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Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sounded less like a decades-long supporter of charter schools over the weekend and more like a teachers union president when she argued that most of these schools “don’t take the hardest-to-teach kids, or, if they do, they don’t keep them.” (Politico)
The U.S. high school dropout rate has fallen in recent years, with the number of dropouts declining from 1 million in 2008 to about 750,000 in 2012, according to a new study to be released Tuesday. (The Washington Post)
The president and chancellor of the University of Missouri resigned Monday after weeks of mounting student protests over what they called poor handling of several recent racial incidents, marking the first time in decades students have forced out the head of a major American university. (The Wall Street Journal)
It seems that nearly every major media publication in the United States these days wants to rank colleges. The latest outlet to get on board? The Economist, which scores higher-education institutions based in part on how much graduates earn. But lots of publications’ rankings look at future earnings and, more generally, ROI—return on investment. (The Atlantic)
The Walton Family Foundation, a major education funder in Los Angeles, has announced a $50-million grant to Teach For America that will support the organization’s work in Southern California as well as across the nation. (Los Angeles Times)
New Jersey
Five years after donating $100 million to remake education in Newark, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg says he’s using lessons learned about the need for community involvement in his next effort in California. He also highlighted some successes in New Jersey’s largest city. (Huffington Post)