Beth’s Briefings (1-5-16)

Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:

 

In December, Congress passed and President Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act. The law reauthorizes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 and replaced the much-maligned No Child Left Behind Act, which also reauthorized the 1965 law and has governed schools since 2002. (US News)

 

Alvin C. York Agricultural Institute sits in the heart of Fentress County, Tennessee, high on the Cumberland Plateau within spitting distance of the Kentucky border. The area is a beautiful, bucolic place characterized by rising hills and encroaching forests, tumbling creeks and hard-won farmland. It can also be a pretty bleak place to live. (The Atlantic)

 

The U.S. Department of Education has a new boss, albeit a temporary one. With the new year, John King, Jr. became Acting U.S. Secretary of Education, after the departure of Arne Duncan. King is a former education commissioner of New York State, and more recently Duncan’s second-in-command. (Marketplace)

 

In 2015, Khan Academy, which pioneered free, online video tutorials and lectures that have reached millions of students around the world, sought new ways of reaching new people. It had already partnered with everyone from NASA to the Museum of Modern Art, and this past year Khan joined forces with the SAT’s overlord, the College Board. The goal, in the parlance of our times, is to disrupt the billion-dollar test prep industry. (NPR)

 

I am in hell—or its equivalent. Specifically, I am in an IEP (Individual Educational Plan) meeting for my 14-year-old daughter, a special-education student in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Sitting across from me is an educator who is describing one option that she says would be a great place for my daughter to attend ninth grade: a program at one of the county’s lower-performing public high schools for adolescents who have emotional disabilities or autism. (My daughter has ADHD, an auditory processing disorder, and some major anxiety issues, but she does not have autism and does not qualify as “emotionally disabled.”) Another option is a school for kids with language-based learning disorders. My daughter’s reading comprehension and vocabulary skills are ranked as “very superior,” according to the county’s own psychological testing; her learning issues center on math. (The Atlantic)

 

The U.S. Education Department is urging the nation’s colleges and K-12 schools to guard against harassment and discrimination based on race, religion or national origin, a response to anti-Muslim and anti-refugee sentiments that appear to be on the rise. (The Washington Post)

 

Some teachers are celebrating a ruling that should make it easier for out-of-state teachers to get licensed in Minnesota. A Ramsey County District Court judge ruled last week that the state’s Board of Teaching violated state law when it failed to operate an alternative program to license out-of-state teachers and those looking to expand licenses. (Star Tribune)