Let’s stop the whining about not getting enough money for education. We’ve already more than doubled per-pupil inflation-adjusted spending since the early 1970s, with little or nothing to show for it. Instead we need to work harder - parents, pupils, and professionals.

San Tan Learning Center, a public kindergarten-through-eighth-grade charter school in Gilbert, has opened enrollment for its new middle school for the 2012-13 school year. Sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade classrooms will feature the standards-based Common Core curriculum and incorporate the learning community model — a learning format in which a small group of students take a common set of courses together and share a common academic experience. Admissions forms are available at http://evtnow.com/2ip or by calling (480) 222-0811.

Construction at Fulton Ranch Learning Center, 204 W. Chandler Heights Road in Chandler, is now under way. This K-6 charter school, sister school to Gilbert’s San Tan Learning Center, will open for the 2012-13 school year.

Common Core Standards for K-12 English language arts and math are here, and schools as we know them will never be the same. Or will they?

No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the primary federal education law for K-12 public schools, was signed by George W. Bush a decade ago. Heralded by many as a great bipartisan agreement, NCLB ushered in a new era of accountability for public schools and, for the first time, required schools to show evidence of student achievement or face consequences.

PHOENIX - A settlement announced Monday gives Arizona charter schools new flexibility on when to teach social studies under the state's grade-by-grade standards as long as the alternative public schools cover all the required academic ground eventually.

AIMS scores in Arizona crept up in math, reading and science from 2010 to 2011.

This past spring, my son and his second-grade classmates took the Standford 10 test, a national assessment given to second- and ninth-graders in Arizona.

AIMS scores in Arizona crept up in math, reading and science from 2010 to 2011.

AIMS scores in Arizona crept up in math, reading and science from 2010 to 2011.

Not one East Valley school district made adequate yearly progress this year based on federal and state academic standards.

Students, teachers, professors, administrators and parents came together Tuesday night at Mesa Community College to view a 2009 documentary on the stress and over-testing of K-12 students and participate in a panel discussion on the issues that schools, students and families face.

By the end of first grade, children should be able to count to 120 by ones, twos, fives and 10s. They should be able to name the characters of a story and describe the topic and main events.

Reading, writing and math facts are becoming part of the routine in the Reese household each night as my older children sit down to do their homework.

It’s arguably the most quoted section of what is widely considered to be the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s most famous speech.

SKOKIE, Ill. - As the Great Chicago Fire was ravaging the city in 1871, William Rand and Andrew McNally saved their business by burying two printing machines on the sandy Lake Michigan shore. No such clear-cut solution emerged to preserve Rand McNally & Co.’s dominance more than a century later, when the mapmaker lost its way in the age of the Internet.

Thousands of East Valley high school seniors who will receive their diplomas in the coming days have grown up in the age of public school accountability.

Thousands of East Valley high school seniors who will receive their diplomas in the coming days have grown up in the age of public school accountability.

FALL BREAK: The Gilbert, Higley and Coolidge unified school districts, Tempe Union High School District and Tempe Elementary School District will be on fall break today through Friday.