School Registration - NCLB Waivers - Pres. Obama and Higher Ed

8-29-13

News roundup! NYC School registration opens, the President tackles Higher Ed, Arne Duncan talks beer, NCLB exceptions tighten.

Registering for school

The NYC Department of Ed has opened nine student registration centers in the city as of today. Starting today, High School students can register (and must do so in their borough at one of the registration centers. See link below for locations). Starting September 9, Elementary and Middle School students can register (and must at their school). This includes students with IEPs.Here is how to find your zoned school www.nyc.gov/schools/schoolsearch

For Registration Locations, more information, and a list of necessary documents (please avoid a second trip, and have everything with you!) click here. http://schools.nyc.gov/ChoicesEnrollment/NewStudents/default.htm

NCLB waivers – will they or won’t they?

Education Week has you covered for a good recap of Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s new requirements for NCLB waivers. States will have to ratchet up teacher quality to qualify for renewal, tying it to student performance. Though several requirements have pretty vague definitions. Lots of wiggle room in here, in other words, for the states.

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2013/08/barring_reauthorization_this_m.html

Some argue that the waivers have led to ineffective or nonexistent interventions for high risk students (download the report from the Campaign for High School Equity here) http://www.highschoolequity.org/images/WaiversReport_R8.pdf

The Education Trust also slammed the waiver policy for not focusing on closing the achievement gap
http://www.edtrust.org/sites/edtrust.org/files/A_Step_Forward_Or_A_Step_Back.pdf

Politico breaks down the anti-waiver arguments here
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/no-child-left-behind-rewrite-waivers-96037.html#.Uh-G4roDZAs.twitter

There is some debate about what revoking the already existing waivers for the 41 or so states who qualify would mean, though. Some analysts think that every state will get renewed. We’ll keep an eye on it and report the buzz as it happens.

Beer

In unrelated Arne Duncan news, he told Buzzfeed that beer is not a food group, among other advice to college freshmen. http://www.buzzfeed.com/arneduncan/top-9-things-every-college-freshman-needs-to-know-ecm4

President Obama’s Higher Ed Plan

Buzzfeed itself had a banner education day, with two stories flying around the online educational circles. Its second profiles the plight of a San Francisco company http://www.buzzfeed.com/matthewzeitlin/how-the-old-guard-shut-down-an-experiment-in-education

Altius Education says it is exactly the innovative Higher Education company that the President has been talking about in his recent speeches (we broke down his main talking points here)
https://www.citeprograms.com/?p=459

But the accreditation body, North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, via its Higher Learning Commission, is balking at validating the company as a school.

Buzzfeed spotlights this bump in the road to innovation and it’s an interesting read – how lofty desires to change the mold get stuck in the cogs of the very infrastructure they’re trying to change. Buzzfeed leans pretty heavily on stressing certain aspects of the story (ie: citing the “118-year old” accreditation committee), but still brings up a good point.

For his part, the President made his case for changes in Higher Ed this week, on his college tour. He focused on these points:
-Debt relief
-Innovation
-a Higher Ed rating system

Our breakdown: https://www.citeprograms.com/?p=459

And the White House’s: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/08/22/fact-sheet-president-s-plan-make-college-more-affordable-better-bargain-

For news as it breaks or buzzes, follow @CtrTeacherEd and like us on Facebook www.facebook.com/CtrTeacherEd

If you haven’t entered our photo contest, and you’re near the NYC area, and you want a new iPad, check out our back-to-school photo contest, which is free to enter https://www.citeprograms.com/?p=433