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Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis
Congress’s debate about rewriting the nation’s main education law has featured high-profile disagreements over testing, vouchers and school accountability, but there is another issue that has just as much potential to derail the legislation: Money. (The Washington Post)
Day Three of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act reauthorization debate in the U.S. Senate opened and closed in the span of a few short hours Thursday, with the chamber passing 14 amendments and rejecting one that underscored the precarious path co-authors Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., must traverse to maintain the bipartisan nature of the bill. (Education Week)
A federal report out today reinforces the notion that when it comes to state standards, proficiency is still in the eye of the beholder. (NPR)
The Arkansas state school board officially voted today to drop a common-core consortia test in favor of an exam from ACT, delivering a political victory to GOP Gov. Asa Hutchinson. (Education Week)
Casey Hoke would spend an average of two minutes out of his seven-hour school day in the restroom. “That’s it. Business as usual. No one bats an eye,” Hoke wrote in January, back when he was a high-school senior in Louisville, Kentucky. “How we go about our business is none of yours.” (The Atlantic)
Yolanda Garcia’s grandparents migrated from Mexico and worked multiple jobs — in farm fields and school cafeterias — to save money to send all six children to college. (The Los Angeles Times)