« Education News for Wednesday, April 25 | Main | Anonymously Rating Teacher Performance (Paul Marks) »

April 25, 2007

Morning Shots

Washington Post:  A boom for DC charter schools

Demand for the District's publicly funded, independently operated charter schools is at a high -- enrollment has risen an average of 13 percent annually since 2001. If the trend continues, more students will attend charter schools than traditional public schools by 2014, according to a study last year by Fight for Children, a nonprofit advocacy organization.

In a rapidly shifting educational landscape, at least a dozen charter schools that opened a few years ago in church basements or vacant shops are pursuing state-of-the-art campuses, a sign that the city's once-fledgling charter movement is maturing. The schools are popular even though the vast majority of them failed to meet federal academic targets last year.

"Charter schools were considered something you laughed at -- no one presumed they would have any impact at all," said Hense, whose school in Woodridge, in Northeast, with pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, was among the few D.C. charter campuses to meet academic targets last year. "Now we are a force to be reckoned with."

Congress passed legislation in 1996 allowing charter schools in the District, and the nation's capital has been fertile ground for the movement. The city's 55 charter schools are operating on 71 campuses, and the District has the highest concentration of charter students in the nation behind New Orleans, according to the Center for Education Reform.

New York Times:  Billionaires start $60 million schools effort

After Bill Gates' "Stand Up" campaign seemed to disappear, Gates has reappeared with Eli Broad to bring education to the fore in the 2008 election. 

Eli Broad and Bill Gates, two of the most important philanthropists in American public education, have pumped more than $2 billion into improving schools. But now, dissatisfied with the pace of change, they are joining forces for a $60 million foray into politics in an effort to vault education high onto the agenda of the 2008 presidential race.

Under the slogan “Ed in ’08,” the project, called Strong American Schools, will include television and radio advertising in battleground states, an Internet-driven appeal for volunteers and a national network of operatives in both parties.

“I have reached the conclusion as has the Gates foundation, which has done good things also, that all we’re doing is incremental,” said Mr. Broad, the billionaire who founded SunAmerica Inc. and KB Home and who has long been a prodigious donor to Democrats.

The project will not endorse candidates — indeed, it is illegal to do so as a charitable group — but will instead focus on three main areas: a call for stronger, more consistent curriculum standards nationwide; lengthening the school day and year; and improving teacher quality through merit pay and other measures.

New York Sun:  Bush praises charter, calls for more

During a visit to a charter school in Harlem yesterday, President Bush called on school districts to reorganize their failing schools into charter schools and said he would expand a federal merit pay program for teachers to $200 million.

Mr. Bush said he chose the charter school, the Harlem Village Academy, as the backdrop for his speech because of its reputation for rapidly raising the test scores of low-performing students.

He praised the school's ability to bend rules with its nine-hour school day and Saturday classes, a jab at teachers unions that have traditionally opposed longer hours for schools.

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.edspresso.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-t.cgi/1418