Jeb Bush wrote a strong defense of the Common Core in the National Review, in which he stoutly advocates high standards, calls out Michelle Malkin and Glenn Beck, and argues that Obama’s support has “complicated the understanding of who initiated and led the development of these higher standards.”
Speaking of the Malkin-Beck front, rumors and misconceptions abound on the Common Core. But Fordham’s vice president for research, Amber Winkler calls the misinformation (in this case on math) just a bunch of hooey on Fox News. Reading the Common Core State Standards is a good place to start to see what they actually entail.
The new emergency manager of the Detroit Public Schools is hitting the ground running: Twenty-one Motor City schools will now remain open twelve hours a day, seven days a week. They will provide homework help, medical services, financial-literacy and tech programs, and parenting and pre-natal classes. Emergency Manager Jack Martin says that the cost will be handled partially by the state. He said that this is “not something that was nice to do; it’s something we absolutely have to do.”
NPR profiles California’s new school-funding system (a form of weighted-student funding), which allocates additional money to districts with many special-needs students.