1. ACT, Inc. has made only minor changes to its test but will include a STEM score based on the math and science sections, an English language score based on its English, reading, and writing tests, a “progress toward career-readiness score,” and a “text complexity progress indicator” that’s based on all the writing passages–not just those in the reading section.
2. Membership in America’s largest teacher union, the NEA, is down by more than 230,000 members over the past 3 years.
3. A growing number of districts are using financial incentives to improve achievement, such as $100 for a good AP test score and even the promise of a college scholarship at an early age.
4. 13-year-old Ansun Sujoe and Sriran Hathwar were named co-winners of the 87th Scripps National Spelling Bee.
5. NYC Mayor DeBlasio now wants to end the policy that restricts admission at the city’s elite high schools to students who score the highest on standardized tests.
6. A recent National Council on Teacher Quality study finds that teaching colleges are too lenient in their admission criteria and fail to prepare their students to teach such subjects as reading, math, and science.