Common Core just had its best week in recent memory. The Intelligence Squared U.S. CCSS debate showcased strong arguments in favor of the standards, including from our own Mike Petrilli. William J. Bennett, Ronald Reagan’s secretary of education, made a conservative case for the standards in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. And an ECS report showed that, despite all the fuss, forty-plus states are moving ahead with implementation (and critics have barely made a dent).
Harold Levy, former chancellor of the New York City public schools and the brand-new executive director of Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, penned a Wall Street Journal op-ed over the weekend lamenting school officials’ misuse—or non-use—of school and student data. For example, we know that high-performing, low-income students are less likely to attend college than their wealthier peers. And small numbers of truant pupils miss about a month of school each year even in schools with high overall attendance rates. These data are imminently actionable—we could provide opportunities for acceleration or gifted classes for high-potential poor kids, for example—but only if educators choose to use them.
A group of New York State charter school supporters is suing the state over what they describe as a chronic, unconstitutional funding gap between charters and traditional public schools. Plaintiffs say that charter students in Buffalo and Rochester receive between $6,600 and $9,800 less per year, per student. A similar lawsuit was filed in D.C. back in July. With funding gaps abounding elsewhere, charter schools in other states might need to follow suit.
