Afternoon Announcements: Obama’s Education Budget Focuses on High Schools, Teacher Quality, and Ed. Tech

President Barack Obama on Monday proposed a $3.99 trillion budget for fiscal year 2016 that may set up a battle with Republicans. Obama is planning to ask lawmakers for a sizable increase in spending for the U.S. Department of Education that includes big hikes for teacher quality, preschool development grants, civil rights enforcement, education technology, plus a new competitive-grant program aimed at helping districts make better use of their federal and local K-12 dollars.

Obama’s budget request will include $1 billion for American Indian schools next year, including millions of dollars to renovate crumbling buildings and connect remote classrooms via broadband Internet. The Washington Post

The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium has finally released the “interim assessments” schools can use to gauge how well their students are doing in math and English language arts instruction aligned with the Common Core standards. EdSource

Urban Teacher Center, Teach For America and seven additional alternative-certification programs planned to say on Monday that proposed rules by the U.S. Education Department, intended to weed out poor teacher-training programs, are essential to improving schools. The Wall Street Journal

GED graduates could earn a traditional high school diploma under a proposal the Office of the State Superintendent of Education is developing. Advocates say that offering the students a diploma, as Maryland and 12 other states do, would wipe clean a stigma that makes it harder for GED graduates to get a job or pursue higher education. The Washington Post

The Colorado State Board of Education Friday voted 5-2 to a Republican-sponsored measure that would pull Colorado out of the Common Core State Standards and the PARCC testing group, reduce state assessments, and give districts more testing flexibility. Chalkbeat CO

One 17-year veteran of New York City public schools brings his love of fiction into his computer science classroom, and his efforts could be a model for other educators feeling conflicted about the new nonfiction-heavy Common Core standards. The Hechinger Report

Jean Chatzky, the financial editor of NBC’s “Today” show, has made a career sharing personal finance tips with adults. Now, she is trying to reach a much younger audience, introducing a magazine intended to teach financial literacy to fourth, fifth and sixth graders. The New York Times

Rhode Island Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist’s departure would force Rhode Island to search for new leadership just as it has begun an ambitious plan to become the first state in the country to implement technology-assisted lessons in every public school. The Hechinger Report

Twitter and Google+ may not have been designed for educators, but every day thousands of teachers, school leaders, and learners of all sizes take to social media to connect, grow, and share in ways that would seem almost impossible a few short years ago. With all the noise, though, it can be tough to know where to begin. eSchoolNews

The average high school teacher plays an ambiguous role the lives of their students. He or she is the resource they need to further their education, that’s why getting to know high school teachers will benefit students beyond the college admissions process. US News & World Report

Students are more engaged in their learning and tend to show more achievement in certain areas when they have access to technology during school and at home, according to a study from wireless service provider Kajeet and Project Tomorrow, a national education nonprofit. eSchoolNews