ELECTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES
Newly elected congressional Republicans have revealed an aggressive education policy agenda that will focus on overhauling No Child Left Behind and the Higher Education Act. Other education priorities include school choice, funding issues, and scaling back the federal government’s involvement in K–12. For more information on the election’s implications on education, read Andy Smarick’s hot take from earlier this week.
TAKE OFF YOUR COAT AND STAY A WHILE
A new study by the Council of Great City Schools found that the average tenure of principals from the largest school districts has slightly decreased since 2010, to 3.2 years. This high turnover makes sustainable change and reform efforts difficult to implement and often stifles “positive academic momentum.” To get a local look at the effects of this kind of churn, turn to Chalkbeat’s look at the revolving door for principals in Denver Public Schools.
SIGN O' THE TIMES
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio recently rolled out his three-year initiative for school reform, which centers on reinventing ninety-four of the city’s most troubled schools as “Renewal Schools.” Today, he got the early response from elite consensus: The New York Times op-ed page panned the proposal, saying the mayor “robbed himself of a useful reform tool” by abandoning Michael Bloomberg’s strategy of shutting down failing schools.
FOR-PROFIT SCHOOLS FIGHT REGULATIONS
On the subject of newly-released education proposals, the federal government’s regulations on for-profit colleges have already generated some heat. Just a week after proposing the guidelines, the Obama administration is being sued by a trade group of some 1,400 schools. At issue is the so-called “gainful employment rule,” under which the government can deny federal aid dollars (the lifeblood of many such institutions) to colleges whose students find themselves bogged down by debt and stuck in low-paying jobs.
