June 29, 2007
Morning Shots
Washington Post: Divided court limits use of race by school districts
A divided Supreme Court yesterday restricted the ability of public school districts to use race to determine which schools students can attend, a decision that could sharply limit integration programs across the nation.
The nine justices split decisively along ideological grounds, with a five-justice majority ruling that school admission programs in Seattle and Louisville violated the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection to individuals. Educators said the decision may lead many districts to drop efforts at racially balancing schools.
"The lesson of history is not that efforts to continue racial segregation are constitutionally indistinguishable from efforts to achieve racial integration," Breyer wrote. "Indeed, it is a cruel distortion of history to compare Topeka, Kansas, in the 1950s to Louisville and Seattle in the modern day."
Kennedy said that race could perhaps be considered in the tools that school districts use to bring "together students of diverse backgrounds and races." He mentioned magnet schools, "strategic site selection" of new schools, redrawing attendance zones and other measures.
The long-awaited ruling has newspapers across the country analyzing the decision and what it means for schools across the country. Charles Lane offers an analysis in the Washington Post, while the editorial boards of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post all weighed in on the decision. The New York Times also offers a glimpse into the integration programs across the country that could be affected and how two programs have been successful.
Miami Herald: Schools to find out their letter grades
It's that day again. When school leaders and administration get to feel what it's like to be a student coming home with the final report card of the year. To see how Florida schools fared this year, check out the Florida Department of Education's school report card.
After weeks of uncertainty, letter grades for Florida schools will finally be released Friday. Though the annual rating of public schools is typically released in mid-June, the process was delayed because of errors in scoring the third-grade reading portion of the 2006 Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.
Statewide last year, a record 1,466 schools earned an A. In Broward, 157 schools had an A; 179 schools had an A in Miami-Dade.
There have been concerns this year that the number of A schools could decrease -- and that the number of F schools could increase -- because the science portion of the FCAT will count toward school grades for the first time.
Los Angeles Times: 2 charter schools get one-year reprieve
Posted by Edspresso at 08:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)Two popular charter schools that faced immediate closure because of low test scores won a one-year reprieve Thursday from the Los Angeles Board of Education. Discovery Preparatory high school in Pacoima and Pacifica Community Charter, a kindergarten through eighth grade school in West Los Angeles, will use the time to make the case to local and state officials that their schools are getting better and are worthy of keeping open.
But the news wasn't all bad. The school board, at the recommendation of staff, simultaneously approved a new one-year charter for each school. Officials acknowledged that to close the schools now would deny their operators due process to appeal first to the county Board of Education and then, if necessary, to the state Board of Education.
Unmoved, board member Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte, a frequent skeptic of charter schools, voted to shutter both. "I know the time is late," she said, "but we have many, many other charter schools that have adhered to this timeline."
Los Angeles Unified oversees 103 charter schools, the most in the nation. The charter office has dealt with 18 renewal petitions this year; 15 have been or likely will be granted.
Education News for Friday, June 29
Court rejects race as factor in school programs - A bitterly divided Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that race cannot be used to decide where students go to school, one of the most important civil rights rulings in years that could affect millions of students nationwide.
2 charter schools get one-year reprieve - Two popular charter schools that faced immediate closure because of low test scores won a one-year reprieve Thursday from the Los Angeles Board of Education. Discovery Preparatory high school in Pacoima and Pacifica Community Charter, a kindergarten through eighth grade school in West Los Angeles, will use the time to make the case to local and state officials that their schools are getting better and are worthy of keeping open.
Backlash on Voucher Funding Portends Battle Ahead - A Republican congressman from Virginia has backed off a bid to increase funding for the school voucher program in the District of Columbia. Aides to Rep. Tom Davis who represents northern Virginia, had initially proposed diverting about $333,000 in a financial services appropriations bill to the D.C. school choice program, but the congressman dropped the short-lived plan amid a storm of opposition from critics of federally funded vouchers for private schools.
Port dumps charter school - The Lorain Port Authority will not finance a controversial project -- the expansion of a charter school in Lorain -- the port director announced yesterday. Executive Director Rick Novak said the recent teacher and staff cuts in the Lorain City Schools influenced the port's decision. Earlier this month, the schools laid-off almost 250 teachers and 26 administrative and support staff members.
Charter school recycles old campus into new home - After six years spent operating out of a local church and a nearby storefront, Lawndale's Environmental Charter High School will start the fall school season in a home of its own.
Arts school audit shows worsening financial situation - The financial problems faced by the Performing Arts School of Metropolitan Toledo got worse from year to year, according to an independent audit released yesterday. The charter school, at 2740 West Central Ave. and likely to stay closed this fall, had accumulated a deficit of more than $356,000 by June, 2005, the audit said.
Across U.S., a New Look at School Integration Efforts - The Supreme Court ruling striking down voluntary programs to integrate schools in Seattle and Louisville, Ky., left hundreds of school districts struggling yesterday to assess whether they must change policies that use race as a factor in school assignments.
How the Programs Linked to Race Worked in 2 Cities - The Louisville schools, once segregated by law, operated under a federal court’s desegregation order from 1975 until 2000, when the court found that the district had eliminated the vestiges of official segregation “to the greatest extent possible.” The next year, to keep the schools from resegregating, Jefferson County adopted the plan the Supreme Court struck down yesterday.
County mulls charter school - Albemarle County School Board members voiced support for an arts-infused charter middle school Thursday night that would be housed within Burley Middle starting in the fall of 2008.
Vote on vouchers coming - County election clerks will run the Nov. 6 special election on whether to approve school vouchers, and cities and counties will help pick up the tab under directives issued Thursday by Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert. Herbert said it doesn't happen often where there are normally scheduled municipal elections at the same time as a special statewide election, and it complicates the process, but hopes a series of 13 directives from his office will settle any confusion.
Schools to find out their letter grades - After weeks of uncertainty, letter grades for Florida schools will finally be released Friday. Though the annual rating of public schools is typically released in mid-June, the process was delayed because of errors in scoring the third-grade reading portion of the 2006 Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.
Clarke seeks grant to start charter school - A group of business leaders and civic organizations working with Athens Technical College and the Clarke school district want to land a "career academy" here - a special charter school designed to offer advanced career and vocational training for high school students. The state has set aside $15 million to start five such academies, and the Clarke school district voted 7-0 Thursday to place Clarke County in line for a grant.
Park Slope catches charter school fever - A group of Park Slope parents that is concerned about the dearth of good middle schools in the neighborhood is starting a charter school that will draw fifth graders from the Slope, Sunset Park and Gowanus.
'No Child' fails the test of reality - Editorial: Not to worry, you're in good company. The popular Fox TV show routinely stumps the average Joe and the educated elite with questions gleaned from elementary school texts that are, well . . . a little embarrassing to admit you can't answer.
Posted by Edspresso at 05:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)June 28, 2007
Morning Shots
New York Times: Patrons' sway leads to friction in charter school
The Beginning With Children Charter School, housed in a former factory in Brooklyn, landed on the state’s list of high-performing schools this year, thanks to rising English and math test scores among black and Hispanic students.
But its founders and wealthy patrons, Joseph H. and Carol F. Reich, who have poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into the school, think it could be better. “It’s above average,” said Mr. Reich, 72, “but considering the effort and the capability and the resources, we don’t feel we’re getting the best we can.”
So last month, the couple — threatening to cut ties, including financial support — forced most of the school’s trustees to resign in a push for wide management changes, and better student achievement.
In an interview, Mr. and Mrs. Reich said they were committed to their original promise of providing children with an education that would lead to success in college and in life. “We promised to build them a model education program that would lay the groundwork for their future,” said Mr. Reich, a retired investment banker. “This didn’t come from nowhere. We were really worried that the school wasn’t delivering.”
