The Grade

Keep calm and continue testing [coverage] As we head into the second year of Common Core assessment season (or third, if you count the initial field testing process), it’s probably a good time to look back at some of the challenges and issues that education reporters and editors faced covering this the last time around. There […]

Arne Duncan to Focus on Disconnected Youth at the Emerson Collective PK12: Duncan’s official title will be managing partner for the Palo Alto, Calif.,-based philanthropy and advocacy organization, which is led up by Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. See also Washington Post, USA Today, WSJ. Newark Schools to Test Pupils for Lead […]

It’s no secret that NY Magazine writer Jonathan Chait is married to someone who’s involved in the charter school world. That’s Jonathan and Robin pictured above. Robin Chait has worked at CAP and for a charter school network, among several other places. Sometimes, Chait discloses his wife’s role in education. In last summer’s How New Orleans Proved […]

Are charter schools suspending too many students? LA Times http://fw.to/YYQwSEe Charter Schools Suspend Black and Disabled Students More, UCLA Study Says – NYT http://nyti.ms/1M9dchg  See also EdWeek. USDE Seeks Standard Rule on Flagging Bias in Special Education – Education Week http://ow.ly/ZzsJ7  Charter school in the I Can network becomes first in city to unionize – Cleveland.com Boston’s […]

Absences at D.C. public schools will be excused Wednesday, some charters to close due to Metro shutdown Washington Post: D.C.’s public schools will remain open Wednesday despite Metro shuttering its entire rail system for an unprecedented 24 hours. At least three charter schools, however, have decided to close, according to Tomeika Bowden, a spokeswoman for the D.C. Charter School Board. CTU Leaders […]

The Hechinger Report has written a ton of stories about Common Core — most of them quite unobjectionable. However their latest piece, focused on concerns about incorporating Common Core standards and testing with pre-existing IB (International Baccalaureate) program, has raised some polite but persistent howls from pro-Common Core folks at the Fordham Institute.  According to […]

If you haven’t already taken NPR’s Education Survey, click the link and do it now — if not to tell NPR what you think of the education coverage they’re providing for the chance to get a peek into how NPR thinks about how it’s doing this past year and a half — and what it […]

Senate Confirms John B. King Jr. as Education Secretary PK12: King had been serving as acting secretary since the start of this year after taking over for former Secretary Arne Duncan. The vote in the Senate was 49-40. See also LA Times, Washington Post, AP. NYC Charters Retain Students Better Than Traditional Schools WNYC: New York City charter schools retain more […]

While chief education reporter Libby Nelson is increasingly writing about non-education topics (the campaign, gun control, etc.) Vox is finding interesting new ways to keep tabs on what’s going on in schools. One way is this Elizabeth Green essay on “no excuses” instruction Beyond the viral video, which was originally posted at Chalkbeat: “I think some founding […]

See #demtownhall for notes from last night’s Democratic debate. Efforts to repeal Common Core gain steam in Kansas Washington Times: “Since last year it had no steam or momentum, and then all of a sudden it was passed out of the committee and on the agenda for a House debate,” said Brad Neuenswander, the state’s deputy education […]