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Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis
National
Trump starts review of federal ‘overreach’ in education
In a move meant to follow through on promises he made to conservatives during the 2016 campaign, President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday that aims to rein in federal control of education in the United States. The order, which Trump signed while flanked by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Vice President Mike Pence and Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, initiates a process that could see substantial changes made to K-12 education in the United States, the clearest signal yet that Trump hopes to put his stamp on the Education Department before his 100th day in office on Saturday. (CNN)
A Path Out Of Poverty: Career Training + Quality Pre K
What makes a high-quality learning program effective not just for the child but the whole family? What else, besides a well-run pre-K, is essential to help families break out of intergenerational poverty? These are some of the key questions that an approach called “two-generation” programs are working to answer. There are many of these “two-gen” programs across the U.S. And while they differ in emphasis and detail, at their core they intentionally focus on ways to help both the child and parent. Usually this happens through targeted education and career training and other vital support such as health services, mentoring, and transportation. (NPR)
Family by Family, How School Segregation Still Happens
Elana Shneyer and Adam Kaufman live a few hundred feet from Public School 165, the Robert E. Simon School, on West 109th Street, at the edge of Morningside Heights in Manhattan. When they started looking for a kindergarten for their son, who will start in the fall, the school was an early stop. That made them unusual.Although their neighborhood is diverse, the children who go to P.S. 165, its zoned school, are mostly Hispanic and low-income. Most of the white students who live in the area it serves attend school elsewhere. (The New York Times)
Report: 5 Ways to Address Teacher Shortages — Where They Really Exist
The often-described “teacher shortage” may not be as widespread as commonly thought, but there are places and subjects where teachers are hard to find, and a new report puts forth some fairly straightforward solutions for that. The analysis, published through the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution, wades into the much-argued question of whether teacher shortages are real and what should be done about them. (The 74)
State
Florida
Lawmakers — privately — cut $200M deal to help kids in failing schools
Lawmakers secretly struck a tentative compromise Thursday on one of the most consequential education reforms of the 2017 session — a $200 million program to help students who attend perpetually failing K-12 public schools in Florida. Specifics of the proposed deal were not released, as some of it was still being finalized, House and Senate pre-K-12 education budget chairmen said late Thursday. But the general description of the agreement was enough to earn initial support from some House Democrats, who had — until very recently — staunchly opposed the concept. (Miami Herald)
New Jersey
Baraka and Pro-Charter Slate Sweeps Newark School Board Elections Again
The Newark Unity Slate—a compromise ticket designed by Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, the city’s influential North Ward, and charter-school advocates—swept the city’s school board elections Tuesday night. Of the 15 candidates on the ballot, the top vote-getter was Josephine Garcia. She brought in 3,566 votes, according to preliminary results by the Essex County Clerk’s Office. (Observer)
Tennessee
SCS says it can’t help state-run charter students in limbo
The possibility that students at two charter schools will be able to finish middle school in their current schools dwindled this week after Shelby County Schools’ lawyer denied the district had any say-so in the matter. The schools’ leaders say they haven’t given up hope, but time is running out to find a legal avenue by the fall for Aspire Coleman to add the eighth grade and Memphis Scholars Florida-Kansas to add the seventh and eighth grades. (The Commercial Appeal)