Stateline.org reports that Delaware Governor Jack Markell defended the new Common Core English and math state standards at a meeting in Philadelphia on Thursday. The article says Markell dismissed the contention that national benchmarks for what students should be learning are part of a “high-level conspiracy from the federal government” to impose its standards on states.
The Philadelphia Public Schools Notebook reports on the city's broken pipeline to college. It notes that only seventeen of the 145 students who started ninth grade at North Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin High School in fall 2005 enrolled in a four-year college. Citywide, only 25 percent of students who started 9th grade in one of Philadelphia's neighborhood high schools that year enrolled in any postsecondary education, compared to almost 80 percent of students who started at the city's most selective magnet high schools. Of those 145 students, seventy-two earned a high school diploma--seventy-three have not.
The New York Times reports that New York City officials have have abandoned plans to negotiate with the union for the removal of some 830 teachers who do not have permanent jobs, but are still salaried, costing the city millions of dollars each year. Instead, Chancellor Dennis M. Walcott proposed on Thursday to offer buyouts to those teachers to leave the system.
The PBS NewsHour spotlights a journalism program in Florida that gives students a reason to stay in school.
The Associated Press reports on a new child literacy law in Colorado that will revamp the teaching of literacy in the early grades. The new law will require statewide reading assessments as early as kindergarten, and it will require schools to identify children who are significantly behind in reading skills.
Illinois Statehouse Newsreports on lawmakers plans to eliminate $258 million or more from the state's education budget in an effort to address the state’s backlog of bills that stood at $5.5 billion in April.
The Kennebec Journal (ME) reports on a series of education bills that the state legislature approved. It says the most far-reaching of the bills is legislation to change high school diploma requirements to better align them with the "proficiency-based education model" promoted by the Maine Department of Education.
More education-related legislation news from the Associated Press , which reports that Missouri lawmakers have approved legislation designed to help college students seeking to transfer between schools. The legislation would require that public colleges and universities designate twenty-five lower-level courses for which students can receive credit if they transfer to a new school elsewhere in Missouri.
The Columbus Dispatch (OH) reports on action taken by an Ohio House panel that would raise the bar on third-grade reading test standards. According to the article, lawmakers agree that youngsters should be “proficient,” or reading at grade level, before moving on, but the possibility of having nearly two-thirds of third-graders held back in a few years when Ohio schools must start using more-rigorous curriculum standards and assessments has some lawmakers worried.
As your Friday treat, and reward for making it all the way through the clips, we pass along the six worst political gaffes on Facebook, courtesy of Politico, on the day that Facebook stock started publicly trading. Looks like Facebook has dropped back to the $38 price at which it was first offered.
That's all for today. Enjoy your weekend!