The quiet overturn of No Child Left Behind
Washington Post: Opinion
by Michael Gerson
...Why is NCLB so unpopular? Because it exposes the failure of adults in the lives of children. And the bipartisan response of many governors, educators and legislators — alarmingly, predictably — is to excuse the adults.

> http://wapo.st/O111Cj

Connecticut Students Gain
Wall Street Journal 7/19/12
by Joseph de Avila
Connecticut’s elementary and middle school students are showing modest gains in statewide standardized test scores in several categories, but those from low-income backgrounds are lagging far behind, according to data released Thursday by the state Department of Education.

> http://on.wsj.com/Pd9lfE

Baltimore Super Half Right About Chronic Absenteeism
This Week in Education 7/19/12
by Alexander Russo
The Baltimore Sun story Absent, Suspended City Students Falling Further Behind on MSAs reports that Baltimore has reduced its chronic absenteeism rate but the achievement gap between students who miss more that twenty school days and those who attend regularly has grown. In math, the gap for chronically absent students grew from 18% in 2011 to 22%. The achievement gap between students who have never been suspended and those who have been suspended more than twice grew to 33%.

> http://bit.ly/OcUQZZ

Philadelphia School Partnership gives out $3.8 million in grants to four schools
The Notebook 7/19/12
by Dale Mezzacappa
The Philadelphia School Partnership, a two-year-old organization that is raising $100 million to support high quality public and private schools in Philadelphia, Thursday announced the awarding of four grants totalling $3.8 million.

> http://bit.ly/NKLnwb

After-school programs in L.A. to get $1.7 million in grants (CA)
Los Angeles Times 7/19/12
by Teresa Watanabe
Several Los Angeles schools, hit hard by budget cuts in recent years, are set to receive $1.7 million from two foundations in a major national initiative to expand learning time for disadvantaged students.

> http://lat.ms/Phxv8P

State Board tells districts Transitional Kindergarten is a must (CA)
EdSource 7/20/12
by Kathryn Baron
Probably the strongest indication of how the State Board of Education would vote on waiver requests from nine school districts seeking to delay the start of Transitional Kindergarten came from the districts themselves; not a single representative showed up to even try to argue their case.

> http://bit.ly/NFX7MT

Districts Bring Tech. Programmers In-House (Boston)
Education Week 7/20/12
by Jason Tomassini
About a year ago, the city of Boston was searching for a way to roll out a new school selection process. Traditionally, parents were sent a 28-page brochure outlining the criteria for choosing their children’s schools, or they could access a clunky website.

> http://bit.ly/Pq0ACo

Education Reform Now puts up new radio ad, urging CTU and CPS to reach new contract that ensures longer school day (Chicago)
Chicago Tribune 7/19/12
by Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah
An education reform group that earlier this year placed radio ads urging teachers not to take a strike vote put out a new ad on Thursday, asking Chicago Public Schools and Chicago Teachers Union to make sure the longer school day remains intact in a finalized teachers contract.

> http://trib.in/MwBiji

Lessons in diversity for aspiring teachers
Philadelphia Inquirer 7/20/12
by Annette John-Hall
Here's a foolproof recipe for understanding: Take two African American big-city education majors from Temple, combine them with two white small-town education majors from Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, toss them all together in a dorm, blend their disparate teaching experiences, and bake for about, oh, four weeks.

> http://bit.ly/MOe8CI

Meryl Streep Makes Second Major Donation to Central Falls School
GOLOCALProv 7/20/12
Meryl Streep may well be the new patron saint of a charter school in Central Falls. The 3-time Oscar-winning actor has just announced her second major gift to the city’s Segue Institute for Learning — 5,000 new books.

> http://bit.ly/NCZ67n

More news
Additional sources for your education news and opinion.

> Education Week
> EduWonk
> Gotham Schools
> Huffington Post
> John Merrow blog
> New York Times
> This Week in Education
> Washington Post