August 31, 2007
August 31, 2007
Hawaii Reporter: Hawaii Removes Obstacle to Charter Schools - As a charter school champion engaged in a difficult struggle, Hawaii's chief executive has claimed a key victory for educational choice in her state. Gov. Linda Lingle (R) signed into law Act 115, which affords charter schools on the seven Hawaiian Islands more independence from the state bureaucracy than they have previously enjoyed.
KTVZ.com, OR: Oregon schools better in 'No Child Left Behind' - 74% (923 of 1236 Oregon schools) met AYP standards compared to 70% in 2005-06.
West Central Tribune, MN: More than one-third of Minnesota schools miss academic mark - Minnesota's roster of underachieving schools bulged to 729 this year, a sizable increase over 2006 and another sign that schools are struggling to meet the rising demands of the federal No Child Left Behind law.
PRNewswire.com: Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton Applauds Work of PIRCS as a Tool to Improve Schools in the District of Columbia - Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, (D-DC) joined representatives from Parent Information Resource Centers - Prices -- across the country Wednesday who came to Capitol Hill to share with the lawmakers the substantive work the PIRCS are doing to create partnerships with families and schools to help improve student achievement and strengthen schools across the country.
Worchester Telegram, MA: City schools ‘choice’ gets two students - School choice, the program that proponents said could pump up a slim school budget and opponents feared would cost residents school seats and money, has attracted only two students.
Glendale Star, AZ: Glendale Elem. seeks input from residents - When it comes to school choice, Glendale Elementary School District (GESD) officials are doing their homework. Board members want to know if specialty schools would draw some students attending schools elsewhere back to their local schools. Individual schools could focus on rigorous academics; environmental issues; math and science; foreign language; virtual or on-line learning; visual and performing arts; or an academy for extremely gifted students. Past surveys have indicated parents of extremely gifted students are seeking more services. Using on-line resources or the idea of hosting a school within another school means there could be many options.
Hudson Star-Observer, WI: Letter: Taxpayers not represented - Who is representing the average taxpayer? The taxpayer who may or may not have children in the schools, who may be on a fixed income or who might not be an employee of the district? Instead of holding the school district accountable, the School Board members are indistinguishable from the school district. They are one and the same.
New York Sun: Third City Charter School Moves Forward - If approved by the State University of New York, which is reviewing applications from many different groups now, the charter school will be a partnership with a Los Angeles-based charter school network, Green Dot.
August 30, 2007
August 30, 2007
One school can't schedule students in right classes, "highly qualified" testing keeps teachers away, Margaret Spellings Q&A with NCLB critics ...
Education Reform Outrage in the news ...
Naples Daily News, FL: Students, others complain problems still exist with high school classes - Students' schedules remain unfixed, and officials say, "We need to look at the academic problems. But you can’t change a high school schedule when school has started based on a ripple of things.” In the meantime, one student gets weightlifting credits, but she's tutoring other students, another student was supposed to be taking biology, but was forced into journalism where the grade is based on selling advertisements for the yearbook. Several students expecting to take engineering are being denied because of unknown prerequisites.
The Evening Bulletin, PA: Students Blamed For Low Results - National, state and local authorities are not blaming teachers, schools or lawmakers who refuse to adequately fund education for declining test scores. They're blaming the students. Officials agreed this week there are just too many students, and particularly too many underperforming minority students, taking the tests and dragging down scores.
The News Virginian: Southern schools slipping - Fifty years after federal troops forced the desegregation of a high school in Little Rock, Ark., schools in the South are re-segregating at an increasingly rapid pace.
Falls Church News Press, VA: Jim Moran's News Commentary - One of the main problems for Northern Virginia schools under NCLB is that the testing requirements have major negative impacts on Limited English Proficiency students (LEP) and disabled students – a sizeable portion of Northern Virginia’s student body. NCLB requires these special needs students to be tested and graded at the same level as other students after only one year in the U.S. It’s an unreasonable requirement which sets them up for failure. Current research estimates it takes at least five years for even the best English language learners to catch up to their peers in all subjects.
Keene Free Press, NH: 1,995 People Control Your Life - Government schools have no incentive to innovate or compete as it doesn't matter to them how satisfied you are with their performance. The system is too entrenched. We'll never be able to change it. You can't fight City Hall, or in this case the Teachers Union. The school board voted to use taxpayer dollars to fund an advertising campaign to push a new Teachers Contract? Isn't that amazing?
AZ Central: 'Highly qualified' requirement keeping people out of teaching, some say - Some teachers and administrators believe requiring teachers to be highly qualified contributes to the teacher shortage. He said highly qualified teachers don't want to teach because of the low salaries.
School Choice in the news ...
EarthTimes.org: Back-To-School Time Finds More Choices Than Ever - New evidence shows that school choice is more popular than ever before. More families are choosing charter schools and voucher programs to meet the educational needs of their children.
Seattle Times, WA: "When will NCLB recognize there are two more wheels in the mix?" - The teacher is just one wheel of the tricycle. Parents are the other rear wheel. The child is the big front one. If one wheel is broken or missing, the tricycle won't go — no matter how hard the teacher pushes or how shiny and new the teacher is. When will NCLB recognize there are two more wheels in the mix?
USA Today: NCLB is working, but it's a 'journey' - Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings answers questions from critics, laying it all out.
GMToday.com: Virtual school may soon be a reality in West Bend - As virtual schools begin to slowly draw students away from traditional schools across the state, West Bend is readying its own product for the market.
August 29, 2007
August 29, 2007
Los Angeles school closer to becoming Green Dot, hot debate brewing over inner-city educators, outrage over Utah's voucher showdown ...
Grassroots Action in the news ...
Los Angeles Times: Plan to convert Locke High to a charter school clears hurdle - The Los Angeles Board of Education signaled its intent Tuesday to enter an agreement that would make Locke High School the first Los Angeles campus managed by an outside charter-school organization, Green Dot.
WSAW 7, WI: Virtual Students Get to Know Each Other in Person - Some critics of virtual schools say they don't have a major characteristic students need - a social atmosphere. But a meet and greet in Stevens Point Tuesday for the Wisconsin Connections Academy is proving otherwise. More than 35 families, whose kindergarten through eighth grade students attend the academy, got together to have their pictures taken, get school supplies and have a picnic.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, NY: Lafayette Retooled by Mayor’s Education Reform - The mayor closed off several larger institutions and replaced them with a melange of smaller, more finely tuned schools in an effort to improve the city’s graduation rate. The Lafayette High School Education Complex will be another of the city’s testing grounds for this initiative, called the “campus movement.” As Lafayette High School is phased out, three newcomers — the Expeditionary Learning School for Community Leaders, the Life Academy High School for Film and Music, and the High School for Sports Management — are expected to take off.
Huffington Post, NY: Join a Hot Education Debate! - I believe it's illuminating and important to have back-and-forths between people whose opinions differ. Take a glance at the NCLB and inner-city educator conversation between Dan Brown and "Cultural Strategist."
