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Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis
In 1998, Ron Unz, a Silicon Valley millionaire and former gubernatorial candidate, set out to abolish bilingual education in California. Fueled by an anti-immigrant climate, Unz spearheaded a statewide campaign for Proposition 227, a highly controversial state initiative that required schools to teach language-minority students almost entirely in English. The ballot measure passed with 61 percent of the vote and made California the first state to prohibit bilingual programs in schools, radically altering the education of hundreds of thousands of children. Now almost 17 years later, while the political tensions remain, a reversal is underway, powered largely by findings that bilingual instruction is what’s best for English language learners. (The Atlantic)
Attention members of Congress: You’ve come really far on reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Please finish the job so schools don’t have to live under the very outdated and pretty much universally despised No Child Left Behind Act (aka the current version of ESEA) for yet another school year. That’s the message ten big-name education organizations representing teachers, school administrators, principals and state officials are taking to Facebook, Twitter, Politico, and other media through a weeklong digital ad campaign. (Education Week)
Thousands of low-income students will be eligible for federal Pell grant money to take college courses while still in high school. (Associated Press)
At Achievement Prep, the test scores of low-income African American children rival those at wealthy neighborhood schools. Over at D.C. Prep, middle school graduates routinely go on to top high schools. And at Latin American Montessori Bilingual, the combination of instructional approaches is so attractive to parents that more than 800 names filled the school’s waiting list for pre-kindergarten classes last spring. (The Washington Post)
Here’s a simple question: If your kids had more free time at school, what would you want them to do with it? If you’re like most parents, here’s what I suspect you wouldn’t want your children to be doing with their extra time in the classroom: Taking more standardized tests. I certainly wouldn’t want that for my girls. (Huffington Post)
For 20 years, the Alliance for Education has raised money to benefit Seattle’s public schools, investing about a total $150 million that’s gone to teacher and principal training, scholarships and support for literacy and other academic initiatives. (Seattle Times)
When voters cast ballots Tuesday in a school board race in suburban Denver, it will mark the climax of a two-year battle over public education that has reverberated well beyond the Rockies. (The Washington Post)