Annapolis Times

Three-quarters of the students enrolled in Friendship schools in D.C. are from Wards 7 and 8, the city’s two poorest areas, and nearly all are African-American. Their achievement is reflected in their continuous improvement on standardized tests. Most recently, Donald Hense and his team celebrated, when five of Friendship’s 12 D.C. schools were rated Tier 1 by the Public Charter School Board – the highest of three ratings a charter school can earn.

NNPA ESSA MEDIA CAMPAIGN —In order for education to capitalize on the strengths and talents of learners and the skills and professionalism of their teachers, what kinds of additional progress measures might be employed?

WASHINGTON INFORMER — After successfully crafting the football, the 12-year-old Thomas Johnson Middle School student stood it on a makeshift Washington Redskins table and plucked it to the other side. Touchdown!

NNPA NEWSWIRE — “There was a gap where I could go to school and then go home and not hear anything about school. Maybe I was supposed to be the middle man to bridge the gap between my teachers, my parents, and my community but I didn’t—or I didn’t understand how to.”

THE AFRO — Far too many of Maryland’s children are being relegated to a future devoid of competence or hope.  This is an unacceptable failing – and it’s up to us, as voters, to assure that those we elect in November are committed to providing our children’s public schools with the funding that they need and deserve.

Now, under ESSA, states must figure low testing participation into school ratings, but just how to do that is totally up to them. And states can continue to have laws affirming parents’ right to opt their students out of tests (as Oregon does). ESSA also requires states to mark non-test-takers as not proficient.

THE WASHINGTON INFORMER — ANNAPOLIS — After more than three months of working on recommendations to improve the Prince George’s County public school structure, nothing will change for now. A proposal to allow elected members of the school board to select a vice chair and create an inspector general office died in a Senate committee on Monday, the last day of the Maryland General Assembly.

AFRO NEWSPAPER — Students from schools including Paul Laurence Dunbar High School and Baltimore Polytechnic Institute marched down Fayette St., to City Hall in the spirit of the protests that have erupted around the country in wake of the massacre of 17 students and teachers at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, Feb. 14.

AFRO NEWSPAPER — While Maryland HBCU Coalition plaintiffs are in formal settlement negotiations with the state, the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland (LBCM), is following through on a promise made at the start of the 2018 session to, “actively promote legislation to support HBCUs” in the halls of the Maryland General Assembly.

AFRO NEWSPAPER — In the wake of yet another mass slaughter of innocent Americans, I am writing to implore my colleagues in both the Congress and our state legislatures to go to CNN’s website and listen carefully to the words of a young American named Cameron Kasky. You can find his declaration of principle and truth on CNN.com.

AFRO NEWSPAPER — Following reports of a teacher calling a student a racial slur and a social media post targeting Black students, a local NAACP chapter says Black students at a Maryland high school are subject to daily abuse and humiliation.

THE CHARLESTON CHRONICLE — In the Washington area, high school students from DC. Public Schools and from public schools in Maryland marched to the Capitol and then to the White House to demand Congress and the president institute gun control legislation that will keep them safe. The march was organized by students from Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, Md., and Bethesda-Chevy Chase in Montgomery County, Md., in response to the recent shooting in Parkland, Fla.

WASHINGTON INFORMER — Donna Edwards already has her sights set on cleaning up the Prince George’s County school board in her bid for county executive.

AFRO — “Our society has treated the abuse, maltreatment, violence, and chaotic experiences of our children as an oddity that is adequately dealt with by emergency response systems… These services are needed and are worthy of support—but they are a dressing on a greater wound…   Later, in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood [affected persons will develop] behavioral, learning, social, criminal, and chronic health problems.” 

EDUCATION WEEK — This week, Education Week is bringing its trademark analysis to the remaining state plans for fulfilling requirements of the Every Student Succeeds law. On Monday, we had a look at the states’ proposed “school quality” indicators, €”the required but nonacademic portion of each state’s plan to judge schools. Today, we’re going to take a look at states’ goals for raising student achievement and their timelines for doing so in the plans awaiting federal approval.

AMSTERDAM NEWS — Mounting student debt is a nagging problem for most families these days. As the cost of higher education rises, borrowing to cover those costs often becomes a family concern across multiple generations including the student, parents, and even grandparents or other relatives.

Frigid temperatures in the Baltimore area over the last several days combined with a lack of heat in several Baltimore City Public School buildings has compelled the Baltimore Teachers Union (BTU), to call for the closure of city schools, until the heating issues can be resolved.

“What we are seeing so far is not encouraging,” concludes a report from The Education Trust, a Washington-based organization that advocates for low-income and minority students. “For all the talk about equity surrounding ESSA, too many state leaders have taken a pass on clearly naming and acting on schools’ underperformance for low-income students, students of color, students with disabilities, and English learners.”

