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Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis
Confused about the Common Core State Standards? Join the club. That’s not to say the new benchmarks in reading and math are good or bad, working smoothly or kicking up sparks as the wheels come off. It is simply an acknowledgement that, when the vast majority of U.S. states adopt a single set of educational standards all at roughly the same time, a little confusion is inevitable. (NPR)
The debate about Common Core Standards has been swirling since the initiative was introduced. As Common Core is implemented in more and more school districts, advocates and opponents continue to debate both its drawbacks and merits. (Harvard GSE)
Conversations about America’s public-education system range from confusing to dispiriting…Into this debate come two economists, Greg J. Duncan of the School of Education at the University of California at Irvine, and Richard J. Murnane of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, with an encouraging message: We do have evidence that a few approaches work. (Wall Street Journal)
New York
A Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday found that 38% supported the mayor’s handling of public schools and 49% disapproved. Most voters also supported Gov. Cuomo’s plan to use existing state funds to pay for pre-kindergarten over de Blasio’s proposal to raise taxes on the rich. (NY Daily News)
North Carolina
North Carolina charter schools don’t have to disclose employee salaries like other public schools do, even though they receive hundreds of millions of dollars in public money, state education officials said this week. (Legal Pro News)
Pennsylvania
In his March 9 op-ed, “Charter school bill gets an F,” David Lapp correctly identifies the problem, but unfortunately, he proposes the wrong solution.
He is correct that some charter schools are not serving vulnerable populations and others are underperforming when compared to their public school district counterparts. However, the solution to this problem is not to double-down on failing neighborhood schools and ignore the 40,000 families on charter school waiting lists. (Lancaster Online)