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Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News & analysis:
SAT reading scores hit a four-decade low
Reading scores on the SAT for the high school class of 2012 reached a four-decade low, putting a punctuation mark on a gradual decline in the ability of college-bound teens to read passages and answer questions about sentence structure, vocabulary and meaning on the college entrance exam. Many experts attribute the continued decline to record numbers of students taking the test, including about one-quarter from low-income backgrounds. There are many factors that can affect how well a student scores on the SAT, but few are as strongly correlated as family income. (Washington Post)
Miller to Duncan: Waivers May Offer Too Much Leeway On Grad Rates
Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the House Education committee, is worried that the department isn’t holding states’ feet to the fire when it comes to monitoring graduation rates in states that have received waivers from parts of the No Child Left Behind Act. (Education Week)
Common Core Reaches Into Science Classes, Survey Finds
The Common Core State Standards aren’t just changing instruction in math and English language/arts, a new survey data suggest. They’re also finding their way into a lot of science classrooms. A majority of science teachers surveyed see some benefit coming out of this intersection, even as some worry that pressure from administrators to infuse science lessons with math and literacy takes time away from the core content of their disciplines. (Education Week)
New York:
City to Add Pre-K Efforts in Poor Areas Next Year
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said Monday that the city would open a new type of preschool in Brooklyn next year, introducing a cradle-to-kindergarten approach to education for very young children in poor neighborhoods. The school, known as Educare, will open in Brownsville and serve children between 6 weeks and 5 years old, mimicking schools that have been created in 17 other cities. The one envisioned for New York will include a “leadership institute” to carry out research in early childhood education, city officials said. (New York Times)
Pennsylvania:
Part of the education solution
In 2010, the School District of Philadelphia announced its Renaissance charter initiative, a bold plan to turn around persistently low-performing schools. The district empowered a number of parent groups to select charter providers for their failing neighborhood schools. Three of those parent groups chose Mastery. The student achievement results from those schools are now in. In just two years, PSSA scores in math soared an average 26 percentage points and reading scores climbed 17 percentage points. That means 50 percent more children at these schools now score as proficient or advanced in state testing. Even more astonishingly, our students scored above the state average in several grades, outscoring many suburban districts and effectively closing the achievement gap. (Philadelphia Inquirer)