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In iPad Project, Key Need Emerges
Los Angeles school officials are acknowledging a new looming cost in a $1-billion effort to provide iPads to every student: keyboards. Officials so far have not budgeted that expense, but they said the wireless keyboards are recommended for students when they take new state standardized tests. If keyboards were to be provided for all 650,000 students, the cost could be more than $38 million at current retail prices. LA Times

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Flexibility, Accountability Key to Districts’ NCLB Waiver
Interview: California Office to Reform Education (CORE) Executive Director Rick Miller took inspiration from Michael Fullan, the mastermind behind world-renowned schools in Ontario, whose significant population of English language learners resembles California’s. The Hechinger Report talked to Miller about what the NCLB waiver will mean for the nearly 1.2 million students in CORE districts, which include Los Angeles Unified. EdSource

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Tensions Accompany Growth of PBIS Discipline Model
Developers of some school climate reform models say their programs are often bypassed by schools and districts in favor of what they see as specific strategies promoted by a federally funded technical-assistance center. In 1997, Congress inserted language into the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act on the issue of discipline for students with disabilities. EdWeek

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Expecting the Best Yields Results in Massachusetts
Conventional wisdom and popular perception hold that American students are falling further and further behind in science and math achievement. The statistics from this state tell a different story. If Massachusetts were a country, its eighth graders would rank second in the world in science, behind only Singapore, according to Timss — the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, which surveys knowledge and skills of fourth and eighth graders around the world. New York Times

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Guesses and Hype Give Way to Data in Study of Education
What works in science and math education? Until recently, there had been few solid answers — just guesses and hunches, marketing hype and extrapolations from small pilot studies. But now, a little-known office in the Education Department is starting to get some real data, using a method that has transformed medicine: the randomized clinical trial. New York Times

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Early Learning Proposal Could Lead to 200,000 Fewer Prisoners Each Year
Thousands of police chiefs, sheriffs and prosecutors who are members of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids released a report – “I’m the guy you pay later” – that shows implementation of a proposed state-federal early childhood education partnership could reduce the number of people who are incarcerated nationwide by 200,000 every year and lead to $75 billion in cost savings over 10 years. FightCrime.org

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Should teachers be parents first?
Should people who want to be teachers become parents first? The idea is raised in this Slate article by Sara Mosle, who writes that she joined Teach For America some 20 years ago and when she was “single, childless, and clueless about even the most basic aspects of child-rearing.” Now a mother, she has two decades later returned to school as a teacher and has found that she is “acutely aware of how being a parent has made me a better teacher.” Washington Post