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Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis
The stakes for K-12 policy in this year’s state-level elections couldn’t be clearer: Whoever voters pick in the legislative and gubernatorial races will have significant new leverage in shaping states’ education agendas in the years ahead. (Education Week)
U.S. Secretary of Education John King kicked off a bus tour Monday that will go through six states and eleven cities and towns, ending in New Orleans on Friday at a charter school that has seen a significant turnaround. (Education Week)
School leaders around the country acknowledge they need better ways to handle student defiance and other misbehavior that typically result in home suspension because that punishment does nothing to teach kids — either academically or socially. (The Seattle Times)
Google the definition of play and the first thing that pops up is this: “[To] engage in activity for enjoyment and recreation rather than a serious or practical purpose.” Jack Shonkoff, the director of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, finds that language supremely frustrating. “It’s not taking a break from learning when we talk about play,” he told me, rattling off a litany of cognitive, physical, mental, and social-emotional benefits. “Play is one of the most important ways in which children learn.” (The Atlantic)
Stephanie McCleary, Patty Venema and I all had daughters in middle school when they joined a coalition of school districts, teachers, parents and community groups in suing the state of Washington over unequal funding of public schools. (The Seattle Times)