posted on
Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis
Three months after Oklahoma lost its waiver from key provisions of No Child Left Behind, the signature Bush-era education law, the Obama administration has given it back for the rest of the school year. The Department of Education announced Monday that Oklahoma — which lost its waiver after repealing the Common Core, controversial academic standards that have been adopted by more than 40 states — would have its waiver reinstated because the state had adopted academic standards approved by Oklahoma’s colleges and universities. The waivers relieve states of meeting the requirement under the No Child law that all students in a school show proficiency in reading and math by 2014 or else the school would be declared failing. Since July, the Education Department has granted waiver extensions to 33 states. (New York Times)
Education Secretary Arne Duncan is losing his second communications chief in two years. Massie Ritsch, the acting assistant secretary for communications and outreach, is leaving his job to take a new position at Teach For America. (Washington Post)
On a hot August day during the first week of school, Heather Hobbs, a 26-year-old teacher at Andrew Johnson Elementary School in Kingsport, Tenn., asked her third-grade class to do something she knew that they wouldn’t be able to do. (Hechinger Report)
More than 500 teachers union members and supporters gathered late Thursday afternoon at Mariachi Plaza in Boyle Heights to rally for their contract demands. (LA Times)
New York
Charter school advocates on Friday demanded that the New York City schools chancellor, Carmen Fariña, release data to support her accusation that those schools push some students out before they take state tests and later replace them with high-scoring children. (New York Times)