Washington Post: Three Reasons to Cheer for Rhee's Fast Start - 1 - Rhee is telling it straight: This system is broken, 2 - She's exposing the system's flaws every day, 3 - She's getting concrete stuff done. That's where Rhee shows the most potential: She is trying to give everyone in the system -- administrators, teachers, parents and I don't know about kids (that part remains to be seen) -- permission to break the rules.
Education Reform Outrage in the news ...
Wall Street Journal: Voucher Showdown - The Utah legislature passed one of the nation's most far-sighted voucher laws in February, and the state teachers union is calling in the national cavalry to help repeal it in a November 6 referendum. At the Philadelphia NEA conference last month, Kim Campbell, the head of the Utah Education Association, promised that her campaign to defeat it "will be ugly, mean and expensive," and she needs the outside cash to overwhelm pro-voucher supporters in the state.
Washington Examiner: Board of Education unveils alternative to state tests - In Maryland, high school seniors might soon be able to do a project to graduate instead of passing state tests.
On Milwaukee, WI: School Makes the Grade - The state Department of Public Instruction banned 10 schools from participating in the school choice voucher program, but will still allow one school in the program that hadn't paid it back taxes. The schools were banned for such reasons as failing to prove occupancy, lack of insurance or for not complying with orders for audits.
AS Star Net.com, AZ: TUSD adopts open-enrollment policy - Since 1969, the student transfers and placements policy only allows students to transfer if it improves ethnic balances of receiving schools and doesn't imbalance the makeups of home schools. It was designed to support desegregation, but the policy has, over time, limited school choice for minorities who make up the majority of the district's roughly 57,000 students. Last week, a US District judge ruled the policy unconstitutional; however, board members do not want to abandon the policy without something to replace it.
School Choice in the news ...
Los Angeles Daily News, CA: Time for Action - Superintendent David Brewer says, "Failure will no longer be an option at LAUSD," and we can only hope he means it. Brewer is not the first to promise the dawn of a new era at the Los Angeles Unified School District, but if he delivers one, he will be the first to actually make good on his lofty promises.
Los Angeles Times: Deal would give L.A. mayor say on some schools - Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and his former adversaries from the Los Angeles Unified School District are expected to announce a partnership today that will provide the mayor with a scaled-back version of the authority he has sought over city schools. But Villaraigosa must first win over skeptical teachers and community organizers. The president of LA teachers union is calling for two-thirds of the teachers at any school under consideration to agree before joining the mayor's partnership -- a higher threshold than the simple majority required to convert to a charter school, which operates free from many rules.
Center for American Progress: Choosing More Time for Students - U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings believes that the expansion of learning time will be the next major push in school reform. The reason: our nation’s public school students need to meet the demands and challenges of the 21st century but they simply cannot in public school systems that remain much the same as they were 50 years ago.
CampusTechnology.com: Teaching with Technology: Facilitating the Process - It is not a matter of "if" P-12 schools teach the nation's students to use technology but "when," and the time is sooner than later.
News Leader, MO: School district must focus on closing widening gaps - No matter what one thinks of NCLB, and most people agree that it has serious flaws, it has helped make some things crystal clear. The answer to the question, "How have they fared in meeting the measures of success" is a simple and resounding "not met."
YourHub.com, CO: Ryan Stuart wants our schools to be envy of nation - Study after study confirms the surprising truth that overall fiscal spending has no direct correlation to student test scores. The only factor shown to directly impact student achievement is the quality of the teacher at the front of the classroom. Stuart is proposing a high quality teacher recruitment and retention program.
August 28, 2007
August 28, 2007
Washington Times: Back to school on a summer day - "This year students, parents and teachers will know that education is a top priority," D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee said. "I am committed to ensuring teachers have the supplies and resources they need for student achievement as we embark on this important period of transformation."
Dothan Eagle, AL: Dothan City Schools holds reform forum - Dothan City School officials met with parents Monday night in the first of a series of forums aimed at getting public input on proposed reforms to the system. Magnet schools were a hot topic at the meeting. Many parents at the meeting wanted the extracurricular courses -- music and foreign language -- offered at Montana Magnet School and Carver Magnet School offered at the other elementary and middle schools in the system.
CityLimits.org: "Not in very good shape:" Fixing the middle schols - The academic performance of elementary and high school students has shown considerable improvement in recent years, but their middle-school counterparts have not kept up. Middle schools are notoriously difficult to teach in. Kids are more challenging, they tend to be more rambunctious at that age, so classroom management is often a big issue. It’s also true that most schools of education do not have credential programs that focus on middle schools. So what you often end up with is teachers who are not well-prepared for that age group, for children in early adolescence, either from a content standpoint, as far as academics, or from a developmental standpoint.
Washington Examiner: School reform no quick fix - For system wide change, it’s more along the three to five year range ... In three to five years, at a minimum, we have a good proportion on world-class schools. What we have now is 22 schools in their first year of restructuring. Well, there’s not another school to choose. And that’s a real problem.
August 27, 2007
August 27, 2007
advocating for choice in St. Louis, a grassroots coalition takes lawsuit to trial, cyber charter so popular district labels "burden," ...Grassroots Action in the news ...
STLtoday.com, MO: Head of new education group says it's about dialogue, not vouchers - An advocate for school choice has been quietly leading discussions among civic, educational, corporate and political leaders to find solutions to the crisis in the St. Louis Public Schools and other troubled districts. The organizer of the St. Louis Regional Education Roundtable Partners is Donayle Whitmore-Smith.
Orlando Sentinel, FL: Florida Virtual School is 10 years old: Any anniversary thoughts? - The Orlando Sentinel is soliciting community testimonies of success from Florida Virtual School. Has the school helped your child catch up, get ahead or just take classes on a schedule that worked best for him or her? Are there downsides? If you teach there, was it a big adjustment switching from a classroom full of kids to a computer?
Sharon Herald, PA: Waste Management donates to education scholarships - Waste Management Inc. continues to contribute to the PA Educational Improvement Tax Credit Program. Because Pennsylvania does not have an education voucher program, the foundation helps low- to moderate-income families benefit from more options when it comes to education.
Seattle Post Intelligencer, WA: Judge sends lawsuit over school spending to trial - Judge Paris Kallas said too many facts were in dispute for her to grant a motion for summary judgment brought by a coalition of teachers, parents, community groups and school districts. The coalition wants to require the state to calculate exactly how much it costs to provide an adequate education for all pupils, then figure out a way to pay for it.
Education Reform Outrage in the news ...
Morning Call, TN: Cyber charter roster shocks district - The Pleasant Valley School Board was shocked to discover that 197 students, including at least 19 special education students, enrolled in cyber charter schools for the 2007-08 school year. "It's a terrible burden," School Director Susan Kresge said.
Columbus Dispatch, OH: School-voucher list to shrink - Columbus City School District will have fewer buildings in 2008 that students can flee with the help of state vouchers. "That's certainly good news for us," said Rhonda Johnson, president of the Columbus teachers union.
Washington Post: The Gifted Children Left Behind - NCLB pushes teachers to ignore high-ability students through its exclusive focus on bringing students to minimum proficiency and destroys high-ability students' interest in learning, as school becomes an endless chain of basic lessons aimed at low-performing students.
