NOVEMBER 29, 2017 BY MICHAEL LEACHMAN KATHLEEN MASTERSON ERIC F IGUEROA Public investment in K-12 schools — crucial for communities to thrive and the U.S. economy to offer broad opportunity — has declined dramatically in a number of states over the last decade. Worse, some of the deepest-cutting states have also cut income tax rates, weakening their…
Category: No Child Left Behind Act
Alabama’s national test scores still low, but not last
By Trisha Powell Crain tcrain@al.com Results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, released Tuesday, show Alabama’s scores in fourth- and eighth-grade reading and math remain unchanged from 2015, the last time the tests were given. Scores at the national level were flat, too, except in eighth-grade reading, where scores increased. Scores in Alabama were…
Teachers Protest; Discipline Disparities Persist; Trans Students In The Classroom
April 7, 20187:31 PM ET CLARE LOMBARDO This past week started with teacher strikes in Oklahoma, where educators descended on the capitol in Oklahoma City to protest low pay and dismal education funding. Dozens of districts in the state were closed through the week. Representatives headed home on Friday before passing a bill that teachers were…
Parents Voice Concerns Over New Charter School System (Alabama)
Updated: Apr 6, 2018 9:16 AM CDT by Ellis Eskew The Montgomery Education Foundation has applied to convert five Montgomery schools into charter schools. Parents and citizens voiced their concerns Thursday evening at a listening session. And they had plenty to say. “Today the Ed Foundation, the business community, under the guise of improvement, they are…
Proposed charter school plan targets 5 Montgomery Public Schools
MONTGOMERY, AL (WSFA) – Last Friday was the deadline for public charter school applications. Last week, Interim State Superintendent Dr. Ed Richardson confirmed he had received a letter of intent from a local organization that was planning to submit an application for a plan that would include multiple existing MPS schools. Ann Sikes, the executive director…
Alabama education chief calls out schools for not preparing graduates
By Trisha Powell Crain Updated Mar 26, 1:11 PM; Posted Mar 26, 1:11 PM tcrain@al.com Alabama interim state superintendent Dr. Ed Richardson has called out more than 150 schools for not preparing their high school graduates to either go to college or begin a successful path to a career. In a strongly-worded memo to superintendents statewide last week, Richardson wrote, “This is…
No Child Left Behind: An Overview
By Alyson Klein (@politicsk12) The No Child Left Behind law—the 2002 update of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act—effectively scaled up the federal role in holding schools accountable for student outcomes. In December 2015, Congress passed the Every Student Succeeds Act to replace NCLB. ESSA moved in the opposite direction—it seeks to pare back the federal role…
Standing Strong for Public Education! 