Renewed Focus on the Importance of Play
New 'Common Core' Tests Go Nationwide
After a lot of ramping up, Spring 2015 was the first season for which the dozens of states to adopt the Common Core State Standards administered computer-based standardized tests to see whether students were meeting the new, tougher standards.
States Back Out of Common Core ... Sorta
Education in the U.S. has always been vulnerable to politics, and this year was no exception. As the 2016 presidential races began to heat up, some state leaders were compelled to reject the national Common Core State Standards, which had been adopted by all the states except for Massachusetts and Virginia. But rejection of the new rigorous standards may have been in name only, as most of the states simply rebranded CCSS to their state's college and career-ready standards.
Los Angeles School iPad Debacle
Two years ago, Los Angeles Unified's superintendent, John Deasy, sealed a $1.3 billion deal for iPads and software for every student in the district. At the time, it was called ambitious. This year, after a federal investigation was launched and an interim superintendent not only ended the program but asked for the district's money back from Apple. Nationally, school leaders, hope to avoid the LAUSD disaster, have begun to approach tech more cautiously as a means for boosting student achievement.
Image via Twenty20
Chicago's Dyett School Hunger Strike
A group of residents in a Chicago neighborhood staged a hunger strike to protest the proposed closing of Dyett, their local high school. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel slated the low-performing high school with declining enrollment in the city's Southeast Side for closing. The 34-day strike got national attention and ultimately ended when the starving residents' demands were partially met. The schools reopened, but not, as they had hoped, with a curriculum focused on green technology and global leadership.
Stanford Announces Free Tuition
In an attempt to graduate students who aren't hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, Stanford University announced it would waive tuition for students whose parents make less than $125,000 per year. And for those whose parents make $65,000 per year or less, the West Coast Ivy League university will also cover room and board expenses.
Majority of US Public School Students Are Poor
For the first time since the 1950s, a majority of U.S. public school students lives in poverty, a Southern Education Foundation report found. Some 51 percent of students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade qualifies for free or reduced-priced lunches through the federal school lunch program. "The shift to a majority-poor student population means that in public schools, a growing number of children start kindergarten already trailing their more privileged peers and rarely, if ever, catch up," the Washington Post reported.
Image via Twenty20
