Weekend Reads: A better way to measure college-readiness

  • What if college readiness is being measured in a way that isn’t accurate? Here’s how we can better help underprepared students, and steer nontraditional students toward a college degree. (FiveThirtyEight)
  • Bored students score higher on tests compared to highly-motivated students, according to a new global study. So does creating an engaged student body really matter? (The Atlantic)
  • Higher test scores occur more prominently in New York City schools where students, teachers and parents feel safe and respected, according to education department surveys. (I Quant NY)
  • Here are seven reasons why more money is spent on education in the U.S. compared to almost every other country in the world. (Vox)
  • New York Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch’s argument that taking annual state tests should be compared to getting a medical check-up doesn’t support her case against opting out. (The Hechinger Report)
  • Common enrollment systems can help parents in cities with more school choice. (Flypaper)
  • An education researcher and parent call for charter schools to do more to take responsibility for educating students with special needs rather than forcing traditional public schools be the last resort for those students. (CRPE)
  • A Nashville-area teacher sees the isolating effects of the opportunity gap all around her. (Mind/Shift)
  • A new study reports that one-third of interviewed New Orleans principals admitted that they tried to select the best students, even though their schools professed to enroll all comers. (Times-Picayune)
  • Detroit Public Schools is $53 million behind in pension payments, costing the city the equivalent on one student’s annual state funding grant in interest each day. (Detroit News)
  • A plotline about charter schools in a gentrifying Los Angeles neighborhood says a lot about middle class white families’ attitudes toward public education. (Salon)