BlueRidgeNow.com, NC: Schools Fight for Teachers Because of High Turnover - Superintendents and recruiters across the nation say the challenge of putting a qualified teacher in every classroom is heightened in subjects like math and science and is a particular struggle in high-poverty schools, where the turnover is highest. Thousands of classes in such schools have opened with substitute teachers in recent years.
Valley News Dispatch, PA: Drugs & school choice - Parents must remain vigilant. Yet most have no meaningful say in where their children go off to school -- regardless of whether their kids' schools are relatively "clean" or drug infested.
School Choice in the news ...
Kvue.com, TX: Charter schools offer education alternative - The school year kicks off next week for most public schools. But at many private institutions, including charter schools, the school year is already underway.
Star Telegram, TX: Teacher retesting may encounter serious obstacles - Some advocacy groups say states need to take another look at licensing requirements. The Texas Education Agency says there has been no discussion about retesting teachers. Teachers would strongly oppose such a move, teacher groups say.
Lakeland Ledger, FL: Monday Last Day to Note Transfers to New Schools - Approximately 27,000 students are eligible to switch schools. So far the Polk County School District has verified only 246 transfers.
Christian Science Monitor: A good mark for teacher merit pay - One triumph for this accountability tool is that hundreds of additional teachers have applied to work at the city's worst schools, drawn by new higher pay. The biggest test is yet to come: whether teacher rewards will lead to better student grades and higher test scores.
Chronicle-Tribune, IN: Teachers Receive Grants for Innovation - Marion School Employees Credit Union once again will provide funds for classroom teachers who have innovative, meritorious ideas.
KansasCity.com, MO: In class, at home and online, education choices abound for families - While the vast majority of American parents will send their children to a nearby public school this fall, their choices in 2007 may be more varied than ever: from public and private schools to homeschooling to click-of-the-mouse virtual schools to specialized high school programs.
Vindy.com, OH: Voucher program will see changes - There are 11 area public schools on the state voucher list for the 2008-09 school year, compared with 13 for this academic year — and more than twice that many private schools willing to take some of their pupils.
wis10.com, SC: School choice debate changes - There was a time in South Carolina when anyone who uttered the words school choice was generally talking about tax credits or vouchers. That time has passed, for now. The school choice debate has changed.
August 24, 2007
August 24, 2007
1/3 of Northern VA schools fail, low standards = low minority scores, Detroit parents leaving public schools ...going to charters...
Education Reform Outrage in the news ...
Examiner, DC: More than a third of N. Virginia schools fail No Child Left Behind requirements - More than a third of Northern Virginia schools failed this year to meet standards set by the federal No Child Left Behind law, up from a failure rate of 20 percent in 2006. Overall, 36 percent of Northern Virginia schools failed at either the math or the reading criteria.
Foster's Daily Democrat, NH: Barrington votes against paying tuition to charter schools - Fearing an onslaught of requests from various fledgling public charter schools in the area, the School Board unanimously approved a policy Wednesday night that will exclude those schools from receiving tuition money.
Tucson Citizen, AZ: Back to school: Time to take stock of educational progress - Arizona public schools spend about twice the average private school tuition, while failing to teach basic literacy to half of all students by age 10.
Ventura County Star, CA: Minorities score lower on state test - It's a vicious cycle. From our research, we believe oftentimes that schools that serve a large population of Latino and African-American students expect less from their students. These schools give less rigorous assignments, so there is already a lower expectation of achievement. If they are not challenged by the coursework, then that reinforces low standards. Certainly there is something more going on than just poverty that's impacting these students.
Grassroots Action in the news ...
Dateline Alabama: Citizens Protest Restructuring of City Schools - More than 60 parents, grandparents and supporters gathered to protest the recent restructuring of city schools, which moved about 90 students to the "Western Cluster." Many people brought their children to re-enroll them in their former school, but they left with school choice forms and directions to take their kids to their new schools. Parents are outraged because under NCLB children cannot be transferred into schools that are in need of improvement. All five of the schools in the city system’s “Western Cluster" are considered in need of improvement for failure. "It seems awfully counterproductive to take a child in a school that has made AYP and put them in a school that has not," said Mary Bruce Ogles, Alabama Education Association’s assistant executive secretary.
Education Week: As School Year Looms, Detroit Predicts Enrollment Drop - Last fall, more than 14,000 Detroit students left the public schools, either moving out of the city, enrolling in charter schools, or attending school in neighboring districts due to a 16-day teachers' strike that delayed the opening of schools and caused turmoil in the system for weeks. Detroit is bracing for another dive in enrollment as students return to classrooms next week for the first time since district officials closed 33 school buildings this summer.
School Choice in the news ...
Examiner, DC: Giving Prince George's parents choice will fix the schools - Why doesn't PGPS have all of the teachers it needs? It's certainly not the money. The problems of the Prince George's County education system have one cause; it's a government monopoly. There is one solution: school choice reforms.
August 23, 2007
August 23, 2007
Washington City Paper, DC: A Special Education - Make your case and you could send your child to private school, transportation included, on the taxpayer’s dime. Here’s the catch: You need to prove that your child has special needs—needs that a D.C. public school can’t meet.
Washington Enquirer, DC: Wasting money at D.C. schools - DCPS is a $1 billion service-delivery corporation designed to provide the highest-quality education to youth in the nation's capital. If this message isn't conveyed to elected officials, including Mayor Adrian Fenty and D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray, by concerned parents and education advocates swiftly, strongly, the city is headed for another expensive deck chair-rearranging experience.
NY Sun: Education, Union Officials Take Standoff to Blogosphere - Christopher Cerf, a top deputy to Chancellor Joel Klein, was a "guestblogger" last week and the United Federation of Teachers president, Randi Weingarten, is posting this week at Eduwonk.com
Cherry Hill Courier Post, NJ: Nation must guarantee kids a good education - As some educators have pointed out, children requiring special education and coming from economically disadvantaged backgrounds can be more challenging to teach. But that doesn't justify leaving them behind academically. Until NCLB, that is exactly what was happening in too many districts. School districts rarely included the progress of special education students in their reports on academic achievement. Now, districts must not only include the scores of these students, but are being held accountable for making sure the pupils meet the minimum standards set by NCLB.
Washington Post: Charter Schools Take Root In Maryland - One thing MD officials agree on: the state's charter schools are popular. Nine charters are opening this school year, including the first one in St. Mary's County yesterday, bringing the state's total to 30 and enrollment to nearly 7,000.
East Texas Review: Decentralizing Texas Ed - If a home school industry leader, a charter school superintendent, a top urban school district official, and an upper-level state agency official can be made to agree on anything, it’s that one size does not fit all in Texas education.
Towson Times, MD: With scholarships, parents get choice - Children's Scholarship Fund Baltimore's mission is to provide privately funded tuition assistance so low-income families can send their children to nonpublic schools of their choice, rather than the families' assigned public schools. The program's motto is, "Giving parents a choice -- giving children a chance."
Press-Register, AL: Letters, faxes, and e-mail - At the present time, the Democratic Party and its teachers' union appointees are in control of public education, and have violated parents' constitutional right to decide how their children are educated.
