XplanaZine

♦ Quality Counts 2008: Report Card Grades States on Education Performance, Policy
Education Week launched a new report card today, grading the states across six areas of education performance and policy. While the U.S. posted a grade of C overall, the average state earned a D-plus on public school achievement, the poorest showing of any graded category. Marks were also low for state efforts to improve teaching, where 10 states earned a grade of D or lower. – All American Patriots

♦ Half of pupils have own computer
Almost half of secondary school pupils in the UK have their own individual PC or laptop at home, says a survey of technology use among young people. The use of the internet is pervasive, with 77% of 11 to 16-year-olds reporting they are online every day. — BBC News

♦ At Work: Online degrees may not appear as valuable in business world
Of 18 million college students, about 3.6 million take courses online. However, online degrees may not appear as valuable in business world as traditional education. A study reveals that university employers would pick a person with a degree from a traditional program instead of an online program 98 percent of the time. Businesses employers would choose the traditional student 96 percent of the time and health care organizations would choose the traditional student 93 percent of the time. – The Clarion-Ledger

♦ More Than Eight out of Ten Parents in Favour of Online School Reporting
Pearson Phoenix, one of the UK’s leading providers of management information systems (MIS) for schools, today released the results of an online survey of almost 2000 British adults, showing that more than eight out of ten (82 percent) parents with children 17 and under are in favor of online school reporting of progress and behavior, of those 47 percent said that it would help them to feel more involved in their child’s education and giving them a greater understanding of their educational development. – Response Source, UK