Hot Topics – controversial

As American children prepare to head back to school tomorrow, many of them will return to racially homogenous classrooms. A 2014 report found that 60 years after the landmark desegregation case, Brown v. Board of Education (1954), segregation in American primary education — though certainly not at pre-Brown levels — has significantly increased since the 1980s, which generally marked the peak of integration.Read the rest of the story at The Week.

Photo Credit: Paul Stevensby Michelle Riddles, Associated PressCARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — Republican presidential hopeful Marco Rubio says the U.S. doesn’t need a federal Education Department, arguing that its recommendations to state and local governments often turn into mandates tied to money. Read the rest of the story at U.S.News.

by Sara GilgoreThe World Privacy Forum, a public-interest research group focused on privacy protection, has launched a campaign urging parents to “opt out” of allowing schools to release “directory” information—student data the organization says schools could otherwise disclose to third-parties who request access.Read the rest of the story at Education Week.

edCircuit recently caught up with Chad Ratliff, Director of Instructional Programs for Albermarle County Public Schools, to learn more about the district’s Startup Weekend.  Here’s our Q&A.Dr. Berger: Why organize a Startup Weekend for your teachers and what was the initial response to the idea from both teachers and administrators?

Photo credit: SuperFantasticUpdated by Libby NelsonEvery year, a new paper argues, tens of thousands of Americans die sooner than they should for an entirely preventable reason. It’s not smoking, or not exercising, or eating sugar. It’s dropping out of high school and college.Read the rest of the story on Vox.

Photo Credit: www.SeniorLiving.orgby Neal MortonThe American Civil Liberties Union, waging the first of potentially several legal challenges against school choice in Nevada, has filed a lawsuit to stop the state’s new education savings accounts, claiming a violation of a constitutional prohibition against the use of public money for religious purposes.Read the rest of the story at the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Photo Credit: Nicola Bothwellby Lauren HodgesSimmons College announced it will close the campus master’s degree program in business, the only one of its kind in the nation exclusively for women.Read the rest of the story at NPR.

by Elizabeth A. HarrisAs summer began, Dan Akim, a junior at Manhattan’s ultracompetitive Stuyvesant High School, planned to attend debate camp, to study for the PSATs and to go on some family vacations.Yet he felt that he could pack more into these months, so he also signed up for three online courses, in precalculus, computer science and public health. While on car rides with his family in Italy, he would sometimes use a mobile hot spot to chip away at one of the courses, while his mother asked why he was not soaking up the view instead.Read the rest of the story at The New York Times.

Photo Credit: TimlewisnmAmericans look beyond testing when they evaluate schools.Student engagement at school and whether students feel hopeful about their future are far better factors to consider when evaluating schools than using standardized test scores, according to the results of the 47th annual PDK/Gallup Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools.Read the rest of the story at PDK/Gallup Poll.