Parent Trigger Momentum Slows, OK Common Core, and More: Friday’s ed news

Published May 23, 2014

Friday’s ed news

PARENT TRIGGER: The enthusiasm over Parent Trigger laws has waned this year, as fewer states consider the new school choice idea. 

DATA: A large new paper details how the federal government has pushed states into massive data collection on children from birth, and the ties between this and Common Core. 

OKLAHOMA: A Common Core repeal has come out of conference committee and goes back to the legislature for votes. 

OKLAHOMA: The legislature overrides the governor’s veto so that third graders no longer have to pass a reading test to move to fourth grade. 

MASSACHUSETTS: A Harvard professor wins a prestigious teaching prize–and $500,000. 

 

Thursday’s ed news

LOUISIANA: Gov. Bobby Jindal makes his most direct statements against Common Core yet, comparing it to Russian central planning. He and state leaders are considering dropping its national tests. 

WISCONSIN: Nearly four times as many kids apply for a statewide voucher as there are seats. 

SOUTH CAROLINA: The House passes a bill to reconsider Common Core.

ILLINOIS: Pushing teachers to retire early costs money and means younger teachers, but doesn’t hurt test scores. 

WASHINGTON: The nation’s largest teachers union sends $750,000 to support an initiative supposedly to reduce class sizes with loopholes that allow schools to lard up on non-teaching staff. 

CHOICE: Former CNN host Campell Brown explains why she supports school choice and thinks unions are destructive.

PENNSYLVANIA: A court fight between charter and district schools in Philadelphia could change education law for the whole state. 

 

Wednesday’s ed news

MISSOURI: Kids who live in unaccredited school districts wait to hear whether lawmakers will let them attend better schools.

CHOICE: Parents who put their children in private schools save taxpayers billions and should receive tax credits, says a new study.

SCHOOL LUNCH: House Republicans want to roll back restrictive school lunch rules

BLENDED LEARNING: Michael Horn responds to a charge that online learning is not a panacea because research shows learning styles are a myth. 

DATA: A contractor for national Common Core tests has suffered from a data breach, endangering personal information of thousands of employees.

MISSOURI: The state ponies up $8.4 million for Common Core tests

HIGHER ED: Colleges are becoming a money-losing joke.

 

Tuesday’s ed news

MICHIGAN: School districts that privatize services pay teachers more

FLORIDA: The ‘godmother of digital learning’ retires after helping found a national model for online education

PENSIONS: How teacher pensions hurt teachers

SOCIAL SKILLS: The problems with values-free character education.

SELECTIVITY: Contrary to popular belief, school districts don’t serve all students.

NEA: A survey of teachers in the nation’s largest union shows growing opposition to Common Core

CALIFORNIA: Top Republican lawmakers throw their support behind bilingual education

 

Monday’s ed news

FLORIDA: A bill to make Florida the second state to offer disabled children education savings accounts is on the governor’s desk.

FLORIDA: Parents of 100,000 children have started applications for the state’s tax-credit scholarship program, the most ever. 

PRESCHOOL: Should the feds just block-grant preschool money back to the states?

RACE: Sixty years after Brown v. Board of Education, schools are still segregated–by ZIP code. 

NORTH CAROLINA: A judge says the state can’t stop teachers from getting a guaranteed job for life 

KANSAS: At the state capitol, some teachers protest the loss of a job for life.

MAINE: School administrators complain about receiving grades from the state

 

For last week’s School Reform News roundup, click here.
For other top-notch school reform news selections, visit: 

Image by Mo Riza.