EduClips: FL Senate Votes to Arm School Staff, Not Teachers; NYC Hires Houston Schools Chief as New Chancellor — and More Must-Reads From America’s 15 Biggest School Districts
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EduClips is a roundup of the day’s top education headlines from America’s largest school districts, where more than 4 million students across eight states attend class every day. Read previous EduClips installments here. Get the day’s top school and policy news delivered straight to your inbox by signing up for the
Top Story
DEVOS — U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, 13 months into her term, was cautious in her first months on the job after a wounding confirmation process and widespread public protests. She largely toed the party line, keeping to Republican orthodoxy that there should be less regulatory interference from Washington, and pledged she’d approve every state plan under the Every Student Succeeds Act that met the law’s minimum requirements without asking for more.
Now, though, she’s stopped holding her tongue, offering state education secretaries what she called “tough love” for their failure in her assessment to embrace the law’s flexibility and opportunities to address local challenges. Too many plans “only meet the bare minimum,” and though they may comply with the letter of the law, that doesn’t mean they do what’s best for students, she told attendees at the Council of Chief State School Officers’ annual conference in Washington. (Read at The74Million.org)
National News
NYC CHANCELLOR — De Blasio Picks Houston Schools Chief to Become NYC Chancellor — and This Time, the Candidate Said Yes (Read at The74Million.org)
WV STRIKE— West Virginia legislators eye measures to end teacher strike ()
PEARSON —Educators Carefully Watch Pearson as It Moves to Sell Curriculum Business ()
District and State News
FLORIDA — Florida Senate votes 20–18 to approve gun restrictions and arming school officials ()
TEXAS — Texas AG makes ‘odd’ request of public schools following effort to regulate their role in elections ()
NEW YORK — Optimism, relief, and an open invitation to visit schools: New York City responds to Carranza’s appointment as chancellor ()
FLORIDA — After dramatic rejection of New York job, Carvalho gets the royal treatment in Miami ()
NEW YORK — In Carranza, de Blasio finds a new schools chief cut from the same cloth as the one he’s replacing ()
VIRGINIA — Va. House backs bill to expand recess in elementary schools ()
CALIFORNIA — L.A. officials push for new focus on school safety after Parkland ()
ILLINOIS — Opinion: Deep-Blue Illinois Leads the Way on School Choice ()
HAWAII — Feds Say Hawaii Falls Short in Dealing With School Bullying ()
CALIFORNIA — California’s funding formula tries to close the achievement gap for disadvantaged youth — but how is the money spent? ()
NEVADA — Women underrepresented in top Clark County School District jobs ()
Think Pieces
DACA — I’m a Bronx teacher, and I see up close what we all lose when undocumented students live with uncertainty ()
PARKLAND SHOOTING — Can the Parkland Survivors Inspire a New Focus on Civics Education? ()
SCHOOL SAFETY — Nobody Knows How Many Kids Get Caught With Guns in School. Here’s Why. ()
WV STRIKE — Fighting Poverty, Drugs and Even Violence, All on a Teacher’s Salary ()
LOCAL CONTROL — In Defense of Local Schools ()
CLASSROOM EMPATHY — In a ‘Difficult and Divided Time,’ New Harvard Initiative Encourages Empathy, Dialogue, and Equity in the Classroom (Read at The74Million.org)
STUDENT ACTIVISM — 7 Times in History When Students Turned to Activism ()
Quote of the Day
“Even the best plan is short on the meaningful solutions that the law encourages. Even the best plan doesn’t take full advantage of the law’s built-in flexibility, and launching a PR push to defend these plans doesn’t change that.” —U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, accusing states of submitting underwhelming accountability plans under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). (Read at The74Million.org)
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