NY Times--Tech Companies Expect Free High-Speed Internet for Poorer Americans to Pay Off Later

WASHINGTON — There is an axiom in technology: New products typically go to wealthy customers first, before prices eventually fall to reach the masses.

With broadband now classified like a utility, telecom and tech companies, including Sprint, Comcast and Facebook, are increasingly working to make high-speed internet accessible to every American, not just a luxury. The companies are among those that have set their sights on bringing free or cheap high-speed internet service to low-income and rural populations in the United States, spurred by philanthropy and, for some, the hope of turning Americans who are not online today into full-paying customers in the future.

Those goals were on display Tuesday, when Sprint announced that it planned to give one million low-income high school students a free device and a free high-speed data plan until graduation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/12/technology/free-broadband-initiatives-for-poor-and-rural-areas-with-eye-on-future.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Feducation&action=click&contentCollection=education®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0

By CECILIA KANGOCT. 11, 2016

Washington Post-- Obama administration releases long-delayed regulations for teacher-preparation programs

The U.S. Education Department published regulations Wednesday governing programs that prepare new K-12 teachers, a long-delayed effort meant to ensure that graduates emerge ready for the nation’s classrooms.

The new regulations, at least five years in the making, require each state to issue annual ratings for teacher-prep programs within their borders. The ratings aim to serve as a snapshot of how novice educators perform after graduation, offering prospective teachers and school district recruiters a more accurate picture of which programs are successful at producing strong educators and which are not.

Obama administration officials and reform-minded advocacy groups also hope the ratings prod training programs — long criticized as cash cows for universities that produce ill-prepared candidates — to improve.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/obama-administration-releases-long-delayed-regulations-for-teacher-preparation-programs/2016/10/12/14049e10-8fee-11e6-9c52-0b10449e33c4_story.html

By Emma Brown October 12 at 3:11 PM

Education Week--New Effort to Promote Social-Emotional Learning in Schools

Helping schools figure out how to better teach social and emotional skills to students alongside traditional academic subjects will be the focus of a new, multiyear endeavor recently announced by the Aspen Institute.

The aim of the National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development, which has members from all three sectors, is to "advance a new vision for what constitutes success in schools," the Aspen Institute said in a statement announcing the group's formation.

That work, which will culminate in a list of recommendations in late 2018, builds on steps already taken by research and advocacy groups that seek to advance the mission of public schools beyond traditional academics to include a focus on such issues as students' abilities to recognize and respond to their own emotions, to form effective peer relationships, and to persevere through difficulty.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2016/10/05/new-effort-to-promote-social-emotional-learning-in.html

 Evie Blad| October 4, 2016