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Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on Monday urged college educators to promote teaching as a profession to their high-level students, emphasizing the country’s need for a qualified and diverse group of people to lead the next generation of U.S. children. (Washington Post)
President Obama traveled to a high school in the Washington suburbs on Monday to announce the winners of $107 million in grants intended to update curriculums to better integrate work experiences and real-world learning opportunities. (New York Times)
Ten Republican senators don’t want to see another dime of federal money going to states in exchange for adopting certain academic standards. That includes the Common Core State Standards, now embraced by 45 states and the District of Columbia. The senators also don’t want any more federal funding going to develop assessments that go along with the common core, or any other set of standards. (Education Week)
New York
Nearly 100 days into her tenure, Chancellor Carmen Fariña’s dreams are finally coming true. That’s how she framed the launch today of a new program to pair schools in hopes that their collaboration will lift school quality. It is the first major policy announcement for Fariña, whose tenure up to now has consisted largely of boosting morale, putting out fires, and promoting the de Blasio administration’s pre-kindergarten expansion. (Chalkbeat)
Pennsylvania
The legal battle over whether the School Reform Commission has the power to unilaterally impose new workrules on its teachers is getting more intense with the filings of new arguments urging quick action by the Supreme Court. (The Notebook)