The latest episode of the "She Roars" podcast features Wendy Kopp, Class of 1989, reflecting on her experience as a groundbreaking social entrepreneur — which she has been since long before the term was invented.

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I decided to introduce my son to video games. We soon found one he liked … and I mean really, really liked

So I decided to introduce my two-year-old son to the world of video games. Before you accuse me of hobbling my offspring's mind, I'd like to point out that a) television is 2,000 times worse, so shove that up your Night Garden and b) I also decided to counterbalance the gaming with exposure to high culture. For every 10 minutes of Fruit Ninja during daylight hours, he'd get 10 pages of a critically acclaimed novel at bedtime. We're currently halfway through The Magus by John Fowles, which he's enjoying immensely. He finds some passages so moving that his protracted sobs drown out my reading completely, and when I return to the beginning of the chapter to start again, he leaps up screaming, trying to snatch the book out of my hands with delight.

Like any self-respecting 2014 toddler, he can swipe, pat and jab at games on a smartphone or tablet, but smartphone games aren't real games. They're interactive dumbshows designed to sedate suicidal commuters. And they're not just basic but insulting, often introducing themselves as free-to-play simply so they can extort money from you later in exchange for more levels or less terrible gameplay. Either that or they fund themselves with pop-up adverts that defile the screen like streaks on a toilet bowl.

This paper proposes a new methodology for estimating teacher value-added. Rather than imposing a normality assumption on unobserved teacher quality (as in the standard empirical Bayes approach), our nonparametric estimator permits the underlying distribution to be estimated directly and in a computationally feasible way. The resulting estimates fit the unobserved distribution very well regardless of the form it takes, as we show in Monte Carlo simulations. Implementing the nonparametric approach in practice using two separate large-scale administrative data sets, we find the estimated teacher value-added distributions depart from normality and differ from each other. To draw out the policy implications of our method, we first consider a widely-discussed policy to release teachers at the bottom of the value-added distribution, comparing predicted test score gains under our nonparametric approach with those using parametric empirical Bayes. Here the parametric method predicts similar policy gains in one data set while overestimating those in the other by a substantial margin. We also show the predicted gains from teacher retention policies can be underestimated significantly based on the parametric method. In general, the results highlight the benefit of our nonparametric empirical Bayes approach, given that the unobserved distribution of value-added is likely to be context-specific.

Rubin, now a genteel 72-year-old Staten Island resident, alleges in a newly-filed Child Victims Act lawsuit that he was sexually abused on a weekly basis between 1960-65 by a cabal of five predatory teachers at the prestigious school.

Mervyn Affoon, who taught at the Academy of Hospitality and Tourism at hospitality at Erasmus Hall High School in Flatbush, is accused of sexually abusing the teen about 15 times between March 2017 and June 2017.

Hall became a middle school science teacher in the Bronx in part so his students would never have that same experience. But for years, he was the only black male teacher on staff — which came with challenges of its own.

Former principal Minerva Zanca of Pan American High School in Queens allegedly targeted black staffers from 2012-13, calling one a “gorilla” and “nappy-haired," according to a lawsuit filed in 2016 by the federal Justice Department.

For years, state officials have declined to fully fund the Foundation Aid Formula designed to dole out money to New York school districts based on need.

A fast-growing New York state program that funds math and science teacher salaries at private schools paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars to some of the city’s priciest private schools that can charge over $50,000 a year for tuition, the Daily News has learned.

Lawrence Cuneo, an eighth-grade social studies teacher in the coastal town of Toms River, is under investigation by school officials.

The teacher recently traveled to Italy and came back to class before noticing the symptoms, according to a source familiar with the situation.

One of the educators, who works at James Madison High School in Brooklyn, tested negative despite showing symptoms, and the other two are awaiting test results, the mayor said

Jeffrey Gooding collected a city salary for five months during a medical leave — while simultaneously working for a Harlem charter school, according to investigators.