August 22, 2007
August 22, 2007
Head of LAUSD teacher's union joining charter ranks, New Haven, CT parents cut off, GAO says districts must inform better ...
Grassroots Action in the news ...
Los Angeles Daily News, CA: Moving Forward - The head of the teachers union that represents LAUSD teachers says he has given up the fight against the popular charter school trend, and now wants to join it.
Daily Home, AL: School officials meet with Rogers - U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers offered the educators an open forum to discuss the No Child Left Behind Act. The group went point-by-point, discussing everything from the general fairness and effectiveness of NCLB, to how it affects special education students, English language learners and the consequences schools face for not meeting the criteria. School choice was at the top of their list.
abcnews4.com, SC: Students Take Classes On Cyberspace - Schools in rural areas are taking advantage of the program to help at risk students who need to make up credits. Dorchester School District Two already uses a software program for credit recovery for at risk students, so they are using the Virtual School Program to enhance students’ productivity.
Education Reform Outrage in the news ...
Conntact.com, CT: Board of Ed Outrage - Teachers' union officials in New Haven and elsewhere routinely place the blame for failing schools on parents who fail to prepare their children to learn or participate in the learning process. Now they are seeking to deal those same fed-up parents out of the education process entirely.
Deseret Morning News, UT: Education leaders miss No Child deadline - Utah education leaders have yet again missed the deadline to have federal No Child Left Behind report cards released, which has resulted in parents missing their chance to transfer their children to a different school by the first day of classes.
CBS5.com, CA: Calif. Lawsuit Challenges Teacher Certifications - When Maribel Heredia's son told her that his first-grade teacher was "going to college" and there would be a substitute in the classroom two days a week, she started asking questions. Only then did she learn the teacher the Hayward Unified School District labels "highly qualified" is still a student herself.
NYSED, NY: 27 schools named 'persistently dangerous' under NCLB - 27 schools have been identified as “persistently dangerous” under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. As required by federal law, the list of schools is being announced today so that parents can exercise their right of school choice. All schools designated as “persistently dangerous” must provide school choice to students where transfer options exist.
Examiner, DC: Alison Lake: School’s in, but many parents turn outside for better education - No Child Left Behind requires that Title I schools not meeting Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) provide tutoring to needy students. In spite of the NCLB mandate, many more children need supplemental education than receive it. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said states and school districts need to vastly improve how they advertise tutoring information to parents. Many issues can contribute to students not using services, including living in rural or dangerous areas without many tutor choices, a lack of information about them and language barriers.
School Choice in the news ...
Tulsa World, OK: Legislators hear merit in teacher pay plan - The conventional way of rewarding teachers based on experience and level of education isn't working. We want our most talented teachers to work with kids who need it the most. Teachers whose students' test scores improve appreciably, especially in low-income schools, should be rewarded with sizeable pay bonuses, an Arkansas official told Oklahoma lawmakers.
Lahontan Valley News, NV: Challenging the government education monopoly - I look forward to the day when each American family will freely choose the school they want to send their children to. Along with others, I take heart from the small signs that indicate the government death-grip on schools is weakening.
August 21, 2007
Los Angeles "Improvements"
This is celebratory?? Teachers not qualified fell to only 70% from 83% in 7 years??? How low are our expectations?
With this kind of rate of "improvement" no one wants to teach there!
Posted by Edspresso at 09:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
August 21, 2007
Dr. Smith goes to Albany, special-ed teachers twice-paid, FL dodges accountability, school choice works... so why not?, 72,000 Louisiana dropouts since Katrina ...
Grassroots Action in the news ...
New York Sun: ‘Parents Union' Founder Aims To Counter Albany Teachers - Dr. Smith's goal for School Choice New York is to gather together the parents of New York and then take them to Albany to demand a say in the way their schools are run. Among the policies he and his members say they'd like to see: vouchers that will use public money to pay for private schools, more charter schools, and a better Web site for the state Department of Education.
Orlando Sentinel, FL: Checking on Teachers - As promised, the state launched a new website today that allows anyone to go online and check on teachers who've been reprimanded.
Greenwich Time, CT: Merit Pay Case Could Set Precedent - The district wants to include a component that would put a pilot program in place to pay some nontenured teachers based on their performance on an evaluation.
Education Reform Outrage in the news ...
New Orleans City Business: Bookending Education - Statewide, 72,000 students have dropped out of high school since 2002. As a result, half of Louisiana employers can’t find employees with adequate reading skills and 75 percent can’t find employees with problem solving skills, according to information at www.blueprintlouisiana.org.
WUSA9.com, DC: DC schools payroll snafu being investigated - Getting paid twice for the same job? Apparently some employees in the Special Education Department were paid by the school system and also by private companies that were also paid by DC Schools.
The Heartland Institute: Florida Will Omit Vital NCLB Information Due to Scoring Error - Due to an inability to accurately determine the learning gains of fourth graders, Florida's Department of Education will exclude the data from its calculation in an effort to avoid penalizing teachers and students for a scoring mistake that caused inflated scores on the third-grade reading portion of the 2006 Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT).
Tribune Chronicle, OH: Few schools eligible for EdChoice - With the loss of higher achieving students through the EdChoice program contributing to the Warren district ‘‘academic watch" rating, a change for the better could be seen down the road thanks to the three buildings coming off the eligibility list.
School Choice in the news ...
Voice for School Choice: If it works, why aren't we doing it? - School choice works, and it will work right here in South Carolina as soon as parents can pry free of the educational chokehold that politicians and status quo educators are working overtime to maintain.
CNN Money: Liberating Kids From The Classroom -- But Not Exams - A sort of hybrid model has emerged called "virtual public schools." Like charter schools, these are funded by public monies as an alternative to the local district school, and follow a standard curriculum run by teachers. But they are conducted entirely online and by phone, so students can use them anywhere -- even at home. Thirty-eight states have authorized these virtual schools.
Earth Times, ID: Idaho Virtual Academy Begins 2007 School Year - All students are assigned to a state-certified teacher and receive an individualized learning program designed to meet their personal education needs.
Dallas Morning News: No strange bedfellow left behind here - NCLB has changed the way school systems must deal with students whose low achievement they could once ignore. This is particularly important for Latino and ELL (English-language learners) because too few have received education services that prepare them to leave high school ready to compete for seats at the nation's top colleges.
August 20, 2007
Embracing Charters Embraces Diversity, Democracy
The contrast between the Utah-based Ronald Reagan Charter and DC-based Cesar Chavez Public Policy Charter is a lesson in democracy, diversity and the strength of the charter school movement. Unencumbered by partisan politics and the ideology that seems to drive political parties to take sides with unions and with one another on these issues, the charters of this nation that were largely created by wide, bi-partisan cross sections of legislators really do exemplify what is right with education reform and the charter reform in particular. And particularly in this pre-election season, it’s a fitting lesson for our presidential candidates, some of whom seem still to want to pander to opponents, fearful that a full endorsement of charter schools might cause them the scorn of more partisan special interests.
