Morning Announcements April 25, 2012

Happy Wednesday, here are your latest education headlines. President Obama is drawing more attention to legislation that will double the interest rates of Stafford loans for college students in July. The bill would add an additional thousand dollars in expense for students who are looking to advancing their education. The President stopped by Late Night with Jim Fallon to voice his opposition in an unconventionally smooth way. President Barack Obama slow jams the news. Take a look at the video above!

Teacher evaluations are becoming more prominent in the educational debate in terms of merit pay, tenure, and retention. But how can special education teachers be evaluated? The Associated Press addressed this issue with Bev Campbell, who has been teaching her students how to say their names since the first day of class this school year.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the Philadelphia School District is nearly insolvent, lags behind most other urban districts in academics, and loses students to charters because parents believe it does not keep their children safe. So Chief Recovery Officer Thomas Knudsen announced a plan that would essentially blow up the district and start with a new structure.

According to the Washington Post, a national resolution protesting high-stakes standardized testing was released by a coalition of national education, civil rights and parents groups, as well as educators who are trying to build a broad-based movement against the Obama administration’s test-centric school reform program.