AM News: USDE Lets CA Waive Common Core Field Tests

California gets waiver for Common Core field tests without penalties EdSource Today: California will not face penalties or multimillion-dollar fines from the federal government for giving all students a preliminary test on the new Common Core standards, instead of on the old state standards that California has abandoned.

Tense Moments in de Blasio’s TV Interview NYT: On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Mayor Bill de Blasio faced pointed questions about his stance on New York charter schools and conceded that his public-relations efforts had to improve. See also Politicker, Daily Beast, NY Post

Teach for America tests out more training WPost: Teach for America, which places thousands of freshly minted college graduates in teaching jobs in some of the toughest schools in the country, is rethinking its training program in light of complaints from its own members that they need more preparation for the classroom.

Shaking Up the Classroom Wall Street Journal: Instead, in the “Content Level 7″ room at Washington Elementary, 10 students, ages 11 to 14, gather around teacher Nelly Lopez for help in writing essays. Eight sit at computers, plowing through a lesson on sentence structure, while a dozen advanced ...

AFT Says It Will No Longer Accept Gates Funding TeacherBeat: AFT will no longer take money from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the union says.

More news below (and throughout the day at @alexanderrusso).

Surprise guest at charter operators’ second meeting with city: de Blasio himself Chalkbeat NY: Mayor Bill de Blasio made an unexpected appearance at a meeting of charter school leaders and Department of Education officials today, presenting himself as enthusiastic about charter schools on a day when he has been attacked from both sides for his positions on co-locations.

Charter Schools Lawsuit WNYC: Letitia James, New York City Public Advocate, discusses her lawsuit against the co-location of charter schools with existing district schools.

Heard and Overheard at SXSWedu 2014 EdSurge: On Monday, Diane Ravitchdelivered her critiques (some might say invectives) against Teach For America and ...

 

Dispute erupts over school reform in Newark, NJ AP: More than three years after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg committed $100 million toward remaking Newark's struggling schools, the district is engulfed in a dispute over proposed large-scale teacher layoffs that's threatening to derail wider reform efforts....

Hopkins School of Education gets No. 1 ranking BaltSun: U.S. News and World Report ranked the Johns Hopkins University's School of Education No. 1 in the nation for graduate education programs, above two state programs better known as teaching schools: University of Maryland, College Park at No. 26 and Towson University at No. 116.

New interactive technology turns classrooms into time machines MinnPost: Accompanying curriculum for use before and after the video session includes stories of corps members drawn from the Historical Society’s vast collections. Students learn how much the young men who worked on the project were paid, how much they were expected to send home to their destitute families and how little people had to eat.