Beth’s Briefings (4-4-16)

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

 

Negotiators trying to craft rules on testing and spending for the Every Student Succeeds Act now have a starting point for discussion. The U.S. Department of Education Friday released draft regulations on the two areas of the law that a panel of educators, advocates, and experts have been discussing: testing, and a spending portion of the law called “supplement-not-supplant” (which governs how local and state dollars interact with federal Title I spending for students in poverty). (Education Week)

 

The storyline is a familiar one: An idealistic new teacher, full of hope and enthusiasm, embarks on a career at a tough urban school. The plot then takes one of two typical turns: Either the fervent novice, facing the unyielding and ever-increasing pressures of the classroom, leaves teaching and emerges with insights on improving urban schools—or the newbie, due solely to individual moxie and an untiring work ethic, achieves seemingly miraculous results with a hard-to-teach student population. (The Atlantic)

 

Politicians from New York City to Texas have pledged to expand access to computer science courses in K-12 schools, but one state’s efforts stand out for gearing teachers up for the effort. (Education Week) 

 

The Alaska education department said Friday that it was canceling its computer-based statewide student assessments amid Internet problems at the University of Kansas where the test developer is based. (Associated Press)

 

Some of America’s most racially integrated neighborhoods and cities are on a path to becoming segregated all over again. In Los Angeles this means neighborhoods where Latinos and Asians now live alongside black or white neighbors may have few to no whites or blacks in 10 to 20 years. (Los Angeles Times)