EDUCATION
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Teachers, scroll down for a round-up of the 2016 presidential candidates’ words and deeds on education.
Discussion Ideas
Watch the nice overview video. How is your school or district responding to these education issues?
- The new Every Student Succeeds Act returns most government oversight of schools back to states.
- How has your school or district performed on the previous education act, No Child Left Behind?
- How much do you think your school or district rely on standardized testing to evaluate student, teacher, and administrative performance?
- At the races: How did the 2016 presidential candidates currently serving in Congress vote on Every Student Succeeds?
- The controversy over the much-maligned Common Core State Standards will diminish.
- How much does your school or district rely on Common Core?
- See how Nat Geo Education has responded to the Common Core with our K-12 resources.
- At the races: Which 2016 presidential candidates support Common Core?
- The charter school movement will celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2016. You can expect these publicly funded, privately run schools to face new scrutiny, and new criticism.
- Is your school public, charter, or private?
- Are there charter schools in your school district? What is their focus?
- At the races: What do the 2016 presidential candidates have to say about charter schools, vouchers, or school choice? Where have their children attended school?
- There will be an even stronger backlash against the push for greater access to college for undocumented students.
- Does your school or district include students brought to the United States illegally as young children?
- At the races: What is the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act? What 2016 presidential candidates support it?
- Watch for the U.S. Supreme Court to ban race in college admissions.
- How much weight does your local (or state) college or university assign to an applicant’s race? gender? class?
- At the races: What is affirmative action, and which 2016 presidential candidates support it?
- Student debt will take center stage.
- What kinds of debt will students from your school have to take to attend college?
- Has prospective debt limited your students’ choice of colleges or universities?
- At the races: How have the 2016 presidential candidates responded to the student debt crisis?
TEACHERS’ TOOLKIT
Congress.gov: Every Student Succeeds Act
Ballotpedia: 2016 presidential candidates on education
PBS: What the Candidates Believe
On the Issues: Education