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Education Week--Common-Core Reading Materials Get Mixed Results in First Major Review
After analyzing dozens of K-12 math textbooks—and determining that most of the major publishers were selling subpar common-core products—the curriculum review group EdReports.org has now moved on to English/language arts materials.
The first round of ELA ratings, released today, were generally more positive than the math ratings have been—however, they were mixed overall. Of the seven instructional series analyzed, three completely met the benchmarks for being considered aligned to the Common Core State Standards for reading and three partially met them. Just one textbook series—Pearson's Reading Street Common Core for grades 3-6—was deemed fully unaligned.
By Liana Heitin on August 30, 2016 10:12 AM
Education Week--Vast Majority of Americans Want Failing Schools Fixed, Not Closed, Poll Finds
A new survey of public opinion about education has found that by a ratio of six to one, the American public wants schools that are falling down on the job to remain open instead of being closed.
Results of the annual Phi Delta Kappa International poll about K-12, released Monday, reported that 84 percent of Americans want officials to overhaul those struggling schools in some fashion, while just 14 percent say they prefer those schools to be shut down. However, the poll also found that doesn't necessarily mean the public doesn't want major changes at those schools.
The survey also found that nearly half of those surveyed gave their local public schools an A or B grade, but that fewer than one-quarter of respondents would give the same high marks to the nation's public schools as a whole. Those figures are roughly consistent with the findings of another public-opinion poll about education released by the Education Next policy journal last week.
By Andrew Ujifusa on August 29, 2016 8:38 AM
Asbury Park Press-- WATCH: Opting out? 4 things to know about PARCC
Classes will kick back into session next week and with that will come another round of PARCC testing. PARCC, or the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, is a standardized test given to students in grades 3 to 11 in math and English. Here are four things to know about PARCC:
1. It will soon be a graduation requirement.
Students will have to pass PARCC in Algebra I and 10th-grade English to graduate after the State Board of Education approved the requirement earlier this month. The change will start with the class of 2021 and was approved despite heavy pushback from parents, who opposed linking the exams to graduation. For students who do not pass PARCC, the state will consider an appeal based on a portfolio of school work, projects and transcripts.
http://www.app.com/story/news/education/2016/08/30/watch-4-things-know-parcc/89257694/
Karen Yi, 6:05 p.m. EDT August 30, 2016
