posted on
Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis
There’s been a lively debate recently about funding gaps inside districts between schools with low levels of state and local aid and their wealthier counterparts. But is a major factor in intradistrict inequality being overlooked by many people? If you ask Bruce Baker, a Rutgers University professor who studies school finance, the answer is yes. (Education Week)
In a letter posted today on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s website, chief executive officer Sue Desmond-Hellman acknowledged that the group had made some miscalculations regarding implementation of the Common Core State Standards. (Education Week)
Determined that he and his younger brother would go to college, Eduardo Medina’s parents put money away in a savings account to pay for the tuition. It never added up to more than $5,000, and before he finished high school on his way to the Ivy League, they were compelled to use it for a different purpose: to help his grandmother avoid losing her home to foreclosure. (The Atlantic)
The passage of a measure boosting education funding by tapping Arizona’s land trust and using general fund cash means school districts will see an immediate infusion of nearly $300 million next month and slightly more for the coming school year. (Education Week)
California may spend more on its students, but the high cost of living means students in the state — and particularly in Los Angeles — are getting far less on average than those in the rest of the nation, a new study shows. (LA School Report)
When it comes to the story of Massachusetts’s public schools, the takeaway, according to the state’s former education secretary, Paul Reville, is that “doing well isn’t good enough.” Massachusetts is widely seen as having the best school system in the country: Just 2 percent of its high-schoolers drop out, for example, and its students’ math and reading scores rank No. 1 nationally. It even performs toward the top on international education indices. (The Atlantic)