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Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
President Barack Obama placed education at the center of a broad strategy to bolster economic mobility and combat poverty—calling on Congress in his State of the Union speech to approve previously unveiled initiatives to expand preschool to more 4-year-olds, beef up job-training programs, and make post-secondary education more effective and accessible. (Education Week)
We generally prefer to discuss policies rather than people on this blog, but there are some figures whose influence is so large that their words and actions justify scrutiny. One of them is Randi Weingarten, president of the million-member American Federation of Teachers (AFT). Her choices have real consequences for students in the schools where her members teach. (TNTP Blog)
New York:
New York State’s top education official was caught in a battle between city and state leaders on Tuesday after he suggested that providing universal access to prekindergarten would cost substantially more than what Gov.Andrew M. Cuomo had proposed. (New York Times)
New Jersey:
No seniors at Paterson’s Eastside High School campus last year did well enough on the SATs to meet the College Board’s threshold for being “college ready.” (North Jersey)
The state has released district-by-district snapshots of student test scores, graduation rates, absenteeism and enrollment of graduates in two-year or four-year colleges. (Star-Ledger)
Pennsylvania
I taught in public schools for 11 years. When I began, I had a lot to learn, and when I accepted my next role in education, as a human resources administrator, I still had a lot to learn about effective teaching. (Post Gazette)