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Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis
After playing defense for the better part of two decades, the presidents of the nation’s two teachers unions took the stage at the Democratic National Convention along with other union leaders to speak to Hillary Clinton’s labor bone fides. The two union presidents were some of the earliest and fiercest supporters of Clinton’s presidential bid, and in a speech on the opening night of the convention, American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten talked about what she hopes they’ll get in return. (The Hechinger Report)
On the ground floor of Russell Elementary School in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston one February morning, three teachers supervised 20 students in what is considered one of the best free, public preschool programs in the country. (The Atlantic)
Over 1 in 5 of California’s charter schools have restrictive admissions requirements or other exclusionary practices that keep out many students with the greatest academic needs, a report released Monday by the ACLU Foundation of Southern California and the public interest law firm Public Advocates alleges. (EdSource)
A Maryland couple who fraudulently enrolled three children in top D.C. public schools for a decade must pay the city more than $500,000 in fines, Attorney General Karl Racine announced Thursday. (The Washington Post)
Substitute teacher Mariella Castillo sat amid a sea of new teachers in the Venetian ballroom on Wednesday with one goal in mind — to join their ranks by the end of the year. (Las Vegas Sun)
New York
Earlier this year, weeks before students were to take the state’s standardized test, New York Commissioner of Education MaryEllen Elia traveled around touting the state’s exams as a reliable way to measure students’ progress on New York’s learning standards, gave teachers a chance to vet the questions, and then tossed out time limits on the test. It was all an effort to tamper down on the number of students who opted out of the state’s exams. (Education Week)