Beth’s Briefings (1-27-16)

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

 

The nation’s per-pupil spending on K-12 public schools dropped in 2013 for the third year in a row, reversing more than a decade of funding increases, according to federal data released Wednesday. (The Washington Post)

 

Tens of thousands of GED test takers who barely missed the cut may soon receive a diploma, after the company that oversees the test said this week it’s lowering the minimum passing score. (NPR)

 

The Common Core math standards have been contentious since they were launched several years ago, with many parents taking to social media to complain about their kids getting incomprehensible homework. Kids are now expected, for example, to explain how multiplication works using the “box” and “lattice” methods. These methods take longer, and are harder to master at first, but have been shown by some research to be more effective than the multiply-and-carry method, particularly for kids who have trouble memorizing things. And while they may be new for this generation of parents, they have been around since at least the 13th century. (The Atlantic)

 

Mortimer Zuckerman, the media and real estate mogul, says he got the idea for his new $100 million science scholarship program at 5 o’clock one morning last summer when he couldn’t sleep. (The Wall Street Journal)

 

TeacherMatch CEO and co-founder Don Fraynd has a favorite exercise he likes to put principals and school human-resource teams through: He passes out the same stack of 20 teacher résumés, then asks each person in the room to identify two candidates to bring in for an interview. (Education Week)