New York Daily News

“When you’re an elementary school teacher like me, you happily tackle a number of unpleasant job requirements: cleaning up from finger-painting, wiping runny noses and removing the occasional piece of gum from a student’s hair. But there’s one requirement I’m not happy about: paying dues — about $1,000 a year for full-time teachers — to a union I don’t support.

I’m not alone. In 23 states all public employees are required by state law to fund the issue agenda of their unions through their mandatory dues payments even if they aren’t union members.”

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Education Post

“There almost seems to be a bipartisan conspiracy to make this year’s headline for presidential candidates ‘no standards, no choice and no sense.’

This is a big problem. It says we’ve yielded too much in the debates about public education. I’m not sure why.

As an education voter, I believe in a shortlist of necessary things: high standards, transparent accountability and school choice.

The fact is charter schools have improved the landscape of public education for the urban poor. Of course we admit these schools are not perfect and we have a long way to go before their quality is anything close to uniform, but on balance they are breaking new ground and no candidate should get applause for wavering, or worse, by saying they will kill those promising schools if elected.”

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The 74

“Can America’s courts deliver better schools for disadvantaged students?

Some students and teachers seem to think so. In Massachusetts, five student plaintiffs who were unable to secure seats in charter school lotteries intend to file a lawsuit challenging the state’s cap on charter schools. In California, veteran teacher Rebecca Friedrichs objected to her annual union dues being used to protect ineffective colleagues; the Supreme Court is hearing arguments in Ms. Friedrichs’ case this week. If Ms. Friedrichs prevails, teachers’ unions will be compelled to better represent the many teachers who want significant changes to the profession.”

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The 74

“This Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case of Rebecca Friedrichs vs. California Teachers Association. The high-stakes challenge to mandatory union dues could dramatically alter the political reach and financial muscle of public sector unions across the country if Friedrichs and the other plaintiffs prevail.
Here’s what non-lawyers need to know ahead of the arguments.”

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The New York Times Editorial Board

“Teachers unions and other critics of federally required standardized tests have behaved in recent years as though killing the testing mandate would magically remedy everything that ails education in the United States. In reality, getting rid of the testing requirement in the early grades would make it impossible for the country to know what if anything children were learning from year to year.”

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The Wall Street Journal Opinion

“The latest federal education reform sends more power back to states and local districts, but that poses risks to the extent they are captured by teachers unions. Witness New York, where Governor Andrew Cuomo is retreating on teacher accountability.

In a bid to snag Race to the Top funds in 2010, New York adopted Common Core standards and required that 20% of teacher evaluations be based on student scores on state tests and another 20% on local objective measures of student learning. Student scores on the tougher new tests plunged. Proficiency dropped to 31% in reading and math in 2013 from 69% and 82%, respectively, in 2009.”

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Times Union

“After the better part of a generation of turmoil in education, America is mostly leaving behind the No Child Left Behind Act. New York state is re-examining Common Core and high stakes tests. Now comes the hard part.

Yes, the battles over educational standards that many parents and educators felt were misguided, heavy-handed and at times counter-productive are, in one sense, over. A huge challenge, though, remains: To come up with an education system fit for the 21st century, and to achieve the consensus that NCLB and Common Core ultimately lacked.”

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By Tenicka Boyd | Education Post

“I see Chris everyday.

He comes to our field office to talk about his school experience as a student of color in Brooklyn. Each day, Chris pulls out his fourth grade-level homework. But Chris is not in the fourth grade—he is a high school senior who is working hard to graduate from his New York City public school.

His teachers have decided they would rather give students an A on below grade-level work than give challenging grade-appropriate work that would actually prepare them for college. They would rather Chris’ mom think he’s doing well so that she and other parents won’t storm the school doors. His teachers, who have probably all been deemed ‘effective’ by a watered-down evaluation system, have taken the easy path, but it’s not the one that will help Chris achieve his dreams.”

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By Rick Karlin | Times Union

“Educators began to offer up fixes Tuesday after the state Board of Regents voted to dump a widely criticized test-based teacher evaluation system that was pushed through in last spring’s budget.

‘Teachers are not afraid to be evaluated, and they are not afraid of tests,’ said Lisa Meade, principal of Corinth Middle School.

But Meade added that the tests should be meaningful.

She spoke at a Capitol news conference called after the Regents voted Monday to delay use of student test scores in evaluations until at least the 2019-2020 school year.”

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By Monica Disare | Chalkbeat NY

“New York is about to have a lot more freedom to craft education policy.

The Every Student Succeeds Act, which President Obama signed last week, won’t change anything right away in New York state. But ESSA, which replaced the No Child Left Behind Act, hands authority from the federal education department to the states, which could eventually lead to important shifts in how the state tests students and what happens to struggling schools.”

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