Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis
Last December, you may remember that the U.S. Senate passed the Strengthening Education Through Research Act through unanimous consent. It’s designed to reauthorize the structure of education research at the Institute for Education Sciences. At the time, because the House had passed a similar version of education-research reauthorization in 2014, during a previous session of Congress, there was a decent chance that SETRA would cross the finish line. (Education Week)
This week, the U.S. Education Department said it will make Pell Grants available to 10,000 high school students who are enrolled in courses at 44 colleges. It’s an ambitious experiment aimed at closing the attainment gap between rich and poor students in higher education. The Obama Administration wants to give students a head start on college. (NPR)
After Congress showed no signs of greenlighting the White House’s “Stronger Together” initiative to support better school integration, Secretary of Education John King earlier this month announced diversity as a priority for the department in the final round of the Investing in Education, or i3 program. (Education Week)
Girls outperformed boys on a national test of technology and engineering literacy that the federal government administered for the first time in 2014, according to results made public Tuesday. (The Washington Post)
“It’s time to end this radically discriminatory funding system that violates the civil rights of our children. It is racial discrimination in its purest form.” That is not a statement out of Little Rock, Ark., circa 1957. It’s from Chicago, 2016. (Education Week)