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Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis
La’Shieka White wants her 9-year-old son Edmund to continue next year at Gateway Science Academy, a public charter school in St. Louis that he has attended since kindergarten. But that may not be possible because Edmund is black, and the St. Louis school system operates under policies that mandate racial discrimination. Yes, in 2016. (The Wall Street Journal)
Sixty two years after the Supreme Court ruled that America’s schools must be integrated, campuses across the country are becoming increasingly segregated by race and income. (Los Angeles Times)
In an effort to measure students’ understanding of basic engineering and technology principles, a new national assessment aims to move beyond multiple-choice questions and instead focus on troubleshooting in real-world scenarios. For example, students are tasked with designing a healthier habitat for a pet iguana, or building safer bike lanes in a city. (The Atlantic)
“This is an intolerable situation,” Sen. Lamar Alexander said last week in a heated speech on the Senate floor. The Tennessee Republican is chairman of the Senate’s education committee, and he’s furious with the Education Department. He even gave states some remarkable advice: “If the regulations are not consistent with the law, I don’t believe [states] should follow them,” he said. “If the department persists, then the state should go to court to sue the department.” (NPR)
Boston Public School students walked out of class Tuesday and marched to City Hall to protest proposed cuts for the second time this year. (Learning Lab)
The Texas Supreme Court just doesn’t want to get involved in how the state pays for its public schools. That was the signal the nine justices sent Friday when they unanimously ruled the state school funding system, which historically has been one of the country’s most controversial, constitutional. (NPR)