DFER News Roundup
Featured:
- Just in time for back to school, DFER’s Mac LeBuhn analyzed NAEP composite scores to show how student performance levels have changed along with more than a decade of education reforms. His finding: the black/white student gap declined by nearly 10% since 2005.
DFER Seen & Heard:
- DFER-CA’s Gloria Romero writes, “March for desegregated schools not over.” (Orange County Register)
- DFER was included among the list of ed reform groups calling for the release of delayed teacher prep regulations in POLITICO’s Morning Edu and in Alexander Russo’s roundup for Scholastic.
- The New America Foundation’s Anne Hyslop calls Legislative Director Domenic Giandomenico’s blog post on President Obama’s higher education policies a “must-read.”
- DFER’s Joe Williams tells the Fordham Institute about choosing schools for his children.
- DFER-WA’s Lisa Macfarlane: “We’re still leaving thousands of kids behind.”
- DFER’s Charles Barone tells the Miami Herald’s Kathleen McGrory, “The tests that are coming out to be aligned with Common Core address the concerns that liberals have about testing. They’re about more than memorization and multiple choice.”
Advocacy, Policy Briefs & Such:
- Statement | Coalition calls on administration to proceed with accountability plan for teacher prep programs.
DFER Blog:
- Joe Williams writes, “Grabbing the Bull By The Horns: Cuomo, Nutter and the Backlash Against Making Shit Up.”
- Kudos to Mayor Nutter for calling bull on recent ads misrepresenting his record on ed funding thrown together by the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PFT).
- DFER’s Mac LeBuhn writes, “Students Are Returning to School. After More Than a Decade of Reform, How Have Schools Changed? (Post 1 of 2)”
- Check out a recap of DFER’s coverage of the March on Washington.
- DFER-WA’s LEE Fellow Manmeet Dhami writes, “The importance of being fearless.”
In Related News:
- The New York Times’ Kenneth Chang writes, “Expecting the best yields results in Massachusetts.”
- The Department of Education has expanded the use of the gold-standard randomized clinical trial to assess educational interventions. (New York Times)
- New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, in the New York Daily News: “There is going to have to be a death penalty for failing schools . . . where we say the children come first, before the bureaucracy.”
- The Denver Post’s Zahira Torres writes, “Tom Boasberg, Denver school leader, has a lot riding on board election results.”
- “Feds eye teacher ‘equitable distribution’ through waivers,” by EdWeek’s Stephen Sawchuk.
- Expect More Arizona released a video on the importance of the Common Core State Standards.
- The Tennessean’s Joey Garrison writes, “MNPS attorney: Tennessee’s charter school law is unconstitutional.”
- BAEO President Kenneth Campbell tells The Tennessean public charter schools are important to families who cannot opt for private schools or move to the suburbs if their neighborhood schools are failing.
- EdWeek’s Michele McNeil writes, “Arne Duncan attaches more strings to NCLB waiver renewals.”
- Tennessee parent advocating for school choice: “Whenever you introduce choice into a place where people don’t have choice, there is fear of change.”
- LA School Report’s Brenda Iaesvoli: “CA getting ‘smarter’ with new tests to probe critical thinking.”
- A new report from the University of Chicago reveals disadvantaged students are exposed to 30 million fewer words than higher-income students, translating to significant differences in literacy.
Fun With Infographics & More:
- Infographic | From the desk of Diane Ravitch.
- Infographic | Change in Camden