Third graders who are a year behind in reading are supposed to repeat the grade under Michigan’s “read by grade three” law, but few are held back, reports Tracie Mauriello on Chalkbeat. This year, with nearly all students tested, 5.8 percent of third graders are at least one grade level behind, an increase of 60 percent from last year. Parents can request exemptions, writes Mauriello. Last year, “administrators granted them liberally, holding back only 0.2% of those eligible

Remote learning widened achievement gaps in states and districts that kept schools closed the longest, concludes a working paper by Harvard researchers. Students in high-poverty schools paid a far higher price for virtual learning” than those in low-poverty schools, reports Moriah Balingit in the Washington Post. “Students in poverty suffered a double-whammy: They stood to lose the most from virtual learning — and they, on average, spent more time learning remotely,” she writ

Florida schools are asking for students’ mental health histories on registration forms, reports Julio Ochoa on NPR. Parents worry their child will be stigmatized. “If you do say, ‘Yes, my child has seen a counselor or a therapist or a psychologist,’ what does the school then do with that?” asks Laura Goodhue, who has a 9-year-old son on the autism spectrum and a 10-year-old son who has seen a psychologist. . . . Goodhue worries that if her children’s mental health history bec

When schools provide Saturday catch-up classes, disadvantaged students earn higher scores, but advantaged students do worse, concludes an analysis of Florida data by David Figlio, dean of Northwestern’s School of Education and Social Policy, and researcher Krzysztof Karbownik. The study looked at 12 school policies and practices: seven produced much different outcomes for disadvantaged and advantaged students. For example, summer school for all students was linked to lower sc

Reading and math proficiency isn’t improving for fourth- and eighth-graders, according to the 2017 National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), known as the “nation’s report card.” The best students did better and the worst students did worse, widening achievement gaps. Except for a slight uptick in eighth-grade reading since 2015, scores remained about the same. It’s been a “lost decade” for educational progress, writes Mike Petrilli. Hechinger’s Jill Barshay calls it a

Bullied students will be offered a voucher to cover transportation to a new public school or a $6,700 voucher toward tuition at a private school, under Florida’s new education law, reports Ed Week. To  qualify for a “Hope Scholarship,” a student would have to report harassment or physical assault to the school. The Florida Department of Education would also be required to review bullying prevention programs and school climate at any school that has had 10 or more students opt

As states try to boost high school graduation rates, exit exams are losing favor. “In 2013-14, some 24 states had an exit exam or graduation test of some kind,” write Theresa Harrington and Louis Freedberg on EdSource. “Today only 13 do.” Now California, which had suspended use of its exit exam, has dumped the test permanently and will not seek a replacement, report Harrington and Freedberg. “Since 2015, the state has allowed students who had failed the exam to apply to recei

Low-income Florida students who used a tax-credit-funded scholarship to attend private school were more likely to enroll in college, according to an Urban Institute study. Compared to similar students who stayed in public school, Florida Tax Credit participants came from lower-performing schools and had lower test scores before receiving a scholarship, the study reported. #choice #Florida #taxcreditscholarships

It’s getting harder to hold schools accountable for performance writes Lane Wright on Education Post. The Education Department’s new ESSA guidelines don’t require states to give each school a single, overall score for performance. Instead of a proposed A-F school grading system, Michigan will use a dashboard with different measures of school quality but no overall grade, reports Michigan Live. The proposed A-F grading system was based upon six categories: student proficiency,

“Education is the civil rights issue of our time,” said President Trump in his speech to Congress. He called for funding “school choice for disadvantaged youth, including millions of African-American and Latino children,” saying, “families should be free to choose the public, private, charter, magnet, religious or home school that is right for them.” Denisha Merriweather He introduced Denisha Merriweather, who “struggled in school and failed third grade twice” before she was

“Letting great educators open up schools is much more cost effective than increasing spending by billions of dollars,” argues Neerav Kingsland in More Money or More Charter Schools? in Education Next. Money probably does matter in education, argue Kevin Carey and Elizabeth A. Harris in the New York Times. They cite a recent study estimating that spending 10 percent more on schools increases test scores by .018 standard deviations. Charter students gain four times that much, a