A study released Wednesday by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute has found that if high-spending public school districts reduced their special education staffing levels to align with the national median, the country could save $10 billion annually, the Huffington Post reports. The study, authored by Managing Director at the District Management Council and former school superintendent Nathan Levenson, analyzed information — including staffing patterns and spending — from 1,411 public school districts representing 30 percent of the nation’s K-12 schoolchildren. From there, Levenson’s team reduced the sample into 10 pairs of comparable districts in five states — Florida, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Ohio and Texas. In each pair, one district spent less on special education but boasted higher achievement levels, as measured by scores on the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). On average, the higher-achieving districts within the pairs placed 25 percent more special education pupils at the proficient level, while their lower-achieving counterparts spent 22 percent more on special ed, when adjusted for total student enrollment…
…Read MorePodcast Series: Innovations in Education
Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.
Analysis: ‘Common Core’ standards clearer, more rigorous
An analysis by an education policy think tank finds that the common academic standards many states will be adopting are clearer and more rigorous than those currently used in most states, reports the Associated Press. The Thomas B. Fordham Institute analyzed the standards in all 50 states and the District of Columbia and found that the Common Core State Standards are more rigorous than those in three-quarters of all states. Only three states had higher standards in English, while none were better than the Common Core standards in math. The Common Core standards have been adopted by 25 states, and about 40 are expected to sign up by September. The state-led initiative aims to establish a uniform set of expectations on what students should know by the time they graduate high school…
…Read More