Beth’s Briefings (4-1-16)

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

 

In yet another sign that the lack of teacher diversity is a pressing issue, a new study suggests that white teachers expect less academic success from black students than black teachers do from the same students. (The Atlantic)

 

Last week, Teach For America announced a major organizational restructuring that includes the elimination of some 150 jobs. Teach For America’s critics seized on the news as evidence of “big trouble” within the organization. Media reports have treated the cuts as further evidence of the declining fortunes of education reform, citing the role of intensified political opposition in driving down Teach For America recruitment. As someone who has written extensively on Teach For America’s history and evolution and counts numerous Teach For America staff and alumni (including some who are losing their jobs) as friends, I’ve watched this news unfold with both sadness for those impacted and frustration. The response to Teach For America’s recent announcement illustrates the pitfalls of analyzing education news out of historical and broader landscape context. (US News)

 

Shirley Hufstedler, a pathbreaking former federal judge who became the nation’s first cabinet-level secretary of education, nominated by President Jimmy Carter, died on Wednesday in Glendale, Calif. She was 90. (The New York Times)

 

The Washington Post wrote about a new study from the Southern Education Foundation, which finds that private schools in America are overwhelmingly white. The study’s author makes the illogical and unsubstantiated argument that the private school choice movement of today is an extension of the racism that existed a half a century ago when white parents opted to use private schools to avoid desegregation. (The Seventy Four)

 

Teachers who don’t report to work Friday during a “wildcat strike” will not be disciplined beyond losing the day’s pay, a top Chicago Public Schools official said Thursday. (Chicago Sun-Times)

 

One year after New York’s state budget negotiations turned into a drag-out fight over teacher evaluations, lawmakers came to a less controversial deal that will send more money to New York City’s district and charter schools. (Chalkbeat New York)