DC council member Evans pushes for librarians, art and music teachers
Washington Post (blog)
Jack Evans (Mark Gail – The Washington Post) That news comes after dozens of DCPS schools cut librarians from their staff this year, a belt-tightening move that sparked protest from scads of community activists and adorable children. Evans explained.

Chicago teachers anxious as union meets on contract offer
Chicago teachers were anxious this morning as they walked the picket line for the seventh day, worried whether union officials will decide today to call off the strike that has kept 350,000 students out of the classroom.

The Chicago Teachers Union’s House of Delegates is to meet at 3 p.m. to go over a tentative contract reached during marathon negotiations last week. It could decide to end the strike while a ratification vote is taken among teachers in the next few weeks.

Graduation rate racial divide narrows a bit

More than half the young black men who graduated high school in 2010 earned their diploma in four years, an improved graduation rate that still lagged behind that of their white counterparts, according to an education group’s report released Wednesday.

DC schools set new achievement targets for students by race and income
Washington Post
Every public school in the United States has aimed for the same goal over the past decade: that all students be proficient in math and reading by 2014. But that noble ambition, educators and experts almost universally agree, was never realistic.