- When Arne Duncan became education secretary, he vowed to close or revamp 1,000 schools a year for 5 years. The result: activists across the country recently converged on the U.S. Department of Education demanding that the shutdowns be stopped.
- North Dakota has merged the NEA and AFT, following the lead of Florida, Minnesota, Montana, New York, and Wisconsin.
- It all of New York’s districts don’t comply with new teacher evaluation methods, the state could lose $700 million in federal funds.
- L.A. teachers have okayed an evaluation system that will employ raw test scores, high school exit tests, and other measures of student performance.
- D.C. is considering punishing parents of students who skip 10 or more days of school a year. Last year, 17.5% of the city’s 5- to 17-year-olds had 11 or more unexcused absences.