Baltimore Sun: KIPP school to stay open
The saga of KIPP Harborside Academy continues as the school's board voted last night to keep the school open. This story continues to exemplify the difficulties that come with starting and operating a charter school in a state with one of the country's weakest charter laws. If a well-established and successful charter school organization like KIPP is having this much difficulty, what chance does a community group, educator, or concerned parent have of starting a small charter school?
A week after announcing that an Edgewater charter school would be shuttered, its divided leadership last night formally voted for the school to remain open in a stunning turnaround. But the 3-2 vote by the board of KIPP Harbor Academy left more questions than answers: Where the school would operate? Who would be its principal? And who would staff it since 10 of the 12 teachers have found new jobs?
"We have two teachers and one staff person. ... We're in a very difficult position," said Steve Mancini, a spokesman for the acclaimed Knowledge is Power Program, or KIPP.
The proposal still on the table calls for placing burgeoning enrollment near the school's current home at Sojourner Douglass College in three portable classrooms, without a gym, cafeteria or bathrooms. School officials earlier yesterday rejected the plan offered by Anne Arundel County school and government leaders as untenable, with Mancini calling it a "cynical ploy" to garner publicity.
"If this was over a bunch of white middle-class children, I guarantee you we wouldn't be facing this," said Kate Finley, a former teacher who has accepted a new job with a KIPP school in Washington. "My leaving had nothing to do with the parents, teachers or kids at Harbor Academy. I couldn't stay and work for a district that would treat its own staff and teachers this way."
Los Angeles Times: Green Dot plans a school in New York
Posted by Edspresso at 08:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)Green Dot Public Schools, the upstart charter operation that has aggravated Los Angeles school administrators and union officials alike with its early successes and expansionist plans, has entered into what it hopes will be a less strident relationship in New York City.
Green Dot founder Steve Barr and Randi Weingarten, president of the powerful New York City teachers union, have reached an unusual agreement to open a jointly run charter high school. The two are scheduled to announce the collaboration in a news conference at the union's Manhattan offices today.
"If you really actually believe in kids and believe in their success, those of us in education, we really shouldn't be in the sandbox fighting with each other. We should be … trying to figure out how to work together," Weingarten said.
Although New York state regulations require that they wait until the charter is approved to work out details, Weingarten and Barr said they expect that the New York teachers will work under a labor agreement similar to the one Green Dot has with its teachers in Los Angeles.
Education News for Thursday, June 28
Group gives Missouri, Kansas bad grades in teacher policies - A nationwide organization says Missouri gets “dismal” marks for its statewide teacher policies. Kansas gets the same ranking from the study, and Oklahoma is marginally better, earning a ranking of “weak but progressing.”
School's future remains uncertain - The future of the Highville Mustard Seed Charter School again hangs in the balance following actions by the current board that seem to hamstring a new board from taking over...
Bush's school plan draws support - Some Ohio and Northern Kentucky educators are optimistic about President Bush's plan to strengthen the No Child Left Behind Act.
Patrons’ Sway Leads to Friction in Charter School - The Beginning With Children Charter School, housed in a former factory in Brooklyn, landed on the state’s list of high-performing schools this year, thanks to rising English and math test scores among black and Hispanic students.
Charter school defends its standards - Although her school has been placed on a watch list for not meeting state and federal standards for achievement, Monroe Alternative Charter School counselor Brenda Davis says there's more to it than just raw numbers.
High school choice plan unveiled - A new plan to determine which students are admitted to high-demand high school programs was presented to the Minneapolis School Board June 12.
KIPP school to stay open - A week after announcing that an Edgewater charter school would be shuttered, its divided leadership last night formally voted for the school to remain open in a stunning turnaround. But the 3-2 vote by the board of KIPP Harbor Academy left more questions than answers: Where the school would operate? Who would be its principal? And who would staff it since 10 of the 12 teachers have found new jobs?
Science charter schools might conflict within Albuquerque - City Councilor Don Harris and Mayor Martin Chavez want to inspire southeast Albuquerque middle school students and tap into local scientists' expertise.
Publicly funded tutoring under No Child law boosts student achievement - Taxpayer-funded tutoring for poor children is paying off in some city schools, a federal study has found. Students who received the tutoring under the federal No Child Left Behind law improved on reading and math tests, according to the study conducted by independent researchers for the Department of Education and released Wednesday.
Examples of reforms - Under the federal No Child Left Behind law, the school district can implement reforms that will help improve failing schools. The reforms are designed to close the achievement gap between white and Asian students and the black and Latino students they often outscore, officials said.
Union to Help Charter Firm Start School in the Bronx - Green Dot Public Schools, a charter school operator from Los Angeles, is seeking to expand into New York with the cooperation of the teachers’ union. Under the proposal, Green Dot, which is heavily financed by the billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad, would open a high school in the South Bronx.
Voucher program rests with Strickland - One of the biggest questions in the state budget before Gov. Ted Strickland is whether he will use a line-item veto to reject a new voucher program for students with disabilities. The voucher program would give students with learning-related disabilities up to $20,000 a year for public or private school tuition, depending on the disability.
Person High, charter schools show growth in early test scores - Preliminary state end-of-grade and end-of-course test scores at Person High, Roxboro Community and Bethel Hill Charter schools show student growth, but principals say there is still much work to be done.
Schools Hit the Mark With Higher Testing Goals - Like many elementary schools struggling to make adequate yearly progress under the federal No Child Left Behind law, North Forestville Elementary in Prince George’s County went all-out this year to increase the share of students rated proficient on the statewide Maryland School Assessment.
People are ready for real education reform - Editorial: The South Carolina Legislature killed real education reform again this year. Instead of education tax credits and scholarships, which Rep. Tracy Edge and Sen. Larry Grooms put forward this year, state lawmakers recently passed a "choice" law that allows students to enroll in different school districts without paying tuition.
Montgomery Schools Chief Says Federal Mandate Is Lowering Standards - Montgomery County School Superintendent Jerry D. Weast said yesterday that the federal No Child Left Behind law has created a culture that has education leaders nationwide "shooting way too low" and that it has spawned a generation of statewide tests that are too easy to pass.
Posted by Edspresso at 06:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)June 27, 2007
Morning Shots
Washington Post: Council mostly applauds nominee
D.C. Council members and city leaders yesterday gushed praise on Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s nominee to take over the $2.3 billion public school modernization program, but some were highly critical of the mayor for the secrecy with which he made the choice. Council members questioned Allan Y. Lew during a public roundtable on his nomination and voiced displeasure with Fenty's lack of consultation in the process for choosing Lew and other appointees.
As chief of the schools modernization, Lew would be paid $275,000 a year, a raise of $25,000 from his sports commission job. He said he plans to manage school construction with the same care he has used with past projects. Lew's duties would include creating the construction office from scratch.
Lew said he has visited several schools and has seen the damage done by years of neglect. The schools will need an aggressive maintenance program to preserve the school renovations, he said. "If we don't build in the various warranties . . . three years, two years from now, we will be revisiting the same schools," he said. "It's almost like not changing the oil in your car. The engine dies."
Philadelphia Inquirer: Charter schools booming in the suburbs
With only five days of school left, advanced-math fifth graders at Renaissance Academy-Edison Charter School considered a new concept: how to compute the surface area of a juice box.
Such rigorous curriculum and individual attention, administrators say, have boosted the Chester County school's standardized math and reading scores substantially since it opened in 2000. Last month, the Center for Education Reform recognized that improvement by naming Renaissance a national charter of the year.
Once found almost exclusively in urban centers with dismal academic options, charters such as Renaissance - located in a bucolic corner of the solid-performing Phoenixville Area School District - have become increasingly common in the suburbs.
The nation's 4,000 charters dot suburbs in increasing numbers, especially in high-growth communities in California, Florida and Pennsylvania, Allen said. Bucks and Delaware Counties have three each; Montgomery has one. (Additional cyber charters based in Chester and Montgomery Counties attract online learners who can reside anywhere in Pennsylvania.)
