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Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
National
Starting With Wyoming BIE School, DeVos Set to Visit Schools in States Aligned With Senate Education Committee
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is hitting the road. DeVos will start her back-to-school tour in Wyoming Tuesday. She’ll also make stops in Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, and Indiana between Tuesday and Friday, at “innovative educational settings across the United States that are fundamentally rethinking ‘school,’ ” according to a release from the Education Department. (The 74)
Teachers’ Pay Lags Farthest Behind Other Professionals in U.S., Study Finds
Young college graduates have a lot less incentive to become K-12 teachers in the United States than in other countries, according to the latest data from the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation. While American educators out-earn teachers in other countries, they trail those with similar education levels in other professions more than teachers in any other OECD country. (Education Week)
Survey: Millennials hold complex views on education
Millennials have surprising views on education, new data suggests, with no fixed ideology and, in many cases, attitudes about higher education that defy the popular idea that “college is for everyone.” Asked about the best ways to improve K-12 education, they propose a fairly traditional set of policy solutions: Increase school funding. Improve teacher training. Increase teacher pay. (USA Today)
How New Superintendents Can Kick-Start Momentum
As the school year gets underway, there is an important group of leaders also starting a new job: school district superintendents. This year, a particularly large number of districts are welcoming new chief executives – from Oakland, San Francisco and Sacramento in California to Detroit and Cincinnati in the Midwest to Washington D.C., Hartford and Newark (later this year) in the Northeast. (Real Clear Education)
States
Delaware
Families without bus service juggle safety, financial costs
Delaware parents are expressing frustration with state school bus regulations this month, claiming they have been forced to balance their children’s safety against both their jobs and their checkbooks. The problem manifests among families that live only a short distance from their children’s school. According to state regulations, elementary students that live less than a mile away must walk to the building. For middle and high school students, the radius expands to two miles. (Delaware Online)
New Jersey
Teacher report cards: See how educators rated in every N.J. school
TRENTON — New Jersey’s public school teachers got better grades in the state’s evaluation system last year as the percentage of educators rated “ineffective” and “partially effective” fell to 1.1 percent, according to data released Friday. The state Department of Education released the results of the third year of AchieveNJ, its new evaluation system. The system used classroom evaluations, student test scores and other measures to rate more than 100,000 teachers for the 2015-2016 school year.(NJ Advance Media)
New Mexico
New Mexico releases latest teacher evaluations
ALBUQUERQUE – About 74 percent of public school teachers in New Mexico are rated as effective or better when it comes to their success in the classroom, officials announced Friday. That’s the highest percentage of effective or better teachers since Gov. Susana Martinez adopted a new teacher evaluation system four years ago. The New Mexico Public Education Department unveiled the latest results under a much-debated system that’s the focus of an ongoing court battle. Earlier this year, the Martinez administration announced changes after meetings with teachers around the state to reduce the weight that standardized test scores have on evaluations. (Ruidoso News)
New York
A Way to Get Great Teachers Into the Classroom
When schools reopened in New York last week, students were greeted by teachers who had spent the summer preparing for their return. Unfortunately, many of those teachers had had to devote some of their time not to lesson plans, but to a state teacher-certification process that emphasizes bureaucratic procedures more than real-world qualifications. So as a teacher who recently had to jump through the New York certification hoops, I was pleased to learn that the State University of New York Charter Schools Institute, which authorizes charter operators, is considering allowing charter schools to certify their teachers themselves. The comment period for the proposal closes on Monday, and the institute could approve it as early as next month. (The New York Times)
Tennessee
Blount County Schools preparing to deliver $360,000 in back pay to teachers
The Blount County school board took the first step last week to repay teachers money due to them starting in 2010, a total of about $360,000 in pay. Under court cases filed in 2010 and 2012 by the Blount County Education Association against the Blount County Board of Education, the district agreed that licensed professional employees did not receive money due to them under the state minimum salary schedule during three school year. (The Daily Times)