If the teachers and communities in this country across red and blue states can embrace charters fully, every one of our aspiring presidents should be able to do so as well, and dispose of at least one volatile but critical issue in the public eye. A commitment to the freedom of parents to make choices over what kind of education their children should receive is the most basic of freedoms. The battle over this idea has been long over – recognize where the people are. The candidates need to catch up.
August 20, 2007
Cyber schools are accountable, teachers OK with merit pay, parents so confused they hire professionals to inform on school choice ...
Lebanon Daily News, PA: Like them or not, cyber schools prove accountable - Accountability: A quality cyber-charter like CCA actually has greater accountability — both state-required and self-imposed — than any traditional school I have known. Although I know school districts often think of education funding as “their” money, deep down inside we all understand that we are merely stewards of those funds.
Ocala Star-Banner, FL: Funding scheme a key to advancing virtual learning - What makes Florida Virtual's funding scheme a model for the nation, though, is that it's not restricted by a fixed budget. While many other online schools must cut off enrollment when they reach budget limits, Florida Virtual can expand to meet demand. State law says a student cannot be denied a virtual class if academically appropriate.
Ocala Star-Banner, FL: Florida leads growth in virtual schooling - About 2,700 full-time and 51,400 part-time Florida students in grades six through 12 get lessons over the Internet from teachers scattered across the state and nation. Struggling students can take more time to finish courses while those who are gifted can go at a faster speed. Virtual learning also can help alleviate classroom overcrowding and it permits students to take classes not offered by their local schools.
Columbus Dispatch, OH: 2 online schools overlook truancy - A student in an e-school is removed for truancy after not logging in for 21 consecutive days. Policies differ from school to school, but some of the schools that reported perfect, or near-perfect, attendance didn't count the unexcused absences of their truant students.
Deseret Morning News, UT: UT Charter Celebrates Top Rating - Serving mostly low-income and minority students, more than 90 percent of UT Elementary third- and fourth-grade students who took the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills in the spring passed each subject to earn the rating. Furthermore, more than 90 percent of students in all ethnic and economic groups passed in all subjects.
Coon Rapids ECM Publishers, MN: Minnesota Department of Education receives $1.9 million federal grant for voluntary school choice - The U.S. Department of Education awarded 14 grants in 12 states through a competitive process for the purpose of furthering public school choice. Minnesota’s grant provides nearly $1.9 million per year for five years to be used for the Minnesota Voluntary Public School Choice Project, which works to expand The Choice is Yours program and other choice options. The project is aimed at all Minneapolis-area urban and suburban families and students, with a focus on families whose children attend low-performing schools. School choice options include traditional neighborhood schools, magnet schools, charter schools, and inter-district schools.
Denver Post: Break the inertia with drastic measures - We now know how to create an effective public school. There is a small but growing list of innovative district and charter schools where most of the students succeed, regardless of a student's economic class or skin color. But we frequently fail to heed the lessons offered.
The Tennessean: More time needed to make school choice, parents say - One parent says she wishes the school district could make transfer arrangements earlier in the school year before parents buy uniforms and school supplies. Transferring to a new school eight weeks into the school year isn't the optimal choice, but it's one that many families are willing to make.
Whittier Daily News, CA: With so many school options, confused parents now are hiring consultants to help them pick the right educational answer for their children - The varied and confusing education options have opened an entire business for educational consultants. For a couple of hundred dollars, professional school finders will help parents lacking either time, money, or both, to sort through L.A. school options and come up with a shortlist of schools that best suit their children.
Springdale Morning News, AK: Private Schools Difficult to Track - The Arkansas Department of Education doesn't know how many private schools are in Arkansas or how many students attend them. There are no state rules, regulations or laws governing private schools.
Centre Daily Times, PA: Teachers say 'yes' to merit pay tied to test scores - The National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers oppose linking a teacher's paycheck to how well their students do on tests. But that is not stopping Rob Weil, the AFT's deputy director of educational issues, from helping local unions hammer out contracts that include new merit-pay plans.
Las Cruces Sun News, NM: NM Leading Nation in Teacher Certification Program - The program enables teachers to become certified so students can receive the necessary skills in class to receive certification after graduation. The program also gives the teachers the ability to certify the students.
NY1, NY: Klein Coming Up On Five Years As City Schools Chancellor - Klein says he's all for class-size reduction, but wants to take time finding the right teachers. It’s a go slow approach that puts him at odds with union president Randi Weingarten.
Orangeburg Times Democrat, SC: State Superintendant of education to hold town hall meeting - "We have spent the summer planning an aggressive approach to education reform. I'm eager to visit every community in South Carolina to get public input and ultimately the support needed to accomplish a great deal next year," Jim Rex said.
August 17, 2007
August 17, 2007
DC Chancellor Rhee answers questions by radio, MA parents not moving on choices, PA bill: public schools run virtual program, ...
Education Reform Outrage in the news ...
Fresno Bee, CA: Valley students test lower - More than half of the students in the Valley's biggest school districts are not proficient in three key subjects -- math, English and science -- and performed worse than their counterparts across California, state test results released Wednesday show.
Bulletin, PA: Cyber Charter Schooling Battle Culminates in Haverford - State Rep. Greg Vitali, D-Delaware, has introduced HB 1655, which, if enacted, will enable school districts to cut off funding for cyber charter schools if they establish their own cyber program in-house. "My bill doesn't take away any parental choice," because parents can still send their children to a cyber charter school established by public schools.
Baltimore Sun: Perils of less progress - The Anne Arundel County school system has held Brooklyn Park up as a model, particularly its innovative parent-teacher conferences led by the students, who share what they're learning in school and map strategies on how to improve. But this week, Brooklyn Park was one of 14 county schools that found themselves on the state's watch list.
Worchester Telegram, MA: School choice not a big deal - The city’s school choice offerings do not seem to be the choices people outside Worcester want. Shortly after the School Committee voted this spring to accept out-of-district students for the first time through the state’s school choice program, parents from out of town called inquiring about kindergarten spots and openings at the Worcester Technical High School. But now that the list of available spaces has been published — and neither of those options are on it — no one is biting, according to Robert Vartanian, school choice coordinator at the district’s Parent Information Center.
This Week, OH: District slips in state's rating system - Despite meeting state standards on 29 of 30 indicators and achieving an "excellent" performance index of 102.4, the state is calling Worthington a "continuous improvement" district because it failed to meet "Adequate Yearly Progress" (AYP) targets for three years in a row.
Asbury Park Press, NJ: Almost a quarter of New Jersey schools fail to meet federal standards - A total of 618 schools — about 25 percent of the roughly 2,400 schools in the state — did not meet their yearly progress standards. Of those, 517 schools went two years in a row without meeting the standards under the federal No Child Left Behind legislation, according to the state. Thirty-eight schools have failed to meet the progress standards for seven years in a row, the state reported.
NorthJersey.com, NJ: Six Passaic, Paterson schools fail for 7th straight year - Six schools in Passaic and Paterson failed to make adequate progress for the seventh year in a row.This is the seventh year of testing since the law went into effect. The state has not given out any guidelines for schools in their seventh consecutive year of sanctions, including five Paterson elementary schools and Passaic's Lincoln Middle School 4.
Grassroots Action in the news ...