Los Angeles Times: Schoolyard secrets (Editorial)
First there are stories across the country about students not getting enough exercise. Parents call for more recess time and exercise. Now the Los Angeles Times exposes the health risks being covered up at schools nationwide with an anecdote about a contaminated playground at a New Jersey middle school. With districts cutting down on children's playtime and covering up health risks at schools across the country, it's no wonder children today have health issues.
Posted by Edspresso at 06:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)The arrest this month of a reporter, accused of trespassing for taking soil samples at a pesticide-contaminated Paramus, N.J., middle school, is a powerful reminder of our tolerance for official secrecy about environmental health risks at schools.
The story reflects a cynical paradigm about environmental safeguards in our schools — namely the public's right not to know. The sad truth is that the suppression of environmental health information by government officials is a national scandal. In New Jersey, state law doesn't require that the public be notified of hazardous contamination at schools or how it will be handled. In California, state watchdogs only have the funding to investigate proposed schools, not existing ones.
Take, for example, my own alma mater — Beverly Hills High School. Four years ago, I began to investigate the possible link between an elevated incidence of cancers among its graduates and the fact that the campus is the site of 19 oil wells, which have brought at least $50 million in royalties to the school district, the city and its residents for nearly 50 years.
In Beverly Hills, the oil wells at the high school are still operating; a lease agreement runs until 2016. And no one is making it easy to find out exactly what chemicals those wells may be emitting; government officials simply insist that there is no safety problem whatsoever.
Education News for Wednesday, June 27
Lorain Council drops charter school plan - The possibility of another charter school moving to Lorain was all but killed Monday by City Council. An ordinance that would rezone the Colorado Avenue Industrial Complex so that 8.6 acres of land could be sold for Constellation Community Schools to build a 100,000-square foot facility to serve kindergartners through 12th-graders was tabled in committee, effectively guaranteeing the issue won’t be considered again as proposed.
Think Tank Faults Vouchers For Disabled - Another pillar of former Gov. Jeb Bush's educational reforms - McKay Scholarships - took a jab in a study released Tuesday. Florida's largest voucher program, using taxpayer money to pay private school tuition for students with disabilities, lacks accountability and offers no proof that it helps children, the study from Education Sector says.
Council Mostly Applauds Nominee - D.C. Council members and city leaders yesterday gushed praise on Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s nominee to take over the $2.3 billion public school modernization program, but some were highly critical of the mayor for the secrecy with which he made the choice. Council members questioned Allan Y. Lew during a public roundtable on his nomination and voiced displeasure with Fenty's lack of consultation in the process for choosing Lew and other appointees.
N.H. raises dropout age to 18 - Gov. John Lynch signed a law Tuesday that raises the school dropout age from 16 to 18. More than a dozen states, including California and Texas, already require students to stay in school until age 18.
High School Sports: Legislature looks at eligibility issues - Jordan Bingham of northern Utah County is going to be a high school sophomore this fall. He wants to attend the new Karl G. Maeser Preparatory Academy in Lindon, a charter school preparing to open on Aug. 20 with about 175 students.
State has balanced budget - Last week, the sky was falling on state lawmakers and Gov. Ted Strickland after news broke that the state had a $230 million hole in the two-year state budget.
New Report Clears School of Cheating - When Philip Nobile reported in 2004 that the assistant principal of the Brooklyn high school where he taught had ordered other teachers to cheat on the scoring of Regents exams, he was embraced by a powerful city investigator as a whistle-blower.
Lt. Governor Cagle Announces Charter Advisory Committee Appointments - Lt. Governor Casey Cagle announced the appointments of Dr. Charles Knapp, Otis Brumby Jr. and Mark Whitlock to the new Charter Advisory Committee.
Charter schools' bid for cash stalls - With the loss of up to $800 million in construction money looming over them, Broward School Board members decided Tuesday to hold off on giving Pembroke Pines charter schools a share of the school district's construction money.
Charter schools booming in the suburbs - Such rigorous curriculum and individual attention, administrators say, have boosted the Chester County school's standardized math and reading scores substantially since it opened in 2000. Last month, the Center for Education Reform recognized that improvement by naming Renaissance a national charter of the year.
Blacks in Fairfax, Montgomery Outdo U.S. Peers in AP - Black students in Montgomery and Fairfax high schools are far more successful in Advanced Placement testing than their peers in nine of the 10 school systems in the nation with the largest black populations, according to a Washington Post analysis.
Midland ponders enrollment - Midland School District Superintendent Lynn Roe King is optimistic with a hint of worry. King said he is confident the district can re-invent itself after being placed on the state’s fiscal distress list in 2006, but declining enrollment has the longtime educator troubled.
Schoolyard secrets - Editorial: The arrest this month of a reporter, accused of trespassing for taking soil samples at a pesticide-contaminated Paramus, N.J., middle school, is a powerful reminder of our tolerance for official secrecy about environmental health risks at schools.
Atlanta wants to shut down charter school - Atlanta Public Schools officials want to close a charter campus — which opened four years ago with hopes of getting more inner-city children into college — even though the principal says his students are outperforming their traditional public school peers.
New charter bridges Africa and Minnesota - Comfort Lartey-Ofori said she decided to start a charter school because for years she and other African professionals in the Twin Cities complained that traditional American schools teach children very little -- if anything -- about West African people and their culture.
Santa Fe school board, union strike contract deal - The Santa Fe school board ratified a collective bargaining agreement with the teachers union Tuesday after 15 months of drawn-out and sometimes contentious negotiations.
Consistency counts - Editorial: The LAUSD's policy for charter schools is to give failing campuses a one-year extension to fix their academic problems before getting their charters renewed. That is, unless the school is really failing, in which case it either gets its charter revoked or a five-year extension - depending on whether it rounds up hundreds of furious parents to stamp around and scare L.A. school board members.
Posted by Edspresso at 05:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)June 26, 2007
Morning Shots
New York Daily News: For kids, parents work the system
The New York Daily News takes a look at what it takes for inner-city families to provide a good education for their children with a new series. The series follows the 13-year path of 23 Harlem kids from kindergarten to high school graduation. It's a glimpse into the struggles to graduate high school in an urban environment that many people never understand.
Some lied about addresses to get their children into better schools. Others used connections to make sure their kids ended up with the best teachers. One stayed in public housing to afford Catholic school, while another fled the city for New Jersey - and a fresh start.
Their stories show that haggling and string pulling is not just limited to the wealthy and middle class - parents of all incomes do whatever they can to work the vast public school system for the sake of their children.
"People do what they have to do for their children," said Terry Love, who used an acquaintance's address to send her daughter, Danique, to two prestigious public schools on the upper West Side from third grade through eighth grade.
Though the kindergartners at Public School 36 began their education in the same classroom in 1994, their paths diverged significantly as their parents struggled to ensure their kids got what all New York families want - a quality education.
Washington Post: Ex-aides break with Bush on 'No Child'
President Bush urged lawmakers yesterday to renew No Child Left Behind, his landmark education initiative, but one of his biggest political liabilities in achieving that goal comes from an unlikely source: his former aides.
Five years after they helped craft and implement the initiative, senior administration officials from Bush's first term are speaking out against the law with increasing boldness. The shift, combined with mounting criticism from both the political right and left in Congress, is causing supporters of the law to worry that it might not win renewal this year.
"I had these second thoughts in the back of my mind the whole time," said Eugene W. Hickok, a former deputy education secretary. "I believe it was a necessary step at the time, but now that it has been in place for a while, it's important to step back and see if there are other ways to solve the problem."
Some former senior department officials said they have a strained relationship with Spellings over first-term disputes and her second-term agenda. That friction might hinder her efforts to gain support from key education groups and lawmakers for renewal of No Child Left Behind, several senior officials said.
Times Picayune: Recover School District Superintendent promises reform during aid bid
Posted by Edspresso at 05:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)As part of a bid for federal aid, Recovery School District Superintendent Paul Vallas told the state's recovery board Monday that he will try to lower the New Orleans district's student-to-teacher ratio and expects to be judged harshly if test scores and attendance rates don't rise.
