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Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis:
Effort to Tighten Charter School Regulation Gets Foundation Support
A new campaign to make oversight of charters schools more stringent and ensure that bad ones get shut down has won a $5.2 million grant from a major philanthropy on education issues, the Walton Family Foundation. (Education Week)
Five More States Secure Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge Grants
Colorado, Illinois, New Mexico, Oregon, and Wisconsin will each receive a share of the 2012 Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge $133 million grant fund to improve quality and expand access to early learning programs throughout their states. The five winners join nine existing state grantees who secured first-round funding last year. (ED.gov)
LAUSD wins key legal battle with charter schools
Los Angeles school district officials won a key legal battle with charter schools this week, when an appeals court struck down a ruling that could have opened up vast numbers of classrooms for charters, while also creating potential hardships for traditional neighborhood schools. (Los Angeles Times)
State botches release of new data on teacher evaluations
Florida’s Department of Education on Wednesday rolled out the results of a sweeping new teacher evaluation system that is designed to be a more accurate, helpful and data-driven measure of how well teachers actually get students to learn. (Tampa Bay Times)
Students Fall Flat in Vocabulary Test
U.S. students knew only about half of what they were expected to on a new vocabulary section of a national exam, in the latest evidence of severe shortcomings in the nation’s reading education. (Wall Street Journal)
Teaching Trends: 7 Things That Have Shaped The Teaching Profession Over The Past 2 Decades
Over the past 20 years, the teaching force has become larger, grayer, greener, more female, more diverse and less stable, according to a study published by Richard Ingersoll and Lisa Merrill of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education. The report identifies seven major trends and changes shaping the teaching profession in the United States. (Huffington Post)
New York:
Schools Chief Sets Deadline
In unusually forceful remarks, New York City’s schools chancellor warned Wednesday that principals across the city would be forced to make painful cuts in areas such as staff size, libraries and after-school programs if a deal on teacher evaluations isn’t reached soon. (Wall Street Journal)