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Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis
Arizona State University, one of the nation’s largest universities, is joining with edX, a nonprofit online venture founded by M.I.T. and Harvard, to offer an online freshman year that will be available worldwide with no admissions process and full university credit. (NY Times)
Acting Chicago schools boss Jesse Ruiz announced Wednesday that the district was suspending payment on a $20.5 million no-bid contract at the center of a federal criminal probe, but he also defended his own vote for the 2013 deal in his role as vice president of the Chicago Board of Education. (Chicago Tribune)
As I discuss in a story being published this week, a review of bills to end the Common Core State Standards in state legislatures show that opponents of the standards don’t have a single outright victory so far this year. Repeal efforts have fallen flat in Arizona, Montana, West Virginia, and a host of other states so far. (Education Week)
With public comments ringing in their ears, members of the Senate Education Committee unanimously endorsed their version of the Vermont education reform bill Wednesday night. (Burlington Free Press)
For the last dozen years, waves of idealistic Americans have campaigned to reform and improve K-12 education. (NY Times)
A copy of the state’s English Language Arts test that students took last week was leaked online Wednesday in an apparent act of sabotage by anti-testing activists. (NY Post)
Pennsylvania
At Martin Luther King High, a hulking half-full school here, there aren’t enough textbooks to go around. If teachers want to make a photocopy, they have to buy paper themselves. Though an overwhelming majority of students are living in poverty, no social worker is available to help. Private donations allow for some dance and music classes, but they serve just 60 of the school’s 1,200 students. (Washington Post)