Teach For America brings rewards - Opinion: A TFA corps member shares his feelings during his first year of teaching.

MLK’s dream lives on at preschool - Opinion: Forty-two years after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a march through the streets of Roxbury to Boston Common and told a crowd of 20,000 that "we shall overcome" inequality and segregation, we find ourselves with an achievement gap wider today for children of color than it was in 1965 and our educational institutions more racially segregated than before.

"No Child Left Behind is a Deception" - Press release: What does “No Child Left Behind” accomplish? A lack of individuality.

Lieutenant governor pushes expanded charter school plan - Georgia’s lieutenant governor on Thursday rolled out a plan that would let entire public school systems apply for the same freedom from education regulations that charter schools now enjoy.

The real dirt on charter school opponents - Opinion: Sorry, kids, your education will have to wait while your parents struggle to fund the fight and the county aims to destroy your public school funded by our own tax dollars.

What is your kid doing at school? - Opinion: Parents are their children’s first teacher. And, whether they want to be teachers or not, children continue to learn from everything parents do.

More charter schools first - Opinion: The North Carolina General Assembly has a chance to lead on the issue of public charter schools. Lift the cap on public charter schools first, then put a school construction bond on the ballot.

Keep eye on charters: Non-traditional public schools need oversight - Editorial: Charter schools have grown faster than anyone might have predicted; Utah now has 51. They’ve multiplied so fast in six years that the organizations charged with approving and overseeing them have been inundated.  It’s time to tap on the brakes.

Equal education not good enough - Opinion: Paul Tough of the New York Times concludes that we may actually know how to close the gap between the fortunate and the needy. The question now is whether or not we will choose to offer an unequal education.

Lieutenant governor offers school reform package - Allowing school districts in Georgia to become charter systems would give teachers, administrators and parents flexibility to best meet the needs of their students, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle said Thursday.

Fenty Testifies On School Reform Plan - Washington D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty received a warm reception as he formally opened a city-wide dialogue on the future of D.C.’s public schools.

Commission report spurs debate on school reform - Opinion: Though some of the recommendations of the new Skills Commission report are questionable, they will promote great discussions on education reform.

NAACP Proposes Mentor Partnership To Help Address Achievement Gap - The measurable achievement gap between Worcester County, Maryland’s African American and white students could be narrowed through a mentor program, NAACP leaders told the Board of Education this week.

State education board might add students - The Pennsylvania Board of Education has agreed to pursue a $15,000 grant to explore the idea of adding student representation on the policy-making board.

Utah schools look flush…but still rank low in many key categories - Opinion: On paper, Utah public schools look flush with cash, pulling in about a billion extra dollars over the past 10 years.  Yet class sizes remain huge. Teacher salaries are below the national average. And Utah — still — has the lowest per-student funding in the country.  Why?  And what will it take for Utah to get ahead?

Belaboring minority rights - Opinion: A case argued before the U.S. Supreme Court last week could rewrite labor law and redefine minority rights for the smallest minority on Earth.

New bill would provide vouchers - Some Georgia parents could get taxpayers to pay part or all of their private-school tuition under a bill that won critical support Thursday.

Teacher union recall effort reflects flight from reality - When Detroit teachers’ union leaders accuse school board president Jimmy Womack of "not putting the classroom first," they should look in the mirror. There is more to public education than saving your own job. There are also parents, taxpayers — and most important, students — to think about.

L.A. Unified joins mayor in asking for hearing - After a decisive court victory against Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s school reform plan, the Los Angeles Unified School District has joined the mayor in requesting that the state Supreme Court hear his appeal.

Ending gangs with preschool - There is one thing everyone agrees on as essential to any anti-gang effort: Preschool. The fact that easy, affordable access to quality preschool reduces crime has been reaffirmed in study after study.

Letters: Prospective competition perks up public schools - Letter to the editor from Ken Hoagland of Texans for School Choice: Given that our largest cities have seen half or more of their students dropping out of the public school system, and given that our legislative proposal actually will increase per-student funding at public schools, a modest school choice pilot program makes perfect sense - if only merit can eclipse the politics that have kept kids trapped in schools that don’t work for them.

Hot potato voucher bill is back; so is criticism - All public school students would be able to use state funds to pay a portion of private school tuition under a draft bill Utah House Republicans got a glimpse of Thursday.

Schools cry foul on testing English-learners for No Child Left Behind - The new federal rule, under the No Child Left Behind Act, affects roughly 60,000 students statewide. And everyone from parents to teachers to New York Education Commissioner Richard Mills is crying foul.

Opinion: Keep R-rated books out of school curriculum - There are millions of stories that inspire and uplift. It is time to choose something that isn’t R-rated.

Overhaul of Schools Would Let Teachers Rate Principals - Pressing the case for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s latest round of changes to the city school system, Chancellor Joel I. Klein yesterday detailed how the new powers being granted to principals would be accompanied by new evaluations of them: teachers for the first time would be able to rate their supervisors.

Back To Basics - Opinion: With much fanfare four years ago, Mayor Bloomberg unveiled his plans to revamp the school system that he had been given control of six months earlier. Today, he is scrapping virtually all of those plans in what to me appears to be a "Hail Mary" pass to get back into a game that appears lost.

Bloomberg Moves Schools Toward Corporate Model - A major overhaul proposed by Mayor Bloomberg this week will turn principals into the "CEOs" of their schools, convert regional superintendents into "entrepreneurs," and set schools to compete with one another for students — and the funding that follows them — under a new per-pupil expenditure formula.

Tearing Up Tenure - Opinion: If Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein don’t go down in New York City history as the team that turned the public schools around, it won’t be for lack of effort, new ideas or boldness.

Randi a Tenure Tiger - Furious UFT boss Randi Weingarten roared back yesterday at a proposed crackdown on teachers’ tenure - a surprise to Bloomberg administration officials who thought she would play along with the changes.

For the right price, firm would help Mike with schools - The world’s largest for-profit school operator yesterday expressed interest in being a part of the massive school reforms laid out this week in New York.

UPDATE:

Camden school board suspends official in grades scandal - The district’s supervisor of testing was personally involved in altering high school students’ standardized tests last spring and will be suspended with pay, the district announced Thursday night. 

Schools boundaries to change - Fighting back tears, eight parents and students tried to stop a boundary change affecting the four schools in Brandon and Valrico next school year. They didn’t succeed.

Rinearson responds to Toledo (Oregon) school committee’s questions - The Toledo Save Our Schools Committee has given up on an arranged marriage with the Siletz Valley and Eddyville charter schools, but still hopes for a divorce from the Lincoln County School District to become a single education parent to other east county students.

Guv taps head of Wachovia foundation for school reform panel - As executive director of the Wachovia Regional Foundation since 1999, Denise McGregor Armbrister works to improve the lives of low-income children and families in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.

O’Malley Keeps Some Promises, Delays Others In Budget - O’Malley, a Democrat, said tough fiscal times made it impossible to pay for part of a school reform package.

Mayor: Take care of schools, gangs for strong future - Tying together his plans for education reform and a crackdown on gang crime, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told business leaders Thursday that they need to become more involved in shaping the future of Los Angeles.

L.A. Magnet School Enrollment Deadline Today - Magnet schools are on regular campuses and specialize in such subjects as math, science and technology. They also offer programs for gifted students.

Wishing upon LAUSD - Opinion: Who wouldn’t want to pay excellent teachers more, empower parents and track down truants before they drop out and join gangs?

Future of KC schools needs civic leadership - Opinion: The hopes for urban education reform in Kansas City over the years have rested with desegregation orders, charter schools, state and federal edicts and a succession of superintendents. Successes have been fleeting and few.

Colorado May Test Public Education Reforms - Recently, 500 people packed the Colorado Convention Center to hear from the authors of the "Tough Choice or Tough Times" report, which offers provocative suggestions for overhauling our public schools.

A Call for Reform - According to Connecticut state Rep. Tom Drew, D-132, the current system has forced municipalities to rely too much on property tax to cover the cost of education and other local services.

Rex hunting broadly for education ideas - Opinion: A South Carolina school board member discusses his experience on Education Superintendent Jim Rex’s transition team.

Voucher bill, similar to last year’s, may pass this year - The House has new members, and the public tide, they say, is turning toward greater support. A Dan Jones & Associates poll conducted for the Deseret Morning News showed public opinion on vouchers in a dead heat.

How to create demand for a constitutional amendment - Opinion: Let’s talk about what could be the underlying, cold-blooded politics behind [Georgia] state Senate President pro tem Eric Johnson’s bill to permit disabled students to obtain state vouchers for use in other public schools, or private ones.

State Board Increases Oregon’s High School Graduation Requirements - Students will be required to take more rigorous coursework and higher levels of math and science in order to receive a diploma.

Rogers quits as state education chancellor, successor yet to be named - Rogers’ resignation comes after a press conference on Friday in which Whipple and regent James Dean Leavitt called on Rogers to quit.

Increase in school state aid proposed - State aid to schoolchildren would jump by $355 per student next year–the largest increase in nearly a decade–under a recommendation Thursday from the Illinois State Board of Education.

Education expert raises eyes with radical ideas - So far, action on the report in Colorado is limited to a lot of talk. But the talks are going on at the highest levels of state government.

Study finds education suits do little to improve schools - A report released yesterday contends states that increased their share of spending on education in response to legal challenges throughout the 1990s did not see corresponding benefits such as tax relief and tax equity among communities.

Sides spar over cutbacks for charter schools - State auditors discourage the approval of more charter schools in Utah until recommendations in a new report are implemented, an official told the state charter board Thursday.

Fewer schools can mean better Detroit schools - Opinion: The good thing about closing 47 Detroit schools is saving money. The better thing is that administrators might be able to improve the remaining schools and finally get rid of a few bad teachers.

Schools turn down the heat on homework - Some of the nation’s most competitive schools are changing their homework policies, limiting the amount of work assigned by teachers or eliminating it altogether in lower grades.