WTOPnews.com: D.C. Schools Chancellor to Appear on Washington Post Radio - Michelle Rhee has been hired to fix a broken system. She is the new D.C. Schools Chancellor and she will be live on Washington Post Radio, Friday, August 17, from 12-1 p.m.
Bulletin, PA: Answering Your FAQs About Charter Schools - Are cyber schools unaccountable? Are cyber schools underperforming? Don't cyber schools get too much funding? Don't cyber schools drive up property taxes? These questions and more are being addressed and answered in the press, backed up by real data.
Virginian-Pilot: Lieutenant governor brings idea-hunting tour to Chesapeake - Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling = is looking for 100 ideas. Got any? Bolling brought his Town Hall Idearaiser tour for the Future of Virginia initiative to town Thursday, giving Hampton Roads residents a chance to offer solutions to some of the commonwealth’s most pressing problems.
School Choice in the news ...
Glendale Star, AZ: Challenge Charter School honored by national group - With Challenge Charter School students regularly meeting AYP (adequate yearly progress) and earning an Excelling label from the Arizona Department of Education’s accountability ranking, the school is getting noticed by national charter school organizations. The most recent of the many awards Challenge Charter School has garnered was the Charter School of the Year from the National Center for Education Reform. “What the award represents is the accomplishments of the school,” Principal Greg Miller said. “The accomplishments of the teachers, students, parents, family and staff. I am linked to it only because I am the principal.”
News Now 2, SC: SC School Choice - A conservative think tank says South Carolina can save money by using public money to send kids to private school. State education officials agreed that improving the state's worst-in-the-nation dropout rate would save money, but did not support the study's overall findings.
Augusta Chronicle, SC: Report backs school choice - Unsuccessful so far in convincing the General Assembly to pass a school-choice plan, two groups have compiled a report detailing what South Carolina's high dropout rate costs the state and calculating how school choice could help. By increasing competition among schools, the report says, the state's graduation rate would increase 2.4 to 4.8 percent - thereby raising tax revenues while reducing Medicaid and incarceration costs. "Dropping out not only costs children their hopes and dreams, it costs taxpayers millions of dollars every year and the state thousands of jobs," said Robert Enlow, the Friedman Foundation's executive director. School-choice advocates point to successes - notably, the approval of state-sponsored charter schools and an expansion of South Carolina's virtual-school program.
August 16, 2007
National Standards: A Hopeless Cause
In yesterday’s Washington Times, Alan I. Leshner, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, declared that it’s high time America had national science standards. “With the No Child Left Behind Act up for renewal,” he wrote, “an essential next step is clear….Revise NCLB to set voluntary nationwide education standards.” But is having national standards really the clear next step toward educational excellence? Not if history or current events has anything to say about it.
Consider recent history. Anyone remember the voluntary national standards debacle of the mid-1990s? You know, when the standards went nowhere politically but created a huge, nationwide controversy? What happened there?
It turns out, Americans are extremely diverse, and not just in terms of ethnicity, religion, or race. We also hold very strong and divergent opinions concerning both what to teach and how to teach our children, even in subjects such as mathematics that nationalizers insist should be the same everywhere and for all people. The result in the mid-1990s was that no one could agree on common standards, and none were implemented.
But what if we could somehow forge a consensus around powerful, rigorous standards that really would challenge our students and schools? Then wouldn’t improvement be guaranteed?
Here’s where current events – in particular, implementation of NCLB – are instructive.
NCLB supporters loudly promise excellence, just as national standards champions would were their policies enacted. But something has fallen apart between NCLB’s promise and reality: It seems that the only way the law is going to accomplish its 100 percent proficiency goal is by states making “proficient” synonymous with, well, “there’s no way that’s proficient!” As the Institute of Education Sciences recently found, not only have most states set their proficiency levels below the National Assessment of Educational Progress’s proficiency threshold, many have actually set them below NAEP’s basic level!
Ah, but isn’t keeping states from weaseling out of real accountability exactly why we need national standards?
In theory, yes, but even if we pass rigorous national standards, they would have to be enforced, and enforcement is something Washington has never done effectively. When push has come to shove, no administration has ever been willing to really “get tough” with the state leaders, education bureaucrats, teacher unions, and other powerful interests who don’t want to be held to high – and difficult to attain – standards.
Heck, the Bush administration is about as dedicated to NCLB as any group can be, but even Secretary Spellings dodges real enforcement of the law. States have been sabotaging NCLB’s school choice, persistently dangerous schools, and other accountability provisions since day one, and yet Spellings declared in a Newshour report just this Tuesday that she chooses “to believe that the people in states are working hard to improve education for their kids. Have we made progress? Have we raised the level of intensity, and the level of rigor, and the level of anxiety for grownups to respond to kids? You bet we have.”
Lest you think this is just a Republican trying to defend her president’s signature domestic accomplishment, recall that NCLB’s predecessor, the Improving America’s Schools Act, was overseen by a Democrat and totally ignored by numerous states. A paralyzing fear of special interests is truly bipartisan. Indeed, the entire forty-plus year history of federal involvement in education has been defined by abundant federal cash, lots of lofty promises, and almost nothing by way of accountability or educational success.
Now, if we were somehow able to enact and enforce rigorous national standards there would still be huge problems – such standards would only make our competition and innovation problems even worse, for instance – but those aren’t issues we even need to address right now. Why? Because as both history and current events make clear, rigorous national standards, at least through Washington, will never, ever, come to be.
Neal McCluskey is a policy analyst with Cato's Center for Educational Freedom. Prior to arriving at Cato, McCluskey served in the U.S. Army, taught high school English, and was a freelance reporter covering municipal government and education in suburban New Jersey. Mr. McCluskey is the author of Feds in the Classroom: How Big Government Corrupts, Cripples, and Compromises American Education.
August 16, 2007
Proposed high school aims for diploma and associate's degree at graduation, in SC, Rex reverts on choice, why penalize cybers? ...
Grassroots Action in the news ...
East Valley Tribune, AZ: Mesa High students scrub in for health class - 80 Mesa high school students took their first formal steps toward becoming doctors, nurses and medical technicians on Monday when they started classes at the new Health Science High School.
Independent Tribune, NC: Research campus could house non-traditional high school - A unique high school on the North Carolina Research Campus that would allow students to graduate with both a diploma and associate’s degree. “It’s another way of looking at high school,” said Peggy Wagstaff, assistant superintendent for Kannapolis City Schools. “Early College High Schools,” are typically based within community college or university campuses.
Education Reform Outrage in the news ...
The State, SC: Rex alters school choice plan - Rex said Wednesday he will drop a recommendation that local districts must accept students from other public-school systems. “We need legislation to get all districts to embrace the idea of offering more choices,” Rex said. The House of Representatives in June sustained a gubernatorial veto of a bill that would have forced all 85 districts to offer some version of school choice to all students if space was available.
Cincinnati Post: New tests bring down scores - T.J. Wallace, interim president of School Choice Ohio, called it a sad day for the parents his group represents, who are seeking an array of quality public and private educational options. The number of schools in the top category fell more than 25 percent ... how would Ohioans feel if one in four of our hospitals fell from an excellent rating in one year? They'd find that alarming, and this should be, too. In all, 53 fewer districts and 147 fewer schools were rated "excellent" during the 2006-2007 school year.
