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Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis
For over a year, I’ve been encouraging Common Core advocates to stop endlessly re-litigating the standards and instead to focus on getting implementation right. Taking my own advice last week, I traveled to Reno to see first-hand the work of the Core Task Project, the initiative driving implementation of the standards in Washoe County, Nevada. (Fordham Institute)
The possibility that LA Unified Superintendent John Deasy will no longer be at the helm of the nation’s second largest school district – whether by choice or by force – is looming ever larger as the deadline for his annual evaluation approaches, leaving some district officials to speculate over how to replace him. (LA School Report)
Wendy Kopp, founder of Teach for America and Teach for All, is skeptical about the potential of technology as a cure-all in education. At a NationSwell Council event on September 12, she described her visit to Microsoft’s School of the Future in Philadelphia, where “every single kid in the room was IMing their friends, or trying to fix the computer, or surfing the Internet, while a teacher talked very loudly in the front.” Kopp explained, “If we try to stick technology in there to solve this problem without those foundations [of human connection in the classroom], we’re going to see things go in the wrong direction.” (edSurge)
New York
In progressive New York, we’re all about getting rid of inequality, right? Five families in Buffalo and Rochester are now putting this to the test. With the help of the Northeast Charter Schools Network, these families are targeting the most unconscionable inequity in the Empire State today: the way charter public schools get the shaft when it comes to funding. (NY Post)
In Grades 1-3, Average Class Size Rose to 25 or 26 Students Last Year (Wall Street Journal)