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Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis
Linnea Wolters was prepared to hate the Common Core State Standards. She taught fifth grade at a low-income school in Reno, Nevada where, she says, there was always some new plan to improve things. And none of it added up to good education. But, after leading her class through a Core-aligned lesson — a close reading of Emma Lazarus’ sonnet “The New Colossus” — she was intrigued, especially by the way different students reacted to the process. (NPR)
Michael Bloomberg’s $40 million spending splurge on politics for this year’s election taught him a lesson for 2016: You get a much better bang for your buck by trying to tip state and local elections than high-profile federal ones. (Politico)
New Jersey
New Jersey lawmakers are not hitting the snooze button on a bill that would require the state to study whether to allow teens to stay in bed longer on school days. (NJ.com)
New York
Small struggling schools that fail to improve may be merged with other schools, Chancellor Carmen Fariña said Wednesday when discussing her new plan to rescue more than 90 of the city’s lowest-performing schools. (Chalkbeat)
New York City hit its target for pre-kindergarten enrollment, with 53,230 children signed up for pre-kindergarten programs across the city this fall. The pre-k expansion has been de Blasio’s signature initiative, and he set the goal of enrolling more than 53,000 students this year. Meeting the goal may boost his effort to expand the pre-k program even more next year, to serve about 73,000 four-year-olds. (WNYC)