March 12, 2014
Education Week, Vol. 33, Issue 24
School & District Management
N.Y.C. Charter Groups Rally to Keep Rent-Free School Spaces
Angered by Mayor Bill de Blasio's decision to rescind co-location agreements for some charter schools, thousands of protesters took their fight to the state capitol.
Reading & Literacy
Opinion
Why Learning to Write by Hand Matters
A special education teacher's experiences in a French school led her to see value in teaching children to write by hand, rather than by redirecting children to keyboarding when they struggle with writing.
Early Childhood
Early-Years Data Push a Touchy Topic in Delaware
State officials say better data on the youngest children will help educators gauge their academic needs, but some raise privacy concerns with sharing such information more broadly.
College & Workforce Readiness
Opinion
Expanding Definitions of Career Readiness
For some students, high-quality career and technical education offers a better fit and future than preparation for college, Jean Evans Davila writes.
Teacher Preparation
Opinion
Defining Teacher-Prep Accountability
Meaningful assessment of teacher preparation must be founded on strong research methodology and focused on program outcomes, writes Gerardo M. Gonzalez.
School & District Management
Missouri Weighs Steps for Intervening in Troubled Schools
A law that lets students transfer out of unaccredited districts is forcing debate over what the state should do for school systems on the brink of failing.
Federal
Education Equity, Pre-K Get Nod in Obama Budget
Districts and states would get federal incentive grants to help bridge the achievement gap between poor and minority students and their more advantaged peers under a federal budget plan that faces an uphill climb on Capitol Hill.
Teacher Preparation
Teach For America Targets Retention, Longer Preparation
The launch of two new pilot projects signals a shift in direction for the national teacher-training and -placement organization.
School & District Management
Phila. Superintendent Plans to Open Unconventional Schools
All three of the newly approved schools will feature project-based learning, push students to learn outside the walls of traditional classrooms, and incorporate online education.
School Choice & Charters
Innovative Ed. Model Challenges Teachers to Adjust
A controversial gamble by Philadelphia Superintendent William R. Hite to expand innovative school models is revealing the difficulties of changing and improving how students are taught.
Teaching
Teachers Learn to Judge Formative-Testing Tools
Educators gathered recently for training on how to size up instructional resources for possible inclusion in a digital library that a common-core testing consortium is developing.
Classroom Technology
Educators, Entrepreneurs Connect at South by Southwest
About 6,000 educators, entrepreneurs, and other innovation-minded people gathered in Austin, Texas, to talk about how technological advances are fueling improvements in education.
School & District Management
State of the States
State of the States 2014: Florida
Facing a tough re-election campaign, Gov. Rick Scott told state lawmakers in his annual address that he plans to budget $18.8 billion for the state's public schools in fiscal year 2015.
Federal
Opinion
Let's Mend, Not End, Educational Testing
Sound assessments are integral to good teaching and learning, but they must not be used beyond their technical limits, writes Madhabi Chatterji.
Education Funding
News in Brief
Teacher-Evaluation Bill Gets Final Push in Wash.
Gov. Jay Inslee said he hopes lawmakers can come to an agreement on Washington state's teacher-evaluation system before the legislature adjourns this week.
School & District Management
News in Brief
Nevada District to End Relationship With Edison
The Clark County school district is severing its ties with an education-management company that operates seven public schools in Las Vegas.
College & Workforce Readiness
Report Roundup
Graduation Numbers
New data from the National Center for Education Statistics forecast a decline in the number of high school graduates over the next decade and college enrollment rising, but at a much slower pace than in recent years.
School & District Management
Report Roundup
Behavior Management
School districts with high concentrations of poverty and high numbers of black and Latino students have lower incidences of restraint and seclusion than their wealthier and less-diverse counterparts, according to an analysis of nationwide civil rights data from the U.S. Department of Education.
Classroom Technology
Report Roundup
Online Schooling
Enrollment in full-time virtual schools for K-12 students continues to grow, but the online sector is serving smaller percentages of impoverished, limited-English, and special-needs students than brick-and-mortar schools, according to a new report.
Assessment
News in Brief
Nebraska Working to Correct State Assessment Problem
Nebraska officials say they have pinpointed the source of technical problems that hampered statewide writing tests earlier this year.
Federal
Report Roundup
School Lunches
Students have consumed more vegetables since the U.S. Department of Agriculture implemented new school food standards, suggests a study published this month in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Assessment
News in Brief
Common Core Influencing District Buying, Survey Says
Research conducted by MDR, a company that analyzes the K-12 market, found that 68 percent of school systems plan to buy instructional materials that address the Common Core State Standards.
School Climate & Safety
News in Brief
New Jersey to Grade Anti-Bullying Efforts
New Jersey districts will soon post grades of their anti-bullying efforts on their websites, allowing parents to compare districts and the state to provide assistance in targeted areas.
Education Funding
News in Brief
K-12 Funding System Unconstitutional, Kansas High Court Says
In a high-profile legal battle over school finance, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled March 7 that the state's funding system is unconstitutional because it did not provide equity in public schools.
School Climate & Safety
News in Brief
Kansas Slows Down Bill On 'Offensive' Materials
A measure that would make it easier in Kansas to prosecute teachers, librarians, or school principals for exposing students to offensive materials has been stalled.
Assessment
News in Brief
Group Says Getting Buy-In Difficult for Field-Testing
With five assessment consortia all trying to field-test around the same time, at least one group is saying it's been tough to find willing participants to try out the new common-core-linked exams.
Assessment
News in Brief
Authorizer Group Announces Charter-Improvement Status
About 230,000 students are attending better charter schools in the 2013-14 school year, according to the National Association of Charter School Authorizers.
Education Funding
Report Roundup
Survey Finds School Buildings in Need of Improvements
Upgrading the nation's public K-12 school buildings to a "good overall condition" would cost about $200 billion, according to a new, nationally representative survey released last week by the National Center for Education Statistics.