Afternoon Announcements: Senate Committee Passes ESEA Reauthorization Bill

States are requesting more leeway and time on evaluating teachers during the implementation of the Common Core State Standards, less than two years away in the majority of states. The new assessments will be tied to accountability systems for teacher performance, and educators want to know they’ll be given adequate time to adjust to the standards. Education Week

The Senate education committee passed a bill yesterday that, if made into law, would reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and improve high schools across the nation. Jessica Cardichon, the Director of Federal Advocacy at the Alliance, writes more about the bill’s markup and what implications it could have. High School Soup

East Hampton School District in Middletown, Connecticut is finding ways to increase their budget for technology. Leftover money from this year’s budget will be used to make a commitment to new technology. The district currently has no wireless computer access in several schools and is functioning on outdated computers. The Middletown Press

In the last few years, the number of Americans graduating from college has increased, putting the number at a new high, according to recent federal data. The increase in college degrees comes after two decades of slow growth. New York Times Read Entire Post

Senate HELP Committee Passes Bill that Would Improve the Nation’s High Schools

On June 11th and 12th,  the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee held a markup on a bill known as the Strengthening America’s Schools Act of 2013 (SASA). Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) introduced SASA and all the democratic members of the HELP committee co-sponsored it on June 4th, 2013. Harkin’s bill aims to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and maintains a significant amount of the language from the 2011 version of the bill while adding key provisions that would benefit high schools and students. On June 12th, SASA passed out of the HELP Committee along party lines, with all twelve Democratic Committee members voting in favor of the bill and all ten Republican Committee members voting against the bill.

SASA includes a number of provisions to improve the nation’s high schools. Currently, high schools in the United States serve 22 percent of students from low-income families yet receive only 10 percent of Title I funding. Under SASA, more of the nation’s low-performing high schools would be eligible to receive increased funding, attention, and intervention, benefitting the large number of low-income students and students of color most likely to attend these schools. Some key provisions of SASA include: Read Entire Post

Afternoon Announcements: Senate Education Committee Marks Up NCLB Bill

Yesterday and today the Senate education committee marked up its version of a bill slated to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. It’s unlikely to pass given partisan differences, but it’s interesting to see what will come out of this and how far the bill will go. Politics K-12

The graduation rate has risen to its highest in 40 years, but is that good news for every school district? NPR talks to the Education Week report’s authors. NPR

Several nonprofit law centers have teamed together to file a civil rights complaint on behalf of seven students in Dallas County that have all been referred to truancy courts. Dallas County has prosecuted more than 36,000 students in four school districts, more than any other Texas county. New York Times

Classrooms across the country are taking into account the changes in the soon-to-be-implemented Common Core State Standards and trying to prepare students for the more rigorous standards. The DC school system has chosen an aggressive approach to their implementation, and teachers are working quickly to prepare students and themselves. Education Week Read Entire Post

Afternoon Announcements: Senate Committee to Markup Bill to Rewrite NCLB

In a recent feature article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Professor Charles Rinehimer talks about the students that keep him inspired. NPR takes on the story and delves deeper, talking to other teachers and professors. NPR 

President Obama called on teachers to help bring “mental illness out of the shadows” by identifying and seeking help for children with mental health disorders. He cited statistics that only half of children who need mental health treatment receive it. EdSource

U.S. Senator Tom Harkin, along with the HELP Committee Democrats, introduced a bill today that would re-write No Child Left Behind. The bill, Strengthening America’s Schools Act of 2013, would reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and replace the failed tenets of No Child Left Behind. A markup will be held on June 11th. Senate Committee on Health, Education,
Labor & Pensions

What does a “close reading” look like in action? As teachers prepare to implement the Common Core State Standards, some are already using tenets in their classrooms. Education Week Read Entire Post

Afternoon Announcements: Obama Announces High School Competition in SOTU; Alliance Issues Report on ESEA Waivers

The big news this morning is the high school competition President Obama announced during last night’s State of the Union address. The president said the competition will “redesign America’s high schools so they better equip graduates for the demands of a high-tech economy.” Obama didn’t offer many details, but Alliance President Bob Wise thinks the competition has “great potential.”

In a statement, Wise said, “If the nation is serious about the high school dropout crisis, more must be done to engage students and make learning relevant. The president’s proposal appears to do both.” Read the complete statement.

Education Week’s Politics K-12 blog has more details on the president’s other education proposals, including expanded access to preschool and tying federal college financial aid in part to student outcomes—something the Alliance advocated for in these two recent reports: Repairing a Broken System: Fixing Federal Student Aid and A System in Need of Repair: An Examination of Federal Student Aid for Postsecondary Education.

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Afternoon Announcements: June 29, 2012

Go ahead and give yourself a high five. You made it to Friday. The weekend is ahead of you, and if you’re in the DC area, that means sitting in front of a fan and trying desperately to find relief from this heat wave. Actually, looking at the weather map, there’s a lot of places across the country at the moment where you could be reading this in front of a fan. In any event, we have a bunch of pieces of news for you today to close your week out properly.

Five more states are free from key requirements of the No Child Left Act today because the Department of Education has granted waivers to Arkansas, Missouri, South Dakota, Utah, and Virginia. This brings the count of states that have been granted waivers up to 24. The Associated Press via Education Week has more on the implications of this story.

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Afternoon Announcements: June 28, 2012

Welcome to Thursday’s announcements. It’s a bit of a slow news day in terms of education policy today because of all of the national news surrounding Supreme Court decisions, Contempt of Congress hearings, and University President reinstatements. Here’s just a few bits of news for you today.

First, from Education Week, comes the news that Iowa, in the wake of its waiver request being rejected by the U.S. Department of Education, is requesting that it receive a one year freeze in NCLB state targets. This is new territory in the process because  Iowa was the first state to have its waiver application rejected. As NCLB targets continue to increase toward 100% proficiency demanded in 2014, more states who haven’t received waivers may have to request target freezes.

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"Storm" Looming Over Washington, DC Could Impact Nation's Schoolchildren

In the video to the left, Alliance President Bob Wise explains how competing "storms" around education reform in Washington, DC, could impact the educational futures of the nation's schoolchildren.

In this "weather report," Gov. Wise discusses two looming "storm" systems. The first, led by President Obama and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, is focused on providing waivers and greater flexibility to states from key requirements in the No Child Left Behind Act. The other, underway in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives, is about rewriting No Child Left Behind, but will require Democrats and Republicans working together on a compromise.

In the coming weeks, Gov. Wise will report on whether the Senate and House of Representatives can come together on a bill that could be sent to the White House and outflank the waiver option. "If no agreement is made, then the waiver option could overwhelm the Congress, pushing them out of the picture completely and controlling the education atmosphere in Washington, DC until after the next presidential election," Wise says.

Learn more in the Alliance's federal policy news section.

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Afternoon Announcements: November 21, 2011

Starting in 2014, the General Education Development (GED) test will make changes with the goal of encouraging adults to continue studying for an associate's or bachelor's degree, reports U.S. News & World Report, which states that the test's five subject areas—writing, social studies, science, reading, and math—will be revised to more closely reflect the set of English and math common core state standards and topics that students are expected to learn. According to the article, New York Times columnist and author Thomas Friedman is quoted in the article saying, "If you do not have a high school degree that allows you to get through college without significant remediation, there is literally nothing for you." The article also cites this finding from an Alliance report: If half of the Class of 2010's 1.3 million high school dropouts had graduated, America would have gained nearly $7.3 billion in annual potential earnings.

While more students from all backgrounds are finishing college, the difference in graduation rates between the top and bottom income groups has widened by nearly 50 percent over two decades, reports CNN.

The Washington Post writes that failure of the congressional supercommittee tasked with reducing the federal deficit by at least $1.2 trillion could lead to across-the-board budget cuts, which would have a serious impact on already-distressed public education funding.

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Afternoon Announcements: November 14, 2011

According to Education Week, U.S. House of Representatives lawmakers want performance targets for different subgroups of students in ESEA bill.

When it comes to education, reports the Washington Post, “the republican field of presidential candidates has a unified stance: Get the federal government out of schools.”

The Huffington Post writes that minority students will likely outnumber white students in the next decade or two, but the failure of the national teacher demographic to keep up with that trend is hurting minority students.

In a MetroWest Daily story, experts say social media isn't hurting today's teens.

The Wall Street Journal writes about those who are for cyberschooling and those who have other opinions on it.

The Bangor Daily News reports that businesses in Maine have jobs to offer, but job applicants don’t have the skills.

Teachers facing low salaries opt to moonlight, reports the Associated Press.

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