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Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis
The U.S. Senate has voted to pass a bipartisan bill to rewrite the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which hasn’t gotten a facelift since 2002, when then-President George W. Bush signed the law’s current version, the No Child Left Behind Act. Now the legislation will have to go to conference with a bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this month. (Education Week)
For the first time in 14 years, both chambers of Congress have backed sweeping changes to federal education law, but stark differences between the House and Senate bills portend difficult negotiations to produce final legislation replacing the Bush-era “No Child Left Behind.” (The Wall Street Journal)
Success, it turns out, is quiet. It’s a sunny and warm spring Thursday at Thurgood Marshall Academy in Anacostia, one of the poorest areas of Washington, D.C. The halls are hushed, and students walk by wearing maroon polo shirts embroidered with the school name. They smile and greet teachers respectfully. There are no jangling PA announcements, no clanging bell to mark the end of class, no metal detectors at the front door. (Politico)
Seattle 11th-grader Elijah Falk added it all up and decided: It made no sense to take the tests. The Common Core-aligned Smarter Balanced exams, Elijah was told, were grueling — but Washington state didn’t require this year’s juniors to pass them to graduate from high school. In fact, the only thing compelling Elijah to take the tests this past spring was No Child Left Behind, the federal law. And, by federal standards, Elijah’s school was all but certain to be labeled “failing” whether he passed the tests or not. (NPR)
A Chicago-born product of the city’s public schools, Janice Jackson grew up one of five children who were regularly drilled on the importance of education by their parents. (Chicago Tribune)
Long the largest provider of testing services in Texas, education giant Pearson confirmed Thursday that it will lay off more than 200 Texas employees after the state chose another vendor for the majority of its new standardized testing contract. (Statesman)
Pennsylvania
With 19 days left in a crammed campaign session, Democrat Leanne Krueger-Braneky announced Thursday her education campaign platform in her bid for the 161st Legislative District seat. (Daily Times)