"You can expect scores to go up, you can expect graduation rates to go up," Vallas said. "The scores (now) are so low that if they don't go up, I should leave town in shame. The scores at some of the schools, you could do as well by guessing."
Vallas told the state board that the district will try to maintain a 20-to-1 ratio of students to teachers in elementary schools with a "slightly higher" ratio at high schools. A district spokeswoman later said Vallas wants to limit the ratio to 25-to-1 at high schools.
He predicted there will be an "adequate number of seats available for our children" in New Orleans schools come September. Pastorek has said he expects a total enrollment in all New Orleans public schools of about 33,000 this fall, up from 27,000 this past year.
Education News for Tuesday, June 26
State offers $665 a child for full-day K - Indiana school districts will receive $665 per student to pay for full-day kindergarten, officials were told Monday. That number is higher than the $440 per student worst-case scenario educators were told about but much lower than the best-case scenario of $2,500 per student.
Five charter schools may move to Rio Nuevo site - The future of five downtown charter schools could be decided Wednesday as builders pitch plans to the city on developing 14 acres west of Interstate 10. The schools hope their dream to share a 20,000-square-foot campus that would include a cafeteria, gymnasium and auditorium will be included in the developers' proposals, said Frank DiPietro, founder of the Downtown Charter School Alliance.
Ex-Aides Break With Bush on 'No Child' - President Bush urged lawmakers yesterday to renew No Child Left Behind, his landmark education initiative, but one of his biggest political liabilities in achieving that goal comes from an unlikely source: his former aides.
Ex-Miami-Dade teachers union head, convict dies at 81 - Pat Tornillo, a former head of Miami-Dade County's teachers union who championed education but was later sent to prison for stealing from the group, has died, his attorney said Monday. He was 81.
$116 million awarded in U.S. history grants - U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings recently announced the award of $116 million for 122 new grants to improve the quality of American history education. The grants are being awarded to school districts in 40 states, including Baltimore City, which received $995,283.
Parents tout Total Learning's successes - Tameka Mesidor was poised to enroll her son, Fritz, at New Beginnings Charter School last fall when his Head Start preschool teacher told her to consider a new program at Columbus School instead.
Charter schools rank high in survey - Wisconsin Connections Academy announced that an independent survey found more than 95 percent of parents who enrolled their children in WCA gave the program an A or B grade.
For kids, parents work the system - Some lied about addresses to get their children into better schools. Others used connections to make sure their kids ended up with the best teachers. One stayed in public housing to afford Catholic school, while another fled the city for New Jersey - and a fresh start.
FD schools discuss No Child Left Behind - Superintendent Linda Brock outlined a set of strategies Monday night for the Fort Dodge Community School District to implement in the push to improve student performance. The strategies are part of the district’s plan, developed in consultation with the Iowa Department of Education, to emerge from the list of districts “in need of assistance” as determined by the federal No Child Left Behind law.
S.C. Governor Vetoes Public School Choice Bill - Gov. Mark Sanford vetoed a bill Friday that allows parents to send their children to the public school of their choice, saying the legislation doesn't go far enough. Under the bill, parents would be able to enroll their child in a public school in any school district without paying tuition.
Special Ed Students in City Lag in Entering Mainstream - While other school systems across the state have significantly increased the number of students who attend classes in schools with mainstream students, the number of students in separate schools — spending all their time with other special education students — has been mostly stagnant in the city, according to a report released by the state’s Board of Regents.
Recovery School District Superintendent promises reform during aid bid - As part of a bid for federal aid, Recovery School District Superintendent Paul Vallas told the state's recovery board Monday that he will try to lower the New Orleans district's student-to-teacher ratio and expects to be judged harshly if test scores and attendance rates don't rise.
Officials urge another try for KIPP - As a vote looms to formally close a charter school in Edge water, Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold and schools Superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell Monday called on an Annapolis art institute and the college that has housed the 2-year-old KIPP Harbor Academy to find room for its students.
Black students gain ground - For the first time ever, the proportion of blacks enrolled in higher education in the region equaled their representation in the population of Delaware and 15 other states. But those students still face some of the most challenging roads to obtaining a degree, a new study found.
Posted by Edspresso at 05:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)June 25, 2007
Morning Shots
Washington Post: New schools chief builds team
Acting D.C. schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee is assembling a transition team that will guide the strategy for the new school session starting in August, focusing on hiring principals and other pressing issues during the summer months.
The team will be led by Jenny Abramson, 30, an advertising manager at The Washington Post, city officials confirmed yesterday. Abramson will take an unpaid leave of absence from The Post for an unspecified period to work for Rhee, company spokesman Eric Grant said. Abramson previously directed program strategy for a year at the national nonprofit organization Teach for America.
Meanwhile, sources said Rhee is actively recruiting Billy Kearney, the Memphis director of the New Leaders for New Schools, a nonprofit training program for principals, to work on principal hiring for the school system. Last week, Rhee decided to freeze the hiring of new principals because she was concerned about the quality of the candidate pool.
Rhee is assembling her team before a scheduled July 2 confirmation hearing by the D.C. Council. The council also will hold a confirmation hearing June 27 for Victor Reinoso, the Deputy Mayor for Education.
To read more about the future of the DC takeover and Michelle Rhee's place in it, check out Jeanne Allen's Op-Ed in today's Washington Examiner.
New York Times: The high school kinship of Cristal and Queen
They graduated together yesterday from the High School of International Business and Finance, a duo who beat the odds in a school system where despite improvements, only 50 percent of high school students graduated on time last June, according to state statistics.
How they did it is a story of two outsiders who found each other in one of the small schools the city has turned to in an attempt to break up large high schools that, with graduation rates of 25 to 40 percent, became known as factories of failure.
Both girls blossomed in the performing arts, joining the choir and the theater group. They never missed a chance at a school trip — with free tickets — to a Broadway show.
The girls applied to many four-year state and city schools, but by mid-June all Queen and Cristal had were rejections. Then on Tuesday, Cristal learned that she had been accepted at the State University at New Paltz, where she had applied through the state’s Educational Opportunity Program, which offers grants, and special consideration, to qualified economically disadvantaged students.
Oakland Tribune: Oakland mother to educate Washington lawmakers
Posted by Edspresso at 08:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)To most people, "Supplemental Educational Services" might just sound like the string of edu-speak that it is. But an Oakland mother of three has taught herself all about the private tutoring provision of No Child Left Behind that allows low-income parents in struggling schools to choose a free, private company to teach their kids after school.
Russlynn Ali, director of the Oakland-based advocacy group Education Trust-West, said such input is essential for creating sound policy. "Far too often we determine federal, local and state policy without the real and most organic stake holders — and that's the parents and students in our schools everyday," she said.
Unlike many other school districts, Shipp said, Oakland has made it easier for parents to access private tutoring for their children. Still, she noted, some school leaders don't go out of their way to make sure families access those resources.
"The jury is not in on SES," she said. "But parents should know their rights and why they need to make the choice."
Education News for Monday, June 25
Charter schools sue over state rules - Some charter schools are going to court to block state education officials from dictating to them exactly when they have to teach certain subjects. A lawsuit filed in Maricopa County Superior Court charges that state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne and the state Board of Education lack the legal authority to force them to align their teaching schedule with the ones imposed on other public schools.
House, Senate OK school choice bill - A public school choice bill approved by the S.C. House and Senate Thursday will provide parents with additional educational opportunities for their children, State Superintendent Dr. Jim Rex said in a press release.
New Schools Chief Builds Team - Acting D.C. schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee is assembling a transition team that will guide the strategy for the new school session starting in August, focusing on hiring principals and other pressing issues during the summer months.
