Waivers, turnarounds and other examples of Obama’s “reforminess” - by Gary Ravani
The Obama administration, acting while Congress was still dragging its feet on the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, has offered states an opportunity to be granted waivers from some of the more oppressive aspects of the current No Child Left Behind law. The tradeoffs for receiving a waiver include adopting college- and [...]
Not much good news from NAEP - by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess
California has more low-income and English-learning students than average by far, and those students did worse than their fourth and eighth grade peers nationwide in reading and math this year. These are among the results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which tests batches of students in every state every two years. Despite budget cuts [...]
New life for old law on evaluations - by John Fensterwald - Educated Guess
The Stull Act, the 40-year-old teacher evaluation law that school reformers had dismissed as useless, may have a second wind. In a suit with statewide implications, parents backed by an advocacy group are suing Los Angeles Unified and its teachers union, claiming that state law requires that statewide standardized tests must be used in the evaluation [...]