As Alex has already provided today’s education commentary fix, I will switch it up and provide a quick overview of things that have hit my reading radar today. Noteworthy reads can be found by following this jump:

Local flavor:

• If you haven’t seen it yet, on Tuesday Mayor-elect Mitch Landrieu introduced the members of a 21-person education task force, to be led by Sophie B. Wright Charter School Principal Sharon Clark and Andre Perry, an associate dean at UNO and president of a charter school network here in the city. Martha Carr at the Times-Pic names the other members in her article which can be found here.

• To continue the conversation about charter schools (kudos to all the speakers at yesterday’s education forum at Tulane), the Times-Pic published an article Tuesday about the efforts New Orleans charter schools are making to keep up teachers’ energy and results. Just some more food for thought.

National interests:

• Yesterday, Sam Dillon discussed in The New York Times the new uniform set of academic standards proposed by a panel of educators convened by the nation’s governors and state school superintendents. The article discusses how these new proposals could transform the American education system, replacing the vastly dissimilar standards that have been enacted by educators in different states.

• Also in the New York Times yesterday, an article about the current textbook debates in Texas. Just as that panel of educators mentioned above was introducing ideas for uniform standards, the Texas school board was holding hearings on changing their social studies curriculum to reflect more political philosophies of the Republican party and more values of conservatives. The debate includes changing textbooks to include such ideas as well. A perfect complement to the Dillon article.

• The U.S. Department of Education sent out a press release yesterday announcing a civil rights review of English learner students in Los Angeles. The department will be assessing the academic opportunities and access of English language learners in the Los Angeles Unified School District to determine if they are being denied equal educational experiences. Interesting as it follows on the heels of Arne Duncan’s Selma speech calling for more enforcement of civil rights laws on behalf of students.

That should tide everyone over until tomorrow. Feel free to share your comments on any of the articles mentioned above and suggest some additional reads you come across. Have a great Thursday!

-Sara