Algiers charter schools near capacity - Four Algiers schools are at capacity for the 2007-08 school year, officials announced today. But parents may still register their children for three other elementary schools and the new Algiers Technology Academy for high school students.
Charter school up for renewal - The state Board of Regents Monday morning will consider a recommendation to renew the International Charter School of Schenectady's charter, despite a public school chief's misgivings.
'Mainstreaming' Trend Tests Classroom Goals - When school started last August, veteran first-grade teacher Patricia McDermott made sure to place one student, 8-year-old Andrea Gavern, in a seat beside her own desk.
Oakland mother to educate Washington lawmakers - To most people, "Supplemental Educational Services" might just sound like the string of edu-speak that it is. But an Oakland mother of three has taught herself all about the private tutoring provision of No Child Left Behind that allows low-income parents in struggling schools to choose a free, private company to teach their kids after school.
Weiner named new director of area First Tee - Jeffrey Weiner will be the new executive director of The First Tee of St. Johns County, bringing past experience at building youth programs and charter schools to the facility.
Groups sponsor forum on No Child Left Behind - A forum on the No Child Left Behind Act, the disputed federal education mandate championed by President Bush, will be held Monday at the library of Roosevelt Middle School in San Diego.
Schools without borders - The Stursbergs live so close to the Pasco-Hillsborough county line that it just doesn't matter. Not for work -- mom Lorraine commutes to an insurance job near the University of South Florida. Not for play -- son Chris practices swimming in Arbor Green and Land O'Lakes. And not for school -- Chris, 15, attends Wharton High in New Tampa, which is much closer to their house than his assigned school, Wesley Chapel High.
The High School Kinship of Cristal and Queen - How they did it is a story of two outsiders who found each other in one of the small schools the city has turned to in an attempt to break up large high schools that, with graduation rates of 25 to 40 percent, became known as factories of failure.
School districts cope with fewer students and less money - After decades of increasing enrollment, most school districts throughout the county have started losing students in the last few years, according to a North County Times analysis of state figures.
HISD set to honor Rod Paige - One person suggested Colin Powell. Another proposed Condoleezza Rice. But the crowd at the north Houston community meeting clearly had a favorite: Rod Paige.
Michelle Rhee doesn’t matter — yet - Editorial: Handpicked by D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty as the new D.C. schools chancellor, Michelle Rhee inherits a city awash in cash, but allows more than half of its students to attend dangerous and ineffective schools.
Charter school doomed at start? - The announcement that one of the county's two charter schools is closing was made on Wednesday. But its fate was sealed four years ago, supporters of alternatives to public education said.
Big-Name Consultants Greeted With Wariness - Two dozen high-priced consultants have set up shop on three floors of the D.C. public schools' headquarters, wearing pinstripe suits, toting binders and BlackBerrys and using such corporate jargon as "resource mapping" and "identifying metrics."
Schools Pinched In Hiring - As hundreds of thousands of baby boomers retire and the No Child Left Behind law raises standards for new teachers, school systems across the country are facing a growing scarcity of qualified recruits.
Charters 'the enemy'? - After more than two hours of debate, the Los Angeles Unified School District board voted to renew the charter for Discovery Prep in Pacoima for a year.
School celebrates hard-won success - Annette Hayes squeezed into a seat near the stage for the eighth-grade promotion at Mastery Charter School's Shoemaker campus in West Philadelphia because she just knew she was going to holler and cheer for her son, Leroy.
Schools adopt narrow curriculum to increase students' math and reading scores - The federal No Child Left Behind law is prompting many schools to focus increasingly on math and reading at the expense of other subjects, new research suggests.
City charter school shines - A small charter school serving poor children in Northwest Baltimore has transformed students' academic careers, turning low-performers into some of the city's highest scorers on reading and math tests, while their peers in neighboring schools have continued to lag behind, according to a new study.
Parents propose all-girls charter school for county - Angela Phillips of Frederick wants girls to be able to raise their hand in math and science classes without a fear of being wrong. To that end, she is proposing Frederick County Public Schools open a charter school for 360 girls in grades seven through 12.
Some fear law is leaving smart children behind - Jodie Guro attended an open house at Northeast Middle School in September to make sure her daughter, an A-track student entering sixth grade, was going to be challenged academically.
Franklin charter school has new life - A Finance Committee of Conference has tentatively breathed new life into the Franklin Career Charter Academy by providing $800,000 in the state budget for next year's operations — the money to be split between the three state charter schools that are in danger of closing next year.
Wilmington charter school gets a home - Students have been going to school in modular classrooms since the Maurice J. Moyer Academy first opened in northeast Wilmington last August. But that soon could change.
Posted by Edspresso at 06:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)June 22, 2007
Morning Shots
Washington Post: Voucher students show few gains in first year
It may be a new report, but this is nothing new. Parents are happy, students - despite changing schools, which can be traumatic and hurt test scores - are doing as well as other students even in the first year. Give this a little more time and the results will certainly look different.
Students in the D.C. school voucher program, the first federal initiative to spend taxpayer dollars on private school tuition, generally performed no better on reading and math tests after one year in the program than their peers in public schools, the U.S. Education Department said yesterday.
The department's report, which researchers said is an early snapshot, found only a few exceptions to the conclusion that the program has not yet had a significant impact on achievement: Students who moved from higher-performing public schools to private schools and those who scored well on tests before entering the program performed better in math than their peers who stayed in public school.
"Kids lose ground when they change schools. Even if they may be in a better school, they're not going to adjust to that right off the bat," said Paul Peterson, director of Harvard University's program on education policy and governance. "It doesn't happen overnight. It's a slow process."
Jeanne Allen, president of the Center for Education Reform, which supports vouchers, said she is confident that future reports on the program will show greater gains. But she said the study should be viewed as validation of the program.
"Does it help kids? Does it help families?" she said. "I think the answer from this report is clearly yes."
Wall Street Journal (Opinion Journal): Another school dropout
When the kids in the Oakland public schools left for summer vacation last week, they did so oblivious to any staff changes at the district's offices. It's not really their concern, for instance, that Barak Ben-Gal, the budget director for the school system, recently decided to become Yahoo!'s director of corporate finance.
But when people like Mr. Ben-Gal, who has a bachelor's degree in economics from Harvard and degrees in business and education from Stanford, spend three years trying to change the system and then give up, someone should notice. The people who run the operations and finances of public school districts are not visible the way that teachers are. But as with teachers, recruiting and retaining smart ones is an uphill battle.
Today, thanks in some part to his efforts, the district is out of bankruptcy and several foundations have made large grants to Oakland. Now that he has left, though, Mr. Ben-Gal can offer his criticisms of the system. And they are worth understanding, particularly for two reasons.
First, an increasing number of school districts are hiring leaders from business backgrounds. Second, as standards-based education has become more prevalent thanks to No Child Left Behind, "some people may think that the problems in our schools are going to go away," says Frederick Hess, director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute.
Mr. Ben-Gal took a 50% pay cut when he came to the district. But he has no regrets about that. He says he didn't join for the money. And he didn't leave for it either.
Baltimore Sun: An academy closes
Posted by Edspresso at 06:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)A pioneering charter school in Anne Arundel County, which had raised reading and math test scores among its once-trailing minority and low-income students, has abandoned its two-year hunt for more space and is closing.
The Knowledge is Power Program, or KIPP, Harbor Academy in Edgewater made its decision Wednesday and began notifying parents. "It is with immense sadness that we announce that KIPP Harbor Academy must permanently close its doors this summer," Jallon Brown, KIPP Harbor's founder and school leader, wrote in a letter to parents.
The 6,000 square feet of space it was renting at Sojourner-Douglass College was half what it needed to teach its 120 fifth- and sixth-graders - and was not enough to hold about 80 additional students it expected next year with a new seventh-grade class. The KIPP national model calls for adding a grade a year until each school has fifth- through eighth grades.
