- After agonizing about whether to choose a public, private, or charter school for their son, a Philadelphia family goes with the neighborhood option. (Newsworks)
- Grant Wiggins, the esteemed educator and prolific writer whose book “Understanding by Design” brought backward planning to many classrooms, died suddenly this week. (Education Week)
- Last-minute licensing legislation in Wisconsin could open the door to classroom teachers without high school diplomas. (Teacher Beat)
- New York City schools and startups collaborated on “Big Idea Week,” where students pitched concepts such as a piggy bank alarm clock. (Entrepreneur)
- A new lawsuit that backers claim is the first of its kind alleges that the Compton, Calif., school district did not meet its obligations to address the impact of childhood trauma on student learning. (The Atlantic)
- Disciplinary bias against black students comes from black teachers as well as white ones, according to a new study. (Huffington Post)
- Clinics based in Seattle public schools are providing free, in-school placement of IUDs and other long-acting hormonal birth control. (Grist)
- And in the Netherlands, sex education begins with a weeklong course in kindergarten. (PBS Newshour)
- In France, a proposal to make middle schools more engaging by dropping Latin and Greek has prompted protests. (NPR)
- Houston has seen big academic gains even as its student population has grown poorer and more challenging to teach, but it still faces vexing problems. (Politico Magazine)
- Convincing high-quality teachers to stay at high-needs schools requires more than bonus pay; teachers need a school environment where they feel they can succeed. (The Atlantic)
- New Orleans’ “new normal” means that charter schools are taking up longstanding traditions — even football — of the schools they take over. (Real Clear Education)
- States that are scrapping the Common Core under political pressure are adopting new standards that are different in name only. (Hechinger Report)
- A California mother explains why her ambitious son is leaving high school without a diploma. (Design Mom)
Weekend Reads: When the road to school choice ends in the neighborhood
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