EduClips: De Blasio Calls NYC Ed Dept. Harassment Complaints Frivolous; Teachers to Strike in AZ, CO — 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

COLLEGE READINESS — Just two states publish full information on whether students from specific high schools go on to graduate from postsecondary education, and just 12 states gather and report data on how well those students do after they get to college.

“A clear reason is that [states are] not federally mandated to publish this data,” said Samantha Brown Olivieri, chief strategy officer for GreatSchools, a nonprofit that uses research and data to inform parents about school quality and educational opportunity. “But more and more states are seeing their role as the data steward — not just one of compliance, but one of transparency, and they’re using data to inform improvement rather than as just a form of reporting for accountability.”

In a new report that studies how well America’s high schools are preparing students for success in college, GreatSchools’ “College Success Awards” recognizes the institutions that yield the strongest results in ensuring student enrollment in college, academic readiness, and performance once matriculated. A new provision in the Every Student Succeeds Act requires states to report how many graduates from individual high schools enroll in postsecondary education, but it doesn’t mandate states to follow those students through college and see how they perform once they’re there, and whether they ultimately earn a degree. (Read at The74Million.org)

National News

TEACHER STRIKES — First, it was West Virginia. Then, Kentucky and Oklahoma. Now, Arizona and Colorado teachers prepare to walk out (Read at Washington Post)

UNION DUES — Las Vegas teachers overwhelmingly vote against high dues, ditching their state union and National Education Association (Read at LA School Report)

TEACHER STRIKES — NPR/Ipsos Poll: Most Americans Support Teachers’ Right to Strike (Read at NPR)

CAREER & TECHNICAL EDUCATION — Senators Make Bipartisan Push to Boost Career and Technical Education Teachers (Read at Politics K-12)

SCHOOL SUPPORT STAFF — ‘They are so underpaid’: School support staff scrape by on meager earnings (Read at The Washington Post)

District and State News

NEW YORK — Mayor de Blasio says education department has culture of frivolous harassment complaints (Read at Chalkbeat)

TEXAS — Houston District Backs Off Plan for Takeover of 10 Schools (Read at U.S. News and World Report)

FLORIDA — Judge upholds education law challenged by Collier, Lee and other school boards (Read at Naples Daily News)

CALIFORNIA — Despite progress, California’s teaching force far from reflecting diversity of students (Read at EdSource)

PENNSYLVANIA — In first public duties, new Philly school board gets an earful from community (Read at the Philadelphia Inquirer)

ILLINOIS — CPS Hopes to Repair Community Trust After Special Education Issues (Read at WTTW)

NEVADA — Nevada law could send hundreds of teachers packing (Read at the Las Vegas Review-Journal)

NEW YORK — Bronx transfer school is shuttered after late-night vote, a first for Chancellor Carranza (Read at Chalkbeat)

VIRGINIA — Opinion: Stop playing politics with education in Fairfax (Read at The Washington Post)

CALIFORNIA — East Bay school district loses bid for nearly $450,000 in attorney’s fees over public records suit (Read at the Mercury News)

NEVADA — Clark County may add sheriff’s deputies at local schools (Read at WDTN)

ILLINOIS — Illinois Education Association pushes for tax reform for school funding formula (Read at WIFR)

Think Pieces

SCHOOL CHOICE — Unjust ‘Deserts’: New Report Maps High-Poverty Areas Across America Where Parents Have No School Options (Read at The74Million.org)

FAILURE — The Value of Failing: A new research center at Columbia University is committed to figuring out how to turn failure into success (Read at The Atlantic)

SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK — Bob Dorough, ‘Schoolhouse Rock’ Composer Who Taught Generations of Kids Grammar and Civics, Dies at 94 (Read at The74Million.org)

SCHOOL INVESTMENT — Invest education dollars wisely (Read at USA Today)

CAREER EDUCATION — Opinion: States hold the keys to career education (Read at The Hechinger Report)

Quote of the Day

“Not to unduly shame the American education system, but chances are Bob Dorough has had more of an impact on grammar fluency than any other individual in the 20th century.” —A 2016 People magazine article on Dorough, the “Schoolhouse Rock” composer who died Monday. (Read at The74Million.org)

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