"It's a symptom of Maryland's charter school law, which we ranked as sixth weakest of 41 charter school laws in the country," said Jon Hussey, a spokesman for the Center for Education Reform, a Washington think tank. "In this case, it essentially comes down to lack of facilities assistance. And as we've seen here, the local school boards have been hostile toward charter schools."
Education News for Friday, June 22
Charter school, office of education work to resolve problems - Although some questions surrounding recent conflicts between William Finch Charter School and the Glenn County Office of Education were answered Wednesday night, other issues leave the school with a lot of work — and serious decisions ahead.
Educators fear fallout from school choice bill - Local school districts are worried about the impact of a school choice bill that went to the governor's office this week. The bill allows parents to enroll their child in any public school in any district by the fall of 2009. No tuition would be required.
Voucher Students Show Few Gains in First Year - Students in the D.C. school voucher program, the first federal initiative to spend taxpayer dollars on private school tuition, generally performed no better on reading and math tests after one year in the program than their peers in public schools, the U.S. Education Department said yesterday.
Voucher Use in Washington Wins Praise of Parents - The results were eagerly awaited, because studies of similar programs elsewhere, in cities including Cleveland, Milwaukee and Dayton, had not produced definitive conclusions about whether vouchers significantly increased the academic achievement of students who previously attended public schools.
Pinellas looks at plan to replace Choice - The days of school choice as Pinellas parents know it may soon be numbered. The superintendent presented school board members with a new student assignment plan today. It would send students to schools closer to home and save $16 million on transportation costs.
Charter-school supporters make pitch to parents - Parents continue to trickle into information sessions for a proposed Durango charter high school with questions for organizers and varying degrees of interest. At the latest such session Wednesday, Animas High School outreach coordinator Gisele Pansze presented the high school's plan to a handful of parents at the Durango Community Recreation Center.
An academy closes - A pioneering charter school in Anne Arundel County, which had raised reading and math test scores among its once-trailing minority and low-income students, has abandoned its two-year hunt for more space and is closing.
Director of MVHS resigns - This year, MVHS was ranked one of best 53 charter schools nationwide by the Center for Education Reform in Washington D.C. The school was also ranked 267 out of 1,200 public high schools in the Washington Post’s annual Challenge Index.
Safety plans in most school districts not up to snuff, state finds - Altoona Area School District has five full-time safety officers, 120 security cameras and weekly meetings with the city's police chief. State Auditor General Jack Wagner holds it up as a model for school safety.
Another School Dropout - Editorial: When the kids in the Oakland public schools left for summer vacation last week, they did so oblivious to any staff changes at the district's offices. It's not really their concern, for instance, that Barak Ben-Gal, the budget director for the school system, recently decided to become Yahoo!'s director of corporate finance.
Which schools to close? - The Pinellas School Board on Thursday authorized superintendent Clayton Wilcox to start choosing schools he would close as part of a push to reorganize the system. The board and Wilcox also seemed to agree that an overhaul of the district's student assignment system should be phased in starting in the 2008-09 school year.
BOE denies all-girl charter school - A proposed all-girls charter school was voted down by the school board Thursday in part because there is no comparable opportunity for boys, school board members said.
Trying to Save Potomac Public Charter School - The leaders of the Potomac Public Charter School in Fort Washington are hoping their school will stay open even though the Prince George’s County Board of Education voted to revoke the school's charter for accounting problems.
Posted by Edspresso at 05:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)June 21, 2007
Morning Shots
Arizona Daily Star: Restructuring cloud looms under No Child Left Behind
As was expected, new data compiled by the Department of Education shows that the number of schools classified as under restructuring through NCLB has grown dramatically over the last year. Unfortunately, one of the options for schools under restructuring - converting to a charter school - has only been used in a handful of cases. Most schools just bide their time.
The scarlet letter in education these days is an "R." It stands for restructuring — the purgatory that schools are pushed into if they fail to meet testing goals for six straight years under the No Child Left Behind law.
Nationwide, about 2,300 schools are either in restructuring or are a year away and planning for such drastic action as firing the principal and moving many of the teachers, according to a database provided to The Associated Press by the Education Department.
The schools bearing the label are often in poor urban areas, like Far Rockaway at the end of the subway line in the New York City borough of Queens. But they're also found in leafy suburbs, rural areas and resort towns.
The 2002 education law, which is up for renewal in Congress, offers a broad menu of options for restructuring. They include firing principals and moving teachers, and calling in turnaround specialists.
The Education Department has proposed permitting them to become charter schools, which are public but operate more freely than traditional schools, regardless of state limits on how many charter schools are allowed.
New York Times: Small companies that try to bring innovative technology to teaching
There is a growing cluster of companies in the Northwest looking to capitalize on educational needs. Learning.com makes computer software programs that help elementary school students learn science, math, languages and social studies.
Vernier Software and Technology, based in Beaverton, makes a device that allows instant data analysis and graph-making. “So students can concentrate on the experiment and not spend all period making a graph,” said David Vernier, a one-time physics teacher who founded the company with his wife, Christine, also a teacher, in 1981.
“A revolution is needed in education — students exist in a world where technology is pervasive but classroom teaching hasn’t basically changed in 50 years,” said Mona Westhaver, a founder of Inspiration Software, a Portland area firm that developed a visual learning system for kindergarten through 12th grade.
Programs from kindergarten through 12th grade “represent a $60 billion market, so investor interest is growing,” said Corey Greendale, a vice president specializing in education businesses for First Analysis, a Chicago-based private equity and venture firm.
Washington Post: Teacher turnover costs systems millions
Posted by Edspresso at 06:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)An independent report released yesterday estimates that the high rate of teacher turnover in U.S. school systems costs more than $7 billion a year, with systems including the District and Prince George's and Fairfax counties hardest hit.
The report, by the nonprofit National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, is based on a study of school systems in Chicago, Milwaukee and Granville County in North Carolina, as well as the Jemez Valley and Santa Rosa systems in New Mexico. The findings from the five systems allowed the commission to create a calculator to estimate the costs of teacher turnover at school systems across the country.
According to Benjamin Schaefer, a program manager who worked on the report, the costs included advertising and traveling to job fairs; hiring incentives and signing bonuses; the administrative processing and training of new recruits; mentoring and professional development for all teachers; salaries for substitutes; and separation costs if a teacher chose to quit.
The low pay of teachers and the rigors of the work contribute to attrition, Kilby said, but there is also a deeper philosophical change that makes people less likely to stay with the same job for 20 to 30 years.
Education News for Thursday, June 21
Camarillo charter school is approved - After an emotional, months-long fight, parents rooting for a proposed Camarillo charter school celebrated Wednesday night. Trustees of the Oxnard Union High School District unanimously agreed to sponsor their charter, making it possible for the Camarillo Academy of Progressive Education to open this fall.
KIPP charter school announces a location - The news in March made a splash: Efforts were under way to open a charter school in the heart of downtown. It would be a welcome addition to downtown’s revival, supporters said, helping make downtown a place where young adults might stay after they’ve started families.
Teacher Turnover Costs Systems Millions, Study Projects - An independent report released yesterday estimates that the high rate of teacher turnover in U.S. school systems costs more than $7 billion a year, with systems including the District and Prince George's and Fairfax counties hardest hit.
Vouchers would aid special-needs kids - State legislators working on Ohio’s two-year budget are pushing to create voucher-like scholarships for kids with disabilities, paying for them to attend private schools. The special needs scholarships would be worth $7,000 to $30,000 per child per year, depending on the child’s learning-related disability.
Charter schools advocate wins White House fellowship - Arnold resident Andy Smarick has won a prestigious White House fellowship, catapulting the young charter school advocate into a group whose alumni include Colin Powell and Wesley Clark. "Sometimes I look at the people who won and wonder how I slipped through the cracks," said Mr. Smarick, 31. "I'm just a guy who tries to make schools better for low-income children."
