By Valerie Strauss May 24, 2018 In 2013, the Chicago school district closed 49 elementary schools and one high school program in the face of a $1 billion deficit, the largest mass school closure in the country’s modern history. Schools officials and Mayor Rahm Emanuel made this promise to nearly 12,000 mostly African American students from…
Category: School Closings
With A-F grades off the table, Tennessee gets creative about rating its schools under federal law
BY MARTA W. ALDRICH JUNE 11, 2018 Tennessee’s plan to start grading its schools this year has taken a big detour. Days of online testing problems this spring forced officials to toss out a new A-F grading system, under development for more than a year as part of Tennessee’s sweeping plan to usher in a new era of…
Why our schools are failing
Most teachers do not teach because of the money. Updated Jun 13; Posted Jun 12 By Robert Wilkerson When people say our schools are failing, they have overstated the problem. The truth is many of our schools are failing, but some are doing quite well. The ones that are failing are not failing because prayer was taken out…
SAISD’s Martinez: Charter, Traditional Public Schools Should ‘Work Together’
EMILY DONALDSON Despite rhetoric that increasingly pits traditional public schools against charters, most parents don’t care which form their children’s public education takes as long as they are learning, San Antonio Independent School District Superintendent Pedro Martinez told a national charter school conference Monday. “Families want an environment where their children are going to thrive,” Martinez…
This Week’s ESSA News: Nation’s First Turnaround Plan Gets Green Light, Feds Approve Plans for North Carolina and Nebraska, How Opt-Outs Will Work & More
June 10, 2018 ASHLEY INMAN This update on the Every Student Succeeds Act and the education plans now being refined by state legislatures is produced in partnership with ESSA Essentials, a new series from the Collaborative for Student Success. U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos approved state ESSA plans for Nebraska and North Carolina this…
How America’s Schools Have (and Haven’t) Changed in the 64 Years Since the Brown v. Board Verdict — as Told in 15 Charts
By KEVIN MAHNKEN | May 13, 2018 Thursday marks the 64th anniversary of the Supreme Court abolishing segregated schools in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case. That means a generation of Americans has been born, attended public schools, matured into adulthood, raised children of their own, and now reached retirement age — all outside the shadow of…
Does Race Matter in Education? New Survey of Millennials Reveals Conflicting Opinions on Equity
By KEVIN MAHNKEN September 14, 2017 The prevalence of race in American schools has been reexamined in recent years, as new reports indicate growing segregation more than six decades after Brown v. Board of Education. But a new study of millennials reveals surprisingly mixed views when it comes to equity and the need for racial integration. Respondents also voiced strong — if occasionally…
Teachers converge on Baton Rouge to bring education to the forefront
By: Renee Allen Posted: Jun 18, 2018 08:17 PM CDT A coalition of teachers, students, parents and leaders are in Baton Rouge to fight for public funding for education. Rachelle Dehrab represents the Louisiana Association of Educators and teaches in Iberia Parish. Dehrab is headed to Baton Rouge to join others who don’t want to see…
How The State’s ‘Grand’ Education Bargain Came To Be — And How It Comes Up Short
June 18, 2018 Max Larkin Carrie Jung Working in a Brockton elementary school, Kathleen Smith tried to hold the attention of large classes — as many as 35 grade-schoolers in one big room. And conditions were deteriorating. At Brockton High School, she remembered, “you truly had kids that would come in and sit on the radiators,” she said….
DC’s public schools go from success story to cautionary tale
June 18, 2018 WASHINGTON (AP) — As recently as a year ago, the public school system in the nation’s capital was being hailed as a shining example of successful urban education reform and a template for districts across the country. Now the situation in the District of Columbia could not be more different. After a…
Standing Strong for Public Education! 