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Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis:
Pressure Mounts in Some States Against Common Core
Opponents of the Common Core State Standards are ramping up legislative pressure and public relations efforts aimed at getting states to scale back—or even abandon—the high-profile initiative, even as implementation proceeds and tests aligned with the standards loom. (Education Week)
The Real Problem with Highly Regulated ‘School Choice’
A Fordham Institute paper released this week seeks to answer the question: do private schools really refuse to participate in heavily regulated school choice programs? Its summary, written by Chester Finn and Amber Winkler, tells us that “many proponents of private school choice… take [this] for granted,” citing two examples—one of them being the Cato Institute, whose Center for Educational Freedom I direct. The authors even cite a relevant commentary by former Cato policy analyst Adam Schaeffer. (Education Next)
Race to Top Progress Report: Georgia, D.C., Maryland Flounder
At the midway point of the federal Race to the Top program, the list of accomplishments for the 11 winning states and the District of Columbia is getting longer, but the challenges are getting more formidable as the time frame gets shorter, according to a progress report issued by the U.S. Department of Education today. (Education Week – Politics K-12)
Minnesota:
Minn. Superintendent Pioneered ELL Reforms
Few top-tier school administrators can claim as high a level of intimacy with the education of English-language learners as Valeria Silva, the superintendent of the school system in St. Paul, Minn. (Education Week)
Young teachers: Talented, eager — and lost in the shuffle
Katrina Jacoway moved across the country in hopes of a stabler job market for teachers, but it wasn’t enough to guarantee her a spot in the classroom. The Georgia native’s story is an example of the roller coaster many young teachers ride as they struggle to get established. (Twin Cities)
View Point:
More Lessons About Charter Schools
The charter school movement gained a foothold in American education two decades ago partly by asserting that independently run, publicly financed schools would outperform traditional public schools if they were exempted from onerous regulations. The charter advocates also promised that unlike traditional schools, which were allowed to fail without consequence, charter schools would be rigorously reviewed and shut down when they failed to perform. (New York Times)