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Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis
The most economically segregated school districts in the country have childhood poverty rates that differ from neighboring school districts by more than 40 percentage points, highlighting the stark contrast among K-12 schools located just miles apart from each other. (U.S. News)
Education leaders in states where resistance to taking annual exams remains strong are bracing for penalties that the U.S. Department of Education could send down in the coming months for falling short of testing enough qualified students last school year. (Education Week)
In the wake of a crushing defeat for a landmark challenge to California’s teacher tenure laws, the battle for change has shifted from the courts to the state Legislature. (LA School Report)
One of the most stalwart advocates for big-city school districts and a power player in federal education policy got its start 60 years ago as an ad hoc meeting of superintendents worried about prospects for graduates in cities where manufacturing jobs were dwindling. (Education Week)
When public school budgets shrink, it’s students who pay the price. Classes get larger, fewer field trips get scheduled, athletic programs charge fees, and technology doesn’t get updated. This year, the Washington DC- based Center for Budget and Policy Priorities analyzed state budgets and found that most states provide less and in some cases “much less” to public schools as they did during the Great Recession. (Huffington Post)
In 2013, California passed an unusual law that aimed to revolutionize how school districts receive state funding. The Local Control Funding Formula, or LCFF, gives school districts the autonomy to decide which programs and services to spend state funding on. And it’s far more than another boring funding provision: Its primary goal was to ensure equity by devising a complex recipe of budgeting mechanisms, in part by giving additional money to districts based on their numbers of high-needs students—English learners, low-income children, and foster youth. The law’s passage marked the first time in four decades that California underwent such a dramatic shift in school finance. (The Atlantic)