Beth’s Briefings (7-27-15)

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

 

A quarter-century ago, on July 26, 1990, Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act to give people with disabilities equal access to services like public education. But the rate at which special-needs students are disciplined raises questions about how equal that access truly is. In public schools today, children with disabilities are far more likely than their classmates to be disciplined, removed from the classroom, suspended, and even expelled. (The Atlantic)

 

Pearson, the world’s largest education company, the one that testing critics love to hate, wants to get much, much bigger. It is selling other investments so that it can focus entirely on its education business. (The Washington Post)

 

We may have a winner of the Black Hole Award for transparency: Teacher preparation. It’s hard to tell if states are doing anything about poor teacher education programs, since many are not evaluating them like they’re required to. (Education Week)

 

What’s the most important issue facing the country? As usual, it’s the economy and jobs, according to the latest annual survey from the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice. But education is the second issue on the minds of Americans who have been bombarded over the past year with news about Common Core curriculum standards, soaring student debt and standardized test opt-out movements in schools across the country. (Forbes)

 

New York state recently announced an increase in the minimum wage for fast food workers, to $15 an hour. It’s the fruit of a three-year labor campaign. But there’s another group of workers out there that hasn’t had a real wage increase in decades. Right now, at preschool programs around the country, teachers are tapping infinite reserves of patience to keep the peace among children at various stages of development and need. They’re also providing meals, wiping noses and delivering a curriculum in math and reading that will get the kids ready for school. (NPR)

 

Jena Legnon Meaux was sitting in Theater 16 watching “Trainwreck” when she heard the gunfire. The high school librarian instinctively dropped to the floor with friend Ali Viator Martin, an English teacher. Meaux then scrambled between the seats and crawled towards the exit. Once outside the Lafayette, La. movie theater, she screamed that there was a shooter. A wounded Martin dragged herself to a fire alarm and pulled it before escaping. (The Washington Post)

 

The N.C. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the state can continue awarding publicly funded vouchers to send low-income students to private schools. (The Charlotte Observer)