Singer’s Clips (3-10-14)

Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:

 

In recent years, we’ve heard a lot about gritty students.  Now grit researchers are turning their attention to teachers. In a study published in the current issue of the peer-reviewed journal Teachers College Record, University of Pennsylvania researchers Claire Robertson-Kraft and Angela Duckworth found that, for novice teachers in high-poverty school districts, higher levels of  “perseverance and passion for long-term goals”  (aka “grit”)  were associated with higher rates of effectiveness and retention. (Education Week)

 

Here’s news sure to trigger smiles among high-school students: The SATs are set for a makeover that may make the test easier. (New York Post)

 

The first phase of a multiyear evaluation of an instructional approach used by teachers with large numbers of English-learners in their mainstream classrooms found that literacy outcomes for ELLs improved, and their progress did not come at the expense of their English-proficient peers. (Education Week)

 

Teachers in Montgomery County have ratified a new contract that gives raises totaling 5.5 percent over three years, but it also requires educators to pay more for health insurance. (WAMU)

 

Some legislators have already made displeasure known – critics, union members, community organizers to be on hand. (NJ Spotlight)

 

As a candidate for mayor, Bill de Blasio electrified crowds of parents and education activists with a pledge to charge rent to charter schools, one of the starkest policy departures from his predecessor, Michael R. Bloomberg. (New York Times)