EduClips: 3 out of 4 IL Kids Aren’t Ready for Kindergarten, State Data Show; TX Must Come Up With $3.2 Billion for Special Ed — and More Must-Reads From America’s 15 Biggest School Districts

EduClips is a roundup of the day’s top education headlines from America’s largest school districts, where more than 4 million students across eight states attend class every day. Read previous EduClips installments here. Get the day’s top school and policy news delivered straight to your inbox by signing up for the TopSheet Education Newsletter.

Top Story

LITERACY — When Jamarria Hall strode into Osborn High in Detroit his freshman year, the signs of decay were everywhere: buckets in the hallways to catch leaking water, rotting ceiling tiles, vermin that crisscrossed classrooms.

In the neglected school, students never got textbooks to take home, and Hall and his classmates went long stretches — sometimes months — with substitute teachers who did little more than supervise students.

Hall was part of a class of Detroit Public Schools students who sued state officials in federal court, arguing that the state had violated their constitutional right to learn to read by providing inadequate resources. (Read at The Washington Post)

National News

SCHOOL SAFETY — To Address School Shootings, U.S. Wants Students to Learn Bleeding-Control Techniques (Read at The New York Times)

#EDlection2018 — Troubled Student, Teen Mom, Teacher of the Year: Is Connecticut Congressional Candidate Jahana Hayes the New Face of the Democratic Party? (Read at The74Million.org)

EDUCATION ‘DESERTS’ — America’s Education ‘Deserts’ Show Limits of Relaxing Regulations on Colleges (Read at The New York Times)

District and State News

ILLINOIS — Three out of four Illinois kids aren’t ready for kindergarten. Why that’s a problem. (Read at Chalkbeat)

TEXAS — After Audit Finds TEA Shortchanged Kids, Texas Must Come Up With $3.2 Billion for Special Education (Read at the Texas Standard)

PUERTO RICO — Kids are back in school in Puerto Rico. But Hurricane Maria’s effects still linger (Read at the Miami Herald)

NEW YORK — Fair and objective or useless and biased? A Chalkbeat guide to the case for and against New York City’s specialized high school test (Read at Chalkbeat)

CALIFORNIA — New school year, new leaders; familiar and serious challenges for L.A. Unified (Read at the Los Angeles Times)

TEXAS — Texas Schools to Receive Letter Grades on Performance (Read at CBS Dallas)

CALIFORNIA — Gary Hart, author of California’s charter school law, reflects on its impact (Read at EdSource)

NEVADA — EDITORIAL: Clark County School District begins calendar year with new leader (Read at the Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Think Pieces

NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND — Pressuring schools to raise test scores got diminishing returns, new study of No Child Left Behind finds (Read at Chalkbeat)

CHARTERS — Charter schools want to share how they are helping more low-income students finish college (Read at USA Today)

STUDENT JOURNALISM — Student Journalism in the Age of Media Distrust (Read in The Atlantic)

CIVICS — How to Make a Civics Education Stick (Read at NPR)

DUNCAN — ‘How Schools Work’ Review: The Worm in the Apple (Read at The Wall Street Journal)

Quote of the Day

“The conditions and outcomes of Plaintiffs’ schools, as alleged, are nothing short of devastating. When a child who could be taught to read goes untaught, the child suffers a lasting injury — and so does society. But the Court is faced with a discrete question: does the Due Process Clause demand that a State affirmatively provide each child with a defined, minimum level of education by which the child can attain literacy? The answer to the question is no.” —U.S. District Judge Stephen J. Murphy III, ruling in a case brought by Detroit students who argued that the state violated their constitutional right to read by providing inadequate resources. (Read at The Washington Post)

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