School Reborn - The Garden City Community School will live to see another term. The charter school's plan to get itself out of debt and on firmer financial ground was formally accepted by the Idaho State Charter School Commission last week, ensuring the school will open its doors again next fall.
Thousands of failing schools face major overhaul under No Child Left Behind law - It stands for restructuring - the purgatory that schools are pushed into if they fail to meet testing goals for six straight years under the No Child Left Behind law. Nationwide, about 2,300 schools are either in restructuring or are a year away and planning for such drastic action as firing the principal and moving many of the teachers, according to a database provided to The Associated Press by the Education Department.
His Charge: Find a Key to Students’ Success - Roland G. Fryer, who was hired by Schools Chancellor Joel I Klein to advise him on how to narrow the racial gap in achievement in the city’s schools, made his professional name in economics by applying complex algorithms to document how black students fall behind their white peers. But his life story challenges his own calculations.
Rex says his reform ideas have momentum - State schools chief Jim Rex told district-level colleagues today he has hired his first key adviser to work in what he described as a "first-in-the-nation" office of public school choice and innovation.
Rochester charter equestrian school graduate starts a new journey - Amanda Caron has dreamed of caring for horses since she was a little girl, and she has been riding since she was two years old. She's one step closer to becoming a veterinary technician now that she has graduated from the New Hampshire Equestrian Academy.
School board looks to close charter school - Potomac charter school in Fort Washington is in danger of being dissolved after the Prince George’s Board of Education voted to revoke a charter agreement reached before the Potomac opened for the 2006-2007 school year.
Small Companies That Try to Bring Innovative Technology to Teaching - There is a growing cluster of companies in the Northwest looking to capitalize on educational needs. Learning.com makes computer software programs that help elementary school students learn science, math, languages and social studies.
Lee schools, charters strike cost-saving accord - The Lee County School District and Cape Coral Charter School Authority have agreed to a compromise that allows both sides to save money. The county school board on Tuesday unanimously approved the agreement, under which the district expects to keep roughly $140,000 in administrative fees that it may otherwise have lost.
For schools, a plain dealer - Editorial: Newly named Boston school superintendent Carol Johnson arrived as advertised this week: composed and plain-dealing. In her first public appearance in Boston on Tuesday, the 59-year-old, much sought-after Memphis school superintendent signaled that she isn't coming here just to cap off her career in peace and quiet.
Test Scores Rise Across The Board In Schools - Prince George’s County elementary and middle school students showed solid improvement across the board on state tests of reading and math this spring. According to data released last week, scores rose in almost every category on the Maryland School Assessments, a set of tests for third- through eighth-graders in reading and math.
Lawmakers frustrated at school board stand - Fury was audible in the voices of some legislators discussing the Utah State Board of Education Wednesday. Others used a conciliatory tone to hurl fighting words. A few pleaded for cooler heads. But bruised egos were palpable during a meeting of the Education Interim Committee, where a majority of members and the co-chairmen are staunch voucher supporters.
Texas education chief to step down July 1 - Texas Education Commissioner Shirley Neeley, the first woman to hold the job, announced Wednesday she is resigning from the post after Gov. Rick Perry signaled he didn't plan to reappoint her.
Officials have no plans to fill spot of retiring charter schools director - Metro Schools’ district liaison to Nashville charter schools Nancy Dill announced she would be retiring several weeks ago and school district officials have no plans to replace her.
Restructuring cloud looms under No Child Left Behind - The scarlet letter in education these days is an "R." It stands for restructuring — the purgatory that schools are pushed into if they fail to meet testing goals for six straight years under the No Child Left Behind law.
Posted by Edspresso at 05:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)June 20, 2007
Morning Shots
New York Times: Recruited to rescue Washington's schools
Fresh out of college, Michelle A. Rhee joined Teach for America, the fast-track teacher training program, landing at Harlem Park Community School in Baltimore. The public school ranked near the bottom in city reading and math scores, and as a new teacher, Ms. Rhee got a classroom of 35 children achieving the worst and behaving the worst.
Now, Ms. Rhee is betting she can replicate that success on a citywide scale as the newly named chancellor of schools in Washington, arguably the nation’s most dysfunctional school system. Though it is one of the country’s highest-spending districts, most of the money goes to central administration, not to classrooms, according to a recent series of articles in The Washington Post.
“I just want to get to work,” said Ms. Rhee, whose appointment depends on approval by the City Council and who is now technically acting chancellor. She was tucked away in a cramped computer room at the New Teacher Project, a nonprofit group in New York City that she founded in 1997, when she was 27, and still runs.
She seems undaunted by the criticism and the challenges ahead, pointing out that through the teacher project, she has volumes of experience with many largely minority, urban systems. Sitting down recently with parents and community leaders, Ms. Rhee recalled, she looked around the room and said: “I know what you’re all thinking. What’s this Korean lady doing here?”
USA Today: Values set Baltimore school apart
It was an odd little idea that stuck in assistant principal Saeed Hill's head and wouldn't die: Two years after his tiny high school's founding, it needed something — he wasn't sure exactly what — to set it apart from the dozens of others in the city, even the small core of "innovation" schools to which Baltimore Talent Development High School belonged.
Before students arrive at Talent Development, many are on the path to dropping out. In a city where only one in three students are likely to earn a high school diploma, the school offers a gold-plated second chance. But that wasn't enough.
An open-admissions public high school that enjoys a cooperative relationship with Johns Hopkins University's Center for the Social Organization of Schools, it has been in business since 2004, occupying half of a sprawling brick building in the city's Harlem Park neighborhood. A short drive from the thriving downtown, the neighborhood is bleak with blocks of burnt-out row houses and abandoned storefronts.
It stands as a promising model of urban school reform, based on a simple idea: Poor, urban teenagers don't need high schools with bells and whistles, as many reformers have suggested. They don't need vouchers or boarding schools, military-style discipline, 12-hour school days, laptop computers or personalized online coursework.
Mostly they just need positive relationships with tough, reliable, trustworthy adults who are focused on their basic skills and their futures.
Washington Post: Charter board approves six applications for new schools
Posted by Edspresso at 05:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)The D.C. Public Charter School Board has approved six new charter schools, the board announced yesterday. All the schools, selected at the board's monthly meeting Monday night, have to meet a range of academic and other conditions by the five-member appointed board before opening in fall 2008.
Out of 13 applications submitted in April, the following six were selected: Achievement Preparatory Academy, an elementary and middle school; Colin L. Powell International, a pre-kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school; Excel Academy, an all-girls, early intervention school that covers preschool through eighth grade; Imagine Southeast, which includes preschool through eighth grade; Thea Bowman Preparatory, a middle school; and Washington Yu Ying, a Chinese immersion school that includes pre-kindergarten through eighth grade.
Also at the meeting, the charter board placed Hospitality High on probation, a status one step from shutdown. Charter board Chairman Thomas A. Nida said Hospitality had not provided documentation about whether it would continue to be a charter school or join the D.C. public school system and move into Roosevelt Senior High School in Northwest.
Durso said the school is conducting interviews for its principal vacancy and plans to have someone in place by July 1. She said the previous principal, Peter N. Smith, decided not to reapply for his job after the entire staff was asked to do so.
Education News for Wednesday, June 20
State won't count flawed scores - Third-grade reading results won't be used in determining the 2007 school grades because of flaws in last year's scoring, the state Board of Education decided Tuesday. However, exactly when those grades will be released remains a mystery.
Board slated to decide on proposed charter school - Parents championing a proposed Camarillo charter school expect to learn its fate tonight, when a local school board decides whether to sponsor their petition. The vote likely will be the last chance for the school to open this fall, which parents said would allow their children to stay together and continue learning under an "open school" philosophy.
Recruited to Rescue Washington’s Schools - Fresh out of college, Michelle A. Rhee joined Teach for America, the fast-track teacher training program, landing at Harlem Park Community School in Baltimore. The public school ranked near the bottom in city reading and math scores, and as a new teacher, Ms. Rhee got a classroom of 35 children achieving the worst and behaving the worst.
