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Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis
Funding for public education in most states is inadequate and inequitable, creating a huge obstacle for the nation’s growing number of poor children as they try to overcome their circumstances, according to a set of reports released Monday by civil rights groups. (The Washington Post)
The national graduation rate is at an all-time high — 81 percent. It was such big news, President Obama touted it in this year’s State of the Union address. (NPR)
Two thoughtful yet troubling articles, published within a week of each other, startled higher education leaders last week. In the great debate about which factors best explain the growing achievement gaps between rich and poor students, these studies reached important conclusions about the “drivers” contributing to the widening disparities. (Huffington Post)
After a recent high-tech makeover at Reynoldsburg City Schools in this working-class suburb of Columbus, many staples of traditional education are gone. (The Wall Street Journal)
The typical public-college leader who served for the entire 2014 fiscal year earned just over $428,000, almost 7 percent more than the median from the year before, according to a Chronicle analysis. Two presidents earned more than a $1 million in 2014, one fewer than the year before. (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
The city’s School Committee voted unanimously to approve a budget of just over $70 million for the upcoming fiscal year earlier this month, an increase of roughly 3 percent from the previous year. (Eagle-Tribune)
New York
Schools serving the largest shares of poor and nonwhite students in New York state are more likely to be staffed with teachers who have no experience, have little expertise in the subjects they teach, and who earned lower ratings than those serving whiter and more affluent students, according to a new report from the state. (Chalkbeat NY)