Friday’s ed news
COLORADO: An inBloom-promoting superintendent resigns as her board votes to jettison the student data collection system.
ACHIEVEMENT: National test scores on the Nation’s Report Card have inched upward, a statistically insignificant increase. Approximately one-third of the nation’s children are proficient in reading and math.
DELAWARE: On the state’s new teacher rating system, only 1 percent of teachers were rated ineffective.
RTT: Three states that won federal grants will take longer to fulfill their promises made to get the grants.
WISCONSIN: A bipartisan bill would require childcare providers to check on parents.
COLORADO: Could a court overturn the voters’ decision to reject a massive education tax hike?
EDTECH: Why Common Core pilot tests are not innovative.
NEW MEXICO: The governor and state superintendent face criticism for suggesting tying teacher evaluations to student test scores.
LOUISIANA: Despite a federal agreement otherwise, officials will not create a state Common Core curriculum.
OHIO: Voters approve 61 percent of school tax hikes on this year’s ballot.
Thursday’s ed news
SOUTH CAROLINA: A tiny special-needs private school would benefit from a temporary school choice program.
MICHIGAN: How a charter school could have kept kids tossed out of their debt-ridden public schools in neighborhood schools while saving money.
MONTANA: Schools will skip state tests next year in favor of experimental Common Core tests that won’t produce accountability data.
ARKANSAS: Only 12 percent of the state’s schools made performance targets this year.
IDAHO: A new, $21 million student data system frustrates teachers and school districts.
CALIFORNIA: A $1 billion education tax hike is on its way to becoming a ‘boondoggle.’
FLORIDA: A lawmaker proposes banning charter schools from expelling students for failing state tests.
ARKANSAS: A state education official who cost the state $166,000 by hiring an employee based on race is still employed at taxpayer expense.
Wednesday’s ed news
COLORADO: With high turnout, Douglas County voters re-elect a market-oriented school board pinpointed as one of the nation’s leaders. State voters also turn down a huge education tax hike, by 66 to 34 percent.
TEXAS: What the state gave the feds to get a No Child Left Behind waiver.
PARENT TRIGGER: What motivated the empowerment law’s creator.
LOUISIANA: A legislative Common Core hearing will exclude public comment.
FREE FOOD: The Obama administration is seeking to give free school lunch and breakfast to thousands of families who can afford to pay.
HIGHER ED: The worst 25 percent of colleges and universities will disappear over the next 10 to 15 years, predict Clayton Christiansen and Michael Horn.
TEXTBOOKS: Houghton Mifflin, struggling under debt and education spending cutbacks, files for an IPO.
Tuesday’s ed news
COLORADO: Why voters shouldn’t approve the education tax hike.
OKLAHOMA: Opponents sue to stop tax-credit scholarships, alleging these violate separation of church and state, while themselves receiving public funds through religious organizations.
WISCONSIN: A child psychologist verbally lashes two Democrat lawmakers for focusing on who paid his expenses to testify on Common Core rather than the substance of his testimony.
NATION: A bill in Congress would require background checks on all school employees to reduce child abuse. Unions object.
PENNSYLVANIA: Lawmakers are trying to rethink how taxpayers pay for charter schools.
INDIANA: A court will decide if the state superintendent can sue her fellow board of education members, and whether both can be represented by the state attorney general.
CENTRAL PLANNING: Common Core’s rollout is worse than Obamacare’s, says union president Randi Weingarten.
MISSOURI: Local superintendents propose letting high-performing districts run low-performing districts rather than letting kids transfer out.
MICHIGAN: State university trustees spend hundreds of thousands living it up on the taxpayer’s dime.
OKLAHOMA: What teachers will say about Common Core on an anonymous survey.
Monday’s ed news
NEW YORK: The likely next mayor of New York City spells trouble for charter schools and small high schools.
COLORADO: Voters are uncertain about tomorrow’s vote to raise taxes and restructure education spending.
FLORIDA: Funding changes to the state online school are also hitting private schools.
COLORADO: School choice supporters fan out across Colorado with targeted grants and politicking. Here’s a look at bellwether district Douglas County, which started the first district vouchers program in the nation and faces a school board upheaval tomorrow.
WISCONSIN: Why were so many new voucher students already enrolled in private schools? Partly because the state gave a very narrow window for signing up.
COMMON CORE: One hundred and twenty-three Catholic scholars write to the U.S.’s Catholic bishops, asking them to stop Common Core.
BULLYING: Rates haven’t changed, but state laws have gotten much more harsh and numerous.
UTAH: This week, a panel of parents will scrutinize Common Core test questions.
WISCONSIN: Many taxpayers will see none of a vaunted statewide school tax cut.
For last week’s School Reform News roundup, click here.
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Image by Mo Riza.
Joy Pullmann is a research fellow on education policy for The Heartland Institute and managing editor of The Federalist, a web magazine on politics, policy, and culture.
