posted on
Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis
Pearson was already the biggest education company in the world. Now its education business is getting even bigger. In the last several weeks the company has sold off its two major media brands, the Financial Times (for $1.3 billion), and The Economist (for about $730 million). (NPR)
After 15 years of rising federal involvement in K-12 schools, U.S. education policy is poised for a big shift in direction. If that wasn’t already apparent, it certainly became clear on Wednesday, when six of the Republican Party’s leading 2016 contenders spoke about their views on educating America’s youth, and what their priorities would be should they make it to the White House. (Newsweek)
Recently, a great deal of attention has been focused on teacher shortages across the country. In addition, the national outrage with what many see as an excessive student assessment approach to school reform continues to be the focus of discussions among educators and parents concerned that we are heading in the wrong direction. (The Hill)
Parents of seventh- to 12th-graders in the U.S. place a high value on computer science education in schools, according to a recent Gallup and Google study. Nine in 10 parents say offering opportunities to learn computer science is a good use of resources at their child’s school, and about as many (91%) want their child to learn more computer science in the future. (Gallup)
A government program that allows student loan borrowers to significantly reduce their monthly payments is growing in popularity—and increasingly eating into federal coffers. (The Atlantic)
Chatfield High School in Minnesota doesn’t offer sociology (or German or criminology, for that matter), but when senior Keagan Clarke, 18, finished a fall-semester class in psychology, his teacher suggested he try the subject. And thanks to a relatively new state policy, he could. Over the course of the spring semester, Clarke went to the school library during second period for an online sociology class. (The Atlantic)
As part of her promise to address rising college costs, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton is calling to expand the AmeriCorps service program launched under her husband’s administration. (Associated Press)