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Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis:
Fresh Wave of Head Start Centers Told to Recompete for Aid
The announcement that a new wave of more than 100 Head Start grantees will need to recompete for their federal funding has redoubled attention on the federal government’s efforts to ensure the effectiveness of the $8 billion preschool program that serves about 1 million low-income children. (Education Week)
Charter Schools That Start Bad Stay Bad, Stanford Report Says
When it comes to charter schools, the bad ones stay bad and the good ones stay good, according to a report on charter school growth released by an influential group of Stanford University scholars on Wednesday. (Huffington Post)
Minnesota:
Charter-school kudos — and a wish list
A national organization Tuesday named Minnesota’s charter school law the best in the nation [PDF]. It’s the fourth time the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS) has conducted the survey and the second time Minnesota has come out on top. (MinnPost) http://www.minnpost.com/learning-curve/2013/01/charter-school-kudos-and-wish-list
New York:
Cuomo: State Might Impose Evaluations
State officials will impose their own job evaluation system on New York City’s teachers if a deal isn’t reached soon between the union and the city, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday. (Wall Street Journal) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324610504578274321626180826.html?mod=WSJ_NY_LEFTTopStories
Rural N.Y. Districts Consider Sharing to Maximize Resources
Seven mostly rural school districts in the same New York county have committed to working together to ease the pressure on their cash-strapped budgets. The districts—Argyle, Cambridge, Fort Ann, Granville, Hartford, Hudson Falls and Salem—all operate in Washington County, a roughly 837 square mile area on the state’s eastern border that’s largely agricultural. It doesn’t have any cities within its borders. (Education Week – Rural Education)
View Point:
‘No Excuses’ Kids Go to College
The C in linguistics proved to Rebecca Mercado that college was going to be different. “It was the first time I had ever received a grade lower than a B, and it was upsetting,” admits Mercado, a biochemistry and cell biology major at the University of California, San Diego. The first in her family to attend a four-year college, Mercado was a strong student dating all the way back to her days in middle school at San Diego’s KIPP Adelante Preparatory Academy. Perhaps as a result, she was “a little more cocky than I should have been” when arriving on campus for freshman year. Like many freshmen, Mercado experienced the distraction of being on her own for the first time, which took a toll on her grades. Holding down a job while taking more classes than she could handle didn’t help. “It all came crashing down on top of me,” Mercado says. Freshman year was “a big dose of reality,” she says. (Education Next)