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Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis
The four corporations that dominate the U.S. standardized testing market spend millions of dollars lobbying state and federal officials — as well as sometimes hiring them — to persuade them to favor policies that include mandated student assessments, helping to fuel a nearly $2 billion annual testing business, a new analysis shows. (Washington Post)
Monday, March 30, 2015 is the second year that thousands of Oklahoma teachers and parents will head to Oklahoma City for the Education Rally. (Fox 23)
Three prominent liberal activists — including the president of a large union — are calling for Elizabeth Warren to challenge Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, insisting that the Massachusetts senator’s participation in a competitive primary process would benefit the party. (Politico)
As you would expect, the American Federation of Teachers isn’t just focused on making sure that Philadelphia’s mayor is one who favors its interests. There’s still the Chicago mayoral run-off, in which the union’s favored candidate, Jesus (Chuy) Garcia faces an uphill fight against incumbent Rahm Emanuel for the top municipal job. With so much at stake for the union and its notoriously-bellicose Second City local — which has spent the past few years campaigning for Emanuel’s ouster — it and its affiliates are spending plenty of cash on Garcia’s behalf. (Dropout Nation)
This weekend, NPR Ed is featuring dispatches from teachers about the ups and downs of their work. (NPR)
The U.S. Department of Education plans to name the colleges whose access to federal money it has restricted because of concerns about the risk they pose to students and taxpayers. And most of the institutions placed on those financial sanctions in recent years have been for-profit colleges, newly disclosed federal records show. (Inside Higher Ed)