Afternoon Announcements July 07, 2014

New Obama initiative stress equity in access to quality teachers for all students

A new Obama administration initiative, called “Excellent Educators for All,” is slated to be announced today and aims to bring states into compliance with a teacher equity mandate in the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act.  The Huffington Post

The U.S. Education Department announced Virginia and five other states have been awarded another year of flexibility from some requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law. The Washington Post

Julius Genachowski, managing director of The Carlyle Group and former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), discusses why the FCC should approve the modernization of E-Rate in an upcoming vote this week. The Washington Post

While you’re reading that be sure to check out Read President of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia Bob Wise’s response to the FCC’s proposal to modernize the E-Rate plan

An education advocacy group on Thursday threw down the first challenge to New York’s teacher tenure laws in the wake of a landmark court decision in California last month finding such laws there unconstitutional. The New York Times

“Course Signals” has been shown to increase the number of students earning A’s and B’s and lower the number of D’s and F’s, and it significantly raises the chances that students will stick with college for an additional year, from 83% to 97% NPR

School board members in Virginia among the members of a new statewide committee tasked with charting the course of Virginia’s Standards of Learning (SOL) tests. The Washington Post

Cellphone towers on a local high school campus Prince George’s County are under debate by community members, though the towers might ensure all of the county schools are connected to wireless networks. The Washington Post

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has told state Superintendent of Education John White that his agency will be subject to more stringent contract rules as the two officials continue to spar over the state’s implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The Advocate

Philadelphia’s public-school system and its teachers union are clashing over whether the district can bypass seniority in deciding layoffs and other staff changes, a dispute that echoes a renewed national debate about teacher tenure. The Wall Street Journal

Many questions remain in the wake of the landmark decision in the Vergara versus California case. Teacher Beat  

McGraw-Hill Education has unveiled a Professional Learning Environment designed to allow teachers to take control of their own professional development. The Journal