posted on
Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News & analysis:
Hillary Clinton Champions Early-Childhood Education in New Campaign
An Education Week headline reads: “Democratic Presidential Nominee Hillary Clinton Makes Early-Childhood Education Campaign Centerpiece.” Okay, fine, we don’t really have a crystal ball here at Politics K-12. And it’s an open question whether the former first-lady-turned-senator-turned-secretary-of-state is even running for president. (Plus, you know, we’ve still got three years of the Obama administration left.) But it’s hard to deny that since leaving the Obama administration, Clinton has turned back to a longheld interest of hers: early-childhood education. (Education Week – Politics K-12)
Most D.C. schools to participate in unified enrollment lottery starting next year
The majority of D.C. charter schools and all schools in the city’s traditional school system plan to participate in a single unified lottery to determine enrollment for the 2014-2015 school year, officials in the office of Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) said. (Washington Post)
Minnesota:
Road to Success — “The time is always right to do what is right.”
In just 10 years, Northfied Public Schools increased its Latino high school graduation rate from 36 to 92 percent. That’s incredible–and a good reason why team MinnCAN needed to venture down to the southern Minnesota college town. (MinnCAN)
New York:
New Research on New York City: School Choice, Student Experience
As New York City prepares for a mayoral election that could have big ramifications for its school system, two new research papers released yesterday examine what’s happened in the 1.1 million-student school system since Mayor Michael Bloomberg took control of it in 2002. (Education Week: District Dossier)
North Carolina:
Wake County voters approve $810 million bond issue for schools
Wake County voters showed their willingness Tuesday to raise their own taxes to make room for the next wave of public-school students, approving an $810 million school construction bond issue by a 15-percentage point margin. (News Observer)
View Point:
CCSSO gives the feds a way out
The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) recently issued a set of principles for the new Common Core–aligned tests. The document sent a pointed message to the Department of Education: “Dear Mr. Secretary: We got this.” (Flypaper)