Chalkbeat

Education news. In context.

Chalkbeat

Matt Barnum

discipline paradox

National
April 20, 2018

Do charter schools suspend students more? It depends on how you look at the data.

Charters have a higher overall suspension rate than traditional public schools. But when you break down suspensions by race, charters actually post slightly lower rates.

exclusive

National
April 19, 2018

Walton memo recommends charter advocates do more to persuade Democrats and appease unions

An internal memo offers a playbook for charter advocates after a high-profile defeat in Massachusetts.

study says...

National
April 19, 2018

One big upside of career and tech programs? They push more kids to graduate

At these CTE schools, low-income students were 21 percentage points more likely to graduate than their similar peers at typical high schools.
National
April 18, 2018

How charter advocates lost a key fight

Welcome to Chalkbeat’s national newsletter! We’re Matt Barnum and Sarah Darville, Chalkbeat’s national team. Our goal is to help you make sense of the messy,…

exclusive

National
Updated April 19, 2018

Internal memo offers candid postmortem of charter fight in Massachusetts

In 2015, charter school advocates had the wind at their backs as they set out to lift the state’s charter cap. A year later, their effort would end in humiliating defeat.

personalized persuasion

National
April 13, 2018

Don’t just talk about tech: How ‘personalized learning’ advocates are honing their messaging

Don’t call schools outdated and don’t focus on technology. That’s some of the advice advocates of “personalized learning” offer in a recent messaging document .

Fact check

National
April 13, 2018

Why the school spending graph Betsy DeVos is sharing doesn’t mean what she says it does

Simply pointing to two trends that coincide doesn't say anything about how one affects the other.

testing questions

National
April 10, 2018

Did computer testing muddle this year’s NAEP results? Testing group says no; others are unconvinced

A state education chief raised questions about the comparisons and even asked outside researchers to analyze the data before its official release.

testing takeaways

National
April 10, 2018

A decade of stagnation: Little progress on closely watched federal test, as big disparities persist

Scores on the exams known as the “nation’s report card” have barely budged over the last two years, new data show.

salary slump

National
April 3, 2018

As teachers across the country demand higher pay, here’s how much salaries have stalled — and why it matters for kids

The protesters are making the case that they’re not just fighting for themselves but for their students and state.

more school less crime

National
April 2, 2018

Four-day school weeks, a nationwide symptom of tight budgets, lead to more youth crime, study finds

A new study points to an unintended but perhaps unsurprising consequence of cutting the school week: a spike in juvenile crime.

digital drop

National
March 30, 2018

The national test of students’ progress has gone digital. A state leader is raising questions about what that means.

John White said he was concerned that this year’s switch from paper-and-pencil exams to computer-based exams might unfairly penalize some states.
National
March 28, 2018

Racism’s enduring legacy in schools

Welcome to Chalkbeat’s national newsletter! We’re Matt Barnum and Sarah Darville, Chalkbeat’s national team. Our goal is to help you make sense of the messy,…

school cloning

National
March 28, 2018

Can top charters truly ‘replicate’? In Boston, yes — elsewhere, it’s not so clear

A new study finds that Boston charters maintained their high performance as they rapidly grew — perhaps because they closely emulated their original schools’ practices.

out-of-school factors

National
March 27, 2018

Food for thought: Students’ test scores rise a few weeks after families get food stamps

The timing of a family’s food stamp benefits affects their children’s academic performance, according to a new study.

research shows

National
March 23, 2018

Race, not just poverty, shapes who graduates in America — and other education lessons from a big new study

Black students are much less likely to graduate from high school and attend college than white students with the same family income.
National
March 21, 2018

Discipline and discrimination debates in D.C.

Welcome to Chalkbeat’s national newsletter! We’re Matt Barnum and Sarah Darville, Chalkbeat’s national team. Our goal is to help you make sense of the messy,…

thrown for a loop

National
March 21, 2018

Elementary school teachers sometimes follow a class of students from year to year. New research suggests that’s a good idea.

A new study shows that students improve more on tests in their second year with the same teacher and the benefits are largest for students of color.

after douglas

National
March 20, 2018

Betsy DeVos avoids questions on discrimination as school safety debates reach Congress

DeVos is now set to consider the repeal of Obama-era discipline policies on the Trump administration’s school safety committee, which she will chair.

bias in the classroom

National
March 16, 2018

‘Disciplinarians first and teachers second’: Black male teachers say they face an extra burden

A number of black male teachers described a similar experience: colleagues assuming that they were better able to deal with behavioral issues among black boys.

new neighbors

National
March 16, 2018

An integration dilemma: School choice is pushing wealthy families to gentrify neighborhoods but avoid local schools

The ability to opt out of the neighborhood school increased the likelihood that a mostly black or Hispanic neighborhood would see an influx of wealthier residents.
National
March 14, 2018

Walking out, speaking up

Welcome to Chalkbeat’s national newsletter! We’re Matt Barnum and Sarah Darville, Chalkbeat’s national team. Our goal is to help you make sense of the messy,…

walkout

National
Updated March 14, 2018

What it looked like as students across America walked out of school to protest gun violence

The event was rare in its national scope.

intended consequences

National
March 13, 2018

When Chicago cut down on suspensions, students saw test scores and attendance rise, study finds

A modest drop in out-of-school suspensions for severe behavior actually led to small increases in test scores and attendance for all students in a school.

Show me the money

National
March 12, 2018

We read new reports on the state of school funding in America so you don’t have to. Here’s what we learned.

