New York Post Editorial Board
Here we go again: The state’s schools czar says the latest teacher-grading makeover is “full of problems.” This, when Gov. Cuomo already plans his own big changes.
This farce will never end.
Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch thinks the current teacher-evaluation law doesn’t work well in small, rural districts and doesn’t cover enough teachers, among other complaints.
By Keshia Clukey | Politico NY
NEW YORK — Only a small number of educators are contesting their growth scores, ratings that aim to determine how good they are at their jobs — though advocates, statisticians and some state Board of Regents members have called the teacher and principal evaluation system flawed.
New York Post Editorial Board
Don’t confuse the city’s teachers with the teachers union bosses.
That’s one key message of the charter-school rally coming Wednesday to Foley Square. And the point will be clear as day, even if no one says the word “union” — for it will come from teachers themselves.
By Campbell Brown | The Daily Beast
The vision and courage needed to take on the crisis of failing schools has surfaced during our presidential campaign—just not in this country.
Last week, addressing his party for the first time since re-election in May, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron called for an end to the country’s traditional public school system, endorsing instead a nationwide conversion to academies, which are essentially the British equivalent of charter schools—publicly funded, but with greater freedom over what they teach and how they are run.
By Cynthia Tucker Haynes | The 74
Isn’t public education presidential? Isn’t it more important to the nation than Donald Trump’s buffoonery or the size of Bernie Sanders’ crowds?
Well, of course it is.
Every candidate on the campaign trail should have a plan to overhaul the nation’s public schools to ensure that every child, no matter his parents’ income or family structure, gets an excellent education. The crosswinds of a globalized economy demand it.
By Anyta Brown | The 74
When you grow up poor, it sometimes feels like the deck is stacked against you.
It can be hard for kids to find the right role models, so when you see someone from your community make it the right way, that’s something to celebrate. That’s how I feel about President Obama’s new appointee as Secretary of Education, John King. Dr. King’s personal story shows how a kid can go from a Canarsie public school into the President’s Cabinet.
By Eliza Shapiro | Politico NY
Families for Excellent Schools, the charter school advocacy group, will hold a rally of charter teachers next Wednesday in an attempt to undermine the United Federation of Teachers’ representation of public school teachers, according to several people with knowledge of the event.
By Carolyn Phenicie | The 74
Discussion of education issues was slim and scarce again at Wednesday’s Democratic presidential debate, with only two brief mentions of education as a civil rights issue and a solitary question devoted to higher education.
However, the two frontrunners, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, did address education more broadly in regards to other questions throughout the evening.
New York Post Editorial Board
More than 18,000 parents and kids marched across the Brooklyn Bridge to City Hall Wednesday to demand equality — and excellence — in the city’s public schools.
They refuse to be ignored. They won’t accept the way the public-school system fails hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren — largely minority. They demand change now.
In time to make a difference for today’s kids, rather than writing off another generation, as Mayor de Blasio would do.
By Carolyn Phenicie | The 74
The surprise news Friday that Education Secretary Arne Duncan will step down from his post by the end of the year also came with the bulletin that John B. King Jr., currently an advisor for K-12 programs, will lead the department in an acting capacity when Duncan returns to Chicago.
King has had a long career in education. He was a classroom teacher, helped found a charter school in Boston, ran a charter management group in New York and, before joining the Education Department early this year, was New York state education commissioner.