Beth’s Briefings (4-29-15)

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

 

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is poised to expand its grantmaking in the area of teacher preparation, according to a recent blog post by two of its officers. (Education Week)

 

It turns out that the stakes for this spring’s Common Core-aligned tests are not quite as high as they might seem. (Hechinger Report)

 

Results from the 2014 National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that roughly a quarter or fewer eighth-grade students scored at or above proficient in geography (27 percent), civics (23 percent) and U.S. history (18 percent). The overall average score in each of the three subjects is unchanged from 2010, the last time the test was administered in these subjects, although scores have marginally improved since the 1990s. What’s more, there remain wide, and in some cases increasing, gender and racial achievement gaps. (US News)

 

With a vote of 8 to 0 on Tuesday, the Executive and Legislation Nominations Committee approved the nomination of Dianna R. Wentzell as state education commissioner. (Hartford Courant)

 

Technology has captured the American education system. As it does, the money keeps flowing in — and so do questions about its impact. (Fortune)

 

President Barack Obama condemned rioters who looted and set ablaze several businesses in Baltimore Monday night following the funeral for Freddie Gray, an unarmed black man who died of a spinal cord injury in police custody this month. But in remarks Tuesday afternoon, he also urged federal, state, and local governments to put a priority on programs to eradicate the root causes of such incidents—programs often grounded in education. (Education Week)