School officials tweeted the meetings can take place by phone or videochat, but no longer in-person. If parents can’t reach their kids’ teachers during their scheduled conference times, schools will try to accommodate them later this month, officials said.

UFT head Michael Mulgrew pointed out that many city private and charter schools have already shut their doors plus multiple other states.

Mulgrew accused city officials of not complying with state protocol on school closures - which mandates 24-hour shutdowns if a student or staff member tests positive - and creating unsafe labor conditions.

The United Federation of Teachers tested security camera technology from a company affiliated with Clearview AI

Many teachers have been relying on the videoconferencing platform to chat with students during remote learning.

Sigrid Nunez, 69, authored the National Book Award-winning novel “The Friend," which depicts a woman’s grief over the death of a close friend as she cares for his dog. She’s among 175 recipients of this year’s grants, which aim to give awardees the financial freedom to pursue their creative work.

The COVID-19 deaths included 22 paraprofessionals, 21 teachers, two administrators, two central office staffers, a facilities employee, a guidance counselor and a school food worker.

Remember the age old adage, keep your friends close but, your enemies closer? In the world of digital marketing and search engine optimization, there is no one closer to you in search rankings than your competitors. So why do business’ often overlook this step and jump right to building strategy? There is a wealth of information and competitive advantage that can be gained from finding and analyzing your competitors. When it comes to a thorough search engine optimization ...

The post 10 Things Your Competitors Can Teach You About SEO appeared first on RSS Feed Converter.

Dúirt an Taoiseach Leo Varadkar sa Dáil gur mian leis an Rialtas réiteach a fháil ar an éiginnteacht a bhaineann le scrúduithe na hArdteistiméireachta faoi dheireadh na seachtaine seo.

In tandem with some charities in the area, L.A. Unified is essentially running a collection of food banks.

His former teachers remember Clippers star Kawhi Leonard just as he is now: quiet, focused and successful.

LeBron James finishes with a triple-double and shows off some moves in front of Zion Williamson during the Lakers' 122-114 victory over the Pelicans.

Lakers' Anthony Davis is partnering with First Entertainment Credit Union as their first official ambassador.

He’s teaching a class on how to be a good guy.

From across the U.S., these virtual learning experiences can help your kids learn with help from museums, a memorial and even lei-making.

Jerry Azzinaro was the only UCLA assistant coach with an expiring contract who received just a one-year deal, his counterparts all receiving two-year extensions.

Coronavirus shuts down California schools: 'There's this whole distance-learning thing, but how much learning is actually going on?'

It isn't for lack of trying by teachers that some students aren't able to fully access the LAUSD's online learning curriculum.

Citing the circumstances of the coronavirus crisis, United Teachers Los Angeles on Thursday called for a moratorium on new charter school approvals and a halt to new campus-sharing arrangements with charters.

Coronavirus closures are giving school districts an opportunity to evaluate their online learning efforts and how important teachers are to those programs.

Two-thirds of Keara Williams' 24 AP English students haven't turned in assignments. She spent Friday trying to find them.

Handing out food, hunting down students, organizing distance learning. This is one day in the life of an Inglewood teacher during the coronavirus crisis.

Big Ones deliver big lessons: Our best protection in disastrous times is community.

Wildlife scientists say we can bring our new delight in nature to the other side of the pandemic, if we're willing to keep the romance alive.

An LAUSD teacher who once campaigned against Austin Beutner gives the superintendent credit for his leadership during the pandemic.

An Inglewood teacher distributes food to families before doing hours of instruction work online. She deserves praise and help.

This year, I am currently making over $12,000 less a year then I was supposed to when I was hired in 2004, a letter to the editor says.

Education is the smartest investment an individual or a society can make, a letter to the editor says.

We have not kept up, and we are losing a generation of teachers.

The governor expects teachers to wait until the 2021 budget before he does anything significant, a letter to the editor says.

Indiana University will move to remote teaching after its scheduled spring break over concerns about the spread of the coronavirus.

Many Indianapolis area districts started eLearning this week only to learn that school closures will be longer than expected due to COVID-19 concerns.