Beth’s Briefings (6-2-16)

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

 

During the 2011-2012 school year, nearly 3.5 million public school students were given an out-of-school suspension at least once. Of that number, 1.55 million students were suspended multiple times. They were sent home from school for a spectrum of offenses, ranging from minor misbehaviors, like disrupting class, to more serious ones, like possession of drugs. (Huffington Post)

 

Sixteen years ago, the United States was running a budget surplus. The Internet seemed old, but wasn’t; the first wave of Internet-based companies was about to crest. The economy was humming, and the unemployment rate that June was 4 percent. No one, save a few geeks who probably worked for some county in Florida, knew what a hanging chad was. (The Washington Post)

 

If you skimmed the U.S. Department of Education’s 190-plus page proposed regulations for accountability under the Every Student Succeeds Act, you probably know that the public has until Aug. 1 to submit comments on the draft. (Education Week)

 

Navigating a child through the public education system today is no easy task — and it is especially difficult for an increasing number of parents with children who have special needs. (The Washington Post)

 

When Congress reauthorized the United States’s federal education law last year, few observers were interested in changes to a technical part of the legislation known as “supplement not supplant.” A wonky fiscal rule that has been around for decades, it’s intended to make sure schools with high numbers of poor children don’t get less state and local money because of their participation in Title I, a federal program that provides extra money to help academically struggling students from high-poverty areas. (The Atlantic)

 

Many Asian American parents worry that potential admissions changes to Montgomery County’s selective academic programs could limit access for their children, while a number of black and Hispanic families have welcomed the county’s efforts to examine racial and ethnic disparities in the school system’s gifted and magnet programs. (The Washington Post)