Beth’s Briefings (3-24-16)

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

 

The common core’s impact on student achievement may have peaked early and already tapered off, according to a new analysis of national test scores by the Brookings Institution’s Brown Center on Education Policy. (Education Week)

 

A foundation run by the youngest son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett plans to spend $90 million to improve the lives of young women of color. The NoVo Foundation, created in 2006 by Jennifer and Peter Buffett, the youngest son of Warren Buffett, plans to announce the multimillion investment on Wednesday. The foundation says this will be the largest single investment dedicated solely to addressing inequities faced by young female minorities in the United States. (Associated Press)

 

Many more black students are graduating from college than a decade ago. According to a new report from The Education Trust, a nonprofit that focuses on improving outcomes for low-income students of color, completion rates for African Americans increased at nearly 70 percent of the four-year public schools that raised their overall graduations rates between 2003 and 2013. But at the same time, a third of the colleges the group studied that had rising overall graduation rates actually had stagnant or declining graduation rates for black students. (The Atlantic)

 

Education Secretary John B. King Jr. on Thursday will criticize the prevalence of inequality in American higher education and call on colleges, especially elite institutions, to do a better job of enrolling and graduating low-income students. (Inside Higher Ed) 

 

Kelly Henderson loves her job, teaching at Newton South High School in a suburb west of Boston. But she’s frustrated she can’t afford to live in the community where she teaches: It’s part of the 10th most expensive housing market in the nation. (NPR)

 

The Chicago Teachers Union’s governing body gave its resounding approval Wednesday to a one-day walkout that would shut down the city’s public schools April 1. (Chicago Tribune)

 

Pennsylvania’s epic budget stalemate ended Wednesday when the Democratic governor backed off a recent veto threat, leaving just slivers of his once-ambitious agenda intact after nine months of partisan gridlock that threatened to shutter schools and forced layoffs at social service agencies. (ABC News)