School Choice in the news ...
Voice for School Choice: The Times They Are A’ Changin’ - Despite a tremendous achievement gap between whites and blacks and abysmal test scores and graduation rates, the majority of African-American legislators in Columbia have remained completely unwilling to empower African-American parents with school choice.
Times Online, PA: Higher enrollment means longer payroll - The PA Cyber Charter School and related entities now rank as one of Beaver County's largest employers. If cyber education keeps growing as it has, Trombetta speculated it will soon become one of the state's top industries.
York Dispatch: Why penalize cyber schools? - Legislators considering bills that would cut funding to the cyber schools -- in effect defunding tomorrow -- need to take a step back and weigh the benefit of immediate political support against what clearly is the wave of the future in education.
August 15, 2007
August 15, 2007
virtual school spreading the news in WA, charters join pilot for reform, WA one of 10 states without charter laws, virtual academy floating - doesn't need grant ...
Grassroots Action in the news...
News Tribune, WA: Learn about virtual academy online or at five real places - Parents and students interested in Washington Virtual Academy can attend one of several upcoming informational sessions.
Delawareonline.com: 10 schools picked to pilot 'Vision' reform - Vision 2015 has selected four school districts and two charter schools to take part in a program to pilot educational reforms that group leaders hope will ripple throughout the state.
Lewis-Clark State College: LCSC is helping fourth grade teachers with Math and Science - Lewis-Clark State College Education Division is holding a one week workshop on linking Science and Literacy for 20 fourth grade teachers presenting materials and strategies that have shown to significantly increase students' knowledge of science as well as their ability to effectively communicate that knowledge.
National Catholic Register: Back to School for Vouchers? - In the school-voucher movement, a bright spot briefly flickered for poor parents, only to be snuffed out. But now, Rep. Carrie Meek D.-Fla, a strong opponent of vouchers in the past, is switching sides... it’s time to “get out of our comfortable boxes and do what’s best for our kids.”
Education Reform Outrage in the news ...
Union-Bulletin, WA: Voters nixed charter schools in 2004 - Washington is one of only 10 states to have not yet passed charter school laws, according to The Center for Education Reform. In the other 40 states and the District of Columbia, there are now more than 4,000 charter schools operating, and their numbers continue to grow.
Tampabays10.com: New Student Assignment Plan Needs More Work - Many families say the Pinellas County assignment plan offers them less school choice. Even though the rules say the public is not allowed to speak up during a school board workshop, dozens of Pinellas parents who send their kids to fundamental schools did send a loud message by showing up at today's meeting.
Shreveport Times, LA: Frederic Deon Washington: Variety of factors affect students' performance - Many jump to the conclusion that once a school is classified as "academically unacceptable" that the teachers and administrators aren't doing what they need to do and that the students aren't taking the importance of their education into consideration, but that isn't the case.
Courier Press, KY: School Choice Shifts Pupils and Pressure - The irony of school choice, Washington Principal Rance Ossenberg said, is that when families pull out of one school believing another one is superior academically, a side effect is larger class sizes and less one-on-one instruction at the new schools.
School Choice in the news ...
Education Week: Virtual Academy Forgoes Grant - The Arkansas project decided not to reapply for any of the program’s $25 million in grants because it now has a steady funding stream as a statewide charter school - the Arkansas Virtual Academy.
Kansas.com: Nine Wichita schools required to allow student transfers - Along with school choice, Nine Wichita schools will have to offer transfers, provide free tutors to help students improve in reading and math and may face other sanctions such as creating new curriculum, replacing some staff, extending the school day or school year or hiring consultants to provide leadership.
Arkansas Blog: Merit Pay Results - The Little Rock School District distributed today a news release about the results of merit pay projects at five district elementary schools.
August 14, 2007
Payroll Blunders
Michelle Rhee is standing up to the bureaucracy, exposing an abundance of employees who don't even know their job descriptions amid a serious missing textbook problem. But DC public schools may not be the lone bad apple. Passing Notes, RI's Education Reform blog, found that even though Rhode Island's Public Schools Department has said it has "cut all the fat," it still has much more fat to cut, with over 40 administrative assistants on their payroll, and several of those education leaders have multiple assistants.
Who can top this? Send your nominations to Edspresso.
August 14, 2007
Mythbusters: More money equals better education? Private schools can't meet special education needs? Wrong to both!, Missouri follows money myth ...
Georgetown News-Graphic, KY: Who ya gonna call? Mythbusters! -
Myth: More money automatically results in a better education for Kentucky students.
Busted: If more money automatically means a better education for students, how is it that schools spending piles of hard-earned tax dollars are turning in some of the worst academic performances, and vice versa?
Myth: Offering school-choice scholarships for Kentucky's 109,000 special-needs students won't work. Private schools are not equipped - or amenable - to dealing with these children.
Busted: Those who promote this fable are saying to parents: "You're stuck. Even if a school-choice law is passed, you won't really have alternatives." It's promoting surrender based on myths. But the Bluegrass Institute analysis of the fiscal impact of creating such a school-choice law contains contact information for 408 private schools in Kentucky.
St. Louis Today, MO: One-third of Missouri districts haven't met federal academic goals - Nearly one-third of the state's 524 school districts learned Monday they have fallen short of federal education standards — a list that a state education official cautioned will grow as government benchmarks become more rigorous. Most of the 167 districts landed on the "improvement list" because specific groups of students, such as those needing special education and those learning English as a second language, fell short on state tests. But the idea behind No Child Left Behind is that if one group of students falls short academically, the whole school falls short.
News-Leader.com, MO: What's the answer to this problem? - Unfortunately, the recent adequacy lawsuit trend mistakenly focuses on money, rather than encouraging changes that are needed to improve Missouri schools. The suits claim that current state funding cannot provide an "adequate" education for students, and prescribe a solution: give school districts more money. To help the public schools succeed, Missouri should focus on incentive-based reforms like parental choice, rather than adequacy litigation.
HeraldNet, WA: School watch list will grow - In the past, Washington State required 40 special education students at the fourth-grade level for an elementary school to be judged on whether it is making adequate yearly progress. Under the old calculations, most schools in Snohomish County didn't have enough special education students to be counted. Not anymore. The new calculation will combine at least three grade levels of special education scores.
Tennessean: Law needs to be reworked, and parents must get involved - State Education Department officials said Metro and Robertson County haven't improved performance enough for four years in testing for English Language Learners and special education students, giving state authority to intervene in their daily operations — from analyzing how they spend money to choosing which educators teach the subjects in which students consistently scored poorly.
WVUA-TV.com, AL: City School System Facilitating School Change - Every parent in Tuscaloosa City Schools who has requested a school choice transfer will receive that, will have that honored. We can’t guarantee that they will actually receive their first choice; however, we do guarantee that they will receive a selected school, one of the four receiving schools, if it’s an elementary school.
