Idaho Education Notecard for June 23
This week’s education news:
College-ready? In the latest round of the SAT, only 32 percent of Idaho high school juniors met college-readiness benchmarks, while 38 percent of juniors met neither of the benchmarks. As state leaders hope to encourage more high school graduates to continue their education, the flat scores are troubling — but the SAT isn’t the sole predictor of future success. “I’m always concerned about a single measure,” State Board of Education President Linda Clark said.
You can find more information here.
The charter school debate … Some charter schools are among Idaho’s top-performing schools; others are among the state’s lowest-performing schools. That has fueled a sharp debate over the merits of charter schools — at least in some circles. According to a statewide survey conducted earlier this year, only 34 percent of respondents said they knew “a great deal” or “quite a bit” about Idaho’s charter schools.
You can find more information here.
… and charter school demographics. Helena Arreguin lives across the street from Blackfoot’s Idaho Science and Technology Charter School, but says she never knew her children could enroll there for free. “I just always had the impression it was for smarter kids.” For years, Idaho charter schools have been far less diverse than traditional public schools.
You can find more information here.
ESSA fallout. As state superintendent Sherri Ybarra’s team continues to draft its plan to comply with the new federal Every Student Succeeds Act, a State Board member will convene a meeting with education leaders who feel cut out of the process. “The word transparent seems so overused and cliche, but I can’t think of a better word for it than that,” Debbie Critchfield said this week. https://www.idahoednews.org/news/state-board-reaches-disgruntled-education-groups/ Meanwhile, the Senate and House education committees will hold a rare summer meeting next week to get a crash course in the ESSA plan.
You can find more information here.
The long, tough rewrite. If other states are any indication, it could take Idaho three to five years to rewrite its school funding formula. And as lawmakers got back on task Tuesday, it’s pretty clear that they are in no rush to come up with a new way to carve up $1.7 billion. The pace is slow, but for schools and students, the stakes are extremely high.
You can find more information here.
Kevin Richert is a reporter and blogger with Idaho Education News (idahoednews.org.) Idaho Education News is an independent news site focused on education policy and politics, funded by the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Family Foundation. Richert has worked in the Idaho news media since 1985, as a reporter, editor and columnist.
