posted on
Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis
Almost 14 years ago, the U.S. House of Representatives voted by a huge, bipartisan margin to pass the No Child Left Behind Act, which put the federal government front and center when it came to how K-12 schools measured student performance and fixed struggling schools. (Education Week)
“It is good news for our nation’s schools that the House has passed a serious bipartisan plan to fix the No Child Left Behind law. No Child Left Behind is the latest, now outmoded version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which is, at its core, a civil rights law. Educators and leaders throughout this country have been clear in the need for an updated law, and we have joined them in that call for half a decade. (U.S. Department of Education)
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to pour billions of dollars into a high-tech idea that has been billed as the future of learning, but which critics see as a half-baked notion that could jeopardize student privacy and spread ideas despised by public school advocates. (Politico)
After a few rounds of debates, a few flutters of gaffe and scandal, it’s increasingly clear that the 2016 election is going to be driven, like many presidential contests before it, by the anxieties of the U.S. middle class. Or, to be more precise, it’s going to be driven by anxieties around the middle class’ relationship to our mythological American Dream. Income inequality and increasingly localized economic opportunity have made it difficult for many Americans to see (let alone follow!) a path that leads to long-term economic security. (US News)
As a strong supporter of Teach for America, I was pleased to read that Harvard University has decided to launch a program clearly inspired by the same core values as TFA [“Harvard to launch free teaching fellowship program,” news, Nov. 28]. Similar to TFA, Harvard’s program seeks to inspire talented college graduates to improve the quality of teaching in urban schools. (The Washington Post)
The first time I heard a preschooler explaining a classmate’s disruptive behavior, I was surprised at how adult her 4-year-old voice sounded. Her classmate “doesn’t know how to sit still and listen,” she said to me, while I sat at the snack table with them. He couldn’t learn because he couldn’t follow directions, she explained, as if she had recently completed a behavioral assessment on him. (The Atlantic)