Morning News, AK: Growing District Grapples with Student Transfer Questions - Arkansas has a school choice law that allows a parent or guardian to request a student attend a district other than the one in which the family lives. However, Bentonville and Rogers school boards routinely deny requests for students who live outside those districts to transfer into those districts. The school choice law allows districts that have reached at least 85 percent of their student capacity to deny out-of-district transfers into district schools.
August 13, 2007
August 13, 2007
School Choice opponents' strategies for blocking reform, NCLB and Desegregation at odds, Cyber schools just click, real options for parents ...
Education Reform Outrage
Wall Street Journal: Back to Failing Schools - School choice opponents employ many tools to stop reformers, including capping the number of charters in a state and forcing charters to pay rent out of operating funds.
Voice for School Choice: Please Think of the Children - When defenders of the status quo refuse to let parents pick something other than their (failing) local public school, they’re saying that maintaining the current system is more important than providing a good education for children.
Los Angeles Daily News: Budget bill would undermine education reform - Under a bill in the California Legislature, the state board still could grant a charter, but only for three years. After that, the charter would revert to the local district, which could bushwhack the operation. It's hard to imagine any charter school applying to the state under those circumstances.
Commercial Dispatch, MS: County ready to open doors to CAFB kids - The ball is rolling on offering school district choice to Columbus Air Force Base families, but some board members hold fast that their constituents don't want choice: not for the CAFB kids, not for the county, not at all.
FloridaToday.com: Palm Bay: District out of bounds - Palm Bay hired an attorney to appeal Brevard Public Schools' denial of three charter applications and the district's effort to maintain control over all charters in the county... the district has made it clear that it doesn't want charters.
St. Petersburg Times, FL: Schools plan needs work - Pinellas County's proposed student assignment plan reduces the options for high school students in ways that may produce unintended consequences and are at odds with a survey of parents.
Times News, NC: Parents weigh children's school options - The district says this is a tough year for scheduling school choice. Parents are concerned about the district's decision-making.
News 10 KLFY, LA: Parents Have Concerns About Ville Platte High Rating and Choices - Parents are confused after media has been communicating school choice options, and the district denies its validity. Here, NCLB and SCOTUS conflict. Louisiana's department of education confirmed Ville Platte High was on the list of schools required to offer choice under Title I; however, the district cannot overstep the bounds of their desegregation order from the Supreme Court.
Grassroots Action in the news ...
Advocate, CT: Stamford Achieves passes state's test for tutoring - Stamford Achieves, a nonprofit group dedicated to closing the achievement gap between white and minority students, has received state accreditation to provide elementary math and reading tutoring that meets the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
Yakima Herald, OR: New programs give Yakima students more options - Students in Yakima public schools will have a few more alternatives to the traditional classroom when school resumes later this month: a virtual school, a home-school program, and the Yakima School of the Arts.
World Magazine: Driven to educate - Detroit's controversial new school superintendent Connie Calloway wants to change the face of blighted schools. "More than a hundred thousand kids in Detroit need a voice. Who would be their voice?"
wjz.com, MD: Baltimore County Schools Offer New Report Cards - Baltimore County schools have developed a new progress reporting system aimed at giving parents a better idea of exactly what their kids are learning.
School Choice in the news ...
Daily American, PA: Back to cyber school - More than 120 students in Somerset County, and 16,000 statewide, attend cyber school rather than a traditional brick and mortar school. Every school district in the county is now home to at least one cyber school student. At the state's largest and fastest growing cyber school, Pa. Virtual Charter School, enrollment has increased from 6,000 students last year to an expected enrollment of 7,500 students this September. Megan Ash, an instructional supervisor at the school, attributed the growth to increased awareness about school choice.
Tampa Bay Online, FL: Virtual Schools Click With Parents - So what are virtual schools getting right? The curriculum is unbelievable, offering classes in Spanish and Mandarin Chinese, it would astound you the progress these children make. Through virtual learning, the students have a lot more individual contact with their teachers, and a lot more parent involvement. They're in a safe environment, learning at their own pace. Whereas both virtual schools in Florida made A's on the competitive FCAT, traditional public schools continue to fail.
Talahassee.com, FL: Reassessing the Assessment Test - Possible changes are still only pending, but educators who previously believed their concerns were routinely ignored now say the Florida Department of Education is eagerly seeking outside input on how to improve the test instead of just dutiful compliance.
St. Petersburg Times, FL: Black leaders rethink vouchers - For years, teachers and others who opposed private school vouchers in Florida could count on black lawmakers to stand with them. But there are signs that support may be cracking.
Vail Daily, CO: Local schools pick temporary chief - Eagle County is the only school district in the nation to eliminate the “lock step” salary program which guarantees how much a teacher will be paid every year.
Star Press, IN: Schools push to help low-income students catch up - Citing the connection between income and student performance, it's really telling you that what we are measuring has far less to do with performance on the part of schools and more to do with the help that kids from lower-income homes are not getting. There are kids that can learn, but they simply have to have more time, and they have to have more remediation, and until the state steps up and makes the decision that we're really going to educate those kids, they aren't going to get the additional time that they need - that's the ultimate problem.
Daily Reflector, NC: Schools will spell out options for parents - Some of the requirements for schools under school improvement include school choice, tutoring and school restructuring.
August 10, 2007
August 10, 2007
Virtual Schools offer students more, Jewish charter paves way, more school choice "democratic schools" offered, what does improvement list mean? ...
Education Reform Outrage in the news ...
Examiner, DC: Feds probing D.C.’s migrant education grants - The U.S. Attorney’s Office in D.C. is threatening a lawsuit to get back its losses from the D.C. schools’ Migrant Education Program, which claimed to be educating up to 971 children per year at its peak. A 2005 audit found there were no such children in the D.C. schools.
Grassroots Action in the news ...
Daniel Island News, SC: South Carolina Virtual Schools Program offers a new educational option for high-school students - The South Carolina Virtual Schools Program, which was signed into law in May by Gov. Mark Sanford, gives students greater flexibility to earn graduation credits online and take courses such as Advanced Placement or foreign languages that aren’t normally offered in many school districts. SCVS’ goal is to provide a statewide supplemental or alternative online program for 9th-12th-grade students by giving them equitable access to rich and varied learning opportunities.
Jewish Journal, CA: Jewish-oriented charter school in Florida to open amid controversy - The new Ben Gamla Charter School in Hollywood, FL could serve as a national model, providing families with a financially accessible option at a time when most non-Orthodox households are opting not to send their children to Jewish day schools. Critics worry that it will serve as a road map for religious communities seeking to lower the wall separating church and state.
Colorado Springs Gazette: 'R' REMOVED - Thursday night, the Falcon School District 49 board adopted one of the Pikes Peak region’s strictest policies governing the showing of movies in high school classrooms, banning R-rated films and requiring parental permission for PG-13 movies. The board’s unanimous decision was protested by teachers and came after two years’ debate over academic freedom.
Tanasi Journal, TN: No Child Left Behind: Improving Education in Indian Country - Hearing Aug 10 in Sante Fe - NIEA is encouraging everyone to attend the hearing and/or submit written testimony that highlights the areas where NCLB is working in your schools, in addition to areas that could use greater support and strengthening.
School Choice in the news...
Lower Hudson Online, NY: