Afternoon Announcements: School Districts Edge Out Zero-Tolerance Discipline Policies

The President spent nearly 15 minutes talking about education and equality of opportunity in his State of the Union. He dedicated that much time to only one other topic: foreign policy. The Quick & The Ed

Some of Massachusetts top-performing schools are implementing the Common Core State Standards. “Fifty students a semester go into the [CCSS] program, and it’s almost like they’re going abroad for the semester,” one school principal described. The Hechinger Report

Chicago Public Schools officials have said that they are seeing success in their efforts to move away from “zero-tolerance” school discipline policies. The schools are embracing restorative measures of school discipline versus suspensions and expulsions. Chicago Tribune

Broward County Public Schools in Florida has turned its discipline policies upside down. “Looking at the glaring expulsion, arrest and dropout rates for our black and Latino students, I knew that we had to do something dramatically different,” Superintendent Robert Runcie said. Education Nation