Georgia and Utah, as well as hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico, have some work to do on their plans to implement the Every Student Succeeds Act, according letters published this week by the U.S. Department of Education. Each turned in its ESSA plan back in September.

The nation’s graduation rate rose again to a record high, with more than 84 percent of students graduating on time in 2016, according to data released Monday by the U.S. Department of Education.

St. Louis — State education chiefs are scrambling staff duties and outsourcing tasks such as data collection and school improvement efforts as they prepare for new responsibilities under the Every Student Succeeds Act—at the same time they cope with continued funding and staffing pressures.

Rushern Baker, the county executive of Prince Georges County, Md., says that our public school system is the most segregated place in America.

For the past five months, we have followed the development of Minnesota’s state accountability plan as mandated by the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). While the US Department of Education (USDE) has defined what must be included in four of the plans’ required indicators, states have the freedom to choose which measures they will include in their fifth indicator, of school quality/student success (SQ/SS).

State education chiefs at a Senate hearing Tuesday outlined how they are using the Every Student Succeeds Act to initiate and expand on efforts to improve college- and career-readiness and help low-performing schools. Senators, meanwhile, expressed concerns along partisan lines about the proper balance of power between Washington and the states. 

The grinding, two-year process of drafting accountability plans under the Every Student Succeeds Act has upended states’ K-12 political landscape and laid bare long-simmering factions among power brokers charged with putting the new federal education law into effect this school year.

Linda Banks, a parent from Prince George’s County, Md., talks about the Every Student Succeeds Act after the National Black Parent’s Town Hall meeting hosted by the National Newspaper Publishers Association.

Aiyana Thomas, a 17-year-old Baltimore City College High School, talks about the importance of successful parent-teacher partnerships in education and the Every Student Succeeds Act.

Education Week’s Catherine Gewertz writes that a “little-noticed change in the country’s main federal education law could force many states to lower their high school graduation rates, a politically explosive move no state would relish.” Indiana is “the first state to be caught in the crosshairs” of ESSA’s language, but others are sure to follow. The resulting debate “could throw a sharp spotlight on a topic that’s been lurking in the wings: the wildly varying levels of accomplishment signified by a high school diploma.”

For now, Maryland is sticking with a five-star rating system to determine which schools will get passing grades. The Board of Education passed the education plan Tuesday with a 7-2 vote. This is all part of new federal requirements for the Every Student Succeeds Act. The state plan still needs approval from the U.S. Department of Education.

Ultimately, twelve states—California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Maine, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin—received a notice from the U.S. Department of Education that they needed to create a plan to reduce opt-outs due to low participation rates.

This report highlights significant investments made by both Republican and Democratic policymakers in state-funded pre-k programs for the fourth year in a row. In the 2015-16 budget year, 32 states and the District of Columbia raised funding levels of pre-k programs.

WASHINGTON — Education Secretary Betsy DeVos refused to say Wednesday whether she would block private schools that discriminate against LGBT students from receiving federal dollars, explaining that she believes states should have the flexibility to design voucher programs and that parents should be able to choose schools that best fit their children’s needs.

A number of states have released drafts of their ESSA plans. Here’s a compiled list of the most recent versions states have released so far. Arizona: First Draft (9/7/16)  Second Draft (11/9/16) Final Plan (1/15/17) Colorado: First Draft (2/10/17) Connecticut: Released plan (4/3/17) Delaware: First Draft (11/1/16) District…

Thousands of educators and students across the country demonstrated how technology can improve student learning as part of the sixth annual national Digital Learning Day on February 23, 2017. Digital Learning Day (DLDay) provides a powerful venue for education leaders to highlight great teaching practice and showcase innovative teachers, leaders, and instructional technology programs that […]

Teachers, at least two former education secretaries, and others with links to education are speaking out about President Donald Trump’s executive order issued Friday that suspends refugee admissions into the U.S. for 120 days, bars all immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries, and indefinitely bans refugees from Syria.

In the most recent round of state of the state addresses, the nation’s governors have touted increased spending on education, as well as efforts to better prepare high schools students for college and the workforce, including investments in career and technical education, greater linkages between high schools and employers, and free community college for all.

Sheena Washington, a special education teacher in Prince George’s County and member of MSEA’s ESSA Workgroup, discusses the importance of getting ESSA implementation right.

ACT Inc. has announced that it will begin offering accommodations for English-learners on the ACT, marking the first time that students with limited English proficiency will be able to request extra time and other supports on a national college-entrance exam.

Washington, DC – United States Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), along with seven other senators, urged the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to use the authority that it was given by Congress to fully enforce the “supplement, not supplant” provision in the recently-passed Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).