knowledge in special education and in the specific knowledge and skills required as part of teacher preparation.

According to Educators, Technology and 21st Century Skills: Dispelling Five Myths, teachers who use technology frequently in their classrooms perceive greater benefits to student learning - particularly learning 21st century skills - than teachers who are less frequent users. The report, based on a survey of more than 1,000 K-12 educators and school administrators in the United States, was designed to gauge the use of technology in the classroom and perceptions of technology in education. What it found was a great disparity between teachers in terms of their uses of technology, but a lack of relationship between the frequency of technology use and teacher experience. According to the report's authors, frequent technology users place considerably more emphasis on developing students' 21st century skills and have more positive perceptions about technology's effects on student learning of and behaviors associated with these skills.

The goal of the TeachME project at the University of Central Florida is to effectively eliminate the trial-by-fire approach to classroom-management training, and replace it with something more instructive and less dangerous. Using avatars to mimic the classroom experience, teachers in training react to a simulated but realistic learning environment. Each avatar is controlled by an acting students or professional who has studied student behavior and embodies one of four personality types. The fact that the teachers-in-training are interacting with avatars that are being controlled in real time by humans, as opposed to artificially intelligent personas, is the key to the whole project, says the coordinator of the special education program at Central Florida’s college of education. According to creators, the project could reinvent teacher training.