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Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis
Public-school parents don’t have a constitutional right to decide where to send their children to school, an appeals court ruled. (The Wall Street Journal)
The nation’s large and persistent education achievement gaps are rooted in a largely hidden crisis of chronic absenteeism from school, especially among low-income and minority children, according to a new report that compiles recent research on school attendance. (The Washington Post)
New Hampshire has joined a growing number of states opting to use college-prep entrance exams rather than standardized testing to assess high school juniors’ academic progress and meet federal accountability requirements. (Cabinet Report)
So if you add up all the college costs that students and parents probably didn’t plan for — the stuff that isn’t tuition and room and board, how big is that number? The National Retail Federation estimates that, this year, it will total $43 billion. That’s a hard number to grasp so let’s break it down to one family — mine. (NPR)
The newest classroom at Harvard’s business school has no desks or chairs. Instead, the professor teaches facing a towering digital screen that stretches from wall to wall, filled with the live video feeds of up to 60 students tuned in from their computers. (Associated Press)
Ken Hughes has been teaching for 21 years, and there’s no topic in education that gets him more worked up than the achievement gap. (The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Many educators are critical of homeschooling, citing concerns over the quality of the teaching by parents and a perceived lack of social interaction with different children. But would a hybrid format — a mix of homeschooling with part-time classroom learning taught by certified teachers at an accredited school — be the best of both worlds for the student? (The Clarion Ledger)