Federal education law encourage schools to fudge graduation rates, writes Laura Jimenez, director of standards and accountability for the Center for American Progress, on The 74. The scandal at Ballou High in Washington, D.C., which gave diplomas to students who’d failed their courses, is not unique, Jimenez writes. Investigations “in Chicago, Florida, Los Angeles, Prince George’s County in Maryland, and Texas all point to a much more widespread pattern of fudging numbers, du

Every year, Minnesotans laud the excellent test scores for white students and ignore or excuse the dreadful scores for non-whites, writes Citizen (Chris) Stewart, who’s “tired of all this Wobegon bullshit.” The state’s top education official is Brenda Cassellius, said test scores were “frustrating,” but added, “there’s more to providing a student with a well-rounded education than can be seen in a test.” Stewart scoffs. Reading, writing, computing – not important. Look over t

“Course choice,” also known as course access, is expanding options for students whose high schools can’t meet all their learning needs, report Liana Loewus and Andrew Ujifusa in Education Week. Todd Ott, a senior at Prairie High School in Cottonwood, Idaho, is taking a dual-credit course. Photo: Jerome Pollos/Education Week Parents and students choose pre-approved courses, often taught online, to get a head start on college, career or special interests. Fifteen states offer c

DeVos is “no threat to traditional schools, especially those beloved suburban schools that parents seek out,” writes Richard Whitmire in USA Today. “She does present a threat to public charter schools, which have proven to be the first-ever school reform that works at scale for poor kids.” Students at Boston’s high-performing Match High School, one of the city’s high-performing charter schools. The new federal education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act, limits the Educatio

Two Republican senators — Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska will vote “no” on confirming Betsy Devos as Education secretary, even though both voted for her in the education committee. Betsy DeVos If all Democrats vote against DeVos, which is expected, the nominee would need to hold all the remaining Republican senators to end up in a 50-50 tie. Vice President Mike Pence would cast the deciding vote. “I’m concerned that Mrs. Devos’s lack of experience with pu