Today’s news includes reports of slow Common Core test score result reporting, a big SAT snafu, and Hillary Clinton’s universal preschool (UPK) proposal:
State can’t explain slowdown on scoring of new Common Core tests Seattle Times: Scoring the new Common Core-based tests is taking longer than anticipated in Washington state, and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction doesn’t know why.
Test Scores Trickling in after Statewide Delay Idaho Times News: Students across Idaho began taking new standardized tests months ago, but two weeks into summer break and most still don’t know how they performed.
Advocates Hope Common Core Will Rub Off on Special-Needs Students Education Week: As nearly all states adopted college- and career-ready standards in the past five years, many advocates in the special education community crossed their fingers, hoping that the trend would press the K-12 world to extend those higher expectations to students with special needs, too. But whether high schools are doing a better job building those expectations into their postsecondary-transition plans for students remains an open question.
After SAT Misprint, Two Sections Won’t Be Scored NYT: The College Board also says it will waive its fees for students who want to take the test again, after an error regarding the allotted time for a reading section on June 6.
Inside Obama’s Stealth Startup [18F] Fast Company: President Obama has quietly recruited top tech talent from the likes of Google and Facebook. Their mission: to reboot how government works. [Featuring USDE’s “digital services” officer]
Teen shot and killed on Dorchester street was making gains in school Boston Globe: Hours before he was fatally shot while riding his bicycle to his aunt’s house in Dorchester on Wednesday, Jonathan “Jo Jo” Dos Santos enjoyed a special school outing that he had worked all year to earn.
Hillary Clinton Calls for Universal Prekindergarten PK12: The Democratic presidential candidate wants to give every 4-year-old in America access to high-quality preschool over the next decade. [what about universal kindergarten, too?] See also AP.
Big K-12 Dog Off the Porch: Jeb Bush Enters 2016 Race With Long Policy C.V. State EdWatch: Bush, who served two terms as Florida governor before leaving the office in 2007, has perhaps the most extensive and complicated track record in education among all the Republican candidates.
Nonprofits step in to support college students who need it most PBS NewsHour: The program isn’t run by the school. It was set up by Let’s Get Ready, one of a growing number of outside organizations stepping into what advocates say is a vacuum of on-campus support for students like Chen, in spite of universities’ promises to help them.
A decade after Katrina, school decentralization continues in NOLA, with job cuts Hechinger Report: Change in the New Orleans education landscape is nothing new, but a recently announced central-office reorganization of the OPSB that could cut two dozen jobs is noteworthy for the direction it takes the deeply rooted city bureaucracy. The central office continues to employ more than 100 people, with a complicated organizational chart that was designed to manage the more than 120 schools in the city before the storm.
A compromise in the war over school residency SI&A Cabinet Report: The adopted policy must prohibit “the surreptitious photographing” of students being investigated, and require that employees or contractors of a district involved in the investigation truthfully identify themselves and their purpose.
Education reforms spur New York State lobbying ‘arms race’ Poughkeepsie Journal: Various education interests have spent at least $124 million trying to influence lawmakers, officials and the general public at the state and local level since the start of 2006, including a record of at least $16 million last year, according to a review of state records by Gannett’s Albany Bureau. That’s in addition to $45.3 million in lobbying expenses reported by the New York State United Teachers union and its New York City affiliate.
As Pre-K Expands, Early Child Care Gets Squeezed WNYC: Families of about 140 children who applied for child care and pre-kindergarten classes at Nuestros Ninos in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn, got a surprise recently when the city told them their 42-year-old neighborhood institution would not be an option for the fall. The news came well after the application deadline.
