Weekend Reads: Is selective admissions the “special sauce” for school improvement?

  • The principal of a school that North Carolina says showed no growth last year shares her side of the story. (EducationNC)
  • How guru teacher Doug Lemov is helping to build a better U.S. Soccer program. (The Atlantic)
  • The Gates Foundation’s new K-12 director is Bob Hughes, who has created, supported, and lobbied for schools in New York City. (Impatient Optimists)
  • Hughes was seen as a possible contender for New York City schools chief in 2013. (Chalkbeat)
  • What the Common Core looks like where the standards aren’t going anywhere: Department of Defense schools. (Hechinger Report)
  • A guide for educators who want to examine the unwritten rules that can make schools less equitable. (Practical Theory)
  • A Brooklyn school’s strategy to attract more middle-class students includes screening students by ability. (Chalkbeat)
  • A teacher’s take: Selective admission is the “secret sauce” that lets schools succeed. (NYC Educator)
  • And a new analysis suggests that gentrification fully drove test score gains in Washington, D.C. (Jay Greene)
  • D.C.’s much emulated teacher evaluation system is getting an overhaul — and resurrecting “value-added” scores. (Teacher Beat)
  • Leading presidential candidates mostly went to public school and sent their kids to private schools. (Politics K-12)
  • Ginger, Tilly, Dandelion, and Tiddlywink could be getting kicked out of pre-K in Colorado. Here’s why. (Chalkbeat)
  • With fewer members facing greater threats, Los Angeles’s teachers union is trying to raise dues. (L.A. Times)
  • KIPP wants you to know that it is educating Aaden Bereal, the 6-year-old costar of Beyonce’s “Formation” video. (KIPP LA Facebook)