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NJ Spotlight--Public Education and the Candidates: Putting the Issues in Perspective
The hot topics are no secret — funding, PARCC testing, and charter schools — but teasing out where the candidates stand is the real test
This story is part of a regular series exploring where the candidates stand on major issues and assessing key considerations in this year’s elections. Follow these links for a look at where the gubernatorial candidates stand on undocumented immigrants and legalizing marijuana; the hottest district races; an overview of the legislative landscape; the candidates’ plans to ease New Jersey’s fiscal crisis; why the Democrats favor single-payer healthcare; and the reasons the Republicans are cool on the ACA replacement bill.
Public education has already played a big role in the race to be New Jersey’s next governor — maybe as much as in any gubernatorial election in recent memory.
After nearly eight years of Gov. Chris Christie and his aggressive education agenda, the state is at a significant crossroads in terms of its public schools, and the candidates from both parties have almost universally made it a priority issue.
John Mooney | June 2, 2017
Washington Post--The long game of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos speaks at the ASU GSV Summit at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City on May 9. (Leah Hogsten/Salt Lake Tribune via AP)
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has been pushing the expansion of school choice — alternatives to traditional public schools — for decades. You could say she has been playing a long game.
DeVos, a Michigan billionaire who has publicly called traditional public education a “dead end,” says all parents should have educational choices for their children. Her critics argue that she has been trying to privatize public education, with her advocacy efforts having begun in Michigan and then moving to other states.
DeVos and President Trump have made clear that their top priority in education is to expand school choice, not continue the efforts of former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama to hold schools “accountable” largely through test scores. This post looks at how she has operated and what her ultimate goals seem to be. It was written by Carol Burris, a former New York high school principal who is executive director of the nonprofit Network for Public Education.
By Valerie Strauss June 1 at 3:16 PM
Education Week-- In Race for Test-Takers, ACT Outscores SAT—for Now
But both organizations are making a strong play for statewide test markets
The University of Pennsylvania reached a milestone of sorts with its fall entering class: For the first time, more students had taken the ACT than the SAT.
The changeover at the Ivy League university in Philadelphia reflects a more general shift taking place in the college-entrance-exam marketplace.
"The momentum has clearly been on the ACT side," said Eric Furda, Penn's admissions dean.
In fact, the ACT has been the most popular test used to predict college performance since 2012. Last year, more than 2.09 million (or 64 percent of graduates from the high school class of 2016) took the ACT compared with the SAT's 1.64 million. Some believe the ACT will remain dominant, since more states give it for free during the school day, and the jittery students who abandoned the SAT during its 2016 redesign will be hard to win back.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2017/05/24/in-race-for-test-takers-act-outscores-sat--for.html
Caralee J. Adams|May 24, 2017 | Corrected: May 30, 2017