Community craves a say in school site's future - The walk to Forrest Hills Elementary School takes maybe 10 minutes from Denise Reidy-Puckett's house, just past a dip in the road and around a couple of bends. Reidy-Puckett's 4-year-old daughter, Julia, knows the way by heart.
School Board OKs housing of 3 charters - The Orleans Parish School Board approved building assignments Tuesday for three of the public charter schools it oversees. One school, Robert Russa Moton Charter, will move from the St. Leo the Great campus on Abundance Street to the old St. James Major High School on Gentilly Boulevard until about November, and then will spend the remainder of the 2007-2008 school year at St. Paul the Apostle on Chef Menteur Highway.
Spellings Criticizes ‘Reading First’ Cuts - Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings sent a letter last week to Rep. David R. Obey, D-Wis., the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, asking him to restore the $629 million cut from the $1.03 billion Reading First program in a fiscal 2008 spending bill approved this month by a subcommittee.
School officials not pleased with Lewis Academy - On Monday, Janice Davis, assistant superintendent of elementary schools, asked the Student Achievement and Academic Support (SASS) committee to approve sending a charge letter to school director, Dr. Patricia Lewis. The letter points out deficiencies the school system sees at the school, including not having criminal background checks on all of its employees and missing Lewis Academy board minutes.
Minneapolis inclined to rent out empty schools - A majority of the Minneapolis school board appears open to ending the district's longstanding policy of not renting surplus classrooms to charter schools, which the district long has viewed as competition.
Our view on No Child Left Behind: Taxpayer-funded tutoring fails needy students - Editorial: Back in 2001, when the No Child Left Behind law was being crafted, President Bush wanted students from failing schools to get vouchers to attend private schools. The idea was that this would help the students and put pressure on the schools to improve.
Opposing view: Tutoring shows success - Editorial: Don't give up. That's what we tell our children when they fall behind in school. What kind of message would it send to give up on a program that helps them get back on track? The program is called Supplemental Educational Services, or SES.
Ex-Governor Lobbying for Teachers Union - A former Democratic presidential candidate and Iowa governor will lobby the federal government on behalf of the nation's largest teachers union, according to a federal disclosure form.
County limits emergency aid to schools - Tensions between elected officials and school leaders were aggravated this week when the Anne Arundel County Council approved an $18.9 million budget transfer that fell $3.7 million short of the school system's request and leaves key objectives unfunded.
Charter Board Approves Six Applications for New Schools - The D.C. Public Charter School Board has approved six new charter schools, the board announced yesterday. All the schools, selected at the board's monthly meeting Monday night, have to meet a range of academic and other conditions by the five-member appointed board before opening in fall 2008.
Future scientists showcase projects at school fair - Seventh graders at Lawrence Family Development Charter School took their experiments from the lab into public view at a recent science fair. The top three winners were Arabelly Camilo, who showed how rats get through the sewer system and into your toilet…
Pa. auditor general calls for state to change charter school funding - The state's auditor general is pushing for changes in how charter schools are funded after finding that three schools received hundreds of thousands of dollars in excess tuition payments from school districts.
Values set Baltimore school apart - It was an odd little idea that stuck in assistant principal Saeed Hill's head and wouldn't die: Two years after his tiny high school's founding, it needed something — he wasn't sure exactly what — to set it apart from the dozens of others in the city, even the small core of "innovation" schools to which Baltimore Talent Development High School belonged.
School funding battle continues - In another round of haggling over funds, the County Council granted $19 million to schools last night. The money balances the system's books by accounting for unanticipated revenue and shuffling funds to cover expenses.
Teacher merit pay may improve student learning - Editorial: Teacher unions have long resisted merit pay. But it is increasingly considered to be part of an effective strategy for improving student achievement. Michigan needs to embrace this idea for the sake of its students. For years, merit pay has been fought by unions, which argue that multiple pay tiers undermine teacher solidarity.
Posted by Edspresso at 04:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)June 19, 2007
Morning Shots
More in today's New York Times on the privately-funded student performance incentive, 'Cash In on Learning' (just coined that one). The Harvard Professor who created the program will become NYC's Department of Education's "chief equality officer." The program is part of a larger anti-poverty cash-incentive policy being rolled out by the city that also includes
...$150 a month for keeping a full-time job and $50 a month for having health insurance. Families will also receive as much as $50 per month per child for high attendance rates in school, as well as $25 for attending parent-teacher conferences....
“I’m willing to say let’s see what works,” said Darwin Davis, the president of the Urban League. “We are in a capitalist society and people are motivated by money across race and across class, so why not?”
But Mr. Davis also cautioned that the amounts of money being offered were relatively paltry in New York.
“I wish $50 could be enough for an insurance payment, but that’s not going to be the case,” he said, wondering aloud how many tests students would need to pass to buy the latest video game.
On reauthorization of NCLB, Public Opinion Agains NCLB, from Scripps Howard News Service.
But dissent against reauthorization has developed within his own party. Fifty-two Republican House members and five GOP senators are calling for a repeal of the law in favor of a more flexible system of achievement standards to be negotiated between the Department of Education and individual states.
CER comments on the Scripps Howard Poll.
Posted by Edspresso at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)Education News for Tuesday, June 19
County weighs detention camp school reforms - Angered by a recent report criticizing the quality of schooling for youths in juvenile halls and camps, Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe is calling for major changes to education in the system, such as creating arts-themed classroom programs in detention facilities.
Brooks pushing new charter school - Derrick Brooks is focusing on the same passion that's helped him become one of the best linebackers in the N-F-L. Opening a high school with a rigorous curriculum to prepare students for college would be as challenging as anything the 10-time Pro Bowl selection has accomplished on the field.
Schools Plan to Pay Cash for Marks - New York City students could earn as much as $500 a year for doing well on standardized tests and showing up for class in a new program to begin this fall, city officials announced yesterday. And the Harvard economist who created the program is joining the inner circle of Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein, according to an official briefed on the hiring.
Golden Branch Academy offers alternatives for students - Students with learning differences in Hernando County finally have a chance to accentuate their strengths and highlight their academic potential. Golden Branch Academy, 1371 Kass Circle, is a nonprofit, private school now enrolling students in grades fourth through 12th for the 2007-2008 school year beginning in August.
Charter school hopes to transform Uptown - As an “entertainment district,” the Uptown area of Toledo so far leaves a lot to be desired. A few restaurants and bars dot the urban landscape, especially on Adams Street. Just as common are weedy asphalt lots and half-empty or shuttered buildings.
Public opinion against NCLB - Nearly two-thirds of American adults want Congress to rewrite or outright abolish the landmark No Child Left Behind law that mandates nationwide testing of elementary students to determine if public schools are performing adequately.
CMU Won't Renew Local School Charter - Sankofa Shule is a charter school in Lansing which provides its students with an afro-centric education. Mark Canady: "There's a sizable African-American population in this community, it appears some students thrive in this environment."
Getting Lost in the Great Indoors - Linda Pelzman appreciates the beauty of the outdoor world, sometimes pulling her children into the yard to gaze at a full moon or peer into a dense fog. An educator and founder of a summer camp, she only wishes her enthusiasm was fully shared.
'07 school grades flawed; grading is more flawed - Editorial: If consistency is the hallmark of any valid grading system, Florida's FCAT-based school rankings flunk, and so do federal scores assigned under No Child Left Behind. The 2007 state school grades, which will be calculated and released soon, are a case in point.
Meal Program Expects Increase - City officials said yesterday that they hope to provide more than 30,000 children with free meals during the summer, a 10 percent increase from last year.
Charter school may open in 2008 - Envision Schools, which runs four charter high schools in the Bay Area, will petition the San Mateo Union High School District to open a campus on the Peninsula for the 2008-09 school year. "We've had initial conversations with the district," said Envision President Daniel McLaughlin. &qu