posted on
Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis
hese are two vastly different portraits of California’s education system. In one, poor and minority students are frequently placed in front of incompetent teachers whose blackboards are filled with basic misspellings and who play irrelevant movies instead of devising lesson plans for class time. In the other, the vast majority of teachers are providing students with all they need to learn, and well-run school districts are able to ferret out and dismiss the ones who are not. (New York Times)
Kathy Visser says her 10-year-old son has made visible progress recently after struggling for years to hold and use a pencil and maintain focus on his school assignments. (Wall Street Journal)
A new study cautions that more research is needed before new common-core assessments can be used as valid and reliable measures of teacher effectiveness. (Education Week)
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan: They’re our kids and they are trying to get a great education. These are children and families who are trying to live the American dream. They are putting everything, everything on the line to get a great education, and it’s frankly inspiring. (Real Clear Politics)
New York
The Department of Education has wasted no time shedding a slew of top Bloomberg-era officials, offering signs of the school system’s new priorities under Chancellor Carmen Fariña. (Chalkbeat)