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Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News & analysis:
A Very Early Edu-Look at the 2014 Midterm Elections
So now that Election Day 2013 is behind us, we can all turn our attention to … Election Day 2014! After all, it’s only a year away. Here’s your very, very early cheat sheet of which congressional races could matter in the general election. (Education Week – Politics K-12)
Missing: A National Education Policy for Low-Income Families
Let’s face it. When it comes to the transformation of public education, families and students are at the bottom of the partnership feeding chain. And our poorest families often wield the least power and have little political or social capital. Their voice is hardly ever sought after, and their children attend the lowest-performing schools. Missing in action are the well-integrated national education policies that should assure these families that they have a voice at the reform table. (Education Week)
Oklahoma! Where the Kids Learn Early
Liberals don’t expect Oklahoma to serve as a model of social policy. But, astonishingly, we can see in this reddest of red states a terrific example of what the United States can achieve in early education. (New York Times)
Tom Harkin, George Miller Preparing Preschool Bill To Reflect Obama Plan, Early Draft Shows
Retiring Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, are preparing to introduce an extensive bill that would legislate President Barack Obama’s plan to expand preschool dramatically, according to an early draft of the bill obtained by The Huffington Post. (Huffington Post)
New N.Y.C., Boston Mayors Vow to Act Fast on Education
Control over public schooling in Boston and New York City promises to look different in both cities after voters last week anointed new mayors who have pledged to move quickly to make their imprint on K-12 education. (Education Week)
The School-to-Prison Pipeline: A Nationwide Problem for Equal Rights
What happens to education when students, from preschool to high school, are subjected to disciplinary policies that more closely resemble policing than teaching? Around the country, advocates are collecting data illustrating the devastating effects of what they call the “school-to-prison pipeline,” where student behavior is criminalized, children are treated like prisoners and, all too often, actually end up behind bars. “The school-to-prison pipeline refers to interlocking sets of relationships at the institutional/structural and the individual levels,” explains Mariame Kaba, founding director at Project NIA, an advocacy group in Chicago fighting youth incarceration. “All of these forces work together to push youth of color, especially, out of schools and into unemployment and the criminal legal system.” (Rolling Stone)
New Jersey:
Analysis of ‘Nation’s Report Card’ shows some New Jersey students lag behind
New Jersey students ranked among the best in the nation in the 2013 National Assessment of Education Progress tests, which are often referred to as the Nation’s Report Card. (NJ.com)