Month: December 2018

Exchange Replay: High School Grade Inflation on the Rise – by Education Next

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Today we bring you a replay of one of the most popular episodes of The Education Exchange from 2018. A study based on data from North Carolina finds that grade inflation increased over the last decade and that grade inflation was more severe in schools attended by affluent students than in those attended by lower-income pupils. Seth Gershenson, the author of “Grade Infla...

In the News: Kansas Supreme Court Says State Education Spending Is Too Low

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The Kansas Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that the state’s low spending on public education violated the state’s constitution. As Mitch Smith and Julie Bosman explain in the New York Times, In a unanimous ruling, the court said black, Hispanic and poor students were especially harmed by the lack of funding, pointing to lagging test scores and graduation rates. Th...

School Choice Goes To the Movies

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Everything anyone needs to know about school choice – who benefits from it and who opposes it – was summarized in the first few minutes of the movie Hidden Figures … and in the trailer right before it. Hidden Figures, which won the SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast, stars Oscar winner Octavia Spencer, Taraji P. Henson of Empire, and singer Janelle Monae, as three...

Rocky Start for ProPublica “Alternative Schools” Series

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Pretty much everybody loves ProPublica, the nonprofit outfit dedicated to high-quality journalism. And they really should. The outlet generally does great work — including its education coverage. But even the best journalists and newsrooms make mistakes sometimes, and the latest ProPublica story on the spread of low-quality alternative schools may be an example. Crossed fingers...

In the News: Applications Double for Boston Charter Schools Under New Enrollment System – by Education Next

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Boston charter schools this year received 35,000 applications, more than double the 13,000 applications that were received last year. As Sarah Tully notes on Ed Week’s Charters and Choice blog, this spike in applications comes four months after voters in Massachusetts defeated a ballot measure that would have lifted the cap on charter schools in the state. Families in Bos...

EdNext Podcast: Rebooting Professional Development – by Education Next

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Can professional development for teachers be personalized? Michael Horn joins EdNext editor-in-chief Marty West to discuss a new way of doing professional development. Teachers identify the skills they want to acquire, receive specialized training, and are certified as having these new competencies, receiving a micro-credential, something akin to a merit badge. For more, read &...