1. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has announced that states can delay using test results in teacher-performance ratings for another year. Over the past 4 years, 40 states adopted laws tying teacher evaluations in part on students’ standardized test results.
2. Texas has been granted a one-year NCLB waiver after agreeing to pilot a new statewide teacher and principal evaluation system.
3. Oklahoma will not get an extension of its NCLB waiver because of its vote to scrap the Common Core Standards.
4. Opponents of the Common Core Standards for AP U.S. History in South Carolina say they are anti-American, questioning as they do the honor and bravery of American soldiers and the founding fathers; they don’t even mention Martin Luther King.
5. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has sued the Obama administration for “illegally manipulating federal money to adopt the Common Core Standards by dangling $4.3 billion in grants and policy waivers that encouraged them to adopt the standards and their assessments.”
6. 7 states, including South Carolina, are proposing, not requiring, that schools reward students who take the national citizenship test and score about 60%. 91% of those seeking citizenship get a passing score.
7. A group of 26 organizations have announced a joint effort to improve civic education via the Civics Renewal Network which offers 1,000 free resources for educators.
8. The bulk of the federal $1.4 trillion spending increase is primarily going to Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and interest on the national debt–not education.
9. Reportedly, with federal, state, and local spending combined, $28,754 is spent on senior citizens with $12,770 spent per child.