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Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis:
Marc Porter Magee: Three Principles for Being a Cage-Busting Advocate
One of the most significant recent developments in American education has been the explosive growth of advocacy groups. In the last three years alone, we have seen a number of new efforts emerge: 50CAN, Educators 4 Excellence, Families for Excellent Schools, Students for Education Reform, StudentsFirst and many more. (Education Week – Rick Hess Straight Up)
Obama Will Pay for Pre-K Program By Raising Tobacco Taxes
The number-one question when President Barack Obama unveiled his plan to help states expand prekindergarten programs after his State of the Union address: How are you going to pay for this? After all, a similarly structured program, proposed by the Center for American Progress, a think tank closely aligned with the administration, carried a 10-year price tag of nearly $100 billion—a tall order in very tight fiscal times. (Education Week – Politics K-12)
U.S. Middle-Class Students Fall Short in Global Study
Discussions of how to close the achievement gaps for low-income and minority students often take center stage in education policy discussions. Yet students from middle-class families, regardless of race and ethnicity, also have some catching up to do to be competitive on the global stage, a new report suggests. (Education Week – Curriculum Matters)
Lessons From A School Cheating Scandal, Two Decades Later
A local newspaper investigation in Atlanta uncovered widespread cheating in standardized testing, which school officials were indicted for last week. But almost 25 years ago, a doctor in West Virginia coal country uncovered a similar scandal after noticing that standardized test scores in his community were suspiciously high. Host Michel Martin speaks to Dr. John Cannell about his report back then, and other incidents he has been following since. (NPR)
Head Start Families Left With No Good Options Due To Sequestration
The ripple effects of sequestration are taking hold. And among the first and most affected are hundreds of lower-income parents forced to game out major life adjustments to accommodate cuts to Head Start. (Huffington Post)