Education Resources Blog

The 2015/2016 school year was one for the books (an open-educational-resource book, that is). With the federal government embracing a rather laissez-faire approach toward education, with the student learning experience shedding its spectator skin for a more "doing" dermis, and with the virtual world continuing to grow in opportunities (for better or for worse), VariQuest has highlighted the top 5 topics in education.

The whole one-size-fits-all (OSFA) notion has never been my cup of tea. It's a rare occurence, but coming across the seemingly perfect maxi dress that turns out to be OSFA is a day-ruiner when you're barely tall enough to go on big kid roller coasters. Now take this cookie-cutter attempt to K12 education heights, and that's school years worth of day-ruiners for principals, educators, parents, students, the like.

At the root of just about every educational reform initiative, debate, or discussion is how to quantify learning and measure academic success. Legislators will argue that in order to effectively “fix education” and fairly and accurately compare apples to apples, all students must have equal access to learning experiences so that we can assess teaching and learning with the same standards and measures. Critics abound with a long list of flaws in the system that cast a dark shadow over the things that are working.

What do 43 states, the District of Columbia, 4 territories, and the Department of Defense Education Activity share at their educative core?