Tis the season … Virtual program gives the gift of science (PR Newswire), Students’ wish list at one CA charter is straight from the heart (San Diego Union Tribune), OH gives parents the gift of knowledge (Cleveland Plain Dealer). Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Edspresso! Morning Shots will resume in January.

Did the Dog Eat Mills’s Homework?
New York Sun, December 21, 2007
The alarm comes from the growing gap between the results on the fourth and eighth grade math and English language arts tests administered by state and similar tests administered by the federal government.

K12 Presents Gift to Families and Schools Across the World
PR Newswire, December 20, 2007
Free web-based science lessons demonstrate how the amazing K12 curriculum enables mastery and makes learning come alive!

With Little Time Left, Trenton Lawmakers Weigh New Formula for School Financing
New York Times, December 21, 2007
Less than three weeks before the end of the legislative session, state lawmakers began circulating a bill on Thursday that would overhaul the formula New Jersey uses to finance its public schools.

Value-Added Education Data Becomes Available To Ohio Parents
Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio, December 20, 2007
These new Ohio Department of Education data provide a microscopic view of the classroom that should help teachers and principals figure out what’s working and what’s not.

Third-Graders’ Holiday Wishes Come Straight From The Heart
San Diego Union Tribune, California, December 21, 2007
The children attend Darnall Charter School near College and University avenues, where 85 percent of the students qualify for the federal free or reduced-price lunch program.

Charter Schools
Winston-Salem Journal, North Carolina, December 21, 2007
The Blue Ribbon Charter School Study Commission has come out with a pair of recommendations that the General Assembly should adopt, even if the state’s educational establishment doesn’t like them.

Charter Schools Could Be Community Opportunity
Bloomington Pantagraph, Illinois, December 21, 2007
While I fully support the proposed expansion and related expenditures, I urge our community to consider future options that include progressive educational alternatives.

Sac High Keeps Charter
Sacramento Bee, California, December 21, 2007
Kevin Johnson’s St. HOPE Corp. received permission Thursday night to run Sacramento Charter High School for another five years when the Sacramento City Unified school board voted 6-1 to renew the school’s charter.

Jordan High Won’t Join Villaraigosa’s School Partnership
Los Angeles Times, California, December 21, 2007
But under an agreement between the district and the teachers union, the mayor’s plan needed a majority of a school’s entire bargaining-unit, regardless of how many voted.

Charter Schools Hit Snag After A Decade
Las Vegas Review, Nevada, December 17, 2007
Moratoriums have been used historically to slow or stop education reforms such as charter schools when they are on the verge of becoming successful and plentiful, she said. "It is very clear the state board’s reaction is owing entirely to the fact that charter schools are necessary and in demand and are likely to grow with changes in the law," Allen said.

Schools Of Education: Academic Slums
D.C. Examiner, December 20, 2007
American education will never be improved until we address one of the problems seen as too delicate to discuss. That problem is the overall quality of people teaching our children.

Options Are Needed In Education
St. Cloud Times, Minnesota, December 20, 2007
Public schools seem to have an insatiable appetite for money. Even when they get a funding increase via local levies or state aid, they still seem to come right back and ask for more.

A Reading Program’s Powerful Patron
Washington Post, D.C., December 20, 2007
Landrieu’s earmark illustrates the unusual role that Congress has played in shaping the District’s troubled school system.

Indiana Will Be Test Site Of New Teacher Prep Program
D.C. Examiner, December 20, 2007
Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, which oversees several other education initiatives, plans to use Indiana as a model as it expands the program to other states.

Ellington’s Alma Mater to Become Charter School
D.C. Examiner, December 20, 2007
The former Armstrong Manual Training School, where jazz great Duke Ellington studied, will undergo an overhaul starting early next year so it can become a charter school by the fall, a school representative said Wednesday.

Charter Schools Outshine Others as They Receive Their First Report Cards
New York Times, December 20, 2007
Education officials, acting under the city’s new system of accountability, released report cards on Wednesday for several charter schools, with the majority receiving A’s and B’s, but one school in Queens getting an F.

Charter Fight: Can’t Beat ‘Em? Sue ‘Em
The Oklahoman, Oklahoma, December 20, 2007
We don’t buy the idea that Tulsa school officials were thinking about Oklahoma children when they decided this week to sue over the state’s charter school law. As with many lawsuits, this one’s about money and power.

More Charter Schools Sought
News & Observer, North Carolina, December 20, 2007
A state commission wants to significantly increase the number of charter schools while also closing charter schools that are failing academically.

All the parents and teachers they wanted reform.
They looked for solutions to break from the norm.
They wanted things better, that’s why they were fighting,
To make sure their kids would learn reading and writing
And science and math and history too
For everyone’s children, not just a few.

But the Blob and its grinches, they hated reform.
"Imagine," they sniffed " trying to break from the norm."
Standards, and charters, and school choice and such
This ed-reform business is much, much too much.

Who are they, these people, this reform-minded crew
Who think they know better than us what to do?
We’ll fix them,
We’ll teach them,
We’ll show them who’s boss.

We’ll make doubly sure that they suffer a loss.
We’ll stop all their harping and carping and cries
We’ll tell all the people their numbers are lies.
We’ll say that they’re wrong And without hesitation,
We’ll say that they’re out
To destroy education.

Oh, we’ll offer solutions - the people will buy it,
All we will need say is, " It won’t hurt to try it."
Whole language, new math,
And lots of things pending
(Which, of course, will require more billions in spending.)

And for those who ask questions or say it’s a waste,
With great condescension, they’ll be put in their place.
We’ll stop the reformers, we’ll stop them, we will,
Because after all,
We’re the kings of the Hill.

