The Record—New School Financial Literacy Mandate Isn’t New
A new state law says middle school students should learn financial literacy. But it’s been a requirement for years.
Hannan Aderly| North Jersey Record| January 8, 2019
Chalkbeat--‘Zero student achievement’: Newark superintendent casts doubt on school-improvement program championed by Mayor Baraka
Three years ago, Newark unveiled a high-profile experiment: Rather than close low-performing schools in the city’s impoverished South Ward, the district would try to revive them with an infusion of extra services and staffers.
It was a major victory for Mayor Ras Baraka, who convinced the district’s state-appointed superintendent to devote $10 million in private funds to the effort, and for local activists and teachers unions who had long endorsed this “community-school” approach — transforming schools into service-rich hubs able to treat the many ailments, from hunger to asthma to mental-health crises, that can impede some students’ learning.
By Patrick Wall| January 7, 2019
Education Week--Gates Giving Millions to Train Teachers on 'High Quality' Curricula
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation plans to invest in professional development providers who will train teachers on “high quality” curricula, the philanthropy announced this afternoon.
The announcement fleshes out the curricular prong of the education improvement strategy the influential foundation laid out in late 2017, a major pivot away from its prior focus on teacher performance.
The investment, at around $10 million, is a tiny portion of the approximately $1.7 billion the philanthropy expects to put into K-12 education by 2022.
https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2019/01/07/gates-giving-millions-to-train-teachers-on.html
Stephen Sawchuk| January 7, 2019