While poor students necessarily don’t get less money than their affluent peers, they usually don’t get extra money for addressing additional needs.

media blitz

National
March 12, 2018

Making the rounds on TV, Betsy DeVos says she hasn’t visited struggling schools and draws sharp criticism

Betsy DeVos has visited all kinds of schools since she took office last year. But one kind of school has been left out, she said Sunday: schools that are struggling.

national newsletter

National
March 7, 2018

DeVos + Puerto Rico + Texas funding = SXSW day two

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos took questions from a somewhat rowdy crowd, voucher advocacy group EdChoice has its eyes on Puerto Rico, and what we're reading today.

Puerto Rico partnership

National
March 6, 2018

Top school choice group advising Puerto Rico on controversial efforts to expand charters and vouchers

EdChoice, a group that backs school vouchers, is preparing to help Puerto Rico officials expand school choice, or what critics there have called “privatization.”
National
February 28, 2018

‘Personalized learning’ meets teacher prep

Welcome to Chalkbeat’s national newsletter! We’re Matt Barnum and Sarah Darville, Chalkbeat’s national team. Our goal is to help you make sense of…

Teaching teachers

National
February 28, 2018

‘Personalized learning’ comes to teacher training, bringing big ambitions and big questions

A well-funded new teacher preparation program, which emphasizes getting teacher to master certain skills, may influence teacher education in the years ahead.

newsroom

National
February 23, 2018

How KIPP’s observers and allies are reacting to co-founder Mike Feinberg’s firing

A day after KIPP's Mike Feinberg was fired, his colleagues are grappling with their shock over the allegations that led to his termination.

voucher verdict

National
February 23, 2018

Do vouchers help students get to college? Two new studies come to different answers

Two studies look at how students from Milwaukee and Washington, D.C. fared after using a voucher to attend private school.

research whiplash

National
February 22, 2018

Abolish middle school? Not so fast, new study says.

Rigorous studies have suggested that scrapping traditional middle schools is good for students. New research says, hold on a second.
National
February 21, 2018

After Parkland

Welcome to Chalkbeat’s national newsletter. We’re Matt Barnum and Sarah Darville, Chalkbeat’s national team. Our goal is to help you make sense of the messy,…

study up

National
February 20, 2018

Do community schools and wraparound services boost academics? Here’s what we know.

The strategy has been embraced by districts across the country.

school rules

National
February 16, 2018

Arkansas passed a law banning suspensions for truancy. Then it was largely ignored.

Three years after the law passed, nearly 1,100 students were suspended for not showing up to school.
National
February 14, 2018

The benefits of DACA — and the risks of removing it

Welcome to Chalkbeat’s national newsletter! We’re Matt Barnum and Sarah Darville, Chalkbeat’s national team. Our goal is to help you make sense of…

DACAmented results

National
February 14, 2018

Study finds DACA encourages undocumented kids to stay in school, as Congress ponders their future

Giving undocumented young people protection from deportation came with a big education bonus: It made them more likely to finish high school and enter college.

By the numbers

National
February 12, 2018

Trump’s proposed education budget: more for school choice, less for teacher training

The budget plan, released Monday, amounts to a doubling down on Betsy DeVos’s central belief. (It's also likely to be ignored.)

good news in golden state

National
February 8, 2018

How new evidence bolsters the case for California’s education policy rebellion

In recent years, California has gone its own way on education policy, and recent evidence suggests it might be working.
National
February 7, 2018

Bill Gates’ curriculum conundrum

Welcome to Chalkbeat’s national newsletter! We’re Matt Barnum and Sarah Darville, Chalkbeat’s national team. Our goal is to help you make sense of the messy,…

curriculum conundrum

National
February 6, 2018

With new focus on curriculum, Gates Foundation wades into tricky territory

The Gates Foundation has a new plan intended to help public schools: improve the materials that teachers use to teach. But that may run into some challenges.

hiring help

National
February 6, 2018

School districts struggle when hiring new teachers. A new study suggests L.A. has found a better way

Every spring and summer, America’s school districts face a critical challenge: hiring new teachers. New research suggests that Los Angeles has found a better way.
National
January 31, 2018

The selling of ‘personalized learning’

Welcome to Chalkbeat’s national newsletter! We’re Matt Barnum and Sarah Darville, Chalkbeat’s national team. Our goal is to help you make…

Unintended consequences

National
January 30, 2018

Did new evaluations and weaker tenure make fewer people want to become teachers? A new study says yes

After states put in place new evaluation and tenure rules, fewer people were interested in the job, a new study suggests.

Behind the numbers

National
January 29, 2018

Why ‘personalized learning’ advocates like Mark Zuckerberg keep citing a 1984 study — and why it might not say much about schools today

A close look at the 1984 study often cited by personalized learning supporters raises questions about its relevance to modern education debates.
National
January 24, 2018

Chalkbeat’s national newsletter: The new testing debates look a lot like the old testing debates

Our goal is to help you make sense of the messy, fascinating, often controversial efforts to improve education for poor students across the country.
National
January 24, 2018

The new testing debates look a lot like the old testing debates

Welcome to Chalkbeat’s national newsletter! We’re Matt Barnum and Sarah Darville, Chalkbeat’s national team. Our goal is to help you make sense of the messy,…

pisa power

National
January 23, 2018

A surprising link: when kids work harder on tests, their countries’ economies grow more

New research finds that a country’s scores on one of those tests, known as PISA, do tend to mirror its economic growth.

failing grade

National
January 19, 2018

Why one Harvard professor calls American schools’ focus on testing a ‘charade’

Harvard professor Daniel Koretz is on a mission: to convince policymakers that standardized tests have been widely misused.