EduClips: Texas Special Ed Reform Faces Mistrust; LAUSD: Suggestions for New Chief Beutner’s To-Do List — 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
TEACHERS — The extraordinary wave of teacher strikes highlights these crucial but often forgotten facts: In number, teachers are the largest profession in the United States. And collectively, they have the power to demand and win changes to funding and salaries. It’s a stark reminder in an era characterized by diminishing labor influence. And yet political scientists, researchers, and labor watchers say it’s tough to predict how teachers’ reawakened activism will continue to evolve.
“Teachers are very humble. They just go about their business — we do the best with what we have and we don’t complain,” said Alberto Morejon, a teacher and the grassroots organizer of the Oklahoma walkout last month. But now, “People are finally realizing what we’re dealing with. … They didn’t know the truth, and now they know the truth. It’s slowly going to spread around the country.”
Perhaps, but there are other possibilities, too. The activism could fade slowly away, as Occupy Wall Street and other protest movements of the past decade did. Or it could find a more permanent channel for its energy, perhaps through the regeneration of teachers unions — which are facing the probable loss of dollars and members as the result of an upcoming U.S. Supreme Court decision. ()
National News
TEACHER APPRECIATION DAY — More Than Just a Job: Stories of Teachers Who Deserve an A+ ()
FIRST LADY — Melania Trump Unveils Initiative to Bolster Emotional Health, Combat Bullying and Opioid Crisis ()
ESSA — Betsy DeVos Greenlights ESSA Plans for Alabama, Colorado, and Kentucky ()
TEACHER APPRECIATION DAY — Teacher Appreciation Day: A Look Back at 18 Incredible (and Inspiring) Ways Students & Schools Celebrated Their Teachers Over the Past Year (Read at The74Million.org)
District and State News
TEXAS — Texas Special Education Reform Comes With Mountain of Mistrust ()
CALIFORNIA — Analysis: What should top Austin Beutner’s to-do list ()
TEXAS — Feds Expand Investigation of Dallas County Schools ()
NEW YORK — Teacher evaluation fight spills into New York’s Board of Regents meeting ()
PENNSYLVANIA — Landmark Pa. school-funding suit clears legal hurdle ()
NEW YORK — Asked about a ‘divisive’ tweet about segregation, Carranza directs an Upper West Side parent to implicit bias training ()
CALIFORNIA — Opinion: Could Beutner’s Lack of Ed Background Become His Greatest Asset at LAUSD? ()
NEVADA — Déjà vu: Clark County schools face $60M-plus budget deficit ()
ILLINOIS — Illinois Lawmakers Consider Change for Physical Education Requirements ()
Think Pieces
DENVER REFORM — Analysis: In Denver, Rising Expectations, a Generational Divide, and a New Education Reform Revolution on Its Way (Read at The74Million.org)
POLITICS — How social pressures drive the partisan education gap ()
CHARTER SCHOOLS — Nina Rees: National Charter Schools Week, a Time for Celebrating Great Public Schools — and the Teachers Who Make Them Possible (Read at The74Million.org)
TEACHER APPRECIATION DAY — So This Is What You Call ‘Teacher Appreciation’? ()
Quote of the Day
“It’s really too little, too late. Especially [for] those children who needed early childhood intervention. You can’t get those years back.” —Jill Goolsby of San Antonio, Texas, on the state’s attempt to make reforms after the U.S. Department of Education found it had illegally barred tens of thousands of children with disabilities, including her son, from a free and appropriate education. ()
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