Latest Edu-News

Juvenile justice schools are intended to be places of rehabilitation, but we lack even basic data about how many students are enrolled there, let alone how those students are doing. Plus, as Hailly Korman, Max Marchitello, and Alexander Brand show in this new deck, the data we do have suggests those students lack access to courses they would need to graduate.

A new CREDO study finds that Denver students, especially black and Hispanic students, are making much faster gains than their peers throughout the rest of the state of Colorado.

Similarly, schools in New Orleans improved much faster than the rest of Louisiana from about 2006 through 2013, and a new study from the Education Research Alliance for New Orleans finds that essentially all of the improvements were, “due to the state regularly closing or taking over low-performing schools and opening new higher performing charters.”

Katrina Boone on the power of culture-based education for Native students.

The latest Education Next survey results are out. It’s a well-done longitudinal survey with lots of findings to unpack, on things as varied as school spending, teacher pay, different forms of school choice, etc.

Only 6 schools districts have applied for the Student-Centered Funding Pilot created under ESSA, and only one, Puerto Rico, has been approved to implement it this school year.

Finland update.

–Guest post by Chad Aldeman

Busy, Busy Bellwether

My Bellwether colleagues have been busy putting out some awesome new content recently. Some highlights:

Julie Squire, Melissa Steel King, and Justin Trinidad have a new deck on private schools and the “microschool” movement. Justin takes a deeper look at two low-cost private school models, Cristo Ray and Build UP.

Ashley LiBetti has advice for what would be the nation’s largest teacher residency program, and interviews Kathy Glazer, the President of the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation (VECF), which is bringing the apprenticeship model to early childhood.

Jennifer Schiess argues that North Carolina lawmakers missed an opportunity to increase their investment in early childhood education.

Bonnie O’Keefe and Brandon Lewis write about four ways states can improve their assessments.

And in conversations about juvenile justice facilities, Max Marchitello wishes we spent more time talking about the educational services provided to students in those facilities.

–Guest post by Chad Aldeman