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Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis:
Commission Calls for ‘Radically Different’ Tests
Emerging technology and research on learning have the potential to dramatically improve assessments, if educators and policymakers take a more balanced approach to using them. (Education Week)
Parent-Trigger Bills Progress in States’ Legislatures
At least three states—Florida, Georgia, and Oklahoma—advanced parent-trigger laws this week, although none of those efforts have yet become laws. (Education Week – Charters and Choice)
Urban School Leaders Hear Federal Take on Early Ed., Turnarounds
The nation’s school districts would be the main administrators, and in some states the main providers, of early-learning services in the expansion of preschool for 4-year-olds envisioned by the White House, administration officials told urban school leaders at a conference here on Monday. The White House also seems to envision a full-day preschool program to serve all low- and moderate-income families with 4-year-olds. (Education Week – District Dossier)
Florida Charter Schools Outperform Public Schools, Data Shows
According to data collected by the Florida Department of Education, charter schools in the state are outperforming their traditional public school peers. The report – titled Student Achievement in Florida’s Charter Schools: A Comparisons of the Performance of Charter School Students with Traditional Public School Students — found that of the 63 metrics measured by state exams, charter students outdid their public school classmates on 55. (Education News)
New Jersey:
New report shows nearly 75 percent of NJ black and Latino 4th-graders are not proficient in math or reading
JerseyCAN: The New Jersey Campaign for Achievement Now launched today as an education reform advocacy organization with the release of its inaugural ‘State of New Jersey Public Education’ report. (JerseyCAN)
View Point:
Jay Matthews: Arguing about school reforms that go nowhere
In the 1990s, Las Montanas High School (a fictional name for a real place) throbbed with excitement over technological advances in California’s Silicon Valley where it was located. Forty-four percent of the students were low-income but the school’s administrators and teachers vowed to override that handicap by turning it into a high tech magnet with a strong interdisciplinary focus. (Washington Post)