So the Blob and it’s grinches
Embarked on their task
To make sure that all things reform finished last.

But the parents and teachers and grandparents too,
Went on with their work, they knew what to do.

The Blob might have money and power and might.
But that didn’t mean that they knew what was right.
And no matter the odds, or how long it might take,
The reformers were steadfast… a difference they’d make.

They wouldn’t be quiet
And they wouldn’t give in
And whenever they lost, they would just start again.
They offered suggestions and wrote legislation
And some ran for office, (to the Blob’s consternation).

We’ll stop these reformers the Blob-grinches blustered
And what we can’t stop we will just filibuster.
We’ll do all we can, oh we’ve got a few tricks,
After all it’s our business to play politics.
Against our opponents we’ll spend, spend galore.
And for those who are with us, we’ll spend even more.

And when it was over the Blob danced with glee
Their efforts had let to a great victory.
They’d shown the reformers, and now they could say
"Just take your reforms, now take them away."
But the parents and teachers and grandparents too,
Just smiled at the Blob, because everyone knew:
That for all of its millions and for all of its might,
The Blob had not managed to carry the fight.

No matter the money and time overspent
No matter how much their support they had lent
In state after state they had failed to defeat
The education reformers they said they would beat.

And when it was over the fact remained still,
That they couldn’t be really the King of the hill.
And for all of their ranting and raving and storm
They’ve really done nothing to stop ed-reform.

Our thanks to the CER alum who penned this ed-reform anthem for all the families and activists out in Whoville fighting the good fight to make schools work better for all children.

Combining Middle, High Schools Catches On Across U.S.
D.C. Examiner, December 18, 2007
Educators from New York City to Pittsburgh to Sacramento are praising combination middle-high schools as a way of preventing students from dropping out.

No Child Left Alone
USA Today, December 18, 2007
And yet as we earnestly try to fix what’s broken, we are, in the process, turning an entire generation of children into a giant flock of canaries in the coal mine.

Governors Cite Education Records
Education Week, December 17, 2007
The three current presidential hopefuls with experience as state governors have records on education that offer voters an unusually detailed preview of what the nation’s schools might expect if any of the three should win the White House next year.

Two Predominantly Hispanic Charter Schools Named Among ‘America’s Best High Schools’ by U.S. News and World Report
Hispanic PR Wire, Florida, December 17, 2007
Academica, one of the largest, high-performing charter school service and support organizations in the country, announced that two of its Miami-Dade County charter schools….

Orange County Teachers Vote Down Merit Pay
Orlando Sentinel, Florida, December 18, 2007
The results of a September survey by the district’s teacher’s union is finally in. It might seem like old news at this point…but Orange’s teachers appear to really dislike merit-pay proposals.

Rhee’s Plans Likely to Pass, Lawmakers Say
Washington Post, D.C., December 18, 2007
The D.C. Council will probably approve two bills today that would give Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee the authority to fire nonunion central office employees and the funds to carry out the proposed closings of 23 public schools, several lawmakers said.

DC Parents Protest Plan to Convert Catholic Schools To Charter Schools
Catholic World News, December 17, 2007
More than 800 people in Washington, DC, have signed a petition urging the Washington archdiocese to abandon plans to turn 7 parochial schools into charter schools working with the public school system.

No Doubt It’s Cliché, But It’s Also Heartfelt
Los Angeles Times, California, December 18, 2007
The line of families waiting for food handouts wound down the block and around the corner on a busy stretch of Jefferson Boulevard outside the Celerity Nascent Charter School on Monday.

Schools Accused of Pushing Mainstreaming to Cut Costs
Wall Street Journal, December 14, 2007
Now, some experts and parents complain that mainstreaming has increasingly taken on a new role in American education: a pretext for cost-cutting, hurting the children it was supposed to help.

Bush Signs Head Start Renewal, With Reservations
Education Week, December 13, 2007
President Bush has signed into law a long-awaited bill reauthorizing Head Start for five years, but he criticized the measure for…

Class Size Matters
Daily Planet, Minnesota, December 13, 2007
He concluded that smaller class sizes at the earliest grades had substantial benefits especially for minority students.

Vouchers Are The Obvious Choice
Star-Ledger, New Jersey, December 14, 2007
We need more school choice. We need to break the monopoly of the public school system. We need to build on this success by at least experimenting with vouchers in the K-12 system. 

Listen To Schools, Not Union Whines
Denver Post, Colorado, December 14, 2007
It’s a given that Colorado teachers unions continually fight against parental school choice. We know they whine about accountability. We know they’re not crazy about charter schools, either.

Police, Teachers, Government Workers Form Group To Fight Tax Cut Plan
Sun-Sentinel, Florida, December 14, 2007
Teachers, firefighters and police - the frontline workers who could feel the biggest pinch from a property tax cut plan on the Jan. 29 ballot - joined together Thursday to launch a campaign to defeat it.

It’s Virtual War
New York Sun, December 14, 2007
The Wisconsin Virtual Academy has grown in its four years to about 850 students, all there by choice.

Charter School Debate Heats Up
Alameda Sun, California, December 14, 2007
The school’s innovative program, based in part on self-directed education, has won wide praise from charter school supporters who are quick to say you can’t argue with results.

Parents Wait For Fallout From Online School Ruling
Green Bay Press-Gazette, Wisconsin, December 14, 2007
Some area parents are worried about their children’s future education after a state appellate court ruled last week that an online state charter school was illegal.

House Bill Will Hurt Cyber Charter Schools
Allentown Morning Call, Pennsylvania, December 14, 2007
Proponents of an anti-cyber school bill (House Bill 446) claim the legislation will strengthen public cyber schools. You don’t strengthen schools by cutting funding and imposing new restrictions.