The Grade

So excited to have @khefling aboard the @POLITICOPro and @POLITICO education team! — Nirvi Shah (@NirviShah) May 21, 2015What to make of the announcement last week that AP national education writer Kimberly Hefling is moving over to Politico’s education team? Congrats and condolences to Kimberly Hefling, the longtime AP staffer (and more recently education reporter) […]

Hope you had a good Memorial Day Weekend. Welcome back! Here are today’s top education news stories: Teacher Union Legal Opposition to School Choice Stumbles in Florida, Louisiana EdWeek: On Friday, a Louisiana district judge rejected the state teachers’ union argument that the way Louisiana funded some charter schools was unconstitutional, according to the Associated Press. Meanwhile […]

It’s hard to beat Valerie Strauss’s “The Answer Sheet” blog over at The Washington Post when it comes to the number and type of complaints that I hear. Widely read and admired especially by critics of the current education reform movement, The Answer Sheet predominantly features opinion and commentary. On her blog, the byline says that […]

There’s no absolute consensus whether a politician’s choices over where to send his or her children to school are public decisions that should be reported and discussed or are private ones (like, say, health or finances) that should be given some measure of protected status. However, bloggers and media outlets alike seem to end up […]

Today’s big education news, rounded up for your convenience: Board shortens Common Core-aligned tests known as PARCC Washington Post: The Common Core-aligned tests that made their debut in 11 states and the District this spring will be approximately 90 minutes shorter next year, a change that comes after parents, teachers and school administrators expressed frustration with the […]

There’s been no small amount of teeth-gnashing among pro-standards, pro-accountability school reform advocates about the fact that NPR’s lead education blogger Anya Kamenetz also wrote a 2015 book, The Test, which some consider to be a critique of standardized testing. Those concerned about Kamenetz’s views on testing and their prominence on NPR will gain some […]

It’s not yet entirely clear who broke the story or how they both ended up writing on such a similar thing but both LA NPR affiliate KPCC and ProPublica (with the LA Times) recently published stories describing behind-the-scenes dealings that among other things involve Sony head Michael Lynton and former LAUSD school board candidate Alex […]

Here’s a roundup of this morning’s education news coverage: Va. testing interrupted three times because of issues with Pearson system Washington Post: Pearson said the company was the target of a cyberattack on May 13 that caused problems with the testing system. On May 14, a computer server became overloaded, leading to further disruptions. As a result of […]

depressing flack email exchange of the day pic.twitter.com/21um0spzGW — Dana Goldstein (@DanaGoldstein) May 20, 2015 Writer Dana Goldstein posted this depressing email offer from a PR person who basically said that her company would draft an article for her. “If you’re swamped, we’re happy to draft an article for you if that’ll help you.” Goldstein, […]

Here’s the response from NCES to the Achieve report I wrote about earlier this week, which suggests that the organization behind the NAEP tests and scores isn’t entirely comfortable with the uses to which the Achieve folks put their work. As you may recall from this post (What to Make of Last Week’s Big “Honesty […]