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Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis
“Think Globally, Act Locally” is a slogan around which the public should rally as much concerning education as environmental issues. Since the American school is in sad shape globally, one expects the pragmatic, Mr. Fixit American public to be actively engaged locally in school reform. (Education Next)
It’s one thing to discuss in general terms how school accountability has changed since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act (one of the prime legacies of U.S. Rep. George Miller, a Democrat and titan of education policy who just announced his retirement from Congress). But can the scope of those changes in state policies be measured in some way? (Education Week)
Rep. George Miller’s decision to retire after 40 years in Congress, coming after the announced retirement of Sen. Tom Harkin (Iowa), means Democrats will lose their two strongest congressional leaders on education issues at the end of the year. (Washington Post)
Since the Common Core standards were unveiled in 2010, advocates have insisted that it’s a “state-led” effort. President Obama declared in the 2011 State of the Union, “These standards were developed… not by Washington, but by Republican and Democratic governors throughout the country.” This past June, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan thundered, “The federal government didn’t write them, didn’t approve them, and doesn’t mandate them, and we never will. Anyone who says otherwise is either misinformed or willfully misleading.” (Education Week)
New Jersey
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will propose extending the public school calendar and lengthening the school day in a speech he hopes will help him rebound from an apparent political payback scheme that threatens to damage his second term and could cut short any ambitions to run for president. (Associated Press)
New York
Charter schools offer “untapped potential” in the effort to expand pre-kindergarten for poor students, a team of advisors for Gov. Andrew Cuomo conclude in a report released today. (Chalkbeat)