Afternoon Announcements: Arne Duncan: “Integration Alone Doesn’t Guarantee A World-Class Education”

On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan called on educators and students to advance a civil rights agenda that presses for equal opportunities—and not just equal rights. “Integration alone doesn’t guarantee a world-class education,” he told the crowd in the auditorium at the School Without Walls, a magnet high school in the District of Columbia. “Civil rights means having the same opportunities as other people do. Too many left on the sidelines are black or brown or poor.” Politics K-12 

Millions of at-risk students could fall through the cracks as the Education Department gives states permission to ignore parts of No Child Left Behind, according to a study education advocates released Tuesday. Associated Press

Millions of students heading back to school are finding significant changes in the curriculum and battles over how teachers are evaluated, as the biggest revamps of U.S. public education in a decade work their way into classrooms. Most states are implementing tougher math and reading standards known as Common Core, while teacher evaluations increasingly are linked to student test scores or other measures of achievement.  The Wall Street Journal

This week the Obama Administration released the final application for the second Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) competition, which will provide approximately $280 million in state-level competitive grants to improve the quality of early learning and development programs and close educational gaps for children with high needs. The program also supports states’ efforts to design and implement an integrated system of high-quality early learning and development programs and services. Ed.gov