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Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis
Last week, the New Orleans school district became the first all-charter district in the country. NPR’s Rachel Martin talks to Sarah Carr, a reporter who’s been following the city’s changing schools. (NPR)
Elliott Witney, a brilliant reading teacher, was one of the six people who launched KIPP, now the nation’s largest charter school network, in a Chicago hotel conference room 14 years ago. He eventually became principal of KIPP’s flagship school in Houston. So, why has this hero of the charter movement taken an administrator job in a traditional Houston area district full of bureaucratic annoyances charters were created to eliminate? (Washington Post)
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s gift of $120 million to the San Francisco Bay Area public school system on Friday marks his second attempt at putting huge sums of his own money into turning around failing schools. (Huffington Post)
The numbers are grim. Black boys are more likely than white boys to live in poverty, and with a single parent. They’re also more likely to be suspended from school and land in prison, and less likely to be able to read. (NPR)
New York
The new teachers’ contract negotiated by Bill de Blasio and the United Federation of Teachers was presented to New Yorkers as no mere labor agreement, but a shining example of what the new mayor’s progressive political agenda will mean for disadvantaged children in the public schools. (NY Daily News)