January 9, 2013
Local News
News Journal
Indian River seeking to fill district’s needs
The district will hold a referendum Jan. 29 in hopes of securing funding for 38 classrooms at six buildings, the hiring of at least 20 more teachers, the purchase of supplies and technology for new classrooms and financial assistance for current expansion projects.
WHYY Newsworks
School closings plan gets many thumbs down in North Philly
Nearly a thousand angry students and parents from North Philadelphia turned out for a community meeting Tuesday night to challenge the Philadelphia School District’s school closing plan, which would hit their neighborhood especially hard.
National News
Education Week
New Science-Standards Draft Includes Many Changes
A second and final public draft of common standards aimed at reshaping K-12 science education was released today for comment, following eight months of review and rewriting. Organizers emphasized that the latest version reflects substantial changes from the draft issued last May, with a clear focus on taking to heart feedback gathered from more than 10,000 individuals and organizations.
Senate Panel to Take a Closer Look at NCLB Waivers
So far, without much public scrutiny from Congress, the U.S. Department of Education has been able to issue 35 waivers that made big, big changes to the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.
School Project Blurs Line Between Public, Private
An unusual public-private school improvement partnership in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg, N.C., school system is raising hopes about its potential for improving the lives of some of Charlotte’s neediest students and generating concerns about its nontraditional funding and governance structure.
Huffington Post
Gates Foundation MET Report: Teacher Observation Less Reliable Than Test Scores
A few years ago, Bill Gates decided to learn more about whether a teacher’s effect on student learning could be measured. Three years, 3,000 teachers and about $50 